Dust settled across the battlefields of Utopia at the end of the Age only a few kingdoms stood out amongst the rest! Fortresses and cities were decimated, entire populations massacred. This age was certainly one for the books, pawing through the frozen tundra to the north I searched for the Templars forward army who had just routed the well known HUAT Barbarians who refused to accept the mercy of the Templars and the grace of their god. The HUAT Barbarians snubbed their noses at WARBIRDS locking them out of the battlefield with great ice walls they hid in the north hoping to remain hidden as the fierce storms of the north are not friendly to ANY avian.

Smelling cold steel and Iron I could tell that my target was nearby and the corpses of barbarians only got thicker as a ascended a hastily made staircase to the top of plateau where a great stone structure stood. The HUAT Monarch had been lashed to the center stone and set cleansed with fire for his pagan beliefs.

The Templars noticed my presence and without thought drew their weapons expecting a final showdown and as they turned I greeted them and congratulated them on their victory, sheathing their swords we overlooked the entire world from the highest plateau in the World of Legends surveying the world.

Darkness approached on the last day of the age and so they made a fire and I sat intently listening to their story of heroism and valor!

Kingdom and Position?
Templars – Monarch

How would you rate you overall experience this age?
We had a really tough start to the age. We lost a lot of people through RL and a few doing a start up kd. We started the age with 18 prov, won our first war against a kd with 22 and I went out on a recruiting campaign that resulted in some very good people joining the kd.

The age had its usual ups and downs, we warred pretty solid through the age, and really minimized our pump periods so we could get the wars in. We really played a strategic game through the age and it payed dividends for us.

What impacted your experience the most?
Taking the War Crown in our last war, even when a dragon and hits were sent into our war by a kd with a very suspicious relationship with WB.

What was your strategy for your attackers?
Be active! We set up our attackers to be more simplified, so we could contain our waves inside 1 tick. The previous age we ended up all over the place with armies coming home over 2-3 hours. That’s a killer for running wars from a LS perspective.
Being Undead, our focus was on using plague to drop def down and get those extra hits and the added bonuses such as free chastity in. There is no better feeling that hitting a high def TM once, landing plague and dropping his defence 80k opening him up to 5 other attackers who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to hit!!

What was your strategy for your TMs?
We put a few new people into TM roles this age for a break from attacking and to support them with RL vs game clashes. We aimed our TM activity based around taking complete control of econ within the first 24hrs of war. Once we had control, we shifted more towards maintaining that advantage and to take out attackers, so NW, Prop etc.

What was your strategy for your hybrids?
We didn’t really run any hybrids this age. Towards the end of the age we played around a little bit, but we tried to keep our TM relatively pure with a small amount of off to keep chained prov down.

What was your favorite ritual and dragon combination for war?
Good question…. We don’t really have a favorite ritual, we have a few that we use depending on who we are targeting for war. But on a safe bet side, I would have to say we used stalwart a lot more this age for peace time and ran with it or first wave in war before then changing over to a back up ritual.

From a dragon point of view, we used Ruby a lot more this age than we have historically.

How many wars did you have and how did your setup work well for you?
We had 8 wars.

How does it feel to take the War crown, was that your plan all age, and how about Warbirds?
We’re pretty honored to have taken out the war crown. To have started the age where we did, we didn’t even know how the age was going to pan out for us and to then get to 4/4 and to be in a position having a fair crack at it really inspired all of us. I really thank the team for working hard and coming together as a Kingdom to keep us on track, but most of the hard work was done by my War Leader. He really stepped up this age, even when I gave him a set-up he didn’t want, he ran with and built a strat based on our Undead core. The 7 war wins were a credit to him and his dedication to the team, even when I left him hanging to run a wave in the middle of his daughter’s birthday party!!

How about those Warbirds?
I won’t apologies to them for taking the crown away from them, even when we receive a dragon and hits mid war in our last war under dubious circumstances from a kd known to be very friendly to Warbirds. They are a good kingdom with a great strat, their record speaks for itself, but you can’t win them all, all the time. I will say I was very surprised by their reaction within the community about losing the war crown… last time I checked there were no sheep stations attached to Utopia???

Is there something you would change about UTOPIA?
There are lots of little things that could be improved, but overall I think its working. One thing I would say is stop screwing around with things that aren’t broken while leaving the things that need fixing to keep going.

Would you like to say something to your kingdom?
Thanks to everyone who has stuck with us for the last few ages to really build our core. We’ve tested a few strats out, some failed, some have been successful, but most important is that everyone stuck with us and remained super active.


Do you have any advice for the community?

Have fun, don’t be afraid to war!

What a fantastic age! The situation surrounding the WARBIRDS maybe did not sit so well with many but with so many wars and hard fought battles Templars truly worked hard to get that crown!

Have a great Age everyone!