[UPDATED] VIC Tries Yet Again to Siege SIN as SHARK Loses Phelony Siege in Newlands

In spite of a string of 10 consecutive siege losses to SIN, SHARK-VIC continue to attempt new siege operations in SiN strongholds. The most recent siege is once again targeting Ayraelf’s city of Mamutoi:

[12:34]<System> ** News Flash: Ayraelf’s [SIN]burgeoning city of a. Mamutoi is now under siege by Malco Dragonblood’s [VIC] large town ofDRAGONS FIRE

This is the second time that Mamutoi has been targeted in the war. The first siege was attempted in the early part of the month by SHARK’s Elanderrich and was broken on January 5, 2015. This new siege by Malco Dragonblood seems relatively simple, and reinforcements have not been seen accompanying the siege force. Malco will once again look to capitalize on a siege that is staged from thick forests around the city, forcing SIN to once again delve into its stores of infantry to clear it.

Meanwhile, SIN has once again dispatched a SHARK siege, with SIN player DML breaking the final siege camp on the northwest corner of the city of Amity Island. SIN officials provided the battle report, which the Times has abridged for brevity:

From: System
Subject: FW: Gathering units destroyed at -4|-2241
Received: 27 Jan 2016 14:19
Original Message:
Two opposing forces clash against each other.

Cavalry comes into its own when able to strike hostile forces at will, and from unexpected directions – and nowhere is this more feasible than on open plains. Lightly armoured spear units, however, prefer terrain where there’s some cover available.

Fighting defensively on open plains, cavalry draws strength from the ability to form and reform their lines of engagement depending on the direction of battle, and it is here where cavalry excels.

Attackers:	Unit:	Quantity:	Casualties:	Survivors:
Commander: D08-C1	Charioteer	1	Damaged for 20, 180 health remains.
Troops:	Knights

For SIN, this is now the 19th siege break on the SHARK-VIC confederacy, and yet another consecutive siege loss for the top five-rated alliances. The last successful siege operation against SIN was by moses on He-Man’s city of Pyrrhic Victory on December 11, 2015. The last successful BL-based siege was a capture of ChuckNourish’s city of Stonetooth Peak on November 16, 2015.

[UPDATED — January 27, 8:00 pm ST — SIN officials have alerted to the Times to the fact that the siege on Ayraelf was a fake in that it only contained 1 catapult and 1 troop. It will not be counted as a siege break.[

SIN Breaks 8th Consecutive SHARK-VIC Siege

SIN broke the most recent siege launched against Ayraelf in the forests of Gremont, marking the eighth time in a row that the militarized alliance has destroyed en enemy siege. It is also the second broken siege against Ayraelf’s city of Iza.

SIN member Ten Kulch elaborated on the siege break in the Times earlier:

The second siege at Ayraelf c. Iza was broken at 12:27 server time by infantry forces from Fiona 3. Woody. Most of the heavy lifting was accomplished by stalwarts from Goldy1, Tink XX, OleBlackLord. The forest city’s population was lowered from 11000 down to 4000, and the wall was completely destroyed. Ayraelf led two successful Sally Forth maneuvers using sentinels and war dancers, or the damage might have been even worse.

Overall a much more exciting battle than the first six sieges against SIN (largely due to not realizing it was a siege until it landed). Well fought by both sides.

SIN Kills All 5 VIC Sieges; Breaks 7 SHARK-VIC Sieges in 3 Days

An eyewitness catches what was likely Jejune’s siege break on TSGH-RJS’s siege of Creb

SIN has repelled all five VIC sieges launched on cities in their homeland two days ago, capping a 3-day defensive stand that destroyed a total of seven major sieges by SHARK-VIC confederated forces. Materials provided to the Times by SIN indicate that the five VIC sieges were of varying sizes in terms of total reinforcements, but that all camps featured multiple players reinforcing siege forces. SIN sent proof of other smaller sieges sent by VIC that were also broken, but the Times will not count these as siege breaks on the War Score Card. There is also a report that a SIN city exodused away from a sixth VIC siege.

SIN leadership member Jejune indicated in a message to the Times that the VIC sieges on Ayraelf’s cities of Creb and Jonaira — both situated in wooded terrain — featured upwards of a half million reinforcements each. While SIN wouldn’t elaborate on its strategies used to defeat the Ayraelf sieges, the alliance’s high-profile dwarf accounts may have employed their infantry in the siege breaks. SIN did note that the following siege breaking battles do not account for multiple other attacks that were also used to break the sieges.

Troop counts have been redacted. (Click here to scroll down to the bottom of article and skip the combat reports.)

[UPDATED] Major SHARK Assault On SIN in BL Targets Cities in Gremont, Fellandire

SHARK has mounted its largest, most coordinated offensive to date in its ongoing war with SIN, driving sieges directly into the heart of SIN territory. Earlier today, server time, three SHARK sieges reported touched down in GC:

[13:00]<System> ** News Flash: Yurtrus’ [SIN] huge city of 1. Gendaga Arguvaa is now under siege by Halcyon’s [SHARK] large town of Halcyon Prime

[13:02]<System> ** News Flash: Ayraelf’s [SIN] burgeoning city of a. Mamutoi is now under siege by Elanderrich’s [SHARK] large town of 04. Wendorria

[13:11]<System> ** News Flash: Ayraelf’s [SIN] large city of c. Iza is now under siege by Elanderrich’s [SHARK] large town of 03. Raevalla

Eyewitnesses at the scene watched the siege on Yurtus’ city of Gendaga Arguvaa recall just minutes after, suggesting that the second siege was likely a ruse. The two remaining sieges against Ayraelf appear to be well timed and coordinated. The Herald has listed them as such in their siege section:

Ayraelf [SIN]

a. Mamutoi

[804|-2218] in Gremont

Elanderrich [SHARK]

Mon 04 Jan 13:02

Ayraelf [SIN]

c. Iza

[759|-2253] in Gremont

Elanderrich [SHARK]

Mon 04 Jan 13:11

Stomps, BL Land Claim Alliances Declare War on Each Other

Stomps’ official anti-land claims badge

On 08 Jun 2015 at 14:00 Server Time, Pico, regularly a member of Dark Shade [Shark] leadership, along with his alt account LePue, founded Stomps [Stomp]. The single purpose of the alliance, as stated on its profile page, is to “. . . strike down alliances whom have the audacity to claim parts of a region as their own, which do not represent the ideals of freedom and liberty towards the Illyriad community as a whole.”

The targeting of such alliances was a reaction to the launch of an alliance land claim initiative in the Broken Lands that began two months to the day on April 8th when the Hashashin [SIN] announced their own claim in Northern Fellandire, an idea quickly spread to include 9 other alliances claiming various tracts of land, all of which are visible on an off-site alliance land claim map.

According to the map, on June 8th when Pico founded Stomp, 7 alliances had already officially claimed lands: SIN, The Southern Cross [T-SC], Broken Blades [B!B], The Hanseatic League [Hansa], Blackrock Orcs [Bro], House Stark [Stark], and Deathmongers [Death]. Later on, the Han Dynasty [Han] also made a claim.

The first alliance that Stomps officially declared war on was T-SC, and sent a siege at one of their few Elgean cities, Takeda‘s Oyama Castle in Lan Larosh. In defense of the city, T-SC received defensive support from members of The Order [T-O], who are confederates in the Dark Star Dominion [DSD]. Stomp declared war on T-O as part of this defensive action. The siege was eventually broken, but Pico noted in an llyriad forum post:

One of several pro-land claim badges

“I was able to reduce the pop of the town to meet the requirement of either capture or raze. I knew very well that the town was reinforced and that I would not be able to capture or raze, but I sent it anyways, with the satisfaction that I had accomplish withstanding the 90 plus attacks on my siege. I consider it a win for T-O and T-SC as they were able to defend their town.

At the end of this siege, Stomp began recruiting additional members, including Agalloch, who has two cities in southern Gremont, less than 20 squares from SIN cities and just on the other side of the alliance’s northern land claim border. SIN claims that the escalation of members into Stomp with close proximity to their claim, as well as the claimers’ unwillingness to simply “take a turn” to be declared on, according to SIN Leadership Council member Jejune in an Illyriad forum post, and wait to be attacked by Stomps at a time and date of Pico’s choosing:

“SIN, along with the other claiming alliances, do not feel that all 10 alliances that Stomps vowed to strike down are obliged to “take a turn” and wait to defend themselves according to Pico’s schedule. Pico chose the odds. He chose to engage all of us at the same time first, and we chose to respond at the same time.”

SIN officially declared war at 0:oo ST on June 16th, along with B!B, Hansa, and Stark. The following day, TVM and Roman Empire [RE], the latter of which also announced a land claim simultaneously.