Super Mine Wars: Team Play and my Very Short Mining Career

Ever since the Red Mine was updated with Troop Appearance Tokens and the Fatigue debuff, combined with the upgrades to my lineup, this event has finally started to appear on my radar. Add my stronger buddy on this Kingdom to the equation and you have the recipe for some fun.

The rewards were never that great, but few events have amazing rewards and most of those are usually out of my reach anyway. So I'm not exactly entering the Red Mine expecting to become a millionaire. I'm here for the breadcrumbs.

Initially, the Super Mine caught my attention because Arya's weapon, Needle, was available there. I kind of want it for my second lineup, the Hybrid Spear Weakness/Female build I use for things like UT and the Bounty Tower. As you can imagine, this isn't anywhere near the top of my priority list, but whenever the Red Mine is open, I like to have a whack at it and see if I can sneak into the top 10 for some extra rewards.

The event starts at reset, which is a problem because I'm usually not online at that time. My buddy, however, usually is. So when I log into the game the next day, I'm already greeted by a message from him saying we're not going to have an easy time this run.

The person currently mining isn't super strong and already has some Fatigue, so I start wondering if I can actually take a shot. Hotep clears the way for me, though. Since he already had reports on this account, there was no real reason for me to hesitate.

I'm only able to mine for a single second before I'm kicked out. How rude!😡

Okay, no worries. I'm not scared of your Rebel Gear.😂Not to mention the Fatigue on top of it. So I put on my war pants, line up a proper PvP preset and press the attack button.

Except... I get into an empty mine?

Either they recalled, or Hotep kicked them again. Either way, I'm now sitting inside the Red Mine in full PvP setup, minus the Army Size buff, and I'm ready to tank whatever comes my way.

Until something decides to come my way. And spoiler alert, it wasn't the account I was so confident I could defend against.

Oh no... It seems we're not the only ones playing in teams.

A few seconds after I lock the mine, a Jaquen account shows up and absolutely wrecks me.

This is just sad. There is absolutely no way I could have defended against that, even with the Army Size buff. And to make matters worse, it's my counter too. I lose a few troops in the process and I'm not exactly thrilled about donating them to the Red Mine economy.

But no worries. Two can play at that game. I call for my own backup, who, guess what, it's Cavalry and counters those pesky Infantry.

And the counter attack hits immediately with swift vengeance...

And... erm... wait? This was not the kind of report I was expecting. Not at all!

A few hits later, though, vengeance is finally mine.

At this point I'm not entirely sure it was worth it, but for our pride? It absolutely was!

I'm still pretty sure we won't be able to defend this mine for long, especially not with me sitting here, so I decide it's probably time to call it quits. I barely managed to mine for a minute, but with this level of competition, I guess that's all I'm getting.

The good thing is that everyone else is going to have a miserable time too. If the stronger accounts keep fighting over the mine, even a handful of seconds could be enough to sneak into the top 10.

And at this point, that's the dream!

Before the night is even over, there is a lot more fighting happening inside the Super Mine. I'm tempted to jump back in, but after my little introduction to Red Mine PvP, I'd rather play it safe this round.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who had an interesting time.

Hotep's own Red Mine adventure turned into a much longer campaign. He initially found Windstar occupying the mine, with another player, Novian, also competing for position. Hotep tested the waters, realized Windstar was too strong at that point, and decided to wait for a better opportunity. And when Windstar becane fully debuffed, Hotep came back and successfully kicked him out.

But as for my own adventure in the super mine... it's clear that I'm still not strong enough to participate seriously.

It's basically a controlled, small scale PvP battlefield with some possibility of a small reward attached to it. The Fatigue mechanic is great, it means you can eventually become vulnerable, let's not forget how much counter matter, the split of troop tiers matter, auto reinforcements matter... and, perhaps most importantly, having friends online matters the most 😂😅

You can be stronger than the person currently inside and still lose the mine because somebody else is waiting for the right moment.

You can be weaker and still get a few seconds by taking advantage of a fight between stronger players.

All these things I've sort of neglected so far kind of make the super mine interesting and worth exploring more in the future.

By the time I close the game, I don't even expect to get any meaningful rewards. My red mine career lasted approximately one minute, featured multiple attacks, a counterattack, a revenge attack and more hospital bills than I had planned for.

But the next day, Melisandre is waiting for me with some good news.

And then she immediately ruins it, because it's not Aria's weapon this time, it's Raymond's😒

And that's about 99% useless to me unless I 4* it for the extra 5k Army Size, which is probably not happening anytime soon, or ever.

Still, the important part isn't really the reward. This was good practice.

I've been slowly upgrading my account with the goal of becoming more competitive in different parts of the game, and the red mine gives me another controlled environment to test that progress. I don't have to throw my account into a hard open world PvP fights or risk getting zeroed by some enormous account. I can pick my moments, look at reports, understand what I'm fighting and decide when the risk is no longer worth the reward.

And after today's experience, I think I've finally got the taste for it. Next time the red mine opens, I won't just be going there to mine. I'll be going there to fight!