For a blog author, the announcement of the closure of a world is a double edged sword, a metaphor I have never quite understood; don’t most swords have two edges? Indeed, how could it have any less; and how could it be functional with any more? How many edges does a mace have though? What about a halberd?

Anyway, the case in point is that whilst I cheer the return to the morass of real life, with its responsibilities and commitments that can no longer be sidelined for TW, and I appreciate the increase in writing fodder, I am also acutely aware that this blog receives greater attention and publicity which equates to more work. It also heralds my demise as a figure in the blogging world. Don’t worry; it’ll be death by the sword I suspect. There’s probably a joke in here about how sword is an anagram of words…but you didn’t come here to hear about that, so let’s get on with the best week in Shadow’s history.

Tell me, what do you get if you take a tribe, mix in cheaper nobles, season with the prospect of victory, and leave to simmer for a week? The answer is a little something like that which is observed here. The cynical side of me would ask where this commitment was the rest of the year, but the cynical side of me probably has bigger things to question.

They say that men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than war. At least Homer does. What that leaves for women I don’t know; it’s probably everything else that isn’t included in the above. It also doesn’t make clear that people get tired of war too. They weren’t wrong when they said it was a quiet world.

It seems that motivation is hard to find when you’re already so far in front that defeat is not a likely possibility in any way, shape or form. Yet, when the realistic chance to end the farce presents itself, suddenly everyone flocks to end the game, and thus return to whatever they should be doing – exactly what they were trying to avoid by playing the game in the first place. It’s all rather curious, but probably highlights how competitive we secretly are.

Talking of flocks, things have proved rather auspicious this week. Regular ‘viewers’ will know by now that much of my commentary focuses on comparisons to other weeks. Sometimes I am disappointed, and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. This week my skirt was blown up so much that you’d realise it was only metaphorical and that it is not the sort of thing I should wear.

Shadow vs. SBM

Side 1: 231

Side 2: 0

Shadow vs. [OBL]

Side 1: 77

Side 2: 2

Shadow vs. Dawn

Side 1: 85

Side 2: 0

I think this is the part where I make something meaningful out of the affair. I think that might even look redundant based on the scores I see before me. SBM have been well and truly obliterated over the course of the week; 231-0 is a scoreline one can scarcely fathom, leaving them on almost half the points of last week.

The horrendous losses from their former top three account for a significant part of the damage and leaves the tribe in a terrible state. With no sign of a counter here from any quarter, it looks as if they are merely waiting to die. Certainly, Shadow are refusing to let up.

[OBL] fare the best of the three, and their conquers against Shadow are at least vaguely encouraging. They can purport to have at least one player with the nerve to fight back, but it is little more than a gesture it seems. A significant loss of members also puts them in trouble and it is another tribe consigned to utter destruction.

Dawn remain stoically uninteresting with an apathy to conquers worthy of SBM. Freed from the shackles of restarts, Shadow players have picked off many smaller members, shrinking the membership heavily, while at the top end, the larger players account for the losses. It’s not exactly the best of stories here either.

Coming onto Shadow, it’s the one positive story of the week. With their largest total for a week (641), they have successfully risen to domination in every continent and shrunk the world membership drastically. It has been a superb effort from all quarters, and I should like to highlight some personal efforts, with stampcoin setting a record of 24 conquers in a single day and many of the top members of Shadow who took 30+ villages over the week – stampcoin (60), lord trader (58), kfoo (47), Deciphered (44), Mande1992 (43), mikestuntz (42), Zarin (36). It was also pleasing for them to see many members who had been quiet making a dramatic return.

It seems to be the case that cheaper nobles and the incentive of victory have been the impetus that the tribe needed to move forward quickly. With many continents already fully dominated, smaller players on the rim are beginning to be listed for destruction, while the last bastions of enemies see a tide of Shadow players eager to make a last dash for ranking spots.

It leaves little in doubt for the fate of the world. Two more weeks like this could rid the world entirely, though one suspects that with target availability down, this could be the best we have seen. Then again, the weekly total has risen steadily, so bets are off on next week’s story. If nobling can be focused in the areas that need it, there will be few blogs left for me to do. It looks like I am back to my sword.

How do I expect things to pan out? Well, I don’t think the rankings will finish up as they are, and plenty of friendly competition will ensue. I expect to see SBM taking another significant blow next week, with things petering out after that, probably to be replaced by others. Conquers will be similar I suspect, with many smaller players for the chopping block as well as the big targets.

In Other News…

• Shadow dominates all continents of the world
• Shadow has 100% control of 21 continents
• I take the top spot from gerick6

Stats

Tribes:

Ennoble Winner: Shadow (+641)

Ennoble Loser: SBM (-241)

Players:

Ennoble Winner: stampcoin (+60)

Ennoble Loser: WorldTraveler (-81)

Top Ten Tribes

1          Shadow            214.339.725    217.813.208    44        4.950.300        22266  9.782

2          SBM    2.805.545        2.805.545        25        112.222           366      7.665

3          [OBL]  2.034.474        2.034.474        40        50.862 293      6.944

4          Dawn   1.298.721        1.298.721        28        46.383 189      6.872

5          +KN+  106.839           106.839           54        1.979   45        2.374

6          Dawn-A           80.057 80.057 28        2.859   25        3.202

7          S-R      62.514 62.514 1          62.514 7          8.931

8          LOST  13.070 13.070 6          2.178   8          1.634

9          [OBLA]           8.302   8.302   10        830      7          1.186

10        D.C.     7.146   7.146   6          1.191   3          2.382

Top Ten Players

1          Zarin    Shadow            11.242.581      1107    10156

2          gerick6 Shadow            11.219.872      1091    10284

3          mikestuntz        Shadow            9.540.615        976      9775

4          sstarkey            Shadow            9.390.862        942      9969

5          lord trader        Shadow            8.913.611        914      9752

6          SusieJean         Shadow            8.361.489        845      9895

7          foghorn66         Shadow            8.015.831        801      10007

8          Deciphered       Shadow            7.887.981        772      10218

9          Mande1992     Shadow            7.796.343        804      9697

10        kfoo     Shadow            7.562.901        754      10030

Maps

Top Tribes

Top Players

I think that about wraps up for this week. It has been a momentous one for Shadow and a torrid one for everyone else. Without the ability to restart, every player is a target for the Shadow war machine. W27 is coming to an end.

Zarin