Editor’s Note: Through a sophisticated combination of strategic leaks, well-placed bribes, carefully executed blackmail, and professional extortion (and absolutely not by acting as a willing propaganda mouthpiece), the Malton Herald and Sun has successfully obtained confidential documents recently deliberated upon by the War Council of the Ridleybank Resistance Front.
Annual RRF Review (2008-2009)
This isn’t quite the speech that DJ requested, but hell, you all know that my rabble-rousing speeches are best-suited to the public forum, where I can do my Napoleon thing. ;)
I don’t think that we’ve ever had an annual review before, but then we’ve never had a leader who has remained in power for this long either. Here’s I’m going to go over our year, our horde and our teams, giving out the deserved props and also pointing out where we need to improve. We’ll start with the game and our horde’s place in it.
Urban Dead and the RRF
2008 was a bad year for Urban Dead. That probably seems like a very negative way to start out, but bear with me. This time last year I posted the idea for barricade blocking on the main UD discussion page of the wiki, because at that time zombies had dropped below 10000. This was crisis time. Kevan implemented my idea and he did it fast, but then the Dead arrived and things went pear-shaped very quickly. Twice last year the breathers dropped below 40% of the population and twice Kevan responded with insanely over-the-top syringe search rate buffs. Now zombies are at 37% and he’s done nothing, so I think it’s safe to say that we can’t rely on Kevan in this. He responds to whining and threats of strikes, rather than to situations as they emerge.
Depressed yet? Well, don’t be. Take a look at the Stats Page and who do you see at the top there? Us. We’ve been there for a while and it’s where we deserve to be. Take a look also at our membership numbers and you’ll see that whilst Urban Dead has lost more than a quarter of its zombie population in the last year, the RRF has remained consistent, with between 150 and 170 players wearing our tag. That is a tribute to the horde, our players and to you, the War Council. Hordes don’t survive years like this without people keeping them on an even keel, and each of you have done that superbly. We’ve not merely survived though: I will go so far as to say that we have thrived, and you guys made that possible.
The Teams
The Department of Homeland Security
It’s been a year of change for DoHS/Wrecking Ball/Any other names that we may have used for it and forgotten. We’ve unified, split, flip-turned upside down and all around this team, but it still keeps chugging along, with a surprising number of zombies showing up to answer the call when made. Zoey has offered a good, stable and light hand to keep things fun and that is what works best for a group like DoHS. Overall Zoey and DoHS are performing well and we must always bear in mind that running DoHS is one of the hardest jobs in the Front due to the lack of feedback from members.
Where I would say that we have room for improvement here is in consistency. DoHS could really use daily targets posted and, if possible, it would be great for Zoey to get a little help from the other teams on this. I know that you guys post open buildings where you can and that’s great, but it would also be helpful if any of us who see a barricaded building in the attack zone (like the buildings which surround your own targets) could post that for them too. It only takes a few moments and could help up start to really wreck suburbs and drive home our advantage.
Team America
This is the undisputed success story of the horde this year. Team America has gone from a team of newbies who didn’t know their arses from their elbows to a heavyweight strike team who take the lead in the majority of the horde’s conquests. They’re big, they’re bad and they do serious damage, but they’re also fun and welcoming. They’ve got the balance spot-on and that’s down to the work that Gus and Zoey put into forming the team and creating an ethos and also that which DJ and Ben have put in by refining the team without making it all business.
Again, the room for improvement here is in greater consistency. If possible we need to get a leadership framework in place and keep it rolling for a while (I haven’t promoted Agent Sandman to here yet because I want him to get some experience leading the strikes to see if he can handle it before we burden him with WC stuff). Also we could do with sticking to a strike time, because if Team America’s time keeps rolling back because of tardy players it’ll soon be the EST Breakfast Club. :D
I have a suspicion that a lot of the latecomers are trying to avoid the debarricading and feeding duties, so let’s start pushing the importance of doing one’s share of the dirty work, rather than rolling up late and strolling in…
Auxunit 10
When I took over the horde, AU10 was a team on the ropes. Constant leadership changes, drama loss of focus had robbed the team of members and enthusiasm, to the point at which the future of the team seemed in doubt. Now the team is thriving and the first person to credit with that is Cthulhu/Nellie. She took over the team and whipped them, probably literally, into shape, with a combination of enthusiasm, leadership skills and graphic pornography. She gave the team a whole new impetus and ethos which Zemi, Tarman and Sponge have carried on, keeping the team strong and motivated.
AU10 is a workhorse team: Strong, dependable and willing to go where they’re needed for the good of the horde, even when the path is long and the job boring. Where this team could be improved is in links with the rest of the horde, with a bit more visibility of the group’s members on the forum, which would encourage more posting from DoHS members and could also lead more DoHS members to consider a future in AU10.
The GMT Breakfast Club
Ah, the enigma of the RRF. The GMT Breakfast Club is an odd beast. Hell, sometimes we wonder if they actually exist. Then they come along and tear open a rock hard target like St. George’s Hospital as though it’s made of paper and turn the place into a mausoleum. Like AU10, the Club is a workhorse of a team and does what needs to be done, when it needs doing. They have the most experienced heads in the horde and it shows in their play. Disti is a reliable pair of hands as Number Two in the horde (even though he’s only been called upon once to lead in my absence), Morti is a good level head and they, but especially Yama, have done great work in reconnecting the Club with the rest of the horde (‘Yama’s Oubliette’ is a particular favourite thread of mine). The room for improvement? Well, we’d always like to see more of them on the forums, but we can’t go asking Disti to walk on water too. ;)
The Gore Corps
Time for Papa’s personal army to get the once over. On the surface I’d imagine that the Corps get a similar rap to the Air Force in World War Two: The over-paid types who do the easy stuff whilst the infantry get stuck dealing with the mud/barricades. A lot of that perception comes from the fact that horde members often consciously avoid our forum due to the breather-acquired information therein. In reality the Corps get the shit end of the stick from me a lot because they are the team whom I directly control, which means that they are the first people whom I can get into a location where we need numbers. Right now the Corps is far smaller than it was this time last year, with about 20 regular members, but at the same time the team is pound-for-pound more dangerous than it was then, remaining the most prolific killers in the horde, but adding a ruthless edge to their play through sabotage and general efficiency of play. Globule, Johnny and Mike have all done very well in keeping the Corps running and I’ll be looking to them more in the future.
The room for improvement here lies in fun: They need to have more and that will require my lightening up on them a lot. The Corps is the most AP-efficient team in the horde, but needs to have some time for old-fashioned dicking around. I’m going to be looking at changing the image of the team to something a little more ‘punk rock’ and, once the horde has dived into territory in the south-east which doesn’t really require us, I’ll take the Corps away for a couple of weeks to do something a little different, which will give them some variety whilst letting your guys rack up extra kills in safehouses that we haven’t emptied, as well as playing any games down there which you straight zombie folks fancy for yourselves. :D
The Horde Model and Future Plans
I look back to the Ackland Mall siege in late 2007, my first as Papa, and I can tell you that we’re a much stronger unit than we were then. The RRF of last year had to fight hard and get help taking down Ackland, but the RRF of today would stamp on it under the same conditions. Today I believe that the main core of the RRF is without doubt the toughest and most deadly force in the game. People outside of the RRF talk about the other hordes and what they achieve, but what they do not realise or recognise is that the RRF touring parties that do all the obvious heavy damage probably number barely 80 players, and yet at Tompson (the one time when I was looking to have a siege which would take us a couple of weeks) we took out a mall which had both an NT and a hospital directly linked to it, as well as a population of 700+, in just days. I defy anyone to claim that we aren’t a lethal weapon when we can do that. Meanwhile the disorganised mass of the horde have terrorised the SSZ for more than six months now, with only limited windows of breather control in Stanbury Village and Roftwood. That’s an awesome combined performance by anyone’s standards and you guys are all massive contributors to this success. All that said, we can improve as a horde.
Our biggest weakness is that we’re magnificent ‘big game hunters’, by which I mean that we take down malls and NTs as though they aren’t even there, however, we rarely fully kill off suburbs by taking out everything and everyone in the area. With that in mind I want to try reintroducing the team reports that we had for a little while here in the WC. These would simply involve posting the targets which were attacked, how they stood at the end of the attack and whether the buildings immediately surrounding them were ruined. This should only take about a minute or two per strike, but would give the whole council an idea of just how the area is looking, regardless of where each team is in the suburb. In addition to this I will start creating maps with target zones to make our movements and intended target areas more clear for all of you and allow you to plan in advance. I did this early on in my tenure but allowed it to lapse out of laziness. :lol:
Another area where I think we can all improve is communication. The forums are now often deathly quiet, because we’ve allowed ourselves to become overly reliant upon IRC channels for communication, but that’s useless to the majority of the horde and the longer we neglect them the more disassociated they become. Basically we need more forum traffic to keep most of our team rolling, so let’s try to keep posting in the public areas where we can. Any games, silly stuff, role-playing, etc, would be very welcome, as would anything else along the lines of Yama’s Oubliette. It’s all good and keeps people visiting and reading. The more they visit, the more they’ll follow our lead.
The Papa
Well, time to give myself a bit of a going over.
The occasional zerg scandal and War Council sacking aside, I think I’ve done a pretty good job on the horde as a whole over the past year. We’ve unified, tightened and gone undefeated the whole time. We’re as tactically astute and physically powerful as any team in the game, probably more so, and when we tour we punch well above our weight. I’m not going to sit here tooting my own horn and all that shit, but I’ll simply say that in terms of our play and our ability on the map, my leadership has improved the horde.
My room for improvement is probably obvious to all of you: My presence as Papa is great for getting malls sacked and keeping breather dead, but it’s lousy for PR. People only either come to like or tolerate me through contact and I make almost none with other teams. With the exception of the Minions, Feral Undead, LUE, the Undeadites and, to a far lesser degree, the MOB, I all but ignore the other teams in Malton. In terms of allies that’s not really a problem, as I cover the major ones there. Where it becomes a problem is with the breathers. Back under Murray’s reign we attracted a lot of alts from teams like the Dribbling Beavers and the Randoms. That is no longer the case, because I don’t have the time or the particular inclination to make nice with the breathers, and even if I did the truth is that I either rub people up the wrong way or intimidate them (I contacted Evil Avatar to say hi on the wiki and they went to an immediate war footing!). I’m a general, not a diplomat. :)
With the above in mind I’m going to ask again if any others are willing to act as ambassadors for the horde with the breathers. A lot of you are well-connected in those circles and all of you are more popular in them, so if you want to go that little bit further to help the horde then saying a few hellos to the Randoms, DEM, Beavers, USAI, Cannonball Crew or even, spits, the Fortress, would be a big help.
I’d like to see us doing more promotional stuff too. For a while MH&S was rolling superbly, but it seems to have fallen quiet. We could also do with some more of Zoey’s crayon work. :D
I want also to stress again that each of you team leaders are free to build up your own ethos and spirit within your squad. Enjoy the game, make up side games, whatever you want. I trust you guys to do your thing and entertain yourselves and your players. :)
Well, if you read all this then fair play to you. Me? I’m off for a cup of tea. If there’s anything that you want clarified or added then feel free to mention it or PM me.
Barhah!
