WAR: Order bites back, tearing down the Inevitable City

by Brooke Pilley Apr 15th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

Are North American Warhammer servers too competitive or are the players just lazier than their brethren across the pond. Europeans can boast another world-first in WAR as Order members of Eltharion took down Tchar'zanek only a couple weeks after K8P took down Karl Franz.

One of the biggest pre-launch worries about WAR was that Destruction would boast a huge population advantage over Order and continually dominate. Players were a bit worried when Destuction was first to capture a city, but, albeit on a different server, this return strike by Order bodes well for the game's future in terms of realm balance. The true test of balance, however, is whether or not Order on K8P or Destruction on Eltharion can capture a city.

We will call this capture legitimate even though Mythic announced that they are making some changes to the king encounters based on what happened after K8P took down Franz. Tchar'zanek was killed before the new fixes could be implemented.

Ironically, this marks EU's second world-first even though some EU players feel they are treated as second-class citizens when it comes to WAR. Congratulations seem to be in order *cough cough*, so cheers! Oh, and to you NA players... hurry up, why don't ya!?

Video after the cut!

[Via: Bio Break]

Tags: balance, city-capture, mythic-entertainment, order, realm-balance, rvr, tcharzanek, war, warhammer-online, world-first

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fess said on 11:57AM 4-15-2009

I think it might be awhile before this happens on the US servers. Honestly, the biggest problem this game has, other than naggling balance issues, is the players. For a PVP game, seems that, regardless of tier and faction, people are so quick to run and hide at the first sign of resistance. Granted, these were core servers I'm playing on, but I'm seriously considering rolling on an Open realm, just so I can play with people with a spine.

Or are they just as bad on ORvR realms?

Sharon said on 12:25PM 4-15-2009

I seriously doubt that the reason it hasn't happened on a US server is because people run from a fight... at least not my server, and not in Tier 4. Sure, there are always a few people who get to T4 thinking that BO surfing and RVE is the best way to earn renown, but they are by no means the majority.

I'd be curious about the population balance on those European servers. My US server is very well balanced, which means that a push by either side is usually met by strong and fairly well-organized resistance.

Fess said on 12:42PM 4-15-2009

What server are you on?

Sharon said on 12:59PM 4-15-2009

Phoenix Throne... the rp server. :) Like I said, you'll always get people who want to RVE rather than fight, especially in the lower tiers where they just want the influence gear, and PT is no different there. But it's way less of an issue in T4.

Fess said on 2:15PM 4-15-2009

Order or Destro?

Valdur said on 2:00PM 4-15-2009

It's sad to see Mythic beta testing both Altdorf and Inevitable City End Bosses after 7 months that the game has gone live...anyway I will say grats to those who were there but Mythic has lost my respect :(

Poozle said on 2:02PM 4-15-2009

Wow, given the Destro outnumbering on Eltharion when I was playing WAR I'm suprised to hear that Order took the IC first. Congrats to them. I wish I'd been playing when it went down and its good to see the war finally coming to conclusions.

Zhao said on 8:13PM 4-15-2009

Hey Sharon,
I just recently started playing WAR and rolled Destruction on Phoenix Throne. (My Order characters got bumped to Vortex, so no more RP server for them...)

Which side are you on? Is your guild an RP guild?

My highest character is only in Tier 2 right now and most of time the battles for the keeps seem more like RVE... Order will run off if our force is too big. I hope this changes, especially in the later tiers.

Hades said on 3:00PM 4-15-2009

Generally speaking most US servers are able to fight off the other side better once the RVR war advances to the capital city. Once there, the numerical advantage the opponent may have had is taken out of the equation due to the 48vs 48 instancing.

So its pointless to fight super zergs in open RVR because you can just stop them in the City Invasion where you can fight them on equal footing and allow player skill to determine the outcome.

I certainly salute those who sacked the King on each side and won't belittle their accomplishments, but I do know on the US servers the battles get very intense once the city invasions begin.

Abriael said on 4:50AM 4-16-2009

Considering that stage 2 of both the inevitable city and altdorf has been reached several times on the US server, it's not a matter that defending a city is too easy.

For the ones that don't know, the city siege has three stages:

Stage 1: the two factions bout in competitive 48 vs 48 PQs in which both killing and territorial control play a factor in victory, for 2 hours. This is where the city is "kinda" easy to defend. But the attacking realm went beyond that phase several times on the US servers (order did it on Volkmar just 2 days ago, for instance)

After if the attackers manage to defeat the defenders in Stage 1, thy can purge the city of the defenders and initiate stage 2. Since then the capital is considered taken.

Stage 2: The attackers have an hour to complete two very hard PQs. This phase is PvE and the defenders don't play a role anymore. If the attackers manage to complete both PQs they can proceed to the phase 3, if not, they get 2 more hours to farm the PQs and stack on further prizes (Warlord set gear and several other very very nice items), but after those 2 hours the city is handed back to it's original owners. Only completion in the first hours counts to proceed on stage 3.

Stage 3: The king fight proper.

personally I'm not sure if anyone on the US servers has ever reached the king fight yet, but i'm 100% sure that stage 2 has been reached many times, and as such the defenses have been breaked. It's just a matter of winning the PvE part after that.

Painghoul said on 3:03PM 4-15-2009

@Poozle, first IC siege in EU second in the world took place on Eltharion when we were outnumbered =], we then went on threepeat IC before destro came back with a vengence and got four in a row going into patch 1.2, they even managed to take Altdorf down to rank 3.

After the server transfers Order have dominated the server, and got IC's rank down to 2 destro in revenge did get back into Altdorf, and now order get the world first destro-king kill.

The night after that kill destro laid siege to two of orders fortresses, and it was a mad scrap to keep them out of Altdorf, they always come out in force after their cities' rank goes into freefall =]

This game needs siege ladders, and Orcapults to get over those pesky keep/fortress walls!

Painghoul said on 6:39PM 4-15-2009

Just logged off, Destro are p***** they've taken stormwatch and are in already hour long siege to take reikland, so very pleased to disappoint you Hades this server is not one-sided, the king capture looks like the spark which has made destro take it a lot more seriously!

Abriael said on 5:00AM 4-16-2009

One further thing. For the ones that wonder if sieging the city is achievable for the underdog realm: On Volkmar Destruction is considered by many the underdog realm. Some argue it's a matter of numbers (I personally disagree), but for sure it's a matter of activity. More people on the order side go out in open RvR every day, so the server is dominated by >Order most of the time.

Despite that, last week end, Destro organized (even if your realm has less resources, you won't have problems outnumbering the opposition even greatly if you organize on a certain date and hour, simply because the opposition won't be organized for that date and hour), pulled out 12+ warbands and rolled order all the way to altdorf. They didn't manage to reach stage 2 for an hair (like at onepoint if they won one more scenario they would have captured the city), but still, they demonstrated that even the realm that's considered the "underdog" has the siege well within it's reach. It's all a matter of organization, surprise, and planning.