Tempest's Revenge

Our first real fight exposed quite a few issues we would have to overcome if we were to get our revenge. Participation, strategy were some of our biggest areas for improvement. We may try to avoid the whales of Westeros, but sometimes they are unavoidable. If we can find a way where our strongest could chip away at the whales… It’s not exactly fair to our strongest to face this pressure. Most of us build troops to die in this event but at some point the healing becomes expensive in both resources and speedups. Having our whales land on their whales means they will spend even more. Even if our strongest would be willing, we would need everyone else too. Throwing fighting troops, throwing dummy marches we needed all hands on deck. Longreach had amazing participation, win or lose it didn't matter. Their folks would be there. 

We had tried our luck on the Shadow side, but FUK and their homies were even more whaley than Longreach.

Longreach was our focus. I was preparing for the upcoming fight where we would once again try and take the fortress we had failed to get twice now. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different result, we were certifiable. 

The battle had begun and I began the long march to the Fortress. Plenty of time to wonder and worry lol. Will I get a whale? Will I get a streak? It was Schrodinger's Fortress until I arrived, anything was possible. Even still I braced myself for a whale, the Old Gods do not favor me and my shenanigans lol. I had made it to the fortress but I still had to wait. We were reinforcing nicely. I wouldn't say we were near full participation, just those of us more active had hit some kind of proverbial groove. Balancing fighting troops, with dummy troops. Keeping enough in the fortress to keep it moving in towards our victory. I was watching the fight, wondering when I would get my shot. It's funny watching these battles, I can't be the only one who watches like, “I could have killed them”, or “Oh no, I would have died”. Lol

Before I knew it, I was moving up the list. I still couldn't tell who I would face but the nervous anticipation of the unknown was growing inside of me. We had been doing well getting rid of their built up defense troops but still had a long way to go. They had so much blubber on their side. It would definitely not be as simple as “just beat them this time” lol. Finally it was my turn.

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I did well building up a nice streak for my first run. Sure some of them were dummy troops, 10 t1 sent to deplete my resilience. I had poured over the reports waiting for my next march to arrive at the fortress. After that fight I had grown more confident. Praying for another streak, but instead I got a whale… 

It was here I decided to look at my own resources… Vegeta had wanted us to rob the bank for what we would need before GB even started. I had grabbed 2 billion of everything, figuring that plus the billions in my backpack would be more than enough… Plot twist, it was not enough and I was almost empty lol….. “Vegetaaaaaaa, what had happened was”… I tried to plead my case to my game husband. He just shook his head with a look of I told ya so and told me to get it from the bank…. Can yall believe that bs? My own game husband… The nerve

I probably hit more whales than streaks in the fight. Yet I couldn't just give up. Don’t get me wrong, I am human and wanted too. Our mini whales were doing their part in showing up again and again. They can’t do this alone. As frustrating as inevitable death is, we were getting close to capping the fortress. If we stopped now, all this hard work was for nothing. We just had to hold out a little bit longer. Then I could refill my resources. I had hoped I could last

Longreach was coming slower now. Their whales were still coming for the kills, but less dummy troops were appearing. They seemed to have accepted losing the fortress, though I am pretty sure their plan included taking it back later. We kept pushing. I would say we had somewhere between 30 and 50 players active in our faction for this fight. Our little ones noped TF out early. They don’t understand the art of 10K T1s. They would send full marches and die easily. They probably couldn’t even differentiate hitting a strong account versus a whale. We were all whales to them. Still the more experienced folks kept pushing. Our effort was paying off and we capped the fortress.

Our victory should have energized our faction, we had set a target and overcome a lot to get it. We had some of the best participation I had seen in this event. Yet I couldn’t just be happy with the win. You can unsee what you have seen. We had a battle at the time of our choosing and couldn’t even get a whole alliance worth of participation despite quite a few alliances making the faction. I knew this would be our death. We couldn't push towards Shadow. They had the highest participation and the most whales. All Longreach had to do was keep pushing us till we completely collapsed. Two big fights ensued and some players had already lost all the troops. Our whales had to be frustrated. They were burning through more than anyone carrying the pressure of the faction on their backs. I planned on just having fun and joining the fights I could. Ironic that our first big victory sealed our ultimate defeat. We won the battle but lost the war… The funniest part was catching my game husband refreshing his own resources. Now he had filled up way more than I did before GB, and had the nerve to judge me when I ran out lol.