Alliance Conquest, match 4: 4TR vs iIi!

The impressions after the magnificent victory against TXZ and our revenge have not yet subsided and it is already time for a new match. We had an additional reason for satisfaction in the fact that we will finally play this match with all the strongest players we have! In the first match of the season we were missing Gola, unfortunately I had to miss the second one and in the third match we were missing Paul, so only in the fourth match will we find out how strong we really are this season! Also, we are very close to achieving our goal - we only need one win in the next 3 matches and we could already achieve that in this match. As always, I hoped that we could get an easier opponent, which was quite certain since the two victories we achieved in the previous matches were won by a small margin. But we can never know - there are so many strong alliances now, it has become very difficult to avoid them!

Another tough opponent but I was happy - we definitely have a chance against them! An additional reason for my optimism was that almost all of their strongest players use cavalry as their strongest type, and since I only use spears, it meant that a lot would depend on me and whether I would be able to fight them.

When I was thinking about tactics for this match, I remembered the previous match, or rather the way we played that match, and I immediately concluded that we should try the same tactic now. A little reminder of what we did in the last match: since we were weakened by not playing Paul, I decided that in that match I would not capture any Castles, but would leave it to my teammates, and I was in charge of attacking their Castles. This tactic turned out to be extremely successful since the opponents mostly used cavalry, just like now. But there is one big difference between today's match and the last one - this time Paul is playing too! Therefore, I chose the same tactics as in the last match, with the slight difference that Paul will do the same thing - he will also try to attack their Castles if they capture them, while all our other players will be in charge of capturing Castles and defending them.

I quickly determined the players who would fight for each Castle and we could wait to see how many players we could count on. I knew that we would once again have fewer players than our opponents, which is actually our biggest problem in matches, but I secretly hoped that this would not be the deciding factor today.

But things soon started to change - more and more of our players were coming to the match! It is obvious that these matches on Saturdays suit us much better... In the end, we managed to gather 35 players with whom we entered the match (although the picture says 34 players, a few seconds before the match started, another of our players entered the match), which is why we suddenly became favorites to win, at least when we are talking about points before the match started. Of course, this does not have to mean anything, but I am happy to know that we still have a slight points advantage right at the very beginning of the match...

It's good! Although I wished we took the Tower and the Temple, I'm also happy with the fact that we took the Tower and the Targaryen Outpost!

Not much happened in the next few minutes - both alliances managed to send enough troops to defend the Castles so that no one dared to try to attack. Despite the chosen tactic, and despite me being marked as the player who should bring an advantage to us - I didn't want to attack this early in the match, I didn't want to show them my stats, and I also didn't want to waste speed up and heal items. But... I couldn't resist the temptation!

Even though all three attacks completely destroyed their defenses, I was still far from taking the Temple from them, they had more than enough troops to defend. But I was certainly happy to know that I won these battles without losing too many troops! It certainly gave me extra motivation to continue the match!

Shortly after my attacks on Temple - the Ports were opening up. Since we started the match with a small point advantage, it would mean a lot to us if we took both Ports, and we would start building our advantage right now! Although we haven't fully familiarized ourselves with our opponents yet, we don't know the strength of their strongest players, I was confident that we could defend against their attacks once we took the Castles...

And we won both races!

The situation at this moment was very good for us: we took both Ports, we also hold the Tower, which is also very important to us, and with all that, Paul and I, our two strongest players, are still not in possession of a single Castle, which means that we are free to attack their Castles if the opportunity arises! But the real battles are just beginning - the defense of the Castle and the opening of Casterly Rock are yet to come...

To my surprise, the opponents were still focused solely on defending their Castles, not once did they try to attack one of our Castles. It was obvious that they decided to wait for the end of all the races and then start with concrete moves... While they were waiting, I decided to attack the Lannister Outpost!

Although I failed in my plan to retake the Castle this time, I once again got the confirmation that I can handle them!

Now we come to one of the key moments in the whole match - the race and the fight for Casterly Rock! We were now in a situation where, if we manage to take and defend the CR, with the fact that we already have both Ports under our control - we might already create a decisive points advantage! Therefore, we had to make a decision - should we change the plan and maybe have Paul or I join the fight for the CR, because if he or I take the CR it will be almost impossible for the opponents to take away that Castle, which would ensure a large number of points, or stick to the planned plan and continue to protect the two of us in case the match goes in the wrong direction and they take control of the match? After a short discussion - we still decided to stick to the initial plan! Honestly, at that moment I didn't know which plan was better... Maybe now, if I were in the same situation, I would choose differently, but neither Paul nor I wanted to risk anything at this moment and decided to wait.

Very soon the time came for the race to begin. It was very difficult to wait for the outcome of the race and watch from the sidelines as my teammates fought for us...

And we won this race too!

Now that was already a big advantage for us! At this point we are getting a lot more points than our opponents and all we have to do is defend the CR and both Ports and we will be close to victory, even if we lose both Mines!

To make things even better for us, my teammates took care of it! Paul used the same tactic I used in the last match - he attacked the Lannister Outpost, and managed to remove enough of their troops from that Castle for Rodney to take over that Castle with one of his solo attacks!

After we took the Lannister Outpost, there was only one other Castle left that was under their control - Temple of the Mother, the Castle that I had already attacked at the very beginning of the match! Although I failed to capture the Temple then, in all the battles I broke through their defenses but I failed to put that Castle under my control because they had a large number of troops in defense, and they were also successful in sending troops back to defense. However, pressured by the bad development of the match, they were forced to withdraw some of their troops back to their cities so that they could fight for the other Castles, so the Temple no longer had so many troops in defense, which I decided to take advantage of and capture that last Castle!

Just as I was taking control of the Temple, the Stronghold races ended, which we unfortunately lost both of... But despite that, there was more than enough reason to be happy!

But now the problems begin...

Although we have already created a nice points advantage at this point, and although we hold almost all the Castles, the match is far from decided. The thing is - the biggest flaw of this tactic we chose, that Paul and I do not hold any Castles under our control, is that our weaker players are in possession of the most important Castles, primarily Casterly Rock, and regardless of the fact that the chosen tactic brought us a lot of good, it was clear to me that we would soon come under heavy attacks. And that is exactly what started to happen...

I was aware of the fact that Shanks, my teammate who holds CR under his control, is not one of our strongest players, so I consciously ordered my teammates to remove troops from the other Castles and focus exclusively on defending Casterly Rock. This left room for our opponents to attack the other Castles which were now almost unprotected. That is exactly why we lost Lannister Outpost very easily...

I didn't mind the loss of that Castle too much, we deliberately weakened it in order to fight for the much more important Casterly Rock. However, what happened in the next few minutes shocked me...

Exactly what I feared happened - Shanks just wasn't strong enough to counter their attacks and after a few rallies and solo attacks we lost CR... Although the situation was still very favorable for us, we were still getting more points than our opponents, things started to get complicated. But I must admit that I was not prepared for what followed... Shortly after we lost CR, the opponents did not stop there, but continued to attack our Castles! First they attacked and took Targaryen Port from us...

... and immediately after that they attacked - Temple! Yes, they attacked my Castle! When I saw that attacks on Temple were being prepared, I didn't pay too much attention to it, I must admit that I was more than sure that they had no chance of taking that Castle from me, especially after I had won all the battles in which I had participated so far. However, I was terribly mistaken and a huge shock followed when I saw that I had really lost control over Temple...

The situation got completely out of control! Suddenly they were the ones who started getting more points than us, and although we had built up a nice lead up to that point, suddenly things weren't so good for us anymore! On top of all that, the opponents showed that they could deal with me and that all that ego I showed in the initial battles was actually a complete failure! But there's no time to despair, we need to change something urgently, and the Mines are opening very soon, so the final battle is very close!

A few minutes before the Mines were to open, we managed to stop the freefall that hit us - we managed to take the Targaryen Port, after which we were once again in a situation where we were getting more points than our opponents!

And now we come to the final showdown, to decide who will win this match - there is very little time left until the opening of the Mines! Despite the fact that at one point in the match we started to lose control of the situation in the match, we still met the opening of the Mines with a points advantage, which meant that we only needed one Mine to win! However, having learned from experience that we can very easily lose Castles, as they showed when they took the Temple from me, even if we take both Mines we are not completely sure that we will win. Therefore, the fact that both Paul and I were free to fight for the Mines did not guarantee that we would definitely win! We could only hope that we would take at least one Mine and somehow manage to defend ourselves until the end, which would certainly bring us victory. We agreed that I would try to fight for the Targaryen Mine, while Paul would go to fight for the Lannister Mine, so if one of us managed to take one of those two Mines, we would be close to victory! I was impatiently waiting for the final showdown!

We took both Mines!!

I ordered my teammates to quickly send their troops to both Mines! But there is no time, the attacks are already coming! As is known, the truce period for Mines is very short and it is possible to attack very quickly!

Once again the unthinkable has happened - I've lost the Castle again! But this time it's much more dangerous! If we lose the second Mine too, we'll lose the match!

Luckily they only focused on Targaryen Mine, we manage to defend Lannister Mine without much trouble! But that's not enough, I want to secure victory! I have to try to attack Targaryen Mine!

And we did it! Just like in the previous situations - I removed enough of their troops with my attacks that Heavenleight could take the Mines from them with one of his attacks!!

After we retook the Targaryen Mines, this time we managed to send enough troops to defend, after which the opponents finally surrendered, which meant that we managed to achieve another, hard-won victory!

Towards the end of the match I still attacked Targaryen Port, which was left completely unprotected since they had pulled their troops back to fight for the Mines.

By the end of the match, nothing significant had happened and we could slowly start celebrating!

Finally - we got to that third victory, which means we achieved the goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season! Although the final result may not say so, this was a pretty tough and demanding match in which at one point it seemed like we were sure to win, but just a few moments later things almost completely turned around. Luckily for us, at the beginning of the match we managed to create a nice points advantage again, which brought us a more comfortable situation in the rest of the match, and even when things went in the wrong direction we managed to stay calm and bring the match to an end. My teammates once again showed that we can count on each of them, and despite the fact that they may not be as strong as Paul and I, they still do a fantastic job and are always there when we need them most! Once again, this was a victory for the whole team, not just a few of the strongest players, and for that they really should be given a lot of credit! As for our opponents, after a slightly weaker start to the match, in which they completely decided to defend the Castles they have in their possession, in the rest of the match they showed that they did not come to two victories in the previous three matches by chance and that they should be taken seriously. The very fact that they twice took the Castle that I had in my possession shows that it is a really strong alliance that, with perhaps a little better organization of the matches, would be much better. In any case, I thank them for this tense and exciting match and I wish them the best of luck in the rest of the season! As far as we are concerned, with this victory we have achieved our goal, but that does not mean that we will be satisfied with this! We still have a minimal chance to reach the playoffs and as long as there is a chance to make a miracle and reach it, we will not stop fighting!