History of Rolling Thunder

[Gandalf]

Origins

Rolling Thunder was founded in Allegiance Q2 2004 by Badger, and like-minded individuals, having previously been in a squad called Rolling Thunder in Mechwarrior2. Badger was a great leader who was gifted at writing inspiring posts. The idea of RT was to be a "clan of honor and skill" - a calm mature presence in a community that had a load of whining, bitching and immaturity. Where the community mattered more than the game, but the squad would strive to get better at the game, together.

Early Allegiance History

In the first couple of years RT lost all their games against other squads, as they had much experience and Allegiance is a complicated game. Nonetheless RT continued to attract new recruits, due to their spirit, friendliness, the @Cadet program bringing new players up to a decent standard, and the tireless efforts of one of the early recruits, Dengaroth, who made it his personal mission to recruit as many promising new players as possible.

Rise of Rolling Thunder

Gradually, and after a few crises/moments of drama as some pilots left for various reasons, the quality of play improved and RT began to win games. Out of 8-10 squads, RT came 4th in the 2007 tournament, 3rd in 2008 and 2009, and winning it in 2010. Many pilots had been there from when RT used to lose most if not all of their games, so make the journey all the way to the top was a fantastic achievement.

Over the years RT had many leaders - firstly Badger (who had two spells in charge), also Fellentos (aka Fell), Raveen, and Idanmel (April 2011). Additionally, there were a number of assistant squad leaders (3 or 4 at any given time) to assist in leadership issues, or to carry out roles on behalf of the squad in the wider Allegiance community (rule-setting, recruitment etc.).

Later Allegiance History

As time went by, the number of players in Allegiance got smaller, which made getting decent games to happen harder, along with recruiting new pilots to replace those who naturally drifted away after a number of years. Additionally, there were issues with attitude of some non-RT pilots towards how to approach the game - and disputes over secondary matters. The prevailing feeling in the squad was one of Allegiance being more hard work than fun now - therefore, what was the point in continuing? So the decision was made in late 2012 to move RT's main presence away from the official Allegiance forums onto our own (kindly provided by Andon), to branch out into other games and to recruit from outside Allegiance.

The post-Allegiance era

Some of us still play Allegiance now, but RT has expanded into other games, such as Blood Bowl, League of Legends and Elite:Dangerous. We have also recruited new people from these games. Some RT members don't actively play games with us anymore, and that's fine. Although it is games that bring us together, it is our friendship and sense of community that unites us all.

[Gandalf]

Further background information

For those who are interested

What is Allegiance?

Allegiance is a team-based 4X space flier, where the team has to work together to accomplish goals (usually the destruction of all enemy bases). There is a commander who invests money for the team in better ships and more bases. Games would last from 10 minutes to upwards of 3 hours, but around 60-90 minutes was common for the competitive squad matches. Co-ordination is vital to accomplishing goals - very few game-turning events can be accomplished alone.

The team-based nature of the game necessitated us to get along well together - team chemistry and having trust in your team-mates was vital to obtain victory.