Basic Guide: How to Combine Troops

by Andrea Patáková, one of our LoS war lords.

_______________________________________________________________________

We have 3 types of troops - speed, melee and ranged 

• Speed troops are Swift Strike Dragons, Battle Dragons, Banshees, Pack dragons (+ Wind Dragon)
• Melee troops are Porters, Conscripts, Halberdsmen, Armored Transports, Minotaurs, Giants, Ogres, Soul reapers
• Ranged troops are Longbowmen, Fire Mirrors, Lava Jaws (+Great, water, stone, fire and frost dragon)
• Hybrid: Fangtooths (work well with all troops, only bad combination is with GD/ED against camps)
• Uniquiue: spies (they are not considered combat troop, good only for spying)

 How to combine troops

Short rules:

• good: range+range, melee+melee, speed+speed, range+melee, speed+melee, hybrid+anything
• bad: speed+range, hybrid+big dragons (when sent against A.camps)

Exception to all rules: "rainbow attack" that combines all sort of troops on purpose and accepts small losses for bigger gains

(rainbow attack has: Fire dragon + heavy ranged (LJ, FM) + strong melee (ogres, giants) + (optionally hybrids- Fangooths) + speed bumps (1 of each other troops) = this setup is VERY strong and can overcome far greater defending force so beware!

Long Rules for attacking: -

• do not mix speed troops with ranged troops, becauce ranged troops stretch battlefield making fast troops loose the advantage of first strike and instead make them vulnerable to defending range because they spend their first turn to cross battlefield instead of attacking
• for this reason when attacking with Great or Elemental Dragon (ranged) support them only with other ranged troops (lbm,lj,fm) and slow melee (at,mino,giants,ogres)
• since wind dragon is very fast and has shortest range of all big dragons, instead of ranged he is considered as speed troop! He works well only with other speed troops and will probably get hurt a lot otherwise.
• it is ok to mix fast troops and slow melee types (AT is best example to carry loot), but basically your fast troops need to be strong enough to win battle by themselves (as they run ahead and decide outcome before slow troops catch up to them)
• fangtooth are hybrid, they are sort of fast (but not fast as speed troops), they have strong ranged attack (but only short range) and very strong melee attack,  they can be used with any other troop type (they serve as good ranged backup that can become even stronger melee if enemies close in)

Strenght of troops

 (this gives only overall idea - with mixed armies, it becomes a lot more complex)

1. attacking: Lavajaw>Fire Mirror>fangs>banshee>bd>ssd>lbm>mino>rest
2. defending: ogres>soul reapers>giants>fangs>banshee>bd>Lavajaw>AT>rest

• simplified in both cases: elite (outpost troops) > BD > SSD > non-elite troops

When you are the ATTACKER: you either need strong enough attack to smite DEFENDER before he can retaliate (rangers or speed troops), or support your attack troops with good defending troops to soak damage (or use mediocre troops that are good at both attack and defense, like BD or fangs)

When you are the DEFENDER: you need lot of strong defending troops to withstand initial attack and then strong attacking troops (range, speed) to kill attackers before they kill you. You are at DISADVANTAGE.

For this reason I do not recommend to defend unless you are well experienced and have large quantity of good defending troops AND good attacking troops AND can minimize risk of wipe by wraith dragon (put up Cease fire)

Rule of thumb for newbies:

• ATTACKING:

1. crush non-elite troops by dragons (bd, ssd or bd+ssd)
2. crush BDs by LOT MORE BDs or ellite troops
3. Crush elite troops by Wraith dragon.
4. BEWARE, always support your attack with spying (last spy report should be ideally 30-45 sec before your army arrives, so you have time to recall)

• DEFENDING:

1. NEVER DEFEND UNLESS YOU ARE EXPERIENCED (then you don't need this guide) - resources are too easy to replace, but dead troops takes tens of millions of resources and weeks of real time to replace! You may always get hit by stronger force that arrives instantly (speeded up)

Examples of attacks:

• fast farming attack: ssd, bd, bd+ssd, banshees  - good for farming food from camps, or attacking lower power enemies (or not defending ones) with little RSS, add Pack dragons if you want to carry more loot, add Wind dragon if you want to make your attack more powerfull
• slow attack (adding AT to carry loot): lbm + AT +gd/ed, FM+ giants, BD+AT, fangs+lbm, BD+fangs, LJ+ogres+fangs...etc.
• to gain talismans from camps or egg/armor from wilds: lbm+AT+GD, LJ+GD/ED, WindDrag+banshee

To see stats of all the troops read this: http://dragonsofatlantis.wikia.com/wiki/Troops

Serpent Eggs and Upgrades

Angry Lemming Alert:  KABAM updates; it's a love/hate relationship.


To be sure, you will have difficulties logging in while they are updating. You can expect game errors and weird glitches. The wilderness surrounding your city may all show as un-owned. Never fear! Kabam will fix it. (Really. Eventually. We suggest keeping this link handy when you need to put in a ticket: http://kabam.custhelp.com/app/ask)

The most recent fuss is over the Serpent Egg. It isn't found in the wilds yet but you can purchase it in the shop.

Meanwhile, we are left with the usual upgrade woes. Let's use common sense, please:

1. If someone steals your wilds, assume that the wild was showing as vacant. Message them.
2. If someone claims that you stole their wilds, assure them that those wilds showed as vacant (unless you're an asshole and took advantage of the usual upgrade woes - more power to you!)

INTELLIGENT TROOP DESIGN updated

ANGRY LEMMING ALERT: this updated document offers a wee bit of overkill. We have had a lot of people using minimum numbers, or LBM where they should be losing BD, and they have lost power as troops die. Please, always send more than you need rather than less!

By Thane Padraig MacPherson, Adam Robson 

GUIDE TO INTELLIGENT TROOP COMPOSITION 

I've seen a lot of people asking what they need to take on a wilderness or an anthropus camp. "Should I use 5k BD on this lvl 6 lake?" or "Can I send 500 bd with my minos?"  Here's an easy guide for minimum troops, based off info Adam Robson posted earlier plus some insight from blogger Black Rabbit.

You need to have the following research at level 5: med, met, wep cal.  Dragonry needs to be at level 5 if you are using dragons. lbm = longbowmen; at = armored transport; ssd = swift strike dragons; bd = battle dragons

ANTHRO CAMPS

Level 1        100 lbm     +          30 at

Level 2        200 lbm     +          50 at

Level 3      1,000 lbm    +        100 at

Level 4      1,500 lbm    +        100 at

Level 5      5,500 lbm    +        100 at

Level 6    15,000 lbm    +        100 at

Level 7    20,000 bd      +     5,000 ssd  

ALL WILDERNESS (mountains, forests, hills, lakes, plains, savannahs)

Level 1         100 lbms

Level 2         150 lbms

Level 3         200 lbms

Level 4         500 lbms

Level 5      1,500 lbms

Level 6      2,500 lbms

Level 7      4,000 lbms

Level 8      6,500 lbms

Level 9     10,500 lbms

Level 10   40,000 lbms

THIS NEXT INFO IS FOR MEMS WITH 8MEDS 8MET AND 8 DRAGONRY

PLEASE NOTE THAT WEP CAL IS ONLY FOR GROUND TROOPS AND GIVES NO BOOST TO DRAGONS AT ALL TO MAKE YOUR DRAGONS STRONGER YOU NEED DRAGONRY THIS IS IMPORTANT TRY NO TO FORGET

level  7    20,000 bds     +   10,000 ssd   

Level 8    35,000 bds     +   20,000 ssd  

Level 9    65,000 bds     +   20,000 ssd  

Level 10  120,000 bds   +   20,000 ssd  

ATTACKING:

DO NOT send ground forces with dragons. DO NOT send dragons with ground forces. Either way, you look at it, it's going to be bad for the dragons.

Dragons move at a faster speed, especially your SSD. If you send them with ground troops, these expensive critters are nothing but damage shields. They take a long time to make. They are effective on their own. Battle dragons are your BEST form of troop, and Swifts serve as nice shields for them. Unless you don't mind making Swifts after every major battle (i.e. you're powerful enough to be comfortable losing several thousand dragons), stay with ground forces while you gain power. And yes, build dragons as you go... increasing your army increases your power level.

Minos are heavy shields for Longbowmen. Make them, use them, make more. I don't use Minos for waves on camps and raw  wilderness... if you stick to my guide above, you won't lose troops! I save them for when I need to take down a city or a player-occupied wilderness.

Giants are great replacements for Minos once you are at a level when you can make them in large batches. Beginners, stick with Minos for a while.

Only build enough conscripts and hals to complete the quest, they are a useless troop, mino, while not as good as giants are a good shield for support troops (like lbm & lava) they also serve as a good buffer for your giants later.

Porters are good when starting out, but work hard to get your research and building done so you can churn out armored transports. These are key when raiding anything, shipping rss (resources) and gold to fellow alliance members, or feeding your massive army by attacking camps.

Spies are a primary tool. I also use them on occasion to test a city's defenses. Attack with a spy, let him die, and you'll know the state of the city. Reinforce with spies.

Fangs and Mirrors... well, this is a guide for beginners!

More info at http://blackrabbit2999.blogspot.com/2011/01/facebook-dragons-of-atlantis-troop.html 

Please add comments and suggestions to improve the info this thread!

Happy hunting!   

Thane  

Battle Mechanics *MUST READ* for all LoS Members

By Dene Boyd

Heres a few basics on how troops operate during battles.

1. if you are attacking someone you are the attacker, that means that the total attack power of your troops comes into play and your defense power has nothing to do with the battle.

2. if you are defending then it simply means your entire citys total troop defense comes into play against the attackers attack power, and your attack power means nothing.

we will get into more on power later, for now, lets understand how troops work.

1. The attackers longest ranged unit sets the length of the battlefield. if you attack with LBM and Minos, then your LBM are your longest ranged unit therefore the battlefield length is that of the range of LBM which is 1200 plus 500 defaulted meaning the battlefield length is 1700 to the opponents troops to start the battle.

2. if you send only dragons or melee units such as SSD, BD or Mino's then the battlefield is defaulted to 500 since there are no ranged units involved.

3. the attacker gets to start the first round then its the defenders turn to go 1 round, then the attacker again..back and forth until all of one enemy troops are dead.

Why is this so critical that you know this? Well heres your answer:

Example: you send LBM and Mino's to attack.

Your LBM set the range at 1700 then the battle starts: The attacker goes first

Round 1: Your Turn First since your the attacker

1. your LBM move up to the length of their speed or until they are within range of enemy then they stop and fire one round in the amount of their total attack power.

2. your Mino's move up to the length of thier speed and without engaging on this round because they are out of melee range still.

3. LBM Speed is 250, so they move 1700-250=1450, thier range is 1200, they will not engage this round.

4.The Mino speed is 275, so they move 1700-275=1425, they are now in front of the LBM which means they will be able to stop enemy melee from reaching your LBM. They will not engage this round.

Round 2: Enemys turn next:

1. Enemy ranged LBM move speed 250-1450=1200, they are now within range of your Mino's and your LBM, they Fire thier total LBM defense power at your Minos on this round because they pose the biggest threat. (Is your Mino attack power enough to withstand thier LBM Defense power?)

2. What if they have SSD?

3. Thier SSD speed is 1000-1450=450, the ssd stop and cannot attack this turn because they are 450 away from your LBM and 425 away from your Minos.

4. each of the enemys units get to use thier speed and range to close in on you as you do each turn. every time you close in on each other, you either attack if in range or wait for the next turn.

Round 3: Your turn again:

1. Your LBM stay put because they are within range of enemy SSD and Enemy LBM, they fire at the SSD (do you have enough total LBM attack power to take out the enemy SSD defense power?)

2. Your Minos cannot attack yet, they move speed 275 putting them 200 away form the enemy SSD which is thier closest target, they are not within melee range (melee=hand to hand combat) therefore they stopa and wait.

Here are some things that happen on the next round:

1. your Mino's will take a second hit from the enemy LBM

2. your Mino's will be confronted with enemy SSD

* you need enough Minos to Soak up thier damage so that your LBM can live through this round and finish off the enemy forces

Things to think about:

1. what happens if you send dragons with them? your dragons will fly to the fron of the battle and become soaker damage.

2. what happens if you would have attacked and added your GD? Your GD has a range of 1500. would the Minos be able to catch up to the LBM on the 3rd round saving them from getting hit by the enemy LBM twice before they reached the enemy? Would you Mino's have caught up to your LBM to help them just in time for the SSD to arrive to your LBM while your Mino's were fresh and untouched by the 3rd turn?

3. Also consider yours and the enemy's Research levels.

a) Level 10 Metalurgy increases attack and defense by 50% (each level increases 5%)

b) Level 10 Medicine increases Life by 50% (each level increases 5%)

c) Each level of Weapons Calibration Increases your Ranged units range 5%

d) Each level of your Dragonry increases Dragon speed by 5%

Example: your LBM is 1200 range, if you increase Weapons cal to level 10 then thier range is 1800. Now when they move forward in battle, they will be able to attack enemy LBM with lower Weapons Cal research. and the enemy will not yet be able to reach them on the first turn! Lots to think about I know.

OK so go do the math folks and learn to set up the proper attacks to get the results to win the battle.

Why do LBM actually help the fang/ogre/lbm/GD combo?

its all about range and speed

1) the fangs are fastest, they push forward till they are within range, then they attack. leaving the Ogre about half the length behind them.

2) the Ogres catch up to the fangs and help protect them just in time for the enemy dragons and melee to meet the fangs.

3) the LBM are in 3rd place (behind the fangs and ogres), but! the LBM have twice the range as fangs, so they can stop farther out anyways and protect the fangs and ogres.

4) The LJ are last, they are faster than LBM, but the stop sooner because they have the longest range and allow the LBM to pass them. The LJ are lating out heavy long ranged hits the entire battle.

5) with the correct percentage of troops/ you have yourself a deadly effective army.

6) the correct ratio is 1lbm/5LJ/4Ogre and 2Fang (send your GD and you will dampen troop loss)

Further reading: http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?12039-Dragonomicon-%28The-DoA-Players-Handbook%29&p=65204#post65204   

Basic Principles of Combat

The two most common battle-themed questions I hear are:
"Why did so many of my troops die?"

and

"Why didn't my special troop work right?"

DoA combat follows an order of battle. It's a mathematical formula based on troop type. Rather than explain it in detail here (or pirate an article from someone else's blog), I refer you to Blackrabbit2999.

http://blackrabbit2999.blogspot.com/2011/05/facebook-dragons-of-atlantis-battle.html

The author has personally used him as a source and found his information to be valid.

Yes, some people use the Battle Feature found in a specific script when factoring combat before launching an attack, but we at LoS would never, NEVER EVER encourage anyone to download and use scripts because LoS knows that scripts are Bad, and give an Unfair Advantage and thus are Not Allowed by Kabam. So read the Kabam Terms of Service and don't use those Awful Scripting Thingies or else a lemming will nip your pecker off.

K? 'Nuff said.

Glitch Cities

This document i found to be quite helpful for our newer members and hopefully will complement the existing [LoS grouppage] document on glitches 

Toni's doc on glitch cities

from Lords of Siege

Glitch (or Magic) cities are former player cities that have been dormant for a period of time. They might offer a small amount of resources or a large amount. They are glitch cities because they reset after each attack IF youdo not send enough troops to fully harvest each attack.

Look for little cities without any alliance, 1 or 2 in level with at least 100 in power. Also make certain it's close to you so you can effectively wave:

Spy them to see what is inside. This is a spy report for the city above:

Glitch cities have amounts that end in zeros, as above. This city is small and it does not have a dragon. It may have a vault? Each wave could give the amounts listed above:

650k in food

0k     in gold *(please see note)

600k in wood

500k in ore

350k in stone

total these up .

so 650+600+500+350=  2.1million 

and add the largest figure to what you get

largest figure is food

(this stops you from resetting thglitch if the gold happens to be in excess of 650k)

+650

total= 2.75million send 

send 600Ats if it is a level 2 or less city.

if the city is lvl3 or higher you will need to send enough troops to defeat the great dragon as well.

after 1st attack you will be able to calculate how big the vault is by deducting the br figures from the spy report.

then you will be able to send the minimum amount of troops to recover all the loot from the city and defeat the dragon if it has one.

Launching waves, each wave containing enough troops to defeat the great dragon and with enough load capacity to ensure all the loot is removed.

Your resources will grow tremendously with each hit and you will have a smile on your face, at last, an easier way to gather resources, ;-).

Please update this if you have noticed errors or can explain the little details that we have overlooked. 

amended 

13/09/2011 dene boyd

A (Better!) Guideline for Attacks on Wildernesses

A Guideline for Attacks on Wildernesses

By Dene Boyd, Angela Jånasdotter and Andrea Patáková

The DOA Handbook numbers:

(http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?12039-Dragonomicon-(The-DoA-Players-Handbook)&p=65160#post65160)

Troops to defeat Wilds by level: (actual troops counts may vary depending on Research levels)

Level 1} 10 SSD; or 5 BD; or 2 FT with 1 LBM; or 50 Hals, Minos, and/or LBMs*

Level 2} 30 SSD; or 15 BD; or 4 FT with 1 LBM; or 50 Minos with 50 LBMs*

Level 3} 100 SSD; or 50 BD; or 6 FT with 1 LBM; or 100 Minos with 50 LBMs* 

Level 4} 300 SSD; or 150 BD; or 12 FT with 1 LBM; or 200 Minos with 100 LBMs*

Level 5} 600 SSD; or 300 BD; or 25 FT with 1 LBM; or 500 Minos with 200 LBMs*

Level 6} 2000 SSD; or 900 BD; or 75 FT with 1 LBM

Level 7} 3200 SSD; or 1500 BD; or 200 FT with 1 LBM

Level 8} 5500 SSD; or 3000 BD; or 600 FT with 1 LBM

Level 9} 12k SSD; or 6000 BD; or 1200 FT with 1 LBM

Level 10} 20k SSD; or 10k BD; or 3000 FT with 1 LBM

*WARNING: Bowmen should ALWAYS be properly supported and should not be sent against Anthropus unless attacking low level territories or when accompanying Fangtooths. Using Bowmen without FTs vs Anthropus can result in unexpected or total loss.

Another extract from wiki with research numbers:

http://dragonsofatlantis.wikia.com/wiki/Wilderness

Longbowmen

Level 1: 60 LBM; Met0; WC1; Med0

Level 2: 80 LBM; Met0; WC1; Med0

Level 3: 150 LBM; Met0; WC1; Med0

Level 4: 450 LBM; Met1; WC2; Med0

Level 5: 900 LBM; Met3, WC3, Med3

Level 6: 1250 LBM; Met4; WC4; Med0

Level 7: 1,800 LBM; Met4, WC5, Med4

Level 8: 5,000 LBM; Met5, WC5, Med4

Level 9: 9,000 LBM; or 8000 LBM; WC5, Met6, Med6 or 7000 LBM; WC7, Met8, Med6

Level 10: 35,000 LBM; or 29,000 LBM; WC8, Met8, Med8

NOTE: Above level 5, RandomNumberGenerator will occasionally kill LBM. Add 10% Minotaurs or ATs to protect LBM (you may have losses on meatshields!) - using Fangs with LBMs is only known 100% sure tactic to prevent bad RNG losses.

Battle Dragons

Level 1: 1 BD; Med5, Met5, Dra5

Level 2: 5 BD; Med5, Met5, Dra5

Level 3: 12 BD; Med7, Met10, Dra8

Level 4: 150 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8, Dra8

Level 5: 200 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8, Dra8

Level 6: 5500 BD; WC6, Met8, Med7 or 850 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8, Dra8

Level 7: 7100 BD; WC6, Met8, Med7 or 1100 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8, Dra8

Level 8: 4300 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8, Dra8

Level 9: 11,855 BD; WC8, Met8, Med8 or 4000 BD; WC3, Met8, Med9

Level 10: 22,000 BD; WC9, Met9, Med6

Additions amendments to this document welcome.

KR

Dene