How We (TheBannedTribe) Beat The Alpha!!!

[HojMcFoj]

I played on an PS4 EU Official PVP server awhile ago, and have just now decided to share it. A lot has happened in just a couple months, but the story I'd like to share today is how our tribe overcame adversity when it seemed like we faced certain defeat. I hope you enjoy my story, and I hope it inspires you to overcome whatever challenge you may face in your own server!

For the sake of not naming and shaming another tribe, I'll refer to the Alpha Tribe simply as Tribe A, the "second-strongest" tribe as Tribe B, and our tribe as Tribe C.

I am the leader and coordinator of my tribe, and began the server with a clear vision, to one day become the strongest tribe within the server, and have respect from other tribes as a tribe that doesn't attack others without good reason. Now keep in mind that this was our first play of a brand new server, where everyone started from level 1 at the same time. We began as two members and picked up players along the way.

 

The strategy was to create a base with such heavy defense early on that we would not be raided while offline. Our base location is on "Footpaw Island," on a high elevation cliff with only two narrow land entrances up into the base. We started by taming Dodos and Dilos, and worked our way through the "Kibble taming tree." So, fast forward after our initial base creation to about a week and a half into gameplay, we have countless dodos, about 10 Dilos, 7 scorpions, 1 male, the rest female, 5 ankys, one male and the rest female, 5 carnos, 5 sarcos, 5 trikes, 5 stegos, and we were on our way to getting perfect-tamed Argies, planning to get Spinos afterwards, etc.

Our highest level combat dinos at this point were as follows: one level 200 Carno, three level 200 Wolves, one level 170 Sarco, and about seven level 170-200 Pteranadons. We still had not tamed any 170 Rexes up to this point.

 

We had Plant Species X placed on single stone foundations, in close proximity to each other surrounding the entrances to our base. We layered them going outward, so imagine four stone foundations with Plant X on them close to each other but not snapped, then 6 foundations in front of them, and 8 foundations in front of them, etc., extending outwards from our land entrances. So in total we had approximately 25 Plant X in front of both land entrances leading to our home. 

The reason for this is because I know from experience that to take out one Plant X, it requires one rocket. So if you have 25 Plant X's in front of the base you're trying to raid, just to get to the front doors you need 25 rockets to take out the Plant X, assuming you don't miss any shots. So they needed to be spread out, so no splash damage would damage multiple Plant X from rockets. Also, with them being close enough together, it made it so a Rex, for example, could not run up to the Plant X and eat it, 25 Plant X is simply too much for a Rex to get that close.

 

Now, at this same time, enough time had passed for tribes to get to know each other a bit through scouting each others' bases, talking to each other in global chat, etc. No one was quite sure who the strongest tribe was yet, up until this point.

One day, I flew over Tribe A's base, which was located near "Giga Mountain," by chance, and spyglassed their base. I was shocked. In such a short amount of time, they had multiple level 200+ T-Rexes, multiple level 170 Spinos, and many other high level, kibble tamed combat dinos. They had a huge metal tower of a base, perfectly square with approximately 24 auto turrets on top, pointing in every direction. They had built in the center of a river, and had behemoth gates surrounding their base.

We were just beginning to change our stone base into metal, and had barely set up our Plant X, and had no high level T-Rexes and no auto turrets set up. I had seen other tribes' bases and determined that our base was ahead of most in regards to the levels of our dinos and our level of defense. It seemed that, possibly because we're on Xbox, most tribes had not taken the kibble-taming approach.

It was clear to me as soon as I seen Tribe A's base, that they were the strongest tribe in the server. They were so far ahead of everyone in regards to their defense and offense capabilities in such a short time, I determined they were clearly experienced players who came from another server. I immediately decided that I didn't want our tribe to have any problems with these guys.

 

Now there was, at this time, a tribe that many regarded as being very strong, they had a level 170 Spino, a 170 Rex, some other high level kibble tamed dinos, auto turrets, and behemoth gates surrounding their base. We'll call them Tribe D. One night while we're playing, someone happens to come across Tribe A attacking Tribe D's base. They had breached their defenses, killed all of their dinos, and successfully entered their base and was in the process of looting everything. It was a definite "Oh poop" moment for all of us in a party. In global chat they said something to the effect of, "Shouldn't have picked our member up with your Argie and dropped him from the sky" when asked by a member of Tribe D why they were being raided.

 

So it seemed like they had reason to attack! Well, we spoke to Tribe A in a party for the first time, and they seemed like cool British guys. They explained to us their reasoning and it seemed like we became cool with them after that. I definitely wanted to be on their good side because based on how easy he said it was for them and the fact they used like 40 rockets at a point in time where 10 rockets seemed like a lot to us, they seemed experienced in raiding where we were not and had a lot of supplies under their belt.

 

After that night, MANY people regarded Tribe A as the strongest tribe in the server. They shortly thereafter took out another large tribe for blatantly talking trash to them in global chat, completely wiping them from the server as well. As time passed over the course of a couple more weeks, we hung out in Xbox Live parties with Tribe A and became really cool with them, and we also got to know Tribe B. We had gotten to the point where we now had Argies, multiple Quetzals, two level 180 Spinos, and about seven level 200+ Rexes.

Tribe A, at this point, had a level 200+ Battle Bronto equipped with a platform saddle with a large number of auto turrets on it, a level 200+ Battle Quetz with auto turrets on it, and two Gigas, a level 40 and 70.

By this time, we had executed 4 raids successfully, and had learned the value of high level turtles vs. auto turrets. We had participated in a raid with Tribe B so we had gotten to know them well.

 

Tribe A was still way ahead of everyone else regarding the type and level of combat dinos they had. Most people still couldn't make a Quetz platform saddle. Most people didn't have the kibble to even tame a 120 Quetz, no one else had a Giga, and no one had a 200+ battle bronto. No one had anywhere close to the amount of auto turrets they had on their base and on their platform saddles.

 

Tribe A was the first tribe to kill The Broodmother, and now, approximately a month in, Tribes A, B, and C would regularly hang out together in parties, talking to each other for hours at times. It was understood that Tribe A hung out and was more friends with Tribe B than us.

Now that we had gotten to know Tribe A better, they told us that they used to be jerks in the server they came from, raiding people for no reason, and that they wanted to change their ways coming into this server. They said they don't attack anyone without reason, and they understood that when you wipe someone's base, they usually quit the server completely. They said they wanted as much people to play in this server as possible, so they wouldn't be attacking anyone without reason.

They said they had gotten to the point where there was nothing left for them to do, that they had every dino dossier, and they were beginning to get bored.

When I heard them starting to talk like this, red flags started popping up for me. I had a feeling that one day they would attack us, despite how cool we were with them, especially considering how they were in their previous server.

 

Now a little over a month in, Tribe A was regarded by all in the server as the strongest tribe, followed up Tribe B, and then us, Tribe C. Our tribe has a group chat on the WhatsApp app for iPhone and Android to keep in touch even when we're offline, and one day while I'm at work, someone says in our group chat "Tribe A is attacking Tribe B!" The group chat lit up, everyone was saying, "Oh poop, it's finally happening!"

What we had feared was finally coming true. It seemed that Tribe A had gotten bored with the game and was wiping the server because they were likely done with it. Everyone that could get online did, and we prepared for what we believed to be an attack on us coming next.

The group chat was constantly being updated with what was happening. Tribe A apparently breached Tribe B's defenses with relative ease, and slaughtered all of their dinosaurs. Tribe A was using their two Gigas, Battle Bronto and Battle Quetz. They suffered no casualties and entered their base and looted everything.

Members of our tribe sat above on Pteranadons to watch the raid, and one of Tribe A's members turned around and fired a warning shot close to them, seemingly telling our members to leave the area.

I was at work going crazy! I was certain that we were next, and frustrated that I couldn't be there to assist! The group chat was being lit up with everyone saying, "Well, it's been a good run guys, this might be the end of us." "We've learned a lot, we'll do things better, faster next time."

One of our tribe members invited Tribe A into a party, and a member of Tribe A joined, explaining their reasoning for attacking Tribe B. We asked that if they were coming for us next that they just let us know so we can put up as much of a fight as we can to make it fun, as we were certain we'd be wrecked. Tribe A member said, "No, we're not going to attack you guys, we'd certainly let you know if we were ever going to do something like that, but hey, my tribe mates are sending me a lot of invites so I'm gonna get back to them."

10 minutes later they were gathering outside of our base on their Bronto, Gigas, and Quetz.

A member spotted them outside and said in group chat, "Battle Bronto outside of our base." My heart sunk. I knew it was real, they were coming for us and it was happening now, and there was no way I could be there to help. I could only do my best to coordinate from the group chat and through speaking to my tribe mates on the phone. We had about 6 members online, and they had 4-5.

The group chat said things like "Well guys here we go" "Let's put up as much of a fight as we can" "It's been an honor," etc.!

I spoke to one of my tribe mates on the phone during their attack, and they began by bringing their Gigas in to take out our Plant X's, using the Quetz to drop a turtle in front of our auto turrets to tank the bullets. From what I heard on the phone, they blew open one of our Dino pens that had all of our eggs producing dinos in them, and all of our lower level dinos swarmed on one Giga, getting it stuck. One of our tribe mates started picking people off of the Gigas and dropped them, making the Gigas, now unmanned, much less effective.

 

We had just tamed a Paracerethium that we placed about 10 Plant X on the someone brought out to the Gigas that significantly slowed them down while others got on our 200+ Rexes to go out and fight. Before I knew it, I heard "One Giga down!" "Two Gigas down!" "Battle Bronto down!" Everything was going crazy! People were screaming, it was the most epic moment we had yet. We sent them retreating on their battle Quetz with their strongest dinosaurs dead. We lost about 30 dinosaurs in that fight, including 4 level 200+ Rexes, and most of our Pteranadons.

Now I still had about 4-5 hours until I was off work, and I immediately started formulating a strategy. We intended to attack their base that very same night. During those hours, our tribe crafted about 100 rockets and made about 10 launchers. I got home at about 10PM PST, and we immediately started moving out. We traveled across the map to the North, bringing about 4 level 200+ Rexes, our 180 Spino, 2 level 170 turtles w/ 10,000 health each, level 200+ wolves, Pteranadons and 100 rockets. Because we're all in the US, the time zone difference for the UK made it so most of their members had gotten offline.

We arrived at a mountain on the outskirts of their base and rallied our forces. As we approached their base, dispatching of the small outpost of 4 Plant X in our way, we saw something we didn't see before. Outside of their actual metal tower base with the 24 auto turrets on it, they had a metal tower, 2x2, going up about 6 metal walls high, with metal ceilings extending outward from the tower itself on different levels. On the ceilings surrounding the tower, which acted somewhat as "shelves," on each side, were 5 auto turrets each, on two different levels. This means that EACH SIDE of the tower had 10 auto turrets on it facing outward, and there were 4 Plant X bunched together at the very top of the tower. It was clear that this wasn't a base. It was purely a defensive tower to aid in protecting their battle dinos sitting outside of their main base.

Unsure of the best way to attack this tower, we began by dropping one of our turtles with a Quetz in the middle of their battle dinos, which were on Passive. The turrets began shooting the turtle, and we had someone being carried on an Argie with a rocket launcher attempt to shoot at the turrets. The problem was, even though the turrets were shooting the turtle, there were still so many that at least one would turn to shoot the rocket out of the sky. We wasted about 10 rockets trying to shoot the auto turrets while our turtle was being shot. After about a minute or two, our first turtle died.

I knew we had to change our strategy, as this wasn't working and we only had one turtle left. This time, we blew open one of their metal behemoth gates surrounding their base, and I ran the turtle to edge of the base, JUST in range of some of the auto turrets. I turned the turtle to the side, so as to take the bullets on the shell of the turtle, and just sat there, absorbing the ammo from the turrets. When they would stop shooting, I would move a little bit closer, spending the next turret's ammo. Eventually, we managed to get enough turrets to stop shooting on one side.

 

See, the problem with this tower structure, as great as it was built, was that it had nothing defending it on the lowest level. There were auto turrets in the middle on ceilings, and auto turrets on top, but there was nothing on the ground level. Once I was able to move in from one side, I got off the turtle and ran in on foot, getting directly underneath the tower. My tribe mates followed me and we pulled out our rockets, shooting the foundations of the tower, which were only four foundations, taking out the entire tower. Seeing that large defensive structure completely be destroyed by taking out its foundations was a big morale boost to us.

Because their dinos were on passive, after we took out the tower we were able to bring in our battle dinos and kill their high level Rexes, high level Spinos, their newly tamed battle Bronto with a platform already on it, their Quetzals, Ankys, and much more. But we still had their metal base to penetrate, which still had 24 auto turrets full of ammunition on it. Our last turtle was low on health, unable to tank more bullets. We tried to do what we could, but we were approaching what was now 4AM PST and many of us were tired. Tribe A's members had just started getting online and were now getting on birds trying to fight back by picking us up off of our mounts. They were unsuccessful, and we started to make our way back to our base, knowing this is something we had to finish the following night, if we survived that long. They still had many high level Rexes we hadn't gotten to, and we were unsure of how many rockets they had already made.

That day some of our members stayed on to defend our base, and while I was at work I was told they were attacking us ALL DAY, with everything they had, but were constantly unsuccessful. They would come over on what mounts they did have, high level frogs, birds, anything fast, and attempt to shoot rockets to get through our defenses and breach our base, but our online members would pick them up off their mounts and kill them. We suffered no casualties that day, and got over 50 rockets from their dead bodies.

 

That night, we did the same thing, we rallied up outside of their base with another 100 rockets, level 170 turtles we tamed that day for the raid, and every battle dino we had left. This time their dinos were on Neutral, and parked very close to their metal base to be protected by turrets. We would aggro them and lead them away, and kill them with our Rexes and Spinos, and repeat until everything was dead. We moved in, absorbed the turret ammo with turtles, took out the Plant X with rockets, and we were free to figure out how to get into the metal base.

We couldn't get in from the top, as there were still many auto turrets with ammo in them, so we decided to enter from the side. Up the scale of the building, which was about 8 walls high, we shot rockets at the metal walls, which, behind the metal walls, had metal pillars, with another set of metal walls behind the pillars. So using our 100 rockets, we were able to get into each floor. We found countless mastercraft items, but the greatest loot of all was their fridge filled with eggs of all types, over 60 Titanboa eggs, tons of Quetzal eggs, Spino eggs, every egg you'd want to have in abundance. Loads of prime meat jerky.

We brought our Quetzals and loaded everything we could into them, and threw everything else on the ground. We went back to our base in victory, knowing we had crippled and defeated Tribe A over the course of a couple days.

Looking back, it was clear that Tribe A intended to wipe the entire server. They viewed Tribe B as stronger than us, so they took them out first, and moved in on us. If we hadn't defeated them, they would have moved on to take out every other smaller tribe with ease. They underestimated our coordination and ability, and lost their two Gigas and battle Bronto attacking us. We went from thinking we didn't stand a chance to retaliating and breaching a base that everyone in the server believed to be impenetrable. We completely wiped out all of their dinos and resources, demoralizing them to the point they quit the server entirely.

At a time, I believed they were so much stronger than us that we just wanted to be on good terms with them so as not to be raided, only to find that we were stronger than them the entire time. Everything from our base location, our defensive layout, and the ability of our players, we were in another class in comparison to them. Above all, I'm thankful that all of the work we put in over that couple months was not destroyed by a tribe that was friendly with us and "got bored" of the game. I'm thankful that we were able to overcome that adversity and come out victorious, conquering the bully.

I feel it was a true David and Goliath story, and the entire server celebrated when we announced we had defeated Tribe A. Now that we have become the "Alpha Tribe," we realize it brings on a whole new set of problems to deal with, and I'm sure there will be more exciting adventures to come!

 

Thanks for reading my story,

[Vaculity]

Usually even on a fresh server, Alpha Tribe will always try to wipe the other tribe out immediately. They take in no prisoners, they don't even talk to any non-tribes, and they just kill without any prejudice (course, they need to plan). Seems their idealism of delaying the action (given the fact they didn't immediately proceed to wipe other tribes after wiping D despite their excuses even though its their intention to wipe the server) are their undoing, and your tribe ended up wiping them after they threw everything they got with unsuccessful attempts.

Yeah, Now that your tribe are crowned the alpha, you have a whole set of problem to deal with. There will be "rebels" within the server who want to take your title by wiping your base unprovoked. And then theres the transfer issue to worry about as well, once the server opens transfer within a few month. Some other tribe from other ARK servers will try to lay claim by wiping everyone with dinos from their main server.

Regardless, good luck in the future. That wiping was Egg-celent (pun intended).

[mikeraleigh]

Good story telling, a nice read, and I don't even play PvP!

[Weiss]

I enjoyed reading this!

[jpcab]

Kids....

[HojMcFoj]

Thank you for all the feedback, i'm glad you like the story!