First a little background; Warhammer Online is a traditional MMORPG, but one that is interesting because a large part -- if not the majority -- of content (certainly for high level players) is in "Realm vs. Realm" play -- direct competition between player groups on a massive scale. The culminates in "sieges" of the factions' capital cities.

Well, it looks like the first siege has occurred on the European Karak Eight Peaks server with the sieges of the Order faction city of Altdorf, despite multiple claims from Mythic that the "endgame" wouldn't begin until at least a month into the official launch of the title.

Comments from the community -- for example from the Warhammer Alliance forums -- seem to argue that the quick siege was the result of bugs, with commentators complaining that the attackers managed to enter locations via doors that they should not have been able to, bypassing battles that would normally be required -- allowing a group of "underpowered" players to perform a task that should be too much of them.

There has been no official statement from Mythic (or GOA, who administrates the servers in Europe) concerning the siege, but according to reports the server has since been reset, ending the defeated state of Altdorf.

Patch 1.01 of Warhammer Online was also released today, which includes largely functional patches to interface and game systems.