AoH Season 3 is coming to and end with a bang !!!

So, this is probably the next-to-last occurrence of AoH. Next weekend we’ll have CCS, so by the end of the month I’m expecting the final AoH game of Season 3.

Our "friends and family" group has grown a lot this season. People started inviting their stronger friends, and they started inviting their whale friends. What used to be a fun, casual group has now turned into a full-on whale fest, since our whales attract matches with other whales. So this leaves me feel like a little fishy swimming in an ocean of whales.😔

A it makes me feel more and more... useless with every game. I rarely win any fights, and all I can hope to do is read three chats at once and pay attention in voice on Discord so I can “speed in reinforcements.” Yeey! Such fun!😒

AoH at this level is starting to feel like AC, or probably, UC!

This time, the anticipation is so strong that people are announcing their availability from... Friday night, basically?!?

I catch wind of the signup on Saturday, which is also one day before we usually even start setting up the roster. My FOMO kicks in, and I say I’m in… not even sure what we’re volunteering for, since our Lead hasn’t started the roster yet. I see a big line, I expect some nice stuff. These people must know what's going on, right?

This AoH round is in such high demand that one of our strongest accounts doesn’t even get a spot. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about it either. But we’ll get to that later. 😉 No spoilers!

Instead, this week, we get a surprise guest: one of the accounts that gave us a real run for out money in our last AoH match. The one and only… Vernei🙌. Now we’ve got strong Rally Leads for all troop types.

And once again, like every game where we have a super strong team, I’m filled with happiness but wrapped with a bow of concern about matchmaking and the horrible accounts we'll get to fight with.

As the gates open, our team looks amazing, and if you pay close attention, (please don't), you'll notice I’m one of the last poor souls without a buff castle in here. A bit annoying. 😄

Looking around the map… guess who I spot? Our rally lead who wasn’t fast enough to make the draft with us. He’s strong, so we’re definitely in for a fun game. ^^ I just hope Effe takes it easy on us; for old times’ sake, lol.

There are some seriously strong accounts on the map, even people who’ve already unlocked the new bubble skins. That’s nice for them! I’m not even dreaming of those, and I plan six months ahead in this game. So not so nice for me!😅So it's exactly the game I was expecting.

Anyway… we start off well and take our initial Strongholds slightly faster than usual. We suspect it’s because more and more people from our team have unlocked T5s, and allegedly, T5s moev faster? Or help cap faster? I don't know, it's just what people with T5s say to people like me without them.😡

Things start off super well, and we’re able to hold on to the first wave of buildings, unlike several other games. I even manage to flawlessly defend against a strong player and the T5s they threw at me. They probably didn’t think I had my lord march in there. hihi.

We also manage to grab some Altars of the Maiden pretty early on, and this is shaping up to be an amazing game. Or so we thought…

I secure a few more Altars and my morale starts to rise. I was a bit concerned about our opponents, I still don’t know where they are, but they’re not bothering me… yet.

Soon enough, we start finding them. We get rallied in the Maiden that Vernei was holding and, despite our account being stronger, they brought more troops and we got kicked. The pressure is building! The GAME IS ON!

Now they start chasing me and my spam marches as I try to pull off sneaky plays. I even get kicked by a second lineup.

I even get kicked by their main lineup, but hey, if they’re busy chasing me, they’re not doing anything important… so that’s a win, right?

As long as we’re defending the important Altars, it’s fine. Or so I keep telling myself while I spend the rest of the time reinforcing buildings to get bubbles up on them, or reinforcing rallies to kick people out before they can bubble up.

My team is so busy this game, they’re not even racing to take back the Strongholds the House is capturing from us. So, I start marching on them myself. At least I get some elimination points... since I can’t get many by actually eliminating players, these NPCs will have to do.

This part starts feeling more important as the game goes on, because apparently, I’m the only one contesting our Trading Posts. And... no spoilers... but this may or may not turn out to be a dealbreaker for us today.😫

For most of the game, I’m playing cat-and-mouse with other small accounts. I kick their spam marches out...

Some are smaller than others.

Then they kick my spam marches out.

And for the majority of the game, this is what I see myself doing.

Like in previous games, I end up taking the Sept. I’m starting to feel like this isn’t the win I thought it would be. Since I’m the only one with a free lord march when the Sept opens… that means I’m not using my lord for other, more important things. It’s a bit sad that I can’t contribute more, but at least I contribute where I can, with what I have.

Note how we’re in 1st place at this point in the game? Yeah… remember that. It won’t last. 😔

From time to time, I get to see one of the bigger fights, through our Rally Leads’ reports where I’m reinforcing. That’s a breath of fresh air, considering most of the game I’m either killing spam marches or getting my spam marches killed.

It’s nice to see we’re holding on to buildings and that I’m contributing to that… even though I’m the only one sending T4s while everyone else seems to be marching with T5s. It makes me feel special, I am the heatshield now!

And some of the reports? Pure comedy. For example, look at my baby blue drake defending right next to Vernei’s level 65, not-so-baby, fully-grown adult-ancient blue dragon. Mine is cuter though, no doubt about it. Just look at that funny face, like it hatched three days ago and is now out here with the big boys, earning some XP to grow into the most feared creature on the planet that it's meant to become. 😄

My spam marches are getting absolutely wrecked this game, and even our friend throws a few punches at me, just to say hello.😀

Our closest Altars have basically become a warzone. Most of the time, they’re blinking, constantly being contested. More often than not, other Houses manage to snipe them from us; not with spam marches, but with full, proper lineups I can’t kick out.

And that’s happening because our main players are tied up with more critical objectives, like making sure we’re constantly holding three Altars of the Maiden. Sometimes we get them at the very last second. As clutch as that is, we manage to contest and hold our Altar.

This continues for most of the game.

As we move into the final stretch and the Mines open, priorities shift.

Our team makes a plan, assigning who goes where. I take one of the Mines that wasn’t claimed.

I even manage to hold it for a glorious 20 seconds... Before I can even ask for reinforcements, or before anyone has time to send anything, I get kicked. It’s not even a whale lineup, but somehow they kill three times more troops than I do. The army’s smaller, too! But I guess all those little upgrades and refinements add up to a big advantage in the end.

Each attack like this chips away at my pride and willingness to participate in this event in the future.

Oh well, at least now I'm "free" to reinforce my rally leads and make sure they hold on to their Mines. My troops + their stats = a way better option.

And, needless to say, with a team effort, we manage to hold on to what they’ve secured.

Soon enough, the Mines are depleted, and we’re back to the altar skirmishes, but credit where it’s due: my team did a really good job holding three Mines.

Now, remember how we were in 1st place in points around mid-game? Fast forward to now, another House has taken center, and with all the pressure on the map, there’s no way we can contest it. So we’re locked into a solid 2nd place, right?

Wrong!

With all the Altars being swapped left and right, we start slipping... and suddenly we find ourselves dropping to 3rd.

And during the Mine rush... something else happens. Remember how I said no one was free to take back the Strongholds being attacked by NPCs? And how I was probably the only one handling this “low importance” task nobody wanted?

Well, guess what. I had all my troops out when one of them was being taken. And we... actually... managed... to... wait for it…

LOSE IT to the House. 😱😭😡😡

And do you know what happens now?

It gets a 3 minute bubble. Because, sure... the House needs a bubble, right?!?

And do you know what happens after that 3 minute bubble expires?

We still need another 2 minutes to hold it before we can claim it again!

And do you know what all this means in the overall economy of an AoH game? When your team is focused on Trade Posts + 3 Altars of the Maiden… and loses one Stronghold/Trade Post?

Well, I can’t give you the exact numbers... but I can tell you that it means we dropped from 3rd place (and very close to 2nd!) all the way down to 4th.

My lead, Hotep also noticed the Stronghold getting taken and did try to get it back, but he landed right at the last second and bounced off the bubble that was already up.

I can’t even express the disappointment this caused in our team. It hit our morale hard, after a tough match where we held strong against some seriously powerful players... only to be broken by a stupid NPC attack that no one noticed.😡😭

Anyway, disappointment aside, at least we didn’t lose Fame points this round.

And since most of us are already King rank, it’s not a big deal...

Oh wait... except for me and my six-week break that dropped me back to Lord, of course.

I would have really appreciated at least a 3rd place rank here, and for most of the game, I truly thought we had it.

Oh well. I guess the White Walker NPCs had other plans for my Season 3 finale.

At least we had a good game with our new friend, despite the little things we still need to iron out of our strategy.

And there’s probably 1 more game where I can reclaim my King rank, wash off the shame, and end the season with a decent ranking.

Until then, I’m crawling closer to unlocking T5s myself. And with next weekend being CCS, I’ve already got other plans to make, while I try to forget this bitter AoH game and hope the final one brings my title back.