The World At War! and more Blog - 006

"Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man."

* Jimmy Lyons

Those are words to live by people. On a different note, I just finished listening to Bastille's song What Would You Do. From my understanding, the lyrics encourage people to work hard and, at the same time, appreciate life and what they have. Now everyone is probably wondering why I felt the need to mention the song that I was listening to. The answer is simple, I have been procrastinating when it comes to writing, but after listening to that song, I felt like a sleazeball and made up my mind to write. Thus we jump right into World At War!

Previously in World At War, our glorious leader Portfat aka me, returned from his expedition to the land of fog. He managed to unlock the cutting-edge knowledge of teleportation, also known as death via dire wolf. ( That was my attempt at a dragon B intro; how was it? ) Pheew now that that is done, let's get back on topic. So if memory serves me right (don't judge me; I have a terrible memory ), I left the last section at the point after the expedition ended, and I logged out. So the next day, I went to work early in the morning, as usual. That is where the "usual" ended. My workplace was supposed to receive some VIPs that day. As a direct consequence, everyone was going crazy.

Let's just say that our supervisors wanted us to do a week's worth of work in a couple of hours. All in an attempt to free up time to take care of the previously mentioned VIPs. Suffice to say, we did not make it and instead got caught in that mess by the VIPs. The boss was furious and ripped the supervisor a new asshole. The supervisors, in turn, used the grunts as stress relive. A real shit show I tell you all. By the time I finally got back home to my pod motel, I did not have the energy or mood to play World at War. Instead, I paid a small fee and stayed the rest of the day on a beach resort created by unknown mod creator A. There I managed to relax and get some rest, but enough ranting. Let me tell you what happened in World At War! the day after. ( for real this time )

After logging into the game, I noticed that my three patrolling teams were out doing their thing. Bringing in money for the good Lord Portfat. On a less critical note, they are also lowering the number of monsters/creatures around my budding fort. ( all of whom are potential recruits for the wave to come ). Increasing the security of the areas. This does not matter much now, but later on, when I unlock things like merchants, laborers, and the likes, it will keep them safe.

As for the money that the good patrols made plus what we gained from the expedition, I did with it what any nouveau rich would do. I spent it lavishly. The last two structures available to me have been bought. Now there are two shining new arrow towers within the fort walls on either side of the gate that faces the land of fog. That's what I would like to say, but no life does things in mysterious ways. The arrow towers that I built were the same height as the fort walls. Meaning that it became meaningless to put them right behind the walls. ( I noticed that the towers were shorter than initially expected, but they were built very sturdily.) So I demolished my newly constructed towers and prepared to build them in a different location. ( Lords can demolish structures through the same menu used to create them. Only half the original price will be refunded.) Considering the height and sturdiness of the tower, I determined three suitable locations for the arrow towers. The first option (A) is to place the towers outside the wall and use them as a forward defense against the wave. The second option (B), set the towers within the walls and closer to the castle. Finally, the third option (C) is to place the towers directly on the walls.

All three options have some positives and some negatives. Of the three options, the first one I eliminated was option A. Although the towers are incredibly sturdy and can absolutely withstand the impact of the wave, I do not have enough troops to support them. The low number of soldiers I command is barely enough to defend the walls and the area within them. If I send soldiers out to the field, they would be quickly surrounded and slaughtered. Sadly, the arrow towers would be much in the same situation without the soldiers to support them. They will probably withstand the impact of the first charge. Still, the arrow towers will be quickly overwhelmed after being surrounded by creatures. Archers don't make the best melee fighters, and as demonstrated in the first wave, even the slightly stronger monster can jump high enough to reach them.

Let's continue with option B. Option B was a good contender. By putting the arrow towers within the walls and closer to the castle, they would be able to cover that entire range in between. In addition, having the arrow towers cover such a large field within the walls would allow me to move most of the reserve units left, protecting the interior. This would immediately relieve the pressure on the walls. On the same note, archers have better range and accuracy than javelins. Hence, enabling them to attack any creature that makes it to the castle walls without the fear of friendly fire ( for the most part ).

Finally, option C. Option C, much like option B, is significantly more suitable for our current situation. Putting the arrow towers atop the wall will double their height, setting them past the jumping range of most creatures. At the same time, the higher vantage point will increase the arrow tower's coverage. Even though the further they fire, the more negligible the damage they will do. It is still going to be an overall increase in DPS. At the same time, they will also be able to cover a good range of the area inside the castle walls. Not the entirety of the place, so I will still have to leave quite a bit of soldier behind to protect it. But even a few soldiers that could be removed from the inside of the castle walls and sent to the soldiers actively defend the walls proper would be of help.

After a little bit of deliberation, I determined the best curse of action. I decided to take option C. I will have the arrow towers doing the optimal damage with option C. Being able to fire on the wave would be very helpful. At the same time, if any of the monsters make it through the wall, they will be able to take pop shots at it. It is simply the best of both worlds.( yes, from Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus if you want to be a stickler of it) So I place both arrow towers at the top of the wall, one on each side of the gate facing the land of fog.

As previously mentioned, the arrow Towers were sturdy contractions. The main body was made of wooden logs held together with rope. It looked kind of like a bastardized pyramid. A broader square at the bottom slowly shrank until the top became a smaller square on which a wooden base was built. The base was also made of logs, flattened on one side. On top of the base, a small wooden hut stood. It had four large openings, one on each side. This gives the archers enough view to fire in any one direction. At the same time, enough wood was left behind to cover the archers if anything decided to fire back. The tower's main structure was, as previously mentioned, is made of wooden logs. Four entire logs made up the height of the tower. At the same time, two sets of two logs were laid across from each other. One set at the one-third point of the tower going up from the ground. The additional set was placed two-thirds of the way up the tower. In total, including the base of the hut, there were three stabilizing points. Thus, a very sturdy tower.

Along with each arrow tower came a team of five archers. Each archer was equipped entirely in linen cloth with a cheap wooden bow. They did not have quivers because the arrows would be placed on specific holding spots inside the tower. ( the arrows did not have a metalhead. The wooden shaft was simply sharpened at the end.) At the same time, arrows did not need to be restocked. The arrow tower was considered a strictly defensive structure instead of a troop summoning one. So instead of conjuring a large number of archers, they came with a never-ending supply of arrows. Finally, the archers were also equipped with a small stone dagger. You never know; there is always the possibility that something will make it inside the tower.

At this point, all available structures have been purchased. The only thing left to do is upgraded my castle so new ones will be unlocked. But at an exorbitant 50,000 gold, it will take some time. Now, no need to worry, for I have some good news. After the last failed expedition, I did some research on the topic. (mainly going online to see what other lords did) As it turned out, my efforts paid off. The first thing I noticed is that there are generally two methods being used when exploring the fog. The first method is to lead your entire army into the fog and hunker down to fight off groups of monsters. Every time a group is killed, your army can advance until another group of monsters is encountered. The second method that lords used was splitting their army into many small units. The units will have somewhere between 5 and 10 such soldiers each. Then they will be spread out in a wide area and ordered to advance. This way, instead of large groups of monsters, each individual unit will encounter a small group or even a single creature at a time. Although there is always the possibility that a strong monster is encountered. The small unit would most likely be wiped out if that were to happen. Followed by the beast attacking any of the other nearby units. Eventually, the surrounding teams will discover what's happening and group up to take down the monster. But before that happens, multiple teams might be wiped out. So it could be a bit risky, out of the two strategies; one could lead to instant wipeout. (That's when you have the entire army grouped up) The other could lead to a slow bleeding death if you're not careful. If enough of your units are wiped out, the entire army could collapse. It makes sense, really. If not, how could the adventure-type players go into the land of fog without being swarmed by monsters?

Anyway, I plan to put both methods to practice. Cause although the previous expedition failed, it was mostly my fault, not the tactic in itself. I like great battles, so it would probably be more enjoyable to fight a big wave instead of a slight trickle everywhere. I will still be trying both methods, just in case. Maybe, depending on the number of units you're using, one is better than the other. Some experimentation will have to occur but not today because today, something even more exciting happened. After I finish with the placement of the towers. I was prepared to summon the troops for another expedition. Two of the three patrolling units were already back on base, and I had formed up the army waiting for the third one to return before marching out. That was the moment my nifty little spotters proved their worth.

The moment the spotter arrived beside me, he stated. "Lord, incoming wave. Type and numbers are still unknown. "oh boy, was that awesome; my 50 skirmisher unit was still out in the field, and I had no method to get them back. What was I to do? The only thing to do was defend the wall and seal the gates. I followed a similar strategy to the last time. Of the troops, 200 squires were sent to protect the wall facing the land of fog. The other 50 were left in reserve/guard inside the walls. The skirmishes were set a little bit differently. Two hundred skirmishers were also sent to support the squires on the wall. 100 of them went up the wall. The others stayed right under it. After the ones on top threw their five javis, they would come down to restock at the skirmisher camp. The moment those left, the ones waiting at the bottom of the wall would take their position. At which point, the process would repeat itself. ( at least that's the plan )

The rest of the skirmishers were split, 50 to each of the other three walls and 100 in reserve. Unless there is a leader among the monsters, they shouldn't attack the other walls. But if the wave is big enough, they might just go around to get to the walls faster. In any case, I put 50 on each wall just in case. They're ordered to act independently, so If they run out of javis, they'll go to the camp, restock and return. The 100 on reserve were ordered to make 10 teams of 10 soldiers each and roam around within the walls. At this point, I had given up on the 50 skirmishers outside the barrier. They hadn't made it back yet; they were probably gonna die. And finally, my last order was to split the 50 squires in reserve. They were put into two units of 25 squires each and ordered to wait right in front of the castle. With everything set, all that was left was to wait for the wave to arrive.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

A few minutes later, the spotter returned with more information. He stated, "Lord, this wave is a mixture of felines. Mostly Wildcats with a few of the larger specimens mixed among them. "There were no more details. There might be lions and tigers, or maybe the most formidable opponent will meet is a bobcat. But my good spotter did not tell me; not a second after he's finished speaking, he turned around and ran back to the watchtower. I don't know. Maybe this is a mechanism put in place by the game in case some more information has been made available. And it did not take long to affirm my thoughts. Less than three minutes later, the spotter ran back and informed me that my 50 skirmisher unit had engaged the wave. They managed to take down quite a few of the creatures. But after three salvos of javelins, the cats were upon them. Let's just say skirmishers do not excel at melee combat. They were wiped out almost instantly upon engagement.

The spotter also informed me that there were no lions among the cats. Yes, I asked; what can I say? I was curious. He did say that there were bobcats among the cats, and they spotted a few Jaguars. The king of the jungle and the Hunter of the savannas are not among the herd. That's a good thing because I'm pretty sure if 100 or 200 of those cats attack my fort, we would be wiped out. As for number wise, there were about the same as before. The spotter said they were a little over 1500; he didn't have an exact amount, so give or take about 150, maybe more. Another 10 or so minutes, and the wave was upon us. I guess the extra time was earned with the lives of my patrol unit. The cats were much like the rabbits from the previous waves. ( oversized for their species )

I immediately went into my castle and reached the balcony that faced the land of fog. It was slightly higher than the border wall. So I considered it an ok vantage point. From my new position, I had a good view of the wave. The wildcats were about the size of an average dog. The bobcats had almost the same height but looked much bulkier. Finally, the jaguars looked like fucking mini tigers. Large as hell and build in pure muscles. We were fucked. With numbers alone, they would overrun us. I decisively order all units except the ones on the wall facing the fog to retreat into my castle.

Good thing I did because, much like I had assumed, the cats ( all of them ) were able to jump on the wall. The only good thing that has happened so far is that the archer towers first focused on the most significant threats. They could not quickly kill the jaguars, but even those monsters fell after a couple of voiles. The skirmishers reacted much the same, first focusing on the most prominent threat. After the five rounds of javelins were thrown, most of the jaguars had been killed or heavily injured. ( at least those that were in the front half of a wave) Quite a few of the bobcats had also been taken down. Most shots that should have missed ended up hitting one of the wildcats instead of actually missing. That's the point at which the easy stuff ended. As the skirmishers were making their way down the wall to swap with the other team, cats started to jump the wall. The Squires reacted rather quickly by stabbing forward with the wooden spears. Impelling some of the cats and nocking others back down the wall. Then the next set of the cats made the jump.

The squires did not have enough time to retrieve the spears for a second stab. Instead, opting to drop them and engaging with the copper swords. All this happened in a matter of seconds. The skirmishers did not have time to retreat. Instead, they engaged in a wild melee along with the Squires. As more and more cats made it to the walls, my soldiers started losing ground. Many of the cats jumped over the wall entirely. Only to receive a javelin on the back or rib cage depending on their landing. Eventually, though there were too many cats, my troops got overwhelmed. Soon as the first few cats made it into the skirmishing troop line stationed under the wall and started savaging them.

Witnessing all this going down from my position in the castle, I felt very depressed. The troops on the wall had pretty much collapsed. They were just getting killed off. The archer tower is still doing good work, but it will be their turn when all the troops in the wall fall. With no one to support them, all the cats will have to do is make another jump to reach them. The 100 skirmishers on the ground got destroyed. What can I say? Wooden clubs don't make excellent weapons, especially without spikes or at least a metal wrapping to provide some weight and increase impact damage. I knew soon they would all be killed off, and the cats would move on to destroy the structure within the wall. The only saving grace was that once a structure is destroyed, the troops already spawn from it won't cease to exist. They will continue existing; the only thing is that they won't be able to respawn until their spawn point is rebuilt. At least all the skirmishers brought into the castle have reached the second-floor balconies. They were freely raining down their javelin on any visible target.

Hay, it has finally come to this. All the soldiers outside the castle have been killed. One of the archer towers is also down. The tower was not destroyed, but a bobcat managed to make it inside, killing the five archers. The archers fought back, even getting a few goods stabs in, but it was not enough to kill it. The other tower would not last much longer as a few regular cats were preparing to attack them. On the bright side, most of the cats are dead. Only about 2 or 3 hundred Are still standing. Considering we took down a little over 1000 with only 200 Squires and 200 skirmishers, I think we have pretty good odds.(Let's just ignore the archer towers and the 250 skirmishers inside the castle who already threw all their Jarvis out.) So here I stand watching as the last archer tower is taken out. They managed to fare better than their counterparts. As only three regular wildcats attacked it. The archers managed to kill all three at the cost of only one archer. Sadly just as they were preparing to start firing their bows, two more cats made it into the towers hut. This time, unprepared, all the remaining archers received injuries or were killed. Before they even managed to get up from the floor, another 3 wildcats made it into the tower. Like that, the archer's last struggle ended.

Having watched that epic little last stand, I was prepared to finish this. My skirmishers were on the balconies with their clubs out, batting away any feline that tried to jump inside. On the other hand, the remaining squires surrounded the main door to my castle in a half-circle formation. There were 50-something Squires, as a few had already respawned. They formed up in three layers. The first row crouched down and pointed their spears forward. The second row stood and held their spears pointing forward over the first row. Finally, the last row was also standing. They had their spears at a 45° angle to impeller anything trying to jump over them. I also ordered 7 groups of 5 skirmishers to stand a little distance back and engage any creature that made it through. At the same time, if a gap opened up in the semi-circle formation, the nearest skirmishers' ground would plug it. I also kept 15 skirmishers near me to act as guards. The rest of the skirmishers could not be moved, or the dam cats would rush through the open balconies. As it was we were constantly taking losses. If the plan was not put into motion fast, then the cats would break through the terraces.

I'm sure all my amazing readers are wondering what this epic plan is. I am preparing a last stand, haha, haha ….. inspired by the last archer tower. The goal is to open the main door to my castle, keeping the felines at bay with the spears reach. With the door opened, most felines will concentrate there, relieving the pressure from the skirmishers at the balconies. At this point, I will withdraw the skirmishers from the balconies. Leave 20-30 of them guarding the stairs leading to the main hall. ( that is where the fight is taking place. Most of the castle's first floor is one big hall). The rest will be sent down to reinforce the formation. ( if it still stands).

The rest was easy with the plan set. "open the door, "I ordered one of the 15 skirmishers guarding me. The poor sap was killed the moment he opened the door. A few of the felines were standing right outside. A bobcat pounced, nocking the man down and reaping his throat open before anyone could react. In my opinion, it was a good trade. Although the other soldiers could not respond fast enough to save the skirmisher. They still managed to stab several spears into the bobcat. Killing it almost as quickly as it killed the skirmisher. From there, things proceeded much as I had planned. First, we killed the rest of the cats in front of the door before the others gathered. Then, after the rest assembled, it became more of a fight not to be overrun instead of attempting to kill the cats. Some of the wildcats managed to slip through the formation. Luckily they were quickly set upon by the waiting skirmishers. The closest call we had was when the last jaguar charged in. It was injured with multiple arrows and even a javelin sticking out of its hide. Several squires stabbed it with their spears as it plowed forward, but instead of stopping it, they were pushed back. Disrupting the formation and allowing a couple of wildcats and two bobcats into the hall. At the same time, I noticed the squires had killed the jaguar, ( as the others held it down with their spears, one of the squires grabbed his sword and slashed the jaguars neck until its head fell of ) but it was too late. The damage had been done. All the still available skirmisher groups quickly engaged the new threat. So they could not further disturb the formation. I also ordered my 14 remaining guards to attack.

While the fight continued in the main hall, I ran to the second floor to gather the remaining skirmishers. Thank god all was fine up there. A few more casualties then expected but still acceptable. Around 160 skirmishers were still alive. With 50 left guarding the stairwell (don't want pesky cats sneak attacking us.), the rest were sent to reinforce the main hall. Good thing, too, because the skirmishers left behind in the main hall had not been able to hold on. By the time I got to the first floor, the formation had collapsed. My soldiers were being pushed back. However, we now outnumbered the remaining cats with this new soldier entering the fight. As the grand melee took place on the first floor, I went back upstairs. Initially, to take some of the skirmishers stationed there as my guards. (I don't want to get Ganked at the last minute) But when I got there, I saw a group of 18 standing skirmishers. Pulse 9 injured one's on the floor. The rest had died, along with 7 wildcats and 3 bobcats. Well, at least they did their job. ( This helped me noticed that I had spent more time watching the fight in the main hall then what I originally believed.) I took 10 of the uninjured skirmishers and left the rest up there. In case something else tried to sneak down. Afterward, I just had a downstairs wash to melee. Having already killed quite a few of the creatures with a semi-circular formation, my troops had a good chance of winning. And I was I thought that's what happened in. No longer using their spears, the squires took out their copper swords and started to hack and slash. A few of the wildcats did make it to where I was. Luckily the ten skirmishers were more than enough to block the entrance to the stairway. We could not kill them because, once again, wooden clubs were not the best weapons. But the skirmishers did distract them long enough for a nearby squire to come and deal with them.

As the fighting settled down. I counted five squires still standing, two of which had recently spawned. There were also around 30 skirmishers still moving about. No skirmishers had been able to enter the castle from the outside. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume the skirmishes camp was destroyed. It was just a flimsy mud house, so any one of the bigger cats that just happened to Rummage through it, would probably take it down. It's not too bad, though. Considering the amount of time, I don't believe the entire structure is completely destroyed. So long as it was partially destroyed, it only cost half the original price to fix it up. Later on and at higher levels, you won't even have to pay to have something fixed when you unlock things like the worker's district. Just provide the supplies, and your workers will do it themselves. The only drawback is that it will take some time instead of the easy instant system fix. The wave ended as the system popped up with its wave-clear message. I know I have 30 minutes before all my troops respawn. Before that time, I'm gonna have to fix the skirmisher's camp so that all my skirmishers can respond after the 30 minutes. If not, I have to wait for them to slowly respawn later on.

I quickly made my way out of the castle and went to the skirmishers camp to fix it. On the way, the system asked me if I wanted to collect the loot from the wave that came up. So, of course, I did. Now I am loaded again. I also have a bunch of nifty cat pelts. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with the pelts yet, but I guess something will be done with them in the future. Maybe sell them to other players. Perhaps I'll unlock some structure and let me create things with them. Not sure, but something will be done with them. As I arrived at the skirmisher's camp, I noticed that it was partially destroyed. But 250 gold coins later, my skirmishers camp was back in business.

The archer towers practically had no damage. I had to wait for the archers to respawn. During waves, all the troops respawned after 30 minutes from the wave ends. But outside of the waves specific spawn mechanics, the respawn of the archer tower is one soldier per hour.

In conclusion, each archer tower takes five hours to fully respond all their units at this level ( later levels will have more troops and shorter wait times ). My walls also took very little to no damage, a few scratches here and there, but that's about it. The castle was much the same as the walls it tuck very little damage. Then I went back to the skirmisher's camp, which had been newly rebuilt, and gave it the same commands it had standing before. Some soldiers were sent to the walls, others were left on standby, and the rest were put in patrol groups. I fallowed the exact same steps with my squires and then logged out for the day. Some of the fights happened quickly, such as the big melee inside the castle hall. But other battles took quite a bit of time, like the first impact on the fort walls.

All in all, a couple hours passed since I logged in. I was hungry, so I logged out to eat something and for a little bit of rest. Once I'm rested, I will log back in and prepare for an expedition. What better time than right after a wave when you know another one will not be coming by anytime soon. But I'll leave that for the next section. This one ends here.

( PS. Thanks for reading. I might do it for fun, but I do Appreciate having readers. Remember to leave comments, and if you have questions, write a comment. I will try to answer them next time )