It is said we campaign for the pleasure of the Gods. How can this be, we must be like ants that scurry across the world. Do they enjoy the battles for the sake of bloodshed in their names or is the conquest of champions who use their wits more than their brawn? I believe it is the game they enjoy, seeing their Champions make strategic decisions, controlling the map like pieces on a chessboard. A team of heroes who work together to prepare for and execute epic battles has to be worth more than an endless cycle of meaningless death. Whatever the reason, a new day is upon us and I plan to make the best of it for my own glory as well as theirs.
As the sun rises on a new campaign, we get our first view of the new world. I look around at the army of champions who have ventured to this dying world. It is made heroes who are structured in a guilds, know already who to work together and those that are unranked mercenaries that need to be brought into the fold.The day is wasting and it is time to assess our assets, get organized and prepare to dominate the world. Knowing what the composition of our forces will play in how we proceed. First we will need to send out the scouts to range far and wide to find a defensible position, resource gathering locations, potential mounts and beast of burden collection areas and of course any hostile forces. Next we need to form of patrols of the professional warriors, those with little to no crafting or gathering skill and send them out in squads to harass the scouts and gatherers of the enemy. It is too early get into pitched battles so hit and run tactics are best. For Fighters with some gathering and crafting skills, they will be assigned to guard and assist the tradesmen to expedite the preparation of needed supplies. The specialized crafts will need assess the total forces to know what to prepare and when to keep the army strong as their efforts will be key in the long battles ahead.
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There are so many logistical issues in these campaigns it can make a War Leaders head spin. Directing
soldiers is the easy part when there is just grass between you and the enemy. Having to take into consideration the suppliers needing to keep those soldiers in armor, weapons, mounts and food is what sets the great leaders of a victorious armies apart from the conquered. No single battle will win the day and being able to continually move supplies between strategic locations as required to maintain what each hero needs for their part of the war effort takes a dedication to the victory of all participants. Moving so many soldiers and gear, organizing the tradesman and specialized units is the true challenge of a commander. Many a battle has been lost by allowing the army to outdistance their support network and allowing the enemy to cut them off from it and either destroying or stealing the supplies for themselves.
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Crowfall by Artcraft is shaping up to the Real Time Strategy PVP MMO that we have been in need of for years without really knowing it. However I fear that there may be a misconception when I hear the phase “Crowfall is a PVP game” continually used in the tone that makes it seem as if it is only about killing other players as quickly as possible. As a strategic PVP game that occurs over an extended period of time, those players who forget they need to built up and deploy as a team may feel frustrated if they come from a more traditional PVP game. I can reflect back on my days in Dark Age of Camelot and the amount of time it took to prepare to take tower or keep. The logistics involved with having the right siege in the right location while also having harassing groups out doing decoy attacks to other points of interest to attempt to split the enemy to investigate each location. This is what I envision a Crowfall Campaign will be like, lots of preparation with lots of small skirmishes that occur followed by huge glorious battles to gain or maintain control of the map.
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Without an understanding of all the different types of players needed to make a campaign work and succeed, there will be many disappointed players. The need to have all types of players, the scout, gather, crafter, tamer, siege master, supply specialist, logistic master and a variety of elite fighters all working together is what will set Crowfall apart from the genre. For those that expect Crowfall to be just all about killing other players, I expect a torch will be lit demanding the reduction of campaign sizes and times to increase the frequency of combat to essentially make it more like a MOBA. Doing this however would drive away the less PVP oriented folks like myself who want a taste of that PVP adrenaline without it feeling like it a killing grindfest. I applaud the vision of Artcraft and look forward to decorating my EK with Artifacts and Relics to show my prowess of being a team player.
