PvP happens daily in DarkFall, as after all it’s the basis for the game and the primary reason most are playing. Every once in a while though things come together and some really, really good PvP happens, and that was exactly the case last night.

I logged on just after VAMP/NEM did something PvP-like on Yssam, and everyone was recalling to the mainland for round two. The target was Aradoth, a city owned by the Super Friends alliance (Black Shields and Co), and so a group of just under 40 of us rolled out from Dag and headed east. Once inside the city, we quickly locked down the bank area, killing a few players and bind camping the ten or so bound there as we dropped a few Dragon cannons to disable the zap tower.

Once the tower was down we moved outside, spawned two Spider Scarab warhulks, and proceeded to take down the three gatehouses and some walls. As this was happening our scouts reported that the SF were gearing up at a nearby hamlet and preparing to attack. Packing up the warhulks, we rode out to meet them.

Somehow SF managed to get behind us as we rode to the hamlet, and as we crested a small hill the order was given to turn around and engage. This was somewhat unfortunate because our members were not able to buff up or really get organized, and the SF smartly charged in mounted while our side was about 50/50 mounted and those who decided to start on foot. From a very quick scan it looked like they had brought similar numbers to ours (I’ll leave it to ForumFall to debate who had more, but it was basically even).

I personally stayed on my mount as my strength is melee combat and I was wearing a mix of full plate and scale, which makes using magic all but impossible. The battle started out well for me as I picked out an enemy on a drake and did my best to stick to him. I got in a good number of shots on both his mount and him before his support took down my horse. Once on the ground I quickly switched to my bow and finished off his mount, intending to charge him and take advantage of his lowered health from the mounted fight.

As his mount dropped two enemies got between him and I and I was unable to pursue. I instead pulled out my one handed axe and shield and parried up, hoping to either stall or discourage the two enemies and not get too low on health. The tactic worked and soon one of them turned to fight someone else, while the other guy kept his eye on me but having missed his disabling blow to take down my shield, he could do little against me.

We traded a few blows as I tried to time my swings and get a hit in before again raising my shield, and as this was happening I noticed a mount just a little ways off sitting without a rider. Ditching the engagement I ran straight for it, hopped on, and rode out a little to re-examine the battlefield.

Both from my view and from vent chatter I could tell the battle was not going our way, yet those still alive were deep in it and some were having more luck than others. I saw one of my clan mates being chased by a battlehorn rider while he was on foot, and rode out quickly to try and assist. We were able to kill the battlehorn, but as it went down more enemies again showed up and we could not focus down the rider. My own mount was quickly bowed down by the new arrivals, and as I ran to recover two enemies gave chase and began firing arrows and magic at me.

Here I made a mistake and rather than turning right away to face them, I continued to try and dodge as I made my way over to a pocked of allies. Before I was able to make it more than halfway, my health was low and I was running out of options. Figuring death was near, I quickly pulled out my two handed sword, did a 180, and charged into my two pursuers. The shock of my attack wore off quickly however, and though I was able to land a few good hits, they soon had me down for the count. Before I could even call out for help on vent, one played finished the gank and the red swirl of death washed over my screen.

I listened on vent as the last remains of our group was taken down, and the discussion turned to what went wrong and how we could have done better. One clear mistake that was made was allowing the enemy to dictate when the engagement happened, as we had control of their city and should have easily been able to scout out their location and prepare. The other mistake that was made was that our groups got too scattered, and we were not able to support and assist each other when needed. Finally, fighting so close to their city meant they had reinforcements that arrived shortly after the battle broke out.

All that said, it was still a great battle and a good show of force by two of the top alliances in the game. While it would have been great to come out on top, even in defeat we learned some good lessons and look forward to the next engagement. This was certainly just the beginning to what is sure to be a good war.

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)