Alliance Conquest: A New Year, A New Battle

I know I said I would cover more niche content as there is already a lot of focus on the big events, but let's take a quick break from the baby accounts see how the big games are played. And there are only a few big games to talk about. In GoTWiC, few events rival the intensity of Alliance Conquest. Every few months, alliances battle for one hour in an intense tournament, fighting to stack up points and land a spot in Ultimate Conquest. Only the top 16 alliances make it through after 6 challenging rounds. There are a few top alliance names consecrated in all events, there aren't a lot of open spots for the rest of us.

Speaking about us, from what I'm told, in N0X, the dream of reaching Ultimate Conquest has been extremely close in the past few seasons. Seasons 18 and 19 ended with near misses, encouraging us to put in a bit more effort this time. As the season approached, our alliance left no stone unturned, looking for AC recruits and preparing the roster. Arguing about strategies is useful but hoping for some good luck in the matchmaking is usually more useful😅Having played AC in various alliances over the years I can tell you from personal experience, the biggest enemy any alliance has is the matchmaking process.

Personally, I felt a mix of excitement going into our first match. My main is a Spear account, with solid AC research (for a filler😂) and over 1 million army size, buffed of course. I was ready for some action. A small shadow of a doubt was forming in my mind as I felt we are heavy Spear focused in N0X, something I see in our AoH matches as well. This could be problematic, so, to balance things out, I also brought my alt. It's a smaller cavalry account, that's less developed but still good as a filler with a decent dragon to buff a rally. It wasn’t a great setup on my end, but I believed my accounts could help and in the end, it's many small steps that lead to great success.

Optimism Meets Reality

Our roster was finalized on New Year’s Eve, with people doing Rally Lead interviews and everyone being assigned their roles. Quite a strong commitment on our side overall so I decided to do my best and attend the game. I was traveling on a family trip that day but I didn't want to let the team down so I did my best to be online for AC. I narrowly made it home just in time, the AC banner was already up and my alliance members were asking for LC in chat. Perfect, I put on my war pants and jump in. I don't have a special role so I just need to fill fill fill.

I do have some racing experience and could maybe do that in the future, maybe only with my Cav alt, we'll see how the season develops and what's needed in the alliance.

We entered the new year with high hopes, thinking "new year, new me", dreaming of that UC spot... only to face our 1st challenge and possible setback. Our greatest enemy, the matchmaking system revealed our opponent for the first round: RRH. Great😭One of the top alliance renowned for consistently reaching Ultimate Conquest. It was a curveball some of us saw coming, but hoped silently we would avoid it. RRH wasn’t just strong, we are strong, they were formidable😔, their reputation built on efficiency, strategy and raw power. This would not end well for us.

Despite the bad matchup, despite having it on our very first game... leadership called on us to give it a shot and not let them have a free win. I think our strategy was changed since the alliance leadership was on Discord before we started the game but the message was clear: give it everything we had, if we can't win at least let's practice our racing, swapping and reinforcing.

The Optimistic Opening

The turnout was awesome considering who we were fighting and our changes of winning. 87 warriors from N0X appeared on the battlefield against 95 from RRH. The slight numbers disadvantage wasn’t ideal, but even with a full roster, securing a win here would have been very unlikely for us.

The first buildings opened and our racers jumped into action. Surprisingly we get both Mother and Warrior. Maranaya gets Mother and ROCK7 gets the Temple of the Warrior. On the flip side, RRH took both outposts. Some early points start to roll. I have to say, at this point we were feeling optimistic about our chances. Foolish us, right? They had us right where they wanted us, ready to commit our troops and feed their Individual Elimination rankings😂

That optimism, however, was short-lived. RRH wasted no time flexing their muscles, unleashing waves of attacks on the buildings we held. Belore, one of our strongest accounts landed in the Temple of the Warrior after a successful swap, but the enemy’s rallies quicky broke through.

The Temple of the Mother soon followed, falling under the weight of their repeated attacks and superior accounts.

Holding the Line Mid-Game

The battle shifted into a tense vibe. Our racers continued to secure buildings. ROCK7 and ice bear captured the Ports, and Casterly Rock became ours, for a short but memorable time. Each success was met with an immediate response and counter from RRH, their rallies went through us like a knife through butter. At least it was not a hot knife😌or we are resistant butter, not the warm, melting kind.

It was hard not to admire their skill. Their timing was great, their reinforcements on point. It felt like their rallies filled in seconds and hit extremely close to each other. Our hopes began to dwindle and I was waiting for our leadership to call it. I was already being assigned chores at home and it seemed rather hopeless to continue.

Despite this N0X leadership didn’t end the game. We held strong where we could, trying to counter what attacks we could. Our racers were rather good and we did a decent job reinforcing buildings. But we couldn't hold anything for long. Even as the points gap widened, the determination in our alliance was still there. I quietly reinforced what rallies needed fillers. Days of healing became weeks, weeks probably became months. I don't think I healed this much since I started playing. We were barely scratching them but we kept going. Honestly, our determination was starting to scare me a little.

The Glimmer of Hope

As the battle wore on, it became clear that victory was slipping from our grasp, not that we ever had it, but it's nice to hope. With RRH in control of most buildings, the map was red and their buffs became overwhelming, as if they weren't strong enough already. Still, we refused to throw in the towel. The mines opening offered a brief chance to turn things around. Our leadership assigned racers and called the start.

We managed to capture the Targaryen Mine, a bright spot in an otherwise uphill battle. Ser Enki was defending, holding the mine against several solo attacks. But RRH reacted quickly, combining a few rallies on top of solos to reclaim it.

Their efficiency was again admirable and soon, our bright light dwindled as the mine fell into their hands.

At this point the map was 100% red😱they held everything.

The Aftermath

As the battle was ending, we looked back on our efforts. Despite the loss, we scored a respectable 40k points. RRH had given us no freebies, yet we managed to hold our own in skirmishes and make a few good plays. At least we cleared their individual points, some required rallies, and I mean several rallies, we were fighting some of them like a fully reinforced Casterly Rock.

This clearly wasn’t how any of us had hoped to start the season, but it was far from a crushing defeat. It was a reminder of the challenges that lie ahead and the strength we’ll need to overcome them.

Looking Forward

Starting with a loss isn’t good for troop morale, especially since we're hunting a spot in UC, but this is just the beginning. N0X has always been resilient, and every setback is an opportunity to learn and grow stronger. With five more matches to go, the dream of Ultimate Conquest is still alive.

For now, we go back a bit shaken, but not broken. We need to refine our strategies and prepare for the next battle. The road ahead is long, but one thing is certain: we won’t stop fighting!