Information provided by other members from other alliances.
1. BASIC DEFENSE
First point of a good defense. Don't be an easy target.
City defenses will make people think twice about attacking you.
Field Defenses: Traps are good against Foot Troops. (Militia, Pikemen, Swordsmen, and Archers) Spiked Barriers are good against Horse Troops. (Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry and Wagons) Caltrops are for slowing down troops so that you're Wall Defenses are more effective against them.
Wall Defenses: Crossbows are the main defense of the castle. Trebuchets are only effective against siege weapons (Ballista, Battering Rams, and Catapults) and ignore all other troops. Unless these weapons are identified as being used, Trebuchets are basically useless and take up valuable wall space.
Second, protect your resources.
Your Storehouse is the best defense for protecting your resources after they get into your city. The sooner it is up to level 9 the better, but do not forget that there are other things that help you gain might. The storehouse protects 100,000 of each resource except for gold per level. Shrinking Powder researched in your Alchemy Lab increases the capacity of the Storehouse by 10% per level. Thus a level 6 Storehouse with level 5 Shrinking powder would protect 900,000 of each resource (600,000 + (600,000x.50) = 900,000). When maxed out (level 10 Storehouse and level 10 Shrinking Powder) you can protect 2 million of all resources.
Gold cannot be protected, so do not keep anymore than you need. Use your Tax Rate in your castle to keep your income as low as possible. If you need gold for a research, you can Raise Gold from your castle. This will get you 1 gold per castle level for each member of your population.
The last way to protect your resources is not to have them in your city. Move them around to other members of the alliance that are active when you are done for the day or are under attack. Also you can ride them in your wilds. Just fill up your wagons and reinforce a wild with them. If the wild gets attacked and the forces there destroyed, the resources will return to your city.
Another defensive maneuver is to leave your stones in your cities and make sure you have lots of stones that will be greater in numbers than the other resources that may stay in your city. The design of the game on an attack is to take the largest volume of resources by percentage in an attack. So if you have millions of stones in your city, the attacker will get them first. Stones are not what they want, so it is a reward for attacking your city, it is only fitting to give them stones. Good for you, NOT good for them.
Lastly, your troops are the true source of your might. Without them, you are nothing more than a farm waiting for the farmer. Protect them when you are not there. (Set to Sanctuary in your castle) If you have an incoming attack, make sure that you can completely destroy the attacking force before defending against them. In order to help identify if you can defend against an attacker, you will need to increase you watch tower to level 8. At this level the tower will give you an accurate troop count of the attacker's forces. Remember, it is easier to have the Alliance take down a farmer than it is for one individual.
To protect yourself from being scouted with an incoming scout of 1, you should reinforce your own cities with scouts. What you do is train about 1000 scouts in a city and then reinforce those scouts in your other city. (example.. you have 2 cities, City A,and B. You train scouts in City A and then reinforce in City B. You train Scouts in City B and then reinforce in City A.) This will prevent the noisey players from peeking in your front yard. If they are seriously going to attack, they will bring in 10's of thousands.
2. ADVANCED DEFENSES
As many have realized, basic defenses are only so good. There is always someone else with more, stronger troops. There are a few ways to defend against the Heavy Farmer or Multiple Attacks that can be sent during times of war. All troops in your city MUST be set to defend if this to work.
First, being able to house several of the alliance’s armies in your city: Your Embassy can accept as many armies as it has levels. The size of that army is not important. Even if your Rally Point is at level 5, someone reinforcing you can send in as many troops in their army as they can send in a march (I.E. 90,000 troops is the normal max for marches. Level 10 Rally Point will allow up to 100,000, and with a Aura of Command, up to 125,000 troops can be sent in a single march). The only drawback to this is that you have to feed them.
Second, keep all of your troops in a single city: This can be tricky considering that all food for these troops must also be there. By keeping all your troops in one city as well as centering your resources there except as needed for construction in your other cities will limit any damage that you can receive by allowing you to move everything at once to defend another city or to just remove them before an attack hits. There is also a tactical advantage to this as you can “Fly” your city to any target in the realm, Attack, and return with little or no warning to your target. (This is only effective if you have Portals of Order to spare for it.)
Third, using troops in defense: Most people use Archers as their main attack force. There are several units which are effective against them. Heavy Cavalry (HC) can defeat archers at a rate of 7.5 archers to 1 HC if matched to that ratio or better. Ballista are double-powered crossbows which, unfortunately, take less damage to destroy. Catapults, unlike trebuchets, attack all enemy forces. All of these are also effective against the army of Heavy Cavalry that may appear. Remember, all troops in your city must be set to defend for this to work.
With the introduction of more cities and higher levels for strength and resource production, it's a good idea to train lots of ballista and lots of pikemen. Attackers can now send up to 225k troops per wave if they have a level 11 rally point and an aura of conquest.
Lastly, ALWAYS REMOVE SCOUTS AND HORSES FROM CITIES THAT ARE BEING ATTACKED, because they move so fast, scouts and horses are the first to die. Horses take a long time to retrain so remove them and Scouts are useless in battle except against other scouts. If a scout army is headed your way (10,000 scouts or more), have a member of the alliance reinforce your scouts with theirs. If the scouts are destroyed, they cannot report what you have.
IF you cannot defend effectively against an attack, don’t. It costs more time and might to replace troops than it does the resources to replace them. You want the aggressor to spend the time and resources to replace their forces and might before you do.
3. DEFENDING THE ALLIANCE
If you are online and see an Incoming Attack notice in the upper left corner of your KoC sub-screen, IMMEDIATELY identify what kind of attack it is. A scout can only be defended by scouts. An actual attack needs further support. Next, come to Alliance Chat and notify someone then notify any of the officers (This includes the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, and all officers) that you are under attack via FB Chat if they were not all ready in chat. Include the Time until Attack (Available on the KoC sub-screen), this will let everyone know how long we have to get there; and your embassy level, this will let everyone know how many armies your city can hold. With enough warning and forces available, we should be able to make it so that the larger alliance will not be as eager to farm us.
As we gain in strength, we will soon be able to retaliate directly on these predatory people. Until that time, your embassy and your rally point are essential to your alliance’s defense.
Once you are able to have on hand, at least, 50k archers, you will be expected to assist your neighbor alliance members for immediate attacks (Short term reinforcement). Part of being able to do this will require upgrading your Relief Station and Magical Mapping. These will shorten the time it takes to get between allied cities. At level 9, the Relief Station increases the speed of your troops by 5.5 times their original speed between allies (Archers with a normal speed of 250 would increase to 1375). With Magical Mapping also at level 9, the time will even be greatly more reduced (Magically Mapping is calculated into the time in the Rally Point so is not noticed as readily, but again archers would increase from 250 to 475. With the Relief Station at level 9, they would move at 2612 which is as fast as scouts on a normal scout mission with level 3 Magical Mapping).
4. ATTACKING CITIES
There are several reasons to attack a city. First and foremost is in defending the alliance.
Second, is to get resources to help build your city.
When attacking a city, the first thing you need to do is be sure you are looking at the right target. If you attack someone that is neutral and part of a larger alliance, you could bring down the wrath of that alliance upon yourself and possibly the whole alliance. Also it is very important you do not attack an ally; so ensure you check our friendly list first.
After you are sure that you have the right target city, you will need to scout it. Easily done from the map. Click on the city and then scout. This will bring up the March Sheet. Larger cities may have their troops set to defend, in which case, you will need to send enough scouts to overpower theirs before even thinking about attacking with regular troops. Once you have a full scouting report (lists resources, troops and defenses), you will be able to set an attack. For larger targets I send in at least 30k scouts.
*Attack in multiple stages:
Take out field defenses first:
Traps, Spiked Barriers, and Caltrops are there to cost you troops, and they will. The point is to choose which troops they will take. Militia and Cavalry are the most effective for this.
Militia will take out Caltrops and Traps on a 1 for 1 basis unless there are crossbows on the walls. In which case, you will have to add as many extra troops as half the number of crossbows for the number of Caltrops/Traps present.
Spiked Barriers are for Horse Mounted troops (Cavalry, Heavy Calvary, and Wagons). If you are not using any of these or just wagons, you can ignore these and just send a scout with the main attack to assist the wagons. If you are using Heavy Cavalry, send in as many Cavalry as there are Spiked Barriers plus 50% for crossbows.
The main attack must be able to breach the walls. Between the Scout attack and the Field Defense clearing attack, you will know if the target is defending. Crossbows are always set to defend. The troops, however, are at the disposal of the city's owner.
There are three numbers to remember when taking on Crossbows, 9, 5 and 3. You will need 9 Militia, 5 Archers or 3 Heavy Cavalry to take down each Crossbow. If you do not have enough of these to do the job, DO NOT ATTACK. Any less than these amounts will cause the loss of all the troops sent and not clear all the crossbows. Be sure that if you are using a mixed troop attack that the fastest troops can take out the Crossbows as these need to be cleared before engaging any defending troops.
Speeds are set as follows:
Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, Archers, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Militia. Battering Rams and Catapults can also be used to take out field and wall defenses.
Ballista are the same as 9 Archers, but ALL siege engines really slow down the marches.
After clearing the walls, the target's troops are engaged if they are set to defend. Any remaining attacks will fight them at normal combat. If the target's defenses are massive, a fourth attack may be necessary to take out defending troops. If there are a large number of them, it may be best to wait until a more opportune time to attack (Like when they are off-line).
Once all defenses and troops are cleared, return repeatedly (Especially during times of war) to keep the resources low in the city.
*Attack as part of a group as often as possible:
In times of war or when retaliating for a farming attack on an alliance member, it is best to have multiple attackers on each city. That way, the losses to the attackers can be split among them as should the spoils of the attack.
This is also helpful in creating new farms that are close to multiple alliance members.
IN THE CASE OF RETALIATION, a portion of all spoils should be returned to the farmed member.
Also, in times of war, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, the target's wilds should be attacked and released to slow down their ability to replace any defenses and troops that they have lost during any attacks on their cities. This should be done AFTER their city/s has/have been ransacked of all resources. You must have a place open in your castle’s wild list in order to conquer any wild. After conquering an enemy’s wild, simply abandon it. This will make it so that the target city/s must regain them in order to proceed any further than any troops that they had set previous to the attack.
*Make the best use of all attacks:
It is always best, in times of war, to attack the lower-upper to mid-range opponents first (leave the upper 3-6 members of an alliance to send their troops out to defend their lower members) as they will have lower wall defenses/troop counts. Position is also crucial. Those targets away from their alliance are easier to dispose of. Use them as distractionary targets for attacks on centrally located ones. If troops are dispatched to defend outlaying targets, there are fewer for central targets.
5. TROOPS AND WHAT THEY ARE GOOD AGAINST
SUPPLY TROOPS carry goods and that's it.
MILITIA are good for removing traps,caltrops and vs scouts; poor vs all else.
Militias are slow and very much unorganized. They are best used to take out caltrops and crossbows in combination with archers. If you attack a city without crossbows but caltrops, send in militia to clear them.
Militia will remove all the caltrops without taking loses, unless the defending army is defending. If they are defending then the militia will take out the caltrops and get killed by the defending army. In this case it is better to just send your militia with your main force, then you can take out the caltrops and save your militia from getting completely wiped out. But it is always good to remove the caltrops, just so the defender has to pay the price to replace them.
SCOUTS good vs traps;poor vs all except other scouts
Scout themselves are not good in hand to hand combat, unless they are fighting other scouts. But scouts play a key role in taking out defenses. When you get a scouting report on a city with a large amount of traps, the best tactic is to send scouts on an attack run. Scouts are fast so they can get in under the crossbows and take out traps. Scouts take out traps at one for one rate. 100 scouts will take out 100 traps, regardless of the amount or presence of other city defenses. If you attack a player that has city troops on "Defend" you will lose the scouts, if the defender is in "Sanctuary" all traps will be removed 1 for 1. (Assuming you send enough). They are of course more expensive than Militia. So, if the city has Xbows send scouts, if the city has no Xbows send militia.
PIKEMEN good vs cavalry; poor vs all else.
Pike are good for defensive purposes, but if you are attacking a large cav force with archers then you need pike. The pike will reduce your lose of archer.
SWORDSMEN good vs all infantry; poor vs archers and Cavalry.
Sword is the best balance of attack and defense. Swords are good against pike, militia, scouts and archers. But they must be supported by a large number of archers to be most effective.
ARCHERS good vs all except Calvary.
Archers are the best all purpose attack/defense force. Archers on defensive have further attack range then on offense. So if you sent just 100 archers against 100 archers, the ones on defense will always win.
CALVARY (normal and heavy) good vs all except pikemen
Light/Heavy Cav are very expensive and are purely offensive. But they have to be used right in order to get any measure of success. Cav are very effective against archers. So if you find yourself up against larger numbers of archers, you send your archers with cav. Your bowmen will engage the enemy at range, and will draw the enemy fire. The cav will close the range quickly and start taking out the enemy archers at a fast rate. This is a very
risky plan of attack. You have to get the numbers right to win, but you should always expect a large amount of loses. Calvary will take out spikes to clear the way for supply wagons and siege weapons.
WAGONS poor vs all
Wagons will take out spikes, but they will take loses in doing so. If you send 100 wagons against 100 spike you will lose half your wagons, but take out all the spikes. Where as a wave of cav would be more effective. If you attack a city and clear out all the other defenses and defending army, and leave spikes in place; you can send a wave of wagons to take out spikes, without taking loses.
For example all other defenses are gone; you send 50 wagons against 100 spikes. You will take out 50 spikes and your wagons will be turned back. You will not lose any wagons but they will not get into the city. If you take out all defenses and send 101 wagons against 100 spikes you will win the battle remove all the spikes lose no wagons and they will get into the city.
BATTERING RAM good vs cities and Barb camps; poor vs all else
Rams will take out spikes, 2 to 1, but will take losses if crossbows are being used. Rams will also take caltrops without taking damage. 100 rams will take out 1K caltrops without a problem if there are no crossbows. Rams are not good against traps. Never use rams to take out traps, the use of scouts is the best method to eliminate traps.
BALLISTA Good vs ranged attacks (other ballista and archers); poor vs massed infantry/cavalry attacks.
Balls are good against archers and cross bow; they will engage defenders before defenders can engage them. Ballista by themselves are useless. You have to support them with troops; they are best used with archers in taking out crossbows and enemy archers. They are very vulnerable to cav.
CATAPAULTS excellent vs wall mounted crossbows; poor vs all else
Catapaults by themselves are useless. You have to support them with troops; they are best used with archers in taking out cross bows. They are very vulnerable to cav.