no change in strategy

They were back on the same schedule again; they would play in the third match for Arena of Honor. They had changed it from the previous round after realizing that the gods were pairing them with giants they couldn’t beat. Vangark was available, and although they didn’t win the previous match, they at least managed to take second place. That meant they could keep earning points to aim for a spot in the Glory Rankings.

The team remained the same, and when they logged in, they were assigned to House Lannister—the house they were tasked with defending this time around. Their enemies, the Starks and the Targaryens, were immediately checked to assess their warriors. The Northerners seemed to be the strongest; in fact, among them was an old acquaintance of his, Cruiser, a member of KGU—a cavalry warrior, but with better stats and weapons. He’d give it a try anyway.

They divided up the strongholds and waited a few seconds to see what their opponents would build; they wanted to observe their opponents’ moves. Both sides chose to build Trading Posts, so they decided to set up cavalry camps, since the towers and catapults were being defended by infantry.

Once they had built it, they captured the Altar of the Stranger—at least three of them—so that their attacks from their House toward the other buildings would be more continuous. They repeated the same sequence with the Altar of the Warrior once it was unlocked. After capturing the towers, they moved into second place, behind the Targaryens, who appeared to be the weakest of the three factions. They were confident they could at least secure second place—at least, that’s what he thought, too. But even though they later captured the catapults, they were in third place, since all the buildings surrounding Glory City—which had allowed them to rack up a large number of points per minute—were now in the hands of House Baratheon. When he tried to defend an altar, he ran into Cruise and lost spectacularly; he realized he couldn’t beat him in a rally—his friend was quite strong.

Then Vangark dealt with the Targaryen attacks; they, too, understood that the Targaryens were their direct enemies and tried to capture the Lannister altars by spamming to distract them while the Altars of the Maiden were being reinforced. In some cases, he could drive them off on his own; in others, they had to rally. Although the Targaryens were at a disadvantage in terms of warriors with better stats, they moved well and took advantage of any lapse by their two opponents.

Glory City was held by the Starks; Cruiser was on the defensive. This time, they decided to attack without Baelish, taking advantage of the fact that Euron gave them better stats, but the result was worse than expected. The idea of attempting another attack was immediately abandoned; they had to fight for second place.

They attacked the Dragon Pits; for a moment, they managed to capture all three, but then both houses launched sustained attacks against them, and they were only able to hold onto one effectively.

For a moment, there was a discussion about whether it was necessary to rebuild the camps into Trading Posts to generate more points, given that the gap with second place was significant. Most opted to keep them, since there was also the possibility of capturing House Baratheon—the very house that had seized the towers and catapults. Their opponents, on the other hand, would not have that opportunity, since holding the Trading Post does not grant them additional army size or attack stats.

Before reaching the mine shafts, there was a twelve-thousand-point gap between them and the Targaryens; it was then that they managed to capture House Baratheon. Vangark, ever vigilant, asked his companions to drain the mine there—they could quickly gain eight thousand points that way. His comrades heeded the call and went after it, sending troops—not many, since they would now be fighting over the mine shafts. They needed to secure at least four of them; that would net them another 8,000 points. He had indicated just seconds earlier where he was heading, but only one reinforcement arrived. At least he was able to withstand a couple of hits. He hoped they wouldn’t attack him during the rally, or they would lose those points. He sent the rest of the troops to support his other teammates, who had also captured some mines. With those points, they overtook the Targaryens in practically the final fifteen minutes. Holding onto the cavalry camps allowed them to take House Baratheon—and with it, that faction’s mine—which practically evened the score with their opponents. The outcome was ultimately decided by the points earned in the mine shafts. Although they’ve finished in second place twice in a row and have faced opponents stronger than themselves, at least they can take satisfaction in the fact that they put up a good fight and didn’t finish last.

no change in strategy