Guild Wars 2 AARs / Stories

[Timofee]

I thought it would be good to have a separate thread for any after action reports or stories that people might like to post.

It also gives me an excuse to re-post the one I did in the main thread, particularly since moving the thread seems to have broken all the screenshots.

Posting guidelines and etiquette
If I can ask we keep this thread strictly on topic please - so the AARs / stories themselves and discussion / feedback related to them only.

Additionally, since you can post a max of 4 embedded images can I suggest that if people end their post

continued...

you refrain from posting to allow them to finish their post.

That being said if you going to multi-post save them all up before hand as wee don't want to have to wait 2 hours for you to finish your post, no matter how awesome it is.

[Timofee]

Right, still can't seem to link off to Photobucket but have uploaded instead. I have however been less lazy and cropped them :D

Chapter #1
I want to tell you a tale about a Unicorn...an angry Unicorn, pink of mane, atop a pristine purple heart.

Our tale begins in modest circumstances, with a fellowship of those bound by a love for all things boulderous, snippy and boomstick related. They were a happy bunch, few in number but stalwart of heart.

Our brave heroes were denizens of the free realm of Desolation - a beautiful land, replete with sprawling fields, majestic cities and tedious anal memes. In ages past their strength had seen them triumph against the weaker folk of Grothmar, Bjora Marches and many others.

1700

But then came the third age and the promise of "match up system that actually worked". The end times were here, and though just a small piece of the greater whole, our heroes would play their parts in the dark times to come.

The early years brought challenges from the fledgeling nations of Vabbi and Gandara. Though numerous, their forces lacked the battle hardened edge of our brave home world. Indeed, they gazed upon the greatness of Desolation with envy, hoping to topple us from our golden throne.

1701

1702



EU World

Wins

Losses



Desolation

6

0



Gandara

4

2



Vabbi

3

3




Their forces were weak and Desolation swiftly moved to exert its authority by garrisoning the impregnable fortress of Stonemist Castle.

1705

continued...

[Timofee]

The pitiful nation of Vabbi, which once offered a potential home to our brave adventurers was cast aside. The Gandarans put up a stronger resistance, but they too were powerless to prevent the hardy folk of Desolation from claiming yet another victory.

It was in the Gandaran homelands that our party laid their claim, seizing a modest tower they quickly set about making the place feel like home, throwing up sturdy defenses to help our grateful allies form a foothold in the twisted mire the Gandarans called home.

1707
1706
1708

Acting as the vanguard for the fearsome Desolation war machine, our brave heroes worked through the night, never wavering in their courage.

1709

continued...

[Timofee]

As more allies poured through the Asura gates, the focus quickly turned to attack and our heroes, experts in demolitions and skirmish combat, would lead the way, harrying enemy supply lines and laying siege to enemy fortifications

1710

The Gandarans fought well, but they could not match our heroes...

1711

1712

The outcome was inevitable...

1713

More challenges would await our merry band though...

continued...

[Timofee]

Chapter #2
The dawn of the third age had seen Desolation reassert its authority but little did our brave heroes realise the challenge that would face them in the hours to come.

Far in the South, a new threat was rising, the combined forces of Fort Ranik and Augury Rock were marching toward Desolation with but one goal: the utter annihilation of every living soul in the lands of Desolation.

Unlike Vabbi and Gandara, their armies had proved their mettle in the before times and had emerged unscathed. The only difference between their grizzled veterans and Desolation's mighty warriors: their fondness for saying "Sacre Bleu!"



EU World

Wins

Losses



Augury Rock

6

0



Fort Ranik

6

0



Desolation

6

0




The battle lines were drawn. The banners unfurled. The snacks assembled. This would be the greatest battle ever witnessed.

Under the pristine banner of angry unicorn, thinking ever of their dear lord horace, our adventurers set out. Once again they would lead the charge. Moving swiftly to Augury Rock they seized the modest fort of Redlake and set about establishing a supply route
1714

1715

That done our proud band quickly headed back to the safety of Redlake to begin upgrading its defenses ready for the inevitable onslaught of the French.

1716

1717

continued...

[Timofee]

The enemy raiding parties were frequent but easily dispatched by the organized heroes of RPS

1718

A moments respite allowed upgrades to be made and further defenses established. The weak wooden walls were clad in stone and mighty siege weapons were erected

1719 (http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/gw307.jpg)

1720

Enemy raiding parties continued to harass Desolation troops and supply trains throughout the night

1721

continued...

[Timofee]

The proud unicorn stood as a beacon of hope to our Desolation brethren while RPS guards tirelessly patrolled the walls, protecting innocent labourers as they toiled through the night

1722

1723

Through their efforts, our brave workers soon had the keep of Redlake clad in thick, strong steel and iron. A daunting sight for our enemies, who trembled before the might of the unicorn

1724

1725

continued...

[Timofee]

Deep into the night, huzzahs rang round the fort as powerful allies from the homeworld arrived

1726

And as the relief of morning arrived, thoughts turned to attack.

1727

The siege of Bluebriar was long and hard, the keep changing many times as vast French armies would repel hardy Desolation advances. Sadly this brave reporter, failing to anticipate he would write a rambling tale about these events for which no one cared, did not document them, such was their intensity.

The massacre of Bluebriar would live in infamy, but a wiser and stronger Desolation would launch one last attack on the keep walls. The ferocity of the attack caught the deceitful Augury Rock troops off guard and this time the Unicorn's defenses would hold. With Bluebriar seized it was time for Desolation to consolidate it position

1728

The final part of our story concludes with the march of the war machines...

continued...

[Timofee]

Chapter #3
With Bluebriar firmly under Desolation control, construction of 'the weapon' otherwise known as Unicornprime began in secret back at Redlake.

1729

The target: Dreadfall Bay, a mighty fortress to the west that cut an imposing figure against the night skyline.

1730

1731

By morning Unicornprime was ready.

1732

Deep in the foothills of Augury Rock, the drums began.

Dum...

Dum...

Dum...

In the chill of the morning the unicorn horns sounded...

Harrrruuuuuu (mimicking the great war leader, the head of Richard Nixon)

Our heroes were marching to war.

continued...

[Timofee]

Thud thump.

Thud thump

Thud thump

The servos of Unicornprime groaned as it left the safety of Redlake on its journey to Dreadfall Bay.

1733

The pristine red banners of the unicorn flapped in the morning breeze as our heroes bid their farewells to the keep they had made their home.

1734

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

1735

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

They passed through the old ruins and on to Bluebriar

1736

In the distance they could hear the rumbles of war, but our heroes courage never wavered, never faltered. This was the end.

continued...

[Timofee]

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

On the ramparts of Bluebriar, a few defenders, weary from the nights labours, took renewed courage from the sight of Unicornprime.

Those brave soldiers would be needed in the hours to come, providing a crucial buffer from enemy reinforcements from the South.

1737

Word came back from the front. Our scouting party had engaged the enemy.

Not only that, but the keep had changed hands, industrious soldiers from Fort Ranik had seized the keep in the night.

A night in which they'd been able to mend the walls, and reinforce the towers...

Moving to reinforce the front lines, the bulk of Desolation forces headed to the front, easily outpacing the lumbering march of Unicornprime.

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

The sounds of battle grew closer, the unmistakable pounding of cannons rang out over the lowlands.

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Dreadfall Bay lay ahead. Ranik forces had sallied forward in an attempt to repel the RPS advance

1738

The enemy quickly retreated to the walls at the fearsome sight of Unicornprime and readied the powerful cannons that lined the squat towers.

1739

Knowing that the cannons would make light work of Unicornprime's modest frame, brave RPS soldiers stormed the gates, focussing all their fire on to the cannons

"FOR THE UNICORN!"

With one of the cannons destroyed and the other under focused attack the Ranik defenders retreated to the other tower.

And so began the slow march of Unicornprime...

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

1740

continued...

[Timofee]

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

...

...

CRASH

Unicornprime pounded on the gates. The echos rang out in the courtyard beyond.

CRASH

The terrified shouts of the remaining Fort Ranik defenders could be heard amidst the carnage

CRASH

The thick stone gates began to crumble. In the distance there came the unmistakable sounds of warhorns

CRASH

...

CRASH

A shout went up from the massed ranks.

CRASH

Fort Ranik defenders were approaching quickly from the south. Pressing forward under a barrage of artillery fire from Bluebriar they were sweeping up Desolation's rearguard and moving to engage the bulk of our forces.

CRASH

A wise commander knows when to retreat. A brave commander stays to fight.

CRASH

If Desolation pulled back now they would be slaughtered as Fort Raniks reinforcements overwhelmed them.

CRA...

"I will stay..."

...

Unicornprime was Brave, Wise, Foolhardy and Handsome.

...

"I will stay..."

"NOW GO!"

The tide of Fort Ranik troops swept up the hill not knowing whether to engage the fleeing Desolation troops or drive forward.

Unicornprime proved too irresistible a target. They drove onward, leaving the way back to Bluebriar clear.

1741

Unicornprime shuddered under the weight of blows, but fought on.

"FOR THE UNICORN!"

1742

As the enemy pressed in there was only one outcome...

1743

"FOR THE UNICORN!"

1744

continued...

[Timofee]

Epilogue
Remember the fallen

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

Thud Thump

...

The heroes of Desolation will certainly remember the fallen.

They'll remember them from the might of Redlake and Bluebriar

They'll remember the fallen as they sip wine from within their great halls and castles

They'll remember them as they celebrate the great victory they wrought.

1745

"FOR THE UNICORN!"

1746

Fin.

You read it. You can't unread it.

[Screwie]

Tis quite an epic.

Three weeks!!!

[Timofee]

INT Meet - Saturday 1 September 2012
Think of it like an Ent Moot only more Guild Warsy

Friends from across the globe gather on the Lion Arch diving board to celebrate 1 week of bug free (hah!) gameplay.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw366.jpg

But while many enjoyed frolicking with fellow INT members, a few RPS scientist's were hard at work in their secret underwater research lab

They said it couldn't be done.

They said it was madness.

But we showed them: I present to you Tyria's first Vertical Shark.
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw401.jpg

Cleverly bred to reach those places that standard, horizontal sharks cannot, the Vertical Shark represents a breakthrough in aquatic combat.

After a fairly run of the mill day's work revolutionizing undersea warfare the RPS scientists enjoyed a well earned session around the campfire alongside their RPS and INT friends

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw405.jpg

With others soon realising the magnitude of their success, the celebration soon got into full swing

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw415.jpg

continued...

[Timofee]

Needless to say, after a few drinks inter-species competitiveness led to an all out dance off

We soon learned the Charr lack any sense of rhythm AT ALL. Seriously people - /dance* http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.png

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw435.jpg

The Asura were clear winners.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw444.jpg

And while a few of the RPS scientists lay passed out by the camp fire (afk), the remaining RPS contingent gathered for a group photo to celebrate yet another resounding success for science.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/Timofee/Guild%20Wars%202/Batch%202/gw461.jpg

Thanks for coming everyone, hope you enjoyed it.

Also, boy was the game struggling. As you moved from one end of the beach to the other people phased into view. We should be proud!

[harvb]

Was gutted that I missed this, here's hoping for more fun events!

[malexmave]

Just a quick AAR on our impromptu Recon / Sabotage Session earlier today. Sadly, I don't have any screenshots, as the idea for the AAR came up only after I had to go offline. So, sorry for the wall of text.

Around 15:00 German time, there was a call in Guild Chat if anyone was up for some WvWvW. After checking the current Situation (namely our Server being brutalized by Desolation and Gandara, it was decided that joining the main zerg was probably a bad idea (as pretty much always).

Instead, the idea came up to join GH borderlands and start doing some Sabotage (Sneakily capping supplies, killing caravans, getting some pickoff kills on stragglers). At the beginning, we were only four or so people, but while we were organizing, the group picked up some more members, until my character could not support the group size (WTF Group size limit of 5?) and a second group had to be opened. In the end, we were something around 8 people, with some leaving and joining in between, IIRC.

In the beginning, we tried to organize ourselves while being a pain for the other teams, and while the first thing kind of worked out, we were in turn brutalized while trying to take a keep with the main zerg (Cannons are evil).

Afterwards, we regrouped and, after a small skirmish that evolved to a 30v30-Battle, went ahead and tried to do some sabotage in the enemy hinterlands. We managed to kill a caravan and cap a supply camp, but were then murdered while trying to take a seemingly undefended tower which suddenly had someone at the burning oil emplacement (Burning oil is evil, too). We lost a bunch of random followers we had amassed, plus one or two RPSsers to that oil, while the rest quickly followed when enemy reinforcements arrived.

After respawning at the Citadel and repairing, we capped the eastern supply camp that, for some reason, had been taken by Gandara. We followed that up with capping a sentry post and the blue (?) supply camp in the south-east (Swimming the lake and following the river turned out to be harder than expected, as the Drakes slow you and knock you down, and you are in full view of the enemy keep on the hill, which had cannons but was thankfully empty).

We followed that up with trying to take the southern supply camp, only to be brutally murdered while doing so. Then, it was decided that we should take the fight to the enemy, and we travelled to Desolation Borderlands, which luckily had to queue.

Over there, my recollection grows a bit hazy. I recall learning that drawing on the minimap was indeed still possible (shift-drag), pinging aswell (shift-click), that you could create waypoints with alt-click (which are shared to the entire group) and that you could call targets with ctrl+click, giving them a nice crosshair over their had (awesome) which does not disappear after they die (annoying).

So, we sneaked and battled around there for a while, dodging some zergs and being brutalized by others, but generally having the best WvWvW-Time I had so far.

tl;dr: Covert sabotage action in WvWvW works and beats joining the zerg by some orders of magnitude. If you are interested in doing this kind of WvWvW-Action, have a look at the WvWvW Recon Team Thread (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?6022-WvWvW-Recon-Team), or just call an impromptu operation in guild chat whenever you feel like it.

[Mithror]

I think you overestimated the times we were brutally murdered! We were quite efficient at what we did and most equal sized fights were won by us. It's only when reinforcements came that we had to fight or run. We managed to take out quite a few supply camps, but they were taken back as soon as we captured the next one. The only thing I found a bit strange is that even with a clear frontrunner in score (Desolation in this case) Gandarrans and GHers were fighting each other. I found that counter-intuitive to the 1v1v1 system. We should have banded together and stick it to them Desolationers!

[ambing1]

nice thread here. i could almost imagine the battles you guys had been into.