One of the network routers at GOA is experiencing a power outage today. The problem is being worked on, but as I'm writing this services are expected to be unavailable for at least a while longer. I was able to log onto Excalibur some time ago, but the backup router couldn't handle the load and thus game servers have been taken down for the time being.

You might want to keep an eye on this FreddysHouse thread for updates.

As of today, we've left the Fellowship of Midgard alliance and joining the Red Shadows alliance instead. Our reasons for doing so are numerous, but most importantly their Alliance Chat is much less restricted, which should help us find groups more easily.

Of course this doesn't mean you can blatantly spam alliance chat any more than you would be allowed to spam in guild chat. Basically use common sense when using alliance chat.
Red Shadows Alliance does have a Call To Arms system that functions more or less the same as the one we had in the LFoM alliance. I will update the alliance rules on the forum shortly.

You're encouraged to register and participate on the Red Shadows Alliance forum. Be sure to check out the event calender there.

GOA's Friday News has once again been posted. Apart from a progress report on 1.75 testing, we have final confirmation that Excalibur and Prydwen will indeed be clustered shortly after the release of version 1.75 somewhere in the end of June.

The clustering of the servers has a few consequences. RvR areas of both servers will be merged, increasing population. For most other zones, you will be able to travel between the servers using a special NPC. On the downside, there will be severe restrictions to playing different realms on 2 clustered servers.

Population related bonuses have been adjusted for June. On Midgard/Excalibur the free level period has gone down from 7 to 6 days.

The first installment of 1.76 is now on the US test server, Pendragon.
They introduce a number of new guild options, a new repair system for artifacts as well as various other changes. Patch notes are available here.

Congratulations to Hexachlorbenzen (Jerelyn) on level 50 and RR3 :)

On a sidenote: 1.75 testing has finally been opened to volunteers. If all goes well the version should be going live somewhere halfway June, but it's too early to be able to say with much certainty.