AGE 88 - Yr0 Stories - FIRST BLOOD - EVO vs GHOSTS

As we stood on the dawning of a new age, two kingdoms immediately declared their intentions for war. As I awoke the horns of war blared in my ears, so sensitive to vibration already I jumped to my paws nearly two feet in the air. I rushed to the castle walls and howled for entry in the keep, as I rushed to the Queens side the armies were already marshalled and ready for war. Upon entering the throne room I transformed back to my human form and knelt before the Queen before taking the side of my fellow sorcerers and mages. The Queen gave a triumphant speech and rallied us in a way that almost felt like victory was assured. Our plan to out maneuver the enemy was already under way as the armies exited the great hall they rushed to the battlefield. With the combined energies the remainder of the magic users linked arms and together, the candles in the hall were snuffed out, wind rushed in all the open portholes as the pressure in the hall suddenly changed as if an unseen force was drawing everything to it. A magical purple orb formed as we continued to chant it bathed the remaining armies and began to raise in the air above our heads. Everyone was cloaked in its glow and for a moment all senses paused, time froze for all but the spellcasters and the orb plunged into the patterned stone floor as a wave of purple energy expanded to all corners of the room and upon reaching the walls it turned back in on itself and as the it retreated to the center of the hall the armies began to vanish one by one. The energy culminated back in the center of us before a blinding light filled the room and in an instant we were all in the battle field preparing for war. I transformed back to my more comfortable form and began to scout ahead for our enemy.

GHOSTS OF GLORY

1) What was your plan to open the war?
I just wanted us to war ASAP coming OOP. Last age we had hit for acres and sat at #1 for 1-2 weeks and growing wasn't out goal so had to sit around and wait. Literally, we ate waves just so we could get pushed down and have more warring options as we wanted to war. For this war, and where I definitely made an error was I wanted to focus on highest def as I knew off was going to be similar. In hindsight I would have changed that approach but that was our focus first. Hit highest def because we knew everything else was easier from a triple-quad after those first 1-2 waves.

2) What did you notice worked well?
Activity was great, which we knew it would be. Everyone was on, everyone was engaged and asking the right questions and doing what was asked. I was really happy with the TMs given that for them, straight out the gate the game pretty much sucks. Runes are so limited and only so much they can do so the focus was definitely thievery based and using our stealth in the right ways. I have a great TM leader thankfully because I always tend to focus on the attacking side of it and TM for me gets way too generic. AW the mystics, FB people, Droughts, Greed - I feel it is obvious but at the same time I feel like I get too one dimensional so nice having someone else do that for the kingdom!

3) Did your TMs perform?
They did - I was really happy with their output given that really all you can do is use stealth as runes are non-existent.

4) Did your attackers perform?
Attackers were great - it was near on perfect and just have a ton of love for the kingdom and the players we have. The group is great and people were up in the mornings regardless of how much the timing may have sucked. We also had players looking in advance and knowing that they were not going to be able to get up and activating sitting/mentor where applicable. Just great effort all round there and can't achieve anything with out.

5) What do you think of the conversion mechanic?
The conversion mechanics are the same really, you know you are going to get in the range of 5-20% depending on how you are hitting. One of the things I wanted with such an early war was getting those conversions because it has become so difficult to pump them in what could now call the "traditional way". Especially difficult first few weeks but easier as time goes on and econ kicks in etc. obviously.

6) What was your OP plan for the war?
Op plan really was about trying to control runes/gcs as much as we could. We pivoted a few times in different ways but not something I was too focused on again because of the nature of where we were in the age and the fact runes are in short supply.

7) How did you run your waves?
Waves became a little bit like round robin. With def and off in the kingdoms being very similar, it was about trying to maximise the output of hits while also maxing the gains without having people just hitting for 10 acres and only having 20-30 acres incoming total. That theme followed through with each wave of hits.

8) Any honorable mentions?
Madhouse for running the TMs. Jelle for helping keeping people on task. Priest because he is my brother! The kingdom as a hole because the group is fantastic and with some of them being new to our core group I have a ton of love for everyone. I want to keep this group together as long as we possibly can.

9) Tell us a bit more about your kingdom?
New kingdom but old players. Our kingdoms were one kingdom 2 ages ago and we split because we had just different ways we wanted to approach things and there was frustration with some of the groups and it just didn't particularly mesh well any longer. We have both built from those core bases and been able to find some great players and both kingdoms are doing well so it is a real pleasure to see. There are a LOT of years between us and more importantly, a lot of years of friendship. There are players between the kingdoms that were at my wedding, introduced me to my wife, people I have partied with - you name it really.

10) How did you know it was time to withdrawal?
I totally underestimated the impact that the godspeed ritual would have and I have to admit it was totally moronic on my part. While acres were equal on the exchanges, for the other kingdom getting that 1300 acres in the door allowed nw to grow and that was really it. It turned into being a full wave behind so it became clear that without a means to abolish the ritual (lack of runes) it was a waste of time and would discredit the other kingdom their tactics and a fair win. It was a great great war, no BS, no **** talking just straight activity, fun and a deserved win. The dragons were galore. We had 6 dragons, 3 each which feels totally insane for warring 1 hour OOP. That extra wave though and getting those acres in. It was annoying to see LOL Everything else felt equal or maybe I am smoking crack and looking at it through rose tinted glasses.

11) Final thoughts?
Just thankful for the war. It was a ton of fun. Love to the leadership and the kingdom. Expecting a lot from both of the kingdoms moving forward through the ages. Lets hope it proves successful for us!

Well played Ghosts!

EVOlution

1) What was your plan to open the war?
I think the ability to get a Godspeed ritual up on first tick OOP was crucial and probably a huge benefit to us for this war. OOP ops and spells are always less of a focus and the attacker roles more strategic. Everyone wants to think an OOP war is just a bloodfest with max gains, with activity being key but I disagree. Otherwise both kds would just be exchanging acres.

2) What did you notice worked well?
I believe that our population control strat worked for what little runes we had. We also we heavy on rune production for a ritual as well as the FB and duration coverage.

3) Did your TMs perform?
NS and FB targets were updated until none of the ORCS were above 1k pez. Ns specifically was focused on their top offense provinces. We also focused as many ops as possible on their rogues.

4) Did your attackers perform?
Our speed on our tacts, paired with a GS ritual allowed us to outhit them with our core and making their recovery harder. We also didn't slay with only dspecs. We used the advantage elves have with 4 pt soldiers to bring down the hit points to allow us to send less to slay. It appeared Mad Scottish's kingdom focused on sending dspecs which really dropped their defense and allowed us quin taps near the end.

5) What about Dragons?
Both kingdoms spit out 3 dragons per side. I think them putting out two emeralds might have been a tactical mistake. First emerald, of course due to wanting the most hit points needed to destroy and weaken your opponent. But I think they should have followed with a ruby like we did.

6) What was your OP plan for the war?
Stacking as much runes as possible for ops and then getting our ritual done!

7) How do you feel about the conversion mechanics?
Personally I hate that everyone gets conversions, I hate that draft costs bonus has been taken away, I hate that EOWCF has become even more strategic which most kingdoms ran by newer monarchs or those not experienced in the mechanics are having a harder time having a decent EOWCF. You and I both know we have a difference of opinion on going heavy elites oow. I will always be pro high offense coming oow. That mindset doesnt go away just because every race has conversions now.

8) Any honorable mentions?
Thank you to my entire kingdom and the LS, without our combined effort this would not have been possible! I respect Mad Scottish and know he is an honorable Monarch, thank you for a great war!

9) Is there anything you would like to share with the enemy?
I think by them concentrating on trying to op us from the start actually hurt because of the scarcity of runes early age. We got our rit up right away and were able to then use any runes we had to do specific ops that we wanted, i.e. fbs, ets, a couple nms, MS

10) Did you expect them to withdraw at mintime?
It was a very close war but we actually had provinces who were able to OP very effectively and I think they realized that after mintime.

11) Final thoughts?
This war was mainly for fun. Their kingdom was my old kingdom that we separated from and both kingdoms took last age to refine our kingdoms. We wanted to see how each kingdom would fare in a setting where no one was using anything dirty to achieve a win.
I feel like there were a couple things that hurt them and it was mostly on the 'tm' side of things - being a Yr0 war most ppl say.... well "tms?" cant have that in yr0 oop war... well you can ...they just not very good :smile: - yet when everyone has almost no wpa and you have 1 or 2 ... you are a god! :smile:
Well played Ghosts!

EVOlution Summary

Summary
Total attacks made: 423 (11,637 acres)
-- Traditional march: 407 (11,339 acres)
-- Ambush: 11 (263 acres)
-- Conquest: 3 (35 acres)
-- Failed: 2 (0.5% failure)
-- Uniques: 130
Total attacks suffered: 312 (10,517 acres)
-- Traditional march: 301 (10,480 acres)
-- Ambush: 4 (37 acres)
-- Failed: 7 (2.2% failure)
-- Uniques: 108

WELL DONE EVERYONE! ENJOY AGE 88.