Soldor

[Yipee]

Going back 16 months, there was what some would call "evidence" and what others would call "uncanny coincidences" surrounding Soldor-led defense responses to our RRs. In fact, many of you recall Drutt, in his classic form, calling out Soldor as a cheating piece of shit on VN due to his spy network. Fast-forward past couple of dragon raid loot thefts, and Albion drama, and here we have Soldor again allegedly using espionage to foil our attacks on power RK.

Somehow, some way, we should consider how we can control our operations intelligence (military phrase) so that our enemy isnt prepared for our activity. A fundamemtally solid way to learn is to review history, and learn from mistakes, and make note of successes. During the previous phase of Albion relic defense (when we were hitting strength RK), GotWyrd and bwc enjoyed some success hitting this more formidable stronghold by planning what amounted to a rr which involved only the members of their own guilds (the general populace of Midgard on Merlin cannot be trusted). Additionally, this raid was not in prime time (was on a weekend morning)- the last few weeks our raids have been. Perhaps we should revisit history and see if it can repeat itself?

Additionally, and here I am making large leaps of logic, but remember that time I refer to? Midgard planning on hitting Excal, only to find 7fg+ each time defending the MMF in HW? And remember the talk of Soldor's stealther crew who solely kept an eye on HW 24/7? Well back then, it was a foregone conclusion that there was a spy in the Myth alliance, and probably in the Myth guild itself. More recently, Midgard had a DR loot theft by a Myth member, one who some people are saying was Soldor playing the toon. So clearly there are some fishy dealings Soldor has with our realm.

food for thought

[SuperHelix]

Great idea, and I believe he is a cross-realming POS, not to mention that whole myth alliance plauged.

A BG has to be setup and private boards to be effective.

Plus I think a BWC/Wyrd thing (Cele plan it, or someone else get it to me), should be done on a Sat or Sun morning together again.

[Bulor]

well we mostly run our own bgs now..

[Eirene]

Good Idea Yipee. Maybe we'll aim for sometime this weekend. I would love to get our power relics back.

You know what I find weird...TG defending relics. Like everytime we take 3-4 keeps, TG comes out in force. I'm just wondering what is up with that. TG knows how to get to Snowdonia? The last several times when we took relics including power TG hardly defended and now they suddenly have interest?? Too weird.

Fusion, new hib caster guild, been creating some fun in Mid now. Bringing about 30-40 hibs taking keeps every day. Should watch out for them.

[Aenslaed Kasugano]

Fusion is Fist of the North from Percival, the big Midgard RvR powerhouse there. Their play style is very similar to BWC Keep farming. I saw one of their videos and all that was missing was a couple tanks, and replace Fist of the North guild tags with BWC tags and it'd have been a BWC video.

Once they hit rr5 or rr6, they'll problably stop coming to midgard and just play in emain all the time. They can't compete in emain right now hence why they are keep farming in mid.

[Tingtong]

Due to the anonominity of this game it really becomes hard in tracking down spies and eliminating them. Nor can you exclude a powerhouse guild like myth from relic raids because of one bad apple. With people selling toons on ebay, trading accounts, and stealing accounts there will always be spies. The only safest way is to have private bg's with well respected guilds that can commit to a said date/time. Even then that becomes very difficult, because 80% of those guilds either PVE or farming emain. You may also STILL have a spy... then the pointing finger game goes on for a while and then friendships are lost.

I think the best relic raid is cooperation from the realm as a whole. Doing spur of the moment raids are the best. You have the element of surprise. How fast can the enemy mount a defence and dispatch forces compared to your own forces already on the way? When they spy comes running to another realm and you have 100people committed to getting the relics odds are in your favor.

Now getting 100 people to commit to a relic raid on a drop of a hat is nearly impossible in this game. The reason being is- this is not the military...people do not do what they are told. This is a form of entertainment to them, and if their is no benefit for them they will not come.

I propose to the leaders to make it fun and worthwhile. Try different strategies. Remember that TIME is always against you when you take a relic. Split your forces up. Take 2 Keeps at a time, don't claim/don't repair doors.. claiming/upgrading wastes valuable time. Remember people are with you for fun not to sit at a keep while some monkey repairs for 30min. People rather go on PVE raids for hrs at a time because it's more beneficial for them. Make these raids beneficial and worthwhile! Set time records down on how fast you can take keeps, what the enemy can mount up. I tell you one thing Albs see 4 keeps taken in 10min you guarnteed action. Or when 2 keeps fall at the same time.

Take 4 keeps with split forces. Merge forces at Ren. Then head to BK to block albs from comeing out. Tell hibs to mount a small force to capture their relic. Take albs relic on your way back. Remember that organization is key, Have one force in a bg and the other in a cg. Myth/BWC need to work together to get the relics.

Well hope that was insightfull, sorry so long just a lot on my mind on how effective these relics can run. One LAST note! remember people WILL comeback if they die... They do in emain right? It's very simple make your raids fast and effective. When people fart around for 4hrs taking keeps and die to a zerg, their playtime is up /q they go! Pretend your berk team dies to a zerg. But you surs team captured. Those people from berk will come back there is action! and backup forces already at surs! Who knows you might drag more people into the raid.

[Dawgma_Wyrd]

Tingtong is so right about several things.

Speed wins or loses. The last several relic raids I have been on have been so slow they had no chance before we cleared the mile gates. Mids in general are very very slow lately. It should not take 5 ports to get from Bledmeeer to Benowyc. It did last week. Absolutely keyboard smashing frustrating. More is not always better. When one of the groups in /cg decides they need to go check amf or buy potions instead of porting when the rest of the raid is going to port, leave them. If that means we have less to work with, so be it. If that means we can't hit a relic, fine. Hit a keep. Sorry for the rant. But the fun factor is absolutely destroyed when we spend an hour sitting in a PK waiting for someone popular enough to seem important. Similarly, groups without speed should be told to find speed and catch up. Its cold, but its not as bad as having 50 stand around for the 5 that have no speed.

Spur of the moment RR's work. I think more of them have worked for me than actually planned raids. But the key is always speedy execution. We can out maneuver Albs. We can outguess Albs. We can out fight Albs. We can also stand around and surrender all of those advantages to their superior numbers.

GotW would be glad to do another weekend morning RR with BWC and allies whenever. If you want me to plan it, let me know. If one of you wants to do it, just let me know what time (in game, not here). I'll be back online Thursday or Friday night (on a biz trip now).

[SuperHelix]

Dawg and alliance, lets plan one for Saturday morning, say

10 am CST?

[Dawgma_Wyrd]

10AM CST sounds good.