Defending

The Castle

Whether it be your Main Castle, Ops, or other Realms. You are subject to attack anywhere at anytime.
Structuring your castles to refrain from heavy losses to your own troops as well as alliance support is a priority.

Defense (although the lesser interesting option) should be your main priority. If you cannot defend properly you have NO business attacking. If you are attacking, you must expect for the favor to be returned sooner or later, and the alliance is not going to foot the bill at your castle for the troubles you have caused yourself.

This being said, have your defenses in order. What does that mean. Well, clearly we cannot all start out with fully upgraded walls and towers. But Tango expects these improvements to be your first priority as you level up. (Example) "Congratulations, you have reach Level 30"...the very next building you click to upgrade should be a gate, wall, tower, keep, or moat! Try and extend your walls out to their maximum potential and upgrade towers accordingly. What impact does this have? The higher level your towers achieve and the more you extend your walls, the more defensive troops you (and the alliance) can place on your flanks to fight off incoming attacks. "The conservation and safety of you as well as the alliance members who defend you should be front and foremost in your mind at all times".

Defensive Troops

With the overall defensive goal being stated above. Your troops should fall into order collectively as well. An absolute minimalist goal at Tango is to hold enough defensive troops to completely fill every slot available on your walls. For instance, if your walls hold 200 defenders, you should have the bare minimum of 200 defenders. Not that hard right? Your main castle should contain defense only. Your main is the flagship target that almost all other players will attack in any realm. Most consider "honorable attacks" to be performed on a players main castle. There are many (by far not all) who do not attack ops using this as their philosophy. Mains at times will have attackers pass through them do to shuffling of troops throughout the time you are online, but the last thing done before logging off should be to ship off all attackers on long farming trips or post them to an alliance member who is under protection.

Basics

As general information there is a distinction between troops that are used for defending and those for attacking. If you notice the top row of stats on a unit display their attack and defensive strength. Attack strength is indicated in red (bow), while defensive strength is indicated in blue (sword/bow).

You should always be using units for defense that have the highest rating in blue. Attackers likewise with the highest ratings in red. To go a step farther, there are two indicators for each unit's defensive strength. As you can see, there are bow and sword ratings for a bowman. This stat suggests the units strength vs. attackers that are either melee or range.
The sword represents the bowman's stats (or strength) when facing a melee attacker. There is quite a difference in the veteran bowman's stats vs. melee (59) than range (132). WHEN DEFENDING an attack, if an opponent were to send an overwhelming amount of ranged attackers such as crossbowmen...you want to match their attack with ranged defenders. In this case, a Veteran Crossbowman attacking (98 power) a veteran bowman defending (132 power vs. ranged attack) will ward off easily the attack.
The same rule applies to melee attacks as well. You naturally want to defend a melee attack with melee defense in most all cases

GOLDEN RULE: "DEFEND MELEE WITH MELEE, DEFEND RANGE WITH RANGE"

Ideally Delta prefers the following defensive strategies in regards to your rank as follows:
"Minimum Expected Standard" for defense that should be stationed at your main.
Level 20 - 200 to 300 defenders
Level 30 - 300 to 500 defenders
Level 40 - 400 to 600 defenders
Level 50 - 500 to 700 defenders
Level 60 - 600 to 800 defenders
Level 70 - 700 minimum defenders
All your tool slots should remain a minimum of 10 deep, but maximum is suggested. *Ruby tools preferable*

Equipment & Tools

Possibly the largest influence to adjusting an attack is the equipment that a competitor's commander has when the attack becomes visible.

The example to the right has the attacking commander at a 90% range bonus on attacks. It is a good assumption that the majority of incoming troops will be ranged attackers. That boost the normal attack which is always 100% strength to 190% vs. your defense (not including tools). Should the incoming be heavy range, your natural defensive stance against this attack should be to go heavy ranged defense.

So, let's assume Wave 1: all range, Wave 2: melee/range mixed. ALWAYS worry about defeating the first wave. The first wave is "the punch", focusing on whats after will leave you helpless if the first wave of attack massacres what your planning on waves 2-4. An attacker's CO is always focused primarily on boosting the bonus of the attackers in the first waves.

In addition to bonuses, tools are a huge factor. Mantlets, are considered by many, the most useful tools in the game.

Mantlets reduce the defense (defensive bonus) of ranged defenders. So if your at 100% ten cast iron mantlets will reduce your ranged defense to 0% making any ranged defenders useless. OUCH!

Make sure that you always exceed the attack bonus. NEVER let an attacker reduce you to 0%. In this scenario if you are reduced to 0% by tools, (keep in mind the attack already has a 190% advantage on top), meaning you will likely lose all to his nothing. The best tools to counter these defensive ranged tools are to the right. (make sure enough are added to overcome the attack tools reduction).

Coming out on top of a bonus that reduces you to 0% is no small task... This is why often, players find themselves unable to achieve this by wall tools alone. Ruby wall tools like arrow slits are nice because they give you the best counter to these attacks but a poorly dressed Castellan is often a scenario that will cause you to be overran by attackers time and time again. Adjust your Castellan for a particular attack if necessary in an attempt to overcome an attackers specific advantage. (Cannot overcome attack tools with a range defense? *See Article:"Why Level 50" below)

An essential to success in this game is a constant focus on achieving a higher level of success for your Commanders as well as Castellans. Out of the two, give your Castellan priority. Providing good equipment for your Castellan is only icing on the cake for your defensive bonuses at home. This allows you to alleviate stress on your wall tools and cater your Castellon to the attack that is incoming.

DON'T PANIC!
(THE ATTACK/DEFENSE SCREEN)

The screen shot above (commonly referred to as the attack screen) will be where you spend your final minutes prepping for an incoming attack. Ignoring your defenses and not entering this screen, or leaving your defenses in a constant untouched state such as 0-0-100 like you normally do in offline mode is complete ignorance.
As you can see there are a bunch of stats that are provided you on the strength of your castle. The top stat to the right shows how many soldiers are posted on your wall out of how many troops your wall can actually hold. (HINT: Extending your walls out and upgrading your towers will significantly increase this stat) This is very important for giving yourself and advantage against an attacker. You want to have as many troops that you can possibly fit on a wall in order to win the flank(s) you decide to defend.
The second stat is the bare strength of your walls. This stat reflects only the bonus(without tools) the wall itself actually gives in an attack. The only way to improve this stat is by leveling up your walls from levels 1-5. Lastly gate strength is in the third row and provides the bare bonus of your gate (again prior to any tools being added).

By clicking on a flank, like in the above photo (the right flank) it will show you the distribution of troops and well as what additional bonuses have been added to the wall/moat (and/or gate) at the top of the screen. The section of the wall is outlined in white for the stats that are displayed at the top... your other flanks will have different stats based on their tools and soldiers ratios they are set for.

LET'S TAKE THIS STEP BY STEP:

The defense of the castle above is in 0-0-100 format...This is your typical "offline" format that Delta prefers EVERYONE be set up as for when they log off. Simple answer: Because you give yourself the best chance to win with minimal loss in an absence.

You can adjust your balance of troops on the wall by the wood sliders next to the blue arrow. Some attacks may be best to defend both flanks, but some strong attacks will best be defended by holding one flank.
The (green) arrow shows the percentage of troops on a particular flank. Ex) the percentage of troops you have spread across the flanks or emphasis of troops you have chosen to defend on various flanks.
The (red) circle indicates the total bonus provided by the tools you have placed on the wall along with extra bonuses provided by your castellon's equipment. In addition, hovering the mouse over the "crown" to the right of the screen will show you the current effects of your castellon (yellow circle) and it's bonuses provided to your castle (those are automatically added in with the bonuses at the top the screen next to unit distribution. (red circle)

Lastly the units posted on your wall are shown at top under unit distribution (lime arrow)...you will have a mix of ranged/melee troops based on whatever types of troops populate your castle or are sent in support. The default game setting is 50/50 range/melee. By clicking on the area highlighted by the (green circle), you will get the menu allowing you to adjust the type of troops stationed on the flank. A generic offline setting at Delta for a player under level 50 with a balanced castellon (meaning even melee/range bonus) is typically 65% melee/35% ranged ratio. There is no large emphasis on this stat because all castellons are different and if in question it is best to seek advice from leadership in determining these settings. While online, members should always be adjusting their ratios/tools for incoming attacks and doing the math on flank(s) being defended. When in doubt a member of leadership (particularly our war marshals) will provide advice on defense setups...and as mentioned before you always want to defend "RANGED vs. RANGED, MELEE vs. MELEE!" if applicable*.

*Why Level 50

Once level 50 is achieved, it is somewhat a threshold in the game. For most it is common knowledge that once a player reaches level 50 they are fair game for attacks from level 70 players because they have hit the mark to build level 4 defenses with walls/towers. Delta likewise believes (the 10 level rule) applies to all players, until level 50 is attained. Only under special situations (ex: war) would we allow hits to break the 10 level rule.

So, that being said defenses must adapt when level 50 is reach in order to withstand what may likely be the toughest encounters for a player to date. Kings-guard troops loaded with shield walls and 90/90 melee/range CO's can be quite overwhelming the first few times around.

By this time in the game most likely all players have discovered the research tower...and hopefully have started pumping out veteran defenders. One defender that your research will award you is veteran swordsmen. As you can see to the right, I have circled the stats of these melee defenders vs. ranged attacks. Normally the rule for Tango is that "range vs. range" and "melee vs. melee". For levels over 50 who are susceptible to these types of attack, there are sometimes exceptions to the rule. When you face a significant incoming of ranged Attackers in the primary waves with a full assault of ruby shield walls...which can level your ranged defense to 0%.

If your defenders are reduced to 0% they are worthless. When the ranged defense is zeroed they are no longer beneficial and you must switch strategies. Mantlets are useless on melee defenders. Once a player has determined they cannot overcome the ranged incoming, switch over to melee defense and swap any ranged reduction tools in favor for walls bonus tools... Suddenly all of those shield walls carried in by the attacker will become useless and now must be fought against melee and a very intimidating wall. Having access to veteran swordsmen will significantly increase the chance of success because of their stats vs. ranged attackers being the highest in the game (72) for a melee defender.

Make sure to adjust the troop distribution ratio in this scenario to 100/0 melee/range.

An added bonus for veteran swordsmen is their ability to be used in attacks. The drawback is they stay very hungry, eating more than any other troop type in the game. With the recent addition of veteran halberds it will be a tough decision to choose between vet swords/ or vet hals when comparing the pro's and con's.

Defensive Goals to focus on:

Extend walls FIRST as you level up. (according to what your level allows)

Upgrade towers to max (according to what level allows) as they become available

Constantly upgrade your Castellan's equipment
- - Robber barons, towers, rinse and repeat....daily. Make it a goal to conquer a minimum of 10 Rb's/towers every time your online.
  - Use the technicus whenever he (and funds) are available to improve your equipment...remember special focus on your castellon equipment first.
  - Tip: DO NOT upgrade equipment of lesser value then legendary or unique equipment with The Technicus.
Keep attack troops away from any incoming attacks & do not keep at your main in general.

Send attack troops off on long plundering trips while you are away or station them at an alliance member who is in protection mode for the length of time while your away.
- - (protection mode: "under birdie", "pro-mode") players cannot be attacked so therefore it is impossible for you to experience troop loss.
  - If no-one is under protection mode, station at an alliance member's op who has a lower level ranking, as he/she will not draw attention from higher level players as a target of large attacks because of honor loss in particular. (ops are less likely)