Why fight T1-3

[Klerus]

I've been seaching all guides and can't find an answer. Does it actually matter which faction wins T1-3 or is it only fun and games to progress to T4. Since only Forts contribute campaign points and both factions start in the middle zone of T4 anyway it seems to me redundant to win any battle outside of T4.

Follo up question. I've recently seen T2 and 3 Zones locked at "Uncontrolled" and the battle going on in Caledor T4. How can the campaign progress that far, if no faction actually won the previous Zones?

Thanks for any explanation.

[Nameless]

Frankly it doesnt matter which realm lock any zone.
I like some parts of initial war design about lock points that you take from scens, lower zones kills/locks and so on. The system were much more connected.
Here everything is disconnected and play for itself which is ok but it limit the gameplay.

[Easysteps2]

Does it actually matter which faction wins T1-3 or is it only fun and games to progress to T4. Since only Forts contribute campaign points and both factions start in the middle zone of T4 anyway it seems to me redundant to win any battle outside of T4.

Everything, including T4, is only for fun, reputation, and gear. Yes, wins in T4 let you advance to Forts, and Forts win victory points that lead to city sieges, but city sieges impact only a minority of the player base and nothing unique drops from it (that I know of). Forts seem to give you extra rep, but they can be long.

Follo up question. I've recently seen T2 and 3 Zones locked at "Uncontrolled" and the battle going on in Caledor T4. How can the campaign progress that far, if no faction actually won the previous Zones?

T2 or T3 is locked because the battle there is finished and the game wants to herd us into one of the 3 battle zones where there is conflict.

To get to Caledor, Order must have won in Dragonwake first.

[Klerus]

Hey thanks for the replies. Its actually totally fine with me as a casual player and makes things easier. I just tought I was missing something, since it seems an odd design choice to connect all Zones in a global campaign without any impactful gameplay mechanic behind it. I just wish there would be more fighting in the lower tier zones like Ostland and High Pass, since I love some of the leveldesigns there.

[Panzer80]

It's only T1 and T2-4. Since the population isn't super high T2-4 are merged and a bolstering effect is used on sub rank 40 players.

[Avernus]

Frankly it doesnt matter which realm lock any zone.
I like some parts of initial war design about lock points that you take from scens, lower zones kills/locks and so on. The system were much more connected.
Here everything is disconnected and play for itself which is ok but it limit the gameplay.

Yeah, everything was connected - and even devs (mythic) realised that it wasn't working as it supposed to be.

First, the fact that you are supposed to dominate not only T4 location to lock it but lower tiers isn't the most funny thing since tier's population were not always aligned to your cause. You could face the situation that while you are trying to cap some T4 location, you realm's population can be not able to put any good fight at lower tiers (assuming your realm's population does exist...).

Second, scenarios. This is where things could get even more ugly. If your your realm is trying to lock something and facing some fierce resistance, you (if you are PUG player, not member of full premade, selected few best parties member etc) can be VERY STRONGLY ADVICED to not queue scenarios. Of course you can say something like "cmon guys its fun game so let's just have fun!". And meet some super motivated full (by full i mean FULL) premade sc. Enjoy facing premade guild wb while playing dragon's awakening or something like that (forgot this sc's name). Oh, and be sure, your allies will be VERY HAPPY to see you instead of another premade, be sure they WILL express their GRATITUDE towards your...actions.

Still, even if your realm (or, at least, its more or less organised part) couldn't handle sc fights, they still had an option to "fight" the opposing faction - by ignoring sc alltogether - unless some randoms will queue sc anyways - with obvious consequences of being used by furious (of course, they want to fight something and lock this bloody map istead of capping everything they can and waiting for something to happen) enemy premades. Used, yes...

To sum all that said, that was changed for a reason.

[ShadowWar]

For T2 and T3, whoever locks the lower tier zone will start next zone up with 1 star already on the keep.

[nocturnalguest]

If your your realm is trying to lock something and facing some fierce resistance, you (if you are PUG player, not member of full premade, selected few best parties member etc) can be VERY STRONGLY ADVICED to not queue scenarios. Of course you can say something like "cmon guys its fun game so let's just have fun!". And meet some super motivated full (by full i mean FULL) premade sc. Enjoy facing premade guild wb while playing dragon's awakening or something like that (forgot this sc's name). Oh, and be sure, your allies will be VERY HAPPY to see you instead of another premade, be sure they WILL express their GRATITUDE towards your...actions.

Still, even if your realm (or, at least, its more or less organised part) couldn't handle sc fights, they still had an option to "fight" the opposing faction - by ignoring sc alltogether - unless some randoms will queue sc anyways - with obvious consequences of being used by furious (of course, they want to fight something and lock this bloody map istead of capping everything they can and waiting for something to happen) enemy premades. Used, yes...

To sum all that said, that was changed for a reason.

Oh, nostalgia... And people say here in RoR community is toxic, ha. Everything happening here in SCs is just a kindergarten in comparison to points system AoR had, even solo rankeds.