Altus Praeses (ap)		Panamon | Butcher | Sid the Gr8 Wintermute | DarkElf | Danteshade
		versus
		Archer Punch (#CP#A)		Linoleum | Johnny Law | Patroclus Grimmbot | Stephie

The two orders divided themselves into two armies each for this set of games; Panamon and Butcher stood together for Altus Praeses, along with Wintermute, DarkElf and Sid the Gr8. Their opponents had paired off as well, Johnny Law standing with Linoleum and Grimmbot standing with Patroclus.

The game began, and after much exchange of coded signals, it was determined that ap had started in the center and the southeast, whereas #CP#A's armies had started NW and NE. True to their name, #CP#A had many archers, supplementing them with a single dwarf each. AP decided to go for no dwarves or archers, instead taking maximum ghols and preparing pus. Wintermute's team (who had started in the center) tried to steal the NW ball and only succeeded in angering the NW army, who rushed up the hill and attacked them, supported by arrow and cocktail fire from their NE allies. Nice journeyman use from Altus Praeses was able to make up for the heavy toll that #CP#A's dwarf inflicted on their thrall, and a close battle ensued. Meanwhile, Patroclus' team was preparing to move in when a combined 3-pus attack from both Altus Praeses teams paralyzed his infantry. #CP#A won the battle in the west, but even their 6 archers' support was unable to offset the damage caused by the pussing, and the majority of the Plaid forces were quickly killed. The endgame was a chaotic mess of veteran warriors, fragmented armies, leftover pus and warrior blunders, resulting in a less-than-full-point victory for Altus Praeses as time ran out.

This game, #CP#A started in the center and the southwest, while Altus Praeses started NW and NE. ap quickly rushed towards the center, intending to re-enact the last battle. Seeing this, #CP#A's two armies fled with all speed to the southeast corner. After regrouping, they struck out north and west, each army facing off against its ap counterpart. Both battles started at about the same time, signalled by Panamon performing a nice pus run on Patroclus' archers. In even-odds melee battles, ap's micro-management skills outweighed the #CP#A archers, and both battles resulted in victories for ap, for a 9-ball victory.

Both sides opted for an identical troop setup this game; three wights for pus, no archers and three dwarves. Both armies went for a heavy center, #CP#A sending about eight warriors north and ten zerks south in flanks. ap were able to take out all the #CP#A dwarves in a pus-triggered chain-reaction, and #CP#A's counter-pus attack came very close to annihilating the ap army in a pus+satchel chain reaction, but the slain dwarf's satchels failed to go off. The #CP#A forest giant came in and slapped ap's journeyman down, but was pussed, trapped and killed. The ensuing battle was more of a cleanup, really, as half of #CP#A's infantry was off grabbing flags. These flanks were easily taken out in the endgame for a 9-0 win.

Both armies went for the same troop setups as before, but this time #CP#A restricted the size of their flanks dramatically. Both armies stared at each other in the middle, and then (apparently) Sid the Gr8 got lagged out. Patroclus was able to trigger his zerks and pus ghols with a few ghols of his own, and Sid's infantry charged into a self-launched pus attack, then ran at the enemy army only to be destroyed. ap's forest giant attacked and was trapped, letting #CP#A clean up the remaining warriors quickly. ap's final dwarven troops decided to spontaneously commit suicide rather than fall to the advancing horde, and suddenly, it was over.

#CP#A started in the coveted middle position, while ap's army started in the northeast. The Plaid forces opted for only six soulless, taking a dwarf instead. ap took the full eight soulless, and advanced towards the center. #CP#A's soulless extended to plink at the enemy infantry, leaving their perch on the highest mountain open for ap's soulless to take up residence. With both height and numbers advantages, ap won the resulting soulless battle easily (with 5 survivors) and pummelled #CP#A's infantry mercilessly with spears for the next seven minutes. A final infantry battle decided it convincingly.

Despite some large blunders (lag-induced? who knows...) in the fourth game, Altus Praeses takes the other four games convincingly, defeating Clan Plaid's Archer Brigade to advance to Round 2.

This defeat means that the honour of Clan Plaid falls squarely on the shoulders of the Dwarves, who play Cross of Valor in this round. Will the plaid forces add the Myth World Cup to their collection? Stay tuned for match results as they come to hand.

- Butcher