A lot has been happening lately—on one hand, a fierce battle against the Night King, and on the other, looting and discovering treasures. Every day brings something new. Warriors certainly aren’t getting bored because there’s no time for that.

On top of that, there’s one of the best events in the game: Alliance Conquest. This is already the 24th season, and I’m curious to see if there are any new features in store for us—and what they might be.

Alliance Conquest is a battle between two alliances and involves capturing key buildings, for which they earn points as long as they control them. Some buildings offer certain bonuses, while others simply grant more points. To ramp up the action even more, toward the end of the one-hour match, the battle for mines begins—these yield a huge number of points in a short amount of time. Sometimes this battle can completely change the outcome. On top of that, teamwork and quick reflexes are crucial, because you have to capture buildings in under a second, and any hesitation can be fatal. Why is this event so cool? Because with good rallies, you can beat stronger opponents—it shows how well alliances work together, and even a single player can make a big difference.

Our opponent today is NW1 (TheNIGHTWALKERS). We know them very well, and this battle will likely be one-sided. Our opponent has many players with a powerful army, and we’re a bit short on that front. Of course, we’ll fight and see if everything is well-prepared for the next challenges. So far, we’ve made it to the playoffs, so that’s ultimately our goal. We can afford two losses, but after that, we’ll have to step it up. We fight until the very last moment, so it’ll probably be the same this time 😊 NoS never gives up! And that fight often pays off for us, although I know from experience that in this event, the final battle is often the most important one. It would be nice to secure our advancement earlier, but we’ll see how it all plays out. The start certainly won’t be easy, and in this case, our opponent will likely come out on top—though who knows?

We’re starting the countdown and getting ready. On the list:

• Expanding the army
• Getting into battle formation
• Proper gear
• The best castle

I’ll probably be running around and trying to capture castles. I like it, and I’m good at it, too. I just need to put on some fast boots and capture castles and earn valuable points for my alliance.

We’re starting with a minimal disadvantage in terms of the number of warriors—86 vs. 89. That’s a good sign for future matches. Even though there are fewer of us, having 86 players is great.

Unfortunately, we got off to a rough start. Despite a good beginning, we didn’t manage to capture anything, even though it seemed to me that things were going well. Every millisecond counts here, and I know that firsthand—I hesitated for a moment and lost the race.

But then came a twist: after a moment, we managed to capture the warrior’s building because it was almost empty, and our opponent’s swap for the mother building completely backfired. On top of that, we noticed that the one of the NW1 warrior had forgotten its support in the third building, so we captured the third building very quickly.

A huge mistake by the opponent right from the start, and we’re taking full advantage of it. Although we lose a warrior due to a rally. I guess we upset someone 😊

Now it’s time for the ports. Another failed attempt on my part, but we each have one.

51 minutes to go

For now, we control most of the buildings and are chasing the opponent. We’re only 1,500 points behind.

The battle for Casterly Rock is about to begin.

My friend ckprezes, whom I compete against in races, captures a building. Thanks to that, we’re back on equal footing with them. Now just a swap, and we’ll start winning.

Oh no, what just happened here! The swap didn’t work out, and because of that mistake, we lose CR.

Meanwhile, rallies are heading for the port on the opponent’s side. We’re defending everything. Thornado on the king!

We take advantage of the chaos and capture the newly opened buildings.

We have a 1,500-point lead, but it’s not enough. This is a surprise, so the battle will go down to the wire—or at least I hope so! Or maybe everything will come down to the mines?

40 minutes to go

30,990 (NoS) vs. 30,550. We still have a slight lead, even though the opponent has more buildings. Now we have to try something different because we’re starting to fall behind. We have to hold this score for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going so well for us right now. We’ve lost our Mother castle, so we’re only controlling two ports. That’s not enough to win, and our opponent can heal more cheaply.

 Oh yeah! On the third try, we recapture CR. And another building. Now we’re down 4,000 points, but we should make that up quickly because the momentum is on our side.

It’s the 30th minute of the game, and the score is 44,270 (NoS) vs. 45,360 (NW1). A slight deficit, but we can still make it up.

The solo matches are starting. The score is now skewed, so for a moment it won’t be clear who’s really in the lead.

It looks like we have a big lead, but that’s not the case. The opponent still has some points left to capture in our castles, and we’ll only know the situation in a moment.

So now everything will come down to the battle for the mines. We’ll get the action started in 1 minute.

At first, we capture both mines, but due to some mistake, we’re unable to secure one of them. We lose the other one very quickly because we had to sacrifice something. That second one was actually my conquest, and I regretfully had to hand that building over to the opponent, who now controls both mines—which means we’ve lost for now.

We try solo attacks but fail, and our only hope is a very quick rally. The commanders make a quick decision, the warriors reinforce the army, and we carry out a lightning-fast attack that ends in success. We reclaim one of the mines. We still have a slight lead in points, so the battle will go on until the end—unless something else happens at the mines again.

14 minutes to go

69,220 (NoS) vs. 68,220 (NW1)

After a very strong defense, the opponent captures this valuable building, even though there were only—or as many as—900 points left there. Will this affect the final result? The mines are gone, and we’re back to fighting over the remaining buildings. The current score is 76,600 (NoS) vs. 76,160 with 8 minutes left

We’re losing the port, but we still hold the lead. With 5 minutes left in the game, our lead is minimal. The opponent sets up a rally and aims to wipe us off this map.

 The most crucial defense that determines the outcome. Once again, Thornado put on a stellar defensive display, allowing us to hold the port until the very end of the game.

Summary

Probably no one expected this—and certainly not me. We started with a slight disadvantage in player count, and at the beginning, we failed to capture a single building. Everything pointed to this match being one to forget. We bounced back just seconds after losing that first building. After that, it was neck and neck, even though for most of the game we were chasing the opponent. The turning point came before the mines, as we managed to gain a slight advantage—which we then lost at those very mines. Ultimately, we relied on lightning-fast attacks or on wearing down our opponent, as that’s what ultimately decided our victory in the end. Congratulations to our army and to our opponent for their performance. I’d like to say we need more battles like this, but after this one, a break would be nice—though I know there won’t be one.