AOH Season 5 Match 1 - Here we Go Again!

After a short break, Arena of Honors newest season was once again here. It felt too soon but what can ya do? We all must chase the shiny things lol. Last season was mentally exhausting. For this season, I was just going to do random solo matches at different times. My score is still inflated. It's weird, playing with friends can make it a funner event. Yet as you rise in the ranks, you become chum. Playing as a random solo player, goes more with my new attitude. Whatever will be, will be. No use getting upset or frustrated. Take what comes and navigate it the best you can. Let's see if I can maintain it. lol

I chose the third match to start although I will be hopping around this season. It worked best for me this first match. I recognized some of the alliances of those I got matched with, but not the players themselves. The gamble is on random teams, you need to worry if everyone will even bother playing. Far too many are happy to just drop their castle and go afk, putting their team at a disadvantage. There is also the question of whether there will be troops to reinforce you? It is hard to bring the right troop types for the team when you don’t know what those troop types will be until it is too late. For this match we would be House Lannister. 

I glanced around the map and saw some familiar faces. This is a strong map, but not an impossible map. It was encouraging, but I am fine with third place too. In fact I think the only thing that could ruffle my feathers is if we lost to a clone team lol. Is that even possible? We began with the boring stuff… Strongholds to fighting camps… Someone taking our clan castle… These are the slow and early moments. It feels like a low stake race. No one can mess with you and everyone is trying to do the same thing. 

As the map opened up we grabbed the neighboring clan castle. I waited to see who would take it, but no one did. Figuring folks maybe busy doing all the other things, I threw my 2nd line in the plundered castle. My female weakness should buy us some time for someone else to get free.

My main line was still free to take altars and feel out the enemy…. It didn’t seem like too much time had passed before we had taken the other neighboring clan castle. Again I waited for someone on my side to take it, and I would reinforce. Again, no one took it. So I sent my main line to that castle. 

Now I am reinforcing our clan castle, and holding 2 more, essentially I can’t do anything but sit here. I was bored to death and I stayed bored to death for a very long time. Missing the days that the matches focused on altars, dragon pits and City of glory. It has become an event spent in clan castles, Can yall tell I am not a fan.

We did have some ch1 on ch1 violence, which made me chuckle I guess the clones do do something.... But that line tho lol.

Aside from one overly angry person, my team was pretty quiet. I had custody of some player who didn’t even have the right troop type for me. 

Others were quietly building out the neighboring strongholds, trying to take altars and follow the orders from the grump. I was becoming impatient, the city would be opening soon and I have been stuck in 2 clan castles for most of the match. I began asking if someone else could hold one of them. There are 10 of us, well 9 thanks to afk guy I knew about, surely someone could take one of them…

As the City of Glory opened, I watched bored as the enemies all began to shoot their shot.

And here I am stuck in 3 clan castles, holding two…. This began bugging me more and more. I was bored to death. What is the point of an event where I can literally take two clan castles and go afk? I was watching the enemies attack again and again. Some solos, some rallies. I found myself wishing the gods had put me on one of those teams. The only one talking on our team was just being mean to people. Probably something outside the game bothering them, but behind the pixel shield they were a worse version of themselves. Complaining that no one is doing anything, not allowing one of my two marches to get freed up so I could do something other than sit here.

Score wise we were on top, but honestly I would rather take third and play. It was becoming harder and harder to do the right thing, which objectively was holding both the clan castles and keeping our lead…In the clan castle my main line was in, there were not many attacks coming in. I wasn’t well reinforced as people just seemed to send what they had, and that makes sense. I began to justify in my head, being able to release the clan castle, we can try to rally City of Glory and the nice juicy spear holding it, if I can beat them it could be worth it, and it is certainly better than literally just sitting here. I pulled back my line, thinking the clan castle would be ok for a hit or two. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have just stayed bored….

I called a rally on the City of Glory, and while I got a few inf in my rally, most were other troops, the rally was not full, and not everyone even bothered to join…This when I knew I messed up, as I watched us lose the Clan castle I abandoned and we couldn’t take Glory… In the meantime, our angry little teammate began to direct the anger towards me. Somewhat fair, I messed up but they began to take things too far…I had to walk away from the computer to not let this person get to me, as they threatened to zero me solo, lol. I did respond. You can zero me solo but cant take one of the two clan castles I have been sitting in lol. Zeroing me solo is no great feat especially if you are a whale, and I don’t care lol. After a short break, I came back from the map and began to take altars, mine shafts. Finally something other than just sitting watching like a spectator while being yelled at that no one is doing anything… it was actually becoming enjoyable….

When the match ended, we were still in first, despite my messup.

Despite the accusations of not doing anything. I held one clan castle the whole match and a second clan castle most of the match and still wound up 2nd in eliminations in my house, above the one complaining… Just sayin lol

I was glad the match was over. The one downside of my solo journey this season is increasing my odds of dealing with angry little adults who never learned to regulate emotions. Hopefully they are in a better place now and learn that in a game, you should have some fun. I have a job in the real world, I am in Westeros for the lulz…. I will say some doubt about my strategy is creeping in. The solo matches last season spoiled me as I would end up playing with some fun laid back people. I also hadn’t considered getting put on a team that had little to no inf. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out. For now, I have no plans to change my strategy.