Blaxx Blasted? Unconfirmed Reports Suggest RE Bloodbath in Elgea

The aftermatch of a major assault on RE’s Blaxx Stoneaxe by TUF forces in Elgea suggests that the veteran RE fighter may have lost as many as four cities, further adding to TUF’s string of successes against the BL military alliance.

On July 18, the Times reported on a spate of new sieges against Ms. Stoneaxe, the majority of which were launched on her isolated cities in Elgea, far away from the defensive reach of the RE empire in Westmarch. Blaxx adopted trolling city names such as “Easy isolated target” and “Isolated easy target 2” to highlight the ease of sieging the cities, while the renaming of one city to “Target of unbowed scrub” appeared to be a dig at lead sieger Spektor, who co-led SHARK and Unbow against SIN in NW2.

The Times received no reports from either RE or TUF on the outcomes of these sieges. However, based on a review of the battlefields, the following sieges appear to have been successful:

TUF-RE in Full Mêlée as YARR Siege on Josh Broken

a portrait of Blaxx Stoneaxe

RE’s Blaxx Stoneaxe appears to be taking the brunt of a shotgun approach to sieges by TUF, playing host to a string of operations against her in Elgea that seeks to capitalize on her isolation from the rest of the RE homeland in Westmarch. The Herald’s siege section is reporting on no less than 7 independent sieges, most of which are taking place in Perrigor:

Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]

Easy isolated target

[192|-264] in Perrigor

Spektor [TUF]

Sun 17 Jul 22:15

 

Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Target of unbowed scrub	[190|-269] in Perrigor	Xander [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 02:01
Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Isolated easy target 2	[316|-241] in Perrigor	Spektor [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 02:12

 

 

Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Target of unbowed scrub	[189|-271] in Perrigor	Spektor [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 03:33
Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Just bored	[217|-267] in Perrigor	Spektor [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 06:06

 

Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Easy isolated target	[190|-265] in Perrigor	AianNick [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 08:01
Blaxx Stoneaxe [RE]	Banished from bl moses?	[-46|341] in Norweld	moses [TUF]	Mon 18 Jul 08:54

The Roman Empire will be hard press to defend these cities and break so many concurrent sieges at once in Elgea.

Meanwhile, TUF has also appeared to have smashed yet another siege, this time breaking what looed like a robust attempt on Josh in Clarien. The siege break is yet another big defensive win for TUF, who is defying the odds against the triple-threat of YARR, RE and SIN by aggressively attacking what they perceive to be a weak RE, breaking sieges by YARR, and largely ignoring SIN. Even if SIN remains successful is sieges, TUF’s decisive wins against RE and YARR will allow them to outpace any losses and keep their momentum going.

Footnote: Persona Non Grata Razed Again

SIN officials shared a raze report from its recent siege against persona non grata:

From: System
Subject: FW: beggars at my gates? razed!
Received: 16 Jul 2016 11:09
Original Message:
beggars at my gates?, belonging to persona non grata which was located at 508|-2775 has been razed by OleBlacklord.

Because persona non grata left TUF prior to OleBlacklord’s sieges landing on the city, the raze will not count toward scoring on the TUF-SIN War Score Card, until or unless persona was to rejoin TUF. Because persona non grata formed the [way] alliance, declared war on SIN, and suffered a raze, the Times will publish a new way/SIN War Score Card to track sieges in this appendage of the TUF-SIN war.

“Let My BayNights Go!” Moses Leads Unbow To Stunning Siege Victory Against SIN

Unbow’s Moses reportedly levied two massive hits to break a major siege on Unbow co-leader BayNight’s city of Cyme (re-named “A SINsational Siege” for the battle), SIN commenters noted in a previous Illyriad Times article.

Though Unbow officials have not yet shared battle reports, the Times is confirming the siege breaks based on the fact that SIN themselves are admitting to it in comments. “Today we lost our first one on baynights,” said He-Man first on the battle. Jejune added, “superb two hits [on] me and Ron’s siege camps on Bay’s city. Moses (who is probably a sat) hit with a 70K stal army, and the other siege camp (my camp) got sniped with elites and followed by a few hit big hits. Last one was 20K stals, also from Moses (diff. town).”

For Unbow, it is the second siege break in a row on BayNights towns, with the remnants of the alliance showing gusto in breaking sieges on one of their co-leaders, even in the midst of what appears to be ongoing yet tense negotiations to end the war.

Both siege breaks add an additional two points to the War Score Card for NW2.

SHARK Razes He-Man in Kul-Tar, Ends Desert Campaign

Moses’ three-day siege of He-Man in the Kul-Kar desert has concluded with the SHARK member racking up the fifth successful siege for the top-ranked alliance and the second against He-Man. The alliance’s first raze against He-Man completed on He-Man’s city of Need Help? Call 1-800-ABSA on December 6, 2015.

A tipster to the Times, who asked to remain anonymous, sent the final confirmation of the raze:

From: System
Subject: FW: Pyrrhic Victory razed!
Received: 11 Dec 2015 11:41
Original Message:
Pyrrhic Victory, belonging to He-Man which was located at 955|-369 has been razed by moses.

SHARK and VIC combined for three successful sieges against SIN, taking two cities away from He-Man and one from Fiona. Debate has continued to swirl over what the long-term consequences of the protracted battle will be for both sides. For SHARK and VIC, destroying three troop-making cities and pushing He-Man out of his orc forge in Kul-Tar is a major victory. For their part, SIN argues that the profuse loss of troops — particularly cavalry — will have a negative impact on SHARK and VIC moving forward.

The answer to this debate will only be arrived at once the war shifts to a new theatre and new siege operations are initiated.

Moses Sieges Last of He-Man’s Cities in Kul’Tar as Desert Battle Concludes

He-Man’s final remaining city in the Kul-Tar desert is now under siege by SHARK, marking what is likely to be the last chapter in a battle that has lasted more than three weeks and involved likely what has amounted to millions of troops used between both sides. The siege section of the Herald reported details of the final siege:

He-Man [SIN]

Vic Failed siege no 2

[955|-368] in Kul Tar

moses [SHARK]

Tue 08 Dec 12:28

As the city name suggests, this is the same city that was the site of a siege by ryo_ishikawa [VIC], broken by Jejune on November 26, 2015. Given the relative ease of Moses’ siege against He-Man’s last city, this siege may go largely uncontested by the Desert Orc, who will find himself strangely out of the desert.

The opening act of this second war over the Newlands — a pivotal peninsula of land in north-central Broken Lands — has remained more focused in Elgea, engaging a small enclave of cities spearheaded by He-Man. The result of this protracted battle, which has led to at least two siege breaks against He-Man, as well as what will likely amount to three successful sieges by SHARK, is a point of conjecture now among the server, who are seeking to determine whether the battle was a resounding final victory for SHARK, having taken three cities from SIN, or a cunning gambit by SIN to absorb Elgean-based SHARK/VIC troops that could have otherwise played a role in future rounds of the war in the BL.

Clear answers to these questions will likely not be forthcoming from the alliances involved, but assuming the successful raze of He-Man, the SHARK-VIC confederacy will improve their score in the War Score Card rankings. At present, SIN leads 30 to 11, but another raze will add 2 points to SHARK-VIC’s tally.

“SHARK Week” Wraps Up With Capture of SIN’s Fiona’s Kul-Tar Stronghold

In its most successful campaign of the war thus far, the past week, which could be dubbed “SHARK week,” has seen a string of strong offensive and defensive wins for the top-ranked alliance and its confederate VIC, concluded by the capturing of Fiona’s city of “Scared Sharkies!” in Kul-Tar. The capture, which was completed by SHARK member moses, is the third capture of the war for SHARK.

The Times noted that Fiona’s city was still being sieged as of 9:00 am server time today, indicating that Fiona actively extended the siege, in spite of being blockaded. The editorial team turned in to watch moses’ army storm the city and capture it.

Moses’ capture is the first completed siege operation for him, and the second successful siege in SIN’s dwindling Kul-Tar footprint in as many days, with SHARK having razed one of He-Man’s cities yesterday.

SHARK’s subsequent successes in Kul-Tar highlight the peculiarity of how the far-flung eastern deserts of Elgea have played host to the most active battleground for a war that is otherwise supposed to be waged for Newlands, with both SIN and SHARK-VIC choosing to open the theatre of battle elsewhere. For SHARK-VIC, choosing to engage He-Man and his compatriates in Kul-Tar was an early counter-attack strategy that followed a similar arc of the STOMPS/Claimers war, with Pico’s influence likely playing a role in that decision.

The “Newlands War” between TVM and DSD confederates versus SHARK also shied away against siege operations in the war’s namesake.

For SIN, their focus on wresting Newlands from SHARK control appears to have shifted from a strategic desire to engage SHARK to a grudge match to punish the late-declaring Invictus, as 6 of SIN’s successful 11 sieges and 8 of their 14 total siege attempts have been aimed at VIC, mostly in High Hills. SHARK has clearly capitalized on the relative pause in being targeted by SIN, using the time to regroup and coordinate both sieges and siege breaks for themselves and their VIC confederates.

Regardless of the modulations of the war, SHARK-VIC has improved their ranking on the War Score Card, which now shows them with 11 points to SIN’s 29. While the gap is still quite wide, SHARK-VIC had only 6 points a week ago.

What a difference a week can make in Illyriad.

SHARK-VIC Remain Fixated on He-Man Raze; Set Up 4th Desert Siege

SHARK will look to make the 4th SHARK-VIC siege operation against He-Man in the Kul-Tar desert a charm, as SHARK’s moses has set up a siege on the same city that SIN just broke from a VIC siege yesterday. News of the fresh siege posted in GC earlier, with the city sporting a new name:

[19:44]<System> ** News Flash: He-Man’s [SIN]large hamlet of VIC Should Fire DDL is now under siege by moses’ [SHARK] legendary city of Venta

Once the siege posted in the Herald, He-Man settled on what would be for him a more prosaic city name:

He-Man [SIN]

Vic Failed siege no 2

[955|-368] in Kul Tar

moses [SHARK]

Fri 27 Nov 19:44

The siege joins two other blockades on the already beliegered city, which has otherwise managed to remain standing in spite of what has likely been days of bombardments and intense fighting.

The campaign against He-Man by SHARK and VIC has become something of legend already in Illyriad, with a bit of mirth added into the ongoing tale. “Shark sending moses into the desert now. lol,” quipped HUGcr leader and Crows Rook Captain Kindly in GC, just after the siege announcement.

For his part, moses will look to draw on the prophetic powers of his namesake to finally add He-Man to SHARK’s list of razed cities in its ongoing war with SIN.