Awesome post, Kelly. I didn't realise you were a SoY veteran! That dinner date with Vince sounded hilarious.

Thanks man!

Guys! I wanted to share something with you..

I've known you some of you since the founding of this guild in 2004 and I imagine we've spent hundreds of hours together, so you're absolutely my digital family. I haven't always been active but whilst serving as a Covian guardsman I left my hometown of London, went to university, graduated, got married, bought a house and now Senior Guardsman Eason / Guardsman Recruit Serj Eason is to become a RL Dad

The Baron said he wanted new recruits so I got to work >_>

We just had our 12 week scan on Friday and the baby seems to have formed nicely. He/she started to move around during the scan and completed what appeared to be a standard UO chest-thump salute. I expect at 20 weeks wifi will be working in there so we'll get a EJ account setup ;p

Baby Covian on the way!

[KALDORIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment A – Initial Attack on Altmere Outpost]

Shouting and bell ringing were heard throughout Covian lands this eve.

The Battle for Altmere Announcement
The Battle for Covianshire Announcement
The Battle for Cove Announcement
Cease Hostilities Announcement
* (OOC: Played during the event on the Bardic Tales Sound Project Discord channel. Please feel free to join this channel. I'll let you know when I'm testing something.)

I admit to having spent a fair part of the day preparing for this re-enactment. It being the first I had ever hosted I was uncertain as to how the event would unfold. Fortunately, I had some excellent help from the start. My particular thanks to Corporal Sanderson, Regular Guardsman Kobra, Regular Grenadier Raven and even new Guardsman Recruit Garshinkle (who did some chopping for me) for their assistance in constructing the essence of the re-enactment.

Battle Re-enactment: The Kaldorian Attack
A training exercise to prepare against darker times.



KALDORIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment A – Initial Attack on Altmere Outpost
COVIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment B – Cutting Supplies, Covianshire
COVIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment C - Breaching the Wall, Covetowne

In Attendance
Torrak Keres, Grenadier Corporal
Leanne Melior, Officer Cadet
Tiberius, Senior Guardsman
Gimbly, Regular Grenadier
Marcus Kobra, Regular Guardsman
Eben Roichar, Junior Scout
Saerandir, Watchman
Tingleith, Guardsman Recruit
Sheriam Palmer, Guardsman Recruit
Aries Harper, Guardsmen Militia
Lariss Label, Guardsmen Militia
Sam, Duchy of Trinsic
Luid, Duchy of Trinsic
* Several other spectators.. they look Vesperian..!

KALDORIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment A – Initial Attack on Altmere Outpost
As per the itinerary, the re-enactment began at the Altmere Outpost. After setting up barricades and selecting teams, the fight was underway. Guardsman Recruit Tingleith volunteered as Kaldorian Commander and Watchman Saerandir as Covian Commander.


Re-enactors prepare at Altmere Outpost.


Gregor begins his introduction of the Kaldorian Attack.


The objective of the Kaldorian force was to destroy the Covian flag.


Tingleith volunteers to portray Kaldorian Commander Cal Soulshadow.


What looks like a Vesperian group appears! Tiberius sees only Kaldor..


The Kaldorian squad is brought to their Healing Station (and starting position).


Pre-fight trash talk begins!


Blood is quickly spilt as the Kaldorians lead a fast charge on Cove.


MORE BLOOD!


The Kaldorians are repelled.


But not for long! They manage to work their way upstairs and desecrate the Covian flag!

COVIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment B – Cutting Supplies, Covianshire
We made a brief stop at a mock Kaldorian Forward Outpost where some re-enactors were present. After a brief gander at the re-enactors and replica armors on display, we pressed on with this second battle that saw Covians and Kaldorians fighting to secure critical resources for the ongoing war effort. Tingleith was once again Kaldorian Commander with Grenadier Corporal Torrak Keres acting as Covian Commander. The Covians were successful in obtaining 4 out of 5 resource bagballs (or ladies as we strangely referred to them as).


The story continues.. Gregor explains the importance of Covianshire.


A re-enactor curiously appears before cue..


The Mock Kaldorian Forward Outpost is unveiled!


And.. the story continues..!


Rules are quickly explained. Kaldorians prepare their tactics.


Kaldorians assault the Covian Outpost in an attempt to capture their collected resources.


Gregor reports back to the spectators, who have decided to sit back for this one.


Kaldorians successfully raid the Covian Outpost, stealing their coveted resources.


Covians give chase to the Kaldorians.


The battle is deadly. Neither side gives in!


Cove is victorious this time.

COVIAN VICTORY! Re-enactment C - Breaching the Wall, Covetowne
The final battle took place on and inside THE WALL (note, singular WALL – not plural..!). There were 5 flags positioned on the Wall that had to be captured and held. Regular Grenadier Gimbly stepped up as Covian Commander, with a chap named Sam from the Duchy of Trinsic acting as Kaldorian Commander. T’was a grim fight! But Covian forces were able to snatch victory away from Kaldor by holding 3 flags until the battle was ceased.


A polite order is given to the Covian squad.


Keres talks strategy with his team.


Covians and Kaldorians clash on the northern tip of the Wall.


The fight flows to the centre of the Wall.


Gregor narrates, as the battle rages on.


Covians win back the Wall!


Only to begin losing it..


The victor of this battle is uncertain..!


Covian courage wins out!


History is rewritten.


Cove, and its allies, are prepared for a true Kaldorian attack!

History was rewritten this day! In the alternate story we created, Cove was nay breached by Kaldorian and Kotodoma forces. If only t’was true decades ago.

The Mock Kaldorian Forward Outpost shall stand for a few weeks before it is packed up. Please visit and speak with some of the re-enactors. A simple 'Hello' goes a long way..

Many were lost. But many shall be remembered.
For Cove.

Gregor Eason, Senior Guardsman
Covian Army

[The Kaldorian Attack - General Rules]

The Kaldorian Attack - General Rules
* For each war game, 2 ‘Commanders’ will be appointed. He or she will then select a squad appropriately. These squads will not always be balanced.
* Normal wait time after being knocked out is abolished during the re-enactment. After being revived, re-enactors can engage immediately but must be healed by either;
- A Wandering Healer
- A Safety Instructor at a Healing Station
- An ally at a Healing Station
* Healing Stations cannot be entered by opposing squads.
* Portals cannot be made to/from the Healing Stations.
* Battles will commence on the hearing of BELLS and/or command from the Safety Instructor (BELLS will be heard if you are on the Bardic Tales Sound Project Discord channel, or on BoC Guildchat – as we have a number of guilds partaking if you are a Covian please call out to your squad when the battle has commenced).
* When capturing or raising flags, this is done by either putting down a 4 square cloth flag OR by dying (AS IN USING A DYE TUB. NOT BEING KILLED..) over the other squad’s flag in your squad's colours.
* If you are spectating, please allow the re-enactors wide berth and ensure you are quite clearly not Covian nor Kaldorian. I will be handing out some orange sashes to denote the fact ye’re neutral.

Game 1, Altmere: Capture the Flag.
Squads in favour of Kaldorians. The element of surprise!
- Kaldorian re-enactors must capture the Covian flag atop Altmere outpost, place their own and hold it for 2 minutes. Covian re-enactors must purely hold out.
- There will be 5 minutes to prepare once Safety Instructor advises so. The battle will be 10 minutes.
- 10 points will go to the VICTOR!

Game 2: Resources. 
Even Squads. The war is ON.
- Resources (in the form of 5 weighted bagballs) will be situated in the local area.
- These can be collected by squads and moved back to their designated Outpost.
- Squads can raid other Outposts and steal their resources, or they can focus on collecting and holding their resources.
- There will be 5 minutes to prepare once Safety Instructor advises so. The battle will be 10 minutes.
- 5 points will go to squads based on each resource (bagball) successfully claimed at the end of the battle.

Game 3: Capture the WALL
Squads in favour of Covians. Every Covian will hold the wall.
- There are 5 flag positions on the wall. For a squad to win, they must have their flag raised at the majority of positions (i.e. 3 or greater) when the battle ends.
- The Healing Hut will also be a neutral healing station in this instance.
- There will be 5 minutes to prepare once the Safety Instructor advises so. The battle will be 10 minutes.
- 10pts will go to the VICTOR!

These rules will be run-through again at the re-enactment before each game.
Good hunting!

Gregor Eason, Senior Guardsman
Covian Army

Just as an additional note, I came across that article that got me into UO!
I have Mr. Adrian Selby from this March 1999 PC Zone article to thank for my vices haha!

http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/obsessed-with-ultima-online-pc-zone/

[“KALDOR! THEY ARE COMING!!”]

“KALDOR! THEY ARE COMING!!” Gregor fell out of his bed and crawled around looking for his armour.
“Daidéo? Ye alright?” Serj called to him from the other room.
“Kaldorians.. Ahem.. Yes. I’m fine, Serj.” Gregor shook his head. “Ye can go back to sleep.” Gregor sat down at this bedside desk and carefully lit a lantern. Grabbing a quill and piece of parchment, he began to scribble madly.

Battle Re-enactment: The Kaldorian Attack
A training exercise to prepare against darker times.

A combined force of Kaldorian soldiers and Samurai from the Kotodoma Clan assaulted the provinces of the Baronship the spring prior to the Kaldorian Line campaign. They firstly took Altmere, then the Covian Shire and finally sacked Cove itself.
Whilst the Green Enemy has not been seen or heard of for years, I propose a complete training exercise to prepare our soldiers for a Kaldorian assault. The Guardsmen Militia and other allies have been invited to partake, watch and advise.

When: Thursday 12/07/2018, 7.30pm GMT
Where: Guard Outpost, Altmere
Covian Army - Bring: Bandages, combat gear, food, water.
Citizenry – Bring: Carpentry tools, axes, medical supplies, food, water.

A – Initial Attack on Altmere Post
It began in Altmere..The Kaldorians and Samurai quickly marched on the northern province, attacking the guard-post there and wiping out our forward sentries.

The outpost that was taken.

B – Cutting Supplies, Covianshire
Then, the Shire (or ‘Covianshire’), was hit. The Enemy navigated around the Baronship Household. A complete assault on our Barracks would have been too costly. They hit our weak points first with the aiming of cutting our supply lines.

The supply line that was cut.

C – Breaching the Walls, Covetowne
Finally, Cove itself was besieged. The walls were breached; Kaldorians and Samurai ran amok in our fine town, massacring it.. pillaging it..

The Wall that was breached.

T’was a ruinous time for Cove..
BUT NEVER AGAIN.
We will be ready for them, when they return.

I hope to see you there!

Gregor Eason, Senior Guardsman
Kaldorian Line Veteran

[When:]

A merchant by the name of Harry Biggins is hosting a Travelling Market in the area of Trinsic. There shall be all sorts of Britannian inhabitants present, so it'll be a grand opportunity to get some Covian faces out there.

When: Friday 20/07/2018, 8pm GMT
Where: Western Bank Square, Trinsic
Bring: Coinage for purchases..?! A stall!?

Biggins' advertisement of the Market.

Or a treasure hunt with Gregor Eason, where we landed on an island. He stripped completely naked to negotiate with the tribes. He told me to guard the ship. Three minutes later he came back running, still naked, chased by tribe people.

Must've been during my drinking days 

At one point, I played as Ilyana to be pregnant. However, as the character who played the father stopped playing UO and Cove got suddenly attacked by Yew, I got knocked out. At this moment, I thought of having her a miscarriage. Not a long time before this happened, my sister had a miscarriage herself, and it was a very sensitive topic to me, and I'm sure also to other players.

Sorry to hear about what your sister had to go through. I think sometimes roleplay is a good way to deal with troubling issues. It's like when I'm acting on stage and I get a difficult scene - you get the opportunity to purge the emotion.

After so many years, I still remember so many wonderful moments. They made me log in almost daily and always managed to cheer me up whenever I was down. Sadly, some members passed away forever. But they have never been forgotten. This love to that breaks the digital world, is what keeps me subscribing to UO all the time again.

To absent friends.

Thanks for sharing, Leanne!

Thanks for sharing, Raiden! (Although now I sound like I'm chairing an AA meeting). Great memories there - particularly the interaction with Eve/Axiana, showing the importance of putting ourselves out there and the consequences our actions can have. Plus the Moot sounded awesome! Indeed, it would have been very easy to just arm-up and go into PvP mode with that archer. The RP approach absolutely created an incredible story there.

[Being Covian - An OOC Marketing Campaign]

Being Covian - An OOC Marketing Campaign
Hi guys. So I’ve been chatting with the other Command doods and I thought this might be a nice approach to open our community up to some folks who may have never tried roleplaying or even playing UO before. With Endless Journey we could see a whole new batch of roleplayers join the community so I thought revealing the roleplayers behind our characters would be cool.

Below is a background of mahself! It would be great to hear about how you guys found yourselves living in Cove in this thread, and to share these stories with the rest of the online world.

Whilst this campaign will begin here on our OOC Board, I have intentions of pushing a few bios out on social media – so if you would prefer not to have your bio promoted please make this clear. However, I will check in with you if your bio is selected before publicising it.

I look forward to hearing your stories. Please feel free to use the questions I used, or if you’d prefer to take a different approach then by all means go for it
-

What’s your name and where are you from?
Surya Bajracharya. I’m originally from London but now live in Norfolk with my wife. My crazy name is Nepalese in origin but I am also half-Irish.

Which character(s) do you roleplay in Cove?
I roleplay Gregor Eason, a former officer of Cove. I also have his grandson Serj Eason, a recent recruit to the Covian Army, as well as a few other small-time characters.

Where did your character name originate from?
Gregor just came out of nowhere but Eason was the surname of a soldier I was trained by at the British Army’s training base in Pirbright. Corporal Eason. One hell of a soldier. He was one of those inspirational 'Band of Brothers' types. Very skilled and tough, but also laid back and happy to help out recruits when they were struggling. In one instance, we were tabbing (marching hard with full equipment). A recruit from another platoon was struggling and he gave him words of encouragement, real fighting talk, to get up a hill. After the recruit dusted the hill he turned to me and said.. “You can push. You can pull. Or you can motivate.” And then he just wandered off. I was a TA soldier so the training was only brief but it was packed with gems of wisdom from this guy.

When and why did you start playing UO?
I started playing in 1999 after reading an article in PC Gamer (or was it PC Zone..). I was 14 and my Mum didn’t want me to play the game initially so I emailed the writer of the PC Gamer article asking him to convince her. The guy sent me an email back that I could pass to my Mum. I don’t have the email now, nor can I remember exactly what was written – but I do remember how he said he’d made wonderful friends in the game and it was definitely an adventure worth going on.

When and why did you join BoC?
I joined BoC in November 2004, just a few months after training with Corporal Eason. I don’t even remember how I was playing UO at that time. I think life had slowed down a little and I wanted a creative outlet. I had previously been an active roleplayer in the Crossroads of Yew community from 2000 until 2003 but between 2003 and 2004 I was heavily invested in my A Levels. And so I rocked up to find Cove occupied by an Orc horde (part of an EM-led storyline – EM, Event Management, Event Moderator?) and Baron Octiovus in need of soldiers.

What’s your fondest BoC memory?
There are so many to choose from. But I must admit I’ve always been a small story kind of guy, so it would have to be when I crafted a short murder plot in Cove. I wanted it to be as freeform as possible so I produced a dead body in Cove and roleplayed some suspects during an hour when other characters would be wandering within the town. However, the guardsmen took no notice. Apparently they were too geared up for war and didn’t consider a town murder to be important..! The only people interested were two Citizen characters, Jemmy the Rat (a teenager who occasionally dabbled in low-level crime) and Dellamona (a peaceful cook). I ended up playing out the story-line for these 2 roleplayers, bringing in clues and other characters. They managed to solve the case in the end. The murderer was found and they alerted the guardsmen, who had previously been aloof to the plot. The suspect resisted arrest violently and ended up being killed by the guardsmen, but justice was done. The 2 roleplayers absolutely loved this story that was interactive and crafted for them, much in the way a DM would design a D&D game – although this DM was faceless and unknown. I ended up logging on with Gregor Eason, who was at the time a high ranking officer in the Covian Army, and held a small ceremony to recognise the efforts of Jemmy and Dellamona when the rest of Cove ignored this incident. It was during this ceremony that Jemmy emoted something I will never forget..
*beams with pride*
It was at that point I realised we were all building something incredible together.

What was the most interesting roleplaying experience you engaged in?
Since returning, I have recently been roleplaying my character Gregor as suffering from the early onset of dementia. I KNOW. It’s deep and incredibly emotional territory, so I need to make sure I am sensitive to those who have friends and family that suffer from dementia. For the other roleplayers, it is something quite unusual to engage with. Whilst BoC and roleplaying in general is a lot about escapism, it is also a platform for experimenting with ideas and emotions. Just like any good drama it does put a mirror up and makes us think – wow, what would I do in this situation? And I guess, through roleplaying, you get to test those scenarios out sorta vicariously through your characters.

Why would you recommend roleplaying to someone, and on Ultima Online?
I would say have a quick read of our Roleplaying section and then dive in. You don’t need to join the guild straight away to roleplay – and with Endless Journey UO now has a sustainable free-to-play model. There are also other wonderful guilds on Europa (and other shards too!), like the Guardsmen Militia and the Vesper community. OR if you’d prefer just to have a little chat with some of the other players visit our Discord channel (we typically only text chat on here).

Roleplaying is a wonderful way to completely change how you game. UO’s mechanics are ancient but with a layer of intrigue created by wonderful characters and fresh story it transforms into an experience that is timeless. Furthermore, having played lots of other MMOs, there is something about UO that just makes it right for roleplaying. Maybe it’s the slightly angled top-down view you have as a player – it’s like a storybook that you can interact with and watch unfold. Despite efforts in other MMO worlds (although I’m sure there is plenty of roleplay out there), none have ever captured me like roleplaying in UO. And perhaps none ever will.

Surya/Eason

Anyone had any issues with taking screenshots and them getting enlarged weirdly? I think it's something to do with Windows 10 on my device potentially. It zooms in for apps or something and then when I create a screenshoot the zoomed in is revealed.. but it doesn't look zoomed in during play. Bizarre - and infuriating As per below..

lol

(OOC: Apologies for the OOC but I must. This nearly brought a geeky tear to my eye. Wearing Vince Valentine's old armour... Damn man, that's profound).

I thought so.. hmm.. Alas, it may be lost.