Never Underestimate Dwarf Determination!

Meet Clan HammerStrike, Lionna's spunky Dwarf-only clan. In October, Clan HammerStrike made Dwarven history by claiming Giran castle! When the next siege period rolled around, they fought valiantly to keep the castle, but were bested by another clan. Dwarves from near and far came to their aid, and some are calling the siege one of the most fun in Lineage II history! Read more about Clan HammerStrike's conquests in an interview with clan member Dolosus!

We'd also like to mention that Lineage II Vault also wrote two wonderful articles about Clan HammerStrike that you'll want to check out for yourself! Check out Tinqr's HammerStrike castle siege report here, the siege image gallery here, and a feature article on the clan here!

1. Tell us a little about your clan! How long has Clan Hammerstrike been around? What was your inspiration for creating an all-Dwarf guild? What kind of challenges does an all-Dwarf Clan face? How many members do you have? Is the clan really comprised of all Dwarves?

Well, HammerStrike started along time ago (C3 or C4) as an all-Dwarf alt clan [that was created] to help with gear-crafting. The idea being that everyone (well almost everyone) has a Dwarf alt, and combining our talents made it easier to coordinate the crafting. Also our Dwarves were tired of hanging out with the “tall people” while they drank our beer and made short jokes.

The biggest challenge for this Dwarf clan is usually figuring out which of the 42 mechanical golems in the golem closet belong to which Dwarf. That and keeping enough beer on tap to keep Salgrath “lubricated”, he's getting a little old and needs his “medicine” to stay active.

Right now there are a little more than 30 members, all Dwarves except our lovely Ceorla (our own Snow White). No Dwarf clan can be complete with out Snow White!

2. What was your motivation for claiming Giran Castle?

To be honest, it was an accident. We were playing with our Seige Golems and no one showed up to stop us until we crested. Then things got a little crazy. . . lol. Ownership of the castle passed back and forth a few times. In the end, the tall people beat each other up and left us with a castle!

We decided to try and keep it because the castle basement is a great place to store beer. . . cool and dark.

3. Last week, you defended Giran Castle valiantly, but lost in the end. We saw your call for aid on the official Lineage II forums. How many people do you think came to your aid? Does Clan HammerStrike have an Alliance with any other clans?

About 80 people of various persuasions came. We helped another Dwarf clan get to level 4 to house visiting Dwarves. There were 20 low levels that found PaperDragons in time to clan up. Others were on the field untagged. SwedishVikings, another Dwarven clan, came in force and several other clans with Dwarven sympathies came out as well.

HammerStrike is allied with Headhunters and Tribal. Tribal is an all-Orc clan and they really enjoy beer, are funny as heck when they get rolling on Karoke night, and also excel at Dwarf-tossing and seeing over walls. HeadHunters is a clan of buffers . . . because when you're crafting, you really need those rechargers.

4. How did you prepare for the siege, and how long would you say your preparations took?

Well lets see . . . there is the time it takes to get the beer at the QuickyMart, then it takes at least two hours to properly chill the beer and of course there are the required snacks. All in all, most of us put in at least a few hours for prep.

5. Could you estimate how much Adena you spend in preparation for, and during the siege (on golems and such)?

Well one of the points of getting well lubricated before the seige is so you don't notice how much you spend on the seige. Dwarves like to make money not spend it so it's less painful if we don't notice it until later. There was the optional extra expenses of squeaky boots and salvation bows also.

6. How did you manage communication during the siege?

Beer . . . oh, and a really bossy talkative Bishop named NannyOgg on the Command Channel. A fantastic volunteer Dwarven spy network materialized when the siege started that fed all sorts of tidbits (and sometimes off-color jokes) to Nanny. Some of which she even managed to type in correctly.

7. What was the most challenging aspect of the siege?

Well other than seeing over the walls . . . the hardest part was keeping track of our golems. Those things run on beer so you really don't want to lose your keg . . . err golem in the middle of a fight.

8. How many barrels of beer does Clan HammerStrike drink before marching off to siege an unsuspecting castle owner?

We only know that we've had enough beer to seige when we can't count the kegs anymore. . . .

9. Players who attended are calling this one of the most fun sieges they've ever participated in! Do you think Clan HammerStrike will be hitting the castle siege field again someday?

HammerStrike is all about fun. We will continue to hit the field and stagger into castles as long as it's fun. Sometimes server politics ruin the fun of things like seiges so we get good and drunk and forget about the politics. Besides, if HammerStrike stops attacking castles we'll never get our complete set of castle circlets.

10. Is there anything you'd like to say to the players who aided, and fought against, Clan HammerStrike during your recent castle siege efforts?

Well, first we'd like to say THANK YOU!!! We had people come from all over, even other servers to join in the fun. That is what seiging should be about . . . FUN!!! We appreciate everyone on both sides because a one-sided seige is boring! Good fight to everyone and look for us on the field again soon!

On a final note I'd like to add a thank you to our friend LoveChild. It was her idea to do 2% Tuesdays so if you see her throw her a rec.

Thank you to Dolosus and Clan HammerStrike of the Lionna server for answering our questions! Go-go Dwarf Power!