The endgame is the most crucial of the entire game. Planning for it requires foresight as you will find many elements such as politics, organization, alliance policies and tactics that will impact your end game.
This section outlines your approach strategy to the endgame and is especially suited for the alliance leader of meta alliances.
How the End Game Unfolds
As a general rule of thumb, the end game will begin on the 10th month. On average, it will last around 2 months, so a server life is around 12 months. Sometime around the 8th month, you need to start planning for the end game.
The goal of every competing alliance is to reach level 100, and at the same time, prevent others from reaching level 100. The one who will win is not the one who can build the fastest. But it is the one who can best defend his World Wonder and best attack his enemy’s World Wonder.
In other words, its not about speed. Its about who is the strongest.
Defenses in a World Wonder village runs into the millions, at the very minimum, you can expect to find over a million defenders in a World Wonder village.
When a hammer attacks a World Wonder village, it has no chance of coming back. It is a one shot suicide army, where it will die attacking a World Wonder village, no matter how big or massive the attacking army is.
Some World Wonders have up to 6 or 7 million defenders in them. But why so many defenders, when we know that even one million is enough to completely kill off an entire army?
Even though the attacking army may be completely killed, but the attacking catas will still fire, and deal some amount of damage. How much damage it deals will depend on how many defenders were in the village during the attack.
The exact formula is a secret, but as a guideline, the number of catas that will fire during an attack depends on the number of defenders that were killed.
For example, if you killed one percent of the defending army, then one percent of your catas will fire. If you had 1000 catas, that means 10 catas will fire. 10 catas against a level 20 structure will deal a little bit of damage.
The exact formula is a closely guarded secret. As mentioned, only the game developers know how it works, but I know the percentage of defenders killed is part of the equation.
Because it takes over 84 hours to build a Great Warehouse up to level 20, losing it will set you back by 3 and half days of building time. Losing two Great Warehouses will set you back by one week.
Even though the attacking army would have been wiped out, but it has the potential to destroy two Great Warehouses with it and slow you down by one week. That is why World Wonder villages are stuffed up with millions of defenders so they minimize damage to the Great Warehouses.
The Great Warehouses are often targeted because they provide the best bang for the buck, in terms of build time.
This also means alliances begin to undertake projects to build very large monstrous armies just for the purpose of attacking World Wonder villages. These are often called World Wonder hammers.
World Wonder hammers cost a huge amount of time and resources to build, and every alliance has a finite number of hammers. World Wonder hammers are an alliance’s most precious asset. Use them wisely because they can only be used once, and when all hammers have been used, you no longer have the ability to damage the enemy World Wonder villages.
An alliance’s ability to defend against attacks also plays a crucial role. A defense of 2 million defenders and 4.5 million defenders and 6 million defenders will yield very different results. It can mean the difference between completely losing a level 20 Great Warehouse to merely damaging it to level 17.
The next equation that comes into play is the number of World Wonder villages you need to attack. If you have ten World Wonder villages to attack, then you would have diluted your offense capability. It would be much better if you had only 3 to 4 World Wonder villages to attack, so you concentrate your firepower on these villages.
Politics and diplomacy plays an important role. Different from the early to mid game, you need allies during the end game. It will prevent their hammers from being used against you, and it will help you have more firepower against a common enemy World Wonder.
History has shown that there are a few World Wonder levels you need to pay close attention to. The higher a World Wonder level grows, the more defenses it has. At level 60, it may have only 2 million defenders. At level 85, 4 million defenders, and at level 95, 6 million defenders. These are only examples, but they are not unrealistic figures.
You need to be on guard at level 50 to 60. Many alliances tend to launch their first round of attacks somewhere around this.
The second round of attacks tend to happen at around level 85 to 90. Especially at level 96, it is a very, very special level. You need 950,000 resources to build level 96.
In order to have 950,00 capacity, the World Wonder host would have built three Great Warehouses level 20 and one level 19. In total, combined with the normal warehouses, they would have reached the required 1 million capacity needed to complete level 100.
Furthermore, once level 96 is complete, levels 97 and 98 would have already been queued up for building. It takes about 13 hours to complete each level, and it is the last chance to stop the player from reaching level 100.
Once level 98 is complete, he can queue up levels 99 and 100, and you will need to directly attack the World Wonder in order to have any chance of stopping him at all.
That is why level 96 is so very important.
In summary, the key levels to look out for and put a shout out for defenses are at levels 50 to 60, 85 and 96. Remember it takes a few days to build up a huge defense, and World Wonder levels are built very quickly. You need to anticipate your needs well ahead of time.
Once the leading Wonder is hit, it will stop there while it is being repaired. He can be stuck at the same level for over a week. During this time, the next Wonder takes the lead. He too will be hit and will have to stop for repairs.
The next Wonder takes the lead, and its his turn to be hit. After three rounds of attacks, by this time, alliances would have used up a lot of their World Wonder hammers, but they will still have a few spares.
Also by this time, the first Wonder is almost repaired. And almost ready to rejoin the race. As Wonders advance in level, they will be hit again and again, until there are no more hammers.
On average, every meta alliance has the ability to effectively attack a World Wonder village between four to eight times.
When there are no more hammers, the World Wonders can be built without harassment. And that is when the game ends when one reaches level 100.
Another very common mistake is players underestimate the speed at which a World Wonder is built. Players attack too late. It can take up to 2 days for a hammer to reach its destination.
They send off the army targeting the Great Warehouse, but in two days time, by the time the attack arrives, level 98 would have been completed. And levels 99 and 100 would have already been queued up.
Planning and Winning
In this preparatory stage, I’m going to explain what needs to be done well ahead of time. In a nutshell, there are four critical steps you need to take :-
- Project WW
- Politics and Diplomacy
- Decide on your End Game Strategy
- Reorganizing
The timeline given is based on the end game beginning on day 300.
1. Project WW
About two months before end game begins, you need to initiate a project to build World Wonder hammers. You need as many World Wonder hammers as possible, and they are divided into two types. Ram hammers and World Wonder hammers.
Lets call this Project WW. Ask around and appoint players to become part of Project WW. Their goal is to build an army that consists of the following by end game:
For Ram Hammers
Only Teutons should be appointed as ram hammers.
40000 axeman
15000 Teuton Knights
10000 rams
For World Wonder Hammers
60000 axeman
20000 Teuton Knights
1000 rams (optional)
5000 catas
For Romans, build more imperians and less cavalry.
Every alliance needs to have several ram hammers. A 1:4 ratio would be a good balance.
Inform these players to stop attacking others, and to train troops in their barracks, stable, and workshop on 24/7 non-stop throughout the duration. Never ever stop for even a minute for the full 2 to 3 months to the end.
Their barracks, stable, and workshop have to be at level 20. There is no need to use Great Barracks and Great Stables if you start early. Furthermore, the offense troops must be fully upgraded in the blacksmith, including the rams and catas. The blacksmith can be demolished once the upgrades are complete to make space for an additional granary.
Build a level 20 Tournament Square. This is a must. A large granary helps too when the army is on the move. See chapter on Building A WW Army for detailed instructions on what to build.
Appoint your most committed players to take this task. Keep their identities a secret to prevent them from being targeted by the enemy. Appoint more than is needed, because some will drop out later due to a lack of commitment. Also some will join up later when they see the battle reports, but they may be too late.
These Project WW players will need support. They will need places to park their troops. They will come to you often to ask for parking space, and you need to constantly look for troop storage space for them.
Do not expect them to look for troop storage themselves. For two reasons. First, by asking around, they reveal their identity as a World Wonder hammer builder. Second, they will probably be ignored. From experience, such requests usually need to be made through an alliance leader otherwise players will just ignore their request for parking space.
Every week, on a certain day, ask for an updated troop count. Track their progress in a spreadsheet. Believe me this will make a ton of difference when planning attacks because you will have a clear picture of your alliance’s offense capability.
These are the following information you need to capture in your spreadsheet.
Player name.
Troop count.
TS level.
Week number.
For example, here’s what my spreadsheet looks like:
Monitor the progress and update the spreadsheet every week.
2. Politics and Diplomacy
Also around this time, or two months before end game, its time to rewrite your alliance policies. Embark on an expansion campaign to form new alliances, new wings and recruit others into your alliance.
Analyze the existing alliances and group them into categories:-
- Alliances likely to compete in the end game
- Alliances unlikely to compete in the end game
- Weak alliances who are your farms
For category 1, alliances likely to compete in the end game, these are meta alliances who are strong and established enough to host their own World Wonder.
Segregate these alliances by strength. Build friendship with the stronger alliances and offer an alliance with them.
I know this is a complicated process, because some alliances may be friendly towards you, and also friendly towards your enemies. So in this delicate process, your objective is to align with the strong alliances to get them declare a joint victory for the end game.
In this way, you also isolate the weaker alliances so you both have the best odds of winning the end game.
Under category 2, alliances unlikely to compete in the end game. There will be many other smaller alliances who will decide not to host their own World Wonder. They may be neutral at this point, but will eventually support a particular alliance.
For these alliances, likewise, you would want to get them to join you, or at least agree to a NAP to the end of the server. If you do not get them to join you, I guarantee you that your rivals will be getting them to join your enemies instead.
These neutral alliances will have hammers in them, and you don’t want these hammers to be used against you.
For category 3, weak alliances who are your farms. These are the many smaller alliances and scattered players who are your farms. Its also time to rewrite your alliance policies and recruit them under your wing.
But why would you recruit farms?
Because your World Wonder village will need massive amount of support, and you can’t do it alone with only your main wings. Your main wing contains your best players, but they are stretched with building World Wonder armies.
Now is the time not to be choosy and to form new wings to recruit the small scattered players. And recruit the weak alliances so they may become support wings for your World Wonder villages.
These players will help a lot in sending crop, resources and defenses to your World Wonder. Have you seen how troops starve in a World Wonder village? If you have, then you will understand how a World Wonder village never receive the support it requires.
And remember that if you do not recruit them, the enemy will. And they will be supporting your enemy’s wonder. This decision to recruit farms and small players will be unpopular with your alliance members, so you have to do some explaining and convincing.
A word of caution though. Do not ally yourself to the entire server until there is no one to attack. This is a terrible idea because your alliance morale will drop.
Your best players are motivated by attacking and defending. These players hate simming. If they are forced into NAPs and have no one to attack, they will get bored, and you will see a lot of your best players become inactive. This is the worst thing that can happen to your alliance.
While you form alliances and recruit farms, but keep some alliances as fodder so you still have someone for your players to attack. Let your players attack them so they don’t get bored.
Politics and diplomacy need to be done early because they can take a lot of time.
3. Decide on your End Game Strategy
Around one month before end game, you need to decide on your end game strategy.
Some key questions you need to ask is how many World Wonder villages you want to host? And who will be the Lead Wonder, the Backup and the Decoy?
In order to increase your odds of success, it is better to hold more World Wonder villages. Do not host just one, because you will have almost no chance of success as it will be smashed hard, no matter how well you defend it.
Defending a World Wonder village is a futile strategy. It is better to hold many World Wonder villages to force your enemies to attack them all, spreading their firepower. Imagine if the enemy has five World Wonder villages. Then you have to spread your World Wonder hammers to attack all five – diluting your offense capability.
Plan to host at least three, and at most four – plan to hold all the World Wonder villages in your quadrant, or you can plan for the core, outer core, and the thirteenth village. See Locations of World Wonder Villages for their spawning locations.
Hosting three to four World Wonder villages needs massive amount of support. That is why the part under Politics and Diplomacy is important so you have the necessary support from a large number of players.
With the number of World Wonder villages decided, you can then appoint the lead Wonder, the backup and the decoy. They will use different build orders as explained in the chapter on Building the World Wonder Village.
Regardless of which role they perform, all World Wonder hosts will have a shot at winning the World Wonder race.
You also need to prepare these players for the role. See section on Conquering the World Wonder Village.
4. Reorganizing
Reorganizing is the process of forming support wings for your World Wonder hosts. This should be done two weeks before end game.
There is no fixed rule for reorganizing. But you will want to keep your best players in the same wing, and your other active players in the main core wings. But all the rest can be organized by location.
There are benefits to organizing by location because support will be much more effective if a merchant has to travel only four hours, as opposed to 13 hours.
I wish I could say that five wings is enough to support a World Wonder village. Unfortunately, even ten wings may not necessarily be enough, depending on how active your players are and how many defenders you have.
There is no such thing as too many support wings. Depending on how many wings you have, start assigning support wings to every World Wonder host. Let the wing leaders know who they should be supporting.
While players can be moved around, but it need not be final at this point in time. It can be fine tuned later when the World Wonder villages have been conquered.
Send out a Mass Message. If any player takes more than ten hours to send his merchants to his support village, then he should be moved to a closer wing to support a different World Wonder.
This of course excludes your Main wing as your best players should always be grouped together. Be careful of spies though.