![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustRO. Last Sunday's siege.
It was meant to be the start of Shin Ravenloft's new War of Emperium campaign. Our first objective: to take and hold the Prontera castle Valkyrie Realms 5, also known as Gondul.
But as they say, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
Valkyrie Realms 5 was held by Trees of Light - a guild which, in the early days of WOE, was famous for always taking forts and never being able to hold on to them, not even until the end of a siege. Evidently they had improved since then.
The idea was to wait until the second half of the siege, and then launch our attack. So in the meantime, I went to Payon with a couple of others to help our allies Slaughtered Saints get a fort. They were attacking Dragon Slayers, but without much success. Still, I hung around to do what I could to help.
When the time came, Lunakitty called us all back to Prontera, where we assembled in front of Valkyrie Realms 5 and made our assault. It looked as though Trees of Light had the help of the infamous Novae Inflammo in defending their fort. As usual I died to Storm Gust, respawning in town to be healed by Lumialle, who was experiencing his first siege.
We weren't the only guild interested in Valkyrie Realms 5. Only a short while later, it was captured by Kisei. There was a brief moment of uncertainty then, as Kisei were allied to No Love, who in turn were allied to us. But Lunakitty gave the order to press on with the attack, saying that we ourselves owed Kisei nothing. The fighting continued, and Absolution captured the fort from Kisei.
Then the unexpected happened - Slaughtered Saints took the fort. This completely derailed our plans, since we couldn't very well attack them. Some people in the guild were outraged that Slaughtered Saints would do such a thing, especially since they were supposed to be in Payon. But since we hadn't told them about our interest in this castle (a mistake, in my opinion), I wasn't inclined to blame them.
In any case, the order came to switch our target to Valkyrie Realms 1, which was held by Ordinatio Wasa. However, very soon after, Cyrus passed on the message that No Love needed help, and Lunakitty gave the order to fall back and assist them.
No Love held Valkyrie Realms 4, and their fort was under heavy attack by Dragon Slayers and Imperial. We helped them repel the attack, and then, with only fifteen minutes of the siege left to go, Lunakitty gave the order to resume the attack on Ordinatio Wasa.
While we were busy at No Love's fort, Ordinatio Wasa had lost Valkyrie Realms 1 and taken over Valkyrie Realms 2 instead. So that was where we went - but again, we were beaten to the punch by Kisei. Undaunted, we continued the attack, and with five minutes left to go, we succeeded in taking the fort. Unfortunately, less than two minutes later it was Kisei's again.
At that point, word came that No Love urgently needed our help. It seemed that they had just lost their fort to Dragon Slayers. Lunakitty called on us to assist, and we responded - but there was not enough time left for us to do anything.
Another siege was over.
We met up in the restaurant in Prontera for the debriefing. There were a lot of unhappy people at that meeting. Some resented the fact that Slaughtered Saints had taken the fort we wanted. Others were annoyed at Kisei. What I found farcical was that No Love had lost their fort while their two allies - us and Kisei - were both elsewhere fighting over the same fort. (Incidentally, Eternal won it in the end.) In my opinion, if anyone had the right to be pissed off, it was No Love.
You could cite this as a textbook example of a siege where everything that could go wrong did. If there were lessons to be learned from it, one of them would be the importance of communication between allies. Another would be the danger of switching back and forth between different objectives.
In any case, the first priority for the next siege would be to help No Love get their fort back. Only after that could we return to our own campaign of conquest...
It was meant to be the start of Shin Ravenloft's new War of Emperium campaign. Our first objective: to take and hold the Prontera castle Valkyrie Realms 5, also known as Gondul.
But as they say, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
Valkyrie Realms 5 was held by Trees of Light - a guild which, in the early days of WOE, was famous for always taking forts and never being able to hold on to them, not even until the end of a siege. Evidently they had improved since then.
The idea was to wait until the second half of the siege, and then launch our attack. So in the meantime, I went to Payon with a couple of others to help our allies Slaughtered Saints get a fort. They were attacking Dragon Slayers, but without much success. Still, I hung around to do what I could to help.
When the time came, Lunakitty called us all back to Prontera, where we assembled in front of Valkyrie Realms 5 and made our assault. It looked as though Trees of Light had the help of the infamous Novae Inflammo in defending their fort. As usual I died to Storm Gust, respawning in town to be healed by Lumialle, who was experiencing his first siege.
We weren't the only guild interested in Valkyrie Realms 5. Only a short while later, it was captured by Kisei. There was a brief moment of uncertainty then, as Kisei were allied to No Love, who in turn were allied to us. But Lunakitty gave the order to press on with the attack, saying that we ourselves owed Kisei nothing. The fighting continued, and Absolution captured the fort from Kisei.
Then the unexpected happened - Slaughtered Saints took the fort. This completely derailed our plans, since we couldn't very well attack them. Some people in the guild were outraged that Slaughtered Saints would do such a thing, especially since they were supposed to be in Payon. But since we hadn't told them about our interest in this castle (a mistake, in my opinion), I wasn't inclined to blame them.
In any case, the order came to switch our target to Valkyrie Realms 1, which was held by Ordinatio Wasa. However, very soon after, Cyrus passed on the message that No Love needed help, and Lunakitty gave the order to fall back and assist them.
No Love held Valkyrie Realms 4, and their fort was under heavy attack by Dragon Slayers and Imperial. We helped them repel the attack, and then, with only fifteen minutes of the siege left to go, Lunakitty gave the order to resume the attack on Ordinatio Wasa.
While we were busy at No Love's fort, Ordinatio Wasa had lost Valkyrie Realms 1 and taken over Valkyrie Realms 2 instead. So that was where we went - but again, we were beaten to the punch by Kisei. Undaunted, we continued the attack, and with five minutes left to go, we succeeded in taking the fort. Unfortunately, less than two minutes later it was Kisei's again.
At that point, word came that No Love urgently needed our help. It seemed that they had just lost their fort to Dragon Slayers. Lunakitty called on us to assist, and we responded - but there was not enough time left for us to do anything.
Another siege was over.
We met up in the restaurant in Prontera for the debriefing. There were a lot of unhappy people at that meeting. Some resented the fact that Slaughtered Saints had taken the fort we wanted. Others were annoyed at Kisei. What I found farcical was that No Love had lost their fort while their two allies - us and Kisei - were both elsewhere fighting over the same fort. (Incidentally, Eternal won it in the end.) In my opinion, if anyone had the right to be pissed off, it was No Love.
You could cite this as a textbook example of a siege where everything that could go wrong did. If there were lessons to be learned from it, one of them would be the importance of communication between allies. Another would be the danger of switching back and forth between different objectives.
In any case, the first priority for the next siege would be to help No Love get their fort back. Only after that could we return to our own campaign of conquest...
