Is there a better way to bring in the New Year than by crushing an Alliance town? No.

Although we had not anticipated having enough players on to lead a decent sized raid on New Years Day, this was hardly the case. Thanks to our allies, Iron Jackals, we were able to gather a large group of horde players to bring destruction to the town of Darkshire. We knew going in, as is the nature of raiding Alliance towns, we would eventually be overrun by the much more populated Alliance faction. We also knew that we would make them fight for every inch of their own territory. Heres a look at our Raid Group, and our forces as we approach the town of Darkshire. We had about 31 different players working with us at the time we began.

Our group of 5, consisting of Tristessa Lazik Onoko Lobo and Myself, as well as Mecas's group focused on pulling and killing Darkshire Guards. We cleared every NPC and Guard on our way into the Town Square, which upon entering released about 10 guards on our team. Despite this large group of level 40 guards, on top of Alliance Players and regular Darkshire Guards, we killed everything. At this point we were only facing about 10-15 Alliance players who were about level 29-40. Wave upon wave of guards continued to spawn every 10 minutes, about 5-10 at a time it seemed. We maintained our position in town with a great show of strength for about an hour and a half as more and more Alliance players continued to arrive.

Eventually the continued spawning of guards, coupled with the arriving Alliance reinforcements, gave us reason to back out of the Town Square to the entrance between two buildings. This spot served as a great strategic point to hold, allowing us to see our attackers in front while not causing the large group of guards to spawn. Alliance players began to use some ingenuity, and attacked our weakened players who were healing from behind. We split up our forces a little more and sent some defense to the rear, and then held this position at the front of the town for another 30 minutes until a large force of Cadia and Empire players arrived.

At this point, we began a steady back and forth battle from the front of town back into the path through the forest. As one group began a major offensive, the other would recouperate and launch a counterattack pushing the advancing players back. Hunters and other long distance fighters began taking to the hills to either side of the main forces, and rained damage into the fray. It was an amazing battle in every way, both sides proving they were a worthy force. Eventually, as we began to tire of the 3 hour battle, our forces began to drop a few at a time. This, added to the continually growing Alliance forces, eventually gave the defending Alliance the upper hand. We were scattered, and largely defeated, but continued guerrilla style hit and run assaults for a while longer before calling an end to the raid. Although our other Raids have been exciting and fun, this was by far the greatest yet. With the help of our allies in Iron Jackals, thanks to Mecas and Menot for coordinating, and Tristessa's leadership we organized a large enough force to hold a town for over an hour. Thanks to everyone who was involved, and to the alliance players who died before us, and we hope to have more exciting events such as this soon! Remind Blizzard we want PvP Rewards and the Honor System to give meaning to these events, it can only make these events better!