Interview with the leader of "Empire's Wrath" Ektoras

Author: Henry IV

“Kill them all. God will recognize his own”
(с) Arnaud Amalric

Hi! Introduce yourself: who is Ektoras in a real life, how were you involved in the LWM project and what was the most fascinating thing here?

Hello, I am 30 years old, I live in Greece, Athens. I work as an engineer. 4-5 years before a friend invited me to play in the old com server. Although I was not a fan of HoMM series, I was immediately hooked by the game.

And why did you dislike the HoMM series?

Not disliked, but I just preferred other strategical games, like Heart of Iron II, Civilization series , Starcraft and Red Alert.

But you are a fan of turn-based strategies, aren`t you?

Yes, I am.

) What aims do you want to achieve here in terms of your character`s development and maybe as a person?

Now I want to get 15 level, I will be able to do Commanders Guild battles with a friend. A long term goal for the character is to reach the next levels in hunter and mercenary guilds in order to have two more attack points.

Tell me about Empire`s Wrath. Who was enlightened by the idea of foundation? In what areas do you want to succeed? Does the clan have history and achievements?

Empire's Wrath comes from the merge of two military clans, Warriors Guild Wrath, coming from com server, and Empire Crusaders, coming from ru server.

WGW was founded by Kotrin in the old days of com, and my com character was a member of the clan. EC was founded by a few people (including me) that wanted to play in the events and wars of the Russian server, and almost all the players had an older com character. When the Merge of servers happened, many players of EC had a dilemma: to stay with EC and their new friends there, or to return to their old MCs from com and play in the future events with their old friends.

One player, chrisl, didn’t want to choose and lose either EC or WGW friends. So he suggested the merge of the MCs. Both leaderships of the clans and most of their members found that the merge beneficial for both clans and I think it was decided pretty quickly.

And did you remain the merged MC leader? Are you the only one or do you have a Council or something like that?

Currently we have a dual leadership with WGW old leader Lady Laitha. We have selected a few players to form a council that helps with deciding and managing daily matters. We also have two other groups that help with day to day management: Recruiters and Team Organizers for defense. When we are not under time pressure or have some serious questions, clan members vote in poll. For example, the amount we give as a refund for a successful defense was decided by a poll.

But poll can help to decide… let’s say... common and not very urgent questions, is it true?

Polls are used to decide anything that can wait a week (defense refunds, name and logo of the clan, eviction policy). But even when members didn’t vote for a decision, they can try to change it. For example, during the Survilurgs attacks, we (the leadership and the council) decided that the clan would fight for the sector at Ungovernable Steppe, if a member felt it was a wrong decision, he could make a thread at the clan forum to initiate a discussion. If he had support, a poll would be made to choose the direction.

I believe we are as democratic as a clan can be without losing efficiency.

It is a quite flexible ruling system) Some of the leaders of strong MCs used to be the members of your clan (for instance Patrickoy). Why did they leave you? Were there some inner problems? Did they want to be more independent?

I thought a leader would try to direct his clan in the merged server. I would not expect Patrikou not to staying with EFL. He also said he didn’t have fun, I don’t know why, most of us had a lot of fun. I don’t know if we had any other leader in EC. I didn’t know all com characters.

What is your personal opinion about EFL and Angels and Demons ? And does your clan have relations with them?

My opinion is somewhat positive, although I can’t say much without being a member. We are three competitors for a very small pool, com players. So we are a bit antagonistic. Nevertheless if they ask for something I try to help them.

I see. Was WGW successful on com lands before the Merge?

Yes, it was. WGW was influential because of its first leader Kotrin and it had some of the great players of the com server. During the events, if I remember correctly there were three com events, WGW was the first in one of them.

Who was Kotrin? I have heard a lot about him, but I didn`t catch the idea. Was he just an active player or more?

More. He was a moderator of the forums, he was also a keeper for some time. He offered his advice to anyone that wanted it. He made a clan Warriors Guild with goal to gather all honest playing people and promote the idea of no cheating, no faking. Com had a very big period when cheaters weren’t punished and it was just ugly. I don’t say he was always good, but he offered a lot to the game community and certainly more than an ordinary player.

Is he active now?

No, he is inactive for a long time.

It’s too bad. Tell us about the current event: is it hard to collect territories? Was it difficult to collect the square? Did you have strong, severe competition with the ru-clans, or not? And is it easy to hold everything?

Any sector we targeted was captured, except the only one at Tiger’s Lake. After that we learned to avoid the areas that very big ru clans target and not to spend gold and increase enemy creature stacks for uncertain results.

The sector was rather easy to get as the last facility and the best of it Obsidian Boots was free at late night so Russians were sleeping. The other three facilities do not worth much. Generally we were confident even to drop a mine to reset it to 100%.

Holding the sector was another story. Summer time, random defense times, double and triple defenses were making it hard for us. We had many 2vs3 defenses and even some 1vs3, amazingly some of 1vs3 were successful. The 60% decrease of attacks was right on time, as many of us were very tired and some didn’t even have the gold to continue defending.

Now because of Battle Glory points and relaxed defenses we would like some more facilities, but they are very rare and hard to capture.

Yes, for sure. But why not have an Alliance with all com MCs? Why "everyone stands alone"? It would be easier to attack or defend the territories by exchanging warriors...

I think the reasons for standing alone include high competition for the last com players interested in a military clan, also some people have negative feelings for people in the other clans and I think none of us has initiated talks of closer cooperation.

You can be this person)

Yes, maybe I should be...

Why Arctic decided to be in your MC? Does it make your clan more "valuable" for com-community?

I don’t know why he joined us, never asked him. He said he wanted to join, I just invited him. More “valuable”... no.

In conclusion, give some ideas how the clan management should be improved in order to make it more comfortable? And wish something to the players.

I would like to see a feature for MC players to be able to fight under the flag of another MC without having to leave their clan. It could be a cool feature, the clan logo lending the players could be shown in the combat log, for example, the defense log. There should be a cost so the clans will not overuse it. Currently it is a hustle to have players leave the clan and then join again. I wish them lots of luck.

Thank you for a good interview. I wish you and your MC to be strong and united)

Thank you for the chance to be interviewed :)

comments

To leave a comment please register