Larger ImageAfter a relaxing period where my RSI (
repetitive strain injury; caused by too much clicking) FBG battles are backed. Just like on my first date, I read the attack schedule and rules with sweaty palms and eager thighs. A 3 hour marathon?! Plinks to be refunded? I began to drool just imagining the carnage. After raiding my plinks account and realising I still have sfa plinks, I got my favourite cushion out and prepared to watch a miniature drama on the screen before me.
Things got off to a brisk start, with a whopping 33 clans turning up. Unfortunately, some people still did not manage to deploy troops in time. Remember
you can only deploy troops onto neutral territory. Other clans, having the benefit of experience rapidly deployed troops in the likes of France (VR), Spain (TAR/[e]). A consortium of clans teamed up yet again for this battle; familiar faces- DoG/Impact/VIA and iK. Facing stiff competition from BAN, DoG and iK took them on in Italy, with BAN being eliminated at 19:49. Conserving their strength, DoG made a late push north. Repelled by newcomers USG, DoG managed to call in some reinforcements before coming under heavy fire from old friends DJR.
NiF stormed to an early lead- taking the east by storm. Reminiscent of the Communist era, NiF’s shear numbers proved unstoppable in the early game. Such was the extent of their lead (21% of the map) that the FBG clan valiantly spawned in Lithuania in an effort to buy others some time. A little rusty, Skitz was still quick to work some magic (and not unlimited plinks magic). With a modest (and magic :D) 800,000 plinks, FBG managed to stem the tide and cause some serious damage to NiF. Caught between WoC and NiF, it just was not meant to be, with FBG succumbing to the tide just after crossing the half way line.
Fresh-faced WoC were a bit of surprise. Any new clan with 6 million plinks in the bank is sure to cause a storm- and these guys did! Or least that is what I thought, until a little bit of digging revealed WoC to be a rebranded (sic: Dele!) RUSH. Which would explain their large number of NAP’s, their good performance on the field and their bank balance. At one stage, these guys had 84 territories in their grasp- and it was looking good. However, with an hour to go, (DJR,NiF and SAS) had turned their attention on WoC to push them down to 33 territories, finishing in eight place.
Finishing seventh were USG- a lot of new faces and an old one- a certain Omega Pirate. If this is the same guy that I'm thinking of; it has been a long time and he did himself proud tonight.
In Sixth place were /I\, who played a relatively quiet game, spawning in the Netherlands. Aligned with VIA block, /I\ had no serious contenders. Taking much of Northern Europe (with the exception of CELL in Belgium).
VIA had a bit of rough ride- with old friends iK in tow, VIA had their eyes on the number 1 spot. Considering their history of huge budgets, VIA entered with the relatively small amount of 4.7 million plinks- to face stiff competition from (DJR/NiF/SAS). A point of interest is that VIA said that they were allied with SAS, who upon being questioned in the presence of their friends DJR (who were enemies of VIA) all SAS could say was “Well we did not attack them”. Suspicious or what?
In a nice little twist of fate, iK outperformed their friends over at VIA. Starting off in Italy, these patriotic nationalist made a dash for their homeland of Portugal- only to be repelled by TAR and [e] in Spain. In a characteristic move, TAR rushed headfirst into VIA in an effort to end a battles-long feud.
SF came in at a very respectable third- dominating the UK and tearing chunks out of VR in Ireland till they controlled them both, these guys then invaded northern Europe. A masterful strategy by the VIA block- trying to catch their enemies between a hammer and an anvil.
The eventual winners of the battle were DJR- congradulations guys. With the backing of SAS and NiF, it was almost certain one of the three was going to come first. With borders constantly changing hands and fierce competitions from the VIA block, DJR did very well to come in first place. Quick to mention how the support of SAS and NiF was essential and very much appreciated, DJR did make one big mistake; allying with iK. Anyone who has been around FBG knows that VIA and iK are like two peas in a pod and you just can’t separate the two, so it was invitable that DJR were going to be betrayed. Upon being interviewed Dougle said:
“The thing i love about fbg is everything is so friendly, even DJR’s relationships with kaiser are friendly in a mutually distrustful manner... but then you have peanut who gets really stroppy over a game”
The other major player of DJR’s said he’d like to dedicate his trophy to “his DoG”- how sweet!
I also have one final announcement- I have made a troop calculator for all you FBG fanatics. This nifty device will tell you how many troops you can get for your plinks (or how many troops your enemy can get). It is fairly robust and can calculate how many troops you can get for X plinks even if you’ve already spent Y plinks. It can be adjusted for different battles. This calculator is not affiliated with FBG in an official manner and was not made from FBG source code- it was reverse engineered. It can be found
here. Using this nifty device I can tell you that in Battle 7 a whopping 100,000,000 (100 million) plinks would only get you 88,944 troops.
Finally, I have one question: where was this guy?
A flying llama 
