One of the most important things to learn playing GGE is how to sent up a proper defense. The defense strategy you implement in your castles can decide if you will be victorious or defeated.
When the Red Horn blows, it means you are being attacked. When the Blue Horn blows, it's an alliance mate. Let's begin with a situation when you are being attacked. The first thing you are going to do is see who it's from. A RBC (robber baron castle) or a player castle.
If you are being attacked by a robber baron castle there will be another page discussing battles with NPC (non-player castles)
theMightyBunchAlliance Default Wall Defense
The game defaults all castle wall sets ups to be 25-50-25. That indicates the distribution of troops on the wall to: 25% on the Left Flank, 50% on the Front, and 25% on the Right Flank. We do not use this formation. We also do not use the popular 33-34-33.
Our default set up is 50-0-50. (For levels below 51) When defending an attack, trying to hold all 3 sides of the wall is a recipe for defeat. It spreads your troops to thin and unless you can outnumber, a possible 1040 troops, do not try to. The left and right flanks allow less troop placement for attackers and tools. By splitting your troops 50% on the left and 50% on the right, you have the best chance to hold both flanks, and give your attacker -30% attack strength for the courtyard battle. (What this does is give you a bonus of 30% more strength for your troops). This is desirable for less causalities of your troops and those of your alliance mates that are supporting you.
So how do I change it?
Once you enter the defense hub, move the knobs to the center.
We will discuss more about the optional defense set-ups when online later.
What to do When a Player Castle Attacks
Ask the following Questions:
- How many troops are coming?
- What level is the attacker?
- Who is online in my alliance if I need help?
- Can I beat this castle?
There are many things you can do while waiting for this information.
- Send your attack troops to your outposts. If you do not have a outpost yet, send to an alliance member or a far away robber baron castle that will take them until after your attack hits to return. No matter how strong your attacker is at attacking, he is a loser at defending. Refer to the Tab on Troops.
- Visit the castle that is attacking you. Even though you don't know what is coming. You can get an idea of its strength by noting the barrack level. You can also tell if they are a ruby buyer or not. If you don't see any ruby decorations or buildings. You can rule out a majority of special troops heading for you. If you see lots of dazzling, sparking, bling in the castle, uh oh.
- While you are visiting the castle, you might as well send a sabotage attack.
- Move your defenders up from outposts. Move up extra tools if you need to.
- Ask if anyone can help you in the alliance. Usually if there is someone online, close enough to offer support they will likely have asked you already. (There will be more information on supporting members below.)
It's 20 minutes to the attack and you see that the attackers coming have jumped up in numbers and it is filled with horror troops and you are defending with spearmen and archers. What do you do now?
Face reality you cannot win this one. There is no shame in running when you are completely outnumbered and outclassed with troops. Tell your alliance members to retreat their support. Send your troops to your outposts. Next start sending your food to outposts or alliance mates. If you don't have time to send it all out, donate it to the alliance kitty. This is the poor man's open gates. If you have the rubies to open the gates, then that will mean no battle takes place. This option is if you have no rubies and want to deprive your attacker of honor, glory and resources. You will be on fire but if it's a repeated attacker, this tactic may make them look elsewhere as it becomes a waste of their time.
I want to FIGHT.
Okay, so you have a chance to win this. Even a small chance is worth fighting if you are online. The defender currently has the advantages. Why? Because you can see what is coming and format your troops and tools to the best way to win. Here are some tips.
- Match melee with melee and ranged with ranged. Look on the troops and tools page and find the defenders that are compatible with attackers. (ie. halberdier vs Two handed swordman)
Two handed Swordsman: 109 melee attack, 19 melee defense, 5 ranged defense, 28 looting, 18 movement
Halberdier: 17 melee attack, 135 melee defense, 45 ranged defense, 18 looting, 19 movement
Without tools who wins that battle? The defender, right. Pay no attention to the attacker's defense stats or the defender's attack stats in this battle, the specific soldier has a job to do and the other information does not come into play.
- Adjust and add defense tools to attack tools they have come with.
In your defense toolkit you have specific tools that can increase your ranged power. This is very important because an attacker can use mantlets. Mantlets can reduce your ranged troops to ZERO. Yes, they can send 1 soldier, with the appropriate amount of Mantlets and take out every ranged troop you have.
Mantlets
Mantlets come in wood and iron. The mantlets take away 5% of a ranged soldiers defense power. The iron mantlets, which are purchased with rubies, take away 10% of a ranged soldiers defense power. With no tools or equipment bonuses, 10 iron mantlets and 20 mantlets can take away 100% of your ranged soldiers power, rendering them useless.
If you see an oncoming attack with mantlets, first see which kind they are and add up their value. Then you have a few options. If you have tools, you can increase your ranged troops power with fire arrows, arrow slits, and bulwarks. You can also switch up your equipment to boost up your castellan's ranged power. Or move out your ranged troops, and put in melee troops, add wall tools such as stones, tar-pitch kettle, and Machicolation to boost their strength to be comparable with ranged attackers.
The Courtyard Battle
The strongest troops you have will always fight first. They will go at the wall. This is one reason that you want to make sure you have the best wall defense set up possible because those who support you may lose troops first. You want to try and win the battle and lose the least amount of troops so that alliance members will be happy to support you as they are not sending troops on a suicide mission.
The amount of troops you can put at the wall depends on how many towers you have and at what level they are at. The higher the level the more troops each tower can hold.The limit of troops your attacker can send are regulated by what your castle level is, not the amount of towers you have up. So if your castle level allows you a certain amount of towers up and upgraded to level 3 and you only have level 2 towers up, you will be put at a disadvantage in the battle. (Please review the Castle set-up page)
In a battle a courtyard bonus is given.
For the attacker to receive the bonus, he/she must defeat all THREE sides of the wall.
For the defender to receive the bonus, he/she only needs to hold TWO sides of the wall
For a fair fight the attacker wins TWO sides of the wall, and the defenders only holds ONE side of the wall.
If the defender holds all sides of the wall the battle is over, the attacker has been defeated at the wall. There is no courtyard battle.
Some alliances support the 0-0-100 defense strategy, which pretty much will guarantee you a fair fight in the courtyard. However, we do not want a fair fight in the courtyard, we would like to take advantage of a bonus if we can get one and lose less troops. The alliances that back this strategy have unlimited, 24/7 access to support and you can usually expect to see 2000+ defenders in the courtyard to greet you.
Defending the wall - options
Even when you are online, it is still suggested to only defend two sides of the wall. (RBC excluded). Some other options can be to include a small % of troops in the front, to make them use their tools.
One set up I like to use when online is the 0-70-30 or 0-65-35 formation. This is only advisable if you have a lot of tools to utilize all the slots that are in the Front. It's a good formation if you are a bit outnumber and/or outclassed with troops. You can take advantage of the bonuses you get from tools and take out their largest number of troops. This is advisable if you are at least 90% sure that you can beat the sides you will occupy. It isn't a complete disaster if that 10% leads you to only holding one side, then you will be left with a fair fight in the courtyard and hopefully you have taken out the majority of their troops and you now have the number advantage. Although, if you still lose, it can be satisfying because you have taken a lot of them out with you.
Wall defense for Levels 51 and above.
There needs to be a special section devoted to these attacks as the fight significantly changes and requires a different thinking.
When you reach level 51, you will be given a 4th wave to attack with, and with that is an forth wave you will need to defend. Along with the wave you will be given access to level 4 walls, gate and towers.
With your level is a certain number of troops your attacker can send per wave and this bumps up regardless of how many towers you have had a chance to put up, it goes by what you have access to.
If you are being sent a maxed out attack of 1040 troops or 900 something (assume it's maxed and information is hidden till later) and there is a reasonable amount of support you can send or that you expect to be sent you should go 0-0-100, or 100-0-0. This is when 100% on one flank will be the best option as it gives you the best chance to win 1 flank and get an even fight in the courtyard.
If you have all of your towers up not so much support you want to be sure to get one of the flanks and try to knock out some extra troops for the courtyard battle. Maybe 80-20-0 or some similar format, with strong tools in the center, if you are online and see what is coming and what would be logical. At level 51 you should be experienced enough to have ideas of what will work best.
If there are heavy mantlets comings you do not want to spend that much time in the wall fight. That instance it should always be 100% on one flank, melee defense troops and wall and moat tools. Get that flank and not worry about trying to stop the entire battle at the wall. Hopefully you will have strong equipment in the courtyard for the even battle.
At this level you should have built up strong castellans (lets not just focus on commanders and forget our castles). There is no excuse to have weak ones past level 50.
If your don't think you can battle these attacks, due to higher troops, and that really is the only excuse you should have. If Horrors are on the way, with 90/90 commander, shield walls and other armored tools, then you might want to consider opening the gates. This is not a poor man's opening the gates where you move out your troops and take the hit and be engulfed in flames. You should have some rubies in reserve to do this. If you don't know how to get rubies (not buying them) ask in game as there are many ways at higher levels to get rubies.
A good default setting might be 100-0-0, 80% melee defense to 20% ranged
Vet Swordsman Defense strategy
A growing in popularity is a wall defense of Vet Swordsman for level 70s. Vet Swordsman are attack troops that have defense power both melee and ranged. (see the troops and tool page). However they are classified as a melee troop which means their ranged defense cannot be lowered by mantlets. This troop can be very powerful with wall, moat and gate tools to battle ranged attacks coming with mantlets. Athough the melee defender is vulnerable to the ranged attacker and it's defense isn't as strong for ranged, the tools can help boost it to be comparable with the ranged attacker. Unless the ranged attacker has sent shield walls to have room for moat and wall tools usually your defense tools are not countered.
There are a few drawbacks in this strategy. In order to place vet swordsman on the wall you must remove every stronger melee defender. Which means no vet spearman or kingsguards in the castle. And if being supported you cannot be given spearman or kingsguards because they will push the Vet Swordsman of the wall and into the courtyard where they will be killed pretty easily if you do not get the bonus.
They also are very expensive and eat a lot.
Tips for using this strategy:
1. Recruit 320 (level 70) or 280 (level 4 towers) vet swordsman
2. If you are attacked clear out your castle of all melee except swordsman.
3. Put 100% melee on the wall and go 50-0-50. You are no longer afraid that mantlets will reduce your troops to zero so you will defend two flanks to get the courtyard bonus.
4. Instruct all supporters to only send ranged or vet swordsman to you.
Defending waves
From the attack page you learned to use waves, your defenders don't organize in waves at the wall but the tools you put up do.
When defending the flanks you have several spots open for tool placements. This particular level has 3 on the left and right flanks, and 5 in the center. You only use 1 tool placed in each spot. For example, there are 7 fire arrows, only 1 is used per wave. And there are enough for 7 waves. It's important to place tools for as many waves as you can be attacked. This way your attacker cannot send suicide waves to take out your tools.
If your defense is set at 50-0-50, your tools will not be used in the front wall. I keep some there in case I come on to see an attack 4 minutes away. It can save time if you discover a more logical defense set-up according to what you are being attacked with that uses the Front Wall to defend. You are half way there with your tools.
In the main, I use default tools of rocks and fire arrows and save my ruby tools to put in to face player attacks.
Support Troops
Part of being a good alliance mate is to support others. If you see the blue horn and someone is getting attacked, ask them, in chat, if they need help. Sometimes a player will have it covered or enough support is already on the way, and it's unnecessary for you to send troops.
If someone is offline and they are being attacked and you can reach them in time please send support. However, if you are a much lower level than the castle being attacked it might be better for you to hold onto your defenders in this case, if you cannot ask if they need your help.
A good idea for higher level support (for castles 51 and up) break up defense into 2 commanders. One with melee and the other with ranged. So that if you need to send prior to being able to see what is in the attack you can recall one and not the other if you need to.
For example, if your alliance mate is on and is going all melee on the wall and you see that the attacker is sending an all ranged attack, you want to just send ranged for the courtyard battle. Defending ranged will have the advantage over attacking ranged. The melee you send if the alliance mate you are supporting has enough to cover the wall will just be vulnerable in the courtyard.
However if you see a mix you can assume that the melee are in the last waves (especially mauraders) and you want to send both ranged and melee for the courtyard battle.
Get to know those closest to you as they can be your lifeline during an attack.
Lastly, as a member of theMightyBunch, we do not send support troops an alliance mate during a robber baron attack. These are attacks that everyone should know how to defend against. However, you will receive tips and guides to succeed. (See section on RBC) to come
