Your very first impressions of Battlemaster

[Shenron]

and I used to be *terrified* of players who had more than 500 days in realm, as though they'd squish me like a bug if I spoke to them.

Haha, I can relate to that.

I started BM through a friend who told me I'd like it, since I used to always nag him about a game where I am truly an individual. BM was such a goldmine! I got right into it and it generated a lot of awkward moments when I look back on it. I got so into it that I would feel genuine respect for senior members of the realms (like Hyral mentioned), it was quite funny. When I got into Greater Aenilia that is when I probably had the most fun *ever* on BM. The rulers and a certain lord (Orphen, Luyten and Tharion) were really into roleplaying so I got stuck in. I think all of them have gone inactive now  :'( (I think Orphen might have rejoined). It took me a while to realise that not every realm was as amazing as GA, so I started trying to create my own fun.

I've also been trying to get friends to play BM but it never works goddamit!  >:(

[Peri]

Back when I joined Sirion I had no clue of what was the game all about. No mentor and a rather unresponsive liege. Little income and little RP desire.

But the General screaming orders realm wide to gather in tabost ready to face the huge fontan army was enough to give me the desire to continue, and for the first weeks I didn't do anything but charging random fontan huge armies along our huge sirion army without a clue of what was going on. But that was great.

Then slowly I learned a bit on my own and started understanding how the game worked and everything.

[DoctorHarte]

Then it suddenly hit me that to get anywhere in this game I had to actually talk. :o Yeah, real epiphany there... So I guess my mentor would be pretty much the #battlemaster IRC channel.

It took me about a year to realize that, too! I joined an OOC group in Astrum. We had a good 10-12 players at one point and all from the same town 8) Whenever I needed help, they showed me the way. That is, Ysgarren and Martin. My first official realm was Norland but they were all too crazy for me to start out there so I moved to Beluaterra and betrayed Riombara, joined Enweil, etc.

I've built up some pretty good relationships with a few families so far, I hope they don't disappear anytime soon. I've played many, many text-based games and it's really sad to think back to those old days and all the great players who were there and aren't here.

[Zakilevo]

I pressed join the underground when I first started in Sirion years ago.

Got kicked out within three days. lol

No one told me what to do and I wasn't as fluent in English like I am now back in the days.

Tried to join other realms but couldn't understand how to lol

[Sacha]

I had the fortune of landing in the middle of a war. My first turn change was a small battle with about a dozen nobles on each side. I was like YAY ACTION and stuck around.

[Iltaran]

I was expecting the game to be a bit more RP heavy than it turned out, but I had a reasonable idea of what I was getting into. Being recruited by people I knew from another game helped a lot in that respect.

To be honest though, I wasn't super impressed with BM in my first three-or-so-months. It was only after I got made a Vice Marshal and started to realize just how deep and multi-faceted the strategy was that I went "wow, this is awesome."

[Hossenfeffer]

I don't remember exactly what I expected - probably an RP/Strategy game, but much less well balanced than BM is; so either a Strategy game with virtually no role-playing, or something more like a forum based RP thing with some nod in the direction of strategy grafted on.  I think it's the balance BM has that keeps it strong. 

My first character landed in Omsk (I picked a small realm since I thought there'd be a better welcome for a new player).  A week or so later, Sirion rolled over it, and that was the end of Omsk.

However, in that week there was lots of discussion about where the Omkians would go next and offers of hospitality from Perdan and Oligarch.  I picked Oligarch since it was closer to my new, hated enemy.  The EI Great War, with its ebbing and flowing, the number of times we dragged our sorry troops through Bruck, losing Oligarch city, all seeming beyond hope, coming back and retaking it; great times.  The months-long end of Oligarch in particular was perhaps the most involved I've ever been in a video game.  When Oligarch finally died, I was as gutted as any soccer fan seeing their team lose the cup final.  Perhaps more so, since I'd done more than just sit on the sidelines cheering.

That first character's bastard son now fights for Sirion's elite army, but there's still just a little bit of me that would like to see Sirion crushed.  Those elves are evil, right?

[Peri]

That first character's bastard son now fights for Sirion's elite army, but there's still just a little bit of me that would like to see Sirion crushed.  Those elves are evil, right?

Don't forget that Mungo was killed by Sirion's troops too. Seems you had quite some interaction with the nice elves ..

[Vellos]

The EI Great War, with its ebbing and flowing, the number of times we dragged our sorry troops through Bruck, losing Oligarch city, all seeming beyond hope, coming back and retaking it; great times.  The months-long end of Oligarch in particular was perhaps the most involved I've ever been in a video game.  When Oligarch finally died, I was as gutted as any soccer fan seeing their team lose the cup final.  Perhaps more so, since I'd done more than just sit on the sidelines cheering.

Ah, the good old days!

[Hossenfeffer]

Don't forget that Mungo was killed by Sirion's troops too. Seems you had quite some interaction with the nice elves ..

Absolutely.  Mungo spent all of his life after the fall of Oligarch looking for a war against Sirion again.  Obviously I was unhappy when he finally died (he became a hero pretty much as soon as that option was available), but at least he died in battle against Sirion.  I wouldn't have had him go out any other way.  I moved Morgan (and his three recommendations) to Sirion immediately.  I liked the RP notion that Mungo had refused to recognise his bastard son for some reason, and that Morgan had to go to Sirion to establish his nobility. 

Actually, maybe that's something that should change.  Should an adventurer be able to transfer recommendations from an enemy realm and be recognised on the basis of them?

[Peri]

Actually, maybe that's something that should change.  Should an adventurer be able to transfer recommendations from an enemy realm and be recognised on the basis of them?

I guess it's just a matter of having his noble blood recognized by other noblemen, shouldn't matter too much to which realm they belong..