Speech from S3.com’s Runner Up

Travian Champions is pleased to present the following speech from one of the leaders of the ART meta, which finished a very close second on S3.com 08-09.

 

All right guys and gals,

Let’s try to keep it simple: No excessive bashing and no excessive boasting please.

These are the final World Wonder standings based on the construction time to get to level 100 (correct me if I’m wrong):

1.- Twyst (The winner)
2.- SOB (ART)
3.- Kroegan (ART)
4.- Thetan/waggy/bibii (not sure which one is actually ahead) (ART/WAR/WAR)
7.- Charles VIII (ART)
8.- Angus Grim (WAR)
9.- D-Unit (ART)
10.- Wild_bill (ART)
11.- Wesley pipes (WAR)
12.- Zmago (WAR)
13.- Gods fist (Unite)

Here are my thoughts and comments of the primary actors of the server:

1.- The winner Loner:

Impressive and unexpected victory. They managed to survive Ranger’s assault during mid-game with every resource possible: Defending, sniping, counter-attacking, 0 popping/chiefing enemy hammer villages, asking for reinforcements from other metas, etc… Every single tactic this game has, Loner used it to survive.
Where they really excelled and what eventually led them to victory was Diplomacy. They are the living proof of the importance of Diplomacy on the game. They always were on good terms with the two strongest Metas on the server. Confed’ed with WaR while remained friendly with ABC. When the battle between WaR and ABC started, they didn’t attack ABC nor got attacked by them despite of the confed with WaR. When the endgame race took place, they barely participated on it. But, somehow finished the game getting all the support of the WaR meta, even above WaR’s own WWs. WaR and Loner leadership planned for endgame considering in all times that ABC wouldn’t attack Loner and thus, leaving Twyst’s WW unharmed and able to sim up for victory.
All and all, an unseen victory and probably the most incredible win on Travian that I’ve heard so far. Kudos to those dedicated players that knew how to dance and stay under the radar among giants.

2.- ABC + TK = ATCK:

The returning champions. Probably the most dominating alliance on the server. Strongly led by lady Aelia and Redbosn at the beginning of the server. Never really stopped fighting someone.
First they fought within the SW to merge all the actors there and dominate the quadrant using small independent battle groups of 5-8 players all formed by Redbosn and Slone. Then, they fought the NW meta using (geographically organized wings) and ABC’s attack team led by Redbosn him self which eventually caused the breakdown of that meta and the brief forming/disbanding of the “North” meta. Finally, with Redbosn AWOL the fights with the SE started. A council was in place but had little to none power/influence on ABC. Some wing leaders/prominent players stepped up and actively started leading the meta. A confederation with Rangers (ART) took place to balance quadrant domination with the other metas.
Since ATCK never stopped fighting, their hammers proportion was pretty high which resulted in being the strongest alliance offense-wise. Although some might argue that they weren’t as effective when attacking the other WWs as they could’ve been. The job was done and the enemy WWs were more damaged than their own causing WaR-FWH to actively give up their own WWs and to switch support to Loner’s WW. (Losing to Loner was a) bitter end for ATCK considering that, in their eyes, they were the best and did not get the final prize.

3.- WaR-FWH:

Without doubt, the best organized meta on the server. In any other server, or against any other enemy, WaR would’ve won this hands down.
Mostly new-comers, the pretty soon dominated their quadrant after merging with FWH. Firmly led by Angus Grim and a solid council, they were pretty much calmed in the SE growing their armies. Minor and un-challenging battles with Rangers took place during mid-game which allowed them to show the server their fighting skills and the size of their hammers. Special mention to WaR-FWH 4 attack team, it was a well oiled killing machine.
During the “North” disband, they picked up a group of 100-150 players from the NW including the elite players of that meta.
Confeded Loner soon after. During end-game confeded the last un-allied meta (Unite) that had no end-game chances due to lack of World Wonder construction plans.
Did an excellent performance attacking ART’s WWs. However, they ran out of offense power and both Unite and Loner didn’t have enough fire power to damage Ranger’s WWs properly.
Eventually realized that they had no real chance of winning with their own WWs and decided to go full support on Loner’s WW and virtually (get) the win.

4.- Rangers:

The largest Meta of the server. A “particular” alliance formed by a collection of players on the NE (and some in the NW). They ruled under the assumption that: “If you are a ranger, you are not a farm and you’ll have full support from us no matter how small or active you are”. Led by Cupcakes and SOB at first and then by SOB and Shadowalker, they managed to hold together those 1500 players for 9 months. That is, by itself, an impressive achievement.
Fought Loner most of the server and reduced the Loner meta (named at that time Elements) from 180ish players to 21.
Probably the most underestimated alliance on the server was a major factor from the beginning until the end.
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I want to openly acknowledge friends and foes for an excellent server.
I also want to take this opportunity to apologize to all those ABCers that gave me the honor to lead them. I did my best for ABC to win this server, and I was always true to my beliefs. In my eyes you are all winners since you won ALL the wars you fought on this war game. I’m truly sorry we didn’t get the final prize but no one can take away from you what you’ve done and your personal achievements.
 

It was always a pleasure.
Thetan

 

Thetan was one of the leaders of ABC, which made up the ART Meta-Alliance along with the alliances Rangers and TK. In addition to helping lead the Meta, he also held a World Wonder City and was the #6 attacker and #7 defender in the game.