Alliance Conquest: incredible season 20! Match one: 4TR vs Dis!

Another season of my favorite event in the entire game is starting - Alliance Conquest! Since I started playing this game, AC has been my favorite event, and even though it has undergone certain changes and improvements over the years, it still remains my best event. A special reason is certainly the fact that we have achieved really good results as an alliance in the last few seasons. Let's remember: last season we entered the playoffs for the first time, in which we even managed to record one victory, while the season before that we finished in the most thankless place - 17th, the first that does not bring playoffs... When you add to that the fact that in the two previous seasons we were not defeated in the regular season, it just shows how well we played our matches! Because we made it to the playoffs last season, this season we will play in a higher level of competition - in the A league, which means more difficult and demanding opponents in every match. As a result, our goals will be slightly different than in previous seasons - in those aforementioned previous seasons we competed in the lowest tier of the competition and although we were not among the ten strongest alliances in the competition, we were still one of the stronger participants. However, in the A League we will have significantly stronger opponents so we cannot expect to fight to enter the playoffs. Regardless of the fact that we have made tremendous progress and now we finally have a player who has unlocked T5, it is still too little for such a strong competition. That is why we need to be realistic and we will not set ourselves specific goals but will go from match to match, play our best and see where it takes us. Although, I personally would like to achieve 5 wins in the season... Maybe it is a bit too optimistic, but I believe we can achieve it!

Dis. A good opponent to start the season - not too strong but still strong enough to make it an interesting match. In fact, they are the ones who have more strong players than us! I was looking forward to a match like this to start the season - it's been a while since the last AC season and we need some time to remember how to play AC matches.

The preparations for the match were quick - I divided the tasks, determined who would go to which Castle and we could calmly wait for the match to start. What worried me again was the number of our players in the match - although around 25 players is our usual number - I can't be happy with this turnout. This means that more than half of our alliance is not participating in the match! In previous seasons, I have emphasized several times that this is the most important thing that we need to fix and work on, but as can be seen, nothing has changed... I sincerely hope that the reason for this is the fact that the match was played on the first day of the New Year and that people were still in a holiday mood, and that the turnout will be much better in the next matches... But, if I may put it that way - the "positive" thing for us was the fact that our opponents were in an even bigger problem - they entered the match with only 7 players! I have not met them so far, so I do not know how they usually play matches, so I will believe that their "problem" was the date of the match. In any case, with this outcome, we have become big favorites in this match!

As always, our focus was on the Temple of the Mother and the Tower of the Warrior, especially the Warrior, so I ordered Paul and Lord Lola, as our two strong players, to try to fight for those two Castles. Of course, all Castles are important, especially with the improvements to AC that have happened recently, but our primary focus at the very beginning of the match is on those two Castles.

And we managed to capture both Castles! This means a lot to us in a match like this when our opponents have a small number of players - it means that they will have a hard time capturing Castles because they will not have enough troops in rallies. All we have to do is send enough of our troops to reinforce and we can focus on the other Castles, primarily the Lannister Outpost - the only Castle we failed to capture.

I didn't even get to say that we should focus on trying to take over the Lannister Outpost and my teammates had already started the rally! Around the same time, the Ports opened and our rally reached its destination and - not only was the rally successful, but we won both races for the Ports!

At this moment, everything was perfect for us! We occupied all the Castles, the opponents did not even try to attack us, they are obviously aware that they simply do not have enough players to change anything, even our player who is not among the strongest in the alliance managed to capture the Castle with his rally, and I, as the strongest player in the match, had not participated in the battles at all yet, but could calmly wait for the battle for Casterly Rock! Already at this moment, I knew that victory was very close, even though we were almost at the very beginning of the match. However, we have seen many times that things can turn around very quickly, so we need to play seriously until the very end of the match! Therefore, I ordered my teammates to continue at the same pace and send troops to reinforce Ports and Warrior and Mother, which are the most important Castles at this moment. And I was waiting for Casterly Rock... While I was waiting for the start of the race, I was running through several scenarios in my head: if we occupy Casterly Rock, it could mean that we have destroyed their last hope of doing something in this match. If I lose the race, I believe that I can easily take it back from them with a few solo attacks, which I would still like to avoid. There was also a third option, although the least likely - if I lose the race, they fill the Castle with their troops and manage to save it! I did not like that option at all, but I was already aware that it would be difficult to change anything, even in the case of this last, for us the worst option. They simply do not have enough players, or troops, to occupy more Castles... But, there is also an option with Mines - to defend CR, let them capture another Port and maybe another Castle, guard them until the Mines open and let them conquer both Mines and they can achieve victory! Of course, at this moment and in this balance of power, they would need a small miracle to do that, but as long as there is a chance for such a scenario, we must not relax! Therefore, the best option was for me to win the race for CR and decide this match!

The unthinkable happened! I lost the race again... To be completely honest - I greatly underestimated our opponents and didn't want to use 75% race boots, but I used 25% ones thinking that would be enough for me. Lesson learned! Literally a few moments before that I thought that we shouldn't underestimate our opponents until the match is officially over, which is what I was telling my teammates, and then I did something like this... In future, much more uncertain matches, this kind of mistake could cost us the victory...

To make matters worse - while I was waiting for the CR race, and after that for the truce period to expire, a little drama was unfolding on the other side of the map - suddenly the opponents saw their chance in the match and started rallies on Lannister Port!

How little it takes for things to change... Less than a minute ago the situation was perfect, we had all the Castles under our control and everything seemed like we would definitely win, but now suddenly nothing is certain anymore! And the worst-case scenario is happening - if we lose the Port along with Casterly Rock - they only need to capture the Mines and they will beat us! However, I still believed that we had everything under control, all I needed to do was to capture the CR and we would be able to stabilize. In the meantime, while I was waiting for the truce period to expire, they sent all their players to reinforce, which means that the final test of my and our capabilities in this match is coming!

I did it though! Easier than I expected! It only took me one solo attack to take over CR!

After this, it became clear to me that the match was decided. As I have already stated several times - they simply have too few players in the match to be able to fight us. However, I still did not allow my teammates to relax! Even though they suffered several heavy defeats, our opponents were still trying to do something, they were still rallying Lannister Port, and we still have to wait for the opening of the Strongholds!

Although victory is at hand, and even if we lose both Strongholds, hardly anything can change. The difference in our favor was already big and every minute it was getting bigger and bigger, so our opponents now needed a big miracle to turn the match in their favor. We on the other hand only have to take both Strongholds to ensure victory even if we lose both Mines! It was clear to everyone what they had to do! The races have started and...

We won one race, which was great! But to finish the story of this match, it would be desirable to capture that last Castle!

And we did it!

With this attack, the opponents were left without any hope of doing anything, if they had any hope at all. It soon turned out that I was right - by the end of the match they did not even try to attack our Castles, they did not even try to fight for the Mines, so all we had to do was occupy the Mines and wait for the end of the match calmly, which we did when the Mines opened up.

In the meantime, both we and our opponents took advantage of the opportunities and attacked each other's cities...

They attacked CR once again, just to maybe score a few more points, and that was it! When we reached 80k points, we removed our troops from the Castles and allowed our opponents to collect their rewards as well.

In the end, it turned out to be an easy match. Of course, we should definitely take into account the fact that the match was played at an inconvenient time, which is ptobably why our opponents came with such a small number of players, which made our job much easier. However, I firmly believe that we would have won even if they had come with a larger number of players. However, it is what it is, it is not our fault that the match was not closer. Our opponents should definitely be given credit for trying to fight, as long as there was even a slight chance, they made rallies to Lannister Port and guarded the CR, but when we won and in those battles they realized that they no longer had a chance. I thank them for this match and wish them luck in the rest of the competition, with the hope that they will play the next matches with a much larger number of players! As far as we are concerned, this was another very good match. Of course, there is always room for improvement, primarily this refers to the number of players we have in the matches, which still remains the same. I should definitely point out my moment of weakness once again when I underestimated our opponents, which should never happen. Fortunately for us, in this match it had no impact on the final result, but it might be the deciding factor in the match one day. We shouldn't allow ourselves to do things like that. However, I'm happy that my teammates have finally started to understand how this event is played - I have to mention once again the moment when they started a rally at the Lannister Outpost before I could even react and tell them what to do! I think that's the best indicator of how we're progressing more and more, how we're very connected to each other and that we can only get better and better! Although this match is not a true indicator of our strength, I'm certainly happy with how we reacted in those moments in the match when things weren't going well. Of course, I understand that we're not among the strongest alliances in the A League and that every win means a lot to us, but that we'll see our potential in the next matches, when we face much stronger alliances. Until then, we should enjoy this incredible undefeated streak in the regular seasons of the Alliance Conquest event! But, a new trial is already in a few days and it will be a much more difficult task than today's...