Betrayed?

Having conquered territory through the construction of villages, Ages managed to bring a Military City under its control; the other remained in the hands of the Scarlet faction, but the following day it was wrested from them when Vangark’s faction conquered it, with the help of the Naranjos (Lordsbane) and also Judgement, the faction leading this war. Shadow, where RoD is based, pressed ahead with the construction of villages and declared a siege on the two Military Cities 1 and 2, as well as Industrial City 6, which lay within reach of its territories. The call to arms was immediate; preparations for the rallies began. From Military City 1, they would head to Industrial City—which lay between these two strongholds—and then move on to Military City 2, which was further to the west and therefore more distant.

As before, Vangark deployed three armies: he kept the main army under his control, as well as the one he would use for healing, whilst he sent the second army of spearmen to a rally, as it was easier for him to maintain control over two of them. The reason he did not send two of his deployments to the rallies was that, so far, it had worked in his favour to choose whom to attack – mainly stragglers and enemy healers – which had kept him within the top twenty of the elimination rankings. The rallies were ready, waiting for the siege to begin; the orange-clad forces were also nearby, ready to join the battle.

The leadership knew that Industrial City was of little interest to the enemy, whereas Military City 2 was; this would allow them to deploy more troops southwards in this instance and better counter Ages’ advance. In any case, they moved towards that location. The first few minutes were spent waiting; the enemy was not moving, and their rallies remained at the base. One of the lookouts spotted a Shadow rally approaching; it managed to breach one of the gates – the northern one – and withdrew, only to return later and breach the western gate. It then entered to fight alone. The tactic was clear: to try to wear down the defences, forcing them to retreat and reorganise. There were four attacks of this kind.

Vangark attacked and mainly healed; once his resources ran out, he had to go to Military City 1 to resupply. When he saw that his main army had been depleted, he redeployed it, as the next battle was due to begin in a matter of minutes. He withdrew his army and redeployed it, sending it directly towards where his faction was concentrated. At first he didn’t realise it, but when he reached the position he noticed that his troops had been attacked; he healed them, then looked at the report – it had been an army from Judgement. He found it strange, but didn’t want to say anything; perhaps it was an isolated incident.

There were only a few minutes left of the siege at Military Industrial, but the main battle was about to begin, and before Shadows’ forces could head there, almost the entire army advanced towards the fortress; only one rally remained behind to guard it. They didn’t have to wait long; the enemies once again breached the gates, but then withdrew, whilst in the distance their rallies advanced and paused to reorganise. The Orange faction were already inside providing support, and in the distance the Judgement faction could be seen, positioned slightly further south. The Reds were waiting outside, at a safe distance, when suddenly two factions entered: Judgement and Frost. For a moment, Vangark thought they would attack the Oranges, as they always did in battles, but this time they headed straight for them. This took them by surprise. ‘Attack!’ shouted one of their leaders, and they began to return fire. The Orange faction also found themselves caught up in the fray; Vangark’s army, which had been at the rally, was quickly wiped out, and his healing corps suffered the same fate. 

The Reds took advantage of this, entering through the north gate with their entire army; fortunately, Longreach and the Yellows arrived to lend their support in battle. It was now three factions against three, but they were not the strongest. They had no time to reorganise; the reinforcements were not arriving in full at the fortress, and Shadows managed to capture it in a matter of minutes.

That battle was a severe blow to Ages; for a moment, they thought that those who had helped them before had now decided to attack them to halt their advance on the control points and thus maintain their lead without constant pressure from the Purples. Vangark sensed that this was not the case; an alliance had formed between these three factions, something that was somewhat baffling to many, given who led both factions, but hypocrisy can emerge when victory is at stake. For now, they needed to reorganise; the defence of Military City 1 was due to begin in a few minutes’ time, and this was set to be the most crucial battle for staying in the running for the All Out War championship.

https://youtu.be/I-wfC0yBzp4