ATS seems like they sent nearly half of their gold value to fund LLJK extermination within 1-2 weeks of Strat starting, because for some reason a neutral clan on the very opposite side of the map was a much, much higher priority then the enemies that surrounded Northern Empire lands. Also they spent all of their remaining gold on 1 army with typical top end cRPG Battle server gear that got beaten by a spawn cap (where BRD got to loot it all) midway through a battle. Seems like no one in ATS but Ecko knew how to equip an army, manage gold, shuffle troop around, or anything because after this one over-excessively geared army lost they literally stopped fighting every single battle. They must've had thousands of more tickets, could have had many smaller armies resist every siege but they just straight up refused. Eastern Tsardom refused to participate in any battles and instantly abandoned the war after ATS lost one battle, and the Hospitallers bitterly defended every possession they had with whatever gear (mostly low quality) they could buy.
I got the impression that Ecko did not let anyone else learn how to play Strat, made all the NE clans pool money to him, blew most of the money in a failed alliance with Shogunate trying to wipe out LLJK at the very start (how rude) and buying inefficient gear. I remember Ecko flaunting how he had meticulous plans on how to deal with every major faction in Strategus wars, but apparently he forgot to draw up the "buy gear, fight battles, defend fiefs" part of the game. Which is basically the entire point..
FCC showed how effective a stubborn resistance could be, along with having good allies and knowing how to fight Strategus battles. Obviously losing a war isn't too entertaining but actually having gear for all your troops and playing the battles is fun, jesus christ why didn't anyone show up, most fiefs strongly favor defenders.
Special shout out to all the completely landless clans that decided mass attacking LLJK for their lands was more important then getting neutral fiefs or checking the expansion of organizations like The Grey Order. See you all next Strat!
