Arena of Honor, BTa duke1 team, season 2 round 14: The deathmatch

Another Sunday has come and we are returning to the glorious battlefields of Arena of Honor to witness one of the hardest battles of the season for the BTa duke1 team where they had to face numerous enemies being completely superior by strength. 

The week was just like many before the old duke was walking through one of the halls in his castle thinking about upcoming Arena of Honor battle parallelly trying to reflect on previous battle as even the result wasnt bad some things could be done better/. At last he reached maester`s room and after entering it asked to send ravens to all of his teammates to check out if they are able to take part in tomorrow's event. The day was almost over and after the last thing he wanted to do was done, the duke went into his room to sleep. On the next day after receiving good news from all other teammates the time endpoint for meeting was set for the evening as usual. The day passed by fast and after the team assembled for the battle and registration time went out all members were transferred to the battlefield. That day we had to fight under the banner of Greyjoy house and it was a good sign as we usually got lucky when representing the house. Nothing has foreshadowed serious problems and as usually while our fighters prepared for the start scouts were sent to gather information about enemies. 

The very first enemy encountered to the left of us came out to be a terrifyingly strong team. It was a group of MBL alliance members located near clan house of the most heroic family in Seven Kingdoms - Starks.  

There were a few strong warriors being one level above us but they were led by even stronger infantry rally leader Host0fDoom completely out of range of what we could even dream to handle. It was clear we could forget about any plans to even try to hold City of Glory. Well previously we faced strong teams but that one was way above any of those.

Even further to the left near the clan house of Baratheon our scouts discovered a group of players from the SCS alliance. It was the strongest SCS team led by alliance leader Stifflerka and their best spearmen rally leader Holybull. Previously we met them before and they showed themselves quite well and took one of the top places. In the upcoming battle for survival they seemed one of our main competitors not to get in last place. Now let's take a look at the other flank and who Old Gods sent us that day to make it more clear why do I talk about last places 😂

On the right of us near the most famous and glorious clan house of Targaryens we found out the main team from NOX alliance. Even though we never faced them off before at Arena of Honor we met some of them during CCS battles, also some of their fighters had a scary look that in addition to the team was led by NOX top ranked officers hence it had to be well organized and coordinated.

Old duke knew that two of their warriors – ice bear and DYW – were quite strong but the biggest problem was cavalry rally leader Belore II. Even our main issue is strong infantry fighters not cavalry ones, Belore II is just too strong for us and there is no difference what troop type they prefer. It was the same unbeatable rock just like we found out near the Stark’s clan house. We had nothing to set against them.

The next clan house to the right was Tyrell’s clan house and the report brought back to our war camp by scouts showed that there was AvO team stationed there. Luckily Ganicus wasnt with them, the head of their alliance and one of the strongest warlords in Westeros. However we met them before  and we knew they had some good infantry warlords, they were well organized, active and aggressive. It was for sure we were going to have hard and hot battles against them

The last enemy that was located on the opposite side of the battlefield near clan house Lannister was the same dark horse that we met in the previous round. It was a team from NFH alliance led by very strong rally leader Khan Noonien. Since during the previous battle we were mostly busy with defense of our own territories and NFH was busy elsewhere we still didnt know how good they were but the tremendous power of their rally leader was obviously visible from far just by looking at his equipment.

After all, it became clear that we are one of the outsiders in the upcoming battle and we had real chances to fight only 2 other groups while 3 teams had just way too strong fighters for us. Well that's an unpleasant and depressing picture. The question was what strategies will our opponents pick up and if there was any chance for us to seize a good amount of points despite all the disadvantages. The hardest battle in the history of our team was about to begin. The deathmatch.

The last seconds before the battle had to start passed by and like always we rushed to capture the first line of strongholds but today we had to make unmistakable choices. What was concerning the old duke the most is that how many enemies will choose to play war camps. With so many opponents having strong rally leaders there was no room for us to play trading strategy as we would never be able to hold altars of Maiden against them and without Maiden you will always be behind similar teams. On the other hand too many enemies preferring war camp strategy is also a very bad situation. First Targaryens picked up war camps and right after them it was done by Tyrells, one more and we will be on the way to disaster. Luckily Lannisters, Baratheons and even Starks preferred trading posts still we had to play war camps against 2 decent teams. Enemies picked up their war camp types so we did right after them. 

Since we were choosing war camps last, after we finished the first line and were building second our opponents already finished their construction works and with having more free troops started to invade our lands. Slow playing tactics started to backfire us but if our choice came out to be right we shouldnt finish in last ranks. Meanwhile, the old duke who was leading constructions noticed Tyrell’s army trying to occupy the altar of the warrior that we were in need of as well but too late response when the enemy already got reinforcements together with not a full army resulted in defeat. The first altar was lost but war has just begun.

Since in war over towers and catapults  we were opponents for Tyrells and Targeryens both of them focused on taking over our altars  giving specific bonuses and while Tyrell seized the altar of Warrior Targaryens sent a serious rally leader to beat us at altar of Stranger. Unfortunately this time we also had to admit defeat and retreat but since the enemy army consisted of spearmen, a counterattack made by Hank forced them to retreat as well.

One good thing was our location on the battlefield while we captured the closest tower and got 5000 points. Tyrells and Targaryens had to aim the same tower and whilst first booted out the army of second our second army took it from Tyrells and blocked their way to third not captured tower. It was our chance. Despite we lost the altars giving bonuses to clan house troops our troop composition was slightly countering the troop composition of both enemies and that small advantage had to give us time to snatch bonus points for the first capturing, preferably on 2 towers and 2 catapults. At last the 2nd Targaryen and Tyrells army failed to recapture the tower that we took from them and our 3rd army took over the last tower. It was great news and we even jumped up to 1st place, of course we couldn't hold on to it but anyway it was a very nice encouraging moment and at the same time somewhat frustrative to our strong opponents despite them beating us on the ground they had to face their first defeat at towers.

The time was passing by and at last City of Glory lost its bubble, of course we would want to fight for it but as it was expected Host of Doom from Stark house captured it and was able to repel all attacks. At the same time war over catapult went after the same scenario with us blocking enemies' way and taking 10000 points from 2 other catapults. It was a grand success, Tyrells gave up immediately and switched to trading posts trying to change their score as it was very low but Targaryens realized their mistake and tried to rebuild some war camps to other types. The scout arrived with the news to the old duke and he immediately gave an order to the army bugler to signal all teammates to arrive at the duke's tent.

– Although we obviously can't beat most of our enemies directly, our success allowed us to anchor in 2nd place but we still have a lot of time ahead. Targaryens are trying to rebuild war camps to other types and turn the tide. I need all your troops as we are going to do the same.

While we started big reconstruction Targaryens were ahead with construction works and when we were done they already captured 2 towers. But their happiness wasn't too long and the new clan house army sent by us kicked them out first from one tower and then from another. They tried to adjust war camps again but now we were ready and waiting and started reconstruction together with them as the result their new attempt failed ... .and they gave up too! It was a moment of big triumph, all 5 enemies now played trading strategy and our 2nd place was secured 😀 🎉

Since our deathmatch transformed into an assured high place with big points adding to our score every minute, Hank decided to do a bold move and sent troops to capture City of Glory. Starks didnt keep any garrison there, only relying on the idea they always can boot out anyone who is trying to take over. Suddenly Tyrells that didn't try to capture City of Glory on their own decided to attack us and assembled a big army. Hank proved him to be a good infantry warlord and despite having a mixed army beat Lord Pablo in close battle. Starks also woke up and first tried to reason us with solo attacks but even Host of Doom failed to do that so they had to assemble big army and after a while our impudent attempt to seize City of Glory ended up with defeat but it was a good try 😀

Despite Targaryens lost war over towers and catapults they still were coming into our lands to capture specific altars or maybe they just wanted to capture anything since their score was disastrous and their income didn't promise them anything good as well. Anyway we were able to play leisurely now, without any haste, a small garrison that Ulgen had there was beaten by one of the strongest enemy fighters. It had to feel like something bad but who cared? 😀 We were winning…not exactly, we were in 2nd place. 

However, the old duke wanted to finish the great battle on an upbeat tone and sent an army kicking out the damaged army of ice bear additionally requesting reinforcements!😱  To make it clear at that point, in last minutes of the battle, we were just sitting relaxed in war camp watching desperate attempts of Tyrells, Lannisters and Targaryens to not get on last 2 places so not get their fame points reduced 🙂

Tick-tock, tick-tock, the last seconds of the battle was running out. The result was so good and emotions were so nice that nobody wanted to talk much. Also we got tired even though we often lost battles over altars we still kept trying to hold at least some altars and it worked out as enemies got distracted with other problems especially at the final stages of the battle. It was exhausting. We all agreed on things - it was our hardest battle and we managed to finish it well. It was the time to return home for each of us. The final round of Arena of Honor is coming soon and we will soo who emerges a champion this time but we are the champions already the champions on our own🙂. Thanks for reading and see you next time. 

Final score

Final map

Best fighters

Most resilient warriors