Opinion

War of the Kingdoms is upon us once again. This time we will do it differently. Instead of predicting matchups or winners, we are going to discuss the most hotly debated topic concerning this event: gathering during War of the Kingdoms. We will also tackle one scoring aspect that some feel is terribly nerfed: Great City occupation.

Gathering is the in thing

Is gathering really that overpowered? To that I answer, “Maybe”. I agree on the argument that chasing after gatherers on nodes is a tedious exercise that consumes time and resources, in this case the latter refer to transfers and whatever raw materials are needed to heal injured units. And instead of scoring themselves, these node hunters are relegated to a game of cat and mouse with a bubbled castle whose Recall and Return to City buttons are on speed dial.

However, the natural progression of the event means that there would come to a point when all unattended unbubbled castles are cleared and the heavy hitters have to either truce up to call it a day or need to take a breather to recuperate for the endgame. After castle-to-castle combat have exhausted troops numerically and Lords and Ladies physically, attention shifts to gathering and big castle occupation.

Between the two, the obvious better choice is to gather. It has all the perks without any foreseeable drawbacks. First, the castle is bubbled. Second, deploying Level I troops means the opposing kingdom does not get points for kills in the event they are caught in a node.

The only negative to this manner of scoring is that the soldiers need to complete a round trip for the points to count. If none make of them make it back, then no points are awarded for that period of farming.

That said, has anyone thought of sending Level I troops to attack Level I gatherers? None? Then that means the meta of the current scoring system has not been exploited to its fullest yet. And this only entered my mind while composing this piece.

The case for occupying

In last month’s War of the Kingdoms, I occupied a Great City in the opponent’s kingdom by myself for about two and a half hours. I was proud of this distinction (and who would not be) as I held fort for that period until an alliance in my kingdom was able to muster a stronger force to hold the castle.

When our kingdom was having our post mortem discussion at the end of the event, I realized that what I did was the most inefficient way of scoring. Sure, I was giving our kingdom points every five minutes, and my time there boosted my personal battle points. However, I was doing it by my lonesome; and I was not even able to send a full march.

Imagine if I was there with five other buddies and we had a full complement of garrisoned troops inside that castle. That alone exponentially improves whatever I was gaining solo. Now imagine if all of those defending the Great City are all Level IV troops. Do the math for me, please?

Of course those who are risk averse would say that this is a bad strategy because Lords and Ladies defending the great castle would have their own cities open for attacks, acting as meaty stationary targets. If that is what worries people on why they do not want to park their army within the treeline, then I counter by saying that there many ways to stash troops that are not actively defending a major castle – as what I and my kingdom learned last time out.

To further my point, let us return to the scenario I presented a couple of paragraphs earlier. If you are someone scouting a Great City, which would you consider going to first: one that is defended with 100,000 Level III soldiers by a single castle owner or one that is full to the brim of Veteran, if not Elite, forces? Filling the occupant’s Bannerman Hall limit is a way to deter attacks, thus limiting the instances of two opposing factions playing tag within the walls of Winterfell.

People have figured this out during Castle Siege – the psychological impact of reading a scouting report that shows a full army. How is War of the Kingdoms any different except that it is a 24-hour CS event in its essence?

Flawed as it is perceived to be, there is still genius in the design of Westeros. Young kingdoms are protected in their first two months of existence, not just to shield them from opportunistic Lords and Ladies (and alliances) looking to conquer a minnow domain, but also for the locals to prepare for the bigger picture. Castle Sieges are not just there to outline the direction of the kingdom according to its residents, but they also serve as a dry run of how major combat works in larger events that have more stipulations and farther-reaching repercussions.

No one I am aware of has thought of looking at things this way in the realm. That said, intelligent Westerosi theorycrafters abound; from them spring forth interesting concepts and philosophies, some of which have become recognized axioms. This essay could be just one of them.

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Image courtesy of Jeff Menges.

DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece and does not necessarily represent the views of The Raven Express in any way, shape, or form. The views expressed on it are solely responsibility of its author.