The 5 of them spent the next few days laying down their foundations and all that all the while checking to see what the situation was with their base selling. Just half a day into the simulation, Meng Yi’s base was sold, followed by Guan Yu’s base just a few hours later. The next day only Meng Tian’s location was sold. Two days later, Baron’s base was sold. A week passed but Yue Fei’s base did not sell and so they had to decide whether they would abandon it so that they could all be together and not split up or just leave a strategist or two to stay there.

In the end, through Baron’s insistence, Baron and Meng Tian would man the base for a week or two to see how that turned out. They decided to do this because just abandoning a base is just giving the advantage to the next visitor. The plan was to have Baron and Meng Tian stay at the base so that Meng Tian would be able to teach Baron the basics and if Baron was confident enough, then Meng Tian would group back together with the other 3 to team up once again.

Baron had wanted to do this because he wanted to make a big splash in this tournament and get his name out to those that would soon see him as a threat to their dominance. Soon after this decision, they had all bought a rather well-fortified base that was not their first choice but would suffice for now.

Since the two bases were sort of in close proximity to each other, they had decided to put on a ruse and not fight their way to each other first, but rather to conquer their surroundings first and during an important fight they would show their alliance to the others. No matter what, they had to put on this act since it meant another ace up their sleeve that they could use on any unsuspecting opponents. No doubt some of their competitors were doing this too.

For the remaining 3 or so weeks they did nonstop renovations for bases and strengthened their soldiers’ capabilities in war as much as they could. Preparation was key, but who's to say that upsets didn’t happen in war.

No matter how they prepared, arguably, there would always be someone who prepared more than them, better than them, made more alliances than them, had better strategies. The point is that doing the best with what they had was the only thing they could do. Baron had his army and officers moved from their original base to this new one that was previously Yue Fei’s. Meng Tian and Baron agreed that it was best if Meng Tian’s army and officers would be best put into their main base since that was the more important one. What Baron was doing was just a little experiment if nothing else.

(MT) “Remember Baron, for the first month or so once the fighting begin, don’t do anything. Only the foolish will rush to conquer their neighbors without scoping out what their actual strengths are beforehand. In fact, the first month is usually when the greenhorns huddle up together and try to take out some of the bigger fish right off the bat.” Meng Tian explained.

(BM) “That normally wouldn’t seem to end up well for the new groups.”

(MT) “Certainly not. The ones who have already established a name for themselves would be a joke if they lost in the first few months. That is more a disgrace to their faction and they can even be kicked out if they lost badly enough.”

(BM) “It truly is an unforgiving world here on planet 4.”

(MT) “That is true, but that is also one of the charms of this place. A world where you could be on top of the world in one moment and out in the streets in the next. This place has a certain flair that I just would never have been able to get in my previous life.”

(BM) “Planet 4, the planet of tragedies. Come, we still have lots to do before we begin, and still so much that you have to teach me.”

Meng Tian began to teach everything he knew about this one specific tournament as he could and pretty soon Baron could get the grasp of how everything worked. Whatever Baron didn’t understand Meng Tian could easily answer. Since Meng Tian had been entered into this tournament so many times, he knew it like he knew the back of his hand.

The rest of the time was spent on the aforementioned drills and manufacturing weapons that they needed to best their foes with. Lieutenant Naire was with Baron the entire time and showed to be a natural leader that also had quite a logical brain inside that brain of his. Baron grew quite fond of Naire and all that he offered to Baron in terms of quality of service.

The final week before the battle start date, Baron had sent Naire to do a multitude of jobs for Baron. Naire completed each and every single one of them beautifully and with time to spare as well. Finally, the time came for the battle to begin and Baron couldn’t wait to finally prove his worth.

(BM) “Naire.”

(LN) “Yes, general.” Lieutenant Naire looked into the horizon.

(BM) “Let us begin on an adventure that would put anything on Earth to shame.”

In the beginning, they had 100 fighter airplanes to their base. They had the resources to either get more airplanes or fortify their defenses. This is where many newcomers would make the mistake of going all-in on either fortifications or firepower. The best way to go about this situation was to have a healthy combination of both. Or, if you have allies, plan it so that a few would focus on defense and the rest could go for offense.

War is about finding a balance.