[A/H] Lordaeron expedition/campaign [halted]

OOC: This is a thread for posting updates, requests and discussion for those who are taking, have taken or are going to take part in the expedition to southern Lordaeron and maybe even further into the subcontinent.

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Lordaeron is the northernmost subcontinent of the Eastern Kingdoms. The same name was used for a former human kingdom, the Kingdom of Lordaeron (aka Lordaeron Empire) which dominated most of the subcontinent up until its fall in the Third War. The name Lordaeron comes from the three main Alliance race languages: "lorn" (in Dwarven) that means "land", "daer" (in Common) that means "people" and "ronae" (in Thalassian) that means peaceful. The former kingdom's capital, usually referred to as Capital City, was also formally called Lordaeron City.

IC
The Ninth Company started this expedition into Lordaeron due to a command from the King Varian Wrynn, what connects into giving it are things of the past and for now the Ninth Company concentrates on fulfilling the very order from the King.

What led to this and what is happening in the northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms is the following:

At first a counselor of the Arathi Nation was requesting aid from the orders of Stormwind to help the Stromgrade army. After a short while the King gave the Ninth Company a possibility to, in a way, clear their record from being a troublemaker with a valorous act to travel to Arathi Highlands and support the Alliance there.

Arathi Nation
Arathi Nation is an order working at various locations. They have as their cause especially in this context to reclaim back the lands of the once mighty human Kingdom of Arathor. The Arathi Nation holds deep devotion to the legacy of the ancient people of Arathi, from whom even the Kingdom of Stormwind is gaining its roots from.

What has happened up to this day is:
After traveling from the Kingdom of Stormwind without disruptions on the way, the settlement of Dun Modr became their first encampent. From there the expedition force moved to Arathi Highlands and took a section of the very city of Stromgarde into their possession from the Syndicate that has been a trouble in the city for a long time.    

The forward group departs from the Kingdom of Stormwind.
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The after party departs from Kingdom of Stormwind.
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On Lakeshire bridge
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Pays homage to Lord Anduin Lothar.
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Stromgrade from afar.
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Entering to Stromgarde.
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Before claiming a section of the city.
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The expedition force has been settling into the city of Stromgarde and in near future will take more sections of the city into the use of the expedition.

In the future there will be also plans and missions to be made to claim positions outside the city in the areas of Arathi Highlands, at Hillsbrad Foothills and maybe even at Alterac. Positions being the structures and resources not claimed by the Horde. Later or if there is a necessity seen to attack also Horde controlled positions, these measures may be considered.

OOC:
So what I ask is for the other Alliance guilds to become part of this expediton. What they will decide to do in the area is up to them, but support for this expedition would be most welcomed, from guilds and individuals. Just /who Arathi Highlands, or /join IX (ingame chat channel), if you wish to join Ninth Company rp there, and ask for their location or a raid invite. The rp is happening at certain times, when we have enough available participants online to have rp in the area. Mostly late evenings.

Horde? Yes, we need you to be there, not for us, but for rp-pvp. It's a contested zone, so it's not possible to evade behind the blueshield. So, if you wish to have a battle, there should be those willing to have it. There are also ic reasons for Horde to be there, since maybe it's a bit too near their lands so, perhaps, maybe, they'd like to prevent this Alliance assembling there? Open for spontaneous pvp, unexpected, surprised, yes, no warnings, aye, just plain rp-pvp. Uneven groups, checked. Make the opponent feel threatened, why not? Only this might interest some wpvp:ers with flying mounts charging, which might take place, but who gives a damn about a few corpse runs then and there. IC those flying mounts would be possibly arrowed to the ground and their riders would be quite hurt from the fall, so there is no real ic threat from the possible gankers.

Well this is the situation packed a bit short, the guild The Ninth Company will stay there what ever happens, since it's a command they can't undo. They might not succeed, depends, might be that they find the expedition or campaign in Lordaeron too difficult or impossible to accomplish, but it's really worth trying.

There aren't to much coast in Arathi, and the zone itself is far from plentiful in terms of resources and valuable loot, so Red Reach Raiders may be leaving it up to Silvermoon/Undercity based guilds to face this threat. Obviously if a full-scale Call to Arms is sound on the Horde, we to will enter the fray to raid your supply caravans.

The Horde gathering is the day after tomorrow I take, with any luck we can ICly do a Call to Arms and see about throwing a few bobbies over there, sadly we're not in a position yet to go at it alone, still with a Horde guild or two backing us up we should be numbers enough to give you a fun fight!

Hope to see you soon

Hey this sounds awesome, hope the Red Reach Raiders along with other Horde guilds eventually decide to come and attempt to repel the Alliance forces. I'll gladly take part. Nice move !

I'll be in and around the area supporting the Ninth with any armour and weapon repairs and replacements they need.

Always happy to participate in some RP-PvP too so if something gets organized in Arathi please invite me!  

Haza! were on the way dude!

Aaaand a little something to put the fear of

WAAGGHHH!!!:

into you XD

Since you said you wanted it to be a randomish attack I'll withhold the date time from here, but i can let you know in b-tag if you like

I think this screenshot tells more than a short explanation I could give on this matter of Horde Gathering and its results yesterday. It's is purely OOC connection, so no IC connection to Alliance.
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But there might really be use for some well armed Alliance combatants with their own leadership and plans, possibly. I could pass the asking for it on an alt at Alliance gatherings. So please Alliance individuals/guilds start grabbing some supplies, gear, weapons, ammunitions, spellbooks and mounts. Get into the Arathi Highlands or Hillsbrad Foothills. Wait for next week and do much preparations, claim a sustainable base of operations before the Horde arrive. Or you can join the Ninth Company rp, which is currently happening at Stromgarde city, almost done with the reclaiming it. Soon going on missions outside the city walls.

Let them come, the Ninth Hungers...



As said the Ninth is performing it's own campaign in the same region so we will come to clash blades with the Horde offensive. Any guild interested in joining us please contact either Mallucis, Reyxor or myself so we can arrange some stuff IC.
Same goes for if you plan to launch your own campaign in the area, please contact us so we don't accidentaly overrun your events.

CoKM would be interested if I can read my members right. We can add some reinforcements should you wish so.

The Clans will be most welcome to join the Ninth in the campaign.

Cheers for this, do you mind us making use of your map in game mate? should be a nice addition for the planning and such

This map has been posted, so that we all are on the same page. Obviously, all information on it could be acquired by a single reconnaissance mission. So, feel free!

Yesterday was a good one, if we could have less concentration on numbers I think it would feel more real though. Like we took away our ic leader for the Horde, to even up numbers, ehm.

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IC:
A new mission, a rather important though for the Alliance:
Today 18. May a small sized group of Alliance will try to claim the Northfold Manor (farm in the north west of Arathi Highlands.). They'll travel from Stromgarde starting at 20:00, if the gods are willing.

OOC:
I'm posting the time and location for testing, if this way there could be organized rp-pvp. If there are no Horde present, I think Northfold Manor will be in Alliance control. This can be rather smallish mission, remains to be seen how many we can gather. Certainly this isn't meant to be a large military movement, but a smaller one. So if any Horde wants to have a fight over the Manor feel free to be around there at that time.

At the moment the Horde intent is to reconvene on the Nineteenth to decide how to proceed (Currently ICly holding at Galens Fall)

As for the numbers, it's a necessary evil, had we simply thrown everyone who we had into the fray it would have been a joyless steam roll, and so we maintained a "Reserve" force at Galens Fall during the battle to maintain equal numbers, moving people up and back as was needed

Everyone who attended from the Horde thoroughly enjoyed the fight and looks keen to do more, the only "Complaint" seems to have been one or two "In battle" corpse runs, but I think the more battles we have the more innate the "Etiquette" will become for people.

So far, we have been going with a -All abilities are fine. if you die stay in your body-
(I'm hoping to stick with that as it keeps things simple)

Thanks for the great event and hope to do more soon!

((Edit** It was originally to be lead by Dolerian Anshal Anore but sadly he was not present, I've yet to learn why and I was given command OOC and IC in his absence by the Horde leaders, history repeats it's self, ha!))

Artorus Yorelas wrote:((Edit** It was originally to be lead by Dolerian Anshal Anore but sadly he was not present, I've yet to learn why and I was given command OOC and IC in his absence by the Horde leaders, history repeats it's self, ha!))

I haven't seen Dolerien for the entire week, despite trying to catch him online all the way since the last Gathering.

Leadership is generally shoved the volunteer persons way that character look like they'd be a capable leader, or if they are the OOC organizer of the Campaign.

I'll show up to the scene myself with the rest of the Raiders at some point tonight. I will however be occupied tomorrow evening, so you'll try to send someone else to represent Raiders to the 19th day gathering.

As the leader of the Ninth I have an appeal to all leaders co-organising the events:

TL:DR:

I am not the oldest roleplayer on the server, but I have been here long enough to remember some grand IC WPvP campaigns in the past. What I can remember from them are two things: playing "by the book" and even matches. Let me elaborate these two.

Balance Of Forces

First and most important part is to how to execute battles In Character. One thing that I find most important is to not to let it be only about the numbers - the more you bring the better for you. I think I do not need to explain that to the Horde, who have less roleplayers in total then the Alliance, so, following this idea would almost certainly mean that the Horde will loose. Then, someone could suggest using casual PvP guilds. But then, the Alliance side would also start to use them. And this is how we end up with pure WPvP a la Soutshore vs. Tarren Mill. And I can not see any logical way of keeping it In Character.
The ideal solution would be to have two groups, even in numbers, where all participants are full geared. Of course, this is also quite troublesome, as not only there are classes more "heroic" than other, but we all know how hard it is to have even 10 full geared players. However, in my view, this is how PvP works (for now), and it could actually serve as good motivation for those not having the gear yet to obtain it. The issue with legendary rings works the same here - it would be unwise to ban them.
There is, however, one thing that should not be allowed, as it may lead to unnecessary drama, namely: combat resurrection. It has always been like this the person who dies stays in his body till the round is over and resurrection break is announced. Therefore, this, next to the numbers limit, should be applied obligatory.
Of course, there will be evenings when one side have more numbers than the other, but I think there are many things to overcome this. One is obvious - send as many as the other side have and hold the rest in your reserve and swap them if needed. The other is to divide the main body into smaller groups who could have smaller skirmishes around minor objectives.

"But, the lore..."

Roleplaying a PvP campaign is rather tricky; as we know, our IC actions are not reflected in any form. When one faction captures an objective it stays captured only if he other side gives their consent to that. And the fact of that objective being captured exists only in the mutual agreement between both factions, as this will never be reflected in any form in game. Therefore, initial arrangements and discussion is vital to be on the same page. This way, the said objective may be later on used by the faction who has captured it, no matter is it still during the very campaign that brought the victory over it or month or years later, for other initiatives to come. In here the easiest way is to stick to those settlements/zones/points that are already under control by your own factions. This policy, however, not only limits the roleplay greatly but it also forces leaders to ignore strategic points, that should be taken into account.

The good example of this can be pointed out during this campaign in Arathi Highlands. The area is obviously contested, and from a very long time there were scarcely any changes applied (After Vanilla the only change was introduced in Cataclysm, bringing the tunnel leading to Hinterlands, renewed quest chains, and flight path at Galen's Fall for the Horde).
"Lands of Conflict," a RPG book from 2004 describes something that is hardly noticeable in game, like the total population reaching 6,000 (84% human, 10% Horde orc, 5% Ironforge dwarf, 1% half-orc) with Stromagrde garrison couting 1200 men, and Hammerfall - 600 men.
It is unknown, where Arathi Basin should be actually placed (is Refugee Point valley resembling it?). Stromgarde is said to hold [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], yet there is no single officer there (only in Cataclysm Prince Galen Trollbane was placed as NPC and that happened, however, after he was raised by the Forsaken). Even though there are Caretakers in the crypt, there is no tomb of King Thoras, neither a famous room of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
There were many in Defias Brotherhood Rp Communitry who tried to roleplay the remnats of the Stromagrde Kingdom ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]).

During the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in Durotar following the lore was much easier, as most of the events surrounding the Siege of Ogrimmar were described in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. In Arathi Highlands following the lore is much more complicated. As can be seen there is a lot of things to be done to make this region functional for either faction. And yet, those of you who have sneak peaked into Lagion(TM)'s changes know, that this area can not be captured (at least by the Alliance). From the other hand, I cannot imagine Dwarves of Khaz Modan accepting the fact, that on the other side of Thandol Span there is a Horde land. No matter the end result, this problems can be surpassed by looking at a WPvP campaign as it was a 40 men battleground.

What is needed is to establish Major Objectives and Minor Objectives. In case of Arathi Highlands Major Objective would obviously be those places controlled by a faction (Stromgarde, Refugee Point, Hammerfall, Go'shek, Daybyrie's Farm). Minor Objectives can be anything else, from points existing in game, like Boulder'gor Ogre Mound or Whiterbark Village, or even barricades/walls/etc. constructed by roleplayers themselves. If you dig through the forums you will learn, that each major IC WPvP campaign was accompanied by a map of strategic locations.

As it happens this campaign has introduced two maps already, one more general fro both sides, and one more specific, for Alliance eyes only. I wish those can be used by more than just one guild, so that both sides knows, they do not need to have 10 battles over one point only.

Let me know what you think. I tried to have this talked over with all Alliance and Horde guilds, but it takes a while to first impose a mean of communication and then gather all there, after we have lost the chance to use battle.net conferences.

Easrus

Don't see any issues with the balance of power proposal, its more or less what we had aimed for on the first night, with the added stipulation no combat ress's tacked on so thats easy done

As for the IC objectives I have some ideas regarding that and a "plan" for how we can spread the campaign out to make use of each strategic point.

Still need to meet tonight with the Horde and see where the chips fall ICly, but once an outcome has been reached there, should be free for an OOC chat in discord if your game for that

What are the skulls? The legend doesn't really point it out.

Horde War Council has concluded - Were on for tomorrow evening @ 20:00
(20th, Friday)

I'll be leading the Horde forces and am the port of call for the Alliance raid leader, whom ever that may be.

(You can add my B-Tag by checking in my signature)

Numbers are as of yet unknown, but we will aim to balance that on the night.
See you soon!

Normally on our side it will be Mallucis that leads us. I'll add you on Bnet to be sure in case you can't reach him.

Probably not there myself tomorrow.

siegmund wrote:What are the skulls? The legend doesn't really point it out.

Hamlet. Players speaking the monologue by Yorik's tomb, of corse.

Horde conceded Boulderfist Outpost, withdrawing to fortify Northfold Manor to allow them to withdraw back to Galen's fall; The next target being the Cove - Were on for tomorrow evening @ 20:00
(21th, Saturday)

I'll be leading the Horde forces and am the port of call for the Alliance raid leader, whom ever that may be.

(You can add my B-Tag by checking in my signature)

Numbers are as of yet unknown, but we will aim to balance that on the night.
See you soon!