~ Beerfest: Age 75 Virtual Kingdom ~

[StratOcastle]

Wave Derailment

Fact is activity is critical in Utopia in the competitive arena. I've been very active so I can attest to the differences that win wars before they begin. Many midlevel t/ms don't have the activity necessary to defend kingdom interests so we see them rendered nearly useless early in conflict by active competitive kingdoms. This is simply a condition of real life. We can't blame someone for running a turtle to continue playing Utopia.

What can we do? This applies to active players or players that are active during critical moments.

Let's start with Dwarves and Mystic Aura. Dwarves can spam Mystic Aura to block ops. In itself this isn't so spectacular, but we can transform this moment into a rally point. The dwarf will probably go down anyways, but we can make it costly.

The next and commonly used tactic is Soldier Ball. Soldier Ball can take on a pamphlet worth of forms and the utility has been nerfed ages on end. When bocan were halflings and halflings had 2 point soldiers some kingdoms mastered the tactics to an art. BeastBlood used a Soldier Ball to reap such magnificent rewards that certain mechanics were changed in Utopia to blunt the tactics further.
Still, there is the benefit of bouncing attacks and augmenting offense where no other option would suffice. Against waves based in the stealth efficient practice of taking a single SoM, Soldier Ball can rear its ugly head.

Soldiers can come from anywhere; just remember orcs draft free. Avians are fast and have the Aggression spell, so we can see some basic formulas for attack purposes. Soldiers can be bunched into a single kingdom ball or you can have a number of them moving from place to place. The instantaneous nature of aid allows us to explore the possibilities. Don't forget to evolve in war. When attackers are fat and offenses dwindle we can use these tactics for offensive and defensive purposes just as well. Practice and learn.

The last thing I'll mention is relay tapping where armies are in/out at progressive intervals. Controversy surrounding this practice is in the diluted total offense available at a time and the possibility of having armies hit at home. My philosophy on the later is if you want to hit my armies home you must do it rather than say it. The relay tapping province must be incredibly active and a nose for opportunity is a boon.

I've run relay taps at the highest levels against some of the best micro and it works. One of my journeys to the top was to experiment against kingdoms that were best able to combat the tactic. In the interest of derailing waves the relay taps are used to knock enemy wave alignment out of nw/acre max.

I've often found it odd that kingdoms who complain about having max offense bunched into a single tap also ignore t/ms more often than not. Relay taps are complimentary to bunched attacks in our kingdoms interest. It's about approaching your enemy with a complexity of offensive caveats rather than a known wave time. For simplicity sake consider relay tapping rover/hunter/killers and wave time crushers working together in spearhead and interference roles. I've run relay taps for ages. In my experience the benefits outweigh the negatives. If anything, I enjoy a few rounds vs the enemies intent on stopping the relay.