Recruiting Troops

Copy Paste of guidance for newer players in my guild:

You basically want to recruit about 50% mages, 20% archers, 20% infantry, 10% cavalry, with alot of extra level 2 cavalry strictly for gather

Mages have highest attack and ranged - they are easily (in combination with other troops) the best at city offense, city defense, and killing monsters

Archers have slightly less range & damage than mages but are a good secondary damage source - you need more than your mages dealing out damage since enemy lord troops tend to be split up into combat groupings (up to 9 on offense including angels, 10 on defense including angels and golems)

Cavalry are much less useful in attack and defense - they help a bit in city defense but are mostly used for gather or attacking undefended cities (when players begin to quit realm)

Infantry are defensive meat shields - they occupy enemy troops, buying time for, and limiting damage to, your ranged troops (mages & archers)

Special note on cavalry - you want a ton of level 2 in all likelihood - even when you unlock higher level - as they are fast, have high "load" score, are cheap to recruit, making them perfect for big gathering expeditions. Your level 2 gather ponies are outside of the % guidelines above

you will unlock higher tier troops at barracks levels (your barracks level is limited by your castle level) 1,4,7,10,13,16,19,22,25,3

As you're closing in on unlocking the next tier of troops, focus your resources on those upgrades - don't pile up battle power in the form of too many low level troops. Enough to gather, kill monsters, participate in raids once we get aggressive

Strongest Lord Event quick guide

Copy Paste of advice to my guild:

these events are an awesome way to get big gems and alliance point rewards (which we can use to get more flags and elite mines)

first four days will randomly be either Power On (level buildings and technology in your college), Gather, Kill Monsters or Recruit Troops. Each event happens once and we can't predict the order.

after that there will be a three day kill enemies event - always comes last

here are some tips to put you in best position to get rewards in each phase and potentially get a top 100 lords award:

1. for power on, get 2 build queues going (200 gems for golden hammer). having a big build like castle, walls, hospital, etc. which you can rush before phase ends using building speedup is a big help.

2. recruiting - after you've completed recruiting 250 of each troop type to maximize your daily rewards (you should be getting them all every day), queue up big recruitment across your barracks which will end AFTER server resets so that you earn points. recruitment that ends before server reset doesn't count

so if it takes 10 hours for a maximum recruit in your barracks, the ideal time to set it up is 9 hours 59 minutes before server reset so they complete AFTER and you get maximum points

use this as an opportunity to fix your troop mix - many of you probably have fewer mages than the guidelines we've discussed in past.

3. gather - queue up a LONG gather - gems are best - that will run for several hours and end AFTER server reset - if that ends up being next event you'll have a big head start

4. monsters - assuming you play during server reset hours (some may be asleep depending on time zone), save up a bit of stamina so that you can immediately begin earning monster kill points

Kill Event Guidelines

Copy Paste of advice to my guild:

during Kill Event our rivals will have the following goals:

1. get easy kills by picking off gathering forces
2. get easy kills by picking us off 1 by 1
3. get good pillage during their attacks
4. minimize their own losses (when you attack your losses are permanent; when you defense you can heal up to your hospital + medic tent capacity)

luckily this can all be very easily countered by:

1. not hoarding resources during kill event - see my resource management post.
2. when you are offline, particularly if your battle power is below 500k, send your troops to reinforce a stronger ally. enemies will take big losses attacking combined armies. if you get attacked and aren't hoarding, you just burn for an hour then recover super quickly
3. if you're gathering offline, gems only (uses smallest # of troops)
4. not launching suicidal solo attacks. we will look for *smart* chances to rally. if you want to be useful, have army presets (in drill grounds)
5. if someone pops in and attacks a flag or castle, they are trying to draw you out/check if you are stupid. don't be stupid.
6. share all battle reports in alliance (not global!) chat so that we know what we are dealing with
7. move your castle into our hive if you haven't already - it's not possible to reinforce you in a timely manner if you're far away. Be as close as you possibly can to your allies cities - chessboard city formation because every second counts when you're under attack.
8. keep your farm castles empty of resources!

City Resource Buildings

Leveling  you castle unlocks more plots of land (look at castle "info" screen for details) for resource buildings (food/wood/iron/stone), medic tents and training grounds, up to 42 total - use these slots as follows:

1. Medic Tents - you absolutely need the max of these to be able to heal a large army after an attack. Build 8 of the possible 8 as more are unlocked. You don't need to upgrade these aggressively in the first few days of a new account, but as soon as your army size begins to stretch your hospital capacity, build and upgrade these aggressively.
2. Training Grounds - let you recruit more troops with a single action - I recommend maxing these out (8 of possible 8) as well so that you can do long overnight recruits when you unlock higher level troops
3. Food & Wood - I'd build 6-8 out of the possible 10 of each of these, saving some slots for other building types. This makes the early part of the game (before you need much stone, iron) easier for newer players.
4. Stone - I'd build 6-8 of possible 10. These unlock at level 10. At first you'll have modest stone needs and it will pile up. Make sure you save one spot of land to build at least one as soon as they unlock - having a stone mine is a pre-requisite to further cast upgrades. You can sacrifice 2 wood or good to max these out if you want to reap late game benefits (you need a ton of stone and iron for big castle and other upgrades).
5. Iron - I'd build 4-8 of possible 10 (more unlock at higher levels - most players miss this because their lots are already full so they lack the option to build more). Unlocks at level 15. When your castle level is 16, you'll find that you don't use much iron. When you start passing 18, you'll likely be running out quickly. As with stone, you can sacrifice 2 food or wood to get the maximum 10.

FARM ACCOUNTS - For your farm castles, build one training ground (can't upgrade your castle without one) maximum of all resource sites - 10 farms, 10 wood, 10 stone, 10 iron totals 41 - then 1 medic tents - you need at least one to upgrade your castle - to get to maximum 42. If you're going for a "strong farm" (to kill monsters for xp, or some other well thought out purposes), build a couple extra medic tents at the expense of some resource buildings

General resource building tips/considerations:

• Wood and Food are easier to pillage than stone and especially iron - most people who quit and end up being farms do not have high level stone/iron resources for you to take
• through around level 13, these upgrades are cheap and fast. Beyond that they begin to eat up considerable resources, so you should defer picking these up if it delays upgrading the higher impact buildings - castles, drill grounds, barracks, college, etc.
• Pick one of each of food/wood/stone/iron buildings to upgrade to highest available level, as the are pre-requisites for castle, hospital, watchtower, etc. upgrades (only one, not all, has to reach the specified level)
• Your fields can hold a maximum of around 12 hours of production, so harvest these often. Unharvested resources are always susceptible to pillage and are not protected by your depot level.
• If you have a change of plans, you can destroy one resource building to make room for another - if you're not sure about a resource building, don't upgrade it past level 10 (low return on resources invested - at higher levels these take a long time to pay you back) so that you don't end up wasting too much.

Basic Resource Management

Copy Paste of guidance to my guild:

here are the basics when managing your resources.

the following cannot be looted when you are attacked:

1. harvested resources below your depot limit
2. monster kill reward boxes (never expire)
3. quest rewards (never expire)
4. daily territory rewards (never expire)

you should be hoarding these to make big upgrades safely - castles, walls, high level barracks (need a ton of food). cash these in a minute before you'll use them, not as soon as you get them. hoard them on your farm accounts as well.

start with quests because they come with xp and occasional gems/other boosts. monster boxes for when you are short a particular resource but have plenty of others.

resources above your depot maximum are like putting a bounty on your own head and paying our rivals to attack you. political situation keeps changing so don't accumulate too much.

big players (lvl 30 castles) pass on attacks where pillage is not worth the troop losses -

smaller building upgrades, barracks, research, merchant (saving shells over time can get you awesome things like peace shields and elite teleport without spending gems) are great alternatives to hoarding resources instead of having them get taken.

unharvested resources in your fields can also be pillaged so don't let them add up too much.

Useful Wao Links

WaO Official Facebook (has some useful tips mixed in):

https://www.facebook.com/WarandOrder1/

Combat mechanics (helps explained timed attack & reinforce):

http://warandorder.alphagamestrategies.com/war-order-battle-system/

Youtube video on how to forge equipment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INK9LT3zXD0

Timed Defense - Ignore Embassy Reinforce Capacity!

Copy Paste of guidance to my guild:

normally your embassy level limits how many troops can be sent to reinforce your city when you are attacked

Above that limit and troops get sent home once they reach an ally with a full embassy

there is one way to exceed this limit that good alliances understand and use

if you time your troops to arrive exactly 1-3 seconds after enemy attackers arrive

they will join the fight and you will save the day instead of having your troops just march home

you do this by checking how long it takes your reinforce to arrive

then tracking how long in will take enemy to arrive at your ally's city

and sending reinforcements when the two times are equal. ignore the game warning that embassy is full and send anyway.

Having castles set up in hive in a tight checkerboard setup minimizes reinforce time and increases effectiveness of this tactic.

Since attackers lose troops permanently, instead of being able to heal like defenders can, attacking into a thick hive of players who have timed reinforce ability is very scary even for the strongest players.