Greetings everyone and thank you for choosing to read about my island adventure. This island starts as every island does with excitement, questions, curiosity, and the hope for many rewards. The beginning to this island however was a bit wild. Due to unforeseen maintenance issues our island was delayed by almost 3 hours. Many islands were impacted by this error but after some patience the amazing Ants staff resolved the issue and everyone was able to fly to the island.
For this island we have selected the blue territory. However, this is the first island I’ve done were there are only 6 alliances participating instead of the usual 8. The alliances are Blue, Pink Teal, Purple, Green, and Brown. Upon initial evaluation Pink has the easiest path to the tree as they have no competition in the clash zone. This is my first island with the alliance I’m currently in but in their last island the alliance brown and teal were allies. Both alliances are very strong, however, the brown alliance is the strongest alliance on this island. There is already a brown player that has the T10 evolution tree complete for one soldier ant type.
We made quite a bit of progress provided our late entry into the island and the game going down for maintenance at 0700UTC. We have captured one lair and one residence. Our progress has since slowed due to many players pregathering for SvS event tomorrow. Today I have also been in talks with the Pink and Green alliances. The Green alliance announced a proposal for all alliances to coordinate and simultaneously capture all three clash zone wonders one by one for the final achievement in Land of Clash Wonder. I (Blue) and Pink have agreed to this proposal. Green is reaching out to Teal, Purple, and Brown for their thoughts. More to follow as this is the first agreement that all alliances are having to make. As far as a general status of the island season chat appears to be friendly but there is limited talking there. All alliances are building towers to different forts. So far no alliance has captured their home zone wonder.
Finally, the Hornets have arrived! Since the last island, many players, including myself, have missed hunting the Hornets. With 29 colony nodes, I'm a little behind, but it's still fairly early for islands so I'll catch up. Currently, I cannot capture a level 7 node, so there is no rush, in my opinion. Midway through the day, I collected my ninth shell for SvS rewards, so my troops can now do more. 😊
A little more progress was made today with the capture of another Lair and Residence. We are slowly approaching our home zone wonder. I expect we should take it tomorrow, or at the very least the next day. Brown on the other hand is progressing very quickly. They have captured their Wonder, two Residences, and three Lairs. The Wonder is close to the alliance blockhouse in that territory, so I'm not surprised.
Diplomatic update: still no word from Brown, Purple, and Teal regarding Green's Clash Zone Wonder proposal from yesterday. It is unclear if those three alliances have decided to join together or if it’s just a coincidence. I believe we can work together and share the shared zone between the two zones, based on my conversation with Pinks R5 yesterday. Those discussions will happen in the coming days.
Our day was WONDERful as we captured the wonder and 3 lairs today. We closed out the day with a solid hold on fourth place in alliance influence due to our progress. As of now, I have 41 colony nodes and have increased my honor rank significantly.
Talking in season chat continues to be sparse. It does not appear that any alliances have beef yet. Pink has built a tower to reach the tunnel to the shared zone we share with them, while Teal has built a tower into the empty orange zone. Green and Purple are the only alliances that have yet to capture their wonders.
Diplomatic update: Brown sent me a message to compete for the shellfish wonder with Pink. If we enter our clash zone with them there will be fighting. Not sure if Green received the same message. The R5, R4’s, and myself are deciding how to respond. Outside of that talks have fizzled out about capturing all 3 clash zone wonders in our island discord chat with all the other alliances.
In terms of island activity, not much has changed. It's still mostly dead in season chat. All talks of sharing the clash zones have stopped. That “new” island feel seems to have dissipated for all island players. Since capturing the wonder, we have captured 3 more lairs and 2 more residences. I have completed my tower building and deating station solider ant island achievements. All alliances have their home zone wonder except for green. My fellow members are getting bored, but that's life on the island at this time. Once the clash zone opens the island will start heating up and getting interesting.
One of the hardest island events is on the horizon. In 48 hours, we will have to defeat the mudskippers. Stamina is a rarity during that event so I will embrace having it for two more days (ha-ha).
Diplomatic update: We have not responded to brown yet as we are still internally discussing our options.
We made more progress today. We captured 2 lairs and 2 ferries. Despite our progress, we are ranked 5th in influence. However, once we enter the shared zone we will go back and forth with pink for first place. Brown has only 3-4 days’ worth of buildings left to do before having nothing to do. Green finally captured their wonder. Teal is in the same boat as Brown, they only have a couple more days’ worth of buildings to capture.
Diplomatic update: In regard to Brown's message from 3 days ago, we are deciding whether to stay here until the end. As we learned from our last island fighting is very expensive while on the island. Given the strength disparity between us and Brown we would not win that fight. I wonder if the same message will be sent to all the alliances prior to the land of abundance becoming available. Guess only time will tell.
We continue to progress in our home zone with the capture of 2 lairs. T minus 24 hours before the mudskippers start. I spent my extra stamina today working on colony nodes. I’m now up to 75, however, it’s a mix of levels 6, 5, and 4. Not looking forward to stamina struggles after reset. This is my least favorite time on the island.
Diplomatic update: I’m coordinating with Pink R5 how we will share the zone between our alliances and how the wonder occupation will work. At the same time Green R4 has contacted me to discuss maintaining a friendly relationship in the clash zone. They also want to plan how to split the clash zone. They have contacted Brown to see how they intend to conduct themselves in the clash zone. I guess that answers my question about if Brown would communicate the same message to other alliances. Things are finally picking up diplomatically.
Well folks, the mudskippers have arrived and with their arrival my stamina has disappeared. I managed to hit those buggers 15 times though but it left very little stamina for gecko's. Pair that with it also being the day before gathering day for SvS it was a tough PvE day for my stamina. P.S. there is alot going on in the picture of the mudskippers. I wanted to get a picture of attacking it with my troops (ha-ha).
As far as how my island is looking we did not capture any forts yesterday, only built towers. Brown alliance has built towers to both of the tunnels leading into greens home territory with anthills at both tunnels waiting for the buffs to drop after reset. No noticable difference with the other 4 alliances on the island. They all are progressing normally from what I can tell.
Diplomatic update: I have coordinated with the Pink R5 how we will share the zone between our alliances and how the capture and rotation of the wonder will work. I have diplomatically secured the first occupancy rewards of that wonder for my alliance. Big thank you to the Pink alliance (they know who they are if they read this)! Green got a similar response that we got from Brown about their plans in the clash zone.
Quite literally overnight the island exploded with activity. Since yesterday Brown has captured both of the tunnels into Greens home zone. They also captured one tunnel into our home zone. They have not built any towers into either alliances home zones though. Brown has 9 forts left to capture in their home zone before they are down to only tunnels and expanding out of their home zone.
As far as the rest of the island Purple has entered the empty yellow zone while Teal has entered the empty Orange zone. Both Pink and my alliance (Blue) have entered the zone we both share. They have captured 2 lairs in that zone while all we did today in that zone was build towers to the Twin Conch wonder. We will be capturing that wonder tomorrow per my agreement with the Pink R5.
Mudskippers continue to be a hassle as there is never enough stamina currently. Only 3 days left before they are done. Can't wait to move on from them (ha-ha).
Diplomatic update: There has been no change in our diplomatic standings with any alliance today. We maintain friendly conversations with Pink and Green. Purple and Teal have never reached out to me but given that they are across the island from me I don’t really expect to hear from them untel closer to the end of the island when the Land of Abundance becomes available.
Today has not been too exciting for my alliance. We captured 1 residence but fell 3 towers short of reaching the Twin Conch wonder. The plan is to build those 3 towers after reset and attack the wonder around 0030UTC. Managing stamina during the mudskipper event continues to be difficult but only 2 days left until that event is finished. I forgot to mention the other day that I got my second copy of Crimson Fragger. That is now my second duped season ant. Last lost island I got lucky and hatched 2 nimble tree ants. :blush:
So I was mistaken thinking that Brown would capture the remaining forts in their home territory before pushing out. Today they moved into Greens home zone and captured a lair. This happened while I was asleep so I'm not sure if Green fought back. I looked back through season chat and did not see any dialogue there in reference to an attack. I guess we'll see in the coming days if Green and Brown can come to an agreement. Teal has arrived at the empty orange zone wonder. They will likely capture that wonder after reset.
Today started with a battle between Brown and Green that lasted for 2 hours. The first hour was the most intense part of the battle as each alliance focused their efforts on the towers. Green fought valently but it was clear that Brown was winning the battle. As a last ditch attempt to hold brown off green started to stack towers in that immediate area. Once the battle ended Brown made short work of those new towers and continued their march to the next lair. Without any resistance from Green Brown captured that lair and began building towers towards the residence to the north.
I will say that neither alliance had all their members fighting. It was problem 15 members for each alliance fighting. The concerning part was Green strongest members were present but Browns strongest were not. Maybe I have a soft spot for Green because of their alliance name but I hate seeing anyone being invaded for no reason. Browns focus remains on green though. They have not invaded my zone yet.
After reset today we captured the Twin Conch wonder and secured the first occupancy rewards. As agreed upon with Pink a couple hours later they have captured the same wonder. Despite sharing a zone with Pink and our close proximity to their anthills both Pink and my alliance remained peaceful. There were a few friendly duels between our members and some of Pinks but it was just for fun.
Teal is inching closer to the wonder in the empty yellow zone. I expect they will have it captured after reset tomorrow. Purple and Teal appear to remain peaceful towards each other as well while they share the same zone.
Diplomatic update: Besides coordinating the wonder with Pink I did not talk to any other alliances today.
As predicted and expected Brown continued to march towards the residence in Greens zone and captured it with little resistance. Now Brown is marching to the residence to the south. Green is launching small gorilla like attacks but it's not slowing Brown down. Also Green is now dealing with a new threat to their south. Purple has smelled blood in the water and has decided they wanted to get taste of Green. They have only built 2 towers into Greens zone. I'm unsure if Green battled Purple but it doesn't appear as if Purple is are dedicated in their advancement in Greens zone as Brown is. As always I will continue to monitor this developing situation.
Teal has progressed in the empty yellow zone and captured their third wonder. Purple has not made any further progress in yellows zone. My alliance and Pink continue our peacfeful coexistance and are only focused on capturing forts.
Diplomatic update: There is no change. I did not speak with any alliances today.
Brown continued their march south and captured the residence to the south. Now they are building towers south of that residence but I'm not sure where to. Are they building to the tunnel to the west of their laast tower built? Are they building towards purple? Are they building towards the residence to the very south in greens zone? All a mystery right now. Time will tell though where they are heading. Because I enjoy a good battle I would like to see Brown and Purple fight. It would be very entertaining.
Outside of Browns progress in Greens zone the island was rather boring and uneventful. I wish we had alliance expedition while on the island. Just to provide a break from the island and a chance for some combat that didn’t require resources to heal from. Plus the extra bio-essence would be nice.
Diplomatic update: Once again I did not speak with any alliances today. There was some friendly banter in season chat for a change but it was mainly between Blue and Pink. Only one Green member popped in for a couple mins.
Folks, today the island experienced it's biggest fight yet and let me tell you it was quite the show. The battle was between Purple and Green in Greens home zone. The battle lasted 3 intense hours and maybe I'm partial but I was very ecstatic for the winner.
The battle started at Purples third tower in Greens zone. The attack started roughly 30 mins after reset and both sides had about 15 members present. Green fought feverishly to destroy Purples tower and after repeated attacks on the tower and Purples anthills Green was successful in destroying that tower. Even though the amount of players on both sides were close to even Greens surprise offensive had Purple off balance.
Green continued their advancement to the tunnel slowly but surely. Destroying towers, building towers, raiding anthills, and resetting anthills. There were no rules, no prisoners in Greens attack. They ultimately pushed Purple back to the tunnel. By this time both sides had 30+ members present. Without hesitation Green continued their assault and focused their efforts on the tunnel. It was pure carnage as both sides were sending troops not only at the tunnel but also at each other. It didn't matter if they were by the tunnel or across the mountains Green was on a rampage. The tunnel witness the largest portion of the fighting and by far was the most intense. Despite Purples advantage of playing the game longer it was evident that Green had the greater strength and determination. This ultimately lead Green to victory as they captured that tunnel. Personally, I was happy to see Green push out one of their invaders and to see them do it in a convincing fashion was rather satisfying. That ranks as one of the best island battles I have seen so far. At the end of the battle Green controlled 2 tunnels into Purples home zone and Purple control no tunnels into Green zone.
All the while Brown continued building towers in Greens zone but did not capture any forts. They built towers past one of Greens tunnels into the clash zone and continued building towers to the south. My speculation is Brown is blocking Greens access to the clash zone. My other thought is Brown is building down to the tunnel that enters Purples zone. Maybe Brown wants access to Purples clash zone. We'll see over the next couple days as they continue to build towers.
Outside of the excitement in Greens zone there was not much else happening. Teal continues to build towers in the vacant orange zone while Pink captures forts in the shared zone between them and Blue. My alliance captured 2 residences and 1 lair today in the same shared zone that Pink is in.
At the conclusion of today despite Greens valiant battle Purple was able to capture 2 tunnels back into Greens zone. Green was able to capture a tunnel into Purples home zone though too. So currently both sides are at a stalemate.
Diplomatic update: Not much to report for today. Season chat is becoming more active though. It's been enjoyable speaking with some of the other alliance members on our island.
Well today we figured out why brown built towers straight south. Their objective was to enter the clash zone from Greens southern most tunnel. Strategically this makes sense as it is the closest entry point to the clash zone wonder. Green still has a chance to enter the clash zone as they built towers to the northern tunnel. With 1 day left until the buff expires for the tunnel to the clash zone we'll see if Green can hold onto that final tunnel. Green is playing a very good game of cat and mouse with Brown though. I can definitely appreciate their effort to remain resilient in the face of a much stronger opponent.
To Greens south Purple captured their third tunnel to Greens zone but have not invaded Green zone. It looks like today they used their clay to build towards 3 lairs in their zone instead.
Outside of the constant action in Greens zone there is not much to report. The other 3 alliances remain peaceful and are focused on building to various forts.
The day started out with Green feverishly building multiple towers on the little bit of the path they had left to their northern clash zone tunnel. This is a good defensive strategy to slow and possible stop an invading force but Brown is a very determined bunch.
They built towers to meet the little path green had left. The finally got within range of the first set of towers 2.5 hours after reset and immediately went to work demolishing Greens towers. Green did their best to defend the towers but Browns strength continued to prove too much. While Brown was destroying the first set of towers Green continued to build towers behind the towers in the front.
After 2 hours Brown destroyed Greens front row of towers, built new towers to meet the second row of Greens towers and started to destroy them. 5 hours later Brown finally arrived at Greens final 2 towers before the tunnel. 30 mins later the small Green path to the north tunnel was completely gone.
As you can see placing multiple towers close together is a good defensive strategy but if the opponent is very determined they can break through if there is no opposition. I commend Greens efforts to try to maintain a path into the clash zone though.
Outside of that bit of action there was nothing else of note happening on the island. All other alliances were just prepping to enter the clash zone after reset.
Those that have followed along my island journey, thank you and I hope you enjoyed the story. This entire island topic I left out a big secret. A secret that I was not planning on sharing until it became known to my island first. At the beginning of this island my fellow alliance leaders and myself had a discussion if we were going to stay this island or not. We weighed the pros and cons and ultimately decided that given the alliances on this island, our initial place selection, and who our neighbors are that we would not accomplish our goals this island. Our goal of winning and occupying the tree at the end. We fought alongside Brown and Teal last island. In that island we were friends united against a common enemy but this island there is no common enemy. This island was a free for all (or so it appeared). Having an extensive knowledge of our neighbor Brown from the previous island we knew if we tried to fight them we would lose, therefore, it was decided not to waste any resources fighting this island and leave the season with minimal time invested.
So with that being said we initiated our vote to quit the season 3 days ago. There was a little confusion as to why we were leaving from our more casual players but after answering their question most were aligned and casted a support to quit vote. The voting period has ended with a support rate of 94.8% to quit the season.
Now we have entered the 48 hour publicity period and as I stated above now the whole island knows. We have a day and a half left on this island and then we will fly back to our server. Alot of the members are ready to leave this island and start prepping for the next island. The next island will be the real deal. We intended to accomplish our goals next island and we look forward to meeting new alliances, new players, and making new friends.
I will end this post with an island update as things did get interesting in the clash zones between 2 alliances who have up until this point have not fought. As you have noticed in my previous posts that Teal entered the vacant orange zone and captured the wonder and many other forts there. The first day the clash zone opened Teal entered their home zone clash zone and captured that wonder. On day 2 is when all the real excitement started. On day 2 Teal entered the clash zone with Pink. By this time Pink had captured the wonder and many other forts along the way. Pink quickly responded to the invaders and within a couple hours they began fighting over towers. Teal has one of the strongest players on the island in their alliance but Pink is not a weak alliance either.
The fighting raged on for 2 days. When it started Teal occupied 1 residence and 1 lair and were building towers to another residence before Pink intercepted them. Over the past 2 days Pink has pain stakenly captured and destroyed tower after tower of Teals. As an alliance they have taken great losses but with the combined teamwork, coordination, and shear determination Pink overcame Teal in their clash zone. They captured both forts that Teal had in that clash zone, destroyed all of Teals towers, and occupied the tunnel that Teal used to enter Pinks clash zone.
It was a fun battle to watch and I for one am happy to see Pink fight to hold onto their clash zone. Both sides fought honorable and respectfully with a great mutual appreciation for the others efforts thus far.
As far as the other clash zones, Purple is slowly taking forts in the clash zone they share with Teal. Brown as predicted entered the clash zone through Greens tunnel and occupied the wonder in the first day. Since then they have captured forts and are slowly working their way across the clash zone. We also entered the clash zone with Brown and casually took a couple forts ourselves. We have maintained a friendly relationship with Brown during our time on the island and has shared a peaceful co-existence as neighbors.
Well folks, as the title suggest this is the final post I will be making for this island. I'll leave it up to you all to decide which alliance will win this island. As for me, my focus is on the next island and the new challenges it will bring.
Thank you all for following my island story. The next island story I write we will be competeing hard to win it all and I hope you all will be there to follow along with that story.
