So basically, for the past few days, I've been playing a pretty old text-based MMO that I completely forgot about called Kings of Chaos. It's an incredibly in depth game where you build and manage an army, becoming as powerful as you can.

     Firstly, I should explain that this isn't like most MMOs which have "rounds" or "games" that last (at most) a month or so. Each round, if you want to call it that, is called an Age. I'm not sure how long each Age lasts, but when I registered, the game told me there were about five months left until Age XI. When I started playing the game for the very first time, I think it was still in beta (before Age I even). I can't be sure about that though, that was somewhere around five years ago. The game has come a long way since then. It still feels exactly the same, but there are so many more features now than before, it's insane.

     When you register (see below for a link to register, through which you can become one of my officers), you start off with a pretty basic army and resources. You attack others to steal their gold (unless they're stronger, in which case they'll beat you back and you'll retreat), which works by using "attack turns". Attack turns accumulate over time. I try to save mine in case I need some quick gold, or in case someone attacks me and I decide to take revenge. Generally, people will leave you alone unless you disturb them, or unless they're a hell of a lot stronger than you are and probably couldn't give a damn about you trying to fight back. But even that doesn't happen often.

     Officers and alliances are the game's way of allowing you to play with your friends, or to group with other people to achieve a common goal. Alliances allow many commanders to join under the command of an alliance commander, establishing a pretty thorough chain of command. This is handy because it can help your army grow quite a lot through "army morale" points. Morale is basically a buddy system within the game. It was created in answer to a number of programs people use to tilt the odds in their favor by essentially blindly farming soldiers from other players (not stealing, farming). You would register to use the program, then you could click the links of a bunch of people you didn't know which gave you points to be spent when other people clicked your links. I remember trying it and watching my points go from 100 to 0 in a matter of minutes, giving me more soldiers than I knew what to do with. Anyways, morale is just like that, but directly implemented into the game (quite a good idea in my book). When you click other players, your morale goes up and they gain a soldier. When other players click you, your morale goes down and you gain a soldier. For ever two clicks one of your officers receive, you receive one soldier (so it's good to share morale with your officers).

     There are quite a few different game modes to play. First is your standard battle mode. When you attack a player, your troops equip their selves with whatever you have stored in your armory, then head out to kick some ass (or have their asses kicked). You have five types of combat soldiers: attack specialists, defense specialists, attack mercenaries, defense mercenaries, and untrained. Attack and defense specialists are your soldiers that have received combat training. Attack and defense mercenaries are hired soldiers. I couldn't tell you if there's a difference between your regular soldiers and mercenaries because I almost never use them unless I have to. Lastly, untrained soldiers who pretty much suck. However, if you lack the gold, untrained soldiers are better than nothing. If you have any excess weaponry in your armory, your untrained soldiers will equip their selves and help out in the fight, so they aren't completely useless. When it comes to weapons, I prefer quality over quantity, however quantity can sometimes be good too. Most of my men are weaponless simply because I choose to go with some of the better, more expensive weapons.

     Another game mode is intelligence gathering. You play this mode by sending your spies to gather intelligence on a person's army (friend or foe, there's no real penalty, unless your spy is caught in which case he'll be executed D:). Your spies' success is affected by a number of things. Your "covert level", which is basically advanced training for spies. You still have to train spies from your untrained soldiers through the training menu though. Your covert level simply improves your chances of success in the field. In addition, much like weaponry used by your soldiers, you have "spy tools" and "sentry tools". Sentries are basically the equivalent of defense specialists in your army, except they defend against spies. So, as you've probably guessed, spy tools and sentry tools are basically the equivalent to what weapons are to your army. A spy can gather intelligence unarmed, but I'm not sure if they can sabotage unarmed. Yes, you can sabotage enemy supplies. Weapons, tools, etc. It takes a skilled spy to do this though, even more so if there are a lot of sentries. Your intelligence reports are all filed in the intelligence menu, so you can quickly access and review past reports in case you decide you want to attack somebody you've scoped out.

     There are five races in the game, each with different bonuses, but no racial penalties. Humans, Elves, Undead, Orcs and Dwarves. They're all good, you can really just pick your favorite and make the best of it. I built an Orc army because they grant a nice +40% attack bonus, and an alright +20% defense bonus, which are my preferred bonuses because I can easily focus on most other things on my own should I need to. It especially helps in the beginning when you most need to safeguard your gold and such.

     So, if at this point you're interested, you can register as my officer using the link below. Otherwise, you probably suck.

1. Go here: http://www.kingsofchaos.com/recruit.php?uniqid=z9i8292p
2. Match the number in the image.
3. Click "Join the war!" and sign up as whatever race you like.
4. Activate your account through the e-mail you receive.
5. Log in to change your password.
6. Done. :D

Enjoy the game, my loyal officers,
- Spunky

Current Officers:

• KMx
• nei1337
• Serotonin
• Revjak
• ChaossMaster
• Meghan
• TheBloodofLiars (she scares me D:)