Beginners Guide [6]

So, you think you're a warrior, do you? A general, perhaps? You think you have what it takes to lead men into battle, and see them safely out the other side? Maybe, after reading this, you will...

My objective with this little tutorial is not so much to tell you what to do (though I assure you my own personal opinions may well lean toward that very thing) but I would try to simply state the facts. Pros and Cons of every troop type. What I believe should be used, for what, when, how many... So forth. Afterwards, perhaps I shall include my own personal preference and setup. But lets get started, shall we?

Spearmen
The basic unit. This is a defensive troop type, through and through. However, his general defence point is low. His cavalry defence however is high. What does this mean for you?

At low levels the spearman should be used to raid abandoned villages quickly and cheaply to put you ahead of your peers. But later on he should be stationed in your village(s) to defend against attacking cavalry. He is weak attacking, so should not be sent to attack a defended adversary and is also weak defending against anything that isn’t cavalry, so should be supported by swordsmen, archers, or heavy cavalry at all times during a defence.

Swordsmen
A key unit to your successes. At low levels they should be trained immediately. This is when no one has cavalry, so swordsmen will be your perfect defender against any axes sent at u, spearmen are in fact unnecessary at this early stage!

Unfortunately they take a lot of iron, however as you've probably noticed, nothing else does. So you should have some spare. This is an advantage, if you choose to see it that way. Swordsmen are brilliant defenders, especially against mounted archers, and that is their primary role. They can be used to support a large attack, although I would not advise it, but generally should be stationed behind the walls.

Axemen
Ah, the axeman, these are your attack soldiers. Defensively, they are worthless and ignorable. As raiders, they can carry less loot than any other unit. All they are good for is killing. You should always keep a contingent of axemen handy at higher levels, but remember they do not defend you from incoming attacks, they should be recruited after your swords/spears.

Scouts
Vital! I cannot stress this enough. A serious, self-respecting, attacker always scouts first, that is fact. If you have enough scouts defending you, you kill his and he doesn't know what he is attacking. Therefore, he will send no more men. Not until he has scouted you successfully (and, of course, you won't let him... will you?)

Of course, they work the other way as well. When you are attacking, never do so without scouting first.

Cavalry
Regarding Cavalry, both light and heavy, I have much to say. Basically, light cavalry are to accompany axes on all major attacks once u can build them. Heavy cavalry are a combination of axemen and swordsmen and spearmen. So, they're “uber”, right? WRONG!

Allow me to jump into some maths, here. Ignore the resources and time it takes to recruit either unit. Let us look instead at the actual statistics of the units and the number of villagers they use (ultimately, you only have 24000 villagers in each village and several thousand of those are taken up by buildings).

A single unit of heavy cavalry takes 6 villagers. Therefore, since any infantry (axe, sword or spear) takes only a single villager, we should divide all statistics by 6 and consider the cavalry unit as a single man. Now, he has 25 attack compared to the 40 of an axeman. 33 defence compared to the 50 of a swordsman and 13 cavalry defence compared to the 45 of a spearman. Conversely, you can multiply any of those infantryman's stats by 6 and then see that they are far better than any cavalry.

Of course, the trouble here is that you have to recruit a number of each type rather than just one type of cavalry, which can multi-task. But this too is a blessing! It means you can leave behind your defensive statistics while sending forward your attacking statistics. With heavy cavalry you must send your defenders away along with your attackers, or leave some attackers behind.

Oh, I feel I should also remind you that when attacking with cavalry you are more damaged by spearmen than by swordsmen. If your scouts report a village defended by swords only, cavalry will suffer far less casualties than if u attacked with axes alone.

What heavy cavalry are very good at, though, is providing a solid fast defensive force for any of your villages or your allies. they can mobilize in half the time of a swordsman and can be put into defensive areas quickly when they are needed.

I bid you to make your own calculations and decisions as to what you prefer. However it is my opinion that infantry are superior to heavy cavalry, and therefore investing resources into heavy cavalry is a waste. However, DO recruit light cavalry! They are a key ingredient to any decent attack.

Rams
Rams are a beautiful thing. They are expensive, but worthwhile. Walls are the attackers worst nightmare, once u forget about morale, they tip the balance in favor of the defenders. Well, your rams are your way around this dilemma. They remove the walls from the equation. The attacker, you see, has the advantage of being able to calculate his odds of victory. The defender has no such luxury, he must fight either way, whether he has his walls or not. Rams are a great support to your axemen and light cavalry and reduce loss of life; in high level attacks they are essential. However, remember when conquering villages that you are destroying walls that will later defend your village...

Catapults
When conquering a village sometimes it is best to reduce the enemy's headquarters below level 15 to prevent him from sabotaging all his buildings and reducing them to rubble before you conquer his ground. Or you can slow his production of troops (destroy the barracks or resource producers) or even attack his walls. Catapults can also be used to create a pain in the backside of the enemy as he sees his villages destroyed to mere rubble – they can be used when you merely wish to agitate the defender and do not wish to attack his village. They are mostly used offensively but can help defend if necessary.

It is your decision whether you think these units are needed in your armies.

Simulator
No, this isn't a troop type. However it is useful. After a time you may stop using it but it is still wise to get to know the simulator. You can find it in your Rally Point. Here you can test your attacks to see how effective they will be. Don't underestimate its usefulness.

So, those are your troops. Spearmen, Swordsmen and Scouts to defend your home. Axemen, Light Cavalry, Rams and Catapults to destroy your enemy's homes. Don't go sending your soldiers against some large formidable tribe/player. Choosing your target is vital when planning to invade, pick on the smaller enemy. But also remember that his points do not represent in any way shape or form how many troops he has.

I'm afraid there's little more I can say. Congratulations, soldier, you now know enough to go out there and start training your troops! But remember, real combat can be tricky. Never jump into it unprepared. If you are unprepared, you are dead. So, remember the Three S's:

Scout
Simulate
Survive!

Battling with siege Rams:
The calculations done in a battle follow a specific order. Rams are calculated TWICE. The first time, before the attack, the pre-wall damage. This is level the wall operates at during the main battle calculation.

Z/4 * 1.09^-W

(number of levels the wall is reduced, rounded to nearest level)

Z is your number of rams W is the level of the wall

The pre-wall damage is limited to knocking the wall down to half its original level, i.e., a level 20 wall will never be calculated below level 10 in battle, no matter how many rams you send. The second wall calculation comes after battle, which requires knowing the actual battle calculation. That's for another thread. The purpose of this thread is to help you attack with the best number of rams. Drum roll please...

When launching a full offensive strike against a level 20 wall, you need:

213/4 * 1.09^-20 = 9.501 ~ 10

This represents the minimum number of rams to achieve maximum pre-wall damage.

Catapults:

Of course, you probably won't be using cats often if at all but...

The thing most people don't know about cats is that they are best deployed in waves, not a lump attack. This is because it takes less and less cats to knock a building down one level as its level decreases.

30 to 29 -> 20
29 to 28 -> 19
28 to 27 -> 17
27 to 26 -> 16
26 to 25 -> 15
25 to 24 -> 13
24 to 23 -> 12
23 to 22 -> 11
22 to 21 -> 11
21 to 20 -> 10
20 to 19 -> 9
19 to 18 -> 8
18 to 17 -> 8
17 to 16 -> 7
16 to 15 -> 6
15 to 14 -> 6
14 to 13 -> 6
13 to 12 -> 5
12 to 11 -> 5
11 to 10 -> 4
10 to 9 -> 4
9 to 8 -> 4
8 to 7 -> 4
7 to 6 -> 3
6 to 5 -> 3
5 to 4 -> 3
4 to 3 -> 3
3 to 2 -> 2
2 to 1 -> 2
1 to 0 -> 2

How many would you need to drop a level 30 building down to zero in one hit? 1175! That's a difference of 937 cats, or 7496 population! What a waste. (Please do not mistake catapults, shortened to “cats,” for real cats… launching real cats at the enemy will only cover them in fur and cat blood… when u invade the village you will then face a rather large cleaning bill for all the carpets in your new castle!)

Defenses are the most important part of playing the game. Players who have low defenses may be lucky but luck always runs out.

Defensive Unit Objectives:
Objective one (less than 1000 points): Wall (level 10) and have troop strengths of 500 spearmen, 500 swordsmen and 100 scouts - for a new player, this is harder than it sounds. Resources seem to take forever and farming is always a gamble when starting. Always focus on defenses. Other structures may have to be built while accomplishing.

Objective two (1000-1500 points): Wall (level 20) and have a troops strength of 1000 spearmen, 1000 swordsmen and 300 scouts - This is the minimum defensive outline for a village of 1000 points. This is when other people (people like me) begin looking at you as an easy take. Once the above is coming to be, you can start to build up resources (wood, clay and iron). This is a transition stage.

Objective three (1500-2000 points): Wall (level 20) and have a troops strength of 2000 spearmen, 2000 swordsmen and 500 scouts - This again is the minimum defenses for a village with the points range of 1500-2000). Resources should be your focus now. Upgrading them as much and as quickly as possible.

Objective four (2000-3000 points): Wall (level 20) and have a troops strength of 3000+ spearmen, 3000+ swordsmen and 1000+ scouts - This base line of defenses will keep almost all attackers at bay. Also paving the way to preparing to take another village.

Objective five (4000+ points): Wall (level 20) and have a troops strength of 4000+ spearmen, 4000+ swordsmen and 1250+ scouts - A player may have routed some energy into light cavalry already. They are important to raiding and a quicker build up. Resources are now getting up there. This is the point one should begin to build up an assault/attack force (axemen and light cavalry). I strongly urge players with less than two villages not to build any heavy cavalry. They are expensive to build. A player can almost double their number of light cavalry with the resources spent on the heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry also take up a lot of your population.

With the above outline, very few if any attempts on sieging your village will take place. In the event that a much larger player goes after you while you are at 4000 or so points. Assistance given will be that much more effective.

My take is that one should split their villages to " Attacking Village " and " Defensive Village ".

Attacking Village - One that is build to attack other villages.
Defensive village - One that is build to defend own village and offer assistance to other villages.

For defensive villages at 5000+ points, I would advise such setup:

Spears - 8500+
Swords - 8500+
Scouts - 1500+

For Attacking villages at 5000+ points, I would advise such setup:

Axes - 8000-10000
Scouts - 1000+
Lt cav - 2000-3000
MA's - 1500-2000
Rams - 100-250

For me, I would not waste my time on rams and cats, they are good to bring walls and buildings down. But for me, I would want to the village to remain intact when I occupy them.

Creating Your Nobleman So, you think you're ready to expand? Are you sure? To make your nobleman you need an Academy. Don't be fooled, this isn’t Age of Empires, making an Academy is a tricky business. It requires a level 20 Headquarters, level 20 Smithy and level 10 Market. But I assume you know that, that’s why you're here. Still, it is an expensive task and it is advisable to have at least 3000 points, lvl 28+ Wood/Clay/Iron and 4000+ Sp/Sw before you make your nobleman.

Your first nobleman requires a coin of 28,000 Wood, 30,000 Clay and 25,000 Iron, then the actual nobleman of 40,000 Wood, 50,000 Clay and 50,000 Iron. This requires a warehouse of level 17 minimum for the coin, then a lvl 20 minimum for the actual nobleman.

Each nobleman after that costs coins before you can build the nobleman. For your first nobleman, only 1 coin total is required. For the second, 3 total coins are required (difference of 2). For the third nobleman, 6 total coins are needed (difference of 3). Ooohh, i see a pattern.

Choosing A Target So, you've made your nobleman and you're ready to strike! But wait! Who are you going to convert to your cause? Many decide to conquer a nearby abandoned village their first time however the choice is ultimately up to you. There are a few things to consider:

How far is your target? Your nobleman crosses each individual square of the map (the size of one village) in 35 minutes. The longer your invasion lasts, the more losses you will take. It is also important to remember that enemy villages regenerate loyalty. I shall explain loyalty in more detail later.
How strong is your target? Never attack someone stronger than you. Be a bully. That’s just common sense, isn’t it? This IS a war game after all!
Is your target the member of a tribe larger than or around the same strength of your own? If yes, choose another! Never attack the member of a powerful tribe unless your tribe is already at war with them. Even then, think twice! They may counter-attack in a massive force or be well defended.

Doing The Deed So, you've found your victim. Now to plunge the knife... But not so fast! Never attack without scouting first. Send a force of at least 500 scouts. If they come back dead, stay away! But, hopefully, you will learn that the enemy (if you've chosen a sufficiently tasty target) is sitting merry behind no walls and not enough units to defend himself. If that be the case, slaughter. But always be certain that you outnumber your foe greatly. His walls make a huge difference. If you are unconfident that you will win, stop here. Fortify your army (though be aware your enemy will be doing the same since you scouted him) and then scout again before you strike.

Let me show an example from a recent attack:

Attacker: Quantity 100 200 430 0 0 0 18 0 1 Losses: 28 55 118 0 0 0 5 0 0

Defender: Quantity 20 80 11 40 46 3 0 5 0 Losses: 20 80 11 40 46 3 0 5 0

Translation? The defender had 293 troops total. The attacker had 649 including nobleman. Quite obviously, the attacker should win, right? More than double his men. Well, as you can see the attacker did win. He is now undefended and awaiting the next wave of soldiers. However, the attacker lost a quarter of his/her main attacking force (400 axemen) the swords and spears (the defence force) were there just to be certain they survived intact, without them though I am certain the attacker would have lost far more and now be contemplating putting off a further assault as they trained fresh troops. Don’t waste your defence troops on attacks if you feel it will be a close-call!

Note: Never ever, ever send a nobleman alone into enemy lands.

You've Conquered! So we've skipped forward a little (for more information see the general notes below) The walls of your enemies have been ripped down, his village is a smoldering ruin and his dead soldiers litter the bloodied ground. Hold on... That’s your village! It is important to be certain you conquer, so feel free to use rams and take down his walls. Catapults however can be tricky. It's a nice idea, blast him to pieces. But try to keep his village intact. Remember if it is an active player with a village HQ over level 15 he can destroy his own buildings. Imagine your horror when that 3000 point village you conquer now has 30 points because the previous owner destroyed everything before you got there! Some people have no shame. If you are afraid of this, feel free to batter away at his headquarters, but be warned you will be the one to rebuild.

Remember also that you must now defend this place. Rebuild the walls you destroyed and send troops from the once attacking village to defend. It is important therefore that you had not only recruited your attacking troopers but defenders as well to hold the battle-scarred walls. The loyalty of your new town remains low for a time, but will regenerate 1 per hour. However, to begin with it is vulnerable. I personally have never had a problem but be warned that if the player you "stole" the village from has another village nearby, he may snatch it straight back, if he has his own nobleman. It may also be worth noting that the nobleman you conquered with is now gone, he's taken charge of your new manor house, is exploiting the slaves you took and getting fat off your loot. You're never going to see him again (You won’t be invited to his funeral if the villages he is controlling falls to enemy hands).

So, What Next? Well, that’s about as far as I go with the step-by-step part of this tutorial. I suggest rebuilding, particularly in the resource and defence department. Rename your new town something witty like "haha, I win" or whatever codes you use for your villages, I personally number mine with names mostly stolen from songs! Just be sure you don't leave it as "other-player's village" If you wish to conquer again, return to your home base and you must now upgrade your Academy to level 2. Depressing, isn't it? All those resources can take days to acquire. Then there's the nobleman... double the resources this time (thats 60,000 clay!) As I said before, noblemen are fragile, be careful with them – Do not tip them upside down… You should find a ‘This Way Up’ sign on the box. If they die, you'll never forgive yourself – Unless you are that evil OR self-harming type. Of course, a nobleman who does not conquer can be retrained, you don’t have to upgrade your academy for another unless he has conquered.

The Mechanics So you've done it! Aren't you proud? You should be! But what exactly did you do? Let's go over some of the math and lesser known articles.

Firstly, you may be interested to know that every time you strike your nobleman has a chance of decreasing the enemy's loyalty between 20 and 35%. Hold on, what IS this loyalty? Okay, let me explain that at last.

Basically, Loyalty is the loyalty of the village to its owners. When this little number reaches zero the attacker conquers the village, his attacking troops remain in the village and the nobleman disappears. The ONLY way to reduce loyalty is with an attacking nobleman. It regenerates at 1% per hour. So, how does this affect you? Say you're attacking someone 20 squares away. That's more than a 10 hour trip one way. That's a long time. So your nobleman hits the enemy village and takes down... okay lets say youre lucky, he does 35%. Now he has to come back, in that time the village regenerates 10%. You send your man back out an hour later when you check back and 10 hours later you strike again, that makes 11% he has again regenerated before you strike. Thats 21% altogether. That means you only did 14% loyalty damage. That is going to take a long time to conquer! This is why you need to attack someone close by, and plan a time when you can be online regularly (weekend maybe?) so you can keep up with it.

As I said before, when you conquer a village it starts out at 25% loyalty to you. This will rise until it becomes 100%, but in the meantime you are vulnerable. If someone successfully attacks you just once, you may just lose your entire, hard-earned, village straight out. Defend yourself well!

Another interesting point to make. I once read somewhere that you can potentially, if you chose to build this way, create an academy and nobleman with less than 2000 points, I forget the exact figure. I strongly suggest against this. You simply won’t be strong enough. Two weak villages do not make a strong one. You have to support your weaker villages in some way, since they will eventually be preyed upon (just the same way as you preyed upon them before, you nasty predator you!) But to do so with a weak village? Well, I don't see the sense in that. Be patient. Look at your neighbors. As I said before, you attack those near you, not far away. They are the only ones you really can attack. Be paranoid. Everyone is a threat. Stay ahead of the rat race. Or you will be nothing but nibbles for the rats. Though of course your tribe may rush to your rescue before that happens!

One final thing regarding choosing your target – Once you have acquired enough village to build 4 noblemen at once you may send them in a string of attacks (Leave none unguarded though) – Normally this will capture the village for you no matter how far away it is (Unless your noblemen decide to only reduce the loyalty by small amounts).

If I have missed anything or you have any questions feel free to post here and I'll fill it in for you. I hope it made sense and can help you out. Good luck Conquering!

Chapter Two: Your first village I'm gonna describe a cookie-cutter build for Tribal Wars. This means it's a general guidelines sort of strategy, but you'll have to make adaptations depending on your situation. For example if you're under the threat of attack, you will want to make more defense, etc. This is more or less what I did, so take it for what it's worth:

The strategy basically starts from scratch.. if you're already past this point, you can read up to where you are at and proceed from there.

Boost timber/clay non-stop.. iron two levels below the other two. When the sucky people around you come out of protection is when you want to have a force of spearmen ready to start raiding them. So let someone with an army scan the good prospects for farming to see when they come out of noob protection. Any village below 120 points are marks.
Build up spearmen and raid away. Make some swordsmen (like 100) which you can let at home for defense. Building-wise get your wall up to level 5 and still non-stop boost resources. Also get a few levels of marketplace and trade for resources whenever you're in need of something. Offer em 1:1 if you need to. Ignore axemen.
When you reach about 20/20/18 in timber/clay/iron, you now boost HQ to 10 (this one first!), barracks to 5, smithy to 5 and start making some scouts and then mass light cavalry. Scout like crazy everyone who looks like a mark around you - this is: everyone up to like half your points. Scout many screens away around you, not just your immediate vicinity! Then you farm with l. cavalry, with the money they make you build more l. cavalry.. let this become a vicious circle and you are going strong. Don't bother too much with more swords/spears than 200-300 unless you really need to. Same with further wall upgrades.
* NOTE 1 * the biggest mistake I see most people make is to upgrade barracks, smithy, etc a little bit in between resource upgrades.. this is a big waste! Don't do it. Except for farm and warehouse upgrades which you need to proceed, just ignore wasteful upgrades. (hiding place at level 1, don't upgrade it unless you come under attack!)
*NOTE 2 *And you really don't need rams and catapults until you're going for your academy and you need to take down walls! Going for workshop and making like 10 rams and 10 catapults puts you back a whole lot as compared to someone who just races resources.
* NOTE 3 * another common mistake is that people pick a fight with other people that are active.. ignore em, pick on the weak and inactives. And if your farms are being farmed by others.. whatever. Split your light cavalry up and farm whenever you get a chance to log on.
Then around 25/25/24 - 27/27/26 (only go higher the less you can farm in your area.. the less you can farm, the higher you need to have your resources before you proceed) you upgrade HQ to 20 (first), then market to 10 and then smithy to 20. Now around this time you will have an excess of money because those buildings cost very little and take long.. so now you start to mass an army 24/7. Make axemen now too. Oh, and when your smithy is level 12 you get workshop level 2 and start massing rams and cats. (like 75 of each at least) Also do all the upgrades.
Make your noble and start kicking someone's ass

Chapter Three: The great multi-village setup Your first village will have mixed troops in it: offense, defense, some rams, and maybe some cats. As you get more villages you might want to start building them more efficiently. You will want to have the biggest possible offense for your bashes so that you loose less troops, build only defense and Scouts in your defensive villages and then distribute these defensive troops to all your villages.

But how do you make your village builds most efficient?

Village Headquarters Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 20 15/99 38% Level 30 69/475 23%

For building approximately 60% faster, you pay an immense amount of resources, wait at least 3 days until the building is finished and block 376 farm slots. Since there is a cap to the maximum level of the other buildings, you will reach that quite quickly and really don't need the 60% speed increase. So stick with HQ 20.

Barracks Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 25 44/303 16%

You will want to build axes in your offensive villages as quickly as possible and spears, and spears and swords in your defensive villages as fast as possible, so there is no way around a level 25 barracks.

Stable Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 20 23/158 21%

A level 20 stables only uses up 158 farm slots and is obviously very useful in offensive villages. You might want to have it at level 20 in defensive villages, too, so you can change from defensive to offensive production fast, or to build heavy cavalry. As you start 24/7 defense production you will have the barracks working all day, but the stable has very little to do. You build Scouts very fast and they are very cheap too, so you might consider building some heavy cavalry, not as your primary defense but as a fast defense if support is needed somewhere.

Workshop Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 2 1/9 59%

Level 2 is enough, since it builds around 50 rams a day. It takes only 9 farm slots for that so I build these in defensive villages too, to produce siege equipment for fake attacks.

Smithy Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 20 57/395 15%

No discussion, it is necessary for the Academy and the nobleman.

Market Villagers for level/total number of Merchants

Level 10 12/82 10 merchants Level 16 31/211 46 merchants Level 20 57/395 110 merchants Level 25 126/866 235 merchants

Here is a building that keeps bugging me. You really "need" level 10. You might want level 16 for transporting up to 3 academy resource packages (ARP), which need 15 merchants per package. And that really should be the maximum in your offensive villages. In your defensive villages you might have a surplus on resources, so it might be necessary to build more. But remember. You can always use your own lt. cav to plunder yourself. I would not build a market exceeding level 16.

If you have many villages I think that in any maxed out/finished villages you should have market level 20. Since you no longer really need the resources in your maxed out village you can send 50k of each resource a day to one of you undeveloped villages. A level 20 market is a very useful thing in a finished village. Don't bother with it until you take care of your other needs though (walls, resources producers, barracks, etc.) Taking a market from level 10-20 is one of the last things I do before I "graduate" a village. A village that is near 24k pop, and 30/30/30 on its resources isn't doing you much good if you're not frequently shipping resources to your developing villages and your tribe mates and allies. In a mature village, a high level market will give you an edge.

Resources Level Villagers for level/total production

Timber camp Level 30 43/326 3600 production per hour Clay pit Level 30 55/447 3600 production per hour Iron mine Level 30 138/949 3600 production per hour

No doubt you would prefer be long on resources rather than not having enough to build anything at all.

Farm Villagers for level/total Population

Level 30 0/0 24000

Well, obviously it costs no farmers but produces. Level 30, in all villages, no exceptions.

Warehouse Villagers for level/total Time Factor

Level 25 0/0 142373 Level 30 0/0 400000

You might want to keep this at level 25, because your village has less points then and therefore your morale would be higher, but since it costs no farm slots, most players tend to build it to level 30

Hiding Place Villagers for level/total Storage

Level 1 2/2 150 Level 10 1/8 2000

This can be effective to piss off attackers in the beginning, but it also helps in the late game. When your rally point is destroyed and you need to replace it you should have at least Level 1. Level 10 is pretty useless, but thats just 6 farm slots, so decide for yourself.

Wall Villagers for level/total defence

Level 20 15/99 207% defense bonus

A level 20 wall provides a massive defense bonus and increases the villages defense by a fixed (but quite low value), so that incoming troops get damage even if you have no defending troops.

Let's add this up!

Building Level Farm Points
Headquarter: 20 99 319
Barracks: 25 303 1272
Stable: 20 158 639
Workshop: 2 9 29
Academy: 3 110 937
Smithy: 20 395 607
Market: 16 211 154
timber camp 30 326 1187
clay pit 30 447 1187
iron mine 30 949 1187
Warehouse: 25 0 477
Farm: 30 0 989
Hiding place: 1 2 5
Wall: 20 99 256
TOTAL: n/a 2835 9245

Your village could be 12355 points if you maxed everything, but you will have 2k fewer farm slots in exchange for small improvements in other areas. This formula suggested above leaves you 21,165 villagers to use for troops.

Chapter Four: Defensive Strategies Shifting Weight Many people do this, but don't think of it as a strategy. However, it is one of the most important things to do when having more than one defensive village. Shifting weight is when you are getting attacked in multiple villages and have the ability to calculate which attacks are fake, what troops are being sent, and what to do.

Fake Attacks To pick out which attacks are fake and which are real, you simply have to determine a couple things. First off, establish when the attacks were made. If one attack right after another was made from the same village, it could be a noble train, or it may be a cluster of fake attacks.

Start by finding the total time it takes to reach your village to the other with a nobleman. Next, check to see if that unit is in the attacking wave by examining his troops arrival times.

If his troops will arrive in your village in 2 hours, prepare to send him a nobleman to check the time required. Say the noble takes 4 hours. Then, you know the attack does not include a nobleman. It may be a fake attack, or it may be an attack with other types of units. Continue the process above with different types of units, as this will allow you to determine the slowest moving unit included in the charge.

Another good way to learn what your enemy is sending at you is to attack him back with level 3 scouts--if your scouts are able to report on what units are outside his village, then you can use your best judgment to guess which of those troops might be heading your way. Of course, you must scout the same city that is sending attacks at you.

Sometimes people try to trick you by sending rams as fake attacks. The travel time for rams is close to that for nobles, but it differs by a few minutes per field. Nobles take the longest to get to targets, scouts are quickest.

Troops Let's assume that you now know that the attacker is sending swords. What should you do?

Swords are a weak attacking unit. They do not match up well against any of the defensive units besides spears. If you are getting attacked by swords, do one of two things.

Laugh cause you know what to do cause you read this article
Laugh because your attacker is such a noob.

All joking aside, you should begin to shift your defenses over to the village under attack, and send away your offensive troops at your attacker. This may sound a little lame, but please keep reading. Your attacker is sending swords. You don't know how many or if he has any other defense in his village, but chances are good that he is sending more than 1 sword. This means that his defenses are weakened. Also, it's wise to send your offensive troops out of your village when you are being attacked because most offensive units have very little defensive capability.

Essentially, shifting weight means moving your troops around to your other villages (enabling your villages to withstand the opposing forces) after taking the time to learn as much as you can about what your enemy is sending your way.

Chapter Five: Offensive Strategies Time on target Time on target was a concept originally developed by the Allied Artillery during World War 2. The idea behind time on target then was to have as many artillery shells land on a target area simultaneously as was possible. This enabled the artillery to do as much damage to enemy positions as they could before the enemy could scatter and/or take shelter in fortifications. It was computed by picking a time to attack the enemy, and then computing the shell flight times from each battery to the target. This gave a battery the time when they should fire their guns. Because different batteries were at different distances to the target, the fire time would be different for each battery. So, each battery fired at a different time, but at the destination, every shell hit the target area within a second or two of each other.

Using time on target (TOT) tactics can be highly effective in Tribal Wars, but for different reasons. You cannot join attacks together from different places to make them more effective like you can in real-world combat or in many other strategy games, but TOT, in conjunction with other techniques like fake attacks, fake noble trains, and real noble trains, can be highly effective in deceiving your enemy as to your real intentions.

What to do The Tribal Wars combat system favors defense over offense, in part for the reason that attacks cannot be joined, but defense can be heaped onto a single village without limit when support from other villages is taken into consideration. Add into the mix a wall that both adds defensive points and acts as a defensive effects multiplier for defending armies, and the combat advantage is tilted in favor of defense. The only advantage offensive armies have is that they build more quickly than defensive armies (2 weeks for a full offensive army, versus the better part of a month for a full defensive army), but that's a strategy and logistics concern that doesn't help you in combat.

So, given this, the worst possible thing you can do is let your enemy know what your target(s) is/are. The absolute worst thing to do is just to send your armies forth against your target and hope it will break. That will work against idiots and newbie players still trying to figure their way around in the game, and hideously disorganized tribes, but if you're fighting someone who has half a clue, and if they've got a decently active tribe with a few defensive troops, be prepared to see a lot of red dots come back in your attack reports.

The first step to misdirection involves using fake attacks. Send one axeman or ram up at several different villages is effective in this, because the target player cannot distinguish between a single ram sent, versus an 8,000axe/3,000lcav/300ram juggernaut. Faking is important, but peripheral to the matter at hand.

However, if your targets are spread across any distance and you send your fakes at the same time as your real attacks, it is feasible that a good player can micromanage their defense so that as each of your forces arrive, both fake and real, that you are facing most, if not all of his defensive forces in every village. Sure, you're making life more interesting for your target than just charging forward, but you could still get spanked hard. Clearly, that's unacceptable. The point of fakes is to keep defensive forces pinned down defending things you're not attacking.

The point of TOT is to minimize the amount of support the villages you are attacking will receive by forcing the enemy to distribute their defenses over a wide area, while allowing you to concentrate your offense on just one or a few targets, depending on the size and scope of your offensive. So, how do you arrive at this timing mastery? All you really need to know how to do is come up with a plan and know how to subtract.

Pick your targets. Decide which are real and which are fakes. If you have a specific target in mind, that's fine, but try not to be obvious and always go for the best village. Be random. If you want to noble a couple villages, get a list of your six favorites, number them 1 to 6, and let a six-sided die decide. Flip a coin to pick between two. Canny opponents will learn your ways and attempt to take advantage of your habits.
Either using TW Plus or Tribal Wars itself, you can figure out how long an attack given a certain type of unit will take. In TW Plus, use the Duration, Village, and Attack Calculators to get attack times. In Tribal Wars, you can just plug in attacks on the villages you are targeting and click attack, but be careful to not confirm the attack!
Take the longest attack duration and add that to the time you want to commence operations. This time will be your TOT
For all the other attack durations, subtract these from the TOT to get the time each attack should be launched.
List all these attacks in time order on a sheet of paper, a spreadsheet, a word processing document, or whatever you are comfortable with. The important things you will need is the time to launch, the village you're launching from, the village you're launching to, and at least whether the attack is fake or real. If you want to really get into the nitty-gritty, write down exactly how big each strike force is.
When the commence time arrives, launch your first attack.
As each computed time arrives, launch the attacks. Be sure you have both your correct village and the enemy's correct village specified! It's especially easy to not pay attention and send the attack from the wrong village
Enjoy the flood of reports you get within seconds of each other. :-)

Now, it takes time for your adversary to move support from one village to the other, so sub-second timing is clearly not necessary from a tactical perspective. Unless villages are right next to each other, you can afford 20 or even 30 minutes of slop from TOT. After all, we're not launching an artillery barrage. I strive to hit a 15 minute window of arrival times, though. From a psychological perspective, however, getting all your attacks to arrive within a minute of each other can be highly intimidating to your opponent. Imagine yourself in their shoes: How would you feel having 30 incomings on 6 villages all set to arrive at the same time?