N0X SoW (S17 M1) – Clean Map Control Leads to Dragon Escorts

GoTWiC’s 7y anniversary edition has started this month and, as usual, it brings the themed Siege of Winterfell gameplay alongside a bunch of other mini games. But this time the main reward is closely tied to the SoW event itself in the form of a fancy new castle skin.

And while the anniversary brings plenty of cross kingdom challenges to enjoy, the SoW strategy should still be my biggest priority right now.

While N0X has had better success in AC, regularly reaching UC in recent seasons, our SoW performance still needs some... polishing. Even before the official game plan is announced, I take a look at the changes to see if anything major has shifted.

At first sight the rules are fundamentally the same. A few updates here and there, some posibly fun updates, but the core mechanics remain unchanged. Drake can probably summarize the most important changes in a single image:

Now that the new rules are read and somewhat understood, let’s see who we’re facing in our first match of the season: TIS.

I remember TIS, and from what I recall this shouldn’t be a major issue for us, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Just before entering the match I finish a few Rebel Leaders so I don’t cap on Motivation during SoW. I logged in at the last moment in my classic style. Would be a shame if I missed SoW because I was doing RLs… What can I say? I like to live dangerously!😂

And here comes my first whoopsie moment of the season. Since unlocking T5 troops, I only managed to train 1 million Spears so far. After that I continued with 1 million Cavalry for my Arena of Honor team. Looks like I should probably train a few more T5 Spears.

Or… should I? Realistically, do I want more T5 troops everywhere, or should I keep them mostly for my Lord march? The whale answer is obviously full T5, but I’m not a whale. Anyway, that’s a question for another day. Right now I’m cutting it way too close on time to think about long term troop optimization.

I check my assignment while the SoW map loads. Hot Springs team. Yeey! My old love.😔

Hot Springs has been my second home in Westeros for many seasons now. Let’s see if it welcomes me back with the same warmth and care as always. And by warmth and care, I mean endless wipes over and over, because the HS slaughter party never really ends.

We're off to the races and flashbacks start flooding back immediately.

https://youtu.be/TYJ5jKOTXK4

I can already feel the echoes of SoW returning: rush HS, die, respawn, run back, die again.

As soon as I reach Hot Springs, I try to stay bundled with my teammates and focus on enemy Cavalry marches. Wish me luck! I’m stepping into the grinder.

My Night King march doesn’t even last a full minute. Probably closer to 30 seconds. Alright… maybe bad luck? Or maybe we’re not dealing with amateurs here. #Sus

Looking at the scoreboard doesn’t help either. It looks like we’ve already lost both Armory and Hot Springs, and TIS is building an early lead.

One minute later, all three of my marches are wiped. And I’m not alone as most of our HS team is dead, and they outnumber us almost three to one in this fight. This is exactly the old HS experience I wanted to forget.

Now I understand why my subconscious was prioritizing Rebel Leaders earlier instead of rushing onto the map.😂

They push further down toward Greyjoy Stronghold 2, so we regroup there after the respawn. Time to heal and meet them head-on.

Only 21 days of healing for a full wipe? Not bad, lol. I expected over a month. That’s actually pretty cheap considering we didn’t even hold Hot Springs.

Before the Stronghold 2 fight begins, we clean up a few stragglers around Greyjoy Outpost 2. A quick snack on the way back.

Since we couldn’t hold HS initially, Greyjoy Stronghold 2 becomes our new rally point. It’s a good place to regroup and build up what I like to call "critical mass". Once the snowball is ready, we can "roll it" over Hot Springs.

After clearing the Stronghold and gathering enough numbers, it’s time! We roll back toward Hot Springs. Hospitals across the alliance must already be crying for healing speedups.

And the snowball tactic works perfectly. We push them out and the points slowly start flowing in our favor, like the Spice in Dune!

The first set of dragons appears, and both sides begin "herding" them toward home. Since these spawn deep in each team’s territory, they move quickly and get delivered almost immediately, just like the classic packages in the original SoW version.

Meanwhile, I’m still fighting at Hot Springs. First quarter of the game gone and that’s basically all I’ve been doing. But if that’s what wins the match, I’m happy to keep doing it.

We even manage to hold Hot Springs for a short while. That’s all we really needed for some discounted healing before they take it back again. My NK march continues getting evaporated quickly, which confirms my earlier suspicion: these guys are not amateurs.😱

Still, we have the points advantage, which means our overall strategy is working. At this stage we can mostly rinse and repeat and hope nothing bad happens.

With the map stabilizing, tactics are slightly updated and I finally get to escort a dragon carrying one of those big round purses. A little road trip babysitting the big lizard for a change, nice. I was getting tired of the road to HS.

Strangely enough, this time they actually contest our dragon? Even though it’s deep inside our territory! Not very polite.

While the dragon is being contested it drops bags everywhere. Good luck picking those up in the middle of this chaos. I can barely see my mouse pointer, let alone click on a bag instead of an enemy march. Still, the first click capture mechanic makes it work. Imagine if attacks reset bag pickups the same way they reset recalls.😂We would spend the entire match just trying to collect one bag.

Eventually we escort the dragon safely home, even under pressure. Fighting inside a moving ring around the dragon is actually pretty fun.

What’s funny is that almost nobody seems interested in picking up the big chests scattered around the map. But I understand why. Even though they give alliance wide rewards, the rewards themselves are mediocre, at best. Everyone correctly prioritizes the mechanics that actually win the match. Those chests are basically last priority, if we can even call them a priority.

As we approach the mid game, it becomes clear that dragons are the biggest point contributors. Map control still matters for the points-per-minute and teleport options, but dragons remain the major points of interest. It’s a balance between the setup that enables the followup.

Of course, moving dragons isn’t always smooth. Sometimes they cooperate. Sometimes… they chose to be... stubborn.

https://youtu.be/-e1QJ3oGE9M

Despite that, we maintain the points advantage. Entering the second half of the match we’re also controlling the map quite well. We even manage to secure Hot Springs, something my team struggled with earlier. With HS under control, we’re free to roam and assist other objectives.

A special shoutout to minute 34 when my headphones die. They’re old, so the low battery warning comes shortly before they quietly shut off. RIP strategy. YOLO time! I recall to get three full marches and just run around having some fun. By now we have a huge lead, so nothing bad can happen if I go AWOL, right? Shh, don't tell N0X leadership about this!

Unfortunately, my fun doesn’t last long. I chase useless boxes and try to fend off invaders, but I barely make a difference. Five of our marches can’t even defeat three enemy marches trying to take one of our Outposts.

Still, the match is already solidly in our favor. TIS does manage to pull off a dragon flip, which briefly raises some eyebrows. For a moment it looks like they might use it to swing momentum back their way. But the isolated incident isn’t enough. Our map control and repeated dragon escorts already built too big of a lead.

From there, the points continue to snowball in our favor. And just before the end, we even escort two dragons home at the same time to celebrate the victory.

The match ends with a decisive win for N0X in our first SoW game of Season 17. Let’s just hope the rest of the season goes this smoothly. Preferably with my headphones still working.

And before our next SoW encounter, it’s time to finish off a few King’s Assembly quests. See you soon!