From heaven to hell - Arena of Honor - Season 3 Round 12

Arena of Honor Season 3 it is approaching its end, heading now to the round 12 out of a total of 14. [N0X] Shado has been struggling in the prior rounds after leaving the Fantastic 10 team and dropped quite a few fame points but he's still hoping his luck might change and he'll be able to get some wins or at least high placements. For this round, Shado managed to find himself a team made mostly of [N0X] members so for once he won't need to go to the mercenary camp. He used the 2 weeks prior to the round to train his troops and commanders and forge more valyrian steel weapons for his troops to help the team as much as he possibly can. The time flew by, and it was now time for Shado to get his troops, commanders and dragons and went to the Arena of Honor battlefield to meet with his team. Once everyone was present there, they signed the pre-registration papers, the team was registered for the upcoming battle and they all waited patiently for the matchmaking to be completed.

The matchmaking was completed just a few minutes after and now it was time for everyone to enter the battlefield and see what house picks them up. Shado's team was picked by Sansa Stark to fight for House Stark in this round, so everyone headed to the frozen north towards House Stark's clan castle. Once they arrived there everyone set up their camps around the castle and Shado decided to send a few scouts to the other houses to see what they are up to.

The news coming back weren't good at all, most of the other houses invited very strong teams for the round, and despite his team being strong too, the round was looking as it's going to be very tough, partially expected considering Shado's team. Time for scouting and strategies was over as it was now time to battle, and the fight started with the opening of the first set of strongholds. As usually everyone rushed to occupy and reinforce them as quickly as possible to start the points generation. After just 2 minutes of occupation the strongholds opened for construction and the team decided to go with military camps for this fight.

The military camps strategy is generally good if you're team is strong but if multiple houses go with the same strategy, you have to always keep an eye on what other houses are doing in terms of military camps and as it will turn out later not paying attention to what others do was the doom of Shado's team. The strongholds were constructed just in time as it was now time for the watch towers to open and everyone was hoping the NPCs are up for the challenge. Sadly for House Stark the other houses built their military camps to counter them, so the battle started going a bit downhill even from its first half. But correction measures were taken swiftly and the match improved for them points wise. Meanwhile the altars started opening and all the houses that built military camps were heading for the NPC stats one while trying to keep the houses that built trading posts from occupying altar of maidens. As everyone on the battlefield was strong, Shado couldn't do much with solo attacks, so he decided to reinforce his teammates instead, so when Ser Enki asked for reinforces Shado was there to reinforce his altar on point.

Unfortunately, his help wasn't enough and after a fierce battle that ended up with lots of wounded troops on both sides, House Stark lost the altar. Shado tried a few solo attacks as well but all of them ended up really badly on his side, as it was looking that everyone going for altars from enemy houses were either fully reinforced or had synergies and stats that were way above Shado's paygrade. However, for now at least, the altars had to be put aside as the City of Glory opened and everyone wanted a slice of it. For House Stark, it was VERGO, elaena and Lord Asssss that took up the rally banner and tried to take the City of Glory from enemy hands.

All their rallies were filled, and they launched at the same time, trying to take enemy by surprise but the enemy was prepared and all the House Stark rallies bounced, not before taking with them quite a big chunk of House Lannister's troops.

House Stark instantly started another wave of rallies hoping the Lannister's won't be able to reinforce in time and they were right. The 3 rallies and the rallies from the other houses helped House Stark get the City of Glory and start the 4 minutes occupying time.

They only managed 2 minutes out of the 4 required that time, as the city was under constant rallies from all the houses and the reinforcements didn't get there in time. The city kept swapping hands every few minutes and it was looking like nobody will be able to get'it on this fight. Until elaena took'it for House Stark and it was looking like she sealed the deal, but while being so concentrated on city, House Stark lost the catapults, and they were taking heavy damage on top of the dmg the rallies were doing and with just 20 seconds before the occupation time was done, the catapults did massive dmg to the armies inside the city and a rally following right after those hits managed to kick the team out of it.

The city of glory then changed hands once more going from Baratheon's to Lannister's and somehow Baratheon's just stopped rallying Lannister's and decided to let them get the 1st place. Without them, the rallies made by House Stark weren't enough to kick Biet from the city and 48 seconds before the fight ended, they managed to take 'it.

Bad news for everyone as they lost 20% of their points but specially for House Stark that were so preoccupied with the City of Glory that they dropped to 5th spot with no chance to recover in the few seconds left and things were about to get even worse.

On the last point ticking before the end, they lost even 5th and ended up on the last place. Bitter defeat for the team considering they were so close to actually winning the round but that's what happens in some rounds, things just don't go your way. With 2 rounds left Shado is hoping to get better placement if not for Glory King ranking that's out of reach now, at least for the round rewards. Will he be able to do'it or the 6th place curse will keep going? We'll have to wait and see. See you all on the battlefield!