Attacking

Attacking 101

The introduction of this page will give you the bare information of attacking. If you wish to learn more in detail, continue to read down on the additional articles to follow. The immediate information following is essential in performing a successful attack that meets Excalibur Tango standards:

ALWAYS attack a player as if they were online to defend your attack. That being said, always send full attacks on any player vs. player attacks.
ALL flanks should be filled with attackers, and it is preferred if ALL waves or nearly all waves can be filled as well.

(keep in mind your target may get support from fellow alliance members: you may be fighting through three or four supporters as well when you get there!)

Wave 1: Use all ranged attackers with all ranged tools - the strongest you have. (Shield walls, cast iron mantlets and then mantlets.) -remember ruby tools are faster/detected later-
Wave 2: Use 1/2 to 2/3 ranged attackers with half ranged tools. The other half wall/gate tools like ladders, rams, etc...
Wave 3: Use all or nearly all melee attackers with wall tools, loot tools, attack power tools and glory tools.
Wave 4 (if available): Push the looting (if desired) and glory tools (if desired) down to this wave, where you should use 2/3 melee.

USE an appropriate Commander with equipment dressed accordingly. If your attacking another player, why would a CO with a focus on (FIND BETTER EQUIPMENT or CHANCE OF DESTROYING BUILDINGS...) when the real emphasis should be on boosting attributes that will help your attack succeed like: MELEE/RANGE TROOP COMBAT STRENGTH.

AGAIN: Common sense and a proper espionage should override any "default" ideal of attacking. The above suggestion to adjust from based on the type of opponent you are facing.

Using the Correct Attackers

To ensure that you don't inherit losses from RB towers, it is important to pair up the correct attackers with the correct defenders. For example when facing a group of crossbowmen, their strength of defense is 36 (blue arrow) against ranged attackers and 6 (blue sword) against melee attackers. This group of defenders should be matched up with melee attackers in order to create a mismatch for the defender. A logical attacker for a crossbowmen defense would be a melee attacker such as a macemen. The macement attributes show that they have melee attack power of 38 (red sword). For attack troops the "defensive strength" (blue sword and arrow) are irrelevant during an attack. Defensive attributes only matter when the troop is being assigned to defense.

Using the Correct Tools

Utilizing attackers is only half the issue. For an attack to yield maximum results with the smallest losses it is up to your tools to pick up the slack. Some tools are used best for walls, some for gates, moats; while others are used to weaken the defense of soldiers placed on the wall. Scaling ladders are some of the most economical tools in the game; they require very little resources and they can be produced rather quickly...This makes them cost effective and commonly used. When your opponent's troops are posted on the wall of a castle or gate there will normally be a bonus of wall protection provided to the defense. Without using ladders to lower the wall bonus your soldiers will be fighting an uphill battle against their opponents.

Your opponent can achieve additional wall or gate bonuses by using defensive tools as well, this is important to note when planning an attack from your attack screen so that you can match the defensive bonus with the appropriate attack tools. Ladders will reduce wall bonuses, rams will reduce gate bonuses, and so forth.
Melee or Range defensive bonuses work a little bit differently. While gate and wall tools posted by a defender will weaken your troops' attack; a melee/range bonus will strengthen a defender's attributes. (represented by the sword/shield emblems below) If your opponents castle has a defensive bonus of 119% melee & 119% range, like the below espionage, that means they have 19% bonus defending your attack on top of their troops normal strength in defense; giving them the edge on your attackers who are expected to fight at 100% unless you provide them additional strength in some way. (discussed later)
The one tool an attacker has to weaken a defender's bonus (which can be produced in the siege workshop) is the mantlet. Mantlets are effective in lowering the defensive strength of a ranged defender. It has NO EFFECT on melee defense. Ordinary "wood" mantlets reduce a range defense by -5% per piece, meaning it would take 4 mantlets (referring to the above espionage) just to even the playing field and reduce the ranged defense back down to normal (119% - 4 mantlets {20%} = 99%). Mantlets, if used precisely can reduce a ranged defenders effectiveness to 0% (ideal!) which is near necessary in player vs. player attacks for the best results.

Use What Where?

The next big question is how do I use what, where...right? The true answer to this question is never the same. There are many scenarios that will require the altering use of equipment. Adjust your mindset away from robber barons (though not completely) briefly while we touch on player attacks. Much of the following content will mixed advice for applications where you are attacking opposing players from different alliances other than your typical RB's/Towers. However, much of this advice can still be applied to RB's/Towers, but with sometimes less significance.

Using the example above we have multiple defensive bonuses on the middle flank, but limited slots (3 varying slots with 50 quantity tools). A 92% gate bonus, 198% wall bonus, 153% melee bonus, 185% range bonus, and a 10% moat bonus. So that is 5 bonuses, but the attack only allows us to place three types of tools on this flank. In this particular instance, we have a weak example of defenders with only a little over 28 known to be on this section of wall. (albe it not very threatening)
A good rule of thumb is to work first towards leveling out your defender's strength combat bonuses. (It doesn't matter how well you level the wall and gate if your running into a roaring defense that is fighting at 150-200%. In this scenario melee/range are pretty stout (153%/185%). There's not much we can do "tool-wise" about the melee, but the range can be challenged with mantlets/shield walls. Minimum Options: 37 wood mantlets, 18 iron mantlets, or 9 shield walls in order to render the range defense ineffective. For the gates, 9+ battering rams. For the walls: 20 ladders. Remember all of the tools would be ideal, but the middle flank allows only 50 tools or 3 types to be used. You should convert to ruby/armorer tools as often as possible, as it may in some instances outweigh the ideal to even risk attacking otherwise.

Ruby tools will impact the quantity of tools we need to send, the speed of the attack, and the effectiveness when it lands. More bonuses can be leveled with the upgraded ruby tools being sent. Clearly using 18 iron mantlets outweighs the cost and time of churning out 37 from the siege workshop for the same effect. Also allowing the attacker more room to fit in ladders/rams/etc..
The espionage above only detects that there will be 9 known range defenders, so in actuality with so few defenders posted experience will tell you that wasting all the time on tools for this castle for the most part would be overkill, especially burning ruby tools. More experience with these types of situations will allow you to determine whether or not this player is worth attacking, or worth the tools being used in general. As a note Range defenders are the ONLY defender who's defense and bonus can be reduced to 0% making them ineffective and allowing you to shift your focus towards just attacking the melee support.

Understanding Attack Waves & Courtyard Bonuses

Knowing when to pick your battles...more like where to pick your battles is what this next topic will cover.

When attacking a castle there are three points: left, right, and middle flank. If you attack all three flanks and win, a 30% bonus will be awarded your offensive when the battle proceeds into the courtyard to face the additional defenders (if any) that could not fit on the walls.
If you attack and win on 2 out of 3 flanks, the battle in the courtyard will provide no bonus to either you or the defender. (apart from gem bonuses)
If you attack the castle and win 1 of 3 flanks, when you proceed to the courtyard the defender will have a 30% bonus against you making it highly improbable to win (or suffer significant losses).

Mass Attacks

The alliance will actively exercises these military practices on a weekly basis to keep all of our members sharp.

The definition of a Mass Attack: all alliance members launching in coordination upon multiple opposing alliance targets, through which all attacks are subject to land in a synchronized manner in unison.

Basically all members participating in a coordinated attack by the alliance must either pick (or accept: if chosen by leadership) their assigned target and launch in a manner where everyone lands the attack at an exact time. Launch time is irrelevant; land time is essential. Leadership uses a common clock for these attacks so that everyone has the same timer available in which to arrive in.

These attacks can be monitored by typing/copying the address where the countdown timer has been made (sent to you in a message or posted to chat by leadership). The webCountdown® website is very helpful because after the window has been minimized the countdown will remain in the tabs at the top of the screen so that while the GGEmpire window is opened the timer will still remain visible at the top.

Of course, the key component to a successful mass is that all parties involved ensure that they arrive at their destinations at the same time. If this fails then:

(Spread Out Timing/Launching Late) Opposing alliance members will be able to bounce around from various castles under attack and support few or more incoming attacks causing our success rate to decrease dramatically.

(Launching Early) can tip off opposing alliance members by one or few horns showing early; givin

Exact timing can be achieved through the attack screen. If you notice the yellow connect circles, this member is waiting til the exact time the webCountdown timer in the tab above matches the GGE travel time are the same. As the moment both of these screen's timers match up, you should be pressing the green check mark at the lower half of the screen to approve your attack launch. Knowing this time exactly, is impossible if a player were to throw it together at the last minute.

IT IS PERTINENT that the attacker do a trial run with all of the flanks filled with the exact replica of attackers and tools that are planned to be sent as early as possible, and to notate the amount of time located in the lower yellow circle, in order to be present later for the actual launch. Once your attack has been put through the trial to see the attack travel time BACK OUT of the screen and remember the amount of time to travel that way moments before you should launch you will have efficient time to build your ranks and tools back the way they were in order for the actual attack. (NOTE: MAKING ANY CHANGES TO YOUR ATTACK, (TYPES OF UNITS/TOOLS) WILL LIKELY ADJUST THE TIME THAT YOU PREVIOUSLY MEASURED FOR THE ATTACK TO LAND)

Hint: Ruby tools travel faster than resource tools and are detected later. Therefore, ensure that you are satisfied with the makeup of the attack in the trial run as dictating things later will produce different results on travel time. (and many headaches)

After your launch is complete sit back and enjoy the chaos that will soon be inviting itself into your neighboring foes territory! *As always RADIO SILENCE. There is NEVER any communication allowed to the targeted alliance before the landing, even if they begin chatter towards you, asking about attacks or any other subject*

Points of Attack*

Picking your points of attack are very important. (Robber Barons/Towers in mind)...It may not always be best to fill up all 3 flanks with attackers depending on how the defenses are set and what tools are in place. (remember the net loss we spoke of earlier) This being said, Rb's/Towers also have a cap on the maximum amount of loot you can haul away from them. Emptying the barracks on Rb's will give you no more than the maximum amount they will allow you to loot. Picking sides when attacking will also allow you to conserve tools instead of using them unnecessarily.

For example: if a RB has 12 bowmen on left flank with a bonus of 150% range, an empty middle flank, and 12 spearmen on the right at 119% bonus. Why not conserve the mantlets, match the the spearmen defenders with range attackers on the right, and send the counter part: (melee) attacker up the middle flank to make them match up against the bowmen in the courtyard where their wall bonus will be of no effect.

Martyr Waves

Possible the best way to conserve your tools and improve your attack significantly is taking advantage of the attack waves. Apply this to RB's/Towers ONLY, because often they have limited quantities of defense tools and obviously RB's/Towers cannot adjust defenses for your incoming attack unlike real players. Notice the robber baron espionage to the right. the tools are stacked to provide a wall bonus for the defender on all flanks. Notice that the tools are only one deep (*Recent game updates no longer allow you to see tool depth -for depth see ggeguide.com). By choosing the flanks you want to attack, and sending a first wave of martyrs, i.e. "a cheap defender, like a non-vet spearmen" you can effectively eliminate the bonus provided by the defense tools. A good scenario for the espionage at the right would be to send 1 spearmen/archer on the right flank in wave one, then on wave 2 attack the middle and right with (middle flank tailored to fight (the flank not faced) in this case: the left flank, in the courtyard, and the right flank loaded with range attackers to fight on the wall) attacking both of these flanks and winning will setup and level playing field in the courtyard when the attack proceeds the walls...
REMEMBER sending a martyr wave will only take away the bonus, not reduce the attributes that the wall/gate/moat provide within themselves. So you will still need to carry additional ladders in this scenario on the right flank if you wish to reduce the wall bonus effect to 0% ensuring minimum losses. In most casesRB's/Towers only provide enough defense tools for one or two attack waves, so the following waves often can be filled with the actual attackers prepared for battle. If you happen to run into RB's/Towers with tools stacked 4 deep, completely forget about martyr troops, as they will be of no effect because the tools are too deep to clear. In this case just stick with tools and defensive pairings on the first wave to win your battle.
Tools that are on flanks where there are no defenders will not be used against you. If you send attackers on an un-defended flank don't bother sending tools (this tactic applies to RB's/Towers only); there's no one there to use them on.

On player vs. player (PvP) attacks always load up every flank with tools. Never trust espionage on PvP attacks. Robber Barons cannot change their defensive stance in preparation for your attack...Players can. Always assume that a player is online when you are attacking and that whatever you send they will defend in the best way possible.

Commanders, Equipment and Gems

Often the most neglected aspect of the game, yet a huge contributor towards achieving the highest levels of success. From Day 1 in empire make it an absolute focus to constantly search out equipment and properly suit up your commanders (CO's) accordingly. The most desirable commanders in the game, the ones essentially used the majority of the time for PvP attacks are ones that have large bonuses for melee or range attacks. There are many different paths you can take when building commanders. In order to remain versatile later in the game it is important to have a few melee/range focused commanders, along with a strong equipment commander, a couple speed commanders, late detection, and naturally some that are tailored towards looting. As you proceed through the game you will gain additional commanders and extra equipment that you can utilize for swapping out to fit the needs for various commanders that arise.

Your main source of equipment comes through Rb's/Towers. Constantly attacking Rb's/Towers every time you are on will create a steady flow of new equipment coming in. Just because you get equipment does NOT mean it is good. Trust me, there is plenty of useless equipment out there, as a matter of fact I would go as far to say about 90% or more should be sold or smithy'd into different equipment.
Never settle with ordinary equipment. Always wait until you get 6 pieces in order to smithy it into rare equipment. Keep in mind most of the equipment you smithy is worthless. Your personal/alliance smithy is completely random. For example: Trying to pick out Ordinary "looting" focused equipment in hopes of receiving Rare "looting" equipment come to no avail. Normally, I would suggest picking your least effective equipment and smithy it regularly in hopes of gaining better equipment. Unless rare and epic equipment is EXCEPTIONALLY good do not intend on keeping it for a long haul. Everyone should be working towards Legendary/Unique equipment. Another words don't spend tons of money investing in rare equipment through the technicus when he comes around just to wind up trading it out days later.

Your Commanders (CO's) equipment provides your bonus prior to whatever tools you add to your attack. So think of your CO's as the quarterback for your attack. They set the pace and have a huge impact on the tools you will/will not need and the types of attackers you will send. That being said, a range bonus CO should not be utilized vs. a range heavy defense...As I hope you know or are at least figuring out by now that Range vs. Range is definitely not the situation you wan to be in when attacking. Likewise, don't have a range bonus CO leading around a bunch of melee attackers. What benefit does a range bonus provide a melee attacker? It would be like defending an attack with ladders (not possible, btw). Just a waste of tools.

Gems are a newer addition to the game. Gems can be attained through RB/Tower attacks and other incentives throughout the game. Gems can be added to equipment in order to improve or boost certain statistics based on the genre that the gem provides. Once you embed a gem into a piece of equipment you will see the gem in the lower left corner along with its effect listed in the equipment's description. A gem can be used multiple times, they are not consumed after a use. Gems can be leveled up in the smith along with the other equipment, but unlike other equipment the gems are only improved by chance, and the higher level gem that is improved the less likelihood of a successful conversion. Priority should always be on attaining equipment first and gems later (You do not want to be adding quality gems to low level equipment or vise/versa).
Look for sought after Castellon gems such as the "add troops to wall" and "courtyard bonus" gems. These two gems can be used in conjunction with one another or separately to provide two options for switching out your castellon for an alternate based on the attack incoming.

Likewise, its counterpart for Commanders: "add troops to front/flanks" or "increase courtyard attack bonus" are also very productive and should be loaded up on all of your attacking CO's. Long-term try to avoid placing gems on equipment that are less than level 4 in strength without the anticipation of replacing them later on.

Picking Your Target

There are different types of targets to attack depending on what you're seeking. Be it Honor, Glory, or Farming targets to keep your troops fed, most likely sooner or later you will be looking for all the above depending your focus.

Let's start out with the most necessary target for maintaining yourself as a legitimate player in this game.

FARMING

If you expect to produce everything yourself throughout this entire game and somehow expect to play along with the rest of Tango...think again! Sooner or later you will find that babysitting 2-3k attack troops is not an easy task. If you want the fun of being on the war path you must focus on finding constant ways of feeding those hungry mouths. The three most common types of food banks are as follows:

Ruins: Ruins are players that have been inactive to the point where Good Game Empire has razed their castle mains in all realms. Because "technically" ops are points that player never have individual authority over (meaning they have to be captured), the game will allow the ops to remain until they have been captured by a new player. Ops that are "tied" to ruins are all optimal farming targets because they generally have been reduced to just the bare-bones; meaning no one produces defense troops or tools to fight off incoming attacks anymore (except for ruins belonging to a player who still belongs to an alliance. Those outpost are that alliances property). This allows easy win battles with little or no troop loss and lots of loot to haul

Inactives/Zero Looters: Inactive players (basically described above) represent the pre-ruins state of a player. These players may also not turn to ruins for a great period of time because they may occasionally log on to their castle preventing it from turning; although, have no motivation for seriously playing the game or putting out fires. Whatever the motive may be they present themselves to be prime targets for players who do play this game with the intent of being competitive. If you have player questionable in activity click the rankings, then at the top of the menu at the right, click the right arrow to scroll from "General Rankings" to "Weekly Rankings" in order to change the category to view loot totals. Obviously, if a player is not active there will be no loot totals (likely accompanied with fires within his/her castle). *Reminder* Loot totals are calculated weekly and will reset at midnight on Sundays; so this stat is most accurate if explored later in the week after a player has had a chance for reasonable activity.

Alliances At War: Lastly farming players for any Alliance that Tango has declared war upon (unless leadership has said not to) is strongly encouraged; after all, if we cannot resolve a diplomatic issue between both parties we should do our part to influence their diplomats through looting and every day irritation. If that were not the only reason; the alliance funds have specifically been improved for your attack speed and looting bonuses for any alliance we are at war with. How's that for a cherry on top? Just remember unlike inactives and ruins, you will most likely meet defense and support with these attacks so they aren't as "sure-fire" wins as the other two that were mentioned.

GLORY**

Glory focused hit bring you the best of both worlds. Bringing home tons of loot from massive attacks, as well as gaining glory for new titles which can earn you incredible rewards. Needless to say in glory attacks of course, looting is the secondary focus; rather, a by-product of your primary focus: Glory! Two reasons why glory is essential in this game:

Number one. Glory will allow you to earn titles and ravish you with rewards in the process. Rewards from extra rubies, coins, to cheaper production of units, double glory points bonuses, or the recruitment of kingsguard troops and more! The sky is the limit, and one of the ultimate goals of producing one of the highest level of attack troops in the game is definitely something to be proud of along with giving yourself a competitive advantage over defenders.

Number two. Glory benefits the alliance. The glory points you earn in attacks and defense during battle will contribute to the overall balance of glory points that is shared by the entire alliance. Glory points awards the alliance new levels of success and various rewards such as rubies and resources in during the process which can be contributed to the bonuses on improving the alliance as a whole. Leveling the Alliance itself is a reward in itself as all alliance have an underlying meaning to be viewed as one of the strongest in the game. Working Tango towards that ever-coveted Level 40 alliance attribute should constantly be on our minds as we work towards independent and cohesive successes throughout this game.

HONOR

Honor focused attacks provide little for resource/reward benefits. Tango views honor as a much more prestigious thing...as do many other top alliances. To maintain high honor in the game improves the overall ranking of the alliance as a whole, and going forward it is something we wish improve upon and maintain. The individual benefit of having a high sum of honor comes at the end of the week. A gift will be rewarded for your honor status. (troops, coin, gear, etc...)

You win honor by attacking other players. You lose honor if you defend unsuccessfully. However, you will never obtain a negative balance when it comes to honor because the threshold is set at zero. The amount of honor you win or lose after a battle depends on the difference between your honor and your foe's.

Attacking a player that is a much lower level than you will cause you to lose honor. If the level difference is too large, honor will be deducted from the amount that has been gained, and you might even receive an honor penalty. DON'T FARM people that require you to sacrifice honor...there are too many farms on the map and resources available from towers and alliance members to sacrifice honor for loot.