After valiantly having defeated many invasion attempts, the chief-guard of Barad Guldur, Durchest, has finally been defeated by a raiding party of The Western Alliance!

All particpants please read the proposed tactics for tonight under "Barad Guldur tactics".

As and when we start getting more people signing up for raids than can be accommodated, the following factors will be taken into consideration when filling a raid:
1. You have helped pioneer a raid (i.e., consistently taken part in early attempts).
2. You signed up for a raid but, despite turning up on time, did not get a slot for whatever reason.
3. You were on firm standby for a raid, turned up on time, but did not get a slot.
We will be keeping records of all raids and raid signups. If you have signed up on firm standby, it is to your advantage to turn up on time, as you will be credited for doing so.

And so the rumours were true... The Servants of Gorthaur roam the Ettenmoors once more, and their ranks swell by the day.  Lead by the  ferocious beast; Akrar, their intentions are clear; to destroy all free peoples of Middle Earth.


Servants of Gorthaur PvMP Tribe.
Open to all TWA and FOTW members.

Join us today, maggots!


NomNom.

Following a poll of signed-up raiders, the new kinship raid days will be Mondays and Thursdays. The first raid on Barad Guldur is scheduled for Thursday, 4 March. A new poll has been posted to determine the final start time (or times - if the vote is close to split, we may alternate them) between 6.00 and 7.00 pm UK time.

The Western Alliance is not, and never has been, an exclusively raiding kinship. Nevertheless, end-content raiding is something which (judging by applications) the majority of members are interested in and want to experience; it is also the supreme test both of player ability and of how effective the kinship is as a group. Finally, to a large extent it determines kinship status and therefore the quality and quantity of new applicants. Without fussing about such obsessive aims as being the first on the server to down a boss or complete a raid, TWA has consistently found itself among the top raiding kinships on Laurelin, and has successfully completed all major raids to date. Now we need to conquer Barad Guldur, probably the toughest challenge to date.

It must be made clear than nobody is required or expected to raid, and that every member is perfectly free to follow his or her personal inclinations in the game. Nor have we ever insisted that if you do raid, you must do so with the kinship; many of our members will at times go raiding with allied kinships or raiding associations. However, if you are involved with end-content raiding in the first place, and the kinship is actually organising end-content raids, you may want to consider giving precedence to kinship events more often than not.

In order to get a better idea of how all members, both old and new, feel about end-content raiding, and with a view to organising ourselves a bit more effectively, a separate thread has been started on which all those interested in raiding are invited to sign up. Once we have a list of committed raiders and potential raiders, we will have a poll among them to decide whether perhaps different raiding days would be more convenient (at the moment they are Tuesdays and Fridays).

Please note that you should sign up even if you do not at present fulfill the radiance requirements for BG, or have not yet reached level 65; one of the reasons for drawing up this list is to help everyone reach full raiding requirements as soon as possible. Also, of course, the raiding list will remain open, so that even if you do not want to sign up at present, you are free to do so at a later date.

Sign up here: http://www.thewesternalliance.org/index....pic=4756.0.

Codemasters forum has a feature called "Talk to the Community Team", which not many people know about. It is currently asking for players' views on, of all things, the Legendary Item System! Unlike unsolicited player comments, the responses to questions posted in these threads are very specifically those which the developers want to receive - so the odds are that such responses will at least be read, and very likely taken into consideration where it counts.

The relevant questions are:
1. You are given the opportunity to make two changes to the Legendary Item System. What are the two most important changes you would make? Please limit your answer to only two changes.
2. Name two things about the Legendary Item System you enjoy the most.

I would urge everybody who has ever complained loudly about the LI system to take advantage of this opportunity and make their views known. Needless to say, this involves thinking a little about the questions and coming up with succinct and intelligent answers; snappy comments along the lines of "The LI system stinks!" or two-thousand word rants are unlikely to make a big impression... I'll post my own response here in a day or two.

Link: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/o...-10-a.html

After a unprecedented short election, a new Council of the Western Alliance has been elected.

Extending his term as leader, Thoronthor was re-elected.

The same goes for the deputy leader. Congratulations to Kairos.

In the officer group only one small change.
Ingaras, Maconabo, Eowren and Teolwyn will all return for another term in the council.

Taking Belegwe's spot on the council is 'new kid on the block' Beriel.

Congratulations to all the officers.

After another distinguished term as officer, Belegwe will step back into his role as Kinship Eldar, he will remain in the council as a non-voting officer.


The Council has taken office effective immediately, however to celebrate another successful chapter in our kins democracy there will be an inauguration on Wednesday the 17th. starting in front of the Prancing Pony, at 19:15 UK time.

We invite all members, initiates, friends and well-wishers to join us.


Thank you,

The Council

The kinship still has a number of players who are at or near l.65 but are still short of the +120 radiance necessary to be effective in the Barad Guldur 12-man raid. This is now relatively easy to achieve by accumulating all three +15 and all three +25 armour items, all of which can be exchanged for Mirkwood tokens. The fastest way to gather the tokens is by farming Samath Gull, which gives 10 tokens for the daily HM run, and 7 tokens for repeats. We will be farming SG on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, with the priority going top those who still need the tokens (and not just the symbol); leader variable, depending on availability - could be Mac, Belegwe, Thor, myself or indeed anybody who would like to volunteer, it's a good instance to practice leading on. Other ad-hoc runs are obviously encouraged!

So that time has come again, elections are around the corner.

As per the constitution we are required to announce the start of elections two weeks in advance.

Elections will start the last week of January with day one being on the 29th of January and day 15 on the 12th of February.

For more information on the proceedings you can check the Constitution or ask your friendly neighborhood officer.

- Thoronthor