Hola amigos!

This is a guide of how to make optimal attacking moves in a number of situations, a vital part of success in this game. However optimal your tactics are however, they are useless without a strong strategy, so if you are new be sure to check out Strategy of Paars in the forum.

Righty-ho then, lets begin. For my example I will use the classic 3v3 battlefield of Moldovia/Bulgaria where we control Moldovia and our opponent Bulgaria, but this guide can be applied to any provinces. I will list the armies in the provinces in this order: (Ukraine/Moldovia/Bulgaria/Byzantium). Eg (10/5/20/10)

First of all it is vital to understand that the order you make your moves in during the alotted time is the order you will move in! So attacking moves should almost always be done first and backland moves last. I can't stress this enough!

Situation 1. (10/8/10/0) (The Counterstrike)
So Bulgaria outnumbers Moldovia and if our opponent gets 1st move, we will lose it. So our 1st move is to reinforce it with the 10 armies in Ukraine. Now say we get 1st move, and then Bulgaria attacks and kills 10. Now we have 8 in Moldovia and 0 in Bulgaria. We were smart and anticipated this and made our second move Moldovia attacks Bulgaria! Now instead of losing Moldovia, we gain Bulgaria!
This is one of the most important moves to learn as this situation will arise constantly.

Situation 2. (0/10/8/10) (The Hail Mary)
Now the situation is reversed, so we need to watch out for the same move as above. Either we do not attack Bulgaria and we are near certain to keep Moldovia, or we attack Bulgaria and risk losing Moldovia. This decision must be made taking in alot of different factors, which comes down to one idea: Who is set to lose most? If Moldovia is primitive but Bulgaria is advanced, we must try to attack, and if it fails bad luck. But if Moldovia is better, just stay and hold it and rely on buying armies to beat the next attack.

Situation 3. (0/10/2/10) (The Freebie)
This may look similar to Situation 2 but it is not. In this case we can attack bulgaria AND keep Moldovia for certain. Just make your 1st move to attack with 5 instead of all 10. If 1st turn is ours we take Bulgaria, if not their reinforcements will fight our attack off, but we still have 5 armies in Moldovia to defend the counterattack from only 2 armies in Bulgaria! Remember even though they may have more in a province after they reinforce, they can only attack with what was there initially!

Situation 4. (The Sidestep)
Ok lets make the situation a bit more complex. You have taken Bulgaria from your opponent and have 10 armies there. Now Byzantium and Macedonia have 5 and 7 armies respectively, and both provinces are equally developed. Now most players will assume you will attack Byzantium because you have a great chance of winning 10v5. Therefore they will attack you with the 7 from Macedonia, and if they move first and kill 7 armies of yours, your next attack will be 3v5 in Byzantium which you will lose. So to avoid this situation, attack Macedonia instead! Then it doesnt matter who goes first, you are nearly gauranteed the win.

Situation 5. (The Cap Trap)
Lets move away from out example provinces and say we have a large army in Genoa next to our opponents capital, Roma say. The army in his captial outnumbers ours and since we have no reinforcements nearby his army will defeat ours if they meet. However, he can not move since he is cap-trapped! Let me show you why. If he tries to attack us with his army, but we get 1st turn and move from Genoa to Corsica, his capital will be either weakly defended while his large army is in Genoa. Now he is in danger of losing his capital should we move 1st again!
In some situations it is better to risk losing your capital like this than staying in and defending, for example if no help is nearby and you are in danger of losing should you not take your provinces back immeadiately.

Situation 6. (20/20/15/15) (The Counter-Counterstrike)
Finally, this move is very useful for chokepoint battles like Moldovia/Bulgaria or England/Brittany and you expect your opponent to try and counterstrike you. Instead of trying to take Bulgaria in your 1st turn and leave yourself open for the counterstrike, reinforce from your backland and then attack Bulgaria on your LAST move. What usually happens is your opponent will reinforce his land, then attempt the counterstrike in his second move with 15 armies, which your 40 will fight off, leaving 25 in Moldovia and 15 in Bulgaria. Now your last attack will be 20 vs 15, and you have taken Bulgaria without danger to yourself.

That is it for this part of the Tactics guide, if people find it useful let me know and I may do more. Also if anyone has something to add please do!

I hope this will help your game reach the next level.

Happy Conquering!

hey debbie, you forgot situations 7 - 99 and most important

situation 100. (0/0/0/0) (the my name is deboer but you may call me idiot)
after you offered peace to your neighbour, nothing happened and the game was decided draw which cost 0 gold and 0 troops.

i hope deboer will reach any level at all. ...no i dont.

Thank you for the objective criticism rippe, your posts are always so useful and worthy of attention! I wish my jokes were as well thought out and articulated as yours.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2008 12:47PM by de_Boer.

nvm didnt watch the amounts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2008 01:03PM by Paars.

A somewhat more complicated case:

You have 20 armies in Brittany, and 15 in Normandy. Your opponent has 40 in England. In this case, England may feel comfortable attacking Brittany with 23, and then Normandy with 17.

In such a case, one could make a side-step from Brittany to Normandy, so that 35 armies are there to defend against an attack from England. With a counterattack, England may be taken. In winter, this could mean a cutoff of the 23 armies in Brittany. In addition, you might block any reinforcements coming into England (although a wise opponent would reinforce at least before attacking Normandy; but then, if you also have reinforcements, he might take a gamble on first move).

A much more complicated attackmove that ppl never use, is:

15 in Ukraine
35 in Moldavia
vs
25 in Bulgaria
9 in Byzantium

AND 1 in Wallachia..

It have to be winter for it to work..

Since that it is not 100% sure that the 35 will get Bulgaria no matter what, the Russian person will reinforce before attack.. If this was the case, an attack from Bulgaria on first turn, would result in there being about 20 back in Moldavia.. Since that Russian guy probably attacked Bulgaria 2 turn, will result in all 20 going to Bulgaria, and leaving Moldavia empty, even though reinforcement came.. So an attack from wallachia would cut off the army in Bulgaria, leaving Nicaea the winner

still worthless...

No, a good strategy in my opinion, that I indeed seldom use deliberately.

In the above case, the cutoff only works if there is no army in Poland to take Wallachia, e.g. because it is neutral. If that is the case, usually not many armies are in the game. Still, there are occasions where the strat might work, maybe also to make the opponent pay for moving many troops forward into an empty land, while leaving no backup in the second line.