Part I: The Basics of Being Attacked
There are 3 things that can be lost or damaged if you are attacked.
- Your castle walls can be damaged
- Your resources (food, wood, iron, and silver) can be plundered
- Your troops can be injured or die
There are many reasons you might be attacked, but outside of killing events, resource raids are by far the most common reason. Castles bigger than Lv 15 are hard to maintain just by making and gathering their own resources, and it is far easier to steal someone else's stuff than to get your own.
Other reasons you might be attacked are, someone is trying to score kills off you for a killing event, someone has a personal vendetta against you, someone in your alliance harassed another alliance, or the attacker is just a jerk out for random kills and laughs.
When you are attacked, your attacker will take as many of your resources as his troops can carry. Your troops will go into your hospital, as much as the hospitals can hold. Any troops that cannot fit in the hospital will die. Your walls will also be damaged.
Part II: How to avoid being a target
A. Resources:
The best way to avoid being a target is not to leave resources out where they can be plundered. You wouldn't leave your purse or phone on the seat of your unlocked car, would you? Then why would you leave resources around for someone to steal?
I plan to write another piece about resource management, but for now it is just vitally important for you to understand the difference between safe and unsafe resources. If you are not sure, there is a brief explanation here.
Your warehouse can protect a certain amount of resources. To find out how much, tap on the warehouse, then on info. It will tell you an number, plus another number. The first number is the base amount of resources that level of warehouse can protect. The second number is whatever bonuses you might have earned by research, etc. The total of the 2 numbers is the amount that is safe from plunder. For Example, if I have 250,000 + 7000, then I can keep 257,000 of that resource safe from plunder. All the resources in your "Items" are also safe.
The best way to avoid being attacked for resources is to avoid leaving resources lying around.
The best way to avoid being attacked for resources is to avoid leaving resources lying around.
The best way to avoid being attacked for resources is to avoid leaving resources lying around.
I cannot say this enough. When you realize your resources are starting to stack up, use them as soon as possible. If you go gathering or plunder somebody, use the resources as soon as your troops get back. If you are saving for a big project, save "safe" resources and don't break them out until you are ready to use them.
Food and wood left lying around attract rats and roaches....and enemy soldiers!
B. Troops:
The other big loss you can suffer from an attack is your troops. If your troops get hit while inside your castle, they will go to the hospital until the hospitals are full, then they will die outright.
Your troops can be hit while they are out gathering, but this is less likely. However, troops hit outside the castle will die outright, while those hit inside the castle will go to the hospital
You can also divide your troops up between gathering plots and/or your castle so you don't have them all in one place. The easy way to divide your troops is to tap "Equalize" when you are sending them out to gather. That will divide your troops evenly between the number of march slots you have, and then you can send them to various places. You can also manually adjust the number of troops you send anywhere. If you have only one march slot, you might choose to leave some of them in the castle while others go out gathering. Don't send them too close together. The farther apart they are, the less likely all of them will get killed at once.
The one thing I do not recommend doing is letting your troops camp out somewhere. They are simply an easy target.
Troops are safe as long as they are marching. You can keep them occupied for a while by sending them across the map to hunt a beast or a red guard. They march even slower if you make them cross the dense forest in the middle of the map.
C. Traps:
The more traps you have around your castle, the less appealing you will be as a target. Keep your trap factory upgraded. There are 3 kinds of traps, for Distance troops, Cavalry, and Infantry. Make sure to have even numbers of all 3 kinds, so you can be prepared for anything. Try to have as many traps as possible.
Traps only set off when troops are also in the castle.
Part III: Prepare for the inevitable attack
A. Build Hospitals It is easier to heal wounded troops than to train now ones, so you want to keep you hospitals in tune with your number of troops.
To find the total number of troops you have, go to your drill grounds, where all the troops hang out when they are in the castle. In the first line under where it says "INFO" you will see "Total Troops" and ###/###. The first number is the troops in your castle right now; the second number is the total number of troops you own.
To find your hospital capacity, tap on any hospital, then "Info". The sum of the 2 numbers in the bottom line is your total capacity. You want that number to be slightly higher than your number of troops.
B. Upgrade your embassy . Your embassy determines the number of reinforcements you can accept. Keep it as high as it can be.
C. Practice. Run through everything in the next part a few times before you get hit, so you already know what to do. You do not want to be trying to read this very lengthy article while you are being besieged!
D. Have a plan. Consider ahead of time which options will work best for you.
E. Line App. You can communicate with people when they (or you) are not on the game. You can tell them, or they can tell you, when an attack is imminent.
F. Food. Keep spare food in your inventory, enough to heal your troops without having to wait for gatherers. It will take more food than you think, so be sure to keep more than you think you need.
Part IV: What to do when you are under attack
Option A: Shield
Go ahead and open a peace shield. A 2 hour one will usually do. Most attackers will now wait around until your shield expires; they will just move on. This is an expensive option, however, and really is only worth whole if you have a big pile of resources you can't use for some reason.
Option B: Random Teleport
You can use a random teleport if you have been scouted, but not while you are under attack. While it will confound your enemy, you will be stuck with the problem of how to get home.
Option C: Nothing to Lose
This is by far my favorite option. Once I have been scouted, I do whatever I can to use up whatever excess resources I have. I particularly like to build more traps with them!
Of course, I get my troops out, too. Here are some ways to keep them safe:
- Send them to reinforce a neighbor
- Send them out to gather or hunt a far-away beast
- Randomly send them out camping (my least favorite option)
- If I don't want the enemy to see where they have gone, I start a rally. My troops will "disappear" from the castle, but nothing will be visible to the enemy. (Remember, if you have more troops than fit on one march slot, you need to start more than one rally!)
I particularly like this option because I can just imagine the enemy's frustration when they find that whatever they thought to take from me, has been taken from them instead!
Remember, if you have no troops and no plunder-able resources in your castle, you have NOTHING TO LOSE!!! The enemy cannot hurt you.
Part V: When you see someone else getting attacked
I made up a CRAP acronym to help you remember this part. (I am an EMT. We loooove acronyms!)
Communicate. Raise the alarm. Tell the alliance a fellow musketeer is under attack!
Reinforce. Tap on the victim's castle. Tap "reinforce." Send troops.
Act fast. That why we practice.
Persist in communicating. Get on Line app. Text or call anyone whose number you have. Let everyone know. You would want them to do it for you, right?
Part VI: After attack
A. Walls: This is the easy part. You will see a little rectangle on the wall to the left of the draw bridge. Tap on it. It is your choice to spend the 50 gold to put out the flames, or you can just wait for them to stop burning. Then tap Repair. you will have to do that every 30 minutes until the defense is repaired. It doesn't use resources, however, so its a minor issue.
B. Troops in hospital: Troops in the hospital will need food to get them healthy again. You should have kept aside some food in case of emergency. Heal as many as you can, then send them out to gather food for the next bunch.
C. After-Action Review: This is the most important part!!! Discuss the attack with the alliance. Share your battle reports. Consider wheat you might have done differently or will do in the future. Consider this a learning experience and move on.
I hope this has taken some of the fear and uncertainty out of enemy attacks. Just remember, this is a game. We are here to get better at the game and have fun with it, NOT to get stressed out by it.