Tuesday 6 June 2017

Inside the Great War Machine *no spoilers*

Some of the players in Illyriad are shrouded in mist, only coming out after dark, when it's time to war! Most of these individuals, have found each other after playing the game in different ways and in the end, meeting each other on the battlefields from different sides of wars or conflicts. After their respective fights were over, many of them banded together to form a powerful team.

I have now had the privilege of being part of this magnificent team of players, whom take pride in planning cunning sieges and reading the current meta-game objectives, to form a strategy in their favor.



Language
One of the first things I noticed, is how the general tone is when around these players. There is 60% cursing and name-calling, 30% fun and laughs and 10% seriousness. On a casual day, you show up on slack after being at work or uni, you find there is 200+ messages unread... After you've read the first 100, you can sort through who is trolling and who is talking about something useful, so it becomes more of a 'skimming the trolling and reading the good bits' kind of thing.
I find this sort of chat relieving. It doesn't make you think too much about being overly perceptive and uptight. You can be more laid back and enjoy things, at least as a member of the team - maybe it's different for the leaders. My point is, that these players are really good at the game, the planning and finding the opportunities - but at the same time they joke and don't give a sh*t. That's what makes it extra entertaining for me at least.

Rules
There are rules in every Alliance. Some are thorough and deep, others used as an outline for normal morale and ethics. This team doesn't have many rules, except when it comes to the talking about our objectives rule, so I'm trying to find a balance here :)

Finding something to do
It can be a challenge for teams like this, to find an opponent that match their greatness. After you have planned things for months ahead of your game-plan, I suppose that is part of the reason for the challenge to be less equal. In a game like Illyriad, you DO have to plan ahead to be successful at something. Spinning the roulette and hoping for the best just doesn't work out very well. There are lots of examples of this *cough, Pico, cough* and they generally don't work out.
No, you gotta be smart, so finding something to do is something you do months in advance, and then you prepare, gather, craft, build.

Why didn't anyone see this coming?
Since The Broken Lands opened, things have changed a lot in Illyriad. The Land Claiming movement made it possible for this to happen, after it won it's war and since then there has been a general consensus by a core group of players to make TBL a "war continent" meaning, it will attempt to be separate from it's continent to the North, Elgea, which is not really a war continent. There are just too many good friends there, confeds and trade deals also going on - and it would cause too much destruction for a big war there now. Maybe one day. To have a place, where the military minded players could wage war on each other without interference from tournament alliances and people who do not like conflicts seemed like a good idea.
Since... They do tend to stir the pot because they are bored up in Elgea, this seemed like a good approach to keep them at bay.

Anyways. I'm sure a lot of the Elgean Factions/alliances chose to go to BL to have a presence. What they didn't realize is that it would cost them, because this core group of players had already decided what they were doing and have been planning and prepping every step of the way.

What I'm trying to get at is; why have there not been anti-movements going on? To me it's obvious who is dominating the server and have been for a while now. Maybe not in terms of land claimed or members in the alliance, but instead with the power of military excellence and the tool of fear.

Time and Time again, the alliances targeted have called out for help, knowing who would be next, warning the others for what was going to happen to them. Most recently, the war with The Hashashin confed vs Dark Shade/Unbowed/VIC confed. I'm sure there has been some reaching out this time too... But all the sheep are scared of the big bad wolf. 









*illustrations found on google*
*article written by Josh, it is his rant, his remarks and his point of view*

1 comment:

  1. Nicely written article revealing the comradarie and tight friendship of this coalition. The BL warriors are truly united and will support each other to the end.

    ReplyDelete