World PvP at its finest: Raiding capital cities... simultaneously
by Zach Yonzon 
Jan 8th 2008 at 11:00AM
Although I've been writing about World PvP objectives as implemented by mechanics in place in Azeroth and the Outlands, the Horde players of Eredar (EU) -- roughly 250 of them -- took World PvP to the next level. Organized by Xuron, six raid groups and change gathered forces in front of Orgrimmar last December 22, 2007, and marched on to three capital cities and proceeded to lay the smackdown on Alliance bosses. This movie shows how an awe-inspiring, um, horde of Horde players make their way to Stormwind, Darnassus, and the Exodar and later converge on the Alliance bastion of Ironforge.
According to this post on the EU forums (hope you've brushed up on your... German?), the six raids assaulted three cities simultaneously and killed the Prophet Velen in the Exodar; Tyrande Whisperwind and Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm in Darnassus; and Archbishop Benedictus, as well as Highlord Bolvar Fordragon in Stormwind. After laying waste to the three capital cities (or their leaders, at least), the entire lag-inducing, server-crashing set of raids stampeded to Ironforge and let King Magni Bronzebeard and High Tinker Mekkatorque in on the fun.
Although ironically a PvE endeavor because faction bosses themselves are NPCs, this is thematically and lore-wise the stuff of my PvP dreams. I've always daydreamed about exactly this -- laying siege to all capital cities at once. Kudos to the Horde players of Eredar (EU) for preparing a nice Christmas present for the Alliance. The video is a hefty 245 MB download, but if you have the free time, it's well worth the watch.
Filed under: Machinima, Odds and ends, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ryan Jan 8th 2008 11:06AM
It'll be interesting how the Warhammer idea of having a city-siege be the culminating event of the entire PVP system will play out.
Xeronius Jan 8th 2008 11:08AM
The Penny Arcade Alliance and other straglers did this to the horde capitols sometime last year. I think we topped out at a few hundred people. Since it was PAA, most of us were on vent. It was a lot of fun.. the server crashing... not so much. The servers were fairly borked for the next few days following. Good fun though.
Marcus Jan 8th 2008 12:42PM
That was a fun day.
Leshrac Jan 8th 2008 11:38AM
HORDE FOR LIFE BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ben Jan 8th 2008 11:38AM
We just did this on Shadow Council, Horde side. Definitely a server first. Merlinii and Milesavis were the main organizers. Milesavis, you will be missed.
JPN Jan 8th 2008 11:51AM
It would be cool if there was a huge grand objective that could be met - i.e., every faction boss/city leader of the opposing faction must be killed within, say, 5 minutes of each other. (Something to prevent one group from going from place to place) It would take a ton of coordination, but if there was a great payoff that would "tip the scales" to one side's favor, it would be fun to defend. Maybe a faction-wide buff that doubled gold earned or something, that is always present on one side or the other.
I can imagine a huge group of Alliance hiding and gathering in a hidden corner of Mulgore...a lowly level 8 spots them and hurries to type something in the main channel before he's slaughtered..."THEY'RE COMI...."
Paul Avers Jan 8th 2008 12:03PM
So, sorta like a smaller, Horde version of EMD then?
Good on 'em.
(EMD happened on US-Dark Iron, back in late 2006, to commemorate the removal of Dishonorable Kills from the honor system. It had about 550ish players, and 15 full raids, hammering all three cities at the same time. The server *may* have dropped under the load. Didn't drop any loot other than cranky server maintenance people.)
Hokuto Jan 8th 2008 12:04PM
They killed Tyrande...
nalthien Jan 8th 2008 12:32PM
Not sure whose retribution they should fear more--Illidan's or Malfurion's...
briker Jan 8th 2008 12:18PM
We killed the Archbiship and the Arch Druid a few days ago with a raid of 20-25. Darnassus is not so tough, but Stormwind, we were all sneaky sneaky and summoned everyone into the catacombs below the Cathedral. We tried to go to Ironforge, but met a bit of resistance, followed by corpse-camping. The Archbiship carries around about 65g on him, btw.
Milktub Jan 8th 2008 12:35PM
It's a dream of mine to hold a city hostage. Find a few raids worth of people and have them all go to an enemy capitol and repeatedly kill everything in sight.
"Ironforge is owned by the Horde now."
Pretty sure it wouldn't last too long before the RLs got little wispers from the GMs: "Hey, knock it off and get out of Ironforge".
Paw Jan 8th 2008 12:55PM
Well, a small girl and a couple of puppies could take Exodar. I mean, on any given day there is nobody home.
Regardless, THIS is what world PvP should be like...not that tower-capture crap. I agree with previous posters...make the rewards far more lucrative so more people will want to engage in it.
original2k Jan 8th 2008 12:58PM
this is beautiful, pardon my biased interest being a hordie myself but you always read about how alliance owns all of our bosses and this sorta thing doesn't come up that often. big props to those guys for making it happen and showing up in force. too bad on eldre'thalas it seems that we are vastly outnumbered and can barely get ppl together to defend Halaa let alone launch a full scale assault like this
strength! :)
Steve_S Jan 8th 2008 1:12PM
Can you attack Shattrath? That would be cool.
Gror Jan 8th 2008 1:33PM
Wow Insider is sooooo biased to the Horde it is starting to get annoying. This kind of thing has been going on for ages. I remember on Emerald Dream (EU) we had over 450 of us, trash the Horde capitals before TBC.
It is just we wasn't that sad and videoed it, and posted it every where saying that the Alliance owns.
Matt Jan 8th 2008 2:20PM
QQ more... if your biggest deal is defending an imaginary faction that you DONT really belong to, because some guys did this on a server completely different than your own...just quit life...sorry im not usually like that but your comments were so pointless, i had to...
Matt Jan 8th 2008 2:10PM
I have to admit, if I were in a capitol city that is being raided, I probably would not try to stop it. I'd want to see what the NPCs can do, and especially what the bosses can do.
These videos are difficult to understand because of the confusion of the situation and the distance with which they are filmed, not to mention the poor quality of the video. Just once I'd like to see one that is either narrated like a sports play-by-play, or else of good enough quality that I can read the combat text.
Swiss Jan 8th 2008 3:52PM
I've been on a couple city raids since I began playing WoW and of course I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to "take over" that capital city.
While it may be feasible for a short time, eventually there will be enough guards spawned to guarantee the death of your raid group. It seems the more guards you kill, the more that spawn. For every NPC that's killed (auctioneer, innkeeper, etc), even more guards spawn.
The last city raid I did was on Ironforge and our group killed the gnome king and wiped less than 5 minutes later to a mass of guards. :(
Qball Jan 8th 2008 4:44PM
Wouldn't it be awesome to get epic loot drops off of the bosses? Some Alliance guy walking around swinging the Doomhammer would be bragging rights for I don't know how long. They need to put the competitive nature back into the game and make it so people play together (MMOPRG) rather than just for a quest in their bucket (OPRG).
leftclaw Jan 13th 2008 8:41AM
Well we did this in Bonechewer last December 27, lead by the 3 leading guilds in progression on Horde side namely CryHavoc, Civilian and Escaper. It was good fun, though the other PUG raiders went to blast Stormwind after Ironforge again, we went ahead to the other cities.