Two kingdoms got their first extensive test of their new rosters when Mercy clashed with Bring It On (BIO). Both kingdoms had just spent time this age swapping out players and configuring a new leadership when war broke loose, lasting an astonishing 326 hours.
Mercy declared war on April 10th of year 7, sending a sapphire dragon and launching their first wave. Knowing that BIO did not like to withdraw, Mercy enacted a long term war plan intending to fight BIO's Avian economy with their superior Human economy. The goal seemed fairly simple. They would attempt to out-dragon BIO, slow down and stop the incoming ops, and drag the war out until their enemy simply could not afford to carry on. This was not so easy, though.
BIO immediately kicked the war off with some Nightmares to prep enemy targets before chaining them down. By the end of the first wave, BIO had taken the initial lead, semi-chaining 4 targets while deep chaining a 4th. Mercy on the other hand had only hit two targets down, deep chaining both. This continued into wave two, where Mercy again focused all hits on two provinces, while BIO continued hitting provinces they had semi-chained their previous wave and adding a handful of hits on some new targets.
By minimum time BIO had a lead of nearly 6.4k acres and killed their first sapphire sent by Mercy, whom shortly sent a second sapphire to replace their dead companion. The Networth gap between the kingdoms continued to increase in BIO's favor, but this did not sway Mercy from their intended long term war. BIO had noticed Mercy took a change to their strat, noting the use of +4 hours on hits, and the appearance of max gains. This was presumed to be Mercy's attempt to reclaim acres prior to a withdrawal, and was countered with BIO's decision to max gain also. It was not Mercy's intention to withdrawal, however.
As time continued on, the networth gap managed to reach the point that both kingdoms were out of Dragon range. Mercy intended to use this to the best advantage they could get, as BIO's specs were running thin from killing the previous dragons exchanged. BIO knew they had 2 dragons to kill before they would be free, so they began feeding their soldiers to the faeries and had their faeries tree of gold to train. This was a moment Mercy had been waiting for.
To capitalize on the economic war, Mercy used the time without ops to regain as many peasants as they could, and used their Human economy to tree of gold and retrain their offense. They also assassinated as many enemy wizards as they possibly could. The tides of war had started to shift, and Mercy was finally starting to crawl their way back up.
BIO was still working to get comfortable with their new group of players, and around this time in war a couple more players were asked to step into council and help lead the war front, as the existing leadership found their time dwindling. Still, their plan to counter their enemy's new found strength seemed simple; conquer the networth divide and keep the size advantage. Unfortunately, their offense was dwindling, and this did not seem to be as plausible as they had hoped for. To make matters worse, BIO ran into a problematic player whom was afraid of losing acres and therefore withheld his armies, totaling a whopping 18 uniques in a war that raged on for two years. This player has since decided to part ways, defecting from BIO.
Mercy had also trained up offense on their faeries, as BIO's offense diminished and began using their faeries to assist with attacks. Using their newly retrained offensive power, they also began to bounce wave one of BIO's faeries, enabling them to get in some clean breaks, and taking him down.
BIO was impressed with their opponents efforts, as Mercy was closing the networth gap, and reclaimed a sizable amount of their lost acres. Applauding their efforts and simultaneously accepting their mistakes, BIO decided to conclude the extensive battle, and withdrew.
On the day of their withdrawal, Baka was involved in a car accident, that left him with a serious concussion for which surgery was required. I would like to report that he is recovering, is back home and out of the hospital, and appears to be well on his way to healthy.
Edge of BIO comments:
"I would like to personally thank Mercy for the war and loss of sleep during our 2 week marathon. I look forward to future opportunities to cross paths again when both kingdoms have formally Gel'd with their new additions."
Procy of Mercy comments:
"Wizard Pie
2c flour
1 egg
1/2c milk
1/4c sugar
teaspoon of vanilla
Mix ingredients well and then roll out onto pie pan
Filling:
10 raw wpa, extracted graciously from fresh faery wizard corpses
1c brown sugar
1/4c milk
1/2c dark corn syrup
1 dash delicious tears
Mix ingredients well and spread evenly in pie pan, placing a layer of dough over top.
Top graciously with land bonus and enjoy!"
Mercy's Council comments:
"We are Mercy and we Approve of this comment. We also wish to donate one of Procy's pies to Baka to wish him a speedy recovery."
