Game Guide: Newbie Help Guide: Attacking

[Ruddertail]

Attacking

Ok. You’ve just come out of protection. You’ve got a sturdy little warband, but to be any good, you’ll need to grow. And to grow, you’ll need land. You could get it from scouting, but by attacking, you can get a whole lot more in a lot less turns, and besides, attacking is a lot more fun, too! Now, hold on a second. Before you go out and start attacking a bunch of other warbands, remember as a general rule, (Hawks straters and food masers excluded,) that the larger the warband, the larger the army. Also, other warbands can, and will, retaliate. Don’t expect them to just sit around while you take their land.

Ok, so you know to expect some retal, and you’re cool with that. You’ve also made an army that you feel confidant can win most of your battles. Now, how many times should you attack someone? Well, the most you can attack under regular conditions is 21 times. After that, a warband is “maxed� and they can’t have any more attacks on them until some time passes. Every hour they “lose� one attack, that is, it doesn’t affect their attack max anymore, so you can attack them one more time, and bring them up to max again. Every time they attack, they “lose� two attacks from their max.

Before you go out and attack someone 21 times, remember that 21 is a maximum, not the only amount. And most warbands don’t like getting attacked 21 times. If you attack someone too much, instead of just retaling for their land, they will likely try to do some serious damage, which could end up basically destroying your warband. The acceptable number varies between games, and even between servers. 5 – 6 is almost always a sure bet, though on many games/servers, more will be accepted. A good idea is to watch how many attacks others make per warband, and you can also ask one of the higher players, or put a general topic on the forums. Plenty of people will be willing to answer questions, all you need to do is ask. Also, online attacking is a bad idea. It is generally considered very rude, and will tend to evoke a strong response, even for a small number of attacks.

Right, now you know how many times to attack someone, you need to know what kind of attack to use. First off, I would suggest you read the Troops section of the game guide. This will give you a basic overview of your troops, which is all you really need. Now, you need to know how to use them.

Before we go into attacks, I need to touch on the concept of health. When you start out, your health is at 100%. However, when you attack, it decreases by 6%. As your health gets lower, your attack points also get lower, and once you get down to 20% health, you can’t keep attacking anymore, until bring your health back up. You do this in one of three ways. When you use turns, your health increases by 1% every turn. When you use turns “Healing�. (See sidebar in-game.) You get a 2% increase in health. When you use the hawk mission “Heal� (See the guide section on hawk missions.) you get 5% health per the 2 turns hawk missions require.

First, read the attacking section of the guide. This gives you a good overview, but now you need something more in-depth. I’ll go over each attack.




Standard Attack:
This attack sends all four troop types, pitting your entire army against your opponent’s entire army. The main disadvantage to this is the fact that it uses all troop types. This requires you to have a larger number of every troop type, instead of just one type. However, it is effective against guard massers, (people with large amounts of guards) since it pits all your troops against the enemies guards and troops. It is also a good attack to use against someone who masses only one type of troop. You won’t be able to break them in the special attack that uses their favored troop type, but with a standard, you can break them, and cause major losses in their massed troop. Believe me, it works. I’ve used it a few times myself.

Surprise Attack:
This sends all four troop types, like the standard attack, but grants an 18% attack bonus, costs an 25% health penalty and causes 50% more losses. It also prevents troops shared in a clan from helping with the defense. This attack is generally not worth the penalties. It may be useful for going up against a member of a strong clan that is sharing forces. However, in normal situations breaking someone 2 or 3 times just isn’t enough to make it worth the costs, which are so severe that once you’ve launched two or three, you need a bunch of turns to recover.

Guerilla Strike:
This attack uses only mice, pitting your mice against your opponent’s. This is a good attack to use if you have a good amount of mice. Mice are cheap, and can be easily bought or produced. They have a 2/2 attack/defense rating, so you need slightly more mice then your opponent to have the 5% margin required to win a battle.

Arial Attack:
This attack uses only your squirrels. Now, you may be thinking. “Wait a minute. If squirrels are so defensively based, why should I use them in an attack?� The reason is that because of the low attack factor of squirrels, some people have only a very small number of squirrels, if any. So with a modest number of squirrels you can win quite a few battles if you pick your targets carefully.

Frontal Assault.
A frontal assault uses hares. Hares are 5/4, so the have an offensive advantage. If you have more hares then your opponent, this is a good way to go. Hares are the most bang for your buck as far as support, so they are a good massing troop, the downside is, because of this, others mass them as well.

Naval Battle
Otters, like hares, are better on offense then defense. Like a frontal assault, use it if you have more otters then your opponent.

Also, hares and otters are lost slowly, compared to mice and squirrels, also, otters are a troop type not used very often, so a few otters can go a long way.


Now, before you go out and attack someone, you need to know about guards. Guards are a strictly defensive building, worth 500 defense points each. Most people don’t have guards, but some still do. If you can’t break someone, even though they lose very few troops and you lose many, they’re massing guards. Unless you have a good hawk ratio, all you can do is get more troops or a softer target. I

And a final note, since mice and squirrels can be replaced quickly, either being produced by barracks, or bought as mercenaries, they have an advantage over hares and otters at first, and are a good choice for new players. Once you are larger, and have the capacity to produce your troops more quickly, hares or otters might be the way you want to go. Of course, you want some troops other then your massed type, so you can defend your self from the attacks of others. During the turns I spend after my attack run, I generally try and run about equal amounts of all four troops. Play around with training %’s to get the desired results. The way things are right now, being able to get land is more important then being able to keep it. Keep that in mind.

Well, that’s about it. Go fourth and conquer, my young friend!

Ruddertail


Well, tell me what you think. Suggestions/corrections are always appriciated.

Ruddertail

[Devari]

I think you have the information down solidly. Sometime later today/this week I will go through wording, check your numbers, and fix any spelling or grammer mistakes. Overall, a solid start!

Thanks!