A long time ago, Strategus was a closed beta. Only those with invites were inside, which meant even in the enormous clans there might be only a few members. For D'hara, a clan numbering three at that time, the odds of getting in before the map was claimed were few. However, against all odds, I got in, though I was alone. After finding some empty space to recruit under a completely different system, I managed to amass an army of just over 300, and equip them quite abysmally. Villages at that time were quite weak, but it still had 500 soldiers and more money than I did. Still, not wanting to fall behind and full of D'Haran pride, I attacked.
At that time, the sides weren't limited to how many people they could hire. The computer would hire literally anyone who signed up, and they could all play. So when it came to the actual battle, we had 60 people on the server, but they had 90. But the AI's hiring of everyone who signed up didn't help it, and since I hired all the good players first, especially the Mercs (who killed half the enemy alone), Templar, and others who will be added when I can get back in Strategus to check the hiring list. Through discipline and superior ranged firepower, we slaughtered, losing only half our inferior force. Istiniar was ours.
From there, the numbers of the army grew quickly, though the money still did not. As I was the only member of D'Hara in Strategus, we weren't making insane income off my limited play. However, then Ozin got in, and suddenly our income was doubled. Up until that time, only villages had been taken in game. The Mercs had 6 or 7, the Templar a similar number, IRC was rolling in them, but we only had our one, because above 1, you had to pay upkeep. Having just one meant we weren't losing half our income, since we didn't have the advantage of a dozen members in game. So, needing money and being possessed of insanity, we decided to be the first to take a castle and assaulted Maras Castle with a troop count equal to its garrison and equipment decidedly inferior.
We won that battle as well, with the help of the Mercs again, as well as a significant showing by ATS and other NA groups who fought exceedingly well despite EU ping (in the days prior to an NA strategus server). D'Hara was the first group to take a castle, and we rejoiced in it. I hadn't even believed we'd take it, myself, expecting to only damage the garrison to prevent it from making money faster than us. But it was ours, and we were eager to keep it.
From there we quickly expanded into the other villages, though careful to keep a powerful army at Maras. From time to time a group would show up intent on taking part of our claims, but we were able to run them off either through auto-calcing their armies or diplomacy. To name a few, the SlavWarriors, Grey Order, Murtagh's army, and the Nemesis clan were all among those either talked or fought ought. (SlavWarriors were actually banned out for cheating their way into the closed beta en masse.)
D'Hara grew to hold all our traditional lands when I got bored of defending and autocalcing. When the Templar put out a call for crusade, I dropped everything, left D'Hara, and marched on the 22nd with my bodyguard. There was no resistance, sadly, so that quickly grew boring too. I came back to D'Hara shortly after, selling my village to LLJK for a decent sum of gold. However, I wasn't able to stand our new arrangement with the Guard of Istiniar, being more of an absolute power kind of guy, so I got bored again and wanted to cut back on my playtime, so I left. Why they keep letting me come back, I'm not sure, but I am the king of wanderlust. Anyhow, I left to witch hunt, launching various attacks on other groups which were small but enjoyable. However, it wasn't quite fair to Ozin, who never wanted to be a leader. Shortly thereafter, D'Hara fell to the UIF following a lightning speed invasion and Ozin disappeared, leaving Gavin of the Istiniar Guard in command of the army, which then surrendered to attempt to save a remnant of D'Hara.
At that point, things sort of died off for D'hara, until the UIF began to slowly return lands to the Istiniar Guard under terms of the surrender agreement. However the faction went inactive quickly, and soon there was no one in command of the Legions nor really active in the region. After some time and discussion, I made my peace with the Guard of Istiniar and returned to D'Hara, maintaining the treaty with the UIF and splitting our territory into two sections, D'Haran and Guard of Istiniar territory.
At that point the freeze hit.
