| Battle of Grimdale 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Part of Trade Run Battles | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Grimdale 2017 was a UTC PvP action fought from the Northwest of Grimdale to the city of Grimdale itself against multiple geared members of Corsair who intended to ambush Company Members doing a trade run. Though the heaviest fighting lasted mere minutes and killing the routed Corsair members trying to retreat North took slightly longer, the maneuvers before the actual fight lasted hours, with Field Captain Irishkaiser boasting to Corsair member MellowPinapple just before contact:
"You're conducting maneuvers on my orders.
Congratulations, I control you."
The battle was a classic example of a "decisive battle", the main UTC doctrine when fighting against her enemies in the South. Due to its length, almost equal numbers, equipment and skill, the battle was designated as a battle honour, used to emphasize the main UTC advantage over other clans, namely their superior organization, discipline and officers. Here's the video of the event.
Battle[]
Background[]
The UNKNOWN [?] Trading Company, seeing the poor population amount it's getting at its trade run times, decided to reconnoitre the servers on Saturday to see which had the most population at a given time. Directory Member Irishkaiser began a trade run in the morning of EST alone but sold off only one infinity bow. He went to bed soonafter, only to wake up at around 6PM EST and he received reports from other scouts and leathers who were monitoring the servers for Irishkaiser of a large concentration of iron bandits from Corsair in the South. This, coupled with earlier reports the day before about geared Corsair members massing in and around Grimdale from dead UTC Dungeoneers who spawned near the same city, was later deduced by the Army of Observation that they intended to attack the trade run. It was later confirmed just before when one of the leftover spies from the Alt War, who were one of the attackers, tipped off their intentions, locations, numbers and equipment via PM to Irishkaiser.
The intelligence network leftover from the Alt War was invaluable and the Company implemented a strategy of "boring the enemy" and letting Southern leathers and most importantly time inflict attrition on the Corsair occupiers before coming in for the coup de grâce. It was to be a classic execution of the decisive battle doctrine, the trademark UTC fighting strategy in the South.
Opening Moves[]
A company-sized force under Field Captain Irishkaiser crossed the Northern border starting off with about eight Company Irons, two of which were Merchant Inventories, not geared for fighting. A shortage of scouts under direct control from the UTC was a problem, but the spy and of course multiple leathers who were pro-UTC still allowed Company Officers to have a good idea where the hostile irons were at any given time.
The opening numbers of Corsair members were about 8-9(?), the majority of them were reported as "god inventories" and were patrolling the entirety of Freisland all the way to the bordertown of Portsmouth in Spawnland. The Company prioritized selling off all its remaining goods before engaging Corsair and retreated from the enemy whenever they approached a town, only to come back again when they have left.
Irishkaiser taunts MellowPineapple.
The Company went as far as Geuten, crossing the Emerald Sea and then back to the Old Continent, killing one hacker named jaywuIf in Romero along the way before marching back to Portsmouth where they sold the last of their goods, before massing and preparing to assault Corsair's position in Grimdale. By this time, the Company gathered reinforcements from straggling members of the 234th and the 111th Regiments, who replaced soldiers who left and exchanged equipment with those less capable of fighting. For Corsair, it was the opposite. A significant portion of their men had gotten bored and left to bandit elsewhere and or just had to leave in general. Some of Corsair died and respawned in the South as leathers, severely reducing their combat power.
First Contact and Night's Watch problems.[]
Scouts and leathers who were pro-UTC, were ordered to skirmish, harass or do anything to keep the enemy in Grimdale before the main UTC force arrived. It was later discovered that members of the Night's Watch under Nalacion were cooperating with Corsair and even tried to disrupt UTC scouting activity with Foxbuscus attacking UTC scouts and pro-UTC leathers in Portsmouth. When interrogated, Foxbuscus claimed that it was Nalacion's orders, to which Nalacion later denied.
Leather scouts later implicated Nalacion in Grimdale who only switched sides after Corsair, being bored, killed off Night's Watch players to which Nalacion asked them "Why did you kill them?" in chat.
Sensing an opportunity to cooperate with Nalacion and increase the Company's combat power by turning Corsair's own leathers against them, Irishkaiser agreed to avenge their deaths, in exchange for information and their support in the fighting to come, but failed to tell the rest of the company which later resulted in Nalacion's death.
UTC(blue) and Corsair(red) contact at the start of the battle. Friendlies(Green) and Night's Watch(yellow) were also in the area.
Corsair's forces were all stationed in Grimdale. The main UTC force marched towards Grimdale from the Northeast, but was spotted by AsianLittleKidd . A contingent of Corsair under SilverGaze went to reinforce AsianLittleKidd who retreated Northwest of Grimdale. Losing the element of surprise, the UTC began an all out charge, forcing AsianLittleKidd to retreat while using him as a point of reference as to where the enemy reinforcements might be coming from before wheeling to Grimdale after passing by Grimdale Tree and smashing into omegapirateroy's contingent of Corsair outside the city. FlyingSquid, a scout, was sent to pursue and prevent AsianLittleKidd from joining the battle, but was defeated by AsianLittleKidd.
Battle of East Grimdale Plain[]
Company forces pushed the Corsair forces in Grimdale North of the Grimdale Bridge, but not before suffering the first iron loss of the fighting - szr - to who later Corsair admitted was a hacker: budgiesarecool. Undaunted, Company forces pushed on before Irishkaiser's reserve force had to engage returning enemy reinforcements from the North led by SilverGaze. Cyclone and Jamwizard's squads returned and the UTC's superior numbers and equipment began to take effect as they kept cohesion, unlike Corsair which separated themselves and came at the UTC piecemeal.
As the fighting went on, Night's Watch members kept switching sides with Foxbuscus attacking UTC and Nalacion attacking Corsair, but they were minor nuisances to the two clans. 93rd Regimental Meme_MC scored the first iron kill for the UTC by killing MellowPineapple, whose stuff was promptly picked up by Corsair scout AsianLittleKidd. FlyingSquid later got revenge against AsianLittleKidd and intercepted him, taking MellowPineapple and AsianLittleKidd's loot, converting him into a full iron player. szr, who was killed by budgiesarecool, returned and re-captured the majority of his loot and returned to the fighting.
Soonafter, SilverGaze was pushed to the water by Jamwizard's Squad, killing the UTC scout Lieutenant_Joe who intercepted from an opposite bank, but SilverGaze was quickly killed by Meme_MC. budgiesarecool was later killed by a Cy-Clone named GANGMEMBERLIMP.
omegapirateroy joined the fray alongside PlasmaKnight31, and both were overwhelmed by the now unchallenged UTC superiority in numbers and equipment. As PlasmaKnight31 was killed without much resistance, AsianLittleKidd and SilverGaze returned to support omegapirateroy but failed to relieve the pressure. In the meantime, just North of the fighting, Irishkaiser's squad, alongside szr, pursued and killed Quicc. The last Corsair member still alive with gear was omegapirateroy now routed and being chased by the majority of the UTC force.
Pursuit and Final Kills[]
With the bulk of Corsair dead, all squads of the caravan pursued the remnants of Corsair that routed North. Nalacion returned and was following the members of the UTC in hot pursuit. cyclone_43 killed him for their dubious behavior and continued the hunt. Irishkaiser's Squad retired from the chase to gather food, having achieved all objectives and the trade run , the battle was all but over.
It wasn't until shrauger caught up and killed omegapirateroy near the Shire in the Northern Westerlands, that the battle was finally finished.
Military Legacy and results[]
After battle conversation between combatants. Both sides later discovered there was a hacker among Corsair's ranks.
The battle became an honour due to Irishkaiser being pleased with the cohesion and iron discipline the members upheld throughout the course of the battle, although only relative to the enemy, which lacked discipline, organization and cohesion.
It is personally seen in the UTC that it is a triumph of its own "superior" culture over the premium "barbarians", who don't fight as a unit, but as individuals seeking glory for their ego. The battle honour's reputation was later enhanced when friends of both sides having an after-battle chat found out that there was a hacker on Corsair's side, instilling pride and wiping away the shame of szr's quick death at the beginning.