CCS - Planned Losses & Perfect Gains

So it’s Sunday and CCS is on the menu . I’m very close to my 3rd Red War badge and since the game refuses to give me F5 Commander Chests in Day of Trade and keeps throwing Ancient Dust at me… I’ll take that as a sign: time to upgrade badges before commanders.😅

I actually prepared ahead for this one since it could have overlapped with Phase 6 in LoL and I wasn’t about to risk my Sabrina medals. Luckily, once the schedule dropped, our kingdom landed safely after LoL, so my Sabrina farming is safe.

Going into this CCS I’m sitting at around 2B power, as my in game name suggests. Even though I moved away from the N0X main kingdom and invasion risk is basically zero in my new home, being troop fat is never ideal. Troops should be working, not eating grain for free, and events like GB or CCS are the perfect place to put troops to work.

I don’t have a strict diet target, but dropping into the 1.6B - 1.8B range sounds about right.

Several matches are already done and I recognize a few names, including the N0X alliance. Seeing Bel as champion is a nice touch, looks like they had a good matchup. I hope I have a good one too.🙂

For our game, we’re negotiating with NBe to join their alliance. Talks are slow, which makes me a bit worried, especially since I don’t see "my" spear rally lead on the map yet. So I hold deployment. No point risking a bad position and missing rally reinforcements like in some past CCS games.

I must have missed the last CCS, because my Altar is full of energy and empty of troops… which is about to change very soon. Negotiations are still dragging and the silence is getting uncomfortable. If NBe doesn’t have space, we’ll need a backup fast.

But eventually things work out for us. A few strings were pulled and approvals go through. It really is about who you know sometimes.😜

My lead joins, I port close, and we’re off to the races! My worries instantly drop. Time to put those Spears to work!

When center opens, ToK takes it. I reinforce immediately and within a couple of hits, probably under 2 minutes, I already have my Battle Tokens secured.

I even climb to the top in Eliminations and Battle Tokens and people start asking how. It's rather simple.😂 Instead of sending low tier troops like most, I’m going full T4 with a 50% Army Size buff. That’s around 1.4M troops per reinforcement.

#"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all outta gum".

Wave after wave crashes into us like the tide against a rocky mountain cliff.

Until Dra shows up and it's GGs for us.😱And that’s a hard pill to swallow. Top Inf account vs top Spear account… kind of obvious how that plays out... and I’m out.

Seeing how well it worked before, I send back in. This time I get kicked much faster, again by Dra. Big surprise!😭

ToK disbands and we rotate leadership. New lead, new troop type. This time Cav.

Maybe it’s meant to counter Dra? Maybe not? I don’t have many Cavs to spare so I’m cautious. It doesn’t matter much anyway, center fills up fast without me.

When I finally decide to reinforce, I get kicked on the first hit. Not exactly the return of investment I was hoping for, but that’s CCS for you.

Heals are starting to add up. After two full Spear wipes, I’m out of resources for the Cav heals. Still, I’ve already secured what I came for: 60 Battle Tokens, plus a decent amount of Battle and, now... Bravery tokens too. Time to take a step back and decide how I want to play out the rest of the match.

ToK is back in and after a big hit, I send my Spears again. Reinforcements looked thin and I didn’t want NBe to lose center.

This starts to feel like a poker table. Chips thrown on the table, the stakes are rising.

This time it pays off. We tank well, tokens keep coming, and I contribute to NBe's dominance on center.

Until Dra shows up again. And back out I go, again.😀

At this point I even consider recalling before his rallies land to save troops, but that would be selfish on my part.

I came here to burn troops and support the run, so I stick it out.

Around halftime the match is clearly decided. Rankings look pretty well set, and chat starts calling for players who still need their 60 diamonds to be allowed in. So I step back and give others room to fight.

From the sidelines I watch a few more good rallies, but nothing game changing.

https://youtu.be/UzozbkJ5BT4

ToK holds comfortably and the match pace becomes predictable between Dra rallies and NBe reinforcements.😏

Nothing major happens for the rest of the game and ToK ends with a dominant lead.

It’s actually funny. Second place only needed about 3 minutes of occupation time to rank.

When the rewards message comes in... I overshot my goal massively, close to 10x the required eliminations.

But I came here to lose fat, and I can definitely say: fat has been lost today.

After the game ends, I check my power and it's right where I expected. Between 1.6B and 1.8B.

With hospitals and altar full to the rim, once I heal over the next days, I’ll probably settle just above 1.7B, exactly where I said I'd be.

Not a bad outcome at all. I started the day worrying about LoL overlap, then about not getting accepted in NBe, then about having no real fight and missing out on tokens. In the end, it all worked out. It was a smooth run, with nice and controller troops burns and I walked out with solid rewards. Exactly what I needed from this CCS!

Now AC is around the corner and it's time to prepare. N0X has been strong in AC lately, consistently pushing into UC qualifications, so expectations are high. Let’s see what this new AC season brings.