Be a general not a farmer - part 1 early game

[Hivesy]

Its really easy to slip in to the rut of playing events and just collecting from your buildings and upgrading your oil rigs. That's fun but is it really war? I'm trying things to make me feel like I'm actually playing a war game here. First off is a tactical backdown of my forces. What units do I want to attack rivals for me, who do I want to defend my base, how do i structure my army, let's play war!

OK there's are a few rules here:

1) this is not a guide as such, this is how I like to do things. This unit breakdown may not be mathematically the most efficient but at the point where I get my calculator out I feel like a farmer again. I'm trying to have fun here.
2) I have a max of 2 unit types per category, this way I spread my forces, but not too thinly
3) the reason for this is that in my experience the biggest factor outside of the casualty rate in what units you lose is how many you have of each type. If you have 2000 of one type you will lose many more then 4 lots of 500.
4) core units must be low or very low casualty rate, this allows meat shields to do their thing
5) don't forget that you need to add the attack or defence units to the core units which are used for both to get the actual force used
6) I play as Russia so this obviously makes a difference
7) GAG = good against ground, GAA = good against air etc

Early Game - example used with 100 allies

Attack. Core. Defence.
Fighter jet-medium cas-meat shieldx50 Engineer-high cas-GAG-meat shieldx50
Sniper - high cas-meat shieldx50 Medic - high cas-meat shields x50
Inflatable - low cas-base unitx50 Seahawk helicopter-low cas-GAS x 75 APC-low cas-base units x50
A10 warthog-medium cas-base unitx50 Avenger-low cas-GAA x 75 Transport-very low cas-base unit x50
Gold units-indestructible x 50


Note able absentees - any unit costing more than £60k, these will be in the mid game forces breakdown, GIGNs get 'em ASAP but not too many! M270MLRS again get 'em ASAP but not too many!

Edit - Sorry peeps this is a mess as the spacing didn't work, I'll try to fix t for the mid game more interesting version

[Ascent]

When I started the game I was playing to level up and explore all aspects of it and I was even spending gold to do stamina refills and even bought allies and gold units. It was war, I was raiding looting attacking... and loving it :) then when the raiding and attacking stopped being financially lucrative, I started to do quasi-camping. I spent all my energy on PVE and did all the PVP missions, but no raiding or attacking for money, it became a strategy game. I built a strong economy and I must say I got lucky that I got to experience all sides of the game without falling into a dead-end situation. Funny thing, that I am camping now, when I have over 100K defense and 980,000 IPH :D

[jeffrey]

I just attack and attack to reach level 95 in 2 months since it is a war game I thought. Now it is catching up to me since I am in the unofficial whale/elephant zone; so I am getting my fair share of being attacked by others lately.

[Agent Orange]

I think the real trick is to have a balanced approach, hmmm I think we actually talked about this tactic about a week into the game back in Nov but the forum got nuked along with all that data.

Because of the Android app I've started over with two new players using a totally different strategy than what I am using with my HLP.

Both players are not using gold for starters but if you thinking of buying gold and it's on sale at the time then at the very beginning is where you will get the absolute best bang for your buck.

Mainly though it's avoiding the temptation of doing all the missions and attacking everything that moves. By being careful here you will avoid levelling up to quickly which is really not a good idea.

Pick your units wisely, most density you can manage and oddly I don't go out and try and set up meat shields since in the higher levels all they will do is dilute your armies density if you are bringing them into battle.

[Hivesy]

am aiming to do a mid game version of my army but it's not as easy as I thought to paste info in boxes and columns etc.

I know what you mean about meat shields AO, I guess for me they act as shields but also fill out my forces with reasonable units while I'm saving up for better ones. ie now I'm in the mid game I want be buying B-52s for attack but I can't afford 200 straight away so I've bought 200 Bio Warfare troops to tide me over until I can build them up

[SGT Barr]

The whole process of being a 'farmer' is missed by me. I have a good IPH but not great. I do a ton of attacking, not raiding!!! As long as you pick familar targets that you know have paid well in the past you'll be ok. Attacking and collecting $300K each attack pays way better than upgrading and farming off your land (not saying not to upgrade, but focus on boost building as much as $$$ buildings). Pick your targets and when you get a good one... Remember it. Write it down. Never forget them... That player will pay for all your upgrades and units. Attack, Attack, Attack. do not be fearful of the unknown.

[Arizona]

7) GAG = good against ground, GAA = good against air etc

Aaahhhh! The GAG GAA strategy. Joking aside, that's an excellent strategy to include a large "good against" force.