The first castle siege took place in Throne and Liberty over the weekend. MeinMMO author Cedric Holmeier prepared for this battle for 7 weeks and explains whether it was worth it.
Last weekend the time had finally come: the first major castle siege in Throne and Liberty was about to begin. Seven weeks of preparation were behind me – seven weeks full of intensive planning, hard work and long PvP battles. But was it all really worth it in the end?
Who is writing here? Cedric Holmeier is a freelance author at MeinMMO and focuses primarily on MMORPGs from Asia. He has logged thousands of hours in games like Swords of Legends Online, Metin2 and Jade Dynasty. In Throne and Liberty he plays in a hardcore guild with the goal of gaining control of the game world.
Here you can find out why an active guild is so important in Throne and Liberty:
Throne and Liberty: This is why a large and active guild is so important
More videos
Autoplay
The two types of players
There are two types of players in Throne and Liberty: Some play relaxed for fun, others – like me – fight for control of the server as hardcore gamers right from the start.
Seven weeks of preparation are behind us. The siege is said to be the epic and largest event in the new MMORPG, deciding who will rule the game world and currency worth up to €25,000. We don’t want to miss this.
More on the topic
Throne and Liberty: All guides for starting the new MMORPG
by Karsten Scholz
How to prepare for 7 weeks?
In order to have any significant chance at the throne, an active and large alliance is required. In the best case scenario, this means that 280 people take Sunday afternoon to evening off to take part in the PvP event together. Even before the MMORPG started, we got together with hundreds of players to work towards a common goal.
However, months before the battle, all of these players also have to work on their equipment, upgrade their skills and craft all kinds of buff food. So, in order to improve my teammates’ equipment and PvP skills, I fight for the PvP field bosses in the game every single day. This quickly adds up to a 40-hour week in addition to the job.
Most of the time is lost in PvP battles, because every PvP boss in which your own players do not take part not only means no loot for your own guild, but also loot for your opponents at the same time. Of course you want to prevent that, because it reduces your chances of getting the castle.
In the week before the castle siege, I spend my free time developing strategies to take the castle. I work with my guild members to find the right route, the right division into groups, but also alliances with other alliances so that we don’t get in each other’s way.
How good the plan is and whether all the preparations and my decisions work will only become apparent in the battle itself.
Here you can see what the siege can look like.
The epic battle is about to begin
When the time finally comes and we go into battle, I’m a little nervous. Shortly before, a secret plan of the enemy guilds became known. They want to kidnap the golem that is needed to tear down the castle walls. This is how they want to buy time. We have to prevent that and change our tactics shortly before the start.
When the 15 minutes of preparation time expires, the time has come at 5:15 p.m. The battle begins and the Golems are fiercely contested. After a few fights, however, the golem is captured by my allies and marches towards the castle walls.
The plan works
Our golem marches towards the wall and abuses it with his violent blows. The wall gives way. Now our hour has come and so our announcer in the Discord shouts the attack. As my adrenaline rises, over 200 of our players break through the wall and set out to capture key points within the castle.
Everyone already knows the plans of which group has to do what by heart and so we take the tactically important points of our strategy like dominoes on Domino Day. My group is responsible for defending the revival point. An important task, because if the point falls, everyone has to start again from outside the castle.
Plunge order into chaos
While everything is orderly at the beginning, the chaos continues to grow with every minute. That’s also the plan, because in the previous days we convinced many small guilds to take part in the fight in order to put even more pressure on the defenders. The small guilds concentrate on the looting zones away from our position, but the castle is flooded with players and there is fighting on every corner.
While the chaos in the castle becomes ever greater, the actual decisive battle always takes place right in the throne room. Various guilds fight for supremacy there and repeatedly begin to take the throne. At this point we’re just focusing on rushing forward, past the hundreds of players fighting each other in the castle.
We almost manage to capture the revival point near the throne room, which is important for our strategy, and we also make several advances into the throne room itself. The battle rages until the last second, and it is unclear until the end who will emerge victorious. But in the end it wasn’t enough for us. The defenders win and we have to admit defeat.
Joy despite defeat
Actually, I expected my comrades to be sad about the defeat, instead, most of them had smiles on their faces. In the voice channel I hear a lot of praise for our own preparation, but above all how damn cool this battle was.
Even a day later, players keep coming back with praise for their own team and saying how much fun the event was. Despite the defeat, everyone seems happy with our performance and especially with the epic battle itself.
The conclusion to the castle siege
The seven weeks of preparation that led to this battle were worth it. Not because the battle itself shone with great effects, fair fights and special graphics, but simply because it gave the MMORPG players a reason to play.
Everyone knew that at some point there would be a battle that would decide the rule of the server, and this day has been the goal of the journey through Throne and Liberty for many since its launch. Players certainly won’t stop playing Throne and Liberty overnight, but this event gave meaning to the game.
Instead of simply leveling up the characters at a leisurely pace and killing the same bosses without stress, the quasi-deadline of the castle siege was a driving force that pushed the players forward.
The whole thing is a competition that was limited to this period and has now been held. It feels like the MMORPG is now complete and until new content comes out, it will be in a quieter mode for the time being without you working directly towards a goal.
The preparation to enable your own guild to take part in the siege is complete and participating again every two weeks seems almost like a mere formality. As is so often the case, the journey was the destination and the battle was a worthy finale.
Such a goal is also great for community cohesion. Everyone knows what they are working on, everyone knows what they are playing for, and that creates a sense of community that motivates in the long term.
This competition seems refreshing and new to me, especially because it was so familiar to the players from the start. Other MMORPGs should take a cue from this and also offer their players an event that gives meaning to my character’s journey and progression. Often other MMORPGs feel like an endless routine, a hamster wheel with no goal.
Throne and Liberty, on the other hand, created a goal with the castle siege that makes the journey feel more like a race. The siege therefore doesn’t feel like a simple PvP event, but rather like the culmination of the story that my community has written to date. If you want to take part in the next battle with your guild, then take a look here: Throne and Liberty Castle Siege Guide: This is how the fight for the throne plays as an attacker and defender