Arena of Honor: Season 5 Round 3

The Arena of Honor battle grounds are open once more, and this time our team of friends is getting ready to deploy for the third match of the new season. We had had a harsh introduction in the season’s first match, when we found ourselves overwhelmed by the event’s changes and unable to adapt how we had wanted to. The season’s second fight had passed while I was away for vacation, so I was very curious about my team’s condition when it was time for me to return. Had they been able to work out some kinks of our gameplay, and would I be able to hop back in easily and not weigh them down? I had always known our group to be resilient and able to bounce back from any challenge, but we were still in new territory with the changes to the event and in our group roster. No matter what the outcome would be, I was eager to prepare for another fight alongside my trusted crew.

As we took our places on the battlefield, my eagerness only grew. The opposing teams were composed of scattered players from a variety of alliances, and none of the names stood out as immediate threats. But that still left us with our own challenges to conquer. No matter who the enemies were we would need to play better than we had before if we wanted to come out on top. Feeling cautiously optimistic, we settled into our positions and prepared for the fight.

Claiming House Baratheon

It was quickly determined that we would be building troop camps under our House Lannister banners, and we began building a mix of cavalry and spear camps hoping for a good chance to claim some center structures and fight for the Glory City later on. Not long after our armies have launched, we’re staking a claim on the House Baratheon clan castle, and it becomes ours with little resistance. This means we’re already starting in a similar position to the season’s first match, but this time we’re more prepared for this circumstance. We continue building up our Strongholds, and moving on to build up the newly acquired Baratheon Strongholds in a more orderly fashion so we wouldn’t find ourselves spread too thin. Our next thought was of House Tyrell to our left, as taking their clan castle would free our own from the pressure of incoming attacks. But Tyrell had built up their own spear camps, and it seemed we wouldn’t have a victory there for now.

House Stark quickly established themselves as the dominant force on the map. They were the first to secure the center watchtowers and catapults, and wasted no time capitalizing on their points advantage. Their attacks on our newly acquired House Baratheon required us to keep a steady stream of reinforcements there. Having to allot some focus to defending made it difficult for us to establish ourselves more solidly on the rest of the map. But our heavy hitters put up a good fight for the Dragonpits, holding their own until Gomory from House Stark swept in to clean us out.

As we juggled our armies, House Baratheon briefly reclaimed their castle in the chaos. Thankfully, one solid rally from Belore was all it took to defeat the eerie AI versions of ourselves. At this point in the fight, it was time to make a decision about the Glory City. Initially our hopes had been to claim it for ourselves, but the fights in the Dragonpits had shown us that we were unlikely to hold against the armies from House Stark. They had almost essentially secured their first place ranking only halfway through the fight. From here on out our objective would need to shift to making sure that our second place position would hold just as securely.

Reclaiming House Baratheon

Belore quickly saw the way forward for us. His suggestion was to rebuild our Strongholds into infantry camps, in hopes that would be enough to kick House Tyrell from their clan castle. We put the plan into motion and it quickly paid off. Our army seized House Tyrell’s castle, giving us a surge in points along with the title of Peerless Dominator. It was enough to light a spark of hope that maybe we could overcome House Stark on the scoreboard after all. With only fifteen minutes of the fight remaining, the math seemed unlikely, but we decided to fight like it was possible anyway.

The Mine Shafts opened at just the right moment. Belore, Gloriee, and DYW each secured one, and moved on to the next and the next as each shaft was drained of points. Thankfully this was one element of the event that we had never lost our coordination in. We scraped away at every point we could find on the map, but as the timer ticked down it was only solidified that House Stark’s lead was too much to overcome.

Taking Mines

But in this fight we had already overcome much of what had haunted us about the season’s first match. Progressing from the third place finish to the second place finish had been because we were more focused, and better prepared for the challenges we would find on the map. The whole fight felt less overwhelming and more controlled. Our new team still has much room to grow, but this small improvement has sparked a new excitement for the fights to come.