Alliance House Rules

1. All rallies (except fake rallies to your own account) / scouting / attacking other targets with alliances require Rank IV / V officer approval.
2. No "Empire.#######" player names.
3. Get to 100k within 7 days of arrival.
4. Help alliance members' timers by clicking on the red helping hand icon at the bottom right of the screen whenever it appears.
5. Be respectful to all members - like a normal human being would.
6. Be active in chat so we know you're alive.
7. Do not post in Alliance Comments without permission.
8. Fake rally / peace shield during kill events.
9. Read this blog if you are new to the game / less than 250k power.

[COMPULSORY READ] Kill Event Directives

What is the Kill Event?

"Kill Event": officially called an Alliance Event / Solo Event which consists of 3 days' worth of carnage that takes place every Thursday to Sunday (may differ slightly depending on your time zone).

You will see it start when a rectangular icon with a timer pops up on the right side of the screen. Tap on it for more details on what players stand to reap from the event upon fulfilling the quotas.

Usually it's 1 point per hospitalized troop, and 3 for every troop killed by you (killing your own troops don't count). Sometimes it's traps destroyed. And sometimes...it's DOUBLE POINTS (actually it's almost always every Sunday, last 24 hours of the kill event) which means twice the incentive to go all out crazy on the kills.

What's going to happen? What do I do?

At this stage, it is most likely that you will get your butts kicked (it only takes a minute because our enemies can teleport right next to the hive and do serious damage in a matter of seconds). 

So listen to the following directives very carefully and follow it to stay safe:

1. Set up your dummy account (find out how to here)
2. Whenever you are not around, send a fake 8 hour rally to this dummy account
3. Keep all your resources low, especially silver. Use it up for research or something before the event
4. Do not leave troops out farming on resource tiles unattended. If a strong enemy is nearby (especially if he just appeared out of nowhere next to the hive), stay away from him and do not provoke him by scouting him or farming near him). Do not initiate contact in any way.
5. When possible, keep all your bigger troops on a constant rally
6. Be extremely careful before attacking any players or alliances
7. Attacking a listed ally will get you kicked and hit

More on defence available here: http://azrhaelle.blogspot.sg/2014/01/defence-precautions.html

In the words of De La Mere: Stay safe, work as a team, be prepared.


Why aren't we attacking (yet)? 

You must be thinking: Why can't I be the one kicking butt? Why do I need to be the one taking the hits?

Every alliance picks a side in this game with an even larger alliance. All alliances have their own enemies. They try to wipe some of the opposing alliances out every weekend. And when they do, it's not going to be someone around the same size as you. They send their elite mammoths 10 times to 30 times your largest alliance member's size. They can finish you like a cheesecake if they wanted to, but sometimes choose to hit just as a warning. 

No matter which alliance you are in, you will have enemies. They will hunt you down. No man is an island in this game though, and having an alliance with other alliances is better than standing alone. Where does an 800 lb. gorilla sit? Anywhere it wants to. You can be the lone wolf if you've got 20 million power, but clearly most of us aren't.

In this kingdom, you would be at a disadvantage having started the game later than those who have already been in the kingdom for a while. However, there is a growth cap, and if we can work together as a tight team of medium sized team players who strike together as a pack, we can thrive and become larger.

We would love to retal, but before that, we gotta get bigger, stronger and closer as a team. We haven't gone in with active offense as a team yet but we can do it when we stop getting questions like "what is a fake rally?" and when everyone is able to take care of themselves and their own growth.

Leadership in GoW

Why Rank Up?

We get frequent questions from new members on how to rank up. Most believe there is some benefit to being of a higher rank but are probably unsure of what exactly you get.

I'm going with a cliché here: with great power comes great responsibility.  Ranks allow you to decide who should stay in the alliance, make changes to the alliance page etc. and enable you to assist your leader better. There are few, if any, personal benefits or boosts. If you are not ready to commit to the alliance, we suggest forgetting about rank pursuit (which, in the first place, shows the wrong motivation for joining the ranks).


How to, if you are interested.

You do not need a high rank to get somewhere in the game, but if you really want a rank, high power can get you somewhere in the ranks and files of the alliance. Growing powerful and large is one way to get promoted, because it shows a certain level of commitment to the game, and an ability to retaliate on behalf of your alliance. Still, if not coupled with active participation in the chats, you are simply a number to be counted, not an actual member we can count on to contribute in times of need. By being a silent phantom with enough power to match or out rank IV officers, you might get to Rank III at best.

To become a Rank IV officer, you must show that you are helping not only the alliance in general by being a strong player, but also helping members become better players, encouraging camaraderie amongst active players, and making a concerted effort to coordinate alliance activities and protocol. When you've done what your leader deems worthy of Rank IV and shown maturity in making decisions and leading the team, you get the promotion. 3DF promotes the deserving swiftly and decisively, so I can guarantee you it is worth the effort.

"But I want to be the leader of the alliance!"

Well then go start your own alliance. 

Attacking: The Basics

TROOP RATIO – A ROUGH GUIDE

As you become experienced in the game, you can streamline your own troop strategy. But if you are still starting out and unsure, you can use this formula as a rough guide:

Research higher tier troops ASAP as low tier troops have a high upkeep to power ratio.

Levels 1-7: Total no. of troops to train = stronghold level x 1500 (they will mostly be tier 1)

Level 8-12: Total no. of troops to train = stronghold level x 2000~3000 (more tier 2 troops)

You can have more troops as long as you are able to sustain them. The more advanced you are, the more boosts you have and therefore you can hold a larger ratio of troops compared to when your city was younger.

With a large army to feed, you need to be a more active / aggressive player. Frequent gathering of food / attacking for food so that the army feeds itself is an option as well. It is not compulsory to produce 100% of the food you need.

Troop type:

• Infantry – 50% (consider concentrating all research and boosts towards infantry
• Ranged – 20%
• Cavalry – 20%
• Siege – 10%

SCOUTING

Scouting tells you many things about your enemy, and higher levels of scouting research will give you even more important details about your enemy so you can decide whether they are worth hitting, and also how many of which types of troops to send. More details about each level of scouting can be found out by tapping on the Academy > Combat > Scouting > Information.

AN ATTACK TROOP ESTIMATE

To win an attack, you need to kill/hospitalize/destroy more than your opponent. This includes both troops and traps.

Traps are the first line of defence. They are weak against siege rams. Some would argue that they are not very useful and can be done away with because in kill events that count # traps destroyed, it makes you an attractive target.

To estimate what the enemy has in power, it is roughly a formula of the following:

TOTAL of:

Traps x trap bonuses
+
each Troop type x troop quantity x troop specific bonuses* x overall bonuses

* bonuses from research, hero, hero’s armor and accessories, temporary boosts etc.

To view what the hero of your opponent is wearing for boosts, view his profile and tap on “hero”.

Remember to account for the strengths and weaknesses of each troop type against your attacking troop types.

PRISONS AND CAPTURING

To build a prison, you need a level 10 Gymnos. You also need iron shackles, of which by now you should have a handful from the gifts and such.

To capture a hero, you must deal the target a massive defeat by obliterating all the target’s traps and troops.

Heroes belonging to cities whose strongholds are level 9 and below cannot be captured.

Heroes belonging to cities whose strongholds are level 10-14 may be captured, but not executed. They will be released after a time.

All these protections end when the Hero’s stronghold reaches level 15. It seems that the stronghold level at the point of capture is what applies.

Defence Precautions

PEACE SHIELDS

Peace shields are the most straightforward and comprehensive way to protect your city. You may buy them in the alliance store, using gold coins, or using real money to buy kits that include peace shields. 

The peace shields come with different durations (8 hrs, 24 hrs, and 3 days), and for the period of time that the peace shield is active, your city and troops will be protected from all forms of attack.

WHAT ARE FAKE RALLIES FOR?

There are some attacks from significantly larger enemies that are impossible to avoid nor defend against. Fake rallies are done to protect troops and heroes if a major attack is impending so you can save your peace shield. It works because your troops which have been allocated for a rally cannot participate in the defense of the city, and therefore cannot be harmed. When done right with good timing, you can escape from imminent attacks largely unscathed – just losing some silver or extra resources at worst.

Please note that rallies are ultimately declarations of inter-alliance war and should not be used casually. You can spot fake rallies from the length of the rally (8 hours, which is the longest rally period, is typically chosen so that we are able to call off the rally at the later time with more room for maneuver). For the same reasons, it is also essential to pick a rally target significantly smaller so that in case you do end up accidentally or intentionally rallying against said target, the chances of their retaliation are slim or impossible. The best option is to rally against a fake account created for the purpose of this, or rally against your own farming account in a farming alliance.

Note that only the person who starts the rally can send a hero. Participants in existing rallies will not be able to send their hero forth, and should they wish to protect their hero, they are advised to start their own rally. However, because heroes of strongholds level 9 and below cannot be captured, you need not worry if your stronghold is level 9 and below.

HOW TO (FAKE) RALLY

1.  Rally against your farm account in the farm alliance or search for a small city in a small non-affiliated alliance (check affiliations under Alliance > Manage Alliance > View Public Profile.
   
2. Check target alliance stats and compare with our alliance. Make sure the alliance is really small compared to your alliance, with no major large players who can do serious damage should they choose to retal. Also check the target alliance’s affiliates to make sure those sister or brother alliances are not too large either.
   
3. Cross check your rally target choice with a rank IV or V officer before rallying if it is not your own farm or not part of the farming alliance.
   
4. Choose the longest rally period of 8 hours.
   
5. Send your hero and any troops to be protected to the rally. You may choose to leave some easily replaceable troops (like swordsmen) behind for defense to get some kills. Make sure you have enough hospitals to cover the troops protecting the city so that they can all be hospitalized and healed instead of killed by the enemy.
   
6. When the danger of being attacked has passed, you can call off the rally so that you do not actually attack the target. If you do not cancel the rally, your troops will ACTUALLY attack the target after 8 hours. That may or may not be what you want.

It is recommended that you do a fake 8 hr rally whenever you are about to log off for several hours with no chance of checking your account.

STOREHOUSES & HOSPITALS

Storehouses protect resources from plunder. For instance, a level 10 storehouse will protect up to 550k of each resource except silver (only level 21 storehouses can protect silver). As such, you should exhaust your silver (probably on research) before any weekend kill event so you are less likely to simply lose the silver to an attacker. Also try to use up any resources in excess of the storehouse capacity.

Hospitals prevent troops from getting killed. They are simply hospitalized. Hospitals have maximum capacities as well, as shown when you tap on any hospital. Make sure you have enough slots to house your defending troops. Troops that are hospitalized do not consume any food, but require resources for healing. To heal troops, tap on the hospital, select “Queue all” and then “Heal”.

ENCAMPMENTS

The reason for encampment could be for security purposes (like not leaving empty tiles in the hive because enemies can teleport and do damage in the core of the hive).

Encampments look like campsites with little red tents on the map. The encampment is simply a bunch of troops you sent to occupy an available, non-resource tile. To do so, simply tap on an empty tile i.e. one that isn’t someone’s city, nor water, nor a resource tile) and select “occupy”.

You may send as many or as few troops as you are able to.

Please note that while camping outside of the city, you are at risk of killing your soldiers should you get attacked.

The best volunteers for doing encampments are farming accounts. Just send a couple of troops to occupy an empty tile to fill out the space. Your alliance appreciates it :)

Building and Growing

YOUR FIRST 50K: HOW TO EARN IT IN UNDER 45 MINUTES

Unknown to many beginners, there are simple quests with great rewards that are not revealed to you by the system because it does not load an exhaustive list of available quests. One series of quests, known as the “___ for your Kingdom” series, will help you hit the 50k power mark within 30 minutes (yes it’s possible, I timed myself) to an hour.

With a phone and fast fingers, you’ll be on your way to a 50k head start with these simple steps:

1. Build 10 level 1 farms
2. Build 10 level 1 logging camps
3. Destroy enough level 1 logging camps to build 10 level 1 quarries
4. Destroy enough level 1 quarries to build 10 level 1 mines
5. Build academy and start researching
6. Build 10 level 1 barracks, destroy 4, start training
7. Build 10 level 1 hospitals
8. Destroy enough hospitals to build 10 villas

Use your VIP to speed up construction and do the empire quests to quickly reach the 50k mark.

I find that even if you only learned of this later on when you are at a stronghold level of 8-10, with many buildings at level 6 and below, it can be still well worth the effort, because you will be getting Power increases by the thousands for sacrificing some building power in the hundreds.

BUILDING TYPES

I’m not going to go into each building’s characteristics because they are easily found in the How to Play section.

Your City is divided into 2 sections: Rural, which is outside the city walls, and Urban (inside the walls).

Rural buildings cannot be built inside the Urban section, vice versa.

There are 25 Rural slots and 25 Urban slots. Use them wisely.

For starters, split your Rural slots as follows:
9 farms
5 logging camps
5 quarries
5 mines
1 gold mine

And your Urban slots as follows:
4 barracks
4~5 hospitals
1 forge
1 academy
1 gymnos
1 marketplace
1 prison (when you hit level 10)
1 watchtower
1 embassy
1 hall of war
fill the rest of the slots with as many villas as you can

GATHERING

Feeding a fat army is a real pain and the least these buggers could do besides freeloading and eating your food is to go gather resources. Gathering resources from resource tiles during peace time saves you the trouble of asking someone for stuff, and saves both you and the giver the hefty tax levied on such transactions (of course if it is an emergency, that’s a different story).

Resource tiles can be found everywhere. They regenerate when exhausted, and come in different levels. High level resource tiles let you gather much faster than low level resource tiles. When occupying the resource tile, you may also pick up items like materials for crafting. 

Resource tiles look like these:

Forts only appear on bodies of water, and produce silver. Water does not impede gathering in any way, it’s just like any other resource tile.

Gold takes VERY long to gather. It also takes 1000 troop carrying capacity per 1 gold. It’s almost not worth the effort unless you get a high level temple, you’ve researched gold gathering, your troops don’t need to gather anything else and you have all the time in the world with no immediate danger present for 24 hours or something.

To be considerate to your alliance members, please exhaust the resource tile completely if there’s a residual amount left so that more new resource tiles can regenerate around the hive.

PLEASE DO NOT fight over an occupied resource with anyone regardless of alliance. It’s not worth losing troops over. Before you send troops toward a resource tile, make sure there is no one occupying the resource tile and there are no dotted lines heading towards the resource tile. Make sure your troops arrive at the resource without incident before logging out.

QUESTING

There are 3 types of quests: Empire Quests, Daily Quests and Alliance Quests. They are graded as Basic, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Higher grade quests take longer but have much better rewards.

Empire Quests are completed when you fulfill a certain requirement as defined in the quest (e.g. building a level 3 farm, or producing 5000 food per hour etc.)

Daily Quests and Alliance Quests are time-based. They do not require you to do anything except to click start, then wait out for the timer to end before collecting the reward.

You may use Chance to try and get better grade quests.

More about the Alliance store, funds and loyalty can be found here.

STOCKPILING RESOURCES SAFELY

You can obtain resources by opening up chests and play the in-game lottery. These resources don't directly move over to your overall resource pile; they go to your inventory in the item menu. Keep some of these resources stockpiled in your items menu so it won't have a higher risk of being stolen from your resource pile. 

Also, upgrade your storehouse as high as you can to protect resources. Whatever resources within the storehouse capacity will not be pillaged during an attack.

Basic Functions and Getting Around

MAP NAVIGATION

To break it down, there are many different Kingdoms, concentrically centred around The Throne of Kings, a Super Wonder which has a suspicious resemblance to the Iron Throne in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

I’ve labeled each view (see captions below each screenshot) for future reference so you know which view I am referring to when I’m trying to direct you to a button or page in the app itself.

The oldest Kingdoms are in the centre, and as new kingdoms are added to accommodate more new players, they join the periphery, making wider and wider circles around The Throne of Kings.

To find someone using coordinates (X being the horizontal axis and Y the vertical axis), tap the magnifying glass at the top bar and you will be asked to enter the coordinates (if you are in the Kingdom already, the first coordinate K will be filled out for you already). It will take you there directly.

Tap on the bottom left corner to toggle between City View and Kingdom Overview (where you can see your own city and nearby cities and resources).

IMPORTANT PAGE OF USEFUL TOOLS

Please also visit http://gow-fireage.wikia.com/ for more useful information.

WHAT IS A HIVE?

Every alliance will try to gather its members by getting them to teleport to the “hive”. The hive simply refers to the alliance main camp, which is often (in any respectable alliance) a giant concentrated gathering of members in the same location.

Being in a hive means being in close proximity to the only people who are able to help you in the game.

TELEPORTING

Before you reach level 5, make sure you use your free beginner’s teleport to get to the hive. After level 5 the beginner’s teleport will no longer work. The beginner’s teleport allows teleporting from any part of any kingdom to any part of another kingdom. It is the most powerful teleport available.

To teleport, get the coordinates of the hive from your alliance members. Then locate it on the map, select a spot you like, and teleport there.

After you have advanced to level 6 onwards, you may only use an advanced teleport or random teleport. The advanced teleport locations are limited within your current Kingdom.

FINDING A PLAYER / ALLIANCE PROFILE

There is no Kingdom directory of player’s locations; that is because location is quite sensitive. Part of strategy is to keep your location unknown to enemies. This is why it is important not to freely give away your coordinates.

However, you may look up a player’s stats, alliance, heroes etc. Click on More > Search and you can look up players by name or alliance name/tag. Note that a flaw in the system is that Alliance tags containing symbols cannot be searched even though they do exist.

MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS

We hold multiple accounts for various reasons. You can play them all on the same device or on different devices.

IMPORTANT: Before playing on multiple devices, make sure you have set up your MZ account. Click on More (right bottom corner of screen) > Accounts and Devices and follow the instructions. If you do not do this and log out of the account, ALL GAMEPLAY INFORMATION WILL BE LOST.

To set up a new account:

1. Create a new email address or have an alternate email not linked to any GoW on hand.
2. Click on the + sign at the bottom right (“More”) > MZ Accounts and Devices
3. Log out of your account (make sure you have already set up an MZ account for the current city or you will lose it - both literally and figuratively)
4. Open Game of War again
5. You will be prompted for log-in details. Click on “start a new game” at the bottom left
6. Teleport your city to somewhere near fDF which is around K:74 X:121 Y:73
7. Join the relevant alliance for this account e.g. for farming accounts, join [fDF] “The generals farm” alliance

Subsequently, you can log out of the current account and start a new game or log in to your other accounts.

CHANGING YOUR DEFAULT NAME

Your default player name and city name are “Empire.#######”.

Your alliance will often require you to change your PLAYER name to something that doesn’t start with “Empire” followed by a string of digits for several reasons:

•  So they can identify you easily
• So that you don’t look like a noob who doesn’t even know how to change your name
• So they know you can follow simple instructions and won’t be an unresponsive zombie in times of crisis

To change it, go to City view, tap Items > My Items > Special and scroll down till you see Player Rename. Change that first. Then if you want to rename your city as well, repeat the above steps except use the City Rename instead.

Welcome to the GoW Player's Guide

This page exists for the purpose of reorganizing information in a way that presents itself in a more useful and friendly manner than the existing How to Play handbook from the game developers.

I don't know everything, nor do I know best, so this guide is considered a constant work-in-progress. I am open to suggestions, comments and constructive criticism.

Due to my limited knowledge of higher level builds (mainly cos I'm still at stronghold level 13), I would say that this guide works best for levels 1-10, and players who haven't been particularly active in the alliance and are unaware of some actions that the alliance recommends you take as part of defence strategy.

You will find tips which have been contributed by experienced leaders and officers that will help you become a better team player in the alliance.

An alliance is only as good as its active team members, so in order to keep the alliance great, take heed, cooperate, and have fun while you're at it.


Live long and prosper.
Retsu / Rhaelle