Siege of Winterfell: 4TR vs Plf!

Even though we have already achieved our goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of this season, this did not mean that we can relax - we have two more matches until the end of the season, and the first of those two matches is already today! We are aware that we cannot perform a miracle and compete for a place in the play offs, the Super League is far too strong for us, but there will certainly be no relaxation and we will play every match as if it were the most important!

Unfortunately, the night before we will find out who our opponent is, Paul, one of our strongest and most important players, informed me that there is a good chance that he will not be able to play the upcoming match due to his personal commitments. It is certainly a big blow to our ambitions, but as we always say: Real life comes first! It just means that we will have to modify the game plan, but even if we lose we have achieved our goal, so there were no problems!

Although this match was not so important for us, I still hoped that we would not get too strong opponent. I was more than sure that this time we have to face an extremely strong opponent since we have 3 wins from 4 matches played and due to the fact that we have won two matches in a row, but once again luck served us and we got an alliance called Solwianie! I dont know absolutely anything about this alliance, but after we found out that we were playing against them, I studied them a bit and noticed a few interesting things. First and foremost: before the match with us, they were without several strong players, including a player named QJunior, who was the best player in their previous matches. The second thing that immediately caught my eye was that it is very likely an alt alliance of one of the strongest alliances made up of players from Poland - PLQ! This meant that they don't have that many strong players in this alliance that we are playing against, but that does not mean that we are the favorites in this match - Plf has many more strong players than us, besides that we will most likely play without Paul, who is very important for us, and very likely they will have more players than us in the match!

The preparations for the match took quite a long time because we waited until the last moment to see if Paul would show up. While we were waiting, I worked out a plan - if we have a lot less players than our opponents, then we will all go together in one group towards Hot Springs. I was confident that we could occupy Hot Springs, after which we would head for Winterfell and wait for the Treasure. Furthermore, the plan was to try to fight for the Treasure, but that would mean leaving the Castles completely open for our opponents to occupy them, so the ultimate goal was to see how many points that plan would bring us and then assess the situation for the continuation of the match. However, it all fell apart very quickly - even though Paul didn't manage to join the match, our other players did and we started the match 20 players against 20 players!

I had just enough time before the match starts to work out another plan: Gola, Warrior, Mickemuis and a few other, weaker players, will head for the Armory, while I'll lead another group of players and we'll fight for Hot Springs. I noticed that the opponents have prepared only a few of their weaker players for the Armory, just like us they focused on the battle for Hot Springs, which is why I sent so few of our players towards the Armory. The plan was to occupy and secure the left side of the map and from there have a safe route to Winterfell. The battle for Hot Springs was going to be much more tense and difficult so we needed to at least secure the left side of the map.

The match has finally started!

As soon as we got to Hot Springs, we started the attack! The plan was, while we are all together, before some of our players run out of troops - immediately attack their strongest players: DRUGI, KulT and T O X I C. And the match could not have started better - we very quickly established dominance at Hot Springs, while second group of our players on the other side of the map occupied the Armory without much difficulty!

After these opening fights and after looking at the reports, I became aware that today's opponent is not as difficult as I thought. I was right, obviously this is an alt alliance of a much stronger alliance, however we are not a super strong alliance either, we don't have many strong players, so in the past we had big problems even with alt alliances, and having learned from those experiences we knew that we cannot relax even for a second. 

The battle for Hot Springs lasted for a few more minutes, the opponents tried, they sent their troops, but they were all individual attempts that we defended very easily. On the other side of the map, the situation was even better - Gola informed me that they had occupied the Armory and were moving on towards their base to occupy the Castles!

Since we won both opening battles, it was very easy for us to move towards Winterfell. I stayed with Hot Springs, the opponents were still trying to do something on that side of the map, while the rest of my teammates were in charge of Treasure. I was relieved when they told me that no one was threatening them, which meant that we could easily take that Treasure home, which is what happened and gave us quite a big advantage!

Seeing the direction the match was going, it was time for me to join the battle. Since we left the entire left side of the map unprotected due to the Treasures, I ordered my teammates to go defend the Castles that had fallen under attack! A few of us stayed on the right side of the map just to clear that side completely since the opponents sent almost all of their players to the other side.

And so we started pushing our opponents further and further towards their Base. First it was Greyjoy Stronghold 2's turn... There was only one of their players left in the defense so it was not difficult for me to capture that Castle.

And right after I conquered that Castle, I headed to Greyjoy Outpost 2, where the Warrior was waiting for me to attack that player of theirs who was guarding that Castle.

At this point, our advantage was already quite large. Another positive thing was that we were on the right track to occupy all the Castles, while Treasure was safe, the opponents did not even try to attack. However, something didn't seem right, and it wasn't until my teammates who were responsible for the Treasure informed me that they were being attacked that it became clear to me - after all these fights and reports - that I didn't see KulT, by power their strongest player, anywhere! He hadn't appeared in the match at all until now, but now he came out, attacked our players, stole our Treasure and headed for Greyjoy Stronghold 1, the only Castle they still had their troops around! He even came pretty close!

Fortunately, by now I had already managed to clear the right side of the map from their troops and I was just heading to the left side to help my teammates with the remaining opponents, so I wasn't far away and managed to reach KulT in time, kill his troops, take the Treasure and take it home! As I ran towards him I told my teammates to capture Greyjoy Stronghold 1, just in case if I didn't get there in time I couldn't clear the Treasure, which happened while I was killing KulT's troops so they made it easy for me and I didn't took a long time to get the Treasure to safety!

They tried to attack that Treasure with their remaining troops, but as in the previous attempts, they were individual attacks, disorganized, so it was not difficult to defend and save another Treasure!

After this development of events, the opponents saw that they had no chance in this match, and even though there was more than half time left to the end - they decided to give up and they did not leave their Base until the very end.

By the end of the match we were just carrying the Treasure home and after we reached 80k points we recalled all our troops to our Base and let them take some points as well, which ultimately brought them over 20k points and some rewards!

And that's how the fifth match of this season ended! Although we achieved another victory, which was completely unexpected and I really did not expect this kind of match, that is, this kind of opponent, it was still not what I wanted. Of course - it's always nice to win, but there's always that bitterness because you know your opponent wasn't at his best. As I already stated in the introduction, before the match with us they lost some of their strongest players, which certainly weakened them a lot, and in the conversation with them after the match they told me that some players they were counting on did not appear, so they were in huge problems before our match. Of course, we were not without our problems either, we werw without Paul, an irreplaceable player who is often our best player, but this time our opponents were in bigger problems. I expected a completely different match than the one we had in the end! But despite everything this was another well played match by us, again my teammates listened carefully to my orders and followed them and they deserved this win! Once again we pushed our limits and we reached a record fourth victory in the SOW season in the Super League! I wish our todays opponents all the best in the future, and we will do our best to push the boundaries even further and win in the last match of the season, which is scheduled for just a few days!