Lux look... I started out on the Dread server with TB... TB got owned hardcore, it was embarassing, and half of the subs that TB had didn't respect TB anyway (ie they wouldn't show up to help defend the city, they just used TB for a binding point while they farmed all day for their own ToL.). I left because that guild had absolutely no skill or experience in MMORPGs, and it was obvious and very annoying (since everyone in the guild acted as if they were all very experienced, before SB went live). Absolutely ZERO TB members played the beta, other than me. All were clueless newbies to the game, and this was apparent to everyone on Dread, which is why TB was the first guild targetted, obliterated, and no one wanted to ally with or help TB. And also, wtf do you mean TB didn't mass recruit? The PLAN was NOT to do that, but Ome is a moron who has no clue how to lead a guild. He mass recruited without even discussing it with anyone else, and then he had no control whatsoever over all the people he recruited. THEN he doesn't log in for days straight, and leaves the IC to handle all of the people he has recruited. You think I'm wrong, how many original IC does TB still have? Every quality member that you guys had is no longer in TB, they all left at the same time : / Hell, before I left Dread to goto Death, I jacked every penny from the ToL and all vendors because you guys pissed me off so much.
When I moved to Death, LoD was fighting the entire server (this was like 2 weeks after SB had gone live), and they were doing a damn good job of it (I don't even think the walls were breached at the keep one time until well around 4 or 5 months later). It was obvious to the entire server that LoD was not a newbie guild, and this is why they were and still are going strong in Shadowbane.
You may need numbers in order to dominate the server in SB, but it is definitely not a must. There are plenty of ways to win in SB without numbers, TB was just not the type of guild that could come up with a plan to compete in those ways. Merc companies, Errants, small tight knit groups, etc... TB is carebear, and would never be able to pull any of those things off.
I am not a member of LoD or TB, and I don't even play Shadowbane anymore really. But, this is an unbiased opinion from a person who was with TB when the guild was created, all the way until they were chased off of the server of Dread. I was also a nation member of LoD on Death in the beginning. This is not a flame, it is just the truth about what happened in my eyes.
