The Siege of Aurora
While the hedgehugs have already made their post on the siege, I feel inclined to make one of my own. In this post I will try to describe the events of the siege as objectively as possible – just the facts.
My ingame name is Gambit, and I was present for 18 hours of the siege as one of the key defenders.
Siege Camp 1:
The siege started on the north-west side of Aurora (Residential district) with 6 catapults.
At this point the attackers had about 20±5 people and three knarrs. The attackers, having the advantage of surprise were able to fire 4 of their catapults at Aurora’s shield, while holding 2 in reserve to defend against our counter-catapults. After trading a catapult or two, the defenders were able to break the siege by building 7-8 catapults out of range of the attacker’s catapults, which could then be driven into range and shot. Due to lack of space, the attackers were unable to move their catapults out of range. Realizing that they were unable to continue sieging from this point, the catapults were left unrepaired and the siege camp abandoned.
[Defensive catapult placement, bottom left and right]
[The abandoned siege camp]
Siege Camp 2:
The attackers continued on westwards to the beaches north of the farming district. They built 6 catapults initially, well within range of our walls. As we began to prep materials for 9 defensive catapults, they built an additional 2, now totaling 8 catapults. This was the hardest camp to break of the whole siege and the most tactical battle of the siege. The attackers would fire 5 catapults at the claim shield, and hold three in reserve to disrupt our catapults. With three catapults ready at all times with each having three shots, they would be able to disable 9 of ours. Due to the beach and the layout of our walls, we had insufficient space to put up enough catapults to simply overpower theirs.
[The initial 5 catapults – yellow markers were part of an unused plan to disrupt their catapults with knarrs]
This is where the famous alt charge happened. We loaded up two knarrs full of alts and tried to rush the reserve catapults to push them forward into range of our walls so we could destroy them and build ours. Video here, courtesy frosty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep9AVytANSk
(Note, this seems to have been taken down? Frosty?)
However, we were unable to do significant damage to the catapults and only moved one forward. This was primarily due to their numbers and they fact that they had blocked the area with knarr construction signs, giving them time to react.
[Catapults used to shoot marked in blue, while three remained to counter ours]
[Topdown view of the second siege camp]
They were able to get multiple rounds of shots off on Aurora’s shield, and at this point it seemed the only way to break the siege was to gather forces and try to fight. We did not have close to their numbers at this time. However, after several rounds of hitting the shields, they shot 6 of their catapults, leaving only two in reserve. We immediately built all 9 of ours knowing that we would outnumber the 2 catapults they had left. After some intense battle to try an eliminate each-other’s catapults, the defenders broke the siege.
[The second siege broken]
After breaking this siege, the Hedgehug Realm immediately challenged our coronation stone and many of our buffs. However, since everything was inside the walls, this resulted in nothing significant.
Siege Camp 3:
The attackers moved west again, north of the cheesery. The attackers set up 5 catapults – 3 for hitting the shield and two in reserve. The defenders immediately set to work, moving the cheese racks from the cheesery and bashing the building to make space for defensive catapults.
[The third siege camp, showing the range of one catapult]
In response, the defenders built 6-8 catapults and after a short exchange of shots, were able to break this siege as well.
Siege Camp 4:
The enemies moved their efforts westwards again. This point marked the turning point in their strategy. Instead of putting their catapults close to our walls, they placed them farther away, to try and shoot our walls without being in range of our catapults.
[The fourth siege camp and defensive catapults]
The attacker built 3 catapults on the peninsula. We built 4 catapults in response, in addition to the one we already had in place. After they got one round of shots off, our catapults came ready and we were able to break their siege here as well.
Siege Camp 5:
The attackers moved back the the beach from the second siege and repaired one of their long range catapults from the earlier siege camp. We were unable to break it in the meantime do to it being out of range of our walls, and them keeping it guarded.
[Marked in yellow: The one long range catapult from the second siege that they repaired to use in the fifth siege]
They built an additional 5-6 catapults in addition to the one they repaired. The defenders had 6-7 catapults ready in the position and built an additional two. We were able to destroy all of the attacker’s catapults except for the ones with the longest range. This catapult would slowly wittle down the village shield if they kept it guarded over time. At this point, both sides had lost many people. The defenders were down to only about three, not including the bystanders that had come to watch.
For some reason, the attackers abandoned this one catapult and moved on to another siege camp and we were able to go outside the walls and break it with no resistance on their part.
Siege Camp 6:
The attackers then moved up to the Queen’s gate at the world border, building an initial two, and then an additional two catapults. The defenders built four in response. After one round of fire from the attacker’s catapults, the defenders were able to break the siege. This was actually a long, but somewhat boring process that I will omit here. On a side note; right after breaking this siege, we were able to rawhide Ev/LostJustice and catapult him with our remaining shots.
[Construction of the siege on Aurora’s Queen’s Gate]
Siege Camp 7:
The attackers then sailed all the way around Aurora and began a siege on the north-east side with only three catapults. We built 6 catapults in response, but were unable to range theirs.
Because they were now on a lake with only one exit, we blocked their two knarrs in with two knarrs of our own, forming a blockade across the river. This seemed to make them think we had gathered forces and were trying to fight them, as they all hopped on their knarrs. A couple minutes later, we moved 2 alts up from behind to try and disrupt the catapults. They immediately ran to their knarrs and sailed away into the lake when our alts came in range, allowing us to run out quickly and destroy all of their catapults. Thus the seventh siege was broken.
[Movement of alts (top right) and location of blockade (bottom middle)]
At this point they sailed around for a while, and then sailed off without starting another siege camp. Scents tracked them to be far south of the northern kingdom.
[Directly after breaking the seventh siege camp]
[Final picture of their knarrs leaving Aurora, south of the main gate]
At this point in time the siege had been going for 18 hours straight. Myself and a couple others had been present for almost the entire duration of it. We celebrated this as the successful defense of Aurora. Regardless of whether they came back in the future, we had made them leave without breaking the walls. We had roughly 20k shield at this point, meaning they were only able to deal an average of 1.1k shield per hour (while the maximum is 5k).
They returned however, in 30-40 minutes with reinforcements and fresh supplies.
They setup 6 catapults on the south side of Aurora, near the knarr bay. At this point, we had plenty of brim the continue. Due to generous donations of brimstone from people all over the realm and our allies, the geyser in aurora was still untouched and we had several chests of brim left. Unfortunately, myself and several other key defenders had irl things to attend to the following morning and did not have time to continue the defense. We decided to make one last push, gather our forces and try to rush in and destroy the catapults despite being outnumbered. We had one knarr full of warriors and myself alone on a separate knarr as a distraction. We managed to get in and damage several of their catapults. One of our warriors was kOed in this attempt, and the rest retreated back inside the gates. Red (cry) hopped into my knarr by himself and with the help of several more of our warriors, we were able to KO him before the others could respond.
That was the end of our defense. We had defended for 18 hours, and now we had to sleep. We prepared Aurora to be breached, destroying our internal catapults, moving hearth-fires out and people out, and finally sealing all of the gates.
And with that, we bade Aurora farewell for the last time.
The following morning I got up and checked the village. While walking around I saw their battering rams on the village idol, and witnessed them finaly destroy the claim.
Start to finish, Aurora stood for 26 hours of continual siege against every major kingdom in the game except F&I.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[End of the objective part & a personal message from me]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I just want to personally thank everyone who willingly came out, donated brimstone and gave us their time in this siege. To the people of the Northern Kingdom, I’m sorry I’ve failed you and could not hold out, but we made it hell for them to get in. The city is gone but the legacy lives on.