Kinless' Chronicles

Horde progress. From learning to defend, we're now up to winning occasionally again. Nice.

In anticipation of the Alterac Valley weekend, I decided last night after dinner to get a quick loss under my belt with Msaker. He was sitting on two honor marks, and needed the third for a turn-in.

My wife was waiting to play our Hunters, so I let her know it'd be quick. It usually is. Not this time.

Some nut job said "How about 10 come defend Galv with me." So we did. It wasn't easy, but it was a purpose. Third time running back I see the Alliance have moved into the room with Galv. I follow in and find targets. And that's where we proceeded to wipe them. (And Galv survived the entire match unharmed.)

We defended Galv and Iceblood, and you know, I think this set the Alliance rush back. Confusion.

Well, all this defending makes one's bag full of armor scraps and blood and such, so I rode south to Frostwolf. A Priest was there asking where to turn the flesh in. I rode up and pointed out the bat stand. It's all peaceful. There's a battle outside at Frostwolf and so I ride out and we engage a sizeable force. It's touch and go there. I was despairing. But then, before too long, we're chasing alliance stragglers north past Tower Point. We've wiped them again.

Then I see one of our Towers is being taken. I recall we don't have much in way of defense so I ride up. Over the course of the next 15 minutes this Night Elf Hunter manages to sneak into the base and keep trying to capture towers. He's playing kind of dumb so I wonder if it's a tower stealing bot. He doesn't get the tower. A Rogue and a Warrior try later, and we, a mere handful, keep them at bay. From my perch in the tower I can see our guys at Frostwolf graveyard holding off a smattering of Alliance skirmishers. We got the defense down. And we've spanked the Alliance's butt several times now.

But their own defense is holding. Someone says "Too many on D, some of you come help the O." Huh? I open the map and count. We had like 7 on defense between the Frostwolf graveyard and the keep. "We're 7." "Too many." Whatever. This is getting old. I ride out. But, to be honest, if so few were defending, and we had most everyone up on offense, our offense needed a little boost.

Now, Msaker is not one to beat his drum. He'll beat Gnomes, and related Ilk, but not his own drum.

There they were. In their usual place, fighting on the Bridge. Attackers, us, dying and rezzing behind the bridge at the Stormpike Graveyard. Defenders, them, dying and rezzing at their Aid Station. Stalemate. How to break this stalemate? Easy. You've heard it. "Everyone ride past the flag and fight in their graveyard." So, I mount up and ride for the Aid Station graveyard. I nearly make it to the flag before I'm dead. Mount up and ride again. This time I reach the flag and die. Mount up again, and this time I manage to get a little past the flag and die. Next time, I mount up, ride past the flag, pulling the guards, I jump over a few Nelf heads, and I'm there. Woot. So I kind of just ride in circles leading a train of Dorf guards around and keeping a few Alliance busy. I die. Again, I mount up and ride up the hill and then in circles in the graveyard, keeping them busy with me. I dismount and do some whirlwinds. Again, mount up, ride to the cemetery and just hop around looking like something that needs attention. And then...

And then I turn and look and see arcane explosions ripping through the crowd at the flag. Our arcane explosions. Bring in the squishies! And then WHAM, score, we capture it. We got the Aid Station. The defense of Dorf and Nelf just dematerializes. Woot. So, we pull a few Marshals, slap a few recallers, concentrate on Van, and Horde Wins. ! (I even capture a screen shot to prove it to myself later that it happened.)

Lessons: Defense counts.

Msaker retired and Paakanti joined Hialeah for a little hunting in Mulgore. Two tauren hunters with Teldrassil Owls for pets. It was a peaceful break. (Hunters are awesome soloists. Two of them are unmatched.)

Then Arcarius came out. Cocky and assured of victory, he's alliance afterall. He went home broken. The Alliance never managed to break past Galv and Iceblood. The Field of Strife became a field of tears as rogues patrolled. Mages and Priests, Forsaken rotting corpses, ran rampant. Frost novaeing and holding in my Dead Zone while they crit me to death. The Primalist summoned Loklahr and the Alliance were pushed back to oblivion. What a crushing defeat for the Alliance. Shameful.

Two horde victories in a row. Again, Defense matters, and Offense requires guts and grit.