Thu Jul 01, 2010 7:19 pm
A good story from last night.
Maybe you will find this interesting maybe not, but last night was the most fun night I have had playing hk to date. The reason I want to share it is that HK sometimes can feel a little dull, and I wanted to show that if you get a little aggressive, you can liven things up a lot.
Anyway...
Winners2 has a territory of sorts where we cluster our branch cities. Near the edge of this territory, is another player, whom I will call ABC who had been making himself a nuisance, randomly raiding those he is close to (though I am not sure why, I always set traps up and he generally only came away with a small amount of crops for his efforts). I counter attacked on occasion, and ABC sent me threatening letters, which I found quite annoying. I started keeping an eye on him, and had an inkling that he wasn't as strong as he should be for his level (10). He kept raiding me with about the same numbers of each troop, which lead me to believe that was all he had, and I could easily take that out. Another alliance member complained about him a few days ago in our internal chat, so I got the idea that we should do a coordinated attack on his cities to keep him away. ABC is in a very high rated clan, but I could find no clan members in the immediate vicinity, which made me confident we could pound on him, he would be pissed, but wouldn't be able to start an alliance war, and he would back off on attacking us in the future. Then something interested happened that upped the ante a bit- I became third earl, and could make another branch city. So an idea came into my head- lets really teach him a lesson and take his closest branch city. So I moved some cats to my city nearest his, and consulted with some clan members who said they could help out. When it came time to do it, I asked who was around to help me lower his loyalty to 0 after I take down his defenses. One member (actually our leader) said he was around, and he was close by, which was key since speed was going to be essential, so I went in. To my surprise, all his traps had disappeared, and no one was home to defend! Even better, the city's loyalty had only been at 80, giving some breathing room for error. But then... my alliance mate disappeared! I have a city on its knees... just ready to be sacked (I took the loyalty down to 40 w/ one additional attack left), and no one was around to attack him! I sent letters to everyone in my clan who was online, PM'ed, went to the chatroom, and no one would respond to my call for help!
This went on for 20-30 minutes or so, and I get a letter... ABC was on to me. I was worried about him retaliating and trying to go after my branch city, but I wasn't sure at that point if he had figured out I was going after it. And then came the retaliation... he sent what I guess was all his troops, and we battled. I took out his army with only losses to my cavaliers because I forgot to make them wait the first round, a decisive victory. At this point, I got in touch with another alliance mate who was 40 minutes away, but promised to send some waves of cavs in to lower the loyalty. I am thinking... woohoo, victory is once again in reach. ABC even sent me a letter saying "Take over my cities. Its deserved" which really changed my mind about him and for a second I even considered not going after it any more since he was so humble about it. But, I decided to go for it anyway, since I really wanted to say I had taken a branch over. So things are going well, I just need to be patient I am thinking, and things will just fall into place. In fact, I start doing laundry.
While doing laundry, I see a notification on my phone that I am being attacked. I log on and see that its happening in less than a minute! I scouted the area, I had never heard of this person and didn't understand how they got there so fast. Then... I look at the map, and I see a level 15 player, parked *right* next to my city, sending 1200 cats my way, way more than the ~430 I have in my branch city. I didn't have them hunting, as I wanted them "at the ready" for when ABC's loyalty went down to 0. I tried to make them hunt, but was too slow and the battle had already started. Needless to say, I got wiped. I thought the lev15 player might try to take my branch, but luckily he didn't- I am not sure what his intention was, whether to just park next to my city and let me know he was there, or if I kept my army out, if he would have tried to take my branch, but all I know is the attacks stopped after that. I just decided to build my new branch city elsewhere, and I expect ABC won't be sending raids out after our clan anymore
.
Good times.
A few takeaways:
Don't bother your neighbors too much if they are active and have friends in the area.
If you are going to try and take a branch, make sure you have a few reliable people nearby to help you with it! Speed counts! This whole thing went down over almost two hours- if my original alliance mate had been there to just send cavs in and lower loyalty, the city would have been all mine in under 20 minutes.
If your target is in a really strong clan, reconsider. I never expected a player to blow 40 coins to move a city near me to attack.
Don't be afraid to shake the tree a little bit- yeah I lost about 1/4 of my total forces in the end, but it was a great time.
Anyway...
Winners2 has a territory of sorts where we cluster our branch cities. Near the edge of this territory, is another player, whom I will call ABC who had been making himself a nuisance, randomly raiding those he is close to (though I am not sure why, I always set traps up and he generally only came away with a small amount of crops for his efforts). I counter attacked on occasion, and ABC sent me threatening letters, which I found quite annoying. I started keeping an eye on him, and had an inkling that he wasn't as strong as he should be for his level (10). He kept raiding me with about the same numbers of each troop, which lead me to believe that was all he had, and I could easily take that out. Another alliance member complained about him a few days ago in our internal chat, so I got the idea that we should do a coordinated attack on his cities to keep him away. ABC is in a very high rated clan, but I could find no clan members in the immediate vicinity, which made me confident we could pound on him, he would be pissed, but wouldn't be able to start an alliance war, and he would back off on attacking us in the future. Then something interested happened that upped the ante a bit- I became third earl, and could make another branch city. So an idea came into my head- lets really teach him a lesson and take his closest branch city. So I moved some cats to my city nearest his, and consulted with some clan members who said they could help out. When it came time to do it, I asked who was around to help me lower his loyalty to 0 after I take down his defenses. One member (actually our leader) said he was around, and he was close by, which was key since speed was going to be essential, so I went in. To my surprise, all his traps had disappeared, and no one was home to defend! Even better, the city's loyalty had only been at 80, giving some breathing room for error. But then... my alliance mate disappeared! I have a city on its knees... just ready to be sacked (I took the loyalty down to 40 w/ one additional attack left), and no one was around to attack him! I sent letters to everyone in my clan who was online, PM'ed, went to the chatroom, and no one would respond to my call for help!
This went on for 20-30 minutes or so, and I get a letter... ABC was on to me. I was worried about him retaliating and trying to go after my branch city, but I wasn't sure at that point if he had figured out I was going after it. And then came the retaliation... he sent what I guess was all his troops, and we battled. I took out his army with only losses to my cavaliers because I forgot to make them wait the first round, a decisive victory. At this point, I got in touch with another alliance mate who was 40 minutes away, but promised to send some waves of cavs in to lower the loyalty. I am thinking... woohoo, victory is once again in reach. ABC even sent me a letter saying "Take over my cities. Its deserved" which really changed my mind about him and for a second I even considered not going after it any more since he was so humble about it. But, I decided to go for it anyway, since I really wanted to say I had taken a branch over. So things are going well, I just need to be patient I am thinking, and things will just fall into place. In fact, I start doing laundry.
While doing laundry, I see a notification on my phone that I am being attacked. I log on and see that its happening in less than a minute! I scouted the area, I had never heard of this person and didn't understand how they got there so fast. Then... I look at the map, and I see a level 15 player, parked *right* next to my city, sending 1200 cats my way, way more than the ~430 I have in my branch city. I didn't have them hunting, as I wanted them "at the ready" for when ABC's loyalty went down to 0. I tried to make them hunt, but was too slow and the battle had already started. Needless to say, I got wiped. I thought the lev15 player might try to take my branch, but luckily he didn't- I am not sure what his intention was, whether to just park next to my city and let me know he was there, or if I kept my army out, if he would have tried to take my branch, but all I know is the attacks stopped after that. I just decided to build my new branch city elsewhere, and I expect ABC won't be sending raids out after our clan anymore
. Good times.
A few takeaways:
Don't bother your neighbors too much if they are active and have friends in the area.
If you are going to try and take a branch, make sure you have a few reliable people nearby to help you with it! Speed counts! This whole thing went down over almost two hours- if my original alliance mate had been there to just send cavs in and lower loyalty, the city would have been all mine in under 20 minutes.
If your target is in a really strong clan, reconsider. I never expected a player to blow 40 coins to move a city near me to attack.
Don't be afraid to shake the tree a little bit- yeah I lost about 1/4 of my total forces in the end, but it was a great time.
