Unconventional or Guerrilla Warfare is an old tactic in which a weaker less technologically advanced force fights and larger force, and can win.

First, the standard battle plan is huge armies, waves of attacks, and maximum number of cities. As an example, ten or more barracks in ten cities cranking out an archer every five seconds to make a huge army of 1mil or more. This means that anyone who wishes to attack you has to have similarly large armies, or their alliance has to have a larger army.

Defensive strategy includes truce, and teleportation, and in extreme cases, abandonment, or Barbing of cities to prevent loss. Guerrilla Warfare can negate one of these.

The tactics in Guerrilla Warfare say that you should have one city, which can't be taken by the rules of the game. They can attack it, but if you have a warehouse, set for maximum food, and nothing else, they can't get at that without plunder, and then only limited amounts of that food. Using the food to comfort your population, you can essentially nullify the attacks, or at least, counter them later.

Tactics of Guerrilla Warfare include the long duration attack. Take one low level hero, one transporter, and launch an attack. Use the camp feature to get as many hours, often as much as 450, out of the attack. This allows you to keep the Birdy flashing for as long as two, or even three weeks. That may mask other inbound attacks from allies, or other players. It will also prevent the player from using Truce to protect himself, as with the last update, truce can't be engaged while troops are inbound on attacks.

One player with a level ten Rally Point could effectively prevent ten enemy players from engaging truce to protect themselves that way. Ten low level heros, ten transporters, and ten other players are open to other attacks.

Another tactic is the raiding of valleys. This cost next to nothing. A low level hero, and a hand full of scouts. To protect those valleys, and the additional food, lumber, iron, or stone that is produced, the player may deploy troops to protect the valley. However, those valleys are still vulnerable. Without a hero to guide them, a smaller force, with even a low level hero, may well win the battle. I have seen 100 scouts and a level 3 hero defeat 200 scouts with only 25 friendly casualties.

The advantage to raiding valleys is that it is detrimental to both moral, and the production of and maintenance of troops to lose them. Without huge amounts of food, there is no way to keep the giant armies. Yes, you can raid Barb cities, however, there are a finite number of suitable cities, and a large number of players who need the food. This is why most valleys are claimed, and why people have started wars over the raiding of valleys.

Small, inexpensive, and easy tactics can tie up several large powerful players, almost indefinitely. One player, with one city, can seriously disrupt the powerful alliances, and cause them to exert inordinate amounts of time, resources, and troops to this one city.

If you send small attacks, say 200 archers, and I can train 500 troops, then the attack fails. So you have to send more troops than I as a single city player can train. So let's say an arbitrary number of 5k archers in an attack.

Nine attacks from each of your ten cities would beat the city down to about 20 in no time. However it would take 450k archers to perform this task. Use warriors in your calculations if you wish. While the troops are returning to recycle, I am comforting, and by the time they return to the attack, the city is quite happy again, and the long duration attacks continue obviously.

It would literally, not figuratively, take most of the major players alliance to successfully beat a city down to zero loyalty, and 100 grievance. The population can't be allowed to grow above zero, otherwise the attacks resume rather quickly.

Imagine this for a moment. The enemy spends four days and nights, pounding your city constantly, and you ignore it. You may log on, and confirm that the attacks are continuing, and eventually they will stop. You log on, comfort, and again start to build. It doesn't take you long. A few scouts, a couple transporters, a couple low level heros. Then you're back at the attacks, after literally millions of enemy troops were tied up beating on you. A dozen scouts, and a couple transporters have you right back in the game, again harassing and annoying the enemy.

The Moral Question is next. How do you think your alliance members will respond when the single purpose of the alliance is to beat on one single city, to keep that one player from raiding valleys? Isn't that going to be boring after a while? Aren't they going to get disgusted and move to another alliance which isn't involved in such a war? Or do you tell everyone to put 1k archers in each valley, so after four hours, I can come and take it from them with 1k of my own archers, and a punk hero?

Massive constant attacks are the only way to respond, and that is a futile response. Eventually, you get involved in another war, and while you're fighting a conventional war, with huge armies, with another alliance, the nipping at your heels from that single city player raiding valleys, and doing long term attacks, will be intolerable.

These tactics as part of an alliance war plan could well fix the lower level, and weaker players, by denying them the ability to truce and protect themselves. They would have to Barb, or Teleport the city to end the pending attack, and allow them to go into Truce Mode.

By using Guerrilla Warfare tactics, and patience you can tie up an alliance for days, or weeks, with minimal forces, minimal effort on your part, and minimal time online. A couple hours a day, maximum, would see to your war effort, while they would spend three times as much time online trying to stop you. All while pretending that their effort isn't futile, and that you'll get bored eventually. The problem with that plan is that eventually, the truth is unfolded. You won't get bored, you will be patient, and attack every day you can. You will not get upset if your city is attacked, and you aren't concerned, because you can't lose the city. Destroy a hundred scouts and I don't care, I can train a hundred more in ten minutes can't I?

Large unit tactics take time, and lots of effort to maintain. Small unit tactics are much easier, and far more effective considering the time and energy invested.