GoTWiC [AoH] S4R13 “The Final Trick”

Since he had an extra ticket, he decided to take part in another Arena of Honor match that same day. Maverick started looking for a group again.

It didn’t take him long to find one that was missing just a single member. It was the same old group with whom he had played many matches before, the group led by Mace,

an old friend with whom he had already had the chance to fight in this type of event, considering that Maverick preferred different time slots for the other events.

It was with him that Maverick had learned how to use the camping strategy. When his friend saw him, he greeted him with joy, because they needed spearmen and infantry. Maverick met the first requirement, and based on his stats, he would once again be the leader of the spearmen. A few players had come and gone in the meantime, but there still wasn’t a single spearman stronger than him.

However, the problem was the infantry troops; he had cavalry and a small amount of T4 infantry. He told Mace to give him just a little time and he would sort everything out. Not wanting to weaken the team, and seeing that there was still enough time, he prepared for training and began producing those troops, enough to send to Mace’s rally, since Mace would be their infantry commander and also the main leader for the match.

When asked about his strategy, Mace replied that he would set up camps, just like before. Depending on their opponents, they might be forced to relocate to the Trading posts so they wouldn’t lose points.

However, unlike the previous matches, this time they would have only two real opponents, while the other three houses would serve merely to interfere and disrupt their gameplay. This made the fight somewhat easier, but they still couldn’t allow themselves to celebrate before the match started and before seeing how the battle would unfold.

When they entered, defending House Stark, their glance toward the other opponents was not very encouraging.

“This is going to be a very tough match,” Maverick thought. “But we’ll give it our all. I just hope the other houses won’t cause us too many problems.” All three houses were roughly equal in strength, but Maverick felt that his own team was the weakest, though if none of the opponents had the strongest commanders, especially Jaqen, they would still be able to fight.

House Lannister seemed perhaps the strongest to him, because he knew a few players who were very active and powerful, Sir Andy from House RRH and Blutangel from EdF.

The advantage Maverick saw for his team was that the opponents appeared to have only just gathered, without any proper coordination. But the match was starting, and they would soon see how things would unfold.

They began sending troops to the strongholds to build the spearmen camps.

However, the house on their left, the Lannisters, had the same strategy. Seeing this, Maverick sent his army to capture that Targeryan's Strange Altar, so he could have a double chance to speed up deployment. This would also allow him to secure the first take of the Tower, since both Houses were going to attack it in the opening push. Fortunately, the third House decided to go for the Trading Posts, which could be both an advantage and a disadvantage. It all depended on which of them would secure the Towers and the Catapults.

This plan worked, and the goal was achieved.

But they couldn’t hold the Tower, because the enemies had formed a second line of infantry camps. Maverick and a few other members of the house suggested changing them, but Mace said they would go for the Catapults first and then convert them into Trading Posts.

Maverick did his best to send as many troops as possible and secure the Altars that his teammates were capturing, even though some of them were attacking the Maiden’s Altars, which they didn’t need at the moment since they had not committed to the Trading Posts.

Although he tried to tell them to attack other Altars, some players were clearly acting out of habit.

In the fight for the three dragon pits, each side captured one, and it almost seemed as if they had made an unspoken agreement, since no one attacked anyone.

They managed to seize only two Catapults and hold them, but after that things became difficult, so Mace began replacing the frontline with cavalry camps. That strategy allowed them to start reclaiming all the Catapults and Towers. Despite this, they remained in 3rd place, which worried Maverick, especially since they had no chance of capturing the City of Glory, as the Lannisters managed to take it while some of their teammates were busy attacking Altars.

When he sent a scout and saw the infantry formation with Voiran and a fully reinforced castle, he knew they didn’t stand a chance, because they had no strong cavalry commander, and Mace didn’t have a rally large enough to defeat a player of equal strength who also had more troops. Maverick suggested that they shouldn’t waste time and troops on the Glory City and instead focus on the buildings, because they were still in 3rd place out of the three teams.

Minutes passed, and the situation didn’t change. Although they were close to taking 2nd place from the Targaryens, they made little progress. Maverick suggested converting their camps into Trading Posts, since none of the other houses had war camps, and no one would be attacking the Towers or Catapults.

With Trading Posts, they would earn far more points. However, now the focus also had to include the Maiden’s Altars, which they needed in order to increase their percentage bonuses.

But the Mine Shafts were also appearing, very important mines that granted 2k points each. This created a serious dilemma for Mace: what should they prioritize?

“We’re going for everything,” he told Maverick and the others. Maverick immediately rushed toward the mine.

He succeeded and sent the coordinates, hoping he would receive reinforcements. His teammates responded to the call, and the mine shaft gained enough support to be able to withstand incoming attacks. They endured all assaults, most of them solo. That wasn’t enough to overpower a player like Maverick, and the enemies didn’t have the time to launch rally attacks, so they managed to secure one mine.

However, the problem was that the Targaryens had as many as seven, increasing the lead that they had nearly managed to close.

It seemed they were going to finish in third place. Mace instructed his team to spam the Targaryens in order to knock down some of their Altars and earn points. Maverick managed to capture their Dragon Pit. He tried to disrupt every attempt by the other houses to take additional Altars, scanning the map and, even without sending scouts, launching attacks against anyone who tried to seize his Altars. Many times he encountered just a few soldiers, and sometimes entire armies. But he always sent his strongest spearmen, not wanting to take any risks.

Their plan was working, and the point gap was slowly shrinking thanks to the Trading Posts. The Lannisters had already secured first place, while they were competing for second. Maverick sent small groups of troops into the structures belonging to his neighbors, the Greyjoys and the Baratheons, hoping to earn a few extra points that would matter in the final moments of the match.

The countdown began. Maverick had given everything he had, but he had already accepted finishing in third place. Third place wasn’t bad at all, up until now, finishing in the top three had been considered a success. But before, there had been six houses competing, and now only three, and Maverick didn’t want to be the weakest among them.

Five, four, three, two, one.

And the whole team reacted the same way.

They appeared in second place, an unexpected finish, and they had managed to earn enough points. They couldn’t believe it. It was insane. They had done it. A photo finish is always the most stressful, but also the most exciting if you win.

Later, Maverick realized that preventing the Targaryens from earning points by capturing their Altars might have influenced the final outcome, as well as his small attacks on the neighboring unguarded Altars. But none of that really mattered anymore. What mattered most was that they had achieved an excellent result, and Maverick had returned to the team in great style, finishing 3rd overall in eliminations and perhaps contributing more than anyone to their success.