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Tactics

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This article will attempt to explain some simple strategies for Tribal Wars. The strategies are guidelines and not the best way nor the only way to fight in a war. Sticking only to these strategies is likely to result in failure; good strategists will always change their tactics to keep their enemy guessing what they will do next.

Definitions:

  • Strategy - a plan that you follow to reach your goal.
  • Tactics - the method(s) you use to follow your plan.

Contents

Village set-up

There are many different ways to set up a village. When building villages, it is important never max out the building as it wastes manpower that could be used for troops. Knowing which buildings to max, and which ones to stop at certain levels is important in helping to get an edge on the enemy. Typically the best villages are in between 8,000 and 10,000, and are set up similar to the versions below. Note the differences between a defensive village and an offensive village set-up.

Defensive village

In setting up the village thus, building speed in all aspects is maximized. The following simulations show why it is important to keep the barracks and stables maximized.

Building time of below defensive troop set-up with level-25 barracks and level 20 stable:

Total duration: 478:06:40 (Barracks) Total duration: 172:55:00 (Stable)

The workshop does not hold a significant place in most defensive setups, and is thus often disregarded in defensive calculations.

Building time of below defensive troop set-up with level-23 barracks and level-18 stable:

Total duration: 536:57:20 (Barracks) Total duration: 194:26:40 (Stable)

Fifty-eight hours are cut from the on the barracks building times, and twenty-two hours from the stable building times. In a war, or confrontation, churning out troops at maximum speed is always essential.

Offensive village

In setting up the village thus, building speed in all aspects is maximized. The following simulations show why it is important to keep the barracks and stables maximized:

Building time of below offensive troop set-up with level-25 barracks and level-20 stable (workshop not included, because it finishes the rams regardless of level and only takes up space in the farm at higher levels:

Total duration: 258:24:00 (Barracks) Total duration: 207:30:00 (Stable)

Building time of below offensive troop set-up with level-23 barracks and level-20 stable (workshop not included, because it finishes the rams regardless of level and only takes up space in the farm at higher levels:

Total duration: 290:42:00 (Barracks) Total duration: 233:20:00 (Stable)

Thirty-two hours are cut from the barracks building times, and twenty-six hours from the stable building times. In a war or confrontation, churning out offensive nukes to send at the enemy is also critical. Thirty-two hours is a long time in Tribal Wars.

Troops set-up

Defensive villages

Include the use of:

For worlds with archers:

For worlds without archers:

Keep in mind that the above set ups are only one version for each type of world. Play with the simulator in the Rally point to find other combinations. This set up takes the least amount of time to rebuild for the impact that it has on an offensive enemy, short of using a strategy which reduces defensive strength by 20% on worlds without archers. It takes 1+ full nukes to take out this set up with heavy losses on the attackers side.

Offensive villages

On worlds without Mounted Archers and using coin systems:

On worlds without Mounted Archers and using packet systems:

On worlds with Mounted Archers:

The most powerful offensive attacking squad is 15K axes and some light cavalry, but the time it takes to build this set up is much too long and is ineffective when you look at what you can do with the same time frame for both attacks. The way this offensive village is set up is the normal nuke set up, you may use your own set up, but the most effective for money and time is this way.

Many players mix up their villages and have 'Support' Nukes. Some of these nukes include:

  • 3,400 Heavy Cavalry - very good at supporting a village under attack and good attacking power to support a nobleman.
  • 4,100 Mounted Archers (Archer worlds only) - many players lack defence against archers so a Mounted Archer nuke often catches player off guard.
  • 2,600 Catapults - Used mainly for clearing small amounts of troops and attacking villages you do not want to noble. (You would not usually want to noble a village that has a small farm as you just destroyed it)

Nobles

You can use nobles in both defensive and offensive villages. I prefer to put them in the offensive because my nobles have a strong escort. If you know you are going into dangerous territory and need instant defense, using your defensive villages with nobles allows you to get in and be prepared to defend against enemies. Either way is fine, and it is up to you and where you plan to be nobling.

Defensive tactics

Everyone who plays Tribal Wars will be faced with attacks sooner or later. Good defensive tactics can upset the attacker's plans completely by not losing a single village or immediately retaking any village that has been lost. This can require a lot of hard work and commitment from the defender and support from his/her tribe. You are well advised to prepare yourself in advance with solid, basic defense knowledge. Tactics like: when to dodge, what units to defend with, and how to build defensive villages can help the inexperienced player out in a tight spot.

Dodging

The art of dodging is a very valuable skill that every Tribal Wars player must know. Dodging is the act of moving your troops out of your village to protect them from an enemy attack. Mastering this skill does not take much, but keeping up with multiple attacks at once and knowing when and where to dodge will keep you busy for a long time. This skill requires a lot of attention to detail, and here is why.

First, to dodge you must know what units are coming your way. Through either your estimation based off of previous attack times of this player or using TW Stats. Once you have determined the slowest unit, you have to evaluate whether or not to dodge. Two things go into this evaluation. First is their points. If they have far more points than you, then it's probably safe to assume that they have far more troops than you can handle defending against. At this point you will want to dodge regardless of the time of the attack, unless you know that you can beat the attack, simply because if all of your troops get wiped out, it's game over. Secondly, if the distance between your city and their city is calculated properly, you will know whether they are sending rams, catapults, or nobles which will give you the information you need to decide on a course of action. If the enemy is simply sending troops such as infantry and cavalry, then all they can take from you are resources, and if you spend them all before the enemy attack hits, they won't get anything. If the enemy is sending rams, catapults, or a noble, then they are either intending to destroy your city, or prepare to take it over, in which case you might as well defend as if you dodge it, there may not be anything for your troops to come back to.

Now protecting your troops is only half the dodging skill, you must also learn how to keep your resources while stopping your enemy from stealing them from you. The hiding place is not a great "hiding place" as it may infer. In the early stages it can act as a deterrent, and you should use it to help to that end. Remember that the hiding place can only store up to 2000 of each resource at its maximum level. The best way to keep your resource safe is to put them into constructing new buildings and training new troops. Put all that you can into these things, and if you still have more resources that you cant spend, as a last resort you can try sending them to someone in your tribe via your market if free trade has been enabled.

One last form of dodging is used to stop noble trains from taking your village. To dodge these you must first understand a basic noble train set up. They usually consist of 5 attacks, the first is a nuke (See: Offensive Tactics), and the next 4-5 will have a noble in them. The typical way for people to set up the noble train is to have the most offense in the first attack, which will weaken your defense drastically, and then come with a smaller offense in the remaining attacks. When you dodge, you should try to get your troops to dodge the nuke and then recall them directly after so that you can defend and hopefully kill the nobles that come after it, this is called sniping. Mind you a smart player might switch up their strategy and send a fake attack with a very small force in the first attack, and have the nuke in the second attack, predicting that you'll follow the strategy said here. So in the end, trust your instinct and do what you feel will work best against your opponent.

If your opponent is very skilled, he may send catapults in the first attack to destroy your rally point. This removes your ability to recall your troops to stop the last few nobles. To avoid this, make sure you recall your troops before the first attack hits. You can then still defend against the last attacks.

Dodging is an important skill to know, and is very useful for offensive and defensive players alike. You must anticipate your enemy's move and counter it to achieve victory. With the right tools and timing you will defend your villages against noble trains and stop your enemies from destroying you.

Sending support

When you send support there are several ways to do it, and a few ways not to do it. You must know what the enemy is using, figure out the risk of your village or tribe mate. Once you gather all this information you can send your troops knowing that they will be serving to their utmost efficiency. You can do Long term Supporting, Temporary support, and stacking support, each have their bonuses and tactics involved. You must decide what kind of support you will be sending, and this is what you need to know.

Long Term supporting is the sending of troops to another one of your villages or an allies village knowing that you won't do anything with those troops until the person you are supporting sends them back. This can be useful for them as they will be certain that they have troops defending them allowing them to be more aggressive on the front lines of war, or build their village with little worry of losing it. This defense is your Spears, Swords, Archers, and, if you feel like it is necessary, your paladin. When you do send long term support remember to keep track of where you sent them so you can get them back when they are no longer needed. People will forget about it.

Another type of support is your temporary or emergency support. This is support consisting only of Heavy Cavalry which have the best defense and speed per unit. Some people will build villages only of HC, or they will have them mixed with their long term support villages, it does not matter. You send this support when your ally or village is under attack and needs immediate support. You can send this before your Long term support so you can have support there until the real support arrives. That is not required though and you can just send the Heavy Cavalry.

Perhaps the support that costs you the least amount of resources is stacking defense. This strategy requires that you and your tribe send many units each to a village or player to support him. Depending on the size of the attacking player and the situation, you may need around 20,000 to 30,000 troops for any ordinary attempt to noble and hundreds of thousands for a heavy front line attack.

Defending is a very important part of this world, when you defend correctly your enemy can not beat you and you will be able to destroy him once he wastes his troop on your defense. All three defense types have their place and are all effective in their place. Use it wisely, and good luck out there.

Offensive tactics

There are more ways to attack than there are to defend, but often time your choice of attacking is obvious to the defender. There are four different ways and forms of attacking which include: Farming, Clearing, Nobling, and Punishment. Each one has it's place and set up, and should be used in the proper format. This is an over view of the different forms and how they work.

Farming

From the beginning of your race to rule your area, to the end of the world you must farm your heart out. Farming is a tribal wars term for attacking your enemy solely to steal their resources. Failure to do this early in the game will set you back behind your prospective enemies greatly and you won't last long. The most effective units are groups of spears or light Cavalry. Sometimes people will put units in your farms to kill them (known as spiking). You can not do a whole lot to stop this other than to plow through them. Simply send scouts and axes if you feel that you may be farming a spiked village.

Clearing

Clearing a village is preparatory for either future farming or ennoblement. The units inside your offensive village minus the nobleman are all you need to clear. Against a fully developed defense village it will take two attacks which mean you have to plan accordingly. When you send attack you have to decide whether or not to send cats or rams. Rams remove the wall, if you want to clear the village, which help a lot. If you want to take the village over later, you may want to consider how many rams you send to knock down the wall, or which building you target with your catapults.

So long as you send a large amount of troops with a nobleman, the wall will do little damage to your troops if the village is cleared, so you can afford to have the wall as high as level 15. The advantage of this is that you do not have to build the wall back up as much.

However, it is always more efficient to reduce the wall completely, to prevent more losses. If the player has support incoming from his/her tribemates, or a friend, then the wall will help them hold off your attacks (despite having appeared to clear the village). As the world progresses, it is a necessity in most cases to clear the village at the same time as destroying the wall, or the village will most likely be defended before the nobles land.

Nobling

Nobling is perhaps the most important skill to master in this game. Nobling allows you to take over a village once you knock down the loyalty far enough. There are three important things to consider when nobling; distance, troop count, and timing. Keeping tabs on all three lets you know how fast you can noble and whether or not a village is a good choice.

When you begin to noble distance is a big issue you have to think about. You not only have to think about your ability to send support and resources, but also the time it takes to get there. On a speed one world, nobles take thirty-five minutes to travel to an adjacent village. When it reaches the village it will normally take anywhere from 20-35 loyalty out of 100 loyalty in a village and then it travels back. This is an issue when you only have one or two nobles because loyalty goes back up 1-2 points per hour, depending on world settings. So, when taking in account you must never take a trip over 12 hours just to get there or you will never noble it. I would recommend a village that is 10 hours away there and back.

When you are nobling villages keeping your troop count for defense and offense is very important. At first you should double the defense you would feel comfortable with leaving your village alone with if you lost all your offense. Not so much at first, but once you start getting further into the game, you should keep a 2:1 defense/offense village ratio so you can defend your self without much worry. Your first village should be made offensive and the next two of your villages would be defensive. Keeping this ratio is up to you, some people will go a 5:1 ratio, others a 1:1 ratio. Just remember to keep one of these three ratio's, too much disproportion for either defense or offense will hurt you in the long run.

Now the issues of timing is up. When you are timing attacks from one village it is fairly easy, but when you go into multiple villages it becomes tricky. The first step is becoming comfortable with the attack planner on TW Stats. Once you find the times to reach your targeted village from your separate villages you have to calculate the time between all three. Depending on how close of these villages are you may be send one attack every 33 minutes or every five hours. Another tactic people will do is have all four nobles in a village and launch them all as fast as they can. In order to do this you have to have a tabbing browser. When you get ready to attack with how many units you send with your noble (send at least 100 axes with the last 3 nobles, and as many troops as you can with the first, and only if you are certain there is nothing in the village), use the following methods:

Internet Explorer

Open up the village you wish to launch your attacks from. Right click your rally point and select "open in new window", proceed by doing this 2 more times until you have 4 windows open. Set them so they cascade side by side (just enough so when you click "attack" the 'OK' button it's not too far from the next 'OK' button). Now you enter in all of your coordinates and unit counts to send in that attack.

Once you have all of your coordinatess and units entered; continue by clicking 'Attack' on all of your windows so the only step left is clicking the 'OK' button. Now once you have them all situated and cascading in order from top right to bottom left you can quickly click 'OK' on each of the windows.

Once you get use to this, you can now send noble trains within 1.75 seconds.

Note: I'm not sure if IE has updated to make this easier using that program, I do not use IE and I have removed it from my computer.

FireFox

Repeat all of the same steps listed above in the Internet Explorer strategy.

Once you get use to this, you can now send noble trains within 1.25 seconds.

Note: I'm not sure if FF has updated to make this easier using that program, I do not use FF for TW, it is too slow, clunky, and harder to use.

Opera

First, make sure your shortcut key for scrolling through tabs is enabled by going to Tools -> Preferences -> Shortcuts -> Enable Single-Key Shortcuts

Second, make sure your connections and cache's are set correctly. You can set them to the best performance (that I am aware of) by going to Tools -> Preferences -> History

Set 'Memory Cache' to 4MB and 'Disk Cache' to 400MB (or 5MB, I'm not sure but both work nicely on my computer...)

Continue by going to Tools -> Preferences -> Network

Set 'Max connections to a server' to 64 and 'Max total of connections' to 32.

Open up the village you wish to launch your attacks from. Right click your rally point and select "open in new tab", proceed by doing this 2 more times until you have 4 tabs open. Now you enter in all of your coordinates and unit counts to send in that attack.

Once you have all of your coordinates and units entered; continue by clicking 'Attack' on all of your tabs so the only step left is selecting the 'OK' button. Select the 'OK' button by hovering your mouse above it (but not clicking it!). Now, put your left index finger on the number 2 on your number pad to your right (assuming you have the number pad... I know some laptops don't have them) and your right index finger on the enter key located by the number pad. Quickly press the enter button, 2, enter, 2, enter, 2, enter.

The number 2 on the number pad cycles forward through the tabs and with your mouse above the 'OK' button it selects it so all you have to do it press enter. The number 1 cycles backwards through the tabs.

Once you get use to this, you can now send noble trains within .5 seconds. (my personal favorite)

Notes

  • When sending a series of four of more attacks from a single village, remember that the landing time between attacks one and four cannot be less than 150 milliseconds. Anything less than 150 ms is a breach of the rules.
  • Using a Paladin equipped with Vasco's Scepter (Lowers the loyalty of villages attacked by at least 30) can reduce the number of trips your noblemen need to noble a village.</b>
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