Nighthawks
| Name: | Nighthawks | http://robjohnston.id.au/images/hawk3.jpg | ||
| Shortname: | NH | |||
| Server: | Ager Guild / Guild Server | |||
| Leader: | none | |||
| Website: | http://www.avidgamers.com/Nighthawks | |||
| IRC: | -- | |||
| Status: | Disbanded | |||
Contents
History
The Nighthawks were originally a one-reset guild on Ager, under the leadership of Draken-Korin. They maintained an enemylist kill rate well over 90%, and eventually attracted the attention of The Imperium and Army of Darkness, who coordinated (for the first time) to kill Draken-Korin. Without thier leader, the guild drifted, and disappeared at the end of the reset.
The Nighthawks reformed "on paper" during the last reset of MARI Archmage. Our aim was to bring together a number of experienced war mages from all over the server, acting as a covert unit, acting unpredictably and causing havoc. Founding members included Loki Wyrd from The Multifariously Named Guild, Hildreth from SeventhGate, Lord Rahl and Crownguard from Lords of the Void / The Crimson Crusade, and The Elk from The Red Moon Brotherhood. Archmage died, and a number of the founding members left, never to be seen again.
The Nighthawks formed again in The Reincarnation, during one of the first real resets. We kept our original aims: a democratic guild, who make no alliances, and who don't take crap from anyone. The nature of the server forced us to eventually take allies. These have included Guardians of the Apocolypse, Middle-Earth, Retaliators and Mages of Zenla.
During our first reset, we declared war on Spite & Malice (along with thier allies Dissention and The French Barbarians). The Nighthawks survived against overwhelming numbers, inflicting what damage we could. Spite & Malice eventually surrendered when one of their mages was exposed for multimaging. We also spent a little bit of time on Army of Darkness's hit list for some reason or another.
The following reset, we were involved in the war against Topia and Serenity NOW!, but I don't remember much about it. The end of this reset was the first time we considered disbanding. It was eventually decided that we would again change our ethos and move to an open recruiting policy.
For our third reset, we decided to mix things up a little and war a smaller guild - namely, Female Body Inspectors. The war went very well, with us sustaining few casualties and guild wiping them in aram.
Next reset we took on another small guild, but this time a bunch of rankers. Czech Archmage Guild was our target - again, few casualties on our side and all but two of them killed before arma. A few well-placed Infernos saw that thier highest ranked mage was taken out of the running for a hall spot.
The Nighthawk's final reset consisted of an ill-fated war against the Crusaders of All and Nothing, another guild from the past. After taking some initial losses, CoAN killed off our new recruits quickly. The remaining members of Nighthawks lasted until arma, at which point they were killed. NH performed much better on the UBB than in game, pwning their opponents up one side of both the declaration thread and CoAN's vanity victory thread, and down the other.
Analysis
Two problems plagued the Nighthawks from thier very inception, feeding off one another and leaving the guild in a hopeless situation.
The first, and most significant problem, was that the Nighthawks played more as a group of individuals than as a guild. Trouble with other guilds and ND mages was usually handled by the mage involved himself, and a number of private wars were fought each reset.
This mindset lead to a lack of communication and coordination for the majority of the members. New players often found it difficult to integrate into the guild's society, leaving the Nighthawks with a high turn around of newbies. Since NH had always been a small guild (5-15 members), the effects of this were felt more dramatically than it would be in larger guilds.
This lead into the other problem - with a lack of coordination and integration, the Nighthawks found it difficult to build the reputation they deserved. Without the repuation, NH couldn't recruit experienced players nor many new players willing to stick around for the next reset. Without growth, the guild couldn't improve it's coordination, leading back into the same vicious cycle.
However, in summary it must be considered that the Nighthawks in it's more modern conception was at least in part successful. When originally restarted near the death of Archmage both as a way of avoiding the continual ego rides that came with having too many leaders in the game and also basically having fun with the game, one would now be hard pressed to find a NH member who didn't enjoy their time in the guild. The legacy NH leaves (from it's posts on the UBB and in-game actions) is of a commited and fun loving group of players trying something slightly different.
Roster
Our in-game leaders have included Loki Wyrd, Lord Rahl, sleepless, galad and Chipmunks.
Old-school members have included:
Hildreth, Xanon, Zifnab, The Elk, Crownguard, Phlange, Vash Templar, Wacky Devil, Tas, Nekkid Roof, Alcibades, Sapphirine, Lauden/Gragon, vinco, and Xronix.
Newer players have included:
Chipmunks, Sclero, Stampede, Drone, NuTam, Ninarx, JzH, Imrahil, SpookyElectric, babyline, and Calatin.
Sorry if I forgot you ;)
Symbology
http://robjohnston.id.au/images/title2.jpg
