I thought this was interesting. I got this from another guy who got it from w6 i think.
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How to pick the ultimate defensive units ratio?
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I would like to propose that the use of the offense/defense simulator should be reserved only for one purpose, and that is to test the result of your attack before actually making it. I would like to propose that the use of the simulator will tend to confuse you if you make extensive use of it to determine the best ratio for defensive units. It will also tend to confuse you if you are trying to pick the best offense units ratio. I will discuss offensive units ratio in the next section.
If you do not use the simulator, how do you determine the best defensive units ratio? The answer is actually more simple and straightforward than you could imagine.
For all units, there are 3 defense parameters. They are General Defense (GD), Cavalry Defense (CD) and Archer Defense (AD).
Let's look at the GD/CD/AD of the 3 defensive units (minus the heavy cavalry.):
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Spears: 15/45/20
Total of GD/CD/AD added up is: 80
Cost: 90 resources and 1 villager
Swords: 50/15/40
Total of GD/CD/AD added up is: 105
Cost: 130 resources and 1 villager
Archers: 50/40/5
Total of GD/CD/AD added up is: 95
Cost: 190 resources and 1 villager
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I went into such details because I would like to ask 2 questions:
1. Does the total of the GD/CD/AD matter?
2. Why is it that every single unit has some kind of weakness?
For the first question:
Does the total of the GD/CD/AD matter?
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The total of the GD/CD/AD does matter!! It matters so much that you wouldn't believe it. This is because the total of the GD/CD/AD are your defense power against the 3 kinds of offensive units, the more you have, the more you are able to withstand the 3 kinds of offensive attacks. Now, take note of which two units have the highest GD/CD/AD total.
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For the second question:
Why is it that every single unit has some kind of weakness?
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This question is the very reason for a defensive unit ratio. Each of the 3 defense units alone will have a weakness, but if you put 2 or more of these units together, their defensive strength averages up and the strength of one defensive unit cancels out the weakness of another!
Another way to look at this is that when you combine 2 or more different units together, you essential created a new kind of unit with the defensive strength of the average of the 2 or more kind.
For example, if you put a spear and a sword together, you get:
spear: 15/45/20
sword: 50/15/40
Together: 32.5/30/30
GD = (15+50)/2 = 32.5
CD = (45+15)/2 = 30
AD = (20+40)/2 = 30
Therefore, when you put the spear and the sword together, you have created or designed a new unit with GD/CD/AD of 32.5/30/30. This might be a paradigm shift for some of you, but I want you to keep this concept in mind.
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Since the number of villagers for each village is limited by a level 30 farm, which supports 24,000 villagers, you have to be extremely selective about the kind of defensive units you have so as to maximize your defensive strength.
Now let's look at 3 reasonable and common ratios for defensive units:
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spears/swords 1:1 ratio
GD/CD/AD: 32.5/30/30
Total GD/CD/AD: 92.5
spears/swords/archers 1:1:2 ratio
GD/CD/AD: 41.25/35/17.5
Total GD/CD/AD: 93.75
swords/archers 1:1 ratio
GD/CD/AD: 50/27.5/22.5
Total GD/CD/AD: 100
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Remember I told you that you should not use a simulator when determining defensive unit ratio? The simple reason is that you could average up the GD/CD/AD of the ratio you chose and determine the best ratio just by looking at the GD/CD/AD of the ratio you created. Another point is that the total GD/CD/AD is very important as the higher your total GD/CD/AD, the more defense you have generally (This is especially crucial if your attacker could not scout you successfully.)
If we classify defense strength as follows:
10 - 20: poor
20 - 30: average
30 - 40: good
40 - 50: excellent
The "spears/swords 1:1 ratio" has a low good defense for GD and average defense for everything else.
The "spears/swords/archers 1:1:2 ratio" has excellent defense for GD, good defense for CD and poor defense for AD.
The "swords/archers 1:1 ratio" has godly defense for GD, and average defense for both CD and AD. However, notice that the CD is higher than AD.
Now, isn't this much simpler and clear than running a few hundred
simulations? I will promise you that it will become even more clear if you read my section on the offense ratio.
I would propose that we should pick the ultimate defense ratio based on 2 criteria:
1. Total GD/CD/AD.
2. The villagers/performance ratio of the offense units.
If we based our decision solely on the total GD/CD/AD, the
"swords/archers 1:1 ratio" wins.
What is the villagers/performance ratio of the offensive units?
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The villagers/performance ratio of the offensive units is the amount of offensive strength you get for each villager you use on an offensive unit.
Therefore, here are the villagers/performance ratio of axemen, light cavalry and mounted archer:
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axemen:
villagers: 1
offensive strength: 40
villagers/performance ratio: 40/1 = 40
light cavalry:
villagers: 4
offensive strength: 130
villagers/performance ratio: 130/4 = 32.5
mounted archer:
villagers: 5
offensive strength: 120
villagers/performance ratio: 120/5 = 24
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Based on the villagers/performance ratio, if we know that the largest offensive force can only consist of an army made up of 23,000 villagers, we could have 23,000 axemen OR 5,750 light cavalry (23000/4) OR 4,600 mounted archers (23000/5).
Total maximum offensive strength of axemen = 23,000 * 40 = 920,000
Total maximum offensive strength of light cavalry = 5,750 * 130 = 747,500
Total maximum offensive strength of mounted archers = 4,600 * 120 = 552,000
Based on the information provided by the maximum offensive strength of each offensive units, you want a lot of defense for axemen, followed by a lesser amount for light cavalry and an even lesser amount for mounted archer.
The "spears/swords 1:1 ratio" has only a low good defense (GD: 32.5) against axemen, so it will suffer greatly against an axemen attack, so this ratio is out.
The "spears/swords/archers 1:1:2 ratio" has excellent defense against axemen (GD: 41.25) and good defense against light cavalry, but it is fatally weak against mounted archers (AD: 17.5). I would not pick this ratio based on the fatal weakness.
The "swords/archers 1:1 ratio" has a godly defense against axemen (GD: 50), very nice! Furthermore, it has average but adequate defenses against the light cavalry and mounted archers.
I guess it is pretty clear based on the total GD/CD/AD and also the villagers/performance ratio that the "swords/archers 1:1 ratio" is the best ratio for defensive units.
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How to pick the ultimate offensive units ratio?
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If a defender has 123 spears, 251 swords, 80 archers, 50 light cavalry and 200 axemen, how do you pick your offensive units ratio? Would you use the simulator again? Is there an easier way? The answer is yes!
Some people recommend that you should use light cavalry against swords, axemen against spears and mounted archer against archer. But unfortunately, life is not so simple when you face 123 spears, 251 swords, 80 archers, 50 light cavalry and 200 axemen. Furthermore, the combat system in TW is such that when you face such a diverse army, it is not the case that your axemen will fight only against the defender's spears and slaughter them only, but that your axemen has to fight spears, swords, archers, light cavalry and also axemen all together! Units like swords and archers will slaughter your axemen.
So, what is the best way to determine the best offensive force to use against a diverse defensive army? The easiest and most effective way is to total up all the defensive strength (GD/CD/AD) for all the defensive force and use only one type of offensive unit that is best against the weakest total defensive strength of the diverse army. I know this might sound complex, but let me give you a simple example:
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If you face a diverse army of 1 spear, 2 archers and 3 swords, here are their GD/CD/AD:
spear: 15/45/20
sword: 50/15/40
archer: 50/40/5
(3 swords is 150/30/120)
(2 archers is 100/80/10)
Total for 1 spear, 2 archers and 3 swords is: 265/155/150
This means that this diverse defense force is the weakest on AD (150 only), so you should send in only mounted archers. Some might ask: should I also send in my extra axemen? This is a very crucial question and the answer is: "Not if you can help it". For this case, if you have enough mounted archers to nicely defeat the defender, then you should never send in any other offensive units. This is because for example, if you send axemen in addition to mounted archers, your axemen is fighting against a stronger GD (265!!) while your mounted archers is fighting against a weak AD (140 only). Your axemen will suffer a larger casualty compared to your mounted archers and therefore sending your axemen will mess things up and increase your overall casualties. If you don't believe this, run a few simulations and you will see the light.
As an attacker, keep this powerful thought in mind: You get to pick the defense (GD/CD/AD) that you fight against. Pick the weakest!!!
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All these offensive strategy is based on the assumption that you could successfully scout your enemy. Therefore scouting is of paramount importance, it is like winning half the battle. I guess it is understandable that people devote a whole village to producing scouts. Also, try your best not to let your enemy scout your village, but however, even if they managed to scout your village, the "swords/archers 1:1 ratio" ensures that you have the best chance of survival. In fact, in the next section you will learn that no single offensive force exist in TW to defeat the ultimate "swords/archers 1:1 ratio" defense force.
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Finally We are Running some Simulations
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Let's run simulations on our best defensive units ratio against the 3 largest offensive force possible. The defense force and offense force will each comprise of 23,000 villagers.
Based on the "swords/archers 1:1 ratio", we have 11,500 swords and 11,500 archers, protected by a level 20 wall.
23,000 axemen vs 11,500 archers/11,500 swords (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 23,000 axemen
Attacker casulties: 23,000 axemen
Defender: 11,500 archers/11,500 swords
Defender casulties: 2,765 archers/2,765 swords
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WOW!! The defenders lost so little and slaughtered the largest axemen army in TW. Infact, the defenders could slaughter 3 such armies in a row and only get slaughtered by the 4th army of 23,000 axemen if you run the simulator a few times, each round decreasing the number of defenders casulties.
5,750 light cavalry vs 11,500 archers/11,500 swords (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 5,750 light cavalry
Attacker casulties: 5,750 light cavalry
Defender: 11,500 archers/11,500 swords
Defender casulties: 4,962 archers/4,962 swords
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4,600 mounted archer vs 11,500 archers/11,500 swords (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 4,600 mounted archer
Attacker casulties: 4,600 mounted archer
Defender: 11,500 archers/11,500 swords
Defender casulties: 4,254 archers/4,254 swords
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When attacked by light cavalry or mounted archers, the defenders lost less than 50% of the army. Also, the defenders are able to slaughter 2 full rounds of mounted archers attackers and almost 2 full rounds of light cavalry before getting annihilated.
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Some concluding thoughts
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Imagine you have 2 villages with 11,500 archers/11,500 swords in each village. Imagine that these 2 villages are only next to each other.
When one village is under massive attack, you send all the
11,500 archers/11,500 swords from the unattacked village to support the attacked village. What kind of offensive army will be needed to defeat this strategy? What if you have 3 such villages? Your attackers will be so depressed when you keep slaughtering their forces
ran some simulations to give a clear picture of losses sustained on common ratios.
here's the ratios for the 1:2:2 that i am currently using
and i calced a 1:3:2 as well.
43/31/22 - 1:2:2
44.2/28.3/25 - 1:3:2
im thinking the thought is erroneous and the 1:1 would probably work better anyways. lemme run some sims.
Simulation Group 1 - 1:2:2 (43/31/22)
23,000 axemen vs 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 23,000 axemen
Attacker casualties: 23,000 axemen
Defender: 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers
Defender casualties: 1,387 spear men/2,773 swords/2,773 archers
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5,750 light cavalry vs 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 5,750 light cavalry
Attacker casualties: 5,750 light cavalry
Defender: 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers
Defender casualties: 1,659 spear men/3,317 swords/3,317 archers
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4,600 mounted archer vs 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 4,600 mounted archer
Attacker casualties: 4,600 mounted archer
Defender: 4,600 spear men/9,600 swords/9,600 archers
Defender casualties: 1,760 spear men/3,519 swords/3,519 archers
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Simulation Group 2 - 1:3:2 (44.2/28.3/25)
23,000 axemen vs 3,830 spear men/11,500 swords/7,660 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 23,000 axemen
Attacker casulties: 23,000 axemen
Defender: 11,500 archers/11,500 swords
Defender casulties: 1,110 spear men/3,332 swords/2,219 archers
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5,750 light cavalry vs 3,830 spear men/11,500 swords/7,660 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 5,750 light cavalry
Attacker casualties: 5,750 light cavalry
Defender: 3,830 spear men/11,500 swords/7,660 archers
Defender casualties: 1,582 spear men/4,749 swords/3,164 archers
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4,600 mounted archer vs 3,830 spear men/11,500 swords/7,660 archers (level 20 wall):
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Attacker: 4,600 mounted archer
Attacker casualties: 4,600 mounted archer
Defender: 3,830 spear men/11,500 swords/7,660 archers
Defender casualties: 1,210 spear men/3,633 swords/2,420 archers
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total casualties for each ratio
1:1 (50/27.5/22.5)
2,765 archers/2,765 swords - 5,530 total villagers
4,962 archers/4,962 swords - 9,924 total villagers
4,254 archers/4,254 swords - 8,508 total villagers
23962 total
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1:2:2 (43/31/22)
1,387 spear men/2,773 swords/2,773 archers - 6,933 total villagers
1,659 spear men/3,317 swords/3,317 archers - 8,293 total villagers
1,760 spear men/3,519 swords/3,519 archers - 8,798 total villagers
24024 total
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1:3:2 (44.2/28.3/25)
1,110 spear men/3,332 swords/2,219 archers - 6,661 total villagers
1,582 spear men/4,749 swords/3,164 archers - 9,495 total villagers
1,210 spear men/3,633 swords/2,420 archers - 7,263 total villagers
23,419 total
note i havent used HC anywhere in these calculations, but i have a seperate section on that somewhere.i'll dig it up and post elsewhere.