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Thread: Stratagem: Bluffing & Coverup Manuvers

  1. #1
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    Default Stratagem: Bluffing & Coverup Manuvers

    We will talk about the Stratagem, Bluffing and Cover Up Army Manuvers. This discussion is for intermidiate-advanced players of Age II.

    Stratagems are really cool tools you can use to help you manipulate a battle towards your favor. Most players make the mistake of using a stratagem without combining it with other ofensive/defensive manuvers. This is a mistake because many Stratagems serve as a suppliment and should not be used as a "stand alone" tool. There are many many creative uses for Stratagems and I will discuss just a few surrounding Bluffing and Cover Up Army Manuvers.

    Say for example you want to wipe the troops of a heavily defended player who has their gates open. Simple, send multiple waves by pressing the Colonize button, right? Wrong. Yes, you can do that. But here is a way to use Bluffing and Cover up Army Manuvers to help you make your attack more effective....

    Many of us know that if you send waves to a player they can use the Stratagem "Besiege Enemy Fort to Rescue Ally" which will cause the wave(s) you sent to return to your city and thus screw up your efforts. Solution?

    Simply send a few waves of 20k total in troops. Use Bluffing on the waves. To use Bluffing go to Reports > Army Movement > View > Stratagem, AFTER you have sent the bluff wave(s)

    The Bluffing stratagem will make your troop count 5-10 times bigger.
    20k x 5 = 100k
    20k x 10 = 200k
    When Bluffing is applied to a total wave of 20k troops it will make the wave look like a 100k-200k wave. The defender will not know if the waves are being sent from a Historical city or from a regular player city unless they are able to check the origin of the attack. We all know that Historical cities can send much larger waves than regular player cities.

    At the same time, send your ACTUAL attack waves with full troops and use the stratagem Cover Up Army Maneuvers. It will understate your troops by 10-20%.

    Now ask yourself this question: If I am the defender and I have lots of attack waves coming in to spam up my Feasting Hall... and I going to take the time to check the source of every wave? Probably not. Am I going to check what is being sent and use Besiege Enemy Fort to Rescue Ally in order to send back the largest waves, the waves that could do the most damage? You bet your boots I am. So if the defender sees a wave of 100k-200k troops, most of which are layered to do heavy damage, those waves will more than likely be recalled. So make those waves Bluffs. That way the defender will send back the least damaging waves, not the most damaging.

    And for goodness sakes, do not use Bluffing on 40k+ waves because that will be dead give away that something is wrong. If the defender see incoming waves of 200k-400k troops in a single attack wave... they are probably going to know exactly whats up. So try to make the Bluff waves look as real as possible.
    Last edited by japanpimp; 09-05-2010 at 07:42 AM.

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  2. #2
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    Well that is definitely a creative way of using stratagems, and also the whole point I would think. But I do not see how that particular way will work. Reasons listed below.

    1.) Before attacking your city, the person should have a scout report and know what you have to send from that particular city. They will know instantly that it is a lie.

    2.) You can not apply a stratagem pre march. With the use you are describing, the person will be online. When their bird starts flashing they would instantly take a look at what is happening. There is little chance that you will be able to apply the stratagem to all of the marches before they see them and realise what you are doing.

    3.) The stratagem will show random numbers, nothing as exact as maybe 125k. It would be rather 126,629 incoming in an attack. Anyone with sense would notice something is wrong with that. Though it is easy enough to also actually send such numbers in order to confuse them into thinking you are bluffing.

    4.) You can not fake attacks over 125k as being from historic cities as they should know your co-ordinates from the incoming attack report already and be able to tell what you are sending.

    5.) They can take a look at the heroes being sent. It is easy enough to understand you do not risk good heroes on an attack that has few troops and will definitely fail. Though that is more of a guessing game as they will not know how intelligent the defender is.

    6.) What is to stop them doing this exact same thing back to you, except against all of your cities at the same time? What would you do if they are not bluffing and those are their real troops?

    Thinking about the use described, I can't really see the point. I would rather take the hit and win easily, then wait until the person is offline and camp some attacks to hit and colonise the person before he has any chance of reinforcements. Fighting someone while they are online will end badly almost every time unless the defender is completely incompetent.

    The only real reason I can see to those two stratagems is to trick the person into recalling all of their attacks, which can be done with Besiege enemy fort to rescue ally anyway.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    Well that is definitely a creative way of using stratagems, and also the whole point I would think. But I do not see how that particular way will work. Reasons listed below.

    1.) Before attacking your city, the person should have a scout report and know what you have to send from that particular city. They will know instantly that it is a lie.
    But your argument here is that a defender would know in advance if an attacker was going to send waves. So the defender would scout the attackers city before any attacks happen. That is not what I am saying at all. Perhaps you did not understand what I was trying to explain. Defenders will never know the real troops an attacker has. And defenders will never know who is going to attack them before the attack happens unless they have spies or herd of it before it happened.

    Furthermore, any scout reports will not prove anything because the waves are in route, thus the troops are out. Or the troops could be out farming. Or the troops could be in-route from another city and planned to reinforce every minute so they can be sent right back out to attack a target. Thus the main army is never in large numbers in the launching pad city. The point is, troops can be anywhere, they are not always needed in full count in the launching pad city.


    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    2.) You can not apply a stratagem pre march. With the use you are describing, the person will be online. When their bird starts flashing they would instantly take a look at what is happening. There is little chance that you will be able to apply the stratagem to all of the marches before they see them and realise what you are doing.
    Not necessarly. A savvy attacker will send spam waves to fill up the Feasting Hall from various other cities. Also, how fast can an attacker send waves to specific cords? I can send 10 waves within seconds. Then go to reports and apply the stratagems all in under 1 minute. Now unless a defender can check the 10 waves with seconds of my sending AND scout my cities, they will not know. Will the attacker be looking at their screen the second I send? Probably not. Will the attacker be able to scout ALL of my cities before I apply the stratagems, no. Can I also apply the Regards Bushes and Trees as Soliders to inflate my troops with anyt cities? Yes.

    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    3.) The stratagem will show random numbers, nothing as exact as maybe 125k. It would be rather 126,629 incoming in an attack. Anyone with sense would notice something is wrong with that. Though it is easy enough to also actually send such numbers in order to confuse them into thinking you are bluffing.
    True, so sending random unrounded numbers would be required.

    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    4.) You can not fake attacks over 125k as being from historic cities as they should know your co-ordinates from the incoming attack report already and be able to tell what you are sending.
    But will the defender actually have time to check on cords and every incoming attack when 90% of them are spam waves?

    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    5.) They can take a look at the heroes being sent. It is easy enough to understand you do not risk good heroes on an attack that has few troops and will definitely fail. Though that is more of a guessing game as they will not know how intelligent the defender is.
    Will the defender actually have time? Besides, I dont know of anyway to check the stats on a incoming attack hero if they all have generic names. So it will be hard to tell what hero is the real attack hero.

    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    6.) What is to stop them doing this exact same thing back to you, except against all of your cities at the same time? What would you do if they are not bluffing and those are their real troops?
    Nothing. If I was going to attack a player in Age II I would close my gates prior to attack. Then if they hit me while I am hitting them no big deal. I dont lose any troops and my city goes into 8 hr supression, then I beat down the supression.


    Quote Originally Posted by TCWNME View Post
    Thinking about the use described, I can't really see the point. I would rather take the hit and win easily, then wait until the person is offline and camp some attacks to hit and colonise the person before he has any chance of reinforcements. Fighting someone while they are online will end badly almost every time unless the defender is completely incompetent.

    The only real reason I can see to those two stratagems is to trick the person into recalling all of their attacks, which can be done with Besiege enemy fort to rescue ally anyway.
    Well, I have used it with good results and will continue to do so. This is why I made the post. But you do raise points and I appreciate your arguments.
    Last edited by japanpimp; 09-05-2010 at 07:54 AM.

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    In truth you do have a good point, and if the attacks are long range enough to give you a chance to apply the strats as stated it would confuse an enemy, especially an enemy not super powerful.
    The randomness of the increase/decrease will raise some red flags however so overall its not great. I suppose it would mess up a noob, especially someone who is unused to age2 and the HCs.
    But naming all the heroes the same would help a bit in confusing a target. Good point there.
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    And I have learned that playing from a colonized position is ONLY way to play Age II.


    Why is that Pimp?
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    Quote Originally Posted by DirtyHarry View Post
    And I have learned that playing from a colonized position is ONLY way to play Age II.

    Why is that Pimp?
    I have explained it many times before.
    Basically, once a enemy owns a state capital or Atlantis then you will be colonized. Eventually everyone will be colonized once Atlantis is taken. So you better learn how to protect yourself against policies. So playing with the mindset that you are always colonized is the only way to play. Unless you are the owner of Atlantis. Why? Because what prevents the owner of Atlantis from setting policies on you? And their being in the same alliance as you is not good enough reason to think you are safe. Players become traitors everyday....
    So stay on constant guard and play as if you are always colonized.

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    Quote Originally Posted by japanpimp View Post
    So playing with the mindset that you are always colonized is the only way to play.

    (..... I still havent done my uprise quest cuz i uh... never got colonized.....)

    I have to disagree with this statement and would advise any other player to do so as well this is not the way to go about playing age 2. In a way off sense i think the OP is saying "train for the track meet with boots on that way when you run in sneakers you'll run twice as fast" but then, i re read and it just says run in boots all the time....

    I disagree colonize everyone else, place settings to suit your needs, remember to draft them every day, squeeze your colonies dry.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Asmo View Post
    (..... I still havent done my uprise quest cuz i uh... never got colonized.....)

    I have to disagree with this statement and would advise any other player to do so as well this is not the way to go about playing age 2. In a way off sense i think the OP is saying "train for the track meet with boots on that way when you run in sneakers you'll run twice as fast" but then, i re read and it just says run in boots all the time....

    I disagree colonize everyone else, place settings to suit your needs, remember to draft them every day, squeeze your colonies dry.
    When I played Age 2 for a while, I never got colonized either but I completed the quest because lag caused the "Uprise" button to appear briefly on an NPC so I quickly pressed it.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Asmo View Post
    (..... I still havent done my uprise quest cuz i uh... never got colonized.....)

    I have to disagree with this statement and would advise any other player to do so as well this is not the way to go about playing age 2. In a way off sense i think the OP is saying "train for the track meet with boots on that way when you run in sneakers you'll run twice as fast" but then, i re read and it just says run in boots all the time....

    I disagree colonize everyone else, place settings to suit your needs, remember to draft them every day, squeeze your colonies dry.
    And when an enemy captures Atlantis on your server and some state captials and starts setting policies on you what then? You are going to put your boots on....and keep them on.

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  10. #10

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    japanpimp, before you try to teach people about game mechanics, you may want to learn about them yourself first.

    Bluffing and Covering up Army Maneuvers are possibly the most worthless stratagems in the game, aside from Solid Walls and Empty Fields or Cast a Brick to Attract a Gem.

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