Baron, Guan Yu, and Yue Fei all went to the tournament waiting room. This time around was the time that strategists could talk and make potential alliances before it even began. As luck would have it, the moment that they stepped into the waiting room they saw Zi Bo and Zi Ji Ge. The two sides made eye contact and started to make their way to each other.
(ZJG) "Well, we meet again junior." ZI Ji Ge said in a rather condescending way.
(BM) "It's nice to see the two of you again as well." Baron responded.
(ZJG) "Well, since my brother and I are going to be the leaders of this alliance, you three will have to listen to us. No exceptions, got it?"
(GY) "We will rely on your guidance."
(YF) "None from me."
(BM) "That is what this alliance is for, after all. No objections."
(ZJG) "Very good. I have discussed this with Madam Zheng. The way she wants to do this is that she will form a group with her two husbands. The five of us will be another group, and the rest of the elders will form the last group."
(BM) "Oh? Are they leaving the two of you alone to see how well you perform? That's the only reason I can think of that would allow you to form a separate group."
(ZJG) "That is correct, this is sort of a test to gauge our abilities. They do need to since we are up for the position of elder. It's sad that only one of us will make it."
(BM) "So, where will we meet? Also, who do you think is going to be the most likely to win this tournament?"
(ZJG) "Well, since the Bair fighters won't be joining this one, I'd say that it would have to be a pretty big fight against the Forever Pirates led by Madam Zheng and the Vesper faction led by Zheng He. The reason that Vesper is targeting us and you is because these two heads of great faction just cannot get along."
(BM) "Sounds to me like they feel threatened by each other's skill and therefore are lashing out at each other because of it."
(ZJG) "From what I know, the Vesper faction struck first and left a devastating pile of destruction in their thirst to take out Madam Zheng's faction. As for your other question, we will meet right here where this island is. Since this is a naval war, the majority of the map will be covered in water, that doesn't mean that there won't be any islands though."
(GY) "Might I ask how many sea-related blueprints the two of you have? I'm only asking because we only have one and it isn't even all that great."
(ZJG) "Well, naval warfare is our specialty, so naturally we will have more than what you guys will have. So far though, we have a few hundred ship blueprints, most of which aren't that modern. A few guns that we can mount on the ships, we don't actually have much in that department. Finally, we just make do with whatever other blueprints that we have stored up."
(BM) "I see, we will provide any of our blueprints if we are able to, but for now it seems like the tournament is about to start." He said just as the announcements were being made for the strategists to be ready to be transported to inside the sim.
(ZJG) "It seems like that is so. See you all on the other side." She said and a blinding flash of light sprung forth from somewhere in the room and then there was nothing but an ocean view in front of Baron's view.
This time around, everybody would be given 50 or so ships that were all equal in standing and an equal number of men with the same abilities as each other. Baron was aboard his ship and he went inside his ship to take a look at the map. He had seen it before when Zi Ji Ge told him where they should meet, this time he was just looking to take a look at where he was and how far he was away from the meetup point.
The place where they agreed to meet up was not too far away from him and he set out immediately, As did his allies in this tournament. The way that the territory worked in this tournament was that some territories were completely covered in water, some completely on dry land, and some a combination of the two. This meant that some got exactly what they wanted and defending their land was going to be a piece of cake, while others would be extremely unlucky.
Baron, Guan Yu, Yue Fei, Zi Bo, and Zi Ji Ge all met up at the rendezvous and discussed what they would do. The most pressing matter was that none of the territories that had been given to them were of any real strategic value individually. So they put all of it up on the base market and hoped for the best. Going by the map, nearly 80% of the land on this randomly generated map was water while the rest were small to medium sized islands.
The islands would have more value since it gave some semblance of using land weapons. The preparation for this map was a little longer than the last at 2 weeks. Within the first week, they had all sold their territories and bought one that had a small island on it. They were already off to a great start and they made weapons and whatever else they deemed necessary for their survival. As it stands now, the 5 of them were in the southwest part of the map, with Madam Zheng and her two husbands slightly north of them, and the last group of elders all the way at the other side of the map closer to the edge of the east.