Guide To Reacting To Your Environment (c/o Dragar)
From FaitH
The art of refining one's army, maximizing PS efficiency and picking the most effective church has been the subject of many discussions, forum threads and spreadsheets. For the new player this can be daunting to approach, however there is enough help around and experience to draw on to determine how to compose one's army and which church the number crunchers deem is the most effective church.
So, you've got your great church and you know your ratios. You are an active player and as long as you stick to those guidelines you're set for a top 20 finish right? Wrong! There are 2 major things missing:
1) A great kingdom to support (and be supported by) you 2) Knowing how to deal with your environment
The first I'm sure everyone is aware of, though how to be in that kingdom and help make it a great one is a different issue that will not be discussed here. The second isn't always so obvious to see
Having the best church and the right army composition, from a purely numerical perspective, is about being able to beat any army of the same PS, assuming you have the same bonuses as that person (stat bonuses, techs, etc). Funnily enough, very few battles are fought in these conditions. And the person who wins MVP isn't always in the 'optimal' church, nor has the winning kingdom necessarily chosen the religion the spreadsheets indicate. The fact of the matter is, there are a huge number of factors that affect how many chaos points you will earn and how much you help your kingdom, and dealing with these is one of the key factors in making a good player.
It is not possible to write a definitive guide as to how to respond, there are far too many combinations and factors. The following paragraphs will raise some of the issues to consider and some of the thinking that goes into decisions by top kingdoms.
Hopefully, the recurring themes will keep coming up - be aggressive, be flexible, and think about the implications of all of your choices
Choosing a church (and other related starting choices) Which church do you choose?? Someone you know has written up a spreadsheet or battle simulator that compares all of the churches in various configurations, but what are you looking for?? There are a large number of issues, large and small, to consider:
a) Will my army be able to beat similar armies of the same PS? Especially now that CP scale with relative PS, it is more important than before to be able to beat people your size and hopefully bigger
b) Will my army inflict a high number of casualties to earn me high experience, loot and chaos points, and allow me to seriously harm my enemies? Winning isn't enough, you need to be able to win big. Experience translates to benefit for no PS, and loot translates to experience, ability to grow and a healthy vault when you need it.
c) Will my army be considered easy prey, due to low defense/heal and/or poor efficiency? The corollary of a powerful attacking church is that you are a good target, and that goes for any church run poorly. If you are going to offer an easier win, more spoils and kills than other players in your PS range, be prepared to face a lot of incomings.
d) How well can my handle army casualties? Will losing 500 troops really affect me much? Will I go out of balance or lose bonuses? What will the cost be to replace? Make sure your army balance can withstand the casualties you can take. Be aware of your risks. Decide how much away from optimal you are willing to go to cover those risks, and be prepared to change your mind as circumstances change.
e) Will this army be able to start quickly, or will unit tree requirements and building costs for tower negators cripple me early? A quick start can be critical, especially with regards to capturing and defending kids. The prevalence of merchants dominating the PS charts from mid-era means most of the kidnapping tends to happen quite early on. Your kingdom should have a plan, and depending on your role, you need to consider your choice of church. If you are the warmaster meant to go kidnapping early, choose something that can start quick and develop a plan for quick growth early.
f) Will this army work well at high PS, or will I be unable to sustain the grunt and cost requirements as casualties increase? Remember that loot does not increase progressively with size, and in fact can deplete at higher PS as you face tougher targets, typically with greater defense.
g) What are other people choosing? Does it matter if there are some armies that can beat me fairly easily with a defensive setup, as long as I will have lots of good targets I can nail with my high offence army? My opponent can happily beat me for 400 kills as long as my attack nets me 600.
h) Realistically, how much kingdom support will I get? A high offence church is awesome if you are being looked after, but by the same token you become a target, and if you are always slowed and never hasted, you could quickly run into grief. Regular MAs to find targets and tell you are being attacked are also critical for an aggressive army, whereas a good Celeste player will rarely have to worry about incomings.
i) Do I need to change my composition due to what other people are doing? I am trinity and initially ran very low heal, but now heaps of players are running towers, so maybe I need to increase them? Or perhaps grunts and not cash are the limiting factor on my growth, so I need to increase defense and heal a bit and take the lower loot on the chin
When you have considered these issues, you are in a good position to make a judgment on what church to choose at game's beginning, and on what composition to run throughout the game.
