A Christmas Challenge
Printed From: Illyriad
Category: The World
Forum Name: Elgea
Forum Description: For everything related to the Elgea Continent
URL: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=2819
Printed Date: 16 Apr 2022 at 23:34
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: A Christmas Challenge
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Subject: A Christmas Challenge
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2011 at 22:23
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This winter, as boys and girls around Illyria await their seasonal gifts, there is only one present that everyone wants. For Illyria's most revered author, J K K Tolkring, has again penned a wonderful tale to delight young and old. In the latest installment of Tolkring's highly original story, a small group of diminutive innocents discover a world beyond their narrow horizons, a wold of wonder, where good and evil clash in a great conflict; thrust in to the midst of this conflict, our diminutive innocents must transport the Horcruxring through hostile territory, dodging Rideaters and Snatchorcs, while the mighty Horcruxring tries to twist their minds. But will they destroy the Horcruxring to break the power of the ancient reborn dark villain? Find out, in this thrilling book! But oh dear! In Illyria, there are no printing presses. Books must be copied by hand, slowly, oh so slowly. And so very, very few of Illyria's children will receive a copy of the book! So few will be copied in time for the winter festival, that most of the children will be disappointed! Such literary wonders are prizes to be fought over. There are those who will kill to get a copy! Who will seize the rare copies of these prized books before the winter festival? Next week we'll be starting a new challenge, a game of competitive Blockading for mid-sized alliances. This is a player-generated tourney, not an official tournament, so there are no in-game prizes, but for those keen on a fun, military competition, this will give you a solid challenge in the month leading up to Christmas! So, who's game? We're looking for medium-sized alliances - big enough to have at least a few decent armies, but not so huge that you'll make this uninteresting. So, no alliances with maxed-out players or super-players, I'm afraid - you guys will doubtless be able to enjoy the next official Tournaments from the GMs, and there's no fun for everyone else in getting flattened effortlessly by your uber-armies. Rules of the challenge are here: http://illyolympics.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/limited-editions/" rel="nofollow - http://illyolympics.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/limited-editions/ Message me (Kurdruk) in game, or reply here if you are interested! Update - final list of competitors: http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/406" rel="nofollow - Black Skull Horde http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/523" rel="nofollow - Crows Nest http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/531" rel="nofollow - Eagles Eyrie http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/521" rel="nofollow - Lords of Frost http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/344" rel="nofollow - Persona Armoniosa ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Replies:
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 22 Nov 2011 at 23:04
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Quick update - could someone from Cave of Knowledge and Crows Nest confirm that you guys are up for this - or not, as the case may be. It would be handy to know, so we can confirm the details and get things started in the next 48 hours! Thanks, Kurdruk ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 23 Nov 2011 at 19:13
| Kurdruk, you have unread mail from me. Absolutely Crows Nest is coming! |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 24 Nov 2011 at 23:18
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OK folks, we don't have any confirmation from CoK, so, lets keep this to the five who were keen. Details will be circulated in the next couple of hours..... ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 18:14
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Well, blood has been spilled, and the first two books captured. It seems that nCrow and P A went for a quick response, swiftly setting up a series of Blackades, and then being attacked by Lords of Frost and Black Skull Horde. The first two books have been captured, by nCrow and BSH. Full results of the first (of four) dispatches will be posted when they are in. ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Belthazor
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 18:16
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Hey, K Boss! The Cave really wants some action but we're not exactly ready to go on a tourney now. You know, school and all that keeps messing up our Illy time. I think.
Besides, we don't want Luc and Mak to completely destroy everyone...  ------------- We work in the Dark to serve the Light |
Posted By: Mandarins31
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 18:32
| Very nice initiative. Hope the competition will be hard and full of surprises :) |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 18:35
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Belthazor - No problem. I saw that you have some more serious issues, which might make you wary of losing troops right now. And yes, you have some scary players! So, some other time, perhaps? I'm trying to think of a mechanic that allows large. medium and small alliances to compete together without the medium and small ones getting utterly squeezed out :-/ Mandarins - Appreciated, thanks! ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Belthazor
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 18:40
Sounds good to me  ------------- We work in the Dark to serve the Light |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 29 Nov 2011 at 22:46
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Scores after the capture of the first shipments stand at: Crows Nest 3 Lords of Frost 2 Black Skull Horde 1 Persona Armoniosa 1 Eagles Eyrie 0 MOREOVER, SunStorm has offered prizes for those who excel at this challenge! (All hail SunStorm!) There will be 4 prize categories: Best individual score Best alliance score (prize to be given to one player of that alliance, at that alliance's choice) The Underdog Bites (smallest player to capture at least 1 book) Players' Choice (player voted as having put up the best fight, by all competitors) In each category there will be First Prize, 1200 Books + 1200 Horses Second Prize, 800 Books + 800 Horses Third Prize, 500 Books + 500 Horses ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 30 Nov 2011 at 03:40
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Congrats to my colleagues Cookieman and (EOM) Harry for capturing books in the first round. However, honors also go to Thorulfr who drew the first blood defending a blockade, and to Venadine, Greyhawke, SonofCharlie, BenDunder, Belle of the Vale, Wymara and Axilmeus who had supporting occupations and blockades. Congrats also to the other alliances, and good fighting in the weeks ahead! Thanks to Kurdruk for coordinating this competition -- we're having a blast!
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Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 30 Nov 2011 at 07:48
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Many thanks to organizers we are having a lot of fun in BSH. We started a bit late for first round of book shipments, but I'm certain that we will do better for second round. We destroyed quite few blockading camps so hide your forces the horde is coming! P.S. My destruction of CHAMP siege camp that was near a tourney town was totally accidental and unintentional. We orcs usually send troops before scouting, if they die they were never fit enough in the first place.
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Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 30 Nov 2011 at 07:57
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A quick question: Now there are many towns with multiple blockading armies. Which army is most likely to capture the caravan? Perhaps the biggest or the army facing the direction of incoming caravan or is it random?
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Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2011 at 07:11
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(Bonaparta - I believe the first Blockade to be set up will capture the caravan(s). So, it's not enough to have a blockade - you also have to destroy any blockades established before yours.) I'll admit I'm really enjoying watching how people approach this. The first round went largely to those who took a risk and moved fast, this week there have been some very quiet target towns and also some very crowded/bloody ones. All good fun - and congratulations to all who have captured books or fought with valour thus far! ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2011 at 07:30
And then there are the quietly bloody towns ... |
Posted By: LadyLuvs
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2011 at 12:39
Heh, I hate this game forum. My members even stay away for the most part. I didn't know about this. Maybe T? will participate next time. Enjoy yourselves. Best of luck to the winner.  ------------- LadyLuvs Raven, Murder of Crows Alliance |
Posted By: SunStorm
Date Posted: 02 Dec 2011 at 07:31
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Thank you everyone for the updates in this thread. I am enjoying reading up on the progress. (^_^)
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Posted By: Marquesta
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2011 at 18:20
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Wish I'd known, this would be good exercise for our trainees :) Next time! |
Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2011 at 14:55
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Greetings book catchers! I've captured another book, yay! Now I have more copies of J.R.R. Tolkring's masterpiece. The book is ideal Xmas present, so giving my situation of owning more then 1 copy, I'm considering to gift someone who likes good literature. Unfortunately most of the fellow orcs in BSH are illiterate (which is probably the reason why not all of our members are trying that hard, next time I suggest catching the rare exquisite beer shipments ), so I might even consider to send the gift to an elf.P.S. Thank you Kurdruk for your praises in the blog, but now I'm blushing
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Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2011 at 03:03
Congrats to Cookie on another book:
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Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2011 at 07:23
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And this week's scores are in! Just received this from Boukris, from the last day or two: Joint 1st place: Crows Nest, 3 books, captured by Cookieman, (EOM) Harry and Rill, Persona Armoniosa, 3 books captured by Shamarra and Venita x2 Joint 3rd place: Eagles Eyrie, 2 books, captured by Firess and Vibs, Lords of Frost, 2 books, captured by Kurdruk and Revenent 5th place: Black Skull Horde, 1 book, captured by Bonaparta That puts the total scores at: Scores after 2/4 weeks: - – - Crows Nest: 6 Lords of Frost: 4 Persona Armoniosa: 4 Black Skull Horde: 2 Eagles Eyrie: 2 - – - Individual Captures: - – - Cookieman [nCrow]: 3 Kurdruk [Frost]: 3 Bonaparta [BSH]: 2 (EOM) Harry [nCrow]: 2 Shamarra [PA]: 2 Venita [PA]: 2 Firess [EE]: 1 Revenent [Frost]: 1 Rill [nCrow]: 1 Vibs [EE]: 1 So, nCrow stretch their lead, EE and PA rally. Congratulations especially to the small and medium players who have snatched books. ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Hugie
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2011 at 00:07
| hey excellent competition! Can latecomers join in? |
Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2011 at 02:56
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Harry's allowed in? That's not fair! ;) |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2011 at 03:47
| I promised I'd keep an eye on him, Kumo. |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2011 at 15:28
Hugie - This one is by arrangement, but I do have plans to run something that anyone can join in with. ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Hugie wrote:Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2011 at 19:56
 To put above massage in perspective, here is the part of a letter I wrote to Kurdruk a day or so ago: Master Kurdruk, I would like to discuss the other matters of book catching tourney now. Your advice in the forum about first blocking camp to catch the book can not be right as my commander “chief Bakhla the wise” was successful at catching the book even though two hostile armies were blocking the same town before him. Perhaps caravan evaded two enemy blocking camps, but I came up with another more brilliant theory. The only commander that caught both my copies of Tolkring’s masterpiece was Chief Bakhla the wise (he was named so way before book catching tourney started). He is my only commander that can actually read. All my other commanders are illiterate as the skill of reading is considered a waste of time by most of the orcs, especially true for brutal military type. Of course my other commanders can not seize the book, if they don’t know how to read and have no clue what books are. So I spent some time with my other commanders and tried to teach them how to read, but that was rather Sisyphus work. Some of them managed to remember how letter A looks like, but none of them got past letter B. Abandoning this impossible task I made a few replica book models and each of my commanders got one. Now at least they knew how the books look like. I’ve send all four of my semi book wise commanders to block towns and then something terrible happened. All four of them were instantly returned to their origin towns by apparently great magician called GM. orcs are not used to such magical trickery and of course not even I was prepared for this diabolical transportation. i was so outraged on my commanders, to let this sorcery happen upon them, that I immediately executed them. I’m teaching new set of commanders how to read. Perhaps I will be successful for the final shipment of books. Edit: Text rainbow |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2011 at 21:13
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lol, nice one Bonaparta! nCrow can confirm that it is not always the first blockade on the scene that captures the book. It's possible that it's randomly allotted, or there may be another factor. Possibly size of the blockading army? As for armies mysteriously repatriated to their towns by the powerful magic of the GMs -- what's up with that? We had several armies of our own returned this round that were NOT associated with disappearing cities. Our only possible conclusion thus far is that the GMs like Kurdruk better than they like us.
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Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 12 Dec 2011 at 20:54
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Ah, I suspect that someone - GMs, the gods of Illy, etc. - actually like nCRow netter than the rest of us. Either that or we have to accept that nCrow are wonderfully well organised, and the other 4 of us (EE, Frost, BSH, PA) are a bit shambolic. Because one way or another, nCrow have started to run away with this... Scores after 3/4 weeks - just one week to go: - - - Crows Nest: 12 Lords of Frost: 5 Persona Armoniosa: 5 Eagles Eyrie: 4 Black Skull Horde: 2 - - - Individual Captures: - - - Cookieman [nCrow]: 4 Kurdruk [Frost]: 4 Bonaparta [BSH]: 2 (EOM) Harry [nCrow]: 3 Venita [PA]: 3 Firess [EE]: 2 Narol [nCrow]: 2 Rill [nCrow]: 2 Shamarra [PA]: 2 Badmut [EE]: 1 Revenent [Frost]: 1 Vagabond [nCrow]: 1 Vibs [EE]: 1 ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2011 at 00:50
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I like "well organised" as a description better than "disturbingly obsessive." Congratulations to all of the nCrow players who have been contributing, and a tip of the hat to our competitors, who are not in the least shambolic, to which our battered armies and the ghosts of our commanders can attest. I'd like to give a shout out to the nCrow players who have contributed thus far. In particular BenDunder has provided leadership, tactical insight and coordination. Cookie, Harry, Narol, Vagabond and I can testify that even though we might have been the lucky ones to catch books, it could not have been done without the scouting, reinforcement, strategic ideas and general support of many nCrow players, in particular the following (listed in the order they appear on our member roster, not by degree of contribution): Belle of the Vale Phoenix_470 amula Erk Mr_Smiley Thorulfr MidinightMisha Mona Lisa SonofCharlie Wymara asjeff Auraya Axilmeus crash storm Fughan Manlode Georgio Greyhawke Heartfast Honey Badger Jibra'il Le Roux Richyrd R-Man Tarsius Tigernach_Charlieson Venadine Working with amazing people like this cannot fail to make us successful. Thanks once again to Kurdruk for creating this amazing challenge and to Boukris for coordinating sending the books.
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Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2011 at 10:10
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The final set of books were sent out by Boukris yesterday, and this week has seen some very fierce fighting - and an evolution in peoples' tactics. For scale of victories, BSH's hordes are hard to match, with praxitelis [BSH] still sitting in the top 5 battles this week,
or the various 2-3k dead engagements (BTW, applause to Shamarra for engagements around Inverness) The tactics certainly seem more complex (I have entirely lost track of what is happening around New, so congratulations in advance to whoever gets that) and there is a nice mix of big and small players pitching in (Frost's Herman the Just and Lady Eira attempting to take Frangor from EE was courageous, if optimistic, and I've seen armies around from other guys' small players.) So, all good fun, and congratulations to all who have taken part. I look forward to seeing the final results! ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
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Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2011 at 20:02
| This one is going to come down to the final stretch Kurdruk. There have been some fierce exchanges going down to the final hours at Ixenland in Perrigor, but it seems that nCrow must concede there. We will fight on until the last book lands though. Praxitelis from BSH and Spira Colosis from PA, among others, racked up big wins against valiant defenses by amula, crash storm, Narol and others at that city. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2011 at 21:01
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The book has evaded nCrow's blockades at Ajay in Lucerna. The van evaded HoneyBadger's blockade in that city. This site was the scene of fierce fighting throughout the week, as nCrow cavalry attacks from Mr_Smiley, Cookieman and others took out defending forces primarily from PA, including Spira Colosis. nCrow blockades were held by Cookieman, Tarsius, Rill and HoneyBadger. HoneyBadger excelled with a last-minute cavalry charge to take out a blockade by Gypsy_Morph of BSH.
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Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2011 at 21:50
| Vagabond from nCrow has fought off a last-minute charge by Badmut from Eagle's Eyrie to grab nCrow's first book of the week. Well done Vagabond! |
Posted By: Badmuts
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 at 00:00
Vagabond did well and deserves that book. He kept me busy since Friday morning and stayed one step ahead of me. Also his reinforcements arrived in time for my final charge  .I still need to work a little on my timing, which is still way off. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 at 02:06
| SonofCharlie caught the book at Ragallon after a hard fight with PA forces from Shamarra and others at that spot. Cookieman again demonstrated his prowess with well-timed attacks. Blockades from Tarsius and SonofCharlie were nipped in at the last minute after Cookieman cleared opposition forces. |
Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 at 09:22
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nCrow has captured the Taomist book. These blockades were quiet as a mouse this week, with eight blockades surrounding the city except for a few hair-raising hours when one of my armies had to nip home for some R&R and Cookieman had to slide a new army in to take its place. We were hoping no one noticed. As for why eight blockades ... probably only other challenge participants could tell you why we did that. Contrary to rumors it was NOT just because they look so pretty. Although they do look pretty ... |
Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 at 10:35
My commander "chief Bakhla the wise" captured another book, giving my theory, that only educated orcs are capable of reading, another confirmation  Praxitelis defeated around 11K Cookieman's troops earlier this week in single attack. Cookieman was "foolish" enough to send those troops to close to Mal Motsha. Congratulations to all participants and organizers. Special congratulations to nCrows who won it. BSH didn't do that well. There might be several excuses for this: - We were capturing books and most of the orcs are illiterate, if we were capturing beer we surely would do better  - only one book target town was near Mal Motsha where 90% of our towns are. - We sent our forces to long journeys instead to concentrate to towns near us.
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Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 at 21:03
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And the final scores are in! And the result is: Crows Nest: 15 Persona Armoniosa: 7 Eagles Eyrie: 7 Lords of Frost: 6 Black Skull Horde: 3 This week saw PA continue to rally, an awesome individual showing from Badmuts [EE] - who captured 3 books, despite being one of the smaller players involved - and some very heavy fighting (as already noted). But mostly, we saw a demonstration of the importance of teamwork: the last placed alliance had all captures by one player, the second to last had most of its captures by one player, and the winning alliance showed excellent teamwork and dedication from a broad range of its members. Full details of the scores are here: http://illyolympics.wordpress.com/frost/" rel="nofollow - http://illyolympics.wordpress.com/frost/ Finally, note that SunStorm offered 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for 4 categories - individual achievement, alliance victory (one player to be selected by the winning alliance), players' choice, and underdog (smallest player to make a capture). Now: 1) As there are 4 players tied for 2nd place in the individual category, I'd suggest that instead of 1st/2nd/3rd, we just split the prize pot between the top 5 players (neatly giving a share to one player from each alliance). But do shout if you think that's unreasonably soppy! 2) Could someone from each of nCrow, PA and EE please nominate a member to receive their reward. 3) Could people please message me in-game to nominate a player of your choice who you think contributed to everyone's enjoyment (only restrictions: please don't vote for anyone in your own alliance, and don't vote for me - I appreciate the many messages of thanks, but that isn't what this is about!) 4) For the underdogs, congratulations to the MANY under 10k pop players who captured books, but especially to Vagabond, Narol, and (joint 2nd place overall with just 4k pop!) Badmuts. And lastly, that you to EVERYONE who took part - great fun, thank you all!
------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |
Posted By: Firess
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2011 at 12:22
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I didn't actually realise this thread existed until today! How slack of me... Thanks very much to the organisers. Even though Kurdruk sent the majority of my armies home in body bags in the last week, I had loads of fun and have learnt a lot in the process!Kurdruk, the invoice for grave stones is in the mail...  Thanks again!  |
Posted By: HATHALDIR
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2011 at 12:25
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EE salutes Badmuts and he gets our prize!
------------- There's worse blokes than me!! |
Posted By: SunStorm
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 06:34
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Congratulations to all participants!
And many kudos to Kurdruk for hosting this excellent event!  (^_^) -------------
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Posted By: Moraki
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 10:03
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Congratulations to all participants! I wish more events to come soon! ------------- I want to live on your hug! |
Posted By: Createure
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 13:16
| Bah Humbug. |
Posted By: LordOfTheSwamp
Date Posted: 02 Jan 2012 at 10:21
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And now that the votes are in, "Players' Choice Awards" go to: Vagabond [nCrow] Bonaparta [BSH] Petitsinge [PA] Happy New Year to all... ------------- "A boy is building sandcastles on a beach. You go and kick down his castle. You could say that it only reflects how you play with sandcastles. Others may think it reflects who you are." - Ander. |