I think if you take events as they played out at surface value, whether or not one side won over the other can be debated.
I know Buster personally took it all as a defeat for Cordor. The allied forces may have taken down the mayor, but 1. we were all forced to turn tail and flee back to where we'd come from when the pirates showed up (this being especially hard for Buster since he is like Pro-pirate killer and killing pirates has become his longest standing purpose in life, and then forced to turn tail and run from them. Talk about having to swallow your pride!) Then okay, they captured three of the most prominent enemy leaders, but then had them slip through their fingers, one of them being his longest lived nemesis. These things made the battle horribly demoralizing for Buster (which, mind you, is great for RP, I loved it!) and turn injury to insult when seen it was more pirates that caused him to lose Asen. At the end of the day, Buster was just lucky he survived.
To him, Cordor didn't achieve any goal it set out to accomplish at the outset of the battle.
The heir wasn't found.
Cordor couldn't take over the town.
Asen escaped, robbing Buster of any semblance of revenge
All other Wharftowners escaped, removing any leverage Cordor had over the town, putting them right back where they were in the first place, except now, they were down multitudes of soldiers after the battle
And arguably the most demoralizing thing to happen, Buster's beloved Cordor Navy was pounded (and at best, forced to retreat to effect repairs) and will not fully recover for a very long time.
So after all these losses, Buster has to acknowledge that the largest threat is no longer Wharftown and its banites. The largest threat is this fleet of pirates. Strong enough to decisively turn the tide of battle and severely cripple his navy. Thus his focus has shifted away from the banites to address the larger threat.
So what's my TL/DR?
Whether the outcome was positive or negative for your side can greatly depend on your point of view, and either side can consider themselves to have either won or lost. Regardless, there are some GREAT opportunities for evolving rp out of this!
To me, I guess this is why the event was so fun for me. The outcome is what you make it. Make it interesting
