Alliance Conquest: 4TR vs bLS!

Everyone who plays this game knows that the most important thing is time. Time to complete some research, time to upgrade some commanders, to raise stats, but also time to play events. Sometimes we lack that very time. Unfortunately, that happened to me too, I simply didn't have time to play our fourth match in this Alliance Conquest season, which was a huge disadvantage for our alliance, which is why we suffered a defeat. It is true that in that match we played against an extremely difficult opponent who was too strong for us, even if I had been in the match, it would have been difficult to do anything, so if I had to miss the match - I am glad that it was the one in which we had little chance. Because I was unfortunately forced to miss the previous match, I was very keen to win in this fifth round. The defeat in the previous round meant that in today's match we should not play against a too strong alliance, although I am aware that we are still in the part of the draw where we can get some strong alliance. Besides the fact that I wanted to win today's match because I missed the last match, there was another reason why I wanted to win today so badly - I started negotiations with several alliances to join them and help them in their Ultimate Conquest battles! I knew that this would be my last match in 4TR this season, so I really wanted us to win!

At the first moment, I was not yet aware of who we got as an opponent. The name of the alliance seemed familiar to me, but I didn't know from where... And then I saw the Kingdom where bLS is located - k31! It is one of those Kingdoms where the biggest battles in the game were fought, in the era when the strongest alliances were BCL, BTS, CTL and a few others. I immediately became aware that bLS is somehow connected with perhaps the currently strongest alliance in the entire game - BaN. And I was right...

Once again, our opponent is an alt alliance of some of the strongest alliances in the game! So far, we have successfully dealt with such opponents, and even though most of them were difficult and uncertain matches, we still managed to win in the end. I was hoping it would happen again now. Opponents like this are always difficult, you never know what to expect - the accounts that are in such alliances are not as strong as their main accounts, however, for smaller alliances like ours they can be quite strong enough to beat us, especially when we know that they are played by players who play the strongest matches in their main alliances, they know everything there is to know about the game and therefore know how to play such matches. When you add the fact that in terms of power they are a stronger alliance than us - it was quite clear that we were in for a tough match.

The preparations for the match were once again very short - we had already played quite a few matches together, in which we almost always had the same tactics, rarely deviating from the original plan, so everyone already knew what their task was in this match and there was no need to waste time creating a plan. We could only wait for the match to start to see how many players would enter the match. I noticed that in their previous matches they did not come with many players, most of the time it was less than 20 players per match, which gave me hope that it would be a slightly easier match than expected. I knew that we would again be close to our usual number of 25 players, which turned out to be correct and we had 24 players in the match! On the other hand, the opponents entered the match with only 16 players, which I expected. This turn of events initially put us in the role of favorites, but that is one thing, justifying that role of favorites is something else entirely...

Before the match started, I took a few minutes to study our opponents. Although we had more players in the match than them, almost all of their players were stronger than the vast majority of our players, which made me even more nervous. I became even more worried when I saw that some of their strongest players were infantry-type players, which personally doesn't suit me at all since I play matches almost exclusively with full spear formations, so I, as our strongest player, might not be the deciding factor in the match, which certainly goes in favor of our opponents. I was hoping that Paul and the rest of my teammates would bear the brunt of the match if that happened... The match is about to start!

We couldn't have asked for a better start!! We won all the races!

Honestly, I didn't believe something like this was possible for the reason mentioned above - our opponents are some of the most experienced players in the entire game, so it makes sense to me that they are also quick in their reactions, which is crucial in races for Castles. However - we beat them in all four races! But as much as I look forward to this development, the match has just begun and the real battles are just beginning.

We didn't have to wait long for their answer. As in previous matches, I decided that our main focus would be to defend the Temple of the Mother and the Tower of the Warrior, both Outposts give a considerable number of points per minute, however, at the beginning of the match, I think it is more important to occupy the Tower and the Temple because of the additional buffs that these Castles give. Because of this, I ordered my teammates to send most of their troops towards the Tower and Temple, which is why we didn't have a troop shuttle in the Targaryen Outpost, which the opponents took advantage of and took it over from us with a few solo attacks...

I was not happy to see that we lost that Castle, but at that moment we were focused on other things. So I told my teammates not to attack the Targaryen Outpost for now, but to wait for the Ports to open, to see how those races would end and then we could think about future plans. Apparently the opponents were of the same opinion since they did not attack the other Castles...

We managed to win the races once again!! This was already very significant!

Now the priorities have changed a bit. It is very important to defend the Ports, which give us a lot of points, which, along with the initial advantage, gives us a nice advantage. So, if we manage to defend them from their attacks and then occupy Casterly Rock - we would be close to victory! So I told my teammates to send troops to the Ports, if they don't have enough troops available, to remove them from one of the other Castles - the Ports are the most important at the moment! Of course, this means that our other Castles will now be significantly weaker and it will be easier to retake them. And that is exactly what happened - we didn't have enough troops to distribute them evenly across all the Castles, which is why we had to remove a certain number of troops from the Lannister Outpost, which the opponents immediately took advantage of...

But at this point, losing that Outpost wasn't that painful for us, as long as we had the Ports that brought us a lot of points and as long as we controlled the Temple and Tower that gave us attack and healing buffs, I was more than happy! 

But the most important battles are yet to come. The first of them is the race for Casterly Rock. This whole season has been quite strange - in all our matches (except for the last match in which I did not participate) the decisive moment in the matches was the race and the fight for Casterly Rock, in all matches we had already built a big points advantage by that moment and after taking CR our opponents would be aware that they had lost the match. The same scenario could have been repeated in this match - we already had a comfortable points advantage and taking CR would only strengthen our lead! The most important thing was the fact that I was again able to wait for the start of the race for CR without any problems since my teammates did a fantastic job in their races so there was no need to for me to get involved in the fights. But, as I stated at the beginning of the match - I was perfectly aware that their strongest players could easily counter me with their infantries. However, I believed that we could defend ourselves, we have more players than them in the match and I don't believe that they can create several simultaneous rallies with which they would take away CR from us. But, all these plans came down to me winning the race. However, what if I lose the race? Especially if CR is taken by one of their strongest players, with infantry? Paul, our strongest player next to me, already has the Castle under his control. Lord Lola too. I can't launch solo attacks since I use spears, maybe we can launch several rallies and try that way. I already started calculating how many points we would generate if we lost CR and how many our opponents would generate and, although we would still get more points than them, the difference would be very small, which means that it would be enough for them to take one Port from us and they would get more points than us! And suddenly things are not looking good for us at all, despite the fantastic start! Because of that, a lot depended on the next race and battle. Our opponents were also waiting for the outcome of this race, they didn't even try to attack our other Castles and all that was left was to wait.

And the race began! I don't think I've ever been faster in my reactions! My troops, a few troops from my teammates and the opposing troops headed towards the CR, all troops arrived at about the same time... But...

I did it!!

We won another race, perhaps the decisive one! And once again the priorities changed - as I said, I was aware that we were playing against strong opponents who could steal our CR, so I ordered my teammates to send as many troops as possible to reinforce CR. And we didn't have to wait long for the opponent's response... After the CR race was over, they immediately launched several rallies on several of our Castles! The real battles are only now starting!

Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a chance to defend Targaryen Port, we had too few troops left in the reinforcement, and Lil Potus wasn't a strong enough player to stand up to such a strong opponent. It didn't start well for us...

Their next targets were the Temple and Lannister Port. First they attacked the Temple with several rallies and immediately after that they attacked Lannister Port...

But we managed to defend ourselves!

Just before the opening of the last castles before Mines, the situation was very good! Although we lost Targaryen Port, we had all the other most important Castles under our control! We even managed to fend off a few of their attacks! But the match was still wide open. Now, losing Strongholds can be very difficult for us. I've already pointed out on several occasions the importance of Strongholds in matches like this when both alliances have a small number of players in the match, especially alliances that don't have that many strong players. As everyone knows, Strongholds send a certain number of their own troops to the enemy's Castles, so in small player matches they can completely remove all the opponent's troops from a Castle they are attacking. This has happened to us in the past. Big alliances don't have such a problem and for the most part Strongholds are the least important Castles for them, in many matches some alliances don't even try to attack them. However, we don't have the luxury of not trying to take those two Castles! But, before the races for the Strongholds began - we also lost the Lannister Outpost...

But on the other hand - we won both races again and managed to capture both Strongholds! That means we won all races in this match! I don't remember when it happened, if it ever happened that we won all the races!

I was aware that we simply did not have enough troops available to defend so many Castles, so we sent the least troops to the Strongholds, even though those Castles are also very important to us. But priorities are different!

Now it was finally our turn to attack them too! Our main objective was the Castle that brings the most points - Targaryen Port! To my amazement, it only took a few consecutive solo attacks to bring it back under our control! I didn't expect it to be so easy to take...

While we were attacking Targaryen Port - bLS launched a final attack! They launched several rallies on CR! That was what I was most afraid of and finally the moment arrived to see how this most important battle of the entire match would go! At this point we already had a comfortable advantage, we had just captured Targaryen Port which not only guaranteed us more points but also prevented them from generating many points. In case we defended CR it would mean a lot to us and we would be close to victory! But I knew that we had a very difficult task ahead of us... Their rallies were headed towards CR!

The first rally went great! We had almost no losses! However, now comes the greatest trials - their strongest players are approaching...

I knew this would be painful...

And now we come to perhaps the most crucial moment of the entire match! While I was worried about CR and whether we would be able to defend ourselves from their attacks - my teammates continued to attack their Castles and before they could react we took all the Castles under our control!

This turned out to be the moment when the opponents were aware that they had lost the match! At least that's how it seems to me - after they lost the last Castle and after they finished with the last rallies on CR until the opening of Mines, they no longer sent many troops to reinforce their Castles when they took them from us, i.e. they completely decided to go for elimination points! There is nothing wrong with their decision, but with this way of playing they gave up any fight for victory! However, we should not fool ourselves - although they may have given up the fight for victory, the match is still not over - we still have Mines left and although we have built a large points advantage at this point, in case we lose both Mines, we can completely bring them back into the match! But there was still time until then. The match now entered a rather turbulent period in which alliances changed ownership of certain Castles - since they gave up on trying to defend the Castles and focused solely on attacking ours, which unfortunately was quite successful for them, they often took Castles from us, after which we would immediately return them to our control.

They also, seeing that they could counter me, made a few rallies on CR, however at that point we already had a lot of troops in reinforcement and they didn't create multiple rallies at once so we weren't really in danger of losing that Castle. But still their rallies did a lot of damage...

And now we come to the opening of the Mines! Even though we had already secured victory before the opening, we still wanted to occupy both Mines and reach 80k points. To achieve this, Paul and I discarded our Castles and got ready for the race! The two of us are our two strongest players and we have a great chance of defending the Mines if we win them! Luckily for us, our opponents were also completely focused on the Mines so we had plenty of time for our teammates to take over the CR and Tower, which Paul had held since the very beginning of the match.

The races have started and...

Two wins again which means we won literally all the races in this match!!

But I soon realized that it wasn't Paul who occupied Lannister Mine...

Before Paul, Potus King got to Mina, and unfortunately he's not as strong as Paul, so NegAR didn't have a hard time taking Mina away from him... However, as soon as the truce period expired, Paul made sure we took Mine under our control too!

And that was it! We quickly filled both Mines with our troops which meant that bLS couldn't take them anymore and we could start celebrating!

By the end of the match both alliances had exchanged possession of some Castles a few more times but it was too late to change anything and we came away with 80k points and another big win!

Another fantastically played match! Although I was aware that we were playing against a strong opponent who certainly had stronger players than us, once again, through teamwork and a larger number of players in the match, we managed to compensate for not having so many strong players and achieve another victory! Once again, my teammates showed in the decisive moments that they were completely concentrated in the match and again, just like in the previous match, they made some decisions without me even having to tell them anything! I am especially happy about the fact that we won all the races in the match, which has never happened to us since this alliance has existed!

Our opponents definitely did not show their best. Of course, it is difficult when you have fewer players than your opponent, but I have the impression that in some situations they easily missed their opportunities. For example, they created only two rallies at a time. If they had only one more rally, they would have managed to take Temple from us right at the beginning of the match, maybe some more Castles and the match could have gone in a different direction. This is how they allowed us to quickly send our troops to reinforce those Castles and defend them. Anyway, thank you for today's match and I wish them the best of luck in the last match of this season!

And as for our alliance, unfortunately we will be very weakened in the last round since both Paul and I are going to another alliance with which we will fight for the title in UC. That's why it was very important for me to achieve this victory, which we achieved with another very well played game! How much we've grown over the past few seasons while we've been together in this alliance... Once again, I thank all my teammates and wish them luck in the last AC match of this season!