BATTLE for the GLORY CITY

(450-600M against 1.5B+ players)

This time I was met by the lord of the castle himself - BurningSword, whom I visited.

- Anthraxus, I'm glad you came. We're having another event here soon called the Arena of Honor. Are you familiar with it? Have you participated before?

- Yes, I've already fought in this arena. And why are you asking?

- We're missing one of the players. Something happened in real life. Can you replace him? And then - let's go to the tavern to celebrate. What do you think?

- Why not? I still planned to spend my time on this trip with benefits, and helping a friend is the best pleasure. I'm with you!

- Great! Then I won't keep you up. Take a break from the road and join us in a couple of hours - we'll just form a team.

2 years have passed since I found myself in the world of Westeros. A lot has happened during this time. I met a bunch of interesting people who, to my initial surprise, were ordinary people who just played. They logged into their game accounts and started building things, taking part in wars, invading other kingdoms and competing for the top spots in the game rankings.

Sometimes, when I look back on those two years, it seems to me that this is some kind of completely new life. Another world. And then I see emails from friends or enemies brought by my castle maester's ravens, and I realize that for ordinary players, this is just a game. I still don't know what really happened to me and why I ended up here 24x7, and why the environment is perceived by me as a real reality.

- Hello friends, - I said, entering the castle hall, where several of my acquaintances had already gathered. They were all in their battle armor with a bunch of regalia. Somewhere in the sky, dragons were circling. Behind each leader stood his group of five NPCs, who would take part in the battles. I also saw a couple of new people. I turned to BurningSword with a questioning look in my eyes.

- These are random people who are more or less suitable for the game. We ourselves see them for the first time. Today is a real force majeure. It's a very inconvenient time for the Arena and more than half the team is simply not online. - Sword answered almost immediately.

- Hmm... it's good that I was nearby. I'll try to help you today, friend. - I reacted and encouraged Sword.

5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. Login.

We are on the playing field. We placed our castles and immediately started looking at our opponents. The main idea is to find the strongest, who can potentially take first place. And it is we - the owners of the castles - who must decide whether we are ready to compete with them for this first place. A lot depends on our equipment, our dragons and our army. Over the past two years, I have realized that this world is incredibly complex and it is impossible to describe it in two sentences. No way. The total “strength of the castle” plays a big role. At the same time, there are many cases when a castle with a strength of 500M won a battle with a castle with a strength of 1,5B. And vice versa - it happens when a castle with a strength of 1B turns out to be so complex that even the combined attacks of four or five of our castles cannot overcome the army of such an opponent.

What do we see? All of our 10 castles have a strength of 450-600M. Not much, but we made it into the top 100 Arena players and earned the title of “Glory King” - the highest Arena rank. BurningSword was even ranked first among ALL players in Westeros. By the way, that’s one of the reasons I came to visit him. To discuss some ideas and plans for the future.

And who do we see? RRH, DUM, KAC, TQL, III, RoW, BRW and many other players with a strength of 1,5B+. We all looked at each other in surprise. How is that? What happened? Why did the system put our team against SUCH players? 100% of them have developed synergies with NPC commanders and T5 soldiers in the armies. While we only have T4 soldiers.

- Hey, Sword, what are we doing? Maybe we'll build Trading Posts and try to farm as many points as possible at this expense? - I looked at the strength of the opponents and the amount of their merit and understood that this is not our league at all. Probably... For now...

- No! - my friend confidently answered. - We will fight. Because no one but us! Yes, friends?! - and he confidently walked to the command post, from where we could give quick orders to our armies and NPC commanders.

- Yes! - we answered in unison. And our new friends who joined this match couldn't utter a word, because in their understanding - we were committing suicide.

Next to Sword walked his closest friend Alex. He is the best tactician of the Arena that I know. Thanks to his timely advice, the teams he joined always won. But in this match... I'm not sure that his talent will be enough. Sometimes I even remember the famous saga of “Amber” by R. Zelazny, in which there was a talented commander. There his name was Benedict. I had thoughts that Alex is some kind of modern gaming reincarnation of that Benedict.

The beginning of the match was not very inspiring. Five minutes out of sixty, and we are already in last place. Although playing for House Stark (yellow) is quite comfortable. The battlefield is immediately centered and it is easy to perceive which castle will attack us - the Baratheons (pink) and which one we will attack - the Greyjoys (cyan).

- Friends, you do NOT need to send your soldiers to Faction City! - Alex began to command. - We play from War Camps, so send everyone you have to strengthen Strongholds, from which we will build War Camps, and the soldiers from there will strengthen our Faction City and protect it from enemy attacks. The higher the level of our War Camps - the stronger the soldiers will be to defend our capital in the Arena.

- Accepted, Plus, Ok, - the players responded.

- Alex, what War Camps are we building? - I asked.

- Four Cavalry and three Infantry in the first line - Alex reacts instantly

- Ok. You build Infantry on the left, and I do Cavalry on the right.

- Plus, - Alex confirms.

The team under the Baratheon banner (pink) has meanwhile built all War Camps in Infantry. This is very good for us, because our Cavalry will effectively counter them. The Lannister team (red) did the same - all War Camps are Infantry. And the Infantry are slower, and we have a chance to capture the WatchTowers faster than our opponents. Because our cavalry march will simply reach the WatchTower faster, although the start will be simultaneous for everyone. All other factions have gone to Trading Posts. These are guaranteed points. No risk. And that is exactly what many players think, choosing such buildings even from the very beginning of the game.

From our command post I saw these three WatchTowers. Around them stood… Spearmen. Maybe that's why both the Baratheons (pink) and the Lannisters (red) built Infantry War Camps. Probably so.

And here, at the 8th minute of the game, our capital is attacked by NPC troops from the Baratheon capital (pink). And they knock out our small defense. Because our War Camps haven't had time to be built and send defenders yet.

- The capital has been captured by the enemy, - Sword controls what is happening on the battlefield.

- Calm down, we will fix it now, - Alex reacts instantly and sends a battle march with the NPC commanders waiting next to him. Attack. Success! - The capital is ours again, and in a minute the War Camps will be completed, so we are working. It will not be easy, but when was it easy for us? - Alex smiles.

- How were they even able to break through our defense? They also don't have War Camps yet - I want to understand in more detail how the Arena and its mechanics work.

- We had a spearmen first formation in the march, which was sitting in Faction City (Lord Expedition) - Alex answered. - And attackers have a lot of Infantry. That is, a perfect counter. That's what they did. Now everything is fine.

- In a couple of minutes, the second line of five Strongholds will be available for attack. What are we building there? - I'm not far behind Alex.

- One Spearman, maybe two, and three Cavalry. One or two spears depends on the formation in the WatchTower. We'll see soon.

- Ok.

And then the unexpected thing happened. Our troops captured the Greyjoy capital (cyan)! Meanwhile, [DUM]Vlodek with T5 spearmen captured our Altar of Stranger, which is very necessary to have before we go for the WatchTowers. But the Greyjoys (cyan) reacted just as quickly as we did a few minutes before with our Faction City, and regained the capital literally a minute after losing it.

- Friends, we captured the WatchTower! The first capture gives us bonus points. This is very good! - says Sword to the whole team, so that people are on the same page and do not waste time on unnecessary scrolling the map.

- Who do we attack first? Who do we focus on? - I ask Alex.

- Red and Pink. Lannisters and Baratheons. All their altars all over the map. When and if you win the fight for the altar - get out with your battle march and send a small one there, so as not to suffer unnecessary losses of troops and not waste healing speedups. If possible, do not let the red and pink capture the altars.

- Sword, our scouts say that they constantly encounter troops like this (below) and similar ones. How can we deal with them when we don’t have T5?

- Rally. Quickly assembled, quickly started. I hope you won quickly too. This is the only chance to somehow cope with such strong opponents. There is no turning back. Only victory!

- Sword, why are there T1 cavalry in your rally? - asks Best. He is one of our team of proven players, with whom we have already gone through a lot.

- You see, T1 cavalry is the fastest unit in the game. It is even faster than other cavalry (T2, T3, T4 and T5). Therefore, when you need to capture some empty altar very quickly, and there is no point in spending speedups on it - you send T1 cavalry. Not a lot at all, a thousand or two. But that is enough.

- Got it, thank you!

In the meantime, we have completed the War Camps in the second line of Strongholds. NPC-upgraded to T5.

- Friends, attention! - Alex shouted, - we need more Cavalry War Camps. We are rebuilding three Infantry to Cavalry in the first line. They need reinforcement and they need it quickly. We took two of the three first captures from WatchTowers. But later we lost WatchTowers to the opponents. Now we need to get these WatchTowers back by taking them from the Red and Pink. And thanks to this we will get points.

- Sept of the Seven is captured, - Sword added, - now the healing will be cheaper.

- Guys, attention! - Sword has interfered, - we are changing the focus of attention to the Pinks (Baratheons). This should weaken them and allow the Reds (Lannisters) to take the attention of the Pinks. Which will make our lives easier, because it is the troops from the capital of the Baratheons (pink) who are attacking us.

Almost half of the match has already passed. All three factions that went for the War Camps (we are Yellow - Starks, the Pinks are Baratheons, and the Reds are Lannisters) - are at the bottom of the rating. So far, those who built Trading Posts from the very beginning are winning by points. There was very little time left before the protective dome from the central Glory City fell. And the capture of Glory City could completely change the course of the game.

We didn't manage to capture the catapults around Glory City first, but our NPC-troops from War Camps skillfully started taking these catapults from the Lannisters (red). As well as the WatchTowers, which gave us a stream of decent points every minute.

- Glory City opens. Our scouts have brought a report on the defense forces located inside - Sword quickly shows the scout report to the entire team:

- Don't even look at this city, - Alex smiles again, - even if we capture Glory City, we won't stop it from being attacked by other factions. There's no point in distracting us from our plan. Let's work!

- I agree, I was just curious to see who's inside this time, - Sword replies also with a smile, - and now, prepare your armies. In two minutes, the Mining Site opens. I'll need your reinforcement there.

- Roger that, - the team responded.

- Attention, - the Reds and Pinks are rebuilding their War Camps into Trading Posts. In the meantime, we're taking all the buildings in the center, - says Alex.

- And we continue to attack the altars, - adds Sword, especially the Altar of Maiden (coins), so that the Reds and Pinks don't get extra points from their Trading Posts.

23 minutes to go. The Lannisters (red) captured Glory City and immediately took first place. We're in last place. The team believes in the tactical genius and organizational abilities of Sword and Alex, even though it seems like the chances are almost zero.

Some of our attacks, even with a small rally, did not yield any results. These are really players out of our current power-league…

Meanwhile, we captured all the buildings in the center of the battlefield and immediately started rebuilding our War Camps into Trading Posts. This paid off and we moved up to the fourth place:

- Attention! The main focus is on the Greyjoys (cyan). Additionally, we look and attack the Baratheons (pink) and Targaryens (purple) so that they do not potentially overtake us - Alex brilliantly fulfills his role as a tactical commander.

5 minutes to the end of the match. We desperately need Altairs of Maiden (coins) to continue scoring points. And Sword decides to rally to one of these altars on the Greyjoys (cyan) side:

In the finals, in those five minutes, we almost caught up with the Greens. Alex and Sword tiredly moved away from the strategic map of the battlefield.

- Friends, thank you all for such a spectacular match. It was incredibly cool! We fought against a bunch of T5 soldiers, with synergies from their commanders. The players who were against us have vast experience in the game and in strength exceed our current capabilities many times. At the same time, we won third place even in such a match. You are incredible! Thank you for your contribution and effort, - Sword said these warm words looking at each of us.

- I am very happy to fight next to each of you, friends, - added Alex.

- Well, my friend, let's go celebrate this battle? - Sword asked me.

- Agreed, - I smiled. - It was so epic, now I will have something to tell my grandchildren about!

© Anthraxus