I’m Zeno Sidonius, First Spear of the Army of the Western Seal, Jarl of Dunholme and Lord Captain of the Grand Expedition.

What’s the First Spear of the West you ask?

I’m the cruel bastard who is going to make sure things get done in the Army of the West. You will not like me, but you will come to respect me. I am hard but I am fair. I will never ask you to do anything I would not do, or have not already done, myself.

The combined armies of the Mythodea must work together as a team if we are to be victorious in the Mirrorworld Campaign. No matter which Seal you follow, if you find yourself alone without course or direction, then let me know and together we will find you a place to participate in the struggle against our common enemies.

Whilst I have no intention to undermine your own officers, it has been my experience that often in the heat of battle people become lost, cut off and without guidance. I have been instructed to reduce that this year. Where units with officers exist, I will work in cooperation with those officers.
If you hear me shouting on the battlefield it is because there are things that must be done, things that I have been entrusted to ensure get done. I will not fail in this task. I ask you to trust in me, just as I trust in you, comrades in arms. I will lead from the front. We will share the same hardships, the same risks. Together we shall overcome the Forsaken.

Those who know me already know this to be true. I would ask you to show your support here and on the field, so that those who do not know me can see that my words are not empty, for I am aware that all too often a surplus of cooks can spoil the soup.

You will know me by the crest on my helmet and the phalerae discs on my chest, each of those discs hard won for bravery and success on the battlefield over a long career of conflicts in many Realms. My banner is green with the symbol of the Golden Boar of Dunholme.

If anyone has any questions, now would be a good time to ask them.

First Spear Creed

No one is more professional than I. I am a First Spear, a leader of soldiers. As a First Spear. I realize I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as "The Backbone of the Army". I am proud of the Corps of First Spears and will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps, the Army and my Seal, regardless of the situation in which I find myself. I will not use my rank or position to attain pleasure, profit or personal safety.

Competence is my watchword. My two basic responsibilities will always be uppermost in my mind - accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my soldiers. I will strive to remain technically and tactically proficient. I am aware of my role as a First Spear. I will fufill my responsibilities inherent in that role. All soldiers are entitled to outstanding leadership; I will provide that leadership. I know my soldiers and I will place their needs above my own. I will communicate consistently with my soldiers and never leave them uninformed. I will be fair and impartial when recommending both rewards and punishment.

The Archon, Thul'hee and Marshal of the Army will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine. I will earn their respect and confidence as well as that of my soldiers. I will be loyal to those with whom I serve; seniors, peers, subordinates alike. I will exercise initiative by taking appropriate action in the absence of orders. I will not compromise my integrity, nor my moral courage. I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget, that we are professionals, First Spears, leaders!

Mythodea review:

Where to start... having left Drachenfest, having had one of the best events of my life, and certainly the best GE event since we started, I was aiming to keep my level of keen. I was worried about the new "Mirrorworld plot" but was going to give it my best.

First, I loved the new camps and town layout. Bloody brilliant. As was the unloading. Great showers and toilets... although I wish Live Adventure would put chem lights in the portable toilets. The town was a very immersive maze and much closer to all the player camps, which is just as it should be. The town is one of the big draws for the international players.

I was a bit nervous about Eisern Banner, but the Tivar'Kharasil proved to be fun to role play with. Certainly more than I expected. Wish I'd done a bit more with them to be honest but never enough time.

The GE itself was brilliant. We had dropped from 60 members to 30 members for this one, about 20 of them having come over with us from Drachenfest. So we had more veterans than new folks. This was great because it allowed us to keep the group dynamic we had built at DF. I can not compliment my group members enough. I pushed them harder than I ever have before and it worked magnificently. The new members quickly got up to speed. Camp chores were sorted, people worked as a team, much internal role playing was done. Much better use of the mead hall than previous trips. We did have three character fatalities but I think they were role played very well and added to the sense of drama. The new, more casual Eastern feel of the mead hall worked although I think it needs some improvement.

I had been asked to be the First Spear of the Western Army for the event, essentially third in command of the military. This didn't work out as well as it had at DF. Despite attempts to build a foundation before the event online, it seemed that things were not meshing as I had hoped. There seemed to be resistance to my assignment. It was difficult to tell how much of this was in character and how much was out of character.

The biggest problem came when the gate guard was screwed up. Being a typical NCO I tried to square it away. This led to a lot of unhappy people. The first sets of guards who were on duty to long without relief, then the people in the groups I tried to get to take over. I got tired of the complaining and resorted to direct leadership, ie shouting. This just ended up making everyone unhappy. What had worked at DF as First Spear was not working at Mythodea in the West.

I'll need to discuss things in more depth with the Thul'heen and Marshal to try to figure out why things went so differently from the original plans, where I was supposed to be a field commander and the Marshal was supposed to be based in the camp. I was often confused on what was in character conflict created by game mechanics due to friendship of the elements and what was genuine conflict.

The new Ratio NSC's were awesome. They looked great and role played very well. The Undead Flesh were their usual awesome selves, except for one incident in the final battle that upset me so much I had to talk to two SL's and take a break to cool off. This incident involved "live" undead flesh hiding amongst walking "dead" undead flesh, then attacking from within that crowd. It was unsafe and uncool. I wasn't too impressed with how the two SL's I reported it to responded to it either. This was a major disappointment because the Eisern Banner SL's had been so awesome during the week I had come to have high expectations of the SL's. The fact that I have been an in-role SL myself in the past may have also impacted my expectations of the SL's.

I also felt that the Black Ice I fought with were sometimes brilliant and other times really crap. I had more one-on-one duels at this ConQuest than I have had at all 4 of my previous events combined. Most of these were cool. I did not win all of them. I lost my first duel in the very first battle I commanded and dropped rather quickly because the UF captain got the drop on me and hit me very well. I just reacted to the hits. Immediately afterwards I recall thinking that some folks will think I am a rubbish fighter and worried about it for a bit, but then decided that it was better to be known as someone who takes his hits. My fighting in subsequent duels was much better in general.

Where it went wrong was against some of the ridiculously stat'ed "super villains". Full plate, magic ice direct spells... it felt pointless to fight them.

And there was one duel, I can not recall if he was Undead or Black Ice but we were fighting and I thought I was getting the better of him. He said to me "good fight, but one or two more hits and you have to go down because I am a captain"... I looked at him in disbelief. I replied "I am Zeno Sidonius, and a General of the Western Army". His eyes widened and he then replied, "oh, in that case hit me a couple of times and I'll go down. Make it look good though". Whilst I appreciated the sentiment, I recall thinking how it would have felt if I had not been a "commander".

I had one really brilliant, unrehearsed fight with a friend of mine who was playing Black Ice (he knows who he is) and it was amazing. Hardest fight of the whole year for me. It was literally down to skill and it was close. THAT is the kind of fighting I like to see.

Twice though I was grabbed by Black Ice bosses and dropped with Ice direct, once where the fellow bear hugged me, dropped me, then fell on top of me, so that I could feel the people hitting him on the back... it actually transferred down to me. Again, it felt like a pointless fight if they were going to be that powerful.

Over and over again as a battlefield commander I felt frustrated and annoyed. I would shout at people to attack and they would refuse to close the last couple of meters.. that is except for a few key groups. That is how I got into so many duels, trying to get people to fight from the front ranks. The first time I got into a duel was because when I told people to fight someone in the ranks shouted for me to follow my own advice. One time was different, one time I tried to get an undead to fight me one and one and she left, I assume having not heard me. I looked left and right and said "Why am I standing here alone?" and scores of people on both sides suddenly moved up and started fighting. If only there had been more of that and less of me waving my sword in a futile attempt to get people to fight.

Another example... another friend of mine in the Black Ice (he knows who he is) came up to talk to me at one point. He said he saw me trying to get the Settlers to attack when one of the big black ice captains hit me from behind with a two handed hammer, which he thought was funny. I know he didn't mean bad by saying that but it just rubbed salt into the wound. The Forsaken officers walk with impunity given their speeches and looking menacing, getting SL's to direct their attacks, and when player officers get out in front of the ranks to try to encourage players to fight or to give a speech we get shot with arrows.

If the NSC's are there for storytelling, please can they let the officers give their speeches before sniping them with instant through into the 2 hit points we have in the new rules?

The Xerikan was awesome. I have no complaints about that at all. It deserved every kill it got and more. I'll admit there was one settler who got shot in the back with a cannon ball, then took the Xerikan glaive to the body and got back up. I know it is that player's decision but I had not choice but to walk over and tell him that I thought he was at least injured. Seeing something like that cheapens to me the choices of my players who took their character deaths.

The Harbinger was cool. Things like her that are so intimidating you don't even try to hit them... I have no problem with that.

My character fell behind the lines. An Black Ice mage/priest came up to heal and convert him to a weapon against the settlers. I tried to role play resisting this and saying I would rather the character die than be used against his friends. This seemed to very much surprise him and he consulted others for advice. A third option was presented, spare parts for the undead flesh and I consented to that... but on the way they changed their mind and cut me down in front of the settler army. I would have taken it as an execution but I was very surprised that the settler army rushed forward to save me. Thanks Ragnar, I really mean it. I suppose given how so often the settlers didn't charge it was really rewarding to see them do it to save my character. I was unclear if I had been given a "death blow" so decided that the rapid rescue and healing would have saved the character. A very close call to death.

Overall the final battle felt stale and overly choreographed. I felt like I had no real impact on the battlefield as a commander and this was very frustrating.

The new game mechanics were in part interesting but also confusing. I got the impression that there should be more risk, more character death, but then it seemed the NSC's were making every effort not to kill characters. I did a lot more walking back and forth than fighting. Too often the big fights were much less fun than the smaller skirmishes.

I really wanted to enjoy being First Spear of the Western Army but in the end it wasn't fun for me... but much of that is I suppose my own fault. Lessons learned.

Overall the Live Adventure Orga, SL's and NSC's are awesome. I had some great role playing from them. Anne was great as the Nyame of the West and the drama of her escape was fun. Imke didn't disappoint with her contentious Tivar'Kharasil / Neches're of the West. I suppose I surprised a lot of people with my attempts to take the blame for some treason that happened under my command, but that is the nature of command. It isn't just shouting at people, it is being responsible. I really expected my character to be executed... but I'll admit I wasn't sorry when he wasn't. Surviving gambles like that are part of the fun. I do think the West needs some more organized leadership though if the Neches'Re is going to be so otherwise occupied. I've been an in-role SL and know how demanding it can be, it's important not to stretch yourself too thin.

Wilco did a fine job at Thul'heen, I had high expectations of him and he did not disappoint. Both in character and out of character.

I think there can be some fun to be had with the Mirrorworld but some serious changes need to happen to make the big fights better. Next year I'll focus on smaller fights and plot hunting. I'll spend more time with the Grand Expedition and try to do more in the town. I've got to discuss with my wife and the GE where we want to camp. I really hope Live Adventure rethinks their "bosses" and how the fights are scripted. I also hope they keep developing the town, because it seems to me more immersive than ever. Big thumbs up to the Heerswache. Finally someone to counter the gangs! Huzzah!

And really, I want to thank the members of the Grand Expedition. People who came from all over the world. People who took big risks and in many cases won. People who became like a family to me. For me these big German events are fun but its the GE that makes the events into the really magical experiences that keep me going. Thanks Expeditionaries! Huzzah!