I had a great time with this event. The morning of the event I hoarded the relics in SL just in time for the event to start at the noon reset. Shishio and I were rearing and ready to go with 2 points for caps in the first 30 mins or so. Then the large LA group sent their people out and started quickly grabbing relics. We used our practiced technique of 'gang up on LA', as the vagabond members of SL, RK, and TC (and a couple others, I think there was a FoN in there) joined forces to crush NS city. Unfortunately we had a tough time against Aramis, the LA spotter, and their greater numbers. I managed to grab and hide the SL relic until the next reset and managed to not give up any re-cap points from dying with a relic. It was a great beginning!
I returned early the next day to continue the effort. This time, all the relics were in NC (which I had spent the last 2 days raiding, as they would grab all the relics during the prime time evening hours of play). FoN had a good rotating team consisting mainly of Kermit, Gonzo, Feszick, Disciple, and Adso. The most difficult part of this session of play was beating the NC epic defenders. I was smited twice, the first was a deathblow for 698 (I didn't even see them there!) and the second, survivable hit, for 490, which left me with just enough HP to survive enemy flatulance. The first run into NC was a race with Smaug as I taunted him along the way. We both arrived in the command center and proceeded to kill all the defenders. Once that was done, it was a battle for the cradle! I ran out of there solo with the SL relic and few extra gp
On the nex trip back, Smaug and I joined forces, as the pure fighter token was becoming a very effective tool against us. I love the dynamics of this game! Two enemies run into a 3rd enemy city, destroy their command center, battle it out to the death, then join forces for a coordinated attack!
After that there was a ton of battle, I can't remember the play by play in it's entirely, but eventually a large LA team formed as the NC cradle got lighter and the SL cradle got heavier. After NC was empty, I remember all the vagabonds in the LA group all dropping party within a minute or 2 of each other, in order to turncoat and attack the multiheaded LA beast. Again, LA was beset upon all sides by the combined armies of the enemy factions. Many theft attempts were made and many recap points were given up. This was the formula used by LA to win last time, and is a tried and true win technique.
Overall, I would give the following assessment:
Good:
- I manage to cap at least 4 or 5 relics for points as a lone representative of SL during my play time
- Being unable to defend, I succcessfully hid the SL relic 2x. I had already grabbed the SL relic 2x in fierce raids and was frustrated that I wasn't earning any points for it, and wanted to avoid grabbing it again in future raids. So I took it out of play.
- Great battles, wonderful variety of toons, and some great on-the-spot teaming (kudos to the unknown lonely dwarf who sat in the NC cradle room for 20 mins fighting 3 epics at once and 17 points per round later ended up beating them! Sorry for those couple bow shots to the butt, targeting was difficult!)
Bad:
- unfortunately our SL team was unable to coordinate our play times and so we were unable to dominate the event as we should have
- since the purpose of the event was for our enjoyment, I will not lay out any specifics, as I try not to get into this stuff too much. But there were a couple times that foul play was suspected by one of the defending factions. I cannot vouch for the truth of that claim, made by others, but I would just like to reiterate that these events are for player enjoyment, and regardless of whether a faction is able to keep their relics and fight at home or whether they get stolen and you have to go fight to get them back, the battle will still be there. Most of the players I know were playing for the PvP fights, the points for events was just an underlying cause, the will behind the fist. But I will say that having 4 epic defenders every time we attacked and defending with non-faction toons certainly doesn't give a good impression.
As for my votes:
LA: Aramis
NC: Kermit {FoN}
RK: Shishio -BB-
MA: Gilad
TC: Mela (the mystery iron golem)
AO: Don Dragon Disciple
Overall, I had a great time! Thanks to all!
