Ambush Guide
Okay, it's come to my attention that many in this kd don't feel comfortable ambushing, so I decided to write this step-by-step guide. The only tool you need which you might not have to successfully ambush is a SoM calculator.
Now, I'm sure you're all aware of how good it is to ambush orcs, but just in case you aren't, here's a basic run down: They have +30% gains The have an insanely low defensive value elite Ambushes kill troops that have been sent out Ambushes are 25% faster than normal attacks So, you negate their +30% gains because you get 50% of what they took, you send out hardly any off to do so if they've only sent elites, you kill their offense, and your army gets back nice and quickly, ready to ambush more orcs. You can even your main offense out to do normal hits.
Copycats have kindly provided us with a bunch of orcs right now, not a single of which are warrior (who have -50% land losses when ambushed) so it's only fair we teach them the error of not going warrior when you pick orc.
Now, how do we ambush? The guide, as usual, isn't much help, but it does tell you a few things
"Strike an opponent's army away from home and recaptures 50% of the land stolen from you. Because of its surprise nature, no offensive or defensive modifiers are considered - only raw military strength - and the defense will fight at 80% of its normal capacity. Specialists in the opposing army will defend with their normal offensive strength. A province attacking anonymously or using War Spoils cannot be ambushed, and an army can only be ambushed once."
The main things you need to know are: 'no offensive or defensive modifiers are considered - only raw military strength' 'the defense will fight at 80% of its normal capacity' - this is an exception to the 'no offensive or defensive modifiers are considered' 'Specialists in the opposing army will defend with their normal offensive strength' 'and an army can only be ambushed once' Conveniently, the guide leaves out the bit about Elites defending with their defensive value.
So to ambush, you need to know how many troops have been sent out to attack your province. This is probably the hardest part of ambushing, and the bit where most people are going to screw up if they do. This is where the SoMs come in, and the SoM calculator. You will need at least 2 SoMs, and it's quite possible you will need more. This will most likely be due to the low amount of troops sent.
Conveniently, I have an example that was prepared earlier to better explain this.
June 4th, YR5 call (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 81 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 call (9:11) invaded Rengakake Magicks (3:17) and captured 25 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 139 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 piercing through (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 131 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded Disturbed (3:17) and captured 25 acres of land.
Kzagl didn't take particularly kindly to these attacks, and thought it would be a good idea to ambush one of them, so he took 1 SoM a SoM of 'I just been', the largest hit against him, to see what troops had been sent out against him and whether it was a good idea to ambush
SOM 1
- Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:46 hours) **
Ogres: 5,132 (49,308 offense / 11,485 defense) Captured Land: 143 Acres
- Army #5 (Back in 10:52 hours) **
Ogres: 1,594 (15,315 offense / 3,567 defense) Captured Land: 33 Acres
Now, there are two armies out here, but it's pretty easy to tell which one is the one that hit Kzagl, due to the large difference in captured land. The one that hit Kzagl is
- Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:46 hours) **
Ogres: 5,132 (49,308 offense / 11,485 defense) Captured Land: 143 Acres
On seeing the no specialists (goblins) and high amount of elites (ogres), Kzagl made the decision to get a few of his acres back, so he took another SoM and started to calculate the ambush
SOM 2
- Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:51 hours) **
Ogres: 4,247 (38,597 offense / 9,598 defense) Captured Land: 149 Acres
- Army #5 (Back in 10:57 hours) **
Ogres: 2,200 (19,994 offense / 4,972 defense) Captured Land: 21 Acres
This second SoM really confirms that it's armies 2/3/4 that his Kzagl, and you can check the paper to confirm the acre difference. Now that he had this data, it's easier to read if I organize it a bit
Som Som1 Som2 Ogres: 5132 4247
Now, Kzagl used the SoM+SoM method that people use to find exact defense at home to find the exact troops out. So if you input the ogre amounts into a SoM calculator, you get an answer something like this:
[[16:22:57] <tzar> !som 5132 4247 [16:22:59] <[-Honor-]> »» tzar, possible defence values are 4424 4666 5898 5899
The exact number is one of the following: 5899 4424 3539
[16:23:00] <[-Honor-]> >>> 5899 (87% 72%) +- 21% [16:23:00] <[-Honor-]> >>> 4424 (116% 96%) +- 10%
Though the outputs may vary slightly, they all use (basically) the same method so they all get you the right answer eventually. However, Kzagl was unlucky and forced to get another SoM to work out the exact troops sent against him, so he did
SOM 3
- Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:44 hours) **
Ogres: 4,468 (39,676 offense / 10,616 defense) Captured Land: 178 Acres
I've just ignored army #5 now, as we know that data isn't relevant
Now, let's organize the data again Som Som1 Som2 Som3 Ogres: 5132 4247 4468
Now we input the extra number into the SoM calculator, and we get:
[16:25:35] <tzar> !som 5132 4247 4468 [16:25:37] <[-Honor-]> »» tzar, possible defence values are 4424
The exact number is one of the following: 4424
[16:25:37] <[-Honor-]> >>> 4424 (116% 96% 101%) +- 7%
So, 'I just been' sent 4424 ogres (well, he sent a few more, but lost some in the attack) to attack Kzagl. If he had sent some soldiers or specialists (or both) you'd have to repeat these steps to figure out how many of those he sent.
Now that we've established that beyond doubt, he sent 4424 ogres, we can calculate what is going to be required to successfully ambush.
Orc elites are great for attacking with, not so great for defending with. Because they only have 2 defense, that's what they defend with on an ambush.
So we calculate 4424*2 = 8856
Now if we remember back to the guide, 'the defense will fight at 80% of its normal capacity.' So, we multiply that number by 0.8
8856*0.8 = 7084.8
And that's probably the hardest part, getting the exact defense that you need to break on an ambush.
Now, this is another important bit, when we calculate how much offense we're going to send, we don't modify it in anyway. If you're using angel's military calculator to do it, make sure you use the RAW OFFENSE number.
In this case, Kzagl first made the mistake of trying to do that [15:49:45] <IamIke> 1093 warriors and 8 zerkers [15:50:00] <IamIke> 7215 mod
Which, a quick calculation can show, is about 5.5k raw offense, which wouldn't break 7085 def
He then came back with <IamIke> 1093 war + 275 zerks
1093*5=5465 275*7=1925 5465+1925=7390
Which is enough to break 7085 def
And then we get smiles all around [15:52:10] <IamIke> Your forces arrive at I just been (9:11), and battle begins quickly... [15:52:12] <IamIke> A tough battle took place, but we have managed a victory! [15:52:13] <IamIke> Your army has recaptured 76 acres from our enemy! Taking full control of our new land will take 8.18 days. The new land will be available on June 14th, YR5. [15:52:14] <IamIke> We lost 60 Warriors and 15 Berserkers in this battle. Our forces will be again available on June 14th, YR5. [15:52:17] <IamIke> We killed about 160 enemy troops.
Okay, so that's how you ambush. Unfortunately for me, that was a pretty straightforward ambush. There are a few more rules you need to know.
You always ambush the last hit made against your province by that particular province. So in this case, if the paper had looked like this:
June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 139 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 piercing through (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 131 acres of land. June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded KZAGL ELVEN GRAVE (3:17) and captured 25 acres of land.
You would have to ambush the hit for 25 acres before you could ambush the hit for 139 acres. You wouldn't necessarily have to be successful though, because once you've ambushed a hit by a province, you can't ambush that hit again, so the game moves onto the next hit.
War horses, prisoners & mercs sent in the army that you're ambushing don't count. Horses, mercs, and prisoners count in your raw off. Prisoners and mercs are 3, horses 1
So that's about it as far as I can think of right now, I'll just sum it up to you quickly
SoM the person who hit you. Figure out which army (or armies) hit you, which you would have to ambush first, and whether it's worth it to ambush at all. It's really not worth it if the army is mainly specialists. Get another SoM. Put the troop values into a SoM calculator. If it's not 100% accurate, get another Som. Repeat if necessary. It's really not necessary to repeat if you've gotten 5 SoMs, and you're not 100% sure on whether the guy sent out 115 soldiers or 110. Just use 115 in your calculations. Calculate what value the troops sent will defend at (soldiers at 1, off specs at their off value, leets at their def value (check the guide if you really don't know)) Times that value by 0.8 Figure out the RAW OFF that'll break that value. Don't tempt fate and send only 1 point over, send a couple of hundred points. Send only 1 general on each ambush. Attack & Don't bounce
Oh, and if you've got any questions, or you're still not sure, you're probably best slapping 'tzar' in irc, or slapping someone who you know is on irc to slap me so i come online in game :)
