Experienced Monarchs – Strategy Continuity

[Lestat]

I have a question to ask of experienced monarchs in regards to war planning and execution. I don’t just want any swinging dick throwing their 10cents in.

I have been trying to think of when you are warring;

1) What is a good strategy
2) More importantly within that strat what kind of OP’s and attack combinations to run? I.E there’s not point in T/M’s focus someone that’s being chained, what OPS cancel each other out etc.

I have been think on a good strategy for a mid level warring KD. So far I have come up with this but get stuck on a few areas.

Phase 1 – Hostile wave.

In this one I was think of chain massacres on 3-4 of their T/M’s or high WPA TPA provinces.

Phase 2 – T/M blanket and focus and attacker chains.

My theory here is that once the enemy KD is hostile to blanket their attackers with MS, Storms, Greed and Riots. This will use a lot of the KD’s mana but crush their economy over a longer war.

The KD’s Stealth is used to NS the crappers out of 2 targets probably being the highest Def or slightly larger enemy attackers. The remaining mana after the blanket spells used to fireball said targets.

Whilst this is happening the attackers are chaining 2-3 targets being the highest Off and/or most active enemy. Among other reasons that at the start of the war their Def will be a bit lower.

Once the attackers have dealt to the first 2 targets i.e overpoped and disabled, the T/M’s and hybrids should have brought the other targets down. At that point those become the chain targets and the Mages move to different targets, and so and so forth.

What do you think?

[insane]

it depends on your kingdom. It sounds good and all, but I'll let other more up to date peeps comment on the actual strategy. Sounds good, but then planning is always easier than dealing with the actual execution of it.

what will you do if things fall apart on you?

[waheed]

the best strategy is no strategy.

ur strategist must know the game very well, then during wars, identify ur enemy's strategy, pick out their strength/weaknesses, then avoid their strengths and attack their weakness

for example, if ur enemy is heavily massacring 3~4 of ur gnomes, u identify their strategy (to take out ur thieves), avoid their strength/minimize damage (start aiding ur gnomes gc/sol and pump tpa back) and attack their weakness (no incoming land. u can take advantage and maybe chain down a few provs)

its not a good idea to "draft" a strategy and use it everytime. u'll either end up blinding applying it and loose to good kingdoms, or end up needing to change it anyway due to enemy response.

in other words, your strategy will ALWAYS depend on what who ur enemy is and what they do.

[forum name]

Okay, so it's important to remember that we're speaking from the standpoint of a mid-level warring kingdom then, avoiding any elitist generalizations that are only pertinent to high-level warring kingdoms. (Sure hope the uber war mongers can tone themselves down for this one.)

Pre-war wave strategy is relatively simple and cookie-cutter for everyone.

1) Massacres on Mystics are always effective, but so are Massacres on Elf non-Mystics. You're taking a semi-magic-based province with only a moderate WPA, and turning them into a semi-magic-based province with a poor WPA. Turning a high WPA into an average WPA is one thing, but turning an average WPA into a poor WPA opens up more options once war begins.

2) Massacres on thievery-based provinces pre-war are pointless. Any lost thieves get trained back in 14 hours, and most smart thieving players don't unload in the first 18 or so hours; they wait until the war bonuses are near fully kicked in. Useful thieving without war bonuses is penalized too much.

3) Against kingdoms with low thievery or magic potential, it still doesn't hurt to soften up average TPA/WPA provinces and turn them into poor TPA/WPA provinces. They won't be able to recover as fast, especially their WPA, and since you're an average warring kingdom, every little advantage helps.

***

Once war begins, it depends on whether or not you've actually settled on terms with the enemy monarch. I'll go with a short war for now, since an average warring kingdom tends to lean towards those.

1) A short war with acres as the determining factor means you go for instant damage and big gains. You don't waste time chaining targets because you don't have that kind of time to spare. An average warring kingdom doesn't have the hyperactivity to effectively chain enough in 48 hours anyways, and you're just costing yourself acres that are going towards your bottom line at the end of the war.

2) I never NS high defense. You know what high defense provinces usually can't do? Take much of your land. Always NS high offense. Offense wins wars. Find the provinces with unsettling offensive numbers and get to work on them with your NS. Let the turtles hide in their shells. They're not doing enough harm to you to warrant your NS attention. It's those angry guys with the big guns you have to worry about taking down fast.

3) Magic in short wars is simple. You don't bother Fireballing single targets because that's not going to help your acre gains. It's going to screw up a province over the long term and create either a useless province or a resource blackhole for the enemy kingdom, but not until at least 24-36 hours into the war (as an average warring kingdom). Single-target damage with magic is ineffective in short wars. Stick to keeping Meteors across as much of the kingdom as possible, have Elves keep the Pitfalls flowing, let Dark Elves use Nightmares to soften up targets for individual big hits, and maybe play with Expose Thieves if you're having trouble with pesky Gnomes doing a number on you. The rest is gravy and flexible I suppose.

***

Long wars are much more complicated, obviously... maybe if I'm awake and interested in a little while, I'll offer some thoughts...

[Lestat]

I'm thinking more geared to war that would have no terms. Whats the best way to get the job done long term?

[forum name]

In short - make the enemy not want to fight on.

In some detail,

1) Overall acre gains don't impress enemy kingdoms in long wars. Sure, you may be ahead on acre gains, but who says you're in good shape everywhere else? Long wars are all about networth. You need to damage the enemy in places other than their overall land. Places like province stability and effectiveness.

2) Chaining enemies is not always easy, but always worth it when done right. Set a target acre amount for your chain target, and don't abandon the chain until you've gotten them near or at that number. Making an enemy very small may not seem like you're taking them out of the fight, because you're really not. What you're doing is making them small enough that they can't effect the majority of your kingdom and their gains on provinces they CAN break from their new size are too small to matter.

3) T/M provinces like to think they're above the war because they rarely lose land in most standard wars. Don't let them off the hook, because they're content to whore honor and coast through the war as much as they can. Ways to keep T/M provinces feeling the war are as follows, but not limited to;

- Find a magic-based province with an inadequate TPA and go after their wizards with AW. Smart players protect their wizards at all costs, but you're bound to find a weak link here and there.
- Gnomes are especially succeptable to heavy Fireballing followed by Storms, Greed and Riots to keep them pinned. You force them to use more of their stealth to keep their province functional, and that means less pain from the big gun ops like NS, AW and Prop.
- If you're comfortable straying from the land grind, you can even do Massacre attacks in war. This requires that your kingdom be in a strong enough position size-wise, because straying from land grabs for even a day can give the enemy time to catch up or get ahead, and thus maybe help them feel like they've got leverage. It's usually false leverage, but in long wars, much of the outcome is determined by psychology and breaking the spirit of the enemy. If their spirit is strengthened by anything, it makes it that much harder to convince them to withdraw.

***

Specifics vary from war to war, but the basic idea in a long war is to go after the players more than the provinces. Any player can trade acres until the sun goes down, but once you go after the stability and effectiveness of their province, then you're going after their will to keep fighting. Erode that and you're well on your way to having the leverage needed to demand their withdrawl from the war.

[waheed]

it doesnt matter if its top war or mid-level war. the only difference is mid-level kingdoms will throw a lot simpler strategies at u, hence a lot easier to counter.

massacre should never be used in hostile. the damage is WAY too weak (a trad march will take out more peasants than a massacre, and the tiny amount of thieves/mages killed is not worth wasting a unique)

identify ur enemy's t/m. if they are skilled players they need to be LAND chained down as early as possible. (the "do not hit t/m it only makes them stronger" quote is a myth. its only true if u wack noob t/ms with low wpa/tpa, then u'll turn them temporarily into decent t/m. but a good t/m will start with enough wpa/tpa)

if ur kd is higher level u can play around with massacres in certain situations or chain people, but for mid-range kingdoms the best strategy is just to max gain while organize mage/op targets with ur hybrids and t/m. its far easier to coordinate and far more effective. a lot of kds (almost all kds i would say) try to be fancy and end up doing something thats less effective than good old fashion max gain.

anyway to sum it up, if ur kingdom is not a top kingdom, then just max gain all the way (my definition is max gain is to hit as much land as possible + hit as high up as possible. basically make sure nobody will grow out of ur range. also if two targets of same size, one kept 40dpa, another kept 60dpa and u can hit both safely, then u should always go for the 60dpa)


PS: unless ur war lasts less than 12 hours, u should ALWAYS fireball the highest income provinces

[VT2]

First rule of all successful kings and queens is to not share their secrets.

[insane33]

Hehe both forum name and waheed posted some interesting stuff.

[Zauper]

War is about winning.

Look at your kds strengths and weaknesses, then your opponents. Optimize your strengths by exploiting their weaknesses. Try to protect your own weaknesses.

Win. ;)

Both waheed and forum name have thoughts that are circumstantial at best. No one can tell you what to do without knowing your circumstances.

[Toadi]

Zauper is correct on his last comment. There is no universal game winning strategy, and trying to find an optimal strategy to apply in every war can not be successful. Instead of looking for a global strategy, you would need to adapt yourself to the situations. Adaptability and reactivity are very important in war. You need to identify your opponent's strength and weaknesses, and to understand their strategy in order to find a counter plan. For that you would need to know their provinces sizes, races, personalities, offense/defense/magic/thievery values, and also gather surveys and sometimes science information, and then match these numbers with your own kingdom numbers. Without all that, you cannot determine an optimal warring strategy.

[shank]

Good advice around here.

[vines]

Bottom line is a good king is able to adjust.

[Lestat]

I understand that you need to adapt to different situations, but thats not really what I'm asking.

Sure there are different thing you need to do in certain situations, but what stops what? Also what OPs and attacks go together in different circumstances? The Continuity of your strat is surely important as you don't want to be doing one thing that combined with another cancels the effects?

[_greenie]

DONT DO: (and feel free to correct me if im wrong)
FB/kidnap + chain (common mistake!)
MV on someone you just MS'ed (happens a bit!)
try and chain someone over a period >4 hours =)
massive kidnap run just before you are about to attack, and overpop yourself
(am guilty of that one in earlier days!)
Spells/ops AFTER you hit someone...

DO
NM before NS before a chain
AW before LL

erm... thats all i can think of atm =)