A New Lord of Lords Begins. My baby accounts vs a semi-open kingdom!

Day 1: A New Lord of Lords Begins

As my baby accounts celebrate their first month of existence, the second Lord of Lords event looms on the horizon.

The last LoL was a rollercoaster. I set out with high hopes, aiming to finish in the top 10 spots with both my accounts. But the reality was harsher than I anticipated. Starting 2 weeks behind everyone else and playing with a limited budget, it felt like an uphill battle. In the end, only my game knowledge managed to carry me through to the top 10.

This time, I'd like to believe things will be different. The gap should be smaller now. After all, being two weeks behind in a one month old kingdom is a significant handicap compared to being two weeks behind in a two month old kingdom. Since the last LoL, I’ve intentionally avoided doing much research or upgrading many building, saving resources and speed-ups for this event.

Meanwhile, others in the kingdom, including my alliance members, have spent the past few weeks improving their accounts. I’ve been falling behind on purpose, betting everything on this one event. The big question now: was my gamble worth it? Can I break into the top 10 again? Let's find out together.

The first thing I notice when the event starts is a welcome change from last time. Unlike before, when it started at reset, this event follows the normal schedule and plays over 9 days, with the full 6 stages. I’ll need to plan the full event accordingly over each phase to have a good setup for phase 6. My initial focus is clear:

• Start some PvP research to gain an edge in combat power since my current research is only on building, farming and rebels.
• Train troops for my setup. Since my alliance voted Bows... I'm going Bows now😒
• Level my bow commanders and even craft some bow gear for my lord.

Phase 1: Gather Resources

I had completely forgotten LoL began today and randomly logged in 2-3h before its start. I quickly sent out gatherers and timed their return to get some early points. I see my this kingdom lacks gathering etiquette and almost all the nodes are partially started.

When the first wave of resources returned, I was pleasantly surprised to find both accounts in the top three rankings. It’s a promising start, but I know from experience that a good start does not guarantee a good ending. Last time, as soon as the big accounts started the event I dropped several positions without any chance of climbing back up.

This time, I’m better prepared. Both accounts have 5 marches at their disposal, and I have just enough troops to gather 5 nodes at the same time. As soon as my gatherers return, I send out 5 groups to gather from level 4 Farmlands simultaneously. I'm missing a few troops for the last node, but I can quicky train them just so that I'm working at peak efficiency.

Phase 2: Inner City Infrastructure

Once again day 2 was a challenge due to real life responsibilities. Work kept me occupied with high profile visits, requiring us to show how and what we work to our beloved upper management who love revenue and only care about budget optimizations without understanding anything that happens under them. The evenings were equally packed, hosting and introducing the same awesome people to the local culture. Despite the busy schedule, I managed to squeeze in some game time, earning a few points, mainly through Research. On the bright side, I completed some missing Army research and made some much needed progress in the Rebel Leaders tree. All in all, a decent effort, allowing me to end Phase 2 in the top 10!

Phase 3: Training Soldiers

For the next two days I find myself swamped at work, filled with low value activities. I reminded myself of a key buy sad workplace truth: perception matters more than reality. My main goal isn’t doing a great job but making my boss look good. He’s the one who decides my bonus and merit increase at the end of the year. It’s not always about completing tasks or getting the job done right, but most of the time it's what the big boss notices in presentations and reports. I often wonder how companies in this modern age survive with this mentality.

Unfortunately, these busy days left little time for the game. By the end of phase 3, I dropped out of the top 10, a humbling reminder that real life takes priority. Bills need to be paid, after all.

Phase 4: Rebel Leader

As Phase 4 starts, I’m a bit relieved, it’s only about spending motivation, which doesn’t require much time. With minimal effort, I clear my motivation once in the morning and once again before bed. One more session on the second day, and voilà, I’m back in the top 10 rankings, on the 9th and 10th place.

Considering I’ve only been reliably online for 1 out of the 5 days so far, that’s a pretty solid spot!

With Phase 5, my biggest source of points this LoL, starting tomorrow, there’s even a chance I might break into the top 3.

Phase 5: Increase Power

Shortly after Phase 5 begins, I drop a few spots in the rankings. No big deal; the bosses at work are finally heading back to their fantasy land, where “do more with less” somehow works wonders. With them gone, I can sneak in a few minutes of game time here and there.

By now, I’m determined to push for the top 3, or even "steal" 1st and 2nd place if competition isn’t too tough.

For now I’m curious to see how much I can climb in rankings with just commander upgrades, avoiding any level increases.

With ease, I get 5th place! Awesome! I knew saving up all those small upgrades would pay off. I've had a hard time the past three weeks with weaker commanders and smaller dragons, but if I can “steal” 1st place this LoL, it’ll all have been worth it. This is my new objective!

Time to level up the commanders as well. My lord reached level 55, but most of my commanders have been sitting at levels 45–50 since the last LoL. I even have some newly unlocked commanders ready to upgrade from level 1. Muahahaha!

This will earn solid points for activities I need to complete anyway and I haven’t even started working on research or buildings yet!

Unfortunately, I hit a limit with the commander XP items I have and had to stop upgrading before all my commanders were done.

Still, with points flooding my screen, I checked the rankings. And there it was: a solid 2nd place.

Even better, I’m not far behind 1st place! Now it’s time to plan my next upgrades carefully. With limited resources and speed-ups, I’ll need to be clever. If I play this right, that much sought after 1st place might just be mine.

As the 2nd day of Phase 5 starts, 1st place pulls ahead with a significant lead, almost double the points my accounts have.

The worst part? I have a plane to catch in a few hours, which means I won’t be online much for the rest of this Lord of Lords event. I might grab a few extra research points from the airport lounge, but my game time will be rare and short.

Could I pull off a surprise in Phase 6? PvP isn’t my strongest suit, especially since I’ll have to play from my laptop while traveling. Still, it feels like my only shot to get that 1st place in the overall rankings. Let’s see if I can make it happen!

Phase 6: Lord of War

With significant delays to my flight I had plenty of downtime in the airport lounge. However this was far from perfect from a good setup where I could PvP with 2 accounts in an event where everyone is looking for an easy target. Without a mouse, only playing on a touchpad I send my troops to the shelter and on an 8h fake rally so I can get some scouts on a few unbubbled castles I found. No troops, no resources, some even without their lords. It was clear somebody else knocked on their doors before me.

Still searching for an easy target I could take down, I even check around the King’s Landing area where my alliance rules. That’s when a strange castle catches my eye. I don’t recognize the skin or the name, so I take a closer look. Much to my surprise, it’s a 1.6 billion power neighbor that just appeared overnight. Now I know, it's definitely not the right time to make a move. I put my bubble back up and shoot this player a message to see what their intentions are with our recently semi-open kingdom😅

I decide to take another look at possible targets once I get to my hotel. Hopefully with a proper desk an mouse, things would be safer.

When I finally get to the hotel, I feel tired and not really in the mood for PvP. Thinking any good targets are probably long gone, I decide to give it another shot the next morning. After breakfast, I feel like it’s already way too late, the score gap to 1st place is huge, I’m not exactly a great PvP-er and one excuse leads to another and without realizing it I kind of already accepted my fate.

As the final day of Lord of Lords wraps up, I feel a bit disappointed, trying to pin my failure on this or that. Then it hits me, this is by no means a failure! I’m still behind plenty of players, and the map is starting to show expensive castle skins, so people are clearly throwing serious money into the game. Despite all this, somehow, I managed to get both of my f2p accounts into the top three? Wake up! This is a great success! And I have only myself to thank for it. Well, that and two years of game knowledge, which once again proved it's worth. I decide to take the win and not give it a second thought for the rest of my trip, feeling happy with my success.

When the trip was over and I got home, I searched through the sea of messages to check the final rankings. I was thrilled to see both my accounts had held their spots in the top three. It wasn’t the perfect outcome I had hoped for, but it was a long shot to begin with, and honestly, I couldn’t be happier with the results.

During this time I also noticed the 1.6 billion power player replied to my message and a new plan started to form in my mind. But that’s a story for another day😀Until then, I'll see you other there on the battlefields.