Seven Devils
Still Going Strong
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You also counted recaps as "losing villages" when you mentioned me, but it's fine
The Tale of Two Rim Tribes - Part 1
I've been thinking about a new idea for a decent discussion for a while and where to go with it. When discussing TEA vs. BiP at the start of the war, I did an analysis of the battlefield at the start, where I thought each side would be aiming for as well as a reflection two weeks later looking into how the battlefield had evolved as well as giving a brief assessment of the performance of both sides. I wanted to do something similar for TEA vs. Infamy but it would be a bit boring if I just did the exact same thing over again. That's why I had the following idea, to frame the conflict around two smaller tribes which are now contained within the two different sides and do slightly less straight statistics and more story telling. Two different tribes with two very different stories, both surprisingly important within the grander scheme of things. In part 1, I'll be talking about W A R, now AD! and shall look at the conflict from their perspective.
Before I do that though, there needs to be a bit of backstory as I doubt many people know much about W A R or the players in W A R. I am fortunate enough to know people who actually were able to tell me a bit about the history of the tribe, its philosophy and member make up. This really aided in my research in the matter and without those people, I couldn't have made this post. W A R was founded by PinkVendeta towards the beginning of the world and grew as a relatively small clustered tribe typical of the rim or outer-core. Perhaps the most notable feature that made W A R stick out unique from other tribes would not emerge until a month after founding with the arrival of Grimmyth.
I cannot really say about much about the character of Grimmyth since I have never met nor talked to him, but it is my belief he came into W A R a bit miffed as he had been rimmed by TEA previously and did not want this to be repeated. Grimmyth would though, write what was perhaps the most important post on the W A R forums and changed the direction of W A R permanently. The general gist of what, from what I heard, was quite an analytical post, was an adoption of a heavy barbarian nobling style filling in every gap that could possibly be exploited by the enemy. This combined with a 1 Offensive village to 4 Defensive village Troop ratio would be able to wall out bigger enemies such as TEA and Infamy and allow the continued survival of W A R. You might just think that, well every turtle tribe ever does this, so what makes this different?
Most tribes can be split into two major categories based on how they are run, authoritarian and libertarian. The former you are told what to do, what to build, how to play the game, where to send your troops, which villages to noble, the latter you are given more freedom over your actions, less ordering and more volunteering, more confidence is put in your abilities to work towards tribal objectives. In W90, most people would consider TEA, BiP, Infamy and P-W to be run in a libertarian fashion, albeit to differing degrees. Not all tribes are run that way. To give an example of my own, my W60 tribe and to a lesser extent my W87 tribe were run in what I'd consider to be a relatively authoritarian manner. Similarly, W A R was run in an authoritarian manner by PinkVendeta who was a big believer in Grimmyth's ideas. To give examples, no criticism was allowed of certain ideas and policies, defence counts were enforced and claims were approved on an individual basis from the leadership.
W A R would end up aligning with TEA, partially through necessity and partially because of other diplomacy with Wicked, a tribe that was at war with Infamy that W A R would recruit from. W A R would then get their family tribe Q-EST, a long lasting rim tribe in its own right due to a conflict between TEA and Q-EST which resulted in the loss of a Q-EST leader and control being brought over to PinkVendeta. This sets the stage for the beginning of the Infamy war.
With all that build up, that preparation, the authoritarianism, you would have thought W A R would do alright versus Infamy at least for a bit. You would be incorrect in that assertion. It turns out that not many people actually liked PinkVendeta, one flaw with that style of leadership and the strategy failed versus Infamy. The war between Infamy and W A R ended with the one sided chomping through W A R, with Infamy being up 143-7 and PinkVendeta quitting. This would eventually lead to TEA taking direct control of W A R.
What now for W A R?
The real question is whether they can make more of an impact asides from being a meatshield for TEA. I've made a map below of the front:
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You can also see FARM there who I will be talking a bit about some later time when I have been able to research a bit more about them and their position. One thing interesting that comes across heavily on the front and what I've always thought has been a flaw of Infamy's is their style. When Infamy were attacking W A R and even before that when attacking Wicked, they could have just cleaned up what were obviously inferior players through tribal actions, getting as many nobles as possible to the front and involving as many members as possible. Instead Infamy chooses to fight these turtle tribes with a few players, in almost a cocky manner reminiscent of W73 -ND- for example. Not saying that this makes them weaker than any other tribe, with strong individual talent you can make that work, but that should be something Al or whoever is leading AD! now should be trying to exploit. You may not be able to wall out Infamy, but you can wall out and beat five players, even if they are all high quality. Rather than trying to 1v1 these players, AD! should try instead zerg them using their numbers. This is especially the case since two of Infamy's leaders are on the front and you have the opportunity to bog them down in tagging, defending and sitting instead of leading.
I can't say I have ever read much from inside W A R, but I assume like most rim tribes, their players aren't very good. They probably can't snipe consistently, especially with new mechanics such as the watchtower they are probably lacking. They probably panic about stuff that the better TEA/BiP/Infamy players would not, especially mass incomings and the like. Something will need to be done about that. Other things to do, get the defence at the front and find some way to change the troop composition. The good thing about W A R is actually that the tribe is used to authoritarian leadership. I have been subtlely suggesting to TEA that given their situation, they should lean more and more authoritarian over time and W A R is a perfect place to test out that though there is always a problem of whether there is enough manpower. Perhaps watchtowers could be placed in Infamy territory to tag incoming from very far away but this is a commitment. Lastly, they will need to find some way to make the tribe become more offensive so they can put some pressure on Infamy.
A big task, who knows whether it can be done. It may well be the case that TEA choose to continue AD! as a meatshield in which case a lot of what I have said is moot, but with a 1v2, TEA will need all the help it can get and perhaps putting some of the eggs in a turtlely basket will give more out than was put in.
I agree TEA's move to control WAR through its own authoritarian leader is the best thing TRA could have done under the circumstances. But I don't think the purpose of it is to put the tribe back on its feet to fight Infamy as a fully functional tribe with a bright future. Al went there to keep the tribe together and to use its members purely for TEA's benefits. The biggest benefit would be gifting villages of least active or weak accounts to TEA while keeping the active ones fighting Infamy. We will see more barbing, building towers, turtling up, giving sits to TEA but the tribe won't last for longer then it has to. It will be internalled or recruited. The truth is TEA doesn't need PW and AD, all they need is those villages under their one banner. Then Al will be able to come back to his rightful place.
Al went there to keep the tribe together and to use its members purely for TEA's benefits.
Wtf are you talking about? lol
Omar buddy, did Al give you a sip of his 5% beer? Lol
Yes, ND was lovely, but honestly the only thing from ND in Infamy is 3accounts. Most of the ND core group quit after w73.
And yee, everyone knows nwaro played w73 with Jorge and I, but no, Nwaro is not coduke of BiP, he is not even in leadership.
Well so Infamy and BiP is just gonna fight it out after they're done with TEA? Sounds pretty unlikely to me. Though I might be wrong. But tbh, you will run out of members eventually. You have nothing to recruit, something will need to be done, and trust me, merges is always the easiest way to go. It has been proven so many times. Just look at W85.