Well, the Militia exercise did take place, in part... until the server went down for maintenance.
We gathered in the Plaza and the turnout was very satisfactory, we reached 39 people in the group. Thanks to you all... you make it all worth while.
A word on Azure Squad guild: This guild was created solely for the purpose of the exercise. Many people were worried about joining it, and I would like to reassure them. Azure Squad guild is not to be considered a guild, as it has no other purpose than to provide the guildless people in an exercise with a communications channel. At the end of the exercise, the people in it will be graciously kicked out.

All the other squads will be formed by guilds, since they can use their own guild chat. Even though all participants are grouped together, the group chat is reserved for long-range communication between squad leaders. For all other communications, we use normal chat and /shout.
We\'re going to have this exercise again, and finish it. To make things simpler, the guild leaders need to contact Ogu ingame or refer to the
Militia page to enlist their volunteers and make the grouping easier and quicker. The volunteers need to be informed by their squad leaders and they really need to accept the group invites... so many people were declining. Likewise, the guildless people need to know where to go to be invited into Azure Squad. It\'s a lot to organize, but if we plan ahead we can carry out an enjoyable exercise without wasting too much time.
This was the first time we ever planned such an exercise and it was mostly a learning experience. We have learned a lot and will be putting our lessons to the test next time. Again, thanks to all who participated in any way, for your help and your patience. Next time, it will be better!

Last but certainly not least, a warm thank you to all the people who helped organize the exercise. It\'s people like you who make this game alive.
*Ogu bows*