Paradox
| Paradox | |
| |
| Abbreviation: | P'dox or 'The Pox' |
| Group Numbers: | 25+ |
| Leadership: | Cooperative |
| Goals: | To protect the weak and kick zombie arse |
| Recruitment Policy: | Open |
| Contact: | Paradox Central forums |
Paradox is one of the oldest active groups, founded shortly after Urban Dead opened to the public, and is renowned and respected among those who remember us. Unfortunately, this doesn't include anyone who joined the game in the last year, but we fully intend to change that.
Once again active in Tollyton, we have a policy of aiding and encouraging new players to move up the skills tree, both so that their experience of the game is more enjoyable, and so that they can be of more use to the group as a whole.
Current activities - Operation Westward Hope
March 2009 - The suburbs of Crooketon and Grigg Heights lay ruined and dark, ruled by the undead. That is until Paradox launched an attack against our greatest enemy, boredom, and set out on a road trip to once again reclaim these forlorn neighborhoods for survivors. We ran into our old friends Breach of Peace, made some new friends in BMF, and even reached a hand across the barricades to meet Rot from the Moors, a very worthy adversary who have made our stay out west exciting indeed.
History
Malton was largely deserted when the first of us signed up, and at first we were nomadic and lacked any direction. Bit by bit we started to coalesce into the suburb of Wray Heights, where stands the first place we thought of as home: Diaper Auto Repair (picked because we liked the name). We soon began discussing the idea of forming a proper group, and founded a forum to make organisation, aid and having flaming rows easier. We moved north into Tollyton, which we have regarded as our home ever since. Recognising the strategic importance of malls, we sent platoons to the nearest ones to gather intelligence and help defend them if necessary: Blesley Mall in Gulsonside, Hildebrand Mall in Roftwood, Nichols Mall in Stanbury Village and Pole Mall in West Grayside
Expedition to Fort Perryn
Our first expedition was to the then-zombie infested Fort Perryn, in Pennville and Whittenside. At the time, it involved a large proportion of our characters, with almost everyone who wasn't needed for defence joining in. We took the fort quickly and remained there for a fortnight, extending our protection to the surrounding area when it became clear that no overwhelming attack would come. We left when we deemed the area as safe as things get in this city, as we were needed elsewhere.
2006-2007: Decline and Revival
Other lessons were learned, wars fought and adventures sought, but real life took it's toll on members who were finding the game getting stale. As the original members drifted away, membership declined to the point that Paradox was declared a Historical Group in 2006.
This changed in July of 2007 with a new recruiting thread on the Paradox Interactive forums, and many new unsuspecting strategy gamers, completely innocent of the addiction they were about to be sucked into, signed up. They were joined by many of the legendary "Old Ones", former players who had gone inactive but returned, energized by the new blood coming into the game. And isn't it all about the blood?
Summer/Fall 2007
With Paradox active again, Tollyton went from being a charnel house to a place where survivors could safely rest and restock - Most of the time. Battles were fought with the RRF, LUE and other hordes and T-town went from red to orange to yellow and back to red again while the revivers tried to keep up.
Many of the Old Ones again departed, and leadership changed over as some of the "Class of '07" tried their hands at herding cats. They quickly received a crash course in undead warfare, as about that time the fourth Siege of Caiger Mall had ended and hundreds of zombies - many of them only recently deceased - began washing over surrounding suburbs like a rotting tsunami, and the sea of red soon reached Tollyton.
LUE broke in and wiped out Woodroffe Mall and in a matter of hours we were fighting for our lives. Paradox rallied in nearby burbs, revived our living impaired members, and returned to battle, working to retake Tollyton and later Roftwood. We also had an exciting time when the RRF's Heroes and Martyrs Tour came to town, as we stood firm with The Malton Defense Corporation and The Headbangers of Malton instead of withdrawing to another suburb.
The Green Winter and PKer Wars
Slowly survivor numbers started coming back, and Paradox began clearing out T-town. A new crop of recruits joined and things were improving more and more... and more, until the unthinkable happened. All of a sudden, Tollyton was a green suburb and Paradox was facing our greatest enemy - Boredom.
Relief was found shortly after the Samhain Slaughter, when a chance encounter with headless gunner led to war with the Creedy Guerrilla Raiders, Paradox's first PK war in ages, and the very first for most of our members. Being strategy gamers, our members rallied, the bodies piled up on both sides all over Tollyton and neighboring Roftwood, and a good time was had by all. Our October '07 class really stood out, as many had just levelled up to their gun skills and showed themselves to be natural killers. Paradox especially owes a thank you to our friends in The Malton Defense Corporation, The Phoenix Division and The Tater Red Krewe for their support at a time when you truly find out who your friends are.
When Paradox and the Raiders moved on to other ops, we still had to deal with our green suburb, now made even greener by some likely griefers combat reviving our living impaired neighbors. Thanks to our violent new friends we had gone from knowing nothing about PKers to knowing a just little, and we began exploring ways to play against the PKer aside from ignoring them, or blasting away tous azimuths trying to run them all out of town (about as great a possibility as running all the zombies out of town). We set up a firewatch around Woodroffe Mall around New Years, and had just ended it when we caught the Columbine Kids setting up for some major pwnage. Our forum lit up as members were sprinting up to 15 blocks, injuring someone and calling for backup from the next member to log on. A couple of weeks later that Kids came back with The Sociopath Apostles, Mrs Flibble's Harem and other PKers and virtually took over the mall while we were off in another suburb. By the time we found out about it (one of our newbies found a "zombie horde" that turned out to be the Woodroffe Mall revive point) the brave mallrats were already hitting back, and we were only able to get in a few shots while the stinkers were pulling out for greener pastures. But it was more excitement than Tollyton had seen in a long time, and an honor that the Player Killer had chosen our home suburb to experiment with their role in the game.
Backup Hope and The Spamiards
In January our mobile strike team Combat Team Paradox launched Backup Hope, our first road trip in many months, in cooperation with Malton Defense Corporation's Operation Forlorn Hope, clearing out Crooketon and Grigg Heights. While clearing those suburbs we made new friends with Breach of Peace, and through the combined efforts of all three groups two more red suburbs were made safe.
The danger from boredom was still bashing at the barricades though, and a solution was found by breaking new ground outside of Malton. Paradox was fortunate to be reenergized by a new recruiting drive on Paradox Interactive's Spanish OT forum, with the Spamiards doubling membership in a matter of weeks. Just in time as it turned out...
The March of The Dead
How can any group's history leave out The March of The Dead? Like the Black Plague or the Mongol Hordes (which it DID share many traits with both) it affected everybody. From Paradox's point of view, Urban Dead was never more fun. We would be overrun in Tollyton by The Dead, back up into a neighboring suburb only to run smack into Big Bash II or the RRF's Excursion III. But enough of us always stayed alive to revive our dead before they themselves fell, and we learned the art of combat shopping, clearing a corner of a mall and stocking up. And before long we took the of offensive.
Operation Paradise Lost was launched 24 March to retake the ruined suburb of Crowbank and it's Necrotech buildings. Looking back it probably should have been called Operation Serendipity, as with no prior communication we came in from the northwest and ran into the 41st Death Com. and the Flowers of Disease (on sabbatical from PKing) coming in from the northeast, and Blackhawk Nation coming in from the southwest. With several other groups joining forces, the suburb was quickly cleared. The PKers were especially effective defending Blockside NT, and convincing the slow learners not to overbarricade the entry points.
Giving Zed no time to recover, Operation Paradise Regained was launched 2 April, Paradox returning to our home suburb of Tollyton with E.N.D., The Fortress and Team Enlightenment. Again things went smoother than anticipated, with few casualties and many headshots handed out. Operations Going South (Wray Heights) and Slingshot (Edgecombe) followed up in April to help clear out many of our neighboring suburbs.
The Heart of Darkness - Ridleybank
After cleaning up our homes from the March of the Dead, we decided to take the fight to the homeland of the Ridleybank Resistance Front and have some fun, thus launching Operation Heart of Darkness, where most of us were eaten. We had such a good time, however, that we later launched Heart of Darkness II (withdrew after the entire suburb was barricaded) and Heart of Darkness III (eated again). We have always enjoyed the hospitality of the RRF, and hope that they enjoy their visits to Tollyton.
Future History
Time seems to have slowed down a bit, real life has teken it's toll and many of the old grognards have found a way out of Malton, leaving just a few stubborn cusses to fight the good fight. You will still see us around T-town - a tag here, a revive there, while we keep the lights on - Waiting for new survivors to come stumbling over the barricades, or the Old Ones to return.--Noobermenschen 22:20, 19 April 2009 (BST)
