The Basics!
You've just come out of protection. You've got a sturdy little warband. Your army is getting restless. You feel the need to prove your worth and strut your stuff.
To impress everyone, you'll need to grow; to grow, you'll need land. You could get it from scouting, but by attacking, you can get a lot more while using fewer turns. Besides, attacking is a lot more fun!
Wait! Before you go out and start attacking, remember that, as a general rule, the larger the warband, the larger the army. A larger warband will also tend to retaliate; sometimes brutally. A good idea is to be careful while attacking. Don't attack one person too much - they'll get peeved.
There is no "magic number" of troops that will be able to succeed in an attack. It depends on quite a few factors; most especially turn speed and the age of the round. If the current round is halfway though, don't expect easy fights. It's best to be there for the start; many players will be weak in at least one troop type.
How Many Times?
You know to expect some retaliation, and you're "cool" with that. You've also trained an army that you feel can win. Now, how many times should you attack someone? Under normal conditions, any warband can have 21 attacks on them by all enemies combined. After that, a warband is "maxed" and can't be attacked until some time passes. Every hour, 1 attack is subtracted from their maximum total. Every time they attack another warband, they "lose" two attacks from their maximum. Before you go out and attack someone 21 times, remember that 21 is a maximum, not the only amount. Most warbands don't like getting attacked 21 times. Attacking online is also a bad idea. It is considered very rude and will tend to evoke a strong, perhaps even emotional, response.
If you attack someone too much for their own liking, you will face retaliation for more than just your enemy's lost land. They will likely try to do some serious damage, which could end up with irrecoverable damage or perhaps even the destruction of your warband. The acceptable number of attacks varies between servers. 5–6 is always a safe bet, but on many games/servers more will be tolerated. A good idea is to watch how many attacks others make on a warband and adjust your strategy accordingly. You can also ask one of the stronger players in the game or post a topic on the forums. Plenty of friendly forum-goers will be willing to answer questions; all you need to do is ask.
But Who?
Who should you attack? It's best to take the most possible land per turn used attacking. This generally means the person with the most land that has a similar Networth to you. If you haven't covered Networth, a short summary is provided here:
- Networth is a measurement of a warband's total power. It is the combined value of the army's troops, resources, and land. Generally, the more networth, the stronger the warband.</li>
Medic!
Before we continue into each type of attack, we'll need to talk about the concept of Health. When you start out, your Health is at 100%. When you attack, that number will decrease by 6%. As your health gets lower, your attacking power will weaken. Once you get down to 20% health, you can't attack until you bring your health back up.
You can do this in one of three ways. When you use turns, your health increases by 1% every turn. When you spend turns "Healing" (Click Heal on the Sidebar under "Use Turns"), you get a 2% increase in health per turn. When you use the hawk mission "Heal" (On the "Hawks" page), you will get 10% health for the two turns hawk missions require.
Charge!!!
Finally, you'll need to know what kind of attack to use.
First off, we suggest you read the Troops section of the game guide before continuing. This will give you a basic overview of your troops, which will help you quite a bit in understanding this section.
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. It is, however, effective against people with large amounts of guard towers since it pits all your troops against the enemy. It is also a good attack to use against someone who amasses only one type of troop. You won't be able to break them in the specialized attack that uses their favoured troop type, but with a Standard Attack you can break their defences and cause major losses in their massed troop.
On the Conquest Of Generals server, you must Standard Attack any warband under 500 acres.
Surprise Attack:
This sends all four troop types like the standard attack, but grants an 18% attack bonus, costs a 25% health penalty, and causes 50% more troop losses. It also prevents troops shared in mutual clan defence from helping your enemy. This attack is generally not worth the penalties, although it may be useful for going up against a member of a strong clan that is sharing forces. However, in normal situations it simply isn't worth the costs, which are so severe that once you've launched two or three, you need a bunch of turns to recover. Only use this attack if you are fairly sure you will succeed and know you will get considerable amounts of land from it.
Guerilla Strike:
This attack uses only Mice for both offence and defence. This is a good attack to use if you have at least a decent amount of mice. Mice are cheap, and can be easily bought or produced. They have a 2:2 attack:defence ratio, so you will need slightly more mice then your opponent to win (A defender has a 5% bonus).
Aerial Attack:
This attack uses only Squirrels. Squirrels have a ratio of 3:5 (attack:defence), so you need quite a few more than your enemy to succeed. However, because of the low attack power of squirrels, some people have only a very small number of Squirrels. With a modest number of Squirrels may win quite a few battles if you pick your targets carefully.
Frontal Assault:
A frontal assault uses Hares. Hares have a 5:4 ratio (attack:defence), so they have an offensive advantage. If you have more Hares then your opponent you will usually succeed. Hares are the most effective troop in the entire game; easy to acquire, and quite strong. However, everyone else knows this as well; you may encounter many armies that are too powerful for you to break their defences.
Naval Battle:
Otters, like Hares, are better on offence then defence. With a 7:6 attack:defence ratio, you should use it if you have slightly more Otters then your opponent. Otters are more expensive and harder to get than Hares, but not too many people have large armies of them. Essentially, they are powerful because few people use large quantities of them.
Espionage:
Espionage is a powerful Hawk mission that will tell you what troops your enemy has. This is covered in the Hawks section of the New Player Guide.
Wrapping Up...
Overall, it is best to amass a single troop type then attempt to use all of them at the same time. This way you will be able to break the defence of at least one warband at any time.
Since Mice and Squirrels can be replaced quickly, either produced by barracks or bought as mercenaries, they have an advantage over Hares and Otters early on. For that reason, they 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 a better troop to switch to. Hares and Otters are lost slower than Mice and Squirrels; you can go further with less.
Of course, you'll want some troops other then your amassed type, so you can defend yourself from the attacks of others. During the turns you spend after your attacking, you might want to try and produce equal amounts of all four troops. Play around with training % boxes in the Manage page to get the desired results. Being able to get land is most important; being able to keep it is always good. Keep that in mind.
As a general rule, attack with a Guerilla Strike, Aerial Attack, Frontal Assault, or Naval Battle, depending on what troop(s) you are strong in. If you fail, try with a different troop type. Standard Attacks should only be attempted when you are truly more powerful than your opponent.
Just remember, never give up!
For King And Country! Conquer And Pillage! Dance With Death!
You now possess the skills to engage in fierce battle Go forth and conquer, young champion!
(Article by Ruddertail; edited by Devari)
