Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:22 pm
Mine Wars - How to be Sucessful
Mine Wars – How to be successful
Index
1. Introduction
2. Mine Wars prestige
2.1 Combat
2.2 Mine Occupancy ( lvl 5 )
3. Maintaining an Army
3.1 Units
3.2 Donating
3.3 Keeping watch
4. Keeping a mine
4.1 Combat
4.2 Tactics
5. Defending a mine/winning a defending battle
6. Attacking mines/winning an attacking battle
7. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Hello, welcome and thank you for taking the time to read this guide. Firstly a brief introduction into the purpose of this guide, this guide is aimed at a fully active alliance, competitive against others and interested in outsmarting the other alliances on the mines, minimising your own losses and winning any potential battles.
I do not advocate running other alliances off mines continually just because you can, although a valid part of the game this is as I’m sure most will agree one of the most annoying aspects of mine wars ( and ironically has more chance of making you lose pp than gain it ). I use a lot of real examples and experience, not to name and shame others but to add a real valid feel to this, and help you understand it has worked out very well for my alliance. I will focus only on lvl 5 mines as that is where most action is, and where I have been earning prestige in game for a very long time now.
I do skip a lot of the ‘obvious’ or previously well explained points of mine wars, this is really a user’s guide to being successful, enjoy ;
2. Mine Wars prestige
Many players still do not understand the prestige in mine wars, I know it’s been explained before many times, but for the purpose of completeness in this guide I will break it down.
2.1 Combat
The prestige earned in combat is 100th of that in normal battle.
e.g. In a normal battle on the map if you would kill 100 catapults without loss you would expect to gain 1,000 pp, in Mine Wars that would earn you 10 pp ( 1,000 / 100 )
2.2 Mine Occupancy
For occupying a lvl 5 mine you earn 680 pp an hour. ( please see other guide for effects of decay etc and other lvl mines ) This is by far the staple of any pp diet.
3. Maintaining an Army
Everyone needs an army, to attack others, defend, and intimidate.
3.1 Units
Anyone who has played alliance wars knows how important and at times difficult it is to maintain an army, first of all it is still not common knowledge that the only unit worth building are catapults. Nothing else matters at all, trust me, there are no speed advantages, cav cannot reach cats fast enough, inf are not used as blockers, you’re not going to get the first hit with archers, build only catapults, I can’t stress that enough. Anything else is just a waste of crop consumption and wasting further effort to keep alive.
3.2 Donating
This is the most laborious and frustrating part, but also the most rewarding, it separates the weak from the strong, that is not determined on the battle field, but within the warehouse and the contribution ranks. Which alliance can keep the largest army alive, or which six alliances can do so, they will be the ones holding lvl 5 mines.
Crop is obviously very important, but gold is even more important, and coins are also needed to speed build, but a smart alliance following this guide will not need many coins, just crops and gold.
The template is simple, you need to keep your army from starving from a combination of donating crops and buying crops ( vice only ) as often as is necessary, participating from as many members as possible makes this task easier on others.
Running motivation competitions and such like are often needed to take some of the mundane feel out of donating and give members a reason to donate. A lvl 5 honor medal really does not cut it as enough motivation on its own.
3.3 Keeping watch
You will need at least one vice/leader online almost certainly around the clock to keep an eye for incoming attacks and to buy crop when needed.
4. Keeping a mine
By far the most important to raise in ranks and gain pp is to maintain occupancy of a mine, as boring as it is, in an ideal situation you would never leave the mine other than to refresh it when decays, battles are almost pointless, the only reason for battle being an alliance without a mine trying to get one. Chasing other alliances off mines is a fool’s gold, I have never seen an aggressive alliance prosper, and I have seen a few of them. More details in parts 5 & 6 of this guide.
4.1 Combat
Every battle should just be cats vs cats, any other units are just pp fodder and unnecessary. All I can add to this is that you need to allow your cats to roll forward and do nothing, if defending you will hit first, never, but never hold your cats as defender or you give up your right to hit first. Believe it or not I have had it done twice vs me, I was the attacker and the defender held his cats to allow me to hit first.
4.2 Tactics
Not a lot here in relation to the actual battle, as the whole combat experience is very basic. All I can suggest is never keep all your cats in your mine, leave your opponents with something to guess at. Mind games and guessing what an opponent has in total army is the vast part of this.
Use the 1/3 rule when attacking, you can only attack an opponent’s mine with > 1/3 their army so test before you attack.
e.g. try attack with 100k cats, if it does not allow you it means they have >300k cats in the mine, now try 110k cats, if it allows you to attack it means your opponent has >300k cats, but <=330k cats. Recall your attack and send the amount you know will win the battle.
5. Defending a mine/winning a defending battle
You will get attacked from time to time, if your attacker is smart they will have used the 1/3 rule I explained earlier. There is no reason to ever defend your mine from an incoming attack unless you are very certain what they are sending and that you will win. If you have any doubts at all always recall your troops just before impact and look at what they sent, I recommending recalling several times as also if your attacker is smart they will not show you their full army either, instead just sending what they think is enough.
Now here is the key to catching and defending the attack, after you have seen your opponent’s army numbers several times and know you have more than them, take a mine and keep dispatching and recalling a certain number of troops, say 30% of your army to make it believable. Therefore when they ‘test’ your mine numbers they will think they have more than you do and not know about your troops in dispatch, your troops will arrive before their attack hits and if your calculations are correct you will win. It has worked a treat for us on two separate occasions ( see battle reports 1 & 2 attached ) we had more army that our opponents for several attacks, but kept avoiding them when they attacked setting up the perfect trap.
6. Attacking mines/winning an attacking battle
Again, use what I described above in point 5. Never attack without ‘testing’ your opponents mine, and never attack in quick succession to avoid being caught in the dispatch trick. Attack at random times, and do not show all your army if possible, leave some extra for performing a successful defence.
Your only real shot at catching an army would be if the opposing alliance has no vice on at all to recall their troops, it’s possible, but should be very unlikely. Also a smart alliance will not have all their troops in the mine anyway. See attached report number 3 for a successful attack we did, this was just a revenge attack for being harassed for weeks by a certain alliance, I would not recommend attacking other alliances unless you’re just trying to gain entry to a mine. The problems with the mine wars prestige system is that 99% of your pp will be made up of occupying a mine, battle gives very little reward, you run the risk of losing, and also even in winning you will lose troops that you paid/donated hard for, often alliances that are successful in a battle will be left too weak to occupy/defend a mine for a few days, losing 10 times the pp they gained in battle at least. It’s unfortunate that the mine wars are set up this way, but that’s just how it is.
7. Conclusion
I wrote this guide in haste, took all of 30 mins in total, apologies for any typos or small mistakes, please point any out and I will be happy to amend. I will add to it as and when I have the time as there are more points to discuss.
This is how we have played the mines on our server ( s103 & s118 ) and have never lost a battle, defended every alliance that has attacked us eventually and slowly pulled further ahead in the ranks as others waste time and pp attacking each other for no reason other than to just hit their armies.
There has been some other issues on our server that caused problems, but it’s not to be discussed here, we are now about 600k ahead in pp of any other alliance, not because of our brilliance as much as capitalising on others mistakes, the whole mine wars ironically is about having very few wars in my opinion, a review of it by Haypi would be very welcome to actually encourage the need to fight each other.
Good luck, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments.
GeorgeAgd ( Loyalty_103 Alliance, S118 )
Index
1. Introduction
2. Mine Wars prestige
2.1 Combat
2.2 Mine Occupancy ( lvl 5 )
3. Maintaining an Army
3.1 Units
3.2 Donating
3.3 Keeping watch
4. Keeping a mine
4.1 Combat
4.2 Tactics
5. Defending a mine/winning a defending battle
6. Attacking mines/winning an attacking battle
7. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Hello, welcome and thank you for taking the time to read this guide. Firstly a brief introduction into the purpose of this guide, this guide is aimed at a fully active alliance, competitive against others and interested in outsmarting the other alliances on the mines, minimising your own losses and winning any potential battles.
I do not advocate running other alliances off mines continually just because you can, although a valid part of the game this is as I’m sure most will agree one of the most annoying aspects of mine wars ( and ironically has more chance of making you lose pp than gain it ). I use a lot of real examples and experience, not to name and shame others but to add a real valid feel to this, and help you understand it has worked out very well for my alliance. I will focus only on lvl 5 mines as that is where most action is, and where I have been earning prestige in game for a very long time now.
I do skip a lot of the ‘obvious’ or previously well explained points of mine wars, this is really a user’s guide to being successful, enjoy ;
2. Mine Wars prestige
Many players still do not understand the prestige in mine wars, I know it’s been explained before many times, but for the purpose of completeness in this guide I will break it down.
2.1 Combat
The prestige earned in combat is 100th of that in normal battle.
e.g. In a normal battle on the map if you would kill 100 catapults without loss you would expect to gain 1,000 pp, in Mine Wars that would earn you 10 pp ( 1,000 / 100 )
2.2 Mine Occupancy
For occupying a lvl 5 mine you earn 680 pp an hour. ( please see other guide for effects of decay etc and other lvl mines ) This is by far the staple of any pp diet.
3. Maintaining an Army
Everyone needs an army, to attack others, defend, and intimidate.
3.1 Units
Anyone who has played alliance wars knows how important and at times difficult it is to maintain an army, first of all it is still not common knowledge that the only unit worth building are catapults. Nothing else matters at all, trust me, there are no speed advantages, cav cannot reach cats fast enough, inf are not used as blockers, you’re not going to get the first hit with archers, build only catapults, I can’t stress that enough. Anything else is just a waste of crop consumption and wasting further effort to keep alive.
3.2 Donating
This is the most laborious and frustrating part, but also the most rewarding, it separates the weak from the strong, that is not determined on the battle field, but within the warehouse and the contribution ranks. Which alliance can keep the largest army alive, or which six alliances can do so, they will be the ones holding lvl 5 mines.
Crop is obviously very important, but gold is even more important, and coins are also needed to speed build, but a smart alliance following this guide will not need many coins, just crops and gold.
The template is simple, you need to keep your army from starving from a combination of donating crops and buying crops ( vice only ) as often as is necessary, participating from as many members as possible makes this task easier on others.
Running motivation competitions and such like are often needed to take some of the mundane feel out of donating and give members a reason to donate. A lvl 5 honor medal really does not cut it as enough motivation on its own.
3.3 Keeping watch
You will need at least one vice/leader online almost certainly around the clock to keep an eye for incoming attacks and to buy crop when needed.
4. Keeping a mine
By far the most important to raise in ranks and gain pp is to maintain occupancy of a mine, as boring as it is, in an ideal situation you would never leave the mine other than to refresh it when decays, battles are almost pointless, the only reason for battle being an alliance without a mine trying to get one. Chasing other alliances off mines is a fool’s gold, I have never seen an aggressive alliance prosper, and I have seen a few of them. More details in parts 5 & 6 of this guide.
4.1 Combat
Every battle should just be cats vs cats, any other units are just pp fodder and unnecessary. All I can add to this is that you need to allow your cats to roll forward and do nothing, if defending you will hit first, never, but never hold your cats as defender or you give up your right to hit first. Believe it or not I have had it done twice vs me, I was the attacker and the defender held his cats to allow me to hit first.
4.2 Tactics
Not a lot here in relation to the actual battle, as the whole combat experience is very basic. All I can suggest is never keep all your cats in your mine, leave your opponents with something to guess at. Mind games and guessing what an opponent has in total army is the vast part of this.
Use the 1/3 rule when attacking, you can only attack an opponent’s mine with > 1/3 their army so test before you attack.
e.g. try attack with 100k cats, if it does not allow you it means they have >300k cats in the mine, now try 110k cats, if it allows you to attack it means your opponent has >300k cats, but <=330k cats. Recall your attack and send the amount you know will win the battle.
5. Defending a mine/winning a defending battle
You will get attacked from time to time, if your attacker is smart they will have used the 1/3 rule I explained earlier. There is no reason to ever defend your mine from an incoming attack unless you are very certain what they are sending and that you will win. If you have any doubts at all always recall your troops just before impact and look at what they sent, I recommending recalling several times as also if your attacker is smart they will not show you their full army either, instead just sending what they think is enough.
Now here is the key to catching and defending the attack, after you have seen your opponent’s army numbers several times and know you have more than them, take a mine and keep dispatching and recalling a certain number of troops, say 30% of your army to make it believable. Therefore when they ‘test’ your mine numbers they will think they have more than you do and not know about your troops in dispatch, your troops will arrive before their attack hits and if your calculations are correct you will win. It has worked a treat for us on two separate occasions ( see battle reports 1 & 2 attached ) we had more army that our opponents for several attacks, but kept avoiding them when they attacked setting up the perfect trap.
6. Attacking mines/winning an attacking battle
Again, use what I described above in point 5. Never attack without ‘testing’ your opponents mine, and never attack in quick succession to avoid being caught in the dispatch trick. Attack at random times, and do not show all your army if possible, leave some extra for performing a successful defence.
Your only real shot at catching an army would be if the opposing alliance has no vice on at all to recall their troops, it’s possible, but should be very unlikely. Also a smart alliance will not have all their troops in the mine anyway. See attached report number 3 for a successful attack we did, this was just a revenge attack for being harassed for weeks by a certain alliance, I would not recommend attacking other alliances unless you’re just trying to gain entry to a mine. The problems with the mine wars prestige system is that 99% of your pp will be made up of occupying a mine, battle gives very little reward, you run the risk of losing, and also even in winning you will lose troops that you paid/donated hard for, often alliances that are successful in a battle will be left too weak to occupy/defend a mine for a few days, losing 10 times the pp they gained in battle at least. It’s unfortunate that the mine wars are set up this way, but that’s just how it is.
7. Conclusion
I wrote this guide in haste, took all of 30 mins in total, apologies for any typos or small mistakes, please point any out and I will be happy to amend. I will add to it as and when I have the time as there are more points to discuss.
This is how we have played the mines on our server ( s103 & s118 ) and have never lost a battle, defended every alliance that has attacked us eventually and slowly pulled further ahead in the ranks as others waste time and pp attacking each other for no reason other than to just hit their armies.
There has been some other issues on our server that caused problems, but it’s not to be discussed here, we are now about 600k ahead in pp of any other alliance, not because of our brilliance as much as capitalising on others mistakes, the whole mine wars ironically is about having very few wars in my opinion, a review of it by Haypi would be very welcome to actually encourage the need to fight each other.
Good luck, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments.
GeorgeAgd ( Loyalty_103 Alliance, S118 )
- Attachments
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- Battle 3
- Battle3.gif (68.63 KiB) Viewed 13773 times
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- Battle 2
- Battle2.gif (68.84 KiB) Viewed 13773 times
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- Battle 1
- Battle1.gif (68.22 KiB) Viewed 13773 times
