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The Art of War: Offensive Guide

By Euphorion and Jonathan Hannan

1. Attacking

By the time you are ready to use the found in this guide, you should already have an army built, enchantments in place, and a good surplus of land explored. This guide is to get you passed that 3500 acre hump that hinders so many. It won't guarantee you a place in the high ranking category, but it will help you get there.

1.1 Rules of Engagement

1.2 The Types of War

1.2.1 The Regular Attack.
Regular Attacks are primarily used by Guilds when a definite success is necessary to do damage to that mages country. Regular attacks pit the Attacking Army against the Defending Army. No special bonuses are gained from this type of attack (aside from those given from pre-battle setups). No Forts are at risk in this attack. And only 5% of the defenders land are at risk.

1.2.2 The Siege.
The most common of all attacks, the Siege is often referred to as "Land Grabs". Any mage who sieges anothers country grants the Defender a 10% bonus to defense (It is unknown where that bonus is applied). For the trouble the Attacker goes through, he will be intitled to a portion of 10% of the Defenders land and 1 fort is the siege is successfull.

1.2.3 The Pillage. Pillages are the covert operations of one of the Attackers Stacks in the Defenders Country. The Defenders only hope of "repelling" the Pillage is to possess a large amount of Forts and Units. Should the Pillage succeed, then the Attacker wins Gold, Population, and sometimes Items. But, should the Pillages become detected by the Defender, then the Lone stack is subjected to an all out assault and is routed. By all out assault, Your Stack will be on the defensive end of every stack the Defender has and no counters or offensive strikes apply. This often results in the total annihilation of the Pillagers (unless the pillagers happen to be Dragons or something powerful).

1.3 Choosing a target

1.3.1 Target Window
The Target Window is an important factor in determining whether you win or lose. As stated before, your window of attack is from 80% of your current Net Power up to 200% of your Net Power. In other words, if you have a Net Power of 7,000,000 then you may attack any mage whose net power is between 5,600,000 and 14,000,000. That's a very large window. Now you have to select a few mages from this list to become your primary targets.

1.3.2 Color Hunting
The Target Window can still be fairly large at this point. What you want to do is prepare your stacks for a specific person or color. It's not good ethics to attack one target multiple times, even after 24 hours. Some consider this stalking. The game OPS frown on this. You want to pick a color and stick to them. I can't tell you which colors work best against which color. This is one of the largest debates in the game, and few can agree on one solid color being strong against another.

Once you have decided on which color your armies will target, you need to prep them around that theme. Select creatures that you may summon who have special abilities, talents, and resistance against the color or the attacks of their creatures. Test out items and spells and select a pair that will compliment your army or aid in the overwhelming or hindrance of the target army.

1.4 The Result of War.

There are 2 possible results of the war. You win or you lose ;-)

1.4.1 Regular Attacks and Sieges:
To win, you need to fullfill a few requirements:

So if he lost 11% of his unitĘs power, you reached the first aim, but if you lost 15% during the battle, you
lost more power than him and will lose the battle.

Each Time you enter a battle, the outcome of that battle will be summarized, then you will be told why you won or lost (crypticly).

Use these responses to determine where you have failed and examine the battle report. If you lost more NP than them, found out if you could have killed more of their units by arranging you stacks differently, or if you could have spared more of your units. If you lost because of insufficient damage, again, look to see if there was something you could do to increase damage while minimizing your own damage intake.

Each time your successfully siege someone with more than 2300 or so units, the defender loses 10% of their total land. Two-thirds of that land is destroyed, while one-third is captured by you. Most of that land comes with buildings and at least one Fort.

Each time you succeed in a Regular Attack with more than 2300 or so units, the defender loses 5% of their total land. Two-thirds of the land is destoryed, and one-third is captured by you. Most of the land comes with buildings, but no Forts are captured.

1.4.2 Pillage
The end result of a pillage is one of economic gain for your self or for economic ruin of the defender. A successful pillage will award you with Gold, Population, and sometimes Items, while burning hundreds of acres (just buildings). The general idea was to allow players to use pillage to get a small boost in population and funds when necessary. Now, many guilds use this tactic to hinder a target or prevent growth.

A failed pillage will result in the harsh decimation of that one stack you sent in. To Date, I have only seen Dragons survive a pillage with no loses. Every other unit in the game loses considerable numbers, if not all (NOTE: I have yet to see any reports or personal pillages that were performed by devils... possibly because it isn't profitable!). To win a pillage, you have to select your target carefully. A Defender with a large amount of Forts, or a good amount of units will be nearly impossible to pillage successfully. But, finding the right "Sap" to hit isn't hard. Just look for someone who is around 20% weaker than you (your minimum limit), and low on Forts. If you have read my other guides and the boards, you know how to calculate the Estimated Net Power of a player and how to determine how much is derived from his Army.

We hope you find the information in this guide somewhat useful if not enlightening. Through the course of writing this and getting educated by the great "Euphorion", I have developed a couple of unforseen tactics that should prove to be handy. But fear not, for I keep no secrets and you will all know what all I know before Chapter 14 of my Guide is done!

1.5 Additional Information and Links

Refer to the following links for more information on The Offensive Tactics of Archmage.

Archmage Tome for Inceptor: Chapter D: About Combat -
Not real updated, but it does give some information about the combat system of the game.

Encyclopedia Archmagik -
This area has general information about spells, units, items, and heroes that will help you prepare for war.

Classic Bible for Mages -
This section is also out of date, but gives you a general idea about war.