Colony Wars (12/02/07): Tipping the scale of balance

This week's war goes to show that Caravaggio is indeed one of the highly political servers in Granado Espada. Today we'll see how factions work to tip the scale of power from the current rulers to other groups. This week also saw to a lot of war declarations, perhaps the most number of declarations so far in any CW session as well.

EdeN v. SupperClub™
RedstarAvengers v. Ethereal
Reconquista v. Ethereal
Justice v. Ethereal
Revolution v. Ethereal
AdeptasFraternas v. EdeN
Azyr v. Ethereal
†RêβïrTh† v. Ethereal
Commander v. SupperClub™
Reconquista v. Revolution
Untitled (sp?) v. Ethereal
Reconquista v. Azyr
Reconquista v. Justice
RedstarAvengers v. Justice
Reconquista v. †RêβïrTh†
Fusion v. Azyr
RedstarAvengers v. Reconquista
ZONE v. Reconquista
Reconquista v. Eclipse
Commander v. Reconquista
AdeptasFraternas v. Reconquista
EdeN v. Reconquista
†Legion† v. Commander
Revolution v. Fusion
Commander v. Fusion
†RêβïrTh† v. SupperClub™
EdeN v. Azyr
EdeN v. Reconquista
Commander v. Eclipse
Fusion v. Revolution
RedstarAvengers v. Revolution

I've already heard through the grapevine that Ethereal's faction leader is permanently indisposed, and naturally, all the other factions will eye Ethereal's 5 colonies. But before I headed off to war, I asked a few faction leaders regarding their plans. Here's what they said:

"We war Ethereal, that's all. Unless some other unexpected things happen, then we might have a change of plan."
- Tine of Revolution

"Maybe at the last minute we participate in the war, then go KS."
- HikariX of ZONE

"We're still finalizing plans, but our first target will be Tetra Hill."
- Alexania of Justice

"Basically we have now decided to face the end of Ethereal by wiping them off the map. As usual, we will always be on the offensive."
- IceFox of †RêβïrTh†

As speculated, almost all factions wanted to get a piece of Ethereal's lands. And with a character so unlike Ethereal, no one defended their colonies, thus, conquests from other factions proved to be easy.

Or maybe not.

With no defenders to ward off unfriendlies, Ethereal's colonies had 2-3 factions laying siege on the towers. And so, these factions started declaring war on each other in order to clear the way to get them close to actually whacking the towers. One such occurence I was able to notice was that in Tetra Hill where Justice made good on its initial plan to target the area. But RedstarAvengers was already there first, so it was only a question of time on which faction this colony will fall into.

RedstarAvengers arrive at Tetra Hill

Reconquista at Rion Prairie

While doing my usual rounds in checking the colonies, I noticed a new faction by the name of Reconquista, who seemed to be quite the sought-after group as the other factions were constantly declaring war on them. I learned that the said group were formed by the ex-Ethereal members who've decided to band together upon the absence of their leader.

Reconquista and Revolution battle for Quay colony

One of the earlier fights of Reconquista that I was able to witness was with Revolution in Porto Bello's Deserted Quay. I arrived just in time to see the war declaration with the two groups right at the colony itself. Both factions put up a good fight as neither refused to relent despite massive casualties. Finally, the said colony was won over by Revolution.

Meanwhile, other factions began claiming other territories as well. Eclipse, Azyr and SupperClub™ were able to land new colonies, and so they were likewise subject to defend their land during the first half of the war.

Azyr defends Ferruccio colony

In Tetra Hill once again, Justice had to contend with two enemies in the person of Reconquista and RedstarAvengers, as both factions made simulatenous attacks. Meanwhile in Quay once again, Reconquista gets back at Revolution as they try to make a bid for the colony, and this time around, they were successful.

Reconquista gets back at Revolution

Pradera de Ceniza was well defended by its current owners, SupperClub™. A few families from Commander made an attempt to grab the colony, but was thwarted by the guards manning the tower.

I noticed that the Tetra colony was one of the most contested territory by other factions as there were many attempts to wrest it from its current owners. This time when Reconquista managed to get it from Justice, they were faced with 3 factions warring them (Justice, ZONE & RedstarAvengers). Soon, the colony changed hands from Reconquista to Fusion, then to Revolution, until Fusion made the final claim in the end.

A few of EdeN members take a whack out of Eclipse colony in Diabolica

AdeptasFraternas in Reconquista's Hermanas colony

It's EdeN v. Azyr in Ferruccio colony

Quay colony owned by Revolution

While other factions were busy getting and defending colonies, I noticed the persistent exchange of territories between Reconquista and Eclipse, specifically those of the Ustiur colonies. It came to a point when Eclipse colonies were constantly under threat from Reconquista, but the former incessantly got back their colonies and vice versa. Time became the juror of these battles as Reconquista was successful in claiming both Ustiur colonies at the very last minutes of the war.

The end of the two-hour war saw through the following results:

EdeN - 4
Reconquista - 2
AdeptasFraternas - 5
Eclipse - 3
Revolution - 2
Fusion - 1
†RêβïrTh† - 1
SupperClub™ - 3

Some of the faction leaders were gracious enough to provide their thoughts on this week's Colony Wars turnout. Let's find out their insights below:

"Well, it's fun. GG. Although we are new, almost all war us, I love them all. I think we did a good job with 50 people online. Peace! ^_^
- Century of Reconquista

"I had a lot of fun this week. Lots of action with Ethereal, etc. and I really enjoyed the entire two hours of this Colony Wars."
- Tine of Revolution

"Well, you see, small factions can't really stand up against huge factions so we need help. We sure lost to Reconquista, but if a lot of factions come together, we have chance. We need more people to play GE, otherwise, not enough people."
- HikariX of ZONE

"Lots of colony changing hands today. Suprised that Fusion got Tetra twice. I suppose Reconquista's the new Ethereal and it's gonna be something as expected. They hit us and took our colony (Ferruccio) away on last few minutes."
- AzureRain of Azyr

"We attacked Tetra because it's our aim but unfortunately, we failed due to lagginess and too many players attacking. This is only fun mode because we're not going to take colony, just ally with ZONE and other factions."
- alanyuchenglun of Commander

"Of course, it's very exciting; was fighting Reconquista the whole night. Just too bad we weren't lucky enough to score last hit. We were attacking almost all Reconquista colonies except those in Ustiur. Reconquista is still a strong team and can't be taken lightly, but we'll try again next week."
- RedstarAvengers of RedstarAvengers

"Based on absence of IsDope (Ethereal leader), the fall of Ethereal is imminent, thus the creation of Reconquista is something that happened too fast. We dunno about their existence, thus we forgot about whacking it but at least it's a slightly balanced situation now."
- Tsumura of EdeN (vice leader)

"It's a tiring war for Eclipse. We fought EdeN then changed target to Reconquista because they hit us. I would like to thank all factions that helped us; they kept Reconquista busy while we fought them. Nevertheless, they were able to get our colonies at the last minute. With that said, I made 3 points: one is quantity over quality, second is the help of our friend to boost quantity, and lastly, you have to exchange colony with the time in mind."
- Wooot of Eclipse

Congratulations to all factions who participated in this week's war! Let's make history happen once again next week. ^_~