Guides:Tactics
Defense
Since these are basic they won't cover much in regards to defense against catapults until other defenses are come up with.
Walls
Design
You will always need multiple layers of walls. If you don't have enough time, or other people to help, the first layer is going to have to be low stone wall as it's the quickest to put up (you can always knock it down and replace it with high stone wall later).
Unless you are going for a pretty town (defense of which would be a lot harder) you need to concentrate on squares of walls so that they can match a future deed and so that the deed can control gates.
At first you'll probably have to go for gatehouses as shown in the image above between two layers of walls. It's recommended to have a tower inside that size 5 deed area which will cover your town from enemy kingdom attacks. Most people prefer to have it in the center with the deed token--although practical, it may not look the best.
Thats the basic size 5 design you can make it harder for your enemy by having offset gates, although you'll need a deed as only palisades will work.
This design denies your enemies the chance to pick the weakest section in each layer without breaking all the dividing walls. Be careful not to lock anyone inbetween the walls(unless you want to, see catapult use below)
Catapults: You could put catapults in squares between walls and either have a gate or put a firing account in there when you build it sealing it in. You can then trade ammo and supplies over the wall to the person firing.
Types
I'd really advise against this type unless you like how it looks in which case use it for fields and containing farm animals. It's easily destroyed so not that useful more cosmetic than practical.
This will be your basic defense when you start out, easy and fast to make and can take some damage. Try and have two layers of this if you expect it will take a while before you can make tall stone walls. Allows you to see enemies coming but doesn't stop them from looking in.
Really costly to make provide some good protection and look really good. Unless you have a lot of trees, a size 5 deed will probably be the only practical size to build them or really small bases (camouflage effect in woods?)
You'll want these for your town as they are difficult to take down (haven't tried catapults). The only problem is you'll need a lot of bricks but for an established town that's nothing. Blocks enemies views of your town but also makes it harder to see them coming. Well worth the hassle you can also make entrances maze like to confuse attackers (add in multiple gates between two layers and it's great fun).
- Gate House
Just a regular one tile house allows you to set access without a deed to make the most out of it have them between two layers of walls. Easy to destroy though so keep them high quality and repaired till you get a deed and can use something better. Also note you'll need everyone on friends list for this option.
I personally don't like these you'll need a gate lock and key for them which without a deed leaves you open to being killed for your key. Although the keyholder can pass straight through you'll need to unlock and lock to let friends in and out. Once you have a deed just chuck the key in a chest or in the bank and let the deed control the gate. With the deed it's so much easier as you can allow all allies and selected citizens to pass through.
Although taking up many resources you won't need that many gates. Don't build these without deed control it's not worth it really. They provide so much extra protection and work perfectly with high stone walls. You'll want these and high stone walls in your finished town (until they come out with something better (metal gates maybe?)).
Notes
- Without a deed always go for a 1 x 1 gatehouse since it saves so much pain, or if you have 3 layers of walls have the first two covered by a gatehouse and the third inside one a palisade gate so you have time to unlock it to let people in and lock it again before the enemy gets in.
- If you use dividing walls, keep them at a uniform quality as you're not going to be able to improve them later.
- Always have two or more gates unless you have good fighting skills incase someone camps outside or a monster spawns.
- Concentrate your efforts on improving your gates to as high a quality as possible as they are your weakest points.
Location
Use the terrain to your advantage.
- On top of a hill lets you see enemies coming and forces them to climb up to you which with siege weapons is a lot harder.
- Have your walls at the top of a slope you'd have to climb up this means that without siege weapons they have to climb up to attack your walls costing stamina and causing injury if they fall.
- Surrounded by mountains on most sides means they'd probably die if they came from those directions. It's also very painful (annoying) to climb between a wall and a cliff.
Water
If you are on the side of a hill/mountain just mine down to water. Otherwise you will want to be next to a lake or even at sea level with a bit of water inside your walls. (images/diagrams later)
Jenn-Kellon/Mol-rehan
Make sure the land is entirely free from mycelium you don't want Horde of the Summoned people healing while they attack your town. Do regular checks for the prescence of Libila and the Horde of the Summoned kingdom to ensure no one is trying to grow it.
Horde of the Summoned
You'll want to build your town so that you have tiles inside your town that have mycelium on them. If you expect your only enemies to be JK or MR have a ring outside your town or just let it grow naturally. Be more careful if other HotS towns are your enemies.
Towers
You'll want as many towers as possible around your town. These will complement your town guards and slow down incoming enemies.
This shows the basic design you will want to start with (remember they need to be 50 tiles apart to work) if you plan on growing to a big town the outer 4 can eventually be built into your outer layer of walls. Work with nearby towns to build many towers; remember this will focus where your enemy has to attack from to be safe allowing you to set up other traps for them.
Offense
(To be done)
Requirements
This is what you'll need. Please note these are very basic strategies i'm hoping people will write up alternatives.
People
For very small towns and homesteads you should take 6 people just to be safe (with current 30 skill cap).
Jenn-Kellon/Mol-Rehan
- Two Fo Healers
- Two people with heavy weapons (AKA Tanks) for destroying walls and buildings (heavily armoured)
- Two fast aggressive fighters (AKA Warriors)with light to medium armour
To start with everyone fights to take out whatever citizens or guards there are use the tanks to draw all the attacks and the fast warriors to flank them if you have time check their equipment to pick the best target.
Once the main battle is over the fast warriors and one of the Fo healers takes care of any respawns while the tanks knock down walls while the other Fo healer takes care of them.
If you have more people add in more in the following order:
- Extra Warrior
- Siege Engineer (catapult)
- Extra Fo Healer
- Extra Tank
- Supply Cart (contains ammo for catapult, food, water and on the way home loot transport)
- Extra Warrior
- Extra Tank
- Extra Fo healer
- Repeat
Or go for a siege team build:
- Five Warriors
- Three Fo Healers
- Four tanks
- As many catapults as you can build
- For every two catapults one ammo cart(chuck in unfinished catapults to be finished on location)
With this build you can fire loads of rounds into the enemy town taking down walls and hopefully hitting guards and villagers. All the other people will be defending the catapults and their operator.
Horde of the Summoned
Replace Fo healers with warriors or tanks that know drain health spells.
Intelligence
You are going to need to know as much about your enemy as possible(duh). If they are relatively close to newtown you could try the old guest trick to sit outside their walls taking note of entrances and anything happening in the event window. Most people know about this though so it will raise suspicions listen to how new players talk and try to emulate them to avoid suspicion.
Full infiltration can easily work on any town that is openly recruiting it will however take up one of your villagers play time faking being someone else actually doing stuff in town getting on the deed and passing information along. If they do their job well enough and get permissions, you can get them to unlock gates or change the guards first to heavy then back to light again stopping them from deploying heavier guards when your main attack comes. You'll also have a grace period while the guards respawn to get in and start attacking things.
You can also just keep chatting to them and encourage them to let something slip or even employ others to spy for you. Convincing one of their town members to turn traitor is also helpful.
Things to Check
- Where are the weakest walls
- How many layers are there
- Where are the most expensive/useful items
- What level are the guards
- What time are they mostly offline
- Who are their best fighters and and who is likely to be carrying keys
Other Suggestions
If you or one of your villagers keeps files on all enemy towns and their villagers you will be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of anyone you'll need to face.
The basic idea is to keep notepad files on people and towns and adding anything you ever find out about them predicted skills, most common armour used, size of deed etc etc. Add any and all rumours even put what time zone they are in and who their friends are. This will help when you are picking targets during battles and the best way to attack a town.
If you are really sad but prepared draw a diagram of their town(use the grid method i used above) you could even put last known wall qualities and names of buildings on it. The more information the better chance of successfully attacking you have.
Basic Attacks
Sheer Numbers
If the enemy is hated by many grab all your allies pick a time and get as many people as possible to gather near the enemies town. Split into groups of four or five with one person as team leader. One group will contain the overall leader or if you have multiple allied towns arrange it into two groups(with multiple teams) with a leader in each. The teams will look after their own members ensuring they don't die and that they all attack the same target. If you have catapults one person will fire while the rest of the team guards.
If you have enough for two groups you will want to attack from two opposite directions to split the defenders and their guards. Leave roughly two minutes between attacks to further confuse the defenders. Mainly though you'll have one or two teams knocking down walls(always pick the weakest walls and avoid gates which are usually the most improved and have the most defense) while the rest kill guards and villagers. Once you are inside secure any buildings that contain weapons to prevent respawning people from rearming. Assign a couple of teams to take down the tower if there is one.
Once the immediate threat is over ensure everyone is healed up then begin looting but leave a couple of teams on guard killing duty. You're better off taking their carts and filling them with stuff to save time. Try not to stay for more than an hour or two once their defenses are down just incase they have reinforcements on their way. I'd personally recommend leaving their basic tools like small anvils and axes so that they can rebuild and present a target again at a later date. If your attack group is made up of multiple towns try and leave together to prevent people from being picked off on their way home.
Even Match
When you and your enemy have pretty much the same skills and numbers you need to out think them. Organise your forces to have your tanks up front taking hits and picking targets have a line of heavy damage dealers behind them then your leader followed by a couple more warriors just incase they attack from behind without any warning.
When you approach the enemies walls spread out and search for the weakest point(lowest quality and/or highest damage). If the wall borders the deed you will have to watch out for guards coming through the wall they need to be taken out before you can punch through. If the guards are out of range work on destroying the walls and have one person on watch for any enemies coming out to meet you.
If they do come out to meet you get into formation take out their tanks first followed by any priority targets(leader, best fighter etc). Every non tank needs to focus on one at a time once you kill them all or they fall back loot any of their corpses and heal up(never heal during a fight it's too distracting and marks the healer as a target). Continue destroying the walls if they come back repeat above battle until you take too many losses or you get in. Make sure you have easy access into the town incase you need to get back in following a death. Then proceed in destroying the guards and anyone respawning(eventually they will respawn somewhere else or log off). Heal up again then begin looting banding together anytime a guard respawns. If you don't have much time or live far away only take the most valuable stuff or anything you need (i'd go for armour and weapons to prevent retaliation). I'd also target one wall section or gate and damage it to around 90 then leave it hopefully they will miss it and you'll have an easy target if you need to come back. If you do lose any of your fighters get their stuff immeadiately so that when they make it back to you they can rearm instantly. (This bit needs a bit of work it's rather fragmented and hard to read)
Convoy Attacks
A very simple attack strategy. But very effective in terms of cost vs. reward. Usually if the enemy wants to raid someone. They will bring extra supplies in carts or on the backs of Mule accounts. This gives you an opportunity to attack a raiding party at its weakest point.
The secret to using this tactic properly is to give the enemy very little warning before you attack. This can be achived by concealing a small group of fighters near the target the enemy is trying to attack. This will create the illusion that all of your forces are defending the target, which can be determined by looking at local chat. One thing I need to point out is if you take the time to build a well concealed position with which to attack from. The attack is more effective.
Now when the enemy convoy gets to the perfect position. Run out from your hiding point and immediatly attack all the fighters in the group. Then have any spare allies start looting the carts (but try not to overload on loot or you'll be slow). When they are loaded up. Run away and try to get back into the position you're defending. If you can't get into there. Just keep going until you find a good secondary position to hide at.
One more thing, DO NOT go back to your original hiding point. Otherwise this area will be unuseable in a future attack because they will know about it.
(save point)
Tricks
- If you have time to dig a tunnel during a battle a sneaky thing to do is to make two entrances to a tunnel, one without a door and one with a rock door. Mine the one without a door up and mine the one with the door down, then after you've done this for at least 4 tiles each connect them to make a drop shaft. Lure the enemy into the cave and down the drop shaft. Then exit through the door you made, leaving them stuck inside. If you made the drop shaft steep enough they shouldn't be able to climb out.
Raid info by Friend
This little article describes raiding and the steps to follow. A lot of what is written in this article might seem logical but yet all the time forgotten or not properly done. I could write a whole book about raiding in detail and I have started one a while ago but it’s simply something I can’t devote my time to because it has too many factors to describe it all. So in this article it is kept to basics that still need logic thinking from yourself to go with it. This article keeps in mind the factors that play a role in winning or losing a raid. Main factor that works against you is time. You only have so long until the attacking team you brought will have to go to sleep or to work or other appointments outside of wurm. Defenders have this problem a lot less. Another factor is security, if you have too many casualties compared to the enemy, the people you brought will lose a lot of morale and begin having doubts about the raid and eventually want to leave.
So in short: - Time - Security
The steps you will be reading in this article describe how you will raid the most effective keeping the above two factors in mind at all times.
Steps in short: - Step 1: planning
Plan before you raid, know everything there is to know about the town and have everything you need with you on a raid.
- Step 2: Setting up base and stopping defenders
Before you can begin with the raid you must create a safe environment for the attackers and stop defenders coming to help.
- Step 3: Destroying the town
After creating security and before actual pvping or entering the enemy town you must create a clear entrance for you and the ability to walk freely on deed wherever you want.
- Step 4: The fighting and looting
After taking away all safety from the defenders you can make your way into the town and begin killing the defenders and after that looting.
- Step 5: The Exit
This can be one of the most dangerous moments of a raid especially when things go bad, having a smart exit plan is very important. Defenders know this is your weakest moment.
After describing these steps in basic there will be some trends that might be interesting for any raider to make raiding more efficient.
To understand this book fully, it describes the following roles: Tasks: • Overall raid leader • Wallers • Fort builder • Fighting leader • Catapult leader • Catapulters
• The overall raid leader is the one that keep an eye on everything. He barely does any work himself but appoints people as much as he can. • The wallers are the people that wall off the enemy entrances at the start of the raid. The overall raid leader is responsible that the wallers secure all the entrances. • The fort builder is the person in charge of setting up the attack fort. The overall raid leader is responsible for the location and a rough design if needed but the fort builder has to think for himself how its most effective. • The catapult leader is responsible to keep the overview on which buildings are catapulted, where to shoot from and who shoots what. He will guide the catapulters to do their task • The catapulters are responsible for taking down the walls and have to find someone to bring them a constant flow of ammunition. At times one catapulter might have to operate 3 catapults at the same time and ask someone to help load and winch them • The fighting leader is responsible of holding off the enemies, taking out the guards and the defenders. But since good fighters are often also good miners, he will also be responsible of finding people to mine so there is a constant flow of ammunition. It is important that the fighting leader makes an example and has the fighters follow him into a fight but even more important is that he stays alive.
Step 1: Planning Step 1 is all about planning, without a plan you should not go on a raid. The idea behind planning is to make sure everyone knows what to do and with this save you a lot of time.
Pre-set goals Before a raid you need to know what exactly the purpose is of going to the enemy town. It can range from trying to steal an item or plundering the entire town or just some pvp. At any rate, it is very important to know what your mission and any submissions are, so you can determine when it is time to leave incase none of the missions are achievable.
Escape route Before you plan a raid further, you must determine how you will travel to the raid and more importantly how you will leave safely in case things go bad. This is the most important part of raiding, knowing how to leave. Town layout You will need a layout of the town. A tilemap is the best option but not always possible. The least you need is enough info to know from which side it is most effective to attack.
Items needed Prepare a list of items you will need, items such as woa pickaxes, shovels, carving knifes, spare cotton, barrels, nails, locks, ores for catapulting, ropes etc., etc. Anything you could need you have to bring. It is very difficult to get items during the raid and may cause big delays.
Preparing the teams Before a raid, people need to know their roles. Most important are designated catapulters and miners, if you don’t have this covered before a raid, you will not succeed. But along with preparing the teams, you also need to divide the initial tasks such as building the fort, making catapults, locking the town. Set people responsible for parts of the raid. One person in charge of all the catapulting and one person in charge of holding off the defenders when needed.
Step 2: Setting up base and stopping defenders Step 2 is ironically all about keeping the defenders away from you and create a situation where you can catapult the enemies with as little as possible pvp.
Building the fort At all raids you need a fall-out base, a place where you can store items, safely mine, and even go afk in for a short while. At a raid you need to turn the tides in your favor as much as possible. If you give yourself a gatehop while taking away that from the enemy, that is a big advantage. Set one person responsible for building the fort and let him find people on site to help build it. The fort is best to be of good size. At least a 5x5 area with one or two mine doors is recommended.
Locking up the town The biggest reason a raid fails is if there are people defending it. This is logic thinking. This makes locking up the town very important. You need to lock up all entrances except the one you are creating for yourself. Set up small teams for this to lock the town up fast and put one person responsible per team.
Step 3: Destroying the town Step 3 is destroying the town. To do this fast you will have to fully concentrate on opening all the buildings and avoid pvp and gatehopping as much as possible. After the enemy has no places to run anymore for safety, it’s the moment you begin the fighting.
Systematically catapulting After you have set up a base you should be ready to focus completely on catapulting. The person responsible for the destruction of the town will have to keep overview of what buildings are opened and what the damage is while the catapulters are responsible to get themselves ammunition. Everyone who isn’t mining, catapulting or filling another important job should be hauling the ammunition around. This phase can cause much frustration if people begin slacking so it is important everyone works hard here.
A proper entrance/exit This is the first thing you create with catapulting. You destroy an entire longhouse to create a clear entrance on the deed. You can’t have a half done job here. There needs to be an easy way in and out of the enemy town. It is recommended you lock this up again though while you catapult the buildings inside.
Step 4: The fighting and looting Step 4 is where the fun begins. Finally there is a payoff for all the work you have put in destroying the town. The fighter team should be ready to kill the guards and then rush in the town after the catapulting of all buildings is finished.
Entering the deed A very important note here is to not fall into enemy traps, keep close eye on unfinished stone walls or fences that the enemy can finish after you pass them. Have the catapulters standing by to open up any obstructions that are found while entering the town.
Looting and storage Looting can bring out the worse in people. A raid should not be for the loot in the first place, but for the fun of beating an enemy town. There are people who will go through the houses and handpick the best they can find because ‘they deserve it’. Well guess what... so do the other 30 people that joined the raid. When looting, you have to fill up a cart, haul it back to the safety of the attack fort and ditch it there while you fill up a new cart. Take every item you can grab and don’t keep stuff for yourself. Items such as drake and scale will go to the kingdom as a whole. The rest I have found to be most ‘fairly’ looted by all plundering it inside the fort or after having left the raid with equal chances, not while people are taking the items from the town.
Step 5: The exit Step 5 describes how and when to exit from a raid. It is important to have the exit planned ahead and is also described in the planning step. You will either leave with your mission completed or without completing it.
Know when to leave It does not take much common sense to know when you cannot complete your mission. At this stage the situation usually only becomes worse for you. It is better to leave at this stage than staying around till the point where you can’t leave anymore.
Another reason to leave is of course after completing your mission. If there is nothing more for you to gain at the enemy deed it is time to leave with the victory in your pocket.
How to leave When you are leaving it is important to leave as one group. Try to have horses ready to leave with as well to give you a movement bonus. The order in which you leave is that the weaker people will leave first with the stronger fighters covering them from behind. Anyone that is way ahead of the group needs to shoot the enemies in case they are following. The weaker people have to keep moving. No need to look back other than blocking arrows. The stronger fighters adapt to the speed of the weaker people.
Quick ambush While the enemy knows that when you retreat, you are at your most vulnerable, they are putting themselves at a big risk as well. Keep your eye open for opportunities to ambush the enemy. In case you are leaving because you can’t complete the mission but still have a good force, you can use this moment to ambush the enemies that chase you for a while.
Trends / Tactics in raiding While this entire article describes raiding there are some tactics you can use with this concept.
Small to big group In a usual raid situation, you agree a location where you meet up with 20-30 people and you march to the enemy town. The beginning of raids can be very messy because there are too many people, and not enough things they can do easily. While during the course of the raid, the enemy will grow in numbers while you will have less people because they have to leave or die. Right as you will need the full force to enter the enemy deed you don’t have it anymore.
The tactic that is used to counter this is setting up a team which consists of the wallers, fort builders, catapult leaders and their catapult teams to go ahead of the raid and begin their tasks. Since there aren’t many enemies to worry about at the start of the raid you won’t need the fighters yet. Ofcourse if they are online they can come with you but because of this you can start raids earlier by going with the team to perform the pre-raid phase instead of waiting for the rest of the raiders to wake up or log in.
Gatehop disabling The power that defenders have is gatehopping and repairing. While its hard to take away repairing from the defenders, it is possible to take away the ability to gatehop by walling them off. But an even more successful tactic is to use their gatehop against them.
A raid can last easily up to 10 hours. But in a lot less time you can do the following: You go with a small team to the enemy town while no one is online to spot you and you catapult the gatehouse nearest to the side you attack from and replace it with one of your own. While you have this gatehouse set to stay unlocked you can lock it at the moment most of the defenders are lured outside. This can create for a beautiful gank, taking out most of the defenders in one sweep.
Credits
A lot of this information comes from the time when i was part of the Horde (the Horde vs Hammerfell map). Also Angrycat and Xplict developed most of the original strategies the map before. The tile-by-tile planning dates back to when myself Serph and (i've forgotten your name) were planning that Horde's town and to some extent inspired by Hortons tile by tile map of Whosville. In fact, without all the people i've been in towns with and all the enemies i've faced there would be very little to put here (you know who you are).
Some of these credits are for things i'm planning to add later :D
--Commcd 11:37, 6 January 2006 (CST)
