Tales from an Impromptu WvWvW Session: Sept 3, 2012

[INQUE]

This morning, I woke up really tired and sluggish. I was a bit annoyed, but my mood quickly lightened up after remembering my experience with last night's impromptu but memorable WvWvW session with the Goat Knights.

I started off jumping into the Gate of Madness Borderlands on the WvWvW screen (by pressing B) and I asked if I can join the rag-tag party of Joey, Raze and Loroke. We tried to go around with the "zerg" and help out as best as we can. But it felt meaningless and futile right until the other Goat Knights came in.


Read the full article on the blog.

[zarcolitic]

My party and I had a blast going around securing objectives near our beloved Greenlake. Toohdles, Hecklez, Tyr and I even went as far as to set up an arrow cart in the middle of Greenwater supply camp to mess with the invaders.

[jRev]

Excellent. 8) I hope I can join you guys in WvWvW soon. Total PvP newbie here, but I'll serve well enough to absorb some extra damage -- not unlike the way a slab of tofu makes a good shield against a steel two-handed sword bearing down from overhead.

[Razey]

It started off pretty random, with Joey getting bored of pve. "Lets go WvW!" he says. And sure enough, we hopped onto the GoM borderlands without any set objectives but to just join in fights. Inque then came on board and things started rollin'.

From claiming farms in the previous run, to capping a fort with only 2 groups (and a bit, i think. can't remember) deserves a high five all around (though others would substitute 'high fives' for something else). I'd have to say that despite the lot of us being a bit lost in prepping for a siege, the guild did quite well in supporting each other with siege weapons, supplies, back-ups, rezs, and so on. It was also great to see that each group automatically assumed roles in defending or attacking or even going on a supply run (Kudos to Zarc's group for bravely opting to be the runners). Oh, and Loroke for his strats on siege placements.

Initially we thought that the run would only take us an hour or so but I guess we had too much fun! The little recognition that the guild received after capping the fort was nice, and people were quick to come to our aid when the invaders started to press in.

It doesn't matter if our world is winning or losing.. but for those haven't joined in on the run, I highly recommend you to do so as you'd find out how really fun the people in this guild are.

Here's to hoping that more guild members join in on the fun.
Can't wait to finally claim a castle! GO GOATS!

[Sharky-chan]

Good Job Goats. When the opportunity presents itself, take the leadership role should there be non.

Military tactics do apply. Mobility, guerrilla tactics. We've been playing arma and some of those tactics can help. Been a blast commanding troops and actually holding ground and gaining some with some low amount of forces.

[jRev]

JUST A FUN FOLLOW-UP: Our September 4, 2012 game

There was a lone dolyak lumbering down from the pass when I thought to check out the view from the north. It was a relief, to say the very least.

Last night, I got my first real taste of Guild Wars 2 PvP. I was in a party with Inque, Toohdles, Blitzio, and Canyon. After a successful by-the-numbers takeover of the tower of Sunnyhill -- and after taking an obscene amount of screenshots featuring the famous and much-celebrated goat flying high on a repulsively green banner -- our party headed down to the nearby supply point to grab some supplies. We met with zero resistance and the most exciting thing that happened to me was when I slid down that giant wooden beam and I fell flat on my face, taking massive but ultimately non-lethal damage.

We grabbed some supplies, took them back to the tower, and built things. We climbed up to the very top of the tower via the worst staircase ever designed -- by a charr engineer, no doubt -- and plunked down the requisite amount of mysterious tiny barrels to set up a mighty trebuchet. We had arrow carts and a fully repaired gate and COME ON. WE HAVE AN AWESOME FORTRESS HERE AND NO SEA OF SORROWS CHUMP IS EVER GOING TO GET IN.

Then the green icon over the supply camp turned blue and my memory of the succeeding events can only come back to me now in flashes, not unlike a slickly-edited highlight reel after an exciting sporting event.

FLASH! The handful of SoS baddies, jumping around like mindless drones around our captured camp. FLASH! The horde of red names that soon followed. FLASH! The hasty retreat. FLASH! The line of valiant warriors lined up along the ridge, flinging bullets, arrows, and fireballs at our enemies far below. FLASH! InvaderD's heroic -- nay, Gandalfic -- last stand in the narrow, rock-lined path, as we watched the carnage from above. FLASH! The mad dash to the tower gates. FLASH! The silence.

And then the lone dolyak did come lumbering down the mountain pass from the north, and the way was clear. It had supplies. We were going to make it.

"Want to escort it in?" Inque asked.

"Eh. I think it'll make it," I answered.

"You get experience from escorting the caravan," said he.

"Great. I'll head on down," said me. And so I did, along with a bunch of other Goats.

The dolyak was just a few meters from our gate when the telltale sounds of battle reached my ears, and to my dismay, ten or so invaders leaped up the natural, slow-covered slope leading up to the tower. The timing and execution couldn't have been better if we were actually in a cartoon and we were armed with guns that shot blue lasers and they were screaming "Cobraaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while flinging red lasers every which way. Except, of course, that these guys actually hit something: the dolyak. It went down hard and fast, and we all retreated to the safety of the tower.

What followed was a furious, prolonged battle that seemed to be swinging in our favor. People called out the hot spots as they developed. Left! Right! Men at the gates! We flung the requisite chunks of metal and balls of sizzling energy at them, and all was good. It was all going well until the blue, non-goat SoS menace brought in the catapults.

Within seconds of its appearance, the first catapult was already busy sending loyal Goats and their allies flying all over the fortified area of the tower. I got knocked out in plain view of the catapult, and it took the combined effort of Inque and InvaderD (at least, I think it was InvaderD) to get me back on my feet. I had no idea how to fight the catapults, though, and in the end, the wall crumbled and the enemy came streaming in. Even up to those last moments, I thought we had a chance of pushing them back -- they were bunched up and headed towards the central area, making the blob a juicy target for a well-placed AoE spell. No such luck, though; we got wiped out. The final cherry on top was me falling from the wall down into the now-hostile encampment. As expected, the baddies tore me to bits in seconds.



A right rambunctious bunch of savages if you pardon my saying, good sirs.

That was how my first WvWvW game ended. With companions like you guys, it surely won't be my last! It was fun, and we did lose spectacularly. I declared my intent to retreat to PvE -- that comforting controlled environment of heroism, leveling up, and high adventure.

"Adventure time?" someone (was it Supah?) asked with a weary but eager voice.

"Adventure time."

[desoh87]

Why isn't there a tale about how Lord Desmond single handedly pushed back a ravaging horde of barbarians ?

[jRev]

I devoted one sentence of my story to the epic exploits of Lord Desmond! Unfortunately, I was only able to snap the "after" pic of the legendary battle:

[INQUE]

Thanks for all your war stories guys! This thread is really shaping up to be a good read!

@Sharky
I agree that coming from ArmA has been helping me a bit on leading a group, but I still have ways to learn on how to be an effective leader on the field. Fong called me out on my Arma moments: "Just checking the maaap, Break break break!".

[Razey]

(09-05-2012 10:38 AM)desoh87 Wrote:  Why isn't there a tale about how Lord Desmond single handedly pushed back a ravaging horde of barbarians ?

More often than not, you'd find transformed necros always being the first to rush into a zerg. Maybe it's the confidence in their ability in having brief moments of invulnerability, or maybe they're.. no, sorry.. we're just nuts.

There we were retreating to higher grounds on 4th September, trying our hardest to push back the flock of red tags by frantically mashing hot keys that seemed like would surely break our keyboards (or mouse).

While carefully taking aim on placing dots on the ground, I noticed something that just didn't fit quite right.

A gigantic green lich lunatic.
Oh Desmond. You so crazy.