Guide to Fighting a War, evony-style.

[Marreck]

These are my thoughts on how best to apply force and wage war on a broader scale, written mainly to benefit my alliance, Outcasts, on server 127. This is not a guide intended to teach you how to win a battle, many better players than I have written and continue to write on that subject.

Rather if you have ever thought to yourself that on a whole your alliance is pretty strong, but you could really use more cohesion, then this guide might give you some thoughts on how to improve that.

I'll start with what I consider are the basics; things every member of an alliance should have, know, and be able to apply when called on to do so. Every member should have their Relief Station upgraded as high as they are able. This is a key building. This game is really heavily weighted in favor of the defense, so it is much easier and more cost effective to break an opponent's army in a skillful city defense than it is to break it in an attack. My goal is always to do the most damage to an opponent with the least damage to myself. Your relief station will allow, if upgraded to a high lvl, many more allies, potentially of course, to reinforce a city than there are opponents to attack it. It increases troop speed so dramatically that it puts more allies in range than without it. Timing your defense is a useful skill as well. Many savvy players will scout right before their attack hits to make sure that nothing has changed in the target city, and give themselves time to recall if something has. Learn to use the camp function in the rally spot in conjunction with an attacker's arrival time to coordinate a split second reinforcement. Don't move resources either, as this will alert the attacker that you are online.

This brings us to beacon towers. Very simply put, they let you see who is attacking you, with what force, and from where, if it is upgraded high enough. Without it the previous paragraph is useless.

Warehouses. A controversial topic. I personally like to keep one. I don't always count on being on the winning side of a battle or war; I cannot be online every day. What a warehouse of high lvl coupled with a high stockpile tech allows me to do is keep enough food in my city so that potentially all of my ballista and transports might not be gone when I wake up, and I'll have the means to immediately use disaster relief if another player is trying to take a city.

Barracks. I start with twelve and that number increases as I no longer need my Inn, Forge, Workshop, etc for research or building. I try initially to get one barrack to lvl 9 asap, then all of them to lvl 6, then more to lvl 9. This is simply the way I have found it efficient to get more ballista in play faster.

Cottages. I use 8. I don't think a player really needs any more than that, and could possibly use less if they're of high enough lvl.

Rally Spot, Embassy, Feasting Hall, Marketplace, and Academy should be all lvld up as much as possible, when possible, but I don't consider them to be priority from a war standpoint except in these ways;
High rally spots and feasting halls allow for more waves of more troops to be deployed at once, and a high embassy allows more alliance troops to reinforce you.

Resource Fields; (Iron Mine, Sawmill, Quarry, Farm) I like - personal taste again - a balanced city. I Have made lumber and Iron cities in the past and found that It is very inconvenient to lose one or the other, and it makes me shuffle resources back and forth more than I like to. So I build initially an even mix of farms, mines, mills, and quarries. Then once I begin farming npcs I demo all the quarries and farms and simply keep the rest of the fields an even split between mines and sawmills.

Walls; Everyone has a different spin on this. I'm a big fan of the nothing but Ats stance. If you keep a lot of cavalry in your city, and mechanics to set range, then you oughta be alright. Still if you should happen to see a wave of cav coming at you, please build an abati and move your own cav out. Your troops will thank you.

How to Defend; Here's where a good basic knowledge of battle mechanics comes in handy. Odds are you're being attacked and you have at least a little warning. First look at what is being sent. You should know who of your nearest alliance mates will be online generally at what times - nerds tend to be creatures of habit. Put the call out for reinforcements. If it turns out you didn't really need them, well it was good practice.

Be sure to do the same when called upon by your mates. Be generous with your troops. It's easy to do and can help ensure that help gets to you quick enough when you need it.

Now, you have the strength to win the battle, but you want to make sure that the battle actually takes place. Do not move resources. Do not respond to whispers and/or mails from anyone not in your alliance. Do not react in any way if he takes a valley or two, or ten, for that matter, until after the battle is won.

Coordinate defense times with your allies. Again practice is pretty useful here. You want the defense reinforcements to hit you between 5 and 10 seconds before the attack does, to prevent the attacker from being able to recall.

There are a lot of really good battle mechanics threads in these forums. I don't feel the need to rehash them, because I probably won't do as good of a job. So read up, and then practice.

How to Attack; Cohesion is key! Work with your leadership in determining who among your neighbors is A) The biggest threat, and B) The immediate threat. If they are the same alliance, then all your energy should be poured into pounding them into dust. But sometimes there is a difference. You may have a powerful rival nearby, but who is preoccupied with their own little wars. You may have a less powerful rival who is freakishly aggro and seems to be online and attacking 24/7. (If you can, recruit him) In that case the smaller alliance becomes the primary target.

Thou shalt not divide thine energies!
Everyone who can should be attacking the priority alliance. The priority target should not change once every two days. Please, finish what you start. A sense of accomplishment is highly motivating. Any player who is not in a position to attack ought either to move a city where it will be useful, or provide backup support to the main warriors in the alliance, through troops to defend them, food and/or resources, spam cav attacks to clear abati and quickly npc a city, etc.

Thou shalt not break off an army on thy strongest and best defended enemy!
Instead, go out of your way to cap your rival alliance's smaller and weaker members, preferably on as many fronts as you can sustain, and win. By doing this you're preventing him from reinforcing within his alliance, and splitting his rebuilding abilities in many directions. Also this heat may foster panic in his chat room, and break his morale. Whittle him away as you work your way up to their strongest members. Some may ask to defect. This is a good thing!! Treat them well, as they are undoubtedly still talking to friends in their old alliance and can further break his collective spirit.

Remember, Sun Tzu said to attack where he is weak, avoid where he is strong.... or something like that...

Thou shalt not harbor carebears!
Every member needs to be active. What use to you is a one million prestige member with one city who is never online? Unless he is truly wise and helps to coordinate brilliant attacks and teach the noobs when he bothers to come to chat. I'd rather have three or four addicted noobs with a willingness to learn and participate. That brings me to a corollary;

a. Furthermore, thou shalt not whine, moan, or complain when thou art looted!
Seriously tho, it's a game, and if you can't take it as well as dish it out, you shouldn't be playing. A spirit of gamesmanship is crucial to a healthy alliance attitude, and will help keep everyone involved and active. Also your alliance can most likely get you a new city the same day.

No infighting.
Don't ever treat your members badly. Not everyone will have your foul sense of humor.(^.^) Don't mock them for asking questions, don't ignore their requests, don't cuss at each other and don't act like a jerk just because you're behind a computer screen and they can't actually come kick your ass. Instead direct your aggression outward and keep up a steady stream of smack talk about your current foe. This is good mob psychology.

Thou shalt not neglect diplomacy.
Even if all you have for diplomacy is a "become our new sister alliance or be npc'd" standard message that you send to all your prey, that is still better than 'red is dead, grey is prey, blue is nonexistent'. Because I've never seen one of those alliances that didn't fail. I could be wrong, but it's hard to stay at the top without allies.

Spam!
Love it, use it. It's a great tool for you. Suppose you have an enemy with 8 cities. Your alliance has 90ish members. That means you can easily have ten members per city attacking him, scouting him, stealing valleys, mini attacking to wear away his wall defenses... How many war reports do you think that would be to sort through? This is what I mean by prioritizing. An alliance that learns to set a small goal, focus on that goal, and follow through is to be feared. The more experience you have the loftier the goals you set.

Thou shalt starve them when possible!
Nearby enemy? Farm their npcs. Have your friends move in on top of them and farm their npcs. Force them to use it or lose it, then smack them when they use it.