Friday, December 12, 2008

Letters from the Trenches: The Alliance that Held

by Emma Elfeirr, field journalist

Alliances are fickle things. They get broken all too easily. Suddenly, the team you trusted in your fight against an enemy has allied with your enemy and is ripping through your weakened borders, spelling the end of your team. Other times, you are the one to turn on an ally. You can see them getting too strong, too powerful, so you ally with weaker teams so you can be the strongest. We all know how it goes.

I, however, have lived to see an alliance never truly broken. An alliance so perfectly cohesive, it was shocking.

10pm rolled by, and the Russian Writers lightning game began. We chose the south. Red chose our northern border and up. Green claimed the northern most part of Florida. Purple ended up on the east coast, trying hard to make up for their under-sized team. Blue seemed a bit confused on where to go and never really managed to get good footing. It took a few turns to get situated, just like most games, especially lightning, but by about turn 7 or 8, we had worked out decent borders. Sara West and I, commanders of red and orange respectively, agreed upon an alliance before the game even begun, as fighting four other teams at once is never a great idea, and purple asked for some help, being the underdog, so our three teams allied together against blue and green.

The orange team was pretty much good to go, nice and cozy in our southern lands with red and purple between us and any enemies. Meanwhile, blue and green irritated the heck out of our allies. Within a few turns both asked for some help with our enemies, as would be expected of their ally. We could have stayed back while our allies were being attacked or even taken advantage of the weak borders we shared, but we didn't. Were the situation reversed, we trusted that our allies would aid us against our enemies and not destroy us. Plus, it would be fun to rip through an enemy, and we'd get more territory, the key to winning.

Using the waterways, we managed to send large numbers of troops at green from both sides of Florida. By turn 18, we split their empire of 30 connected territories in pieces, the largest only 9 territories. That was only possible, of course, because red and purple, our loyal allies, were protecting our other borders and fighting green's southern front. Through our combined effort, blue, green, nor any other enemy that we could have had, stood a chance of winning.

All too soon though, green was forced to shield, blue already long gone, and our three teams were left with no one to fight but our own loyal allies. We merely swapped while green had their shield up, dreading when we would have to turn on our own allies. Finally, however, the time came, and we all agreed that we shared the victory and that we would fight out the last few turns of the game just for our own enjoyment.

My team barely won, by only one territory over red, but it didn't matter. No matter who had the most territories at the end, each of us knew that it was only possible because of the other two teams. Had purple and red not stood between us and enemies to start the game, we wouldn't have had enough energy to wipe out green. Had we not fought to save our allies, they would not have survived, and my team may have been overpowered by green coming at us. Had red and purple fought each other as they likely would had, were it not for their common allegiance with the orange team, both would have been crippled, in turn leaving my team less chance to survive. But by sticking with each other as loyally as we did, we ensured that we would be the top three teams and proved that loyalty and trust wins wars, not backstabbing and lies.

(WANTED: field journalists! If you think something of note occurred in your team or in your game that everyone ought to know about, just type something up an send it to emmanuel@gocrosscampus.com, and I'll have it up as soon as possible!)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like that there was no backstabbing...except someone still won (which means someone rolled over for the other then). Also, that's smart, sending large amounts of forces up using the waterways, surprising people. I remember when you did that a few days before this game. Oh yah, that was against an enemy. And it's what won you the game. And it was against an Ally. And you really had nothing to do with it, cautioning against it.

So really what we can get out of this is "using the waterways and attacking exposed land from the back can win" moreso than "alliances rock"

Anonymous said...

So Emma, do you ever write about anything besides how incredible you think you are?

Thræn said...

I write about bananas too.

You know, you're welcome to sned in stuff too. I'm just the only one sending stuff in right now. Wish other people would send stuff in though. >.<

Thræn said...

*send. Gah. FAIL.

Brian Duddy said...

What about the SoCal game? Orange and Blue have stayed totally together to the end... so much so that most of my fellow Blue don't seem to want to go after Orange >_>

Thræn said...

Write about it! =D Then send it in to Emmanuel!

Unknown said...

christian louboutin shoes, cheap jordans , Discount LV Handbags, Christian Louboutin Bois Dore, cheap christian louboutin, ugg soldes, cheap nike jordan shoes, uggs outlet, Bags Louis Vuitton, ugg pas cher, ugg australia, ugg boots, christian louboutin, Discount Louis Vuitton, wholesale jordan shoes, Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags, Cheap LV Handbags, discount nike jordans, ugg, uggs on sale, discount christian louboutin, christian louboutin remise 50%, Christian Louboutin Daffodile

Unknown said...

louis vuitton factory outlet
christian louboutin outlet
kobe 9
michael kors outlet
michael kors outlet
adidas nmd
ray ban sunglasses
louboutin
louis vuitton outlet online
nike blazer
nike air max uk
cheap omega watches
cheap jordans
louis vuitton pas cher
fitflops outlet
michael kors outlet online
coach outlet online
true religion jeans
prada sunglasses
michael kors outlet
lacoste outlet
ray bans
michael kors outlet
bottega veneta outlet
hollister clothing
dior sunglasses
hollister clothing
polo outlet
pandora charms
nike air max
20160616lindong

mmjiaxin said...

nike huarache
kobe shoes for sale online
cheap watches,cheap rolex watches,rolex watches for men,buy rolex online
longchamp sale
lacoste outlet
adidas stan smith
huaraches shoes
vera bradley outlet
michael kors outlet
Kanye West shoes
gg

Unknown said...

polo ralph lauren
ugg uk
polo ralph lauren
louis vuitton
cheap oakley sunglasses
air max 90
fitflops sale clearance
ralph lauren polo
polo ralph lauren
ralph lauren shirts
chanyuan2017.03.17

Unknown said...

nike mercurial vapor
ferragamo sale
nike roshe one
longchamp handbags
michael kors handbags sale
yeezy shoes
adidas neo
basketball shoes
light up shoes
timberland boots

raybanoutlet001 said...

ugg outlet
nike shoes
coach bags
christian louboutin shoes
nike trainers
replica watches
ecco outlet
fitflops sale
polo ralph lauren
fitflops

Admin said...

If you have a history of illness that is difficult to recover, maybe our next article will help you to recover

Obat Penambah Nafsu Makan Anak
Obat Pemghilang Hemangioma
Obat Untuk Sakit Pada Buah Zakar
Obat Untuk penyakit Lyme
Obat Radang Telinga

QQQQQQQQQ said...

nike air force
nike dunk shoes
offwhite
adidas stan smith
adidas zx flux
yeezy
oakley sunglasses
fitflops
nike air max
yeezy boost 350

5689 said...

zzzzz2018.10.12
basketballl shoes
kate spade outlet
coach factory outlet
coach factory outlet
hermes belt
coach outlet
prada shoes
christian louboutin outlet
canada goose outlet

jjjjjjjjjjjjj said...

kd 11
yeezy boost 350
ultra boost
lebron james shoes
rolex replica
golden goose
goyard bags
nba jerseys
michael kors outlet
goyard tote

Unknown said...

www1126



canada goose jackets
adidas superstar
moncler jackets
christian louboutin
canada goose outlet
true religion jeans
coach outlet factory
true religion jeans outlet
kate spade outlet
salomon shoes

rokaa said...



افضل شركة تنظيف كنب بالاحساء افضل شركة تنظيف كنب بالاحساء
افضل شركة تنظيف كنب بالمدينة المنورة افضل شركة تنظيف كنب بالمدينة المنورة
افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بمكة افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بمكة
افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بالمدينة المنورة افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بالمدينة المنورة
افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بالدمام افضل شركة تنظيف سجاد بالدمام

Mobile app development company in Canada said...

Visit here