Avid readers of the Warfare with good memories will recall that last year’s ravine battle was a grueling slog with a rez run that was uphill both ways that led to exhaustion and frustration, and a notable incident resulting in the rule that “Wistric is not allowed to speak to anybody from another kingdom”.
Understandably then, when we asked Raph which flag we were taking and the answer was “Go straight up the center and take their rez point” we were much cheered. No hills. No baking in the one part of the field that’s not in the shade. Just a straight run forward. “And every time you touch their rez point and make it back alive,” he added, “Trimaris will give you cookies.” He may have said “A box of cookies.” Our plan was clear. Our motivation was clear. Murdering would happen. Cookies would happen. We would not just defeat our enemy, we would humiliate them.
Before the battle, they counted up again, and Her Majesty Ansteorra said “I will fight with the army I have.” Meanining the numbers were about 200 to 100, in Trimaris’s favor. Which made Wistric happy, not because he likes having huge number advantages, but because it meant none of the goofiness that happened prior to the field battle.
At Lay On, then, Atlantia ran forward. Trimaris was to our left, Glenn Abheann to our right, and I think the Mid was somewhere in there, too. We arrived at the central flag after Ansteorra had taken it, but before they could flip it (the flags were an ingenious timer system like a chess clock which I wish all wars would copy. Victory was total time ownership), and started walking them back. About halfway to rez point there was a large bush, and around this is where the lines stabilized.
Giacomo took up sergeanting duties, keeping everybody in line. This meant that we’d open holes, but not do anything with them, which while the RIGHT thing to do, was still frustrating, and ultimately boring. I looked around and noticed Lily was holding the flag, and figured she’d benefit more from being on the line, so I spelled her for a while until Giacomo sent somebody to relieve me.
About then is when I remembered our orders: Get cookies. So I told Raph I was going for cookies, and set up in the line to wait for my opportunity. It came, I stepped through to their backfield, and headed uphill away from the fighters returning from rez, but also away from their rez point. I ran out of field, still hadn’t seen the rez point (I should mention I don’t wear glasses when fighting, so my long-range vision suffers). There was a group of fighters leaning on a tree. I headed towards them, but saw the tree had no tape on it. “Where’s their rez point?!” I asked. And they pointed to it. Yes, I used the third person possessive. Luckily, this did not seem to clue them in. I trotted down hill, came up on the rez point from behind, tagged it, and headed back towards the line at a jog, passing rezzing enemy fighters. I was tempted to stop and kill them, but that just felt too evil. Also there was no DFB, which meant it’d actually take effort to kill them. Also also, I only got cookies if I made it back alive.
This moment of indecision was caught on camera:
Somewhere in this picture is a Wistric where he really doesn't belong
So I continued jogging towards my line, yelling “YOUR TEAM!” and holding my swords vertical. They parted, let me through, and I found Raph and yelled “I GET COOKIES!” And I did. Not a box, but two cookies.
After that ordered me to go help out Alric if he needed it. After the field battle, a lot of the Gleann Abheann command staff was totally gassed, and they had asked if we could help since a lot of their force was relatively inexperienced. Raph asked if I had any thoughts (“And no, I’m not sending you to command our allies!”) and I suggested Alric, ‘cause he’s a damn fine field commander and a Marxbruder. He’d been up there holding the flag and keeping the line in order all battle. When I trotted up he said, “Go up there on the right flank and fix that.” I looked and saw that the extreme right was fading back under pressure, but even by the time I’d gotten up to it the pizzled horde (what does one call a Gleann Abheannian?) had stabilized itself and was pushing back, which meant I got to stand there and yell “Kill!” and pretend I was telling them to do anything they hadn’t already been doing. I looked around and realized their opposition was the Black Tigers and Meridies. Not too shabby a performance.
I shuffled back down the line a bit and saw Jack Marvell coming up, so took up station across from him and said “Hey, Jack, single combat?” He assented, we told our teammates not to interfere, and set up to fight. Then the fighter to his right charged the fighter to my left, so I stop thrusted him, the fighter to my right took a shot at Jack, the fighter to his left took a shot at me, and then Jack killed me. Oh well.
After that the battle was about getting Atlantians cookies, at least for me. I’d form up with Mattheu, Letia, and Marius, wait for an opportunity, and push through the enemy line. The first time we did this, Corbin was reinforcing against us, and dropped me with a quick lunge, but I got to watch Marius and Letia go have fun. The second time a fighter from the line engaged me as I tried to push through, but the Atlantian Delivery Service had already succeeded and mayhem was caused.
At the end of the fighting, I think the result was that Ansteorra never held a flag. Sucks for them, I’ve been there and know how frustrating that fight can be, but the fighting itself was great, and not nearly as problematic as last year.
Then we all went to court.
Court
I showed up a little late but still got to see the awesomeness of:
Marius getting his Sea Dragon (finally!)
Letia getting a Shark’s Tooth for her fighting in the Ravine (woot!)
Alric getting an Opal for his service, AND getting a Shark’s Tooth for his command of Gleann Abhann.
None too shabby. Congrats to all of them!
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