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Defensive Strat.

Printed From: Illyriad
Category: The World
Forum Name: Tournament IV - The Undead Horde
Forum Description: 4th Tournament - Details, progress, reports & awards
URL: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=2990
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 20:02
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Defensive Strat.
Posted By: geofrey
Subject: Defensive Strat.
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 19:22
Currently this tournament is a matter of defense. If there comes a time when offensive action can be used, it will change everyone's strategy. But for now, we must stick with defense. 

Since this tournament has awhile to go, I am curious what everyone's thoughts are on stacking armies. I am in League C, and even at my max production with 7 sovereignty claims increasing production, I will eventually run out of troops as the enemies grow in numbers. At that point is my chance of winning prestige over with? Or will stacking armies come in handy.

I am building massive amounts of defensive troops in one of my nearby towns. My current strategy is to try and keep replenishing my primary commander's army every day. Once that can't keep up, I plan to send my other army to aid in the defense of the same stone as my primary army. 

I know this will cause the commanders to split XP. Is anyone else anticipating this happening? 

I think the best strategy would be to hope that the secondary commander has low life and will die in combat, allowing his troops to stay and defend, but not cause the primary commander to loose XP. 



Replies:
Posted By: Starrbuck
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 19:28
Hi Geofrey. I am anticipating that many people will have to do the same, including myself at some point. Its just a matter of determining when everyone else begins to do the same, you don't want to put yourself too much behind after all. 

Starr 


Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 20:16
At some point it might make sense for a couple of smaller players within an alliance to start stacking troops.  This has the advantage for relatively larger players that the exp is split between players according to their kills, although multiple armies from the same player on a given square will split exp evenly.

So it would be a better strategy for smaller players who are still "in the hunt" to share a square with another player from a different league (or even the same league if you just want to be a good alliance mate) in order to give commanders a better chance of survival and perhaps increasing overall exp for both or all players involved.

Whether this is effective will depend on how big the armies get -- if they get to the point where they can wipe out smaller players in one go, they might do well to band together.


Posted By: geofrey
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 20:36
Thanks for the info Rill!

Just to clarify, 

- Commanders from the same player split XP evenly when attacked on the same square

- Commanders from seperate players split XP based on the percentage that each commander contributed to the fight? 


Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 21:22
Originally posted by geofrey geofrey wrote:

Thanks for the info Rill!

Just to clarify, 

- Commanders from the same player split XP evenly when attacked on the same square

- Commanders from seperate players split XP based on the percentage that each commander contributed to the fight? 

The players split the exp based on how much each player's armies contributed to the fight, then that player's commanders split the exp equally among all commanders.

For example, if Player A has 10k troops on a square and Player B has 500 troops on a square.  The player armies are such that Player A's commander Alfred has 500 troops and Player A's commander Anathema has 9500 troops.  Player B's commander Bert has 499 troops and Player B's commander Bartholomew has 1 troop.  For the sake of simplicity, all troops inflict the exact same number of casualties (although this is unlikely given commander skill bonuses and what-not, I'm just saying that to simplify the math).

So the players are attacked by 10,500 exp worth of ghosties (also not likely, but makes the math easier).

The experience would be allocated as follows:

Player A: 10k total experience
Alfred: 5k exp
Anathema: 5k exp

Player B: 500 total exp
Bert: 250 exp
Bartholomew: 250 exp

Obviously there are applications for players who have multiple cities who have the armies wiped out of a city with a commander they are using for the challenge.  The player can then send the commander with a force of 1 and an army from another city to continue to gain experience, although this would only be half as effective as sending him alone with troops from his own city.

Alliance mates could also support each other in this way.

I consider this to be a game mechanic rather than an exploit, but if others feel differently, feel free to comment.


Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 21:30
I should add that this holds true whether the commanders are in different armies or in different divisions within the same army.  I have not tested it with armies from different cities, but it's my understanding that the commanders would still split experience evenly even if they are from different cities, as long as they are from the same player.

Updated to add:  I'm testing it now with armies from different cities, if the skeletons can be bothered to attack me.  I have pie!


Posted By: geofrey
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 21:41
Thanks again for the explanation of a mechanic I now realize I knew very little about. 

Another question for you: What happens if a commander's life reaches 0 while occupying a square, but some of his army remains? 


Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 22:55
Depends on the orders of the army.  If the orders are blockade or siege, the army will go home.  If the orders are occupy, the army will stay with no commander.  I don't know how exp gets divided in this case (whether dead commanders can garner exp, for example).


Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 27 Dec 2011 at 23:25
The only advantage I see to stacking armies would be to help a Cmdr survive battle.  But sharing XP is not advancing the Cmdr to his fullest extent.

I see the tourney as a contest of economics - the player that can keep making defensive armies to feed into the battle will have the most XP gain.  Of course, if a player started the tourney with a large defensive army, that player would have a starting edge.

Also, Cmdr upgrades are important.  Most of us probably didn't have any Force of Will since it has not offered any advantage to defensive cmdrs.  Now, at least 2 levels are very helpful in fending off the nasty spell casting monsters.


Posted By: Ander
Date Posted: 28 Dec 2011 at 03:42
Originally posted by Rill Rill wrote:

I should add that this holds true whether the commanders are in different armies or in different divisions within the same army.  I have not tested it with armies from different cities, but it's my understanding that the commanders would still split experience evenly even if they are from different cities, as long as they are from the same player.

Updated to add:  I'm testing it now with armies from different cities, if the skeletons can be bothered to attack me.  I have pie!

i never knew that. i assumed it was split between different armies based on their contribution. 
what did your tests show?


Posted By: Mara Zira
Date Posted: 29 Dec 2011 at 20:23
Long before the tourney started, I'd tested out how experience was split, and it came out that the commanders in the same army equally split the experience no matter how much they contributed to the kills. So if you had two commanders in one army, and one had 1 knight under him and the other had 100 knights under him, the experience gained was still equally split.

On the very first day of the tourney, I had stacked two armies: one with a few knights under him to activate the stone and 1 with my full army under him. Never having used messengers before, I had assumed I could specify that only the "place holder" army would be recalled. I ended up leaving him on the stones rather than lose out on the night for the other army, and it looked like the experience was equally split between the two commanders.

More recent tests, however, do make it appear that this has changed. For stacked armies, I suspect it does have to do with the % of the total attack or defense power contributed by the army, but I'm still testing this.

I don't suppose a knowledgeable GM would care to confirm how experience is split?


Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 29 Dec 2011 at 20:56
My most recent tests suggest that exp is still split between players according to the proportion of the army present and at the player level evenly among all commanders from a player present.  But that was a couple of days ago.  If this has changed, it would be good to hear from the devs.



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