War Games Commencement

[Alex Ayres]

As someone who knows nothing about war in the city, I really appreciate the detailed explanations! These are interesting and fun videos either way, but the extra information is a great addition!

[Seyda]

Video 10 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/22/24 AM

“Hello! Seyda here to bring you yesterday’s recap on the War Games. To circle back to the Committee in session–they are still in session. There are a few details that they haven't worked out which are necessary to appropriately deliver a ruling, so all things are still go for both teams for now.

As for yesterday, The Shroud came out with an early lead in damage done after shadow scrolling a whopping 230 pints off Kataya overnight. Invictus activated early and swung through to take the lead on hit count, but interestingly enough, instead of holy watering Brom, Aydan bit him. Did 2005 Aydan enter the chat? Was it a bait? A challenge? No one truly knows but Aydan, but I’m sure there was a collective side eye from all corners of the city before the speculation began.

With a few hours left in the day, the Shroud activates, dropping some hits on Aydan and Vanitas and moving into more shadow scrolling of Kataya. All in all, they took 620 pints off her in ONE DAY. I love me some shadow scrolling, and that amount of blood loss with only three competitors is top tier. A fun fact, someone else had 620 blood loss yesterday– Brom with the biggest ass on the field who took 2 holy water. That’s how significant that scrolling party was.

For those of you not as familiar with war, and now that both sides have clearly shown their strategies, I want to break down what is going on with Kataya on both sides. As I’ve mentioned previously, the Shroud is deploying a maximum damage strategy. This means that they are willing to throw any resources they can, hard weapons like holy water or UV or soft weapons like scrolls of turning at Kataya as often as they can to try to bring her blood down as much as they can. Now typically, a side would not deploy this strategy so early. However, because we are in a war simulation, there are time constraints that typically would not exist. The Shroud had to do the math and figure out how and when to strategically deploy, and I personally feel they deployed exactly when they needed to if they had a chance at all of this working.

Invictus, on the other hand, has committed themselves to making maximum damage as hard as they can for the Shroud to pull off. After they gave up six hits on Kataya throughout Saturday, which I’m not going to lie, Coach Seyda had some THINGS TO SAY about that, she has positioned herself in deep shadows. This means in order for Shroud to deploy maximum damage, they have to play pitch catch between the sighter and the scroller because you have to utilize Locate 2 to find Kataya in the shadows. It takes a lot of coordination and finesse to shadow scroll and Shroud had to WORK for every ounce of that 620 BP.

Another fun fact for everyone but her, Everly’s war with those outside of the War Games continues as well. She’s up to two hunters and a werewolf who have ganked her ass in the past few days. I’m not sure what she did to piss them off, but they took it personally it seems.

Overall, Invictus won the day on both blood loss and hits and still hold the lead with coin overall. The action on the field overall has slowed slightly, but the action off the field has not. Both teams have been making full use of the coaches given to them. I can’t comment on whether or not their impact is being seen on the field because my commenting on myself would be weird and extended third party language is weirder. Perhaps another round of interviews from the Dandelion Queen is in order.

But for now, I’m Seyda St. John Wolfe-Adaire signing off!”

[Oberon]

I love my early evenings watching my recaps. What a delight.

I hope Annabelle comes up with interviews soon, too. Can't wait to hear what both ends of this game are feeling about the conflict in general.

[Seyda]

Video 11 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/22/24 MidDay


“Hi all! Seyda St. John Wolfe-Adaire quickly checking in because the first Commentator Affix is in! Vex just notified both teams just a few moments ago that 12 hours from now, all team members must relocate to within a 5 square radius of any transit station and remain there for 48 hours. Scrolls of Displacement are off the table once the participants arrive. If someone leaves or is removed from the area, they must return as soon as possible and failure to return comes at a cost of 1 teleport added to their cost totals. I’m interested in seeing how both teams respond to this affix! Signing out for now!”

[Alex Ayres]

Video 10 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/22/24 AM

Invictus activated early and swung through to take the lead on hit count, but interestingly enough, instead of holy watering Brom, Aydan bit him.

Is this the war equivalent of being in a heated argument with someone and in the middle of it tapping their nose and going "Boop."?

[Annabelle]

*video begins playing*

Good evening, RavenBlack City. For this special update, I’ve taken a page out of my lovely wife’s book - or camera, as it were - to bring this to you as quickly as possible.

Today was a hot day for the War Games and I went straight to some of the team members to get their opinions. Take a look.

<pan to Annabelle and Aydan- Team Invictus>

Annabelle: Well first off, I was glued to my phone watching your team in the war room just a bit ago. Can you walk through how you and your team came up with your plan?

Aydan: I hope you enjoyed watching as much as we did playing! It was fairly simple really. Kataya noted that Brom had sent her a telepathic message during their scrolling last night and then parked himself nearby to Kataya, offering her a 'free hit'. However, what hit can really be free? This one would have come with a cost that we just weren't willing to pay, so I went in instead.

Annabelle: What would the cost have been?

Aydan: Kataya.

Annabelle: Meaning, Kataya would have had to move to get her “free” hit on Brom, thus opening her up to more attacks. So what was your plan going in?

Aydan: Exactly, and we weren't going to risk that. Brom had stated the free hit, but there was never a chance Kataya was going to fall for that and he will have known it, so we had choices. I scrolled him into my own square twice, one of those times to get the Holy Water, which was quite nice. So 170 damage, on top of that Holy Water. Worked quite nicely.

Annabelle: It was very fun to watch, indeed. How do you think Team Shroud will react to these events?

Aydan: I'm staring at a few vials, but that's perfectly fine.

Annabelle: Well thank you for that insight. As I said, I will hold this until things unfold with Team Shroud. Is there anything else you’d like to add before I sign off?

Aydan: "Never a problem, dear. The only thing I would like to say, right now, is that we're having a blast. There's something coming that I think everyone will enjoy."

<pan to Annabelle and Everly - Team Shroud. Everly is grilling a steak>

Annabelle: I was hoping to get your view on the tactics team Invictus employed earlier today in regard to scrolling Brom

Everly: I... largely don't understand it, really. *Her brow pinched together and she chewed on her lower lip for a moment.* The recording shows Aydan burning Brom, then scrolling some more. That may be a mistake and he could have just been scrolled out of his home, then burned. But if it's to be believed, it's just a waste on their end. Coin and energy being spent when they're already in the lead. Maybe trying to taunt Brom into a duel? Or knock him further away from Insanity so he has to burn more energy?

Annabelle: *She tilts her head somewhat, thinking.* I don’t believe Brom was in his home when he was scrolled was he? Perhaps I’m mistaken.

Everly: Damn, you're right. I'm sorry, I was half asleep when I checked that recording this morning.

Yeah, total waste then. *Turned and flipped the steak, then turned again and poured some spice onto the roast.* Either trying to reciprocate damage, taunt him into going live, or just done out of frustration.

It was especially risky considering how close he was to Kataya. I hope she didn't take any friendly fire.

The way things stood last night before the new rules, the three of them could have parked in Shadows for the rest of the game and won based on blood loss alone.



***Later today, the War Games Committee put into place an affix, which Seyda spelled out earlier. Here is what the two had to say for their initial reactions.


<pan back to Annabelle and Aydan>

Annabelle: One more question before this affix blows up. What is your initial take on the affix?

Aydan: Initially? It's an interesting twist, but we don't like it. We've adapted, been through it with a fine-toothed comb. It has the potential to make things interesting, but the question is, if things *needed* to be more interesting, and why now? Just as things were getting interesting on their own.


<pan back to Annabelle and Everly>

Annabelle: What do you think of the affix?

Everly: I mean tactically, it's definitely in our favor if we manage to play our cards right. I think it's fun too - keeps people on their toes, forces them to rework strategies, engage a little more than they might have been.

Annabelle: I think so too! I was personally looking forward to an affix, even though I didn’t know what it would be. It was one of the things I thought made the War Games so interesting as we were planning.

Everly: I know the transit idea was a proposed idea, I just didn't think we'd be lucky enough for that to be the *actual* twist. I really enjoy that aspect of these games and I'm looking forward to seeing what Invictus does with it.


So there you have it! Now let’s watch this affix unfold!

[Seyda]

Video 12 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/23/24 AM


“Hi all. Seyda here bringing you a brief update on yesterday. A lot of stuff went down yesterday after the first affix of the season was dropped, and to be honest, I can’t provide an appropriate level of commentary right now until I’ve fully processed and reflected. So a brief summary to keep everyone in the loop. The affix went active about 7 hours ago so teams are confined to an area one sprint from the radius. Both teams negotiated and agreed that Euterpe would be off limits due to the Graveyard.

At close of day, or as close to close of day I could get because sightings were being dropped while teams were still activated, Invictus took the day in both blood loss and hits. Coin was probably a toss up yesterday.”

[Seyda]

Video 13 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/23/24 Afternoon


“Hi all! Seyda here again bringing you another update on today. As most of you know, the War Games is a new concept and this is our first of hopefully many simulated experiences. Because it is a simulation, we have artificial concepts and constraints that have created a warring environment that is similar to the real thing, but the Committee began noticing some unintended impacts from those constraints. One, these are very small teams of three who are responsible for doing all the tasks of war for their times. In a typical warring environment, this work is spread amongst more than three people. This creates additional stressors in an already stressful environment.

On top of that, as I’ve mentioned previously The Shroud had to deploy a maximum damage strategy early on in order to try for a zero before the 14 day event ended. For those of you not well versed in war, this particular strategy is typically only used over the course of a few days and is a very high stress situation whether you’re the ones doing the damage or the ones defending.

Now, the amount of time invested by these competitors to manage all the tasks needed for war and also play out a maximum damage strategy has not only left them exhausted, but has created a level of personal investment where feelings have the potential to be bruised quicker than in a normal war situation.

Seeing this, and after a discussion with the Committee, I have opted to use my own affix for the Games for respite. I notified both teams a short while ago that until Thursday at 1pm Eastern, both teams and any associates are frozen in the City. They are allowed to continue strategizing with each other, but all other war related activities are shut down until my Freeze ends. Tomorrow afternoon, combatants will walk back into War Games with Vex’s affix still in place.

I’m going to take this time to have a break of my own. We’ll be back in action tomorrow!”

[Seyda]

Video 14 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/25/24 Afternoon

“Hi all! Seyda here with an update on where we stand with War Games! At 1pm Eastern yesterday, my freeze affix expired which left our contestants back in the world of Vex’s affix, which requires them to remain within 5 steps of any transit. Based on the numbers, both sides could claim a victory last night as both of them deployed strategies that largely worked. There was also a lot of things happening off the battlefield as well, so before we talk about the action, I want to give a quick update on that.

As we are starting to move into the last part of the Games, the Committee had a quick conference because there hadn’t been a clear definition of what a zero would be. Historically, what I’ll call a classic zero was blood of 9 or below, as scrolls of turning will not remove a level less than 10. Over the last decade, as stakes and UVs moved into our shops, most people go by a clean zero. To avoid any potential issues should the case arise, Annabelle had a conversation with both teams and as a result, the classic zero of 9 pints or below was adopted.

As the day moved on, I learned that my freeze was not entirely effective at helping people manage the emotions around the psychological aspects of warfare. As a result, various members of the committee spent time in and out of each team’s war rooms to help them navigate the psychological impacts and to try to get to the root of some of these issues. During the evening, I halted play for both teams for 90 minutes and brought them to the roundtable where we discussed some of these things and worked to them close to the same page. By the end of the conversation, the following three adjustments were made for the remainder of the Games. One, associates may only work to provide sighting, shadow sighting, and shop hunting. Two, both teams were informed that The Shroud had made the decision to stop utilizing the Battle Arena for movement earlier in the day. And finally, I will be serving as an Emotional Regulation coach slash mediator for both teams to give participants a resource if some psychological digs land and to help mediate conversations around intent and ensure that things don’t build up. I’m not going to say that everything is copacetic at this time, but I’m hopeful the teams get there.

I mentioned earlier that both teams have the capacity to claim a victory from last night because both of them were deploying completely different strategies, but both seemed to simultaneously work, which was interesting to watch. For The Shroud, they stayed committed to their maximum damage strategy and were leveraging the boundaries of the area to continuously scroll Kataya out of bounds, which would then require her to move and be open to more hard weapon hits. Their first attempt at this took only THREE minutes to complete. They were able to get her down to 1044 pints before she popped the first blood potion of the Games. She ended the night at 1854, but at the time of this video, she’s currently sitting at 1331 pints, which means she’s only a few hundred pints away from having to gobble another. I’m anticipating that The Shroud will continue to deploy this strategy as much as they can until Vex’s affix runs out at 11:15pm Eastern tonight. Invictus also took full advantage of the boundaries, not to attempt to push anyone out of bounds, but to quick strike The Shroud while they were scrolling Kataya. This resulted in them adding 4 hits and another 3,000 plus worth of damage to their damage and hits leads. Trust when I say, The Shroud HAS to take advantage of the remainder of this affix to continue deploying their strategy as it’s going to be difficult for them to make up hits and maintain maximum damage. For Invictus, they have two main goals. They need to keep Kataya alive and they need to keep adding numbers to no zero winning conditions.

For now, this is Seyda St. John Wolfe-Adaire signing out.”

[Seyda]

Video 15 Uploaded - Timestamp 10/26/24 Morning

“Hi all! Seyda here with a War Games update, which is a little lighter since my previous report was later than my usual. Vex’s transit affix expired 45 minutes before the day closed. In the afternoon Invictus went on a run, and the Shroud was able to push Kataya’s blood down to 789 before getting her out of bounds again, prompting her to drink her second blood potion of the games. Both teams spent significant time throughout the afternoon and evening engaged in strategic sessions; not only with what to do with the remaining timer on the affix but what to do afterwards. During the evening, the committee handed both teams shop locations which prompted discussions on both sides on strategies around necro. For those of you not war attuned, people have the capability to visit a necromancer within potion shops and a few fixed locations in the city and pay to have most of the blood taken by weapons restored to them. Both teams locked into almost simultaneous discussions around the topic for quite some time.

It appears as if the Shroud could have run into some energy issues, as they had pushed Kataya out of bounds in the afternoon, but did not make another move against her and let the timer on the affix expire. It could also be because Everly herself has dropped into the 1900 blood range and there were some necessary judgment calls made in light of that. Invictus continued to deploy the same strategy has the day before, and the hit counts were identical to the previous day. Overnight, Invictus went on a run and snagged the early hit and damage leads heading into today. Last week, the Shroud deployed a different looking strategy during the weekend hours. I’m interested in seeing if there will be any adjustments made this weekend as well.

For now, I’m Seyda St. John Wolfe-Adaire signing off!”