Arena of Honor | S6 | Round 2 | Lannister vs Stark vs Targaryen

It wouldn’t be long before the long-awaited start of Siege of Winterfell. This season, WxD’s goal was to reach the playoffs, which they had narrowly missed in the previous one, but before thinking about that, a new battle was on the horizon for the members of Westeros, one that was also of crucial importance thanks to the stat buffs it granted to the best fighters.

They would fight in Arena of Honor

In today’s match, which Vlodek who piloted Mak 1 account and his teammates would fight under the banner of House Targaryen, they were joined on the battlefield by members from various top-tier alliances, such as SiaMi from BDR and Nominor from RoD.

“We have a competitive team; it’s a pleasure to fight alongside you,” Vlodek began once they were lined up on the battlefield alongside those who would be their teammates for the next 60 minutes.

But fate was anything but kind to them…

Stark: Led by the formidable GodSon and BCNero, was a truly formidable opponent that would certainly do its utmost to stand in the way of its rivals.

Lannister: Without a doubt, they were the favorites to take control of Glory City. Led byBiet, a recent rival of RedMine who had made life difficult for Vlodek, and by Sarduka, they formed a formidable team.

“It’ll be anything but easy; with Biet on one side and GodSon on the other, it’ll be a real challenge to gain control of the most coveted strongholds,” said SiaMi, intimidated, as she knew her rivals’ potential.

“Our strategy will be to aim to capture the two adjacent castles in order to increase our score per minute and give us a chance to fight for the top positions.” This was the strategy Vlodek suggested, and his teammates agreed.

The battle was just moments away from beginning; in the meantime, a light rain was falling on them, lowering the already frigid temperature on the battlefield even further. The banners of the three houses fluttered in the icy wind. The only sounds to be heard came from the crows cawing overhead as the warriors made their final preparations; they were ready to battle for sixty minutes to secure victory and climb the individual leaderboards.

As the sixty-minute timer began to run, the house led by Vlodek and SiaMi swiftly set out to capture the first positions, where they decided to build Inf Camps to besiege the adjacent Baratheon house in no time at all.

As soon as the first Lannister assault was launched against the Tyrell, thanks to the rapid construction of the positions, it was a success, and the group immediately managed to gain control of the second house, which would guarantee them a significant boost in points per minute. But the good news didn’t end there!

Next, the Targaryen castle also fell under their control! The Stark’ attempt to capture it was perfectly thwarted by Vlodek and his companions, who watched their Inf besiege the rival Spears within the walls and manage to repel them with great ease. The Targaryen’ decision to build cav-Camps paid off, putting them in possession of three houses just minutes into the battle!

“A dream start, now let’s focus on building Trading Posts in the outposts adjacent to them,” SiaMi told his companions, urging them to deploy all their troops for this purpose.  

Meanwhile, Vlodek launched an assault to capture the first altar for his group, where he encountered Casti1’s troops. The clash between the two, both equipped with Spear-Weakness synergies and troops, saw the Targaryen member prevail, however, as he managed to drive his rival away from it.

“Well done,” said his companions.

SiaMi also contributed to the cause, but made a wiser choice than his teammates. While the former attacked an altar that would have sped up his house’s assaults, the latter set out to conquer Maiden Altair, which would have significantly increased the points per minute generated by the Trading Posts under construction,albeit very slowly. The clash between Black Bear and Biet of the Lannister house saw them prevail with great ease thanks to the majority of troops defending the capture.

After the opening moments, the match seemed to be going smoothly for them. The initial capture by the two houses gave their score a boost, but the construction of the Trading Posts was unexpectedly anything but rapid, leaving them in second place behind Lannister, who was demonstrating top-tier teamwork.

As the first half drew to a close, the Lannister house began targeting the Targaryen altars so as not to fall too far behind in the score before the opening of the most important buildings.  

Vlodek immediately set out to defend his conquests, where he found himself clashing with Biet’s troops, and… the WxD member’s defense of the altar failed! His rival’s top-tier Inf-Bleeding formation,already familiar to Vlodek, perfectly countered his Spear-Weakness, managing to repel him but suffering heavy losses in the process.

Knowing that the rival was severely weakened, as soon as the troops returned, Vlodek launched a second attack against them, and this time the offensive was a success for him thanks to his numerical superiority.

“Send me reinforcements quickly,” said the targaryen member to his comrades, expecting a reaction from his rivals for the conquest of Maiden Altair, which was not long in coming, and… The blow was landed by Taube and his Weakness-Spear formation, but it was not enough to break Vlodek’s troops!

Subsequent attempts by the Stark also came, but none of them were effective, and at the end of the two-minute conquest period, Maiden Altair was conquered by the Lannister.  

“Excellent work,” said SiaMi, who understood just how important capturing this last one was for their faction.

“The dragon pits are coming up soon; we should try to capture them so we can reach the entrance to Glory City with as many stat buffs as possible,” said Vlodek, urging his allies to stay focused for the next few minutes. 

As soon as the outpost became available, Vlodek rushed to capture it without wasting a moment, where he immediately clashed with a top-tier rival, and…

Vlodek’s troops prevailed! His rival was IvYYY, who failed to achieve a successful outcome from the attack due to being outnumbered.

The support arriving from his allies discouraged the rivals from launching further offensive actions, and this gave the Stark an easy conquest of one of the three available dragon pits!

Just moments after Glory City opened, the match still saw the Lannister in the lead, followed by the Targaryen, with the Stark in third place. Although the faction in first place wasn’t exactly in the thick of the match’s battles, the high concentration of their troops at crucial objectives, such as the trading posts and maiden altars scattered across the battlefield, was giving them a significant boost in points.  

When the City of Glory became available, the first to successfully besiege its walls and conquer it was… Vlodek!

This time, the Targaryen member was properly supported by his allies and found himself defending the walls against the relentless incoming assaults, which were repelled thanks to the numerical superiority of his troops, but…

When, after a few minutes, the assault organized by Biet arrived and struck Vlodek’s defenses, they collapsed! The rival’s Weakness-Spear formation proved superior, successfully securing the city’s conquest.

“I’ll try to launch a rally,” said Siami, calling on her ally to replace her in defending the previously conquered Tyrell house. When the fighter’s rally set out to besiege the city, it managed to prevail over the defender, who had in the meantime also been weakened by attacks launched by the Starks against him.

The capture of the city, however, was only temporary, for when Biet struck back... The attack saw him emerge victorious once again! Although countered by the WxD fighter’s Bleeding-Inf formation, the attacker prevailed thanks to his incredible strength.  

Just seconds before the Lannister finally captured the City of Glory, an attempt was made from SiaMi to thwart them, but once again the rival troops prevailed, this time thanks in part to their numerical superiority.

“I think we should focus on other objectives, like the mines,” said Vlodek, acknowledging the superiority of the rivals who managed to secure the objective and earn the points it guaranteed, but despite that… 

Overall, the Lannister were well ahead of second place despite having managed to capture the city, a completely unexpected development.

“The Starks are putting up a remarkable fight, and their strategy of focusing all their efforts on building trading posts in the outposts adjacent to the two conquered castles is paying off,” said SiaMi, who then added, “With a major push to capture the mines, we could still aim for first place.” The final word had not yet been spoken for them, they were not willing to settle for second place! 

When the mines opened, Vlodek, SiaMI, and CTbarbarian were the first to capture three of the eight available on the battlefield. With the Lannister rivals now focused solely on defending the walls of the City of Glory, however, this cleared the way for Stark to capture more mines than the Targaryen, which ultimately widened the gap between first and second place, with Vlodek and SiaMi stuck in place, unable to attack their rivals’ mines.

“We did everything in our power; we couldn’t have predicted that our rivals wouldn’t go to counter the rival mines,” said Vlodek regretfully as he waited for the match to end, which came shortly thereafter.  

As was widely expected, it was Lannister who secured the match victory thanks to excellent teamwork and tremendous effort from all ten of its members.

The same cannot be said for House Tagaryen, which, despite capturing two castles, had to settle for finishing behind its rivals because it was unable to complete the construction of trading posts at all available objectives.

“A bittersweet second place,” said Vlodek, who knew that with more effort, their group could have achieved more. Once again, it was clear that teamwork was far more important than the individual strength of the members in achieving ultimate victory.

“At least we captured two extra castles; that alone has already secured a higher score at the end of the match for our personal rankings,” said SiaMi during the return to home with his group, seeing the glass as half full.

Another day of battles thus came to a more than satisfying end for the members of WxD.

What will their next adventure be? We’ll find out together, soon!