Silvershard Mines


 * Diamonds! Stranglethorn Vale's Silvershard mines are full of the gleaming gems, and, while they’re pretty to look at, they’re far more important for what they can buy: new blades, ballistae and battle-gear for the soldiers of the Alliance and Horde. Neither faction wants its opposition digging up diamonds – not when the other option is to spill their enemies' blood on the rocks and make off with the loot in Venture co. mine carts!



Silvershard Mines is a 10vs10 resource race battleground for level 90 players set in Stranglethorn Vale and introduced in Mists of Pandaria. The objective of the battleground is to be the first to generate 1600 resources through controlling and capturing mine carts.

Official overview

 * Silvershard Mines is the site of a race for resources between two teams, one Alliance and one Horde. Each faction escorts mine carts filled with Silvershard diamonds – and the carts (self-propelled through goblin engineering) just keep on coming. Carts under your control provide your team with an ongoing trickle of resources. When they reach the mine depot at the end of their track, they provide a huge volume of resources to the team that ‘captures’ them. To seize the most diamonds for your faction, you’ll need to keep mine carts under your control, defend them from the enemy faction, and ensure that you try to break your enemies’ control on ‘their’ carts. Be the first team to reach their diamond quota!

Description
''This battleground takes place underneath Stranglethorn Vale in a Venture Co. goblin mine. Silvershard Mines is a 10 vs 10 escort battleground, in which each side attempts to control diamond carts until they reach the mine depot.''



Carts
Venture co. mine carts appear in the center of the map, and automatically move along the tracks to their destination – one of three diamond drop-off points at the end of the tracks. They’ll keep appearing and heading down the tracks until one team wins.

Multiple carts can move along different tracks at once, so don’t be afraid to split your efforts in order to control the highest number of carts.

Your team gains control of a cart when there are more members of your team than members of the opposing team in range of that cart. While you have control of a cart, you’ll accrue resources every few seconds.

If you capture a cart – if your team is in control when the cart reaches its destination – your team will receive a large number of resources. When a cart is captured, another cart will appear shortly after in the center of the map.

No more than 3 carts can be active at one time (one cart per track).

Tracks
Carts automatically proceed along 3 different tracks in the Silvershard mines. Each track is a different length – though capturing a cart will earn you the same number of resources regardless of which track the cart is on, you have an opportunity to earn more resources while proceeding down a longer track.

Keep this tradeoff in mind, because you can change a cart’s route, directing it to a different track by hitting one of the two switches found at track intersections. These switches take a few seconds to activate, but they give you the opportunity to send a cart in a different direction – ideally towards your teammates. You don’t need control of a cart to change the track that it’s on, so plan ahead to dodge your enemies and fluster their plans.

Gameplay

 * The Silvershard Mines are similar to Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm in that the main goal is to reach 1600 resources before the other faction does.
 * From the center of the map there are 3 mine carts rolling on rails towards 3 defined endpoints.
 * There are multiple tracks, and the option to switch tracks at certain points.
 * Each mine cart is surrounded by a visible circle.
 * The faction with the most people inside these circle controls the cart. While you are inside the circle you can see a bar similar to Towers in EotS with a red and a blue end.
 * While your faction is in control of a mine cart, resources are generated.
 * When a mine cart reaches its end location the controlling faction is granted a large bonus of resources, similar to a flag turn-in in EotS.
 * Silvershard Mines features only a single graveyard for each faction, located safely within that faction's raised starting area.

Notes and trivia

 * The battlemasters related to this battleground were Silvershard Envoys on the side of the Horde and Silvershard Emissaries on the side of the Alliance. Due to their titles, it seems the battleground is a resources war between Red Canyon Mining and Deep Mountain Mining Guild.
 * Bonus Honor is awarded to the team for every 200 resources gained, or every 130 resources gained when the battleground is the current Call to Arms battleground.
 * It was called Stranglethorn Diamond Mines at BlizzCon 2011, but had been renamed by the time of the March 2012 press tour.
 * The concept of the battleground seems to be similar to the Payload game mode in.