Equinox Tw strategy

This post has been copy pasted from official Calamity forum writen by ArchSeraph one of the members b:cryb:cryb:cry

Warning: This is a long post. You've been warned.

So, I'm sitting here and I look at the map. Things have changed. It's been a long time, and I come to notice the way things have gone. Part of me is happy for the way things have gone, yet another part of me hurts. Deeply. This is not some emo sob story, but rather one that none of you would've immediately guessed. You may have thought it, that nagging feeling in the back of your mind, that something that isn't right, but you just couldn't place it.

Curtains behind curtains behind curtains... the truth, it is said, hides behind layers of illusions.

About two months after having started my character, I was level 69. In TheTitans at the time, I found that I was on the top 10 for levels. I couldn't get a squad together to zhen, I couldn't put people together to quest, and at 95% I couldn't even ask people to help me with my soon-to-come FB. About a half an hour later, I hit 70. I contacted Equinox, speaking with xJaYx and told him that I was a strong leveler with the intention to join EQ. In about 10 minutes, I had said my goodbyes to my friends in TheTitans, gave them back the TT60 weapon they had helped me acquire, and donned an NPC weapon to join the ranks of EQ.

The next few months were awesome. I met some really nice people, such as Lieal and Goddess. We threw together random things to go and do, we worked hard for our levels. Life was good. TWs were rushes from our base into theirs, conquering our enemies like the bullies at a playground. Our faction was strong, and the strength was intoxicating. We used our strength to defeat our enemies, and with each enemy defeated, our faction received greater funding for further conquest.

But five minute stomp-fests, while lucrative, slowly became boring. While sitting on vent one day, I mused the idea of perhaps poking 'The Red Beast.' After all, Calamity was just another faction. Sure, they boasted strength we didn't have, but were they really all that different? We both just trailblazed the B path and overcame our enemies. We tackled Calamity the following weekend, and the result was demoralizing. EQ's first loss. After that, a blood war had ensued. Calamity and EQ were officially at war.

People came and went. I saw a lot of good friends leave, I met new people that would later replace them. I was instilled with a new desire, not to become strong to conquer other factions... to get stronger and defeat Calamity. I ascended further, and found myself near the top of the levels again. I was now leading varied TW squads, from those oriented towards destroying everything to ones meant specifically to kill barbarians. I devised strategies that, at the time, seemed revolutionary. I eventually got my own 'Nix Assault' squad, and we wrecked havoc, but not nearly enough to defeat Calamity. They had stronger levels. They had rebirth barbs. They had access to great equipment. They had spies. They had swordman. There was always a reason we could not defeat them, and when one reason didn't fit, there were multiple.

Then came the day that Calamity attacked Archosaur. I discreetly placed an application in for Calamity that day. I wanted things to go by quickly, and relatively unheard of. I was, by then, a level 90 player. As Archosaur fell, I quickly gave a small aside to the faction, and bid them farewell. I was assaulted by a number of whispers from both those known and unknown. The one that matters most to this story, however, was one from Supernova.

Supernova: Arch, I trust this is in the best interest of Equinox?
Me: ^.~ You'll see.

It was pretty easy to get in. With Lieal and ZetsumieXI vouching for me, I had no problem securing any doubts. As I entered, I did my best to remain discreet. That "new guy" just did things off in his own little world, slowly meeting a few people that would be able to say that I did what I did well. I made sure to shine in TW. Barbs would always be purged immediately, and amped shortly thereafter. My nix ate into several of EQ's clerics, both friend or faceless. I watched as my chat window was filled with pink agony. People asking me why I killed them, because they didn't want to target me. People saying they liked it better when I was on their side. I was always on vent, engaging in a great amount of conversation, making sure it was known that I could easily coordinate with others and be a stand-in to communicate what was going on with my squad to others.

Then, the day came. With a lackluster number of leaders, I was taken to become one of the new leaders for TW squads. It was choppy at first, with me sometimes only picked when certain individuals were missing, but later, I was a permanent installment. That's when everything changed.

If you've never been a leader before, then I dare you to put a phantom in the leader room and just listen. All of the voices going off, one after another, in a stream of information that storms in your head, twisting and churning like a hurricane. Some people eventually learn to mute out what isn't important specifically to them, but I took it all in. I needed to take it all in. Catapult movements, where the defense team was moving to, where key individuals were going to be. Every bit of information was vital to trying to overcome Calamity.

Many may have wondered why there was a large number of DD waiting for them to intercept them just at the right moment. Why there was a sudden shift of DD position just as our catapults had changed lanes. Why they always attacked at lanes that seemed the least defended. And I always wondered how much longer I was going to be able to pull it all off without slipping. I had to keep killing Equinox, watching as the text (now blue) would cry their woe-is-me and ask me to come back, while at the same time in pink I would see something similar to...

Me: 2 Cats B, diversion, 2 Cats C with major DD protection
Ajay: thx
Me: np

Yeah. I think you get it now. Even though it never truly won the wars at first, EQ suddenly became a larger threat. There was only one problem that I still had. Lightaine.

Lightaine, for all his snarky humor and personal effects that I found odd or outright annoying, was the perfect counter to me. He didn't follow the mold that I had expected Calamity to run with. Instead of relying on sound tactics to overcome matched odds, he would try something bold, as if it was a sudden burst of enlightenment meant specifically to counter all of my information dominance tactics. It angered me to no end that every time I could have the Cala vs. EQ fights come to a stalemate, I would find that it was some little trick that I couldn't get EQ to counter with information alone that would save Cala and overcome EQ. I remember congratulating Calamity for their efforts while at the same time I was speaking to Ajay and Supernova about how to improve their effectiveness during the next TW.

Then came the day Lightaine left. As if to signal the end of his reign as TW leader, Calamity lost. I remember sitting there, watching as Calamity's crystal slowly ticked away to zero. I remember the cries of outrage in vent, but more than that, I remember logging off vent only to rejoice with EQ's elite, those that knew what I was doing. And it continued.

Calamity was struck blow after blow after blow. I sat there amidst the destruction, taking it all in. Rumor in Calamity was that there was a spy. There were subtle attempts to counter spies in the leader room that all sucked. I relayed more information in a TW than I was giving to my own squad. I watched as we, Calamity, lost land after land but as we, Equinox, became the only power that could stand against Calamity's reign. I remembered the claim that EQ wanted nothing more than an equal power distribution for the lands, to be shared by a few factions and to enjoy the TW landscape instead of the power-mongering totalitarian dominance that Calamity anxiously desired.

One day, however, I made a tragic mistake. I reported the wrong lane that Cala's catapults were moving, and an entire faction-worth of DD prepared to turtle until they could muster a strong offense again were in the wrong place at the wrong time. My misinformation had cost EQ the war. I remember Supernova being frustrated at my mistake, and me being even more frustrated at myself. I remember that night, I was laying with my girlfriend discussing how I made a small mistake and it led me to lose the war. She jokingly told me that I had actually won, being that I was with Calamity now and not Equinox. I told her that I was still with Equinox, though, and she asked why. I told her it was because of the friends I had in EQ.

That night, as if to prove myself, I asked a few people to help me with a BH. Ajay was too busy PKing people at the moment with an awesome PK fest. Illyana was afk. Bodine was too busy. BrandonGuard had disappeared. As I tried to find the scraps of EQ that I had known, I found that I had nothing. After they had claimed land once again, it wasn't enough. They couldn't share it, because they needed it to fight against Calamity. As I thought about it, the cycle would never end. There would never be peace. EQ would always be under threat from Calamity, and they would always seek to improve their control to counter that threat. There would never be a chance for the map to be split. Equinox would become 'The Magenta Beast' if they could.

One day, I was in vent killing things in my newly-accessible Old Unicorn Forest when I heard BB speaking to someone. While I don't remember the entirety of the conversation, there is one thing that I do remember:

"We look forward to other factions attacking us and present a proper challenge, and if they can take our land and hold on to it, then they deserve it just as much as we do."

Against Equinox that weekend, I found myself mixed, and eventually gave wrong information again. But this time, it was on purpose. I later left to contemplate what I had just done. I later found out that EQ lost, but it didn't bother me. From that point forward, I never established when I would be online or whether or not I had the leader room available to disseminate information from. I stopped speaking with the EQ leadership altogether. It was an odd change of pace, but I found myself focusing more on improving myself in TW again, striving to become not only a better player, but a better leader.

However, there is always that nagging feeling in the back of your mind: no matter what you tell yourself, you're still that covert agent. I know that Ajay would never admit that he used a spy in TW. I know that Supernova has left and his replacement probably doesn't recall the one instance I interacted with him on accident, congratulating him. I know that if I wanted to, I could pretend none of it ever happened and go on as one of the many members of Calamity.

Instead of hiding it, though, here you go. The reason I always protect EQ's name and their threat potential. The reason I always suggest bold moves in TW. The reason I desperately wanted you guys to be more open to Lightaine's return. Now you know, and as I have just shown, knowledge is indeed power.

What you do with that power, however, is up to you.

ArchSeraph