In a bizarre twist of sieging, storming, and magic, Shu-Han reportedly managed to temporarily delay House Stark’s siege at Evilbanking7’s city of M3 using rune magic before the city was razed by Phoenixfire some six hours after the spell had been successfully used.
According to battle reports provided by Shu-Han leadership, close to midnight server time last evening, Phoenixfire attempted to storm M3, after Stark siege engines had reduced the city’s population earlier in the evening. PF had cleared the city of troops, save for a few that were still being queued, and Han reinforcements sent to break the siege were still hours away from reaching the siege camp.
In spite of the siege army having reduced M3’s population enough to storm the city, the camp had been decimated by earlier attacks and only had 264 units left to storm with.
The highest rune EvilBanking7 purportedly had researched in the city was the Ward of Insanity, which is capable of driving away up to 300 units if the spell is successful.
Thanks to Han’s last attack on the Stark siege camp, they were able to note the 264 units remaining in PF’s siege camp.
EvilBanking7 reportedly cast the spell just as the storm force was making its way toward the city.
From: System
Subject: FW: Ward of Insanity triggered at Denied, 36 charges remain.
Received: 21 Jul 2015 22:25
Original Message:
An army was seen approaching the outskirts of your city, when your watchmen observed waves of trepidation and uncontrollable fear sweep through their ranks.Those afflicted abandoned their attempt to reach your city.
Units afflicted:
141 Militiamen
87 Pikemen
31 Knights
4 Catapults
1 Knight
Commander: Jon snow was afflicted by the terrifying apparitions, and fled in fear.
Phoenixfire also provided battle reports that corroborated this message. However, at 00:25 ST, PF sent a message to the Times claiming that “the siege on [M3] is not broken but for some reason it is taking 6 hours to raze it.”
Later, he explained to the Times the bizarre turn of events. Apparently, after the storm force tripped the ward, the siege army did not return back to its city. Instead, PF claims that the siege army returned to its original siege square and continued bombarding. At that point, he was given a second opportunity to click “Storm & Raze” on the siege screen, which he did. At 5:20 am ST, his storm force overcame the remaining few charges on the ward, won the battle, and razed the city:
M3 razed!
Sent By: System Received By: Phoenixfire [Stark] Date: 22 Jul 2015 05:20 M3, belonging to EvilBanking7 which was located at -275|-2692 has been razed by Phoenixfire.
Victorious battle against EvilBanking7’s forces at M3 by Phoenixfire’s forces from 1. Winterfell
Sent By: System Received By: Phoenixfire [Stark] Date: 22 Jul 2015 05:20 Two opposing forces clash against each other.Swordsmen, and especially cavalry, find attacking into very mountainous terrain difficult – although ranged units can excel.Narrow passes and gulleys hinder any mounted units’ ability to defend adequately. Nimble spear units have no such worries here, and defending bowmen are able to use their height advantage to maximum effect.
Attackers: Unit: Quantity: Casualties: Survivors: Commander: Jon snow Knight
1 Damaged for 4, 48 health remains. Troops: 50 3 47 Troops: Catapults
4 0 4 Troops: Militiamen
141 7 134 Troops: 87 5 82
Defenders: Unit: Quantity: Casualties: Survivors: Commander: true Elven Trueshot
1 Damaged for 8, 0 health remains. Troops: 1 1 0 Troops: 9 9 0
PF also noted that “when i clicked storm and raze the second time the icon jumped back as if it was leaving my city and the time was the same as if it was leaving my city.”
It would appear that due to the rare nature of this siege, glitches likely played a role in the outcome of this siege. The Times‘ request for clarification from GM Stormcrow on the game mechanics behind this unusual siege scenario were not immediately answered, but we will update this story if or when we receive further clarification.
For both sides in the Han/Stark war, this tumultuous siege is bound to be emotionally charged. In the wake of what at first appeared to be a successful siege break using nothing but a ward of insanity, Constantine proclaimed victory last night in GC:
[22:48]<Constantine> We here at han Repulsed PF’s raze attempt with…
[22:48]<Constantine> a fear rune!
[22:48]*Constantine claps
Today, however, it appears that Han is faced with both a siege break against their siege attempt at PF’s Winterfell as well as the razing of Evilbanking7’s city of M3.
Thank you to Han leadership and Phoenixfire for contributing reports to the Times to make this report possible!
The Illyriad Times 
Good God, what kind of troops counts are there in this war?
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Well, Shu had reinforcements inbound. It was a fun case of ‘reinforcements are X hours away but the siege can raze this city”.
This makes it all the more frustrating because it doesn’t really look like PF has a lot of soldiers. While sitting EB i opted to use the few soldiers he had to mount a counter-attack on PF’s siege to try and kill some of the siege engines.
The attack (257 marshalls and 246 wardancers) on a large mountain against defenders (173 knights, 18 pults, 781 militia, 486 pikes). That is an interesting siege to defensive troop ratio.
After that attack, PF suffered the loss of 14 pults. A worthy exchange of troops.
GJ to Pf for the raze, but honestly, it feels like its more because of a glitch. As said to Botch below “[t]hat army should have been returned entirely to its origin city, and had to restart the siege. We posed the question to many senior military members in Illyriad that all agreed “the siege will hit the ward, disband the siege and return home”.
That is what happened, except his siege engines continued to fire while it returned home, and while it came back.”
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The loss of M3 is more perplexing than anything else.
Rest assured however, this is only the beginning, M3 is a minor setback.
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That army should have been returned entirely to its origin city, and had to restart the siege. We posed the question to many senior military members in Illyriad that all agreed “the siege will hit the ward, disband the siege and return home”.
That is what happened, except his siege engines continued to fire while it returned home, and while it came back.
Thanks devs
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I’ve never partaken in a siege that was thwarted by magic so I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying how the troops should react. When attacking a city it makes sense that scared troops would return home, but since these troops were sent to siege it appears that the troops continued on their mission. It makes sense to me because the troops weren’t killed, merely scared off for a period of time. When they came to their senses they finished the operation.
Then again, maybe it was a glitch.
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The fear rune effect is supposed cause the troops to run back home. Seems the script for it didnt react properly to the script for storming.
This likely has only happened a few times in Illys history, so it has never been caught and patched.
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It does say “Those afflicted abandoned their attempt to reach your city.” It doesn’t say something like “…returned home.” I think this siege event has discovered a different and possibly, slightly more useful reason for the existence of the fear wards.
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…I forgot to say “delaying a raze for 6 hours.”
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That is true MiR, good point.
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Damn, a disappointing end to what should have been a spectacular defense.
Sure as hell was worth a shot though! Don’t let it get you discouraged, loses happen, you make mistakes, you learn from them. You’ll recover, keep the pressure up and keep building!
God speed
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