AOH S5-R5 HD! XxKENPACHIxX

As Winter packs its bags to leave Westeros and let Spring take its place, it's time for [HD!] XxKENPACHIxX to participate in another round of his favorite event, Arena of Honor. After securing second place and first place twice in the last three rounds, he was looking to continue his winning streak with another victory, hopefully. He used the two weeks between rounds to prepare as best as possible, since his team, with whom he had grown accustomed to playing and enjoyed immensely, had disbanded due to personal reasons of some of the former members related to their inability to continue playing in that time zone. But luckily for XxKENPACHIxX, he received a new invitation to play again on another team made up mostly of players from HD!, his alliance.

With his preparations complete, he returned to the mercenary camps to embark on another adventure. Once there, he signed the registration papers and then waited in the tavern with his commanders for the Old Gods to finish the matchmaking.

Kenpachi has been quite ambitious this season with his goals. His long-term objective is to achieve the highest possible rank: King of Glory. To do this, he needs to win every match possible.

Once inside the map, the intelligence work began. Spies provided the necessary information about the enemy to try and devise a good strategy for this match. One of the crows arrived with information about rivals located in the Lannister faction with a strong presence of infantry players, such as DA SQUAD or Mad Maz, or a very strong cavalry player like Mangalor.

Another raven from the spies in the north brought news about the Stark faction's army... silent but lethal, moving at the speed of sound but without making much noise, with players like Big Angry or John McClain leading their armies they would be an overwhelming threat that they would have to face.

Zarachiel: "The map seems a bit complicated for an easy game; we have good players present, even with meta formations that counter our rally leaders."

XxKENPACHIxX: We have to try, the chances of winning are favorable, it's not that we don't have a chance, we're counting on you and God's favor, we can also try different tactics, I have several ideas for different scenarios, let's do it!!!!

Defending the Targaryen faction we had our protagonist, but there were also several players of immense military power: Zarachiel, shrike and LORDONURCAN among others

An unstable mix of power that could get out of control at any moment, shrike with his incredible spears, as well as LORDONURCAN and Zarachiel with his army of horses, would be the main rally leaders of Kenpachi's faction.

When the counter reached zero, the first move was to build the camps as quickly as possible. The objective was to take possession of the clan castle adjacent to ours.

Zarachiel: Let's build spearmen's camps, garrison spearmen in our attack, and we will capture House Tyrell.

And that's what we did; the lancer camps were built and reinforced at full speed.

And guess what... obviously our move was right, we easily took possession of the Tyrell NPC faction's clan castle, this well-defended castle would give us an incredible source of points per minute, which would be very good for our cause

The next objective was to try and capture the Greyjoy faction's clan castle, since the Stark faction hadn't been astute enough to seize it. Taking it would mean an even greater increase in points collected per minute, which is always welcome. On these complex maps, every point and every structure is valuable, and everything has significant meaning. Winning by possessing many altars or several clan castles is crucial. That's why, as I always do, you must give it your all on the battlefield, perform at your best, and even surpass your previous performance.

The next move, also correct...

KENPACHI: Zara, very good work. We must defend our three clan castles at all costs. LORDONURCAN gives the order, what follows?

LORDONURCAN: Let's defend our buildings, reinforce every captured building, and attack any regiments trying to take one from us. The priority is to reach Castle Glory with as many buffs as possible.

I won't lie to you... the battlefield was a complete and endless massacre, battle after battle, lord against lord, 2v1, it was all incredibly bloody and fun. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, but we never gave up.

Across the battlefield, commanders could be heard shouting orders until their vocal cords gave out... The clash of swords could be heard... the arrows streaking through the air... the thundering hooves of horses... the cries of agony...

That's when the city of Glory opened up

And as fast as thunder, a red line appeared for only a millisecond.

The Stark faction had positioned their strongest player in the City of Glory... Big Angry, tenacious and valiant, would have to defend himself against our attacks. Losing Castle Glory would mean our relegation to second or possibly third place, and we couldn't allow that, no, not after fighting so hard. We wouldn't surrender.

Our priority was always Castle of Glory; yes, we would not give up on our plan A without a fight. Our captain would quickly launch an incursion against the Stark faction.

It would be a duel of lancers. Lordonurcan, apprentice to the Red Viper Oberyn Martell, a skilled lancer, would command this battle in order to defeat the dream-stealer Big Angry.

The battle was bloody; few survived to tell their tale, few returned home to their families. Despite the similar number of troops, we were defeated by the tyrant. There was little we could do against his superior formation. Yes, the difference in power lay in his formation, commanders, weapons, advisors... Big Angry had Grey Worm, better legendary and higher-leveled advisors, and higher-leveled weapons, such as the Night King's... this would prove to be the deciding factor in our defeat in this battle.

Big Angry was strong and well-reinforced enough to maintain the construction... seeing this, our plans and expectations, along with our strategy, seemed far from a positive reality.

Having been relegated to third place by this bad move, our morale fell immeasurably

It was then that we heard once again the voice of God's chosen one, Zarachiel

Zarachiel: This isn't over yet. Heal the wounded, prepare the horses, assemble the troops. We will soon launch a coordinated attack. Our plans haven't been abandoned. We knew this could happen. Nobody said it would be easy... A lost battle is not the end of the war.

When the truce drop our available rally leaders quickly organized the coordinated assault.

But something unexpected and favorable happened: Lannister, with a coordinated series of rallies, was able to defeat the defenses of the Stark faction.

Even so, our rallies continued, filling up with our troops who sang war songs as they marched.

Two series of rallies gave us a harsh dose of reality. Even having the mighty Zarachiel counter Mad Maz of the Lannister faction wasn't enough. It was then that we realized the long-awaited victory had slipped through our fingers, and to secure at least second place, we would risk everything on the Shaft Mines, having a total of 24k points in the mines of the Targaryen, Tyrell, and Greyjoy clan castles.

And that's how my Arena of Honor Round 5 match concluded, with a great and well-deserved victory for the Lannister faction... although second place isn't bad, I wanted first place. Despite not getting the most points per win, this result doesn't diminish my dream and goal for this season of achieving the King of Glory rank. I just need to use my support skills and strategies to win most of the remaining matches this season. GG Lannister, GG Stark, GG guys