Catching Up.

Binge and Purge

My computer imploded the other day. I know it was my fault and it may very well have been Warhammer that caused the problem. Never abort installs half way through because you're tired and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Of course from Friday to Sunday evening (and then into the night) there was much Warhammering. I am by no means the most efficient leveller, so I have gone from l12r10 to l15r12 over the weekend.

The bad!
Altdorf broke over the weekend. Friday I think it was. At any rate Ostermark's Altdorf hit level 2 and presumably the immense rush of people to it crashed the zone. Anyone trying to enter from our party eventually was punted out of the game and had to log back in. They were greeted by the Altdorf loading screen, only to find themselves back at the original flight master. Annoying to be sure, but hardly cripling.

The good!
Altdorf, once we could access it, proved good fun. Another sewer opened up and inside we made many corpses of Skaven.Ickly, Skaven spit is a main ingredient for intelligence potions. So all you Bright Wizards and other ranged dps guys, wanna swallow some spitbrew?

I also participated in a keep siege. More on that below.

The unusual!
Bregel got his tracker gear, and as a result, the stout Ironbreaker is now green. I do have the amusing mental image of a green and brown bedecked Ironbreaker, unseen in the undergrowth, and then heard across several miles as he clanks furiously towards his target.

Open relationships.

As I mentioned previously, I participated in a keep siege this weekend. Bregel and myself were in our normal party of friends but decided to drop to join whatever warband it was taking back Barak Varr. He got invited in short order, I did not. It was not a matter of room, there were but two groups in said warband. Bregel crashed to desktop and in the time it took him to return, I only just, after some choice yelling on /1, got into the warband and he was reinvited promptly.
One person in the band, after seeing my irritation on /1 said that they were sorry for the delay as things were a bit hectic in the keep. That I can accept.

My irritation spawned from two things.

1) The leader of the Warband died almost as often as I did and had to ride past me at least three times on his horse to rejoin the fight. I am not expecting you to drop everything in the middle of a siege just to invite one noisy Rune Priest, but when you repeatedly have to dash back from the Warcamp PAST said Rune Priest, what excuse have you? You're not locked in combat. I've sent you tells so you know who I am.

2) Open the bloody band. OPEN IT! If a guild wants to take a keep by themselves and hang their heraldry and be all fantastic, I can understand them filling a warband, keeping it closed and having a go at it. When it's a rabble of random Order folks who just want to get stuck in and help out, leave the band open so everyone who is there with you or looking to join can actually pitch in and be helpful.

I'm not the best healer. I'm not the servers star anything. But in a game so social and with a design that lets everyone come together easily for large goals, stop bloody locking people out for no good reason. Even the worst player shouldn't have to be yelling for a group.

Lady Thanatos, in our regular group, tends to close the group. That's understandable as there's just a handful of us and we'll fill our own party more often than not. I, however, tend to leave it open on the basis that, if we're doing a PQ or someone crashes to desktop, I want to make it easy for anyone to hop in (again) and get to it.

Hammer of War Online

The folks over at the Hammer of War have been very good with my whole computer dead thing. So I know I'm late with it, but expect a bunch of articles from myself to join the good folks over there already.

Casualties of War

I've been busy. I'll be back. Ardy the Warrior Priest has hammer, will travel.

A final thought.

While I get back into the swing of blogging and catch up all the ones I read, a thought on WAR gameplay.
Don't just learn what you can do, learn what your friends can. Learn who you work best with and when to trust that they'll cover whatever slack there is in the group.