Server:Feathermoon US/The Battle of Hillsbrad

April 2005 to October 2005

Introduction

The Battle of Hillsbrad refers to the most intense period of inter-faction warfare in Feathermoon history. This battle focused on the environs in and around the Horde town of Tarren Mill in the Hillsbrad Foothills. It is considered by many to be the ordeal which gave rise to some of the best and worst examples of the PvP skill and decorum in the history of Azeroth.

Background

Since the inception of World of Warcraft, the Hillsbrad Foothills has been a hotbed of inter-faction warfare and unrest. It is situated in a key strategic position, on the border between the Principality of Stromgarde (the northernmost foothold of the Alliance) and the Horde colony of Tarren Mill. After the Third War, the Kingdom of Stormwind managed to maintain its hold on the settlement of Southshore, and thus its interests in the Foothills. At the same time, the forces of Lady Sylvanas occupied the ruined Lordaerian settlement of Tarren Mill, bringing the antagonistic factions in close proximity to one another. With tensions high, it was only a matter of time before hostilities erupted.

Initial Exchanges

Conflict in Hillsbrad began even before the official launch of the game, back in Beta and Open Beta. The proximity of the two settlements (and their associated flight points) made Hillsbrad one of the few regions which either faction could reach by single flight from a major city. This allowed for rapid reactions to attacks, and quick escalations of the fighting. Antagonism between the two sides, usually in the form of hit-and-fade raiding purely for entertainment purposes, continued on and off through the official launch of the game, and well into the Spring of 2005.

Circumstances were about to take a sinister turn, however.

The Balloon Goes Up: Patch 1.4 and Beyond

The Battle of Hillsbrad, as it is now known, is considered to have begun in earnest on 19 April, 2005. This was the day in which Blizzard launched the "PvP Honour System", in which players were able to recieve titles, rank, and high-end rewards for gathering PvP kills.

While lauded by many as adding to the game's value by giving purpose to PvP combat, the Honour System (or Dishonour System, as many began to derisively refer to it) brought to light several fundamental flaws within the game itself. Most devastating was The Ratio, the simple fact that, for a variety of reasons, Horde was outnumbered by Alliance by a factor of more than 2 to 1. This allowed Alliance players to assault with impunity a variety of Horde sites, without fear of retribution.

Arguably the most prominent of these battlefields was Tarren Mill. So often was the town under attack that many Horde players turned off their World Defence channels, as the constant "Tarren Mill is Under Attack" message would often render any other channels unreadable.

After several days of such annoyance, however, many Horde players tired of being unable to interact with the NPCs in Tarren Mill, and thus began to station themselves in the town almost permanently to fight off attacks by Alliance "HK farmers".

Often outnumbered, repeatedly annihilated, and doubtlessly frustrated, the Horde combatants held out for weeks in a desperate defence which frequently did little to halt the Alliance assault. This, however, served as a "Baptism By Fire" for many Horde players. For this reason, Tarren Mill together with The Crossroads (another Horde settlement frequently assailed by Alliance raiders) are widely regarded as the two places in which the Horde's ruthless, irregular, and frequently effective PvP style was forged. By the end of this most intense period of the Battle, it was not unheard of for Horde raiders, outnumbered sometimes by a factor of three to one, to counterattack Southshore.

The Battle of Hillsbrad raged back and forth like this until mid-June, when new game developments relieved the PvP pressure on the World Stage and moved it into more "controlled" environments.

The Toys Go Winding Down: Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch

The advent of PvP battlegrounds in June of 2005 was the climax of the Battle of Hillsbrad. While before the Battlegrounds, players interested in PvP combat were forced to seek it out on their own, now players were given discreet, balanced, and more rewarding battlefields upon which to fight.

While the fighting ceased intensifying, however, it also failed to decline. The battlegrounds, while an effective outlet of PvP aggression, were fraught with flaws. Firstly, they were inconvenient to access, with entrances in remote corners of the world. Additionally, however, they were awkward for many players due to restrictions. Warsong Gulch, while available to all players above level 20 (and later 10) was a simple, non-complex game of Capture the Flag. While this was amusing, it could drag on, and was nearly impossible to rationalise from a Roleplaying standpoint. Alterac Valley, on the other hand, was as deep and immersive a PvP experience as any player could desire. Unfortunately, the epic scale (single games could take hours if not days) and the level restriction of 51 made it inaccessable to many players. Alterac Valley, as well, had the unique distinction of having its only gates for both Horde and Alliance poised in the highlands directly above Tarren Mill. In many cases, rather than alleviating the PvP pressure on the Mill, it actually intensified it as bored soldiers waiting in Battleground queues clashed in and around the town.

There was, however, a slight yet noticable decline in PvP activity across the world. Rather than action at Tarren Mill being constant and overwhelming, it became more broken and sporadic. Rather than huge, organised raids levelling the town, the combat was reduced to pick-up groups. This would decline even further with the coming of Battlemasters.