N0X vs SKR: AC Round 3 – N0X's Path to Ultimate Conquest

N0X is moving forward in our Alliance Conquest journey. With one win and one loss, the future feels uncertain, and we can’t afford to relax if we want to keep the UC dream alive. While we don't expect match three to be a pivotal point, it offers a great opportunity to practice our team play and improve in some areas where we've been lacking. For now, all we can do is prepare and wait for the match to be revealed.

However the anticipation is killing me. With five hours left before registration closes, alliance leadership is reminding everyone to sign up. Less than 50 members have confirmed their availability, making it hard to propose a viable strategy that should be used.

When the match is revealed, at reset, I'm usually dead asleep and today was not different. But the next day, I saw our opponent: SKR!

Not knowing much about them, I checked Discord to see what my teammates were discussing. Much to my surprise, there was no chatter. I doubted this was bad news, so I calmly waited for the strategy to be revealed shortly before game time.

As rally leads received their Lord Commander buffs, I searched for my spot on the map.

To my pleasant surprise, we had a new strategy. Could it be? Was this my suggestion? A few days ago, I proposed a system to simplify reinforcements: positioning rally leads in the first two rows and having the line behind them act as reinforcements. This way, troops could be sent just by glancing at the map instead of scrolling through the rally page. Turns out, our actual strategy was an improvement on my idea: buff castles were interlaced across the camp area. This way everyone received buffs instead of overloading a few champions. Our camp turned into this huge buff hive. It was a beautiful sight. Seeing this my OCD went a bit further: what if we could use the same castle appearance in the lines? Wouldn't that be amazing? I loved seeing our team evolve, learning from past matches and trying new approaches.

As the match began, we were all very impressed by the turnout: 98 Lords and Ladies against their 58. This was clearly a golden opportunity to practice and experiment😀

With a Prince level 7 ImperialRock and Prince level 69 (giggles) Grombold, we were confident in our chances to secure this win. The starting mood was light and everyone felt us moving closer to UC. As the time to race neared, ImperialRock’s “The Seven Forging Holy” skin was ready to drop the hammer.

But then, bloopers time began. Racers failed to swap with holders, swaps were late, and we lost three buildings in the first 10 minutes. It felt like we were "practicing" a bit too hard, lol. Yet, this wasn’t entirely bad, we were luring them into a false sense of security. After all, how could we score elimination points if they gave up in the first 15 minutes?😏

Despite our rookie mistakes, we dominated the map shortly and within a few minutes, we reclaimed everything.

As the strongholds opened, we were omnipresent. Strangely, it started to feel boring. Did I miss the chaotic games where healing couldn't keep up with the slaughtering? Maybe just a little😅. I worried the enemy might go AFK, not even returning for the mines to salvage their dignity.

When Casterly Rock opened, they seemed energized, trying to contest it. Good, finally a bit of action. Unfortunately for them, we had DarkCrixo in CR. Good luck trying to take that now! They are however trying, a few rallies, a few solos sprinkled on top.

They are giving it their best. Not that it matters, these "bleed" rallies only cause a few scratches on DarkCrixo's impenetrable armor. I mean just look at this juggernaut!

In this snooze fest, they managed to capture Lannister Outpost. At last, a chance to practice timed rallies!. Here comes the pain!

The pain was swift and well coordinated. Only one lead missed his ping, while the other rallies hit within a few seconds of each other. With a bit of practice this could break any defense and leave basically no time for reinforcements to arrive.

We should perfect this strategy. It seems like an almost guaranteed win on any building. Who can resist an entire alliance rallying?

But in this case we are not met with hard resistance and a lot of our forces actually bounced🙂🙃

By the time the mines opened, the enemy had almost completely vanished. During the game we even practiced rallies on their hive. With no enemy troops left, the final minutes felt mechanical. We still "race" for mines and speed in reinforcements probably out of muscle memory.

The map turned fully blue, a satisfying sight, but I couldn't help wondering: what lies ahead? This was a very easy and unbalanced match in our favor. This victory left me nervous, what goes around comes around. Could be get another impossible game after?

We ended with a whopping 120k points and jumped 368 points in ranking. While we needed the points, our new ranking might place us against alliances we’d rather avoid😅

To make things even better, someone jinxed it, we’re expecting RRH again. Hopefully, with our new recruits and improved strategies, we’ll stand a better chance next time we see them😅

In the end, a win is a win. We tried the new hive placements and the website for time rallies, but this match dulled us. No training, no significant improvement, it felt like holding 98 people hostage for an hour. This is their victory on us😂Making us sit glued to screens while they probably did something enjoyable.

On a brighter note, this was the last game I needed to get Simon to gold. Not a huge accomplishment, though, the real grind begins now, working on his awakening. At least his conversion ratio is 1:1, unlike other commanders who are proving just as, if not more difficult to awaken.

With two wins and one loss, we’re closer to UC, but like Ikarus, we might have flown too close to the Sun. Alliance leadership is already planning for what will most likely be our turning point game next Saturday. The question remains: will we get burned next, or will we rise higher? Guess we'll see in 2 days!