This section explains tactics for optimizing your use of WarBOT in League and Tournament games against other humans. WarBOT (The Warlords Battle Odds Tool) is a utility which lets you determine the survival chances for all units in any battle. Under the Tournament rules, only those units whose survival percentage is 50% or higher are allowed to survive a battle. Using WarBOT and Tournament rules, optimizing your stacks becomes a life-or-death issue for your kingdom, rather than simply a statistical advantage. And it turns out there are a lot of interesting tactics that can be used to win battles with WarBOT while suffering minimal casualties. All the ones I know about are explained below.
Here's a simple example: Suppose we have a griffin and 3 light cav attacking a city defended by 3 light cav. A novice player might run the attack with the default fight order, giving you this:
WarBOT beta 9 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac Classic Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 0 0 0 0 *0* 0 No DEF: 0 0 0 0 1 *1* 0 No Entered Final Attack Units: Strength Strength Survival % --------------- -------- -------- ---------- Griffin 6 8 0.82768 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.21728 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.08492 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.01557 <-- Dies.. Defense Units: --------------- Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.17232 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.06570 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.01146 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remainingIt's an easy win, but here the attacker loses three light cavalry. A veteran player would look at this and figure out that by having the griffin fight first, he can win the battle without losing any units at all:
WarBOT beta 9 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac Classic Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 0 0 0 0 *0* 0 No DEF: 0 0 0 0 1 *1* 0 No Entered Final Attack Units: Strength Strength Survival % --------------- -------- -------- ---------- Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.82768 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.74875 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 2 0.65401 <-- Lives! Griffin 6 8 0.55127 <-- Lives! Defense Units: --------------- Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.17232 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.06570 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.01146 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 4 unit(s) remainingA true expert would go one step further and not use the Light Cav in the battle, because they aren't even needed and they can probably be more useful in another battle somewhere else. At a minimum, they waste movement by attacking the city (2 movement points) when they could just march in after the griffin takes it (1 movement point).
Example: The "50.1% Win" -
Suppose you have a hero with a base strength of 7 (+2 natural bonus) and a +1 command item, leading a stack of, say, 7 light cav, and you want to capture a city (with 1 build and thus +1 defense) defended by a giant bat, 4 light cav, and 3 light inf. You decide to try the battle in WarBOT. First you do the obvious thing, and attack with every unit in your stack: WarBOT beta 9 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac Classic Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 2 1 0 0 *3* 0 No DEF: 0 0 0 0 1 *1* 0 No ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Note: WarBOT figures out your +3 hero bonus! Entered Final Attack Units: Strength Strength Survival % --------------- -------- -------- ---------- *Hero 7 10 0.97490 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.85410 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.72832 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.54869 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.33974 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.15456 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.04243 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.00448 <-- Dies.. Defense Units: --------------- Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.02510 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.00923 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.00245 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00037 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00007 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00001 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00000 <-- Dies... Giant Bat 1 2 0.00000 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 4 unit(s) remaining ============================================================= Now, a novice player would simply fight the battle and lose four light cavalry, since the odds are good. But a veteran player would remember that movement points are precious, and using smaller stacks makes for a more flexible offense, so the veteran would leave behind three light cavalry, since it costs 2 movement points to attack a city but only one movement point to march into a city you own. (Even better, those three light cavalry are now free to march somewhere else altogether, if they aren't needed with the hero stack this turn!) So then we'd have this battle: WarBOT beta 9 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac Classic Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 2 1 0 0 *3* 0 No DEF: 0 0 0 0 1 *1* 0 No Entered Final Attack Units: Strength Strength Survival % --------------- -------- -------- ---------- *Hero 7 10 0.79567 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.33974 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.15456 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.04243 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.00448 <-- Dies.. Defense Units: --------------- Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.20433 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.11680 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.05364 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.01717 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00591 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00138 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00016 <-- Dies... Giant Bat 1 2 0.00000 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remaining ============================================================= The veteran player still wins the battle (of course), losing 4 light cavalry and taking the city with just a hero, but now 3 of the 7 original light cavalry are free to do something else, since they didn't have to fight. Pretty good! But the expert player will look at those odds and laugh, because the hero is winning with a survival percentage much higher than 50%. That means that the light cavalry are doing all the work (statistically speaking) and the hero is hardly fighting! Why fight with all those light cavalry when you only need 50.1% to win? The expert player will go back to WarBOT and ask if there's a "50.1% Win" that lets him save some units. The expert would discover this: WarBOT beta 9 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac Classic Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 2 1 0 0 *3* 0 No DEF: 0 0 0 0 1 *1* 0 No Entered Final Attack Units: Strength Strength Survival % --------------- -------- -------- ---------- *Hero 7 10 0.50129 <-- Lives! Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.04243 <-- Dies.. Cavalry, Lt 2 5 0.00448 <-- Dies.. Defense Units: --------------- Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.49871 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.37239 <-- Dies... Infantry, Lt 2 4 0.24316 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.12721 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.06571 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.02549 <-- Dies... Cavalry, Lt 2 3 0.00578 <-- Dies... Giant Bat 1 2 0.00023 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remaining ============================================================= Now the attacker is only losing 2 units instead of 4! That means the attacker is going to take the city, and still have 5 light cavalry free to reinforce the city, fight other battles, or otherwise make mischief. Let's compare the three outcomes: Novice: Ties up 8 units in 1 battle, wins with 97.5% odds, loses 4 units. Veteran: Ties up 5 units in 1 battle, wins with 79.6% odds, loses 4 units. Expert: Ties up 3 units in 1 battle, wins with 50.1% odds, loses 2 units. ===========================================================================
Here's a more subtle example: A hero/worm stack with an archer and some spiders is going up against a well-fortified enemy city. Rather than doing the obvious (and losing the archer as a result) -
WarBOT v1.5 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac CD Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 1 0 2 1 *4* 0 No DEF: 0 0 1 1 1 *3* 0 No Entered Final Att Units : Strength Strength Survival % ---------------- -------- -------- ---------- *Hero 5 9 0.73960 <-- Lives! Worm, Giant 7 11 0.62201 <-- Lives! Archer 4 8 0.41501 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.29943 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.15069 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.05422 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.01151 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.00092 <-- Dies.. Def Units : ---------------- Ghost 5 8 0.26040 <-- Dies... Archer 4 7 0.17353 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.11730 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.05444 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.01964 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00497 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00073 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00004 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 2 unit(s) remainingAn expert player might try this (protecting the archer to help with defense of the newly-taken city, and fight again later) -
WarBOT v1.5 Armyset: Tournament b1-4 WL version: Mac CD Intense Combat: Off Terrain: Enemy city 0,1,2 prod Hero Bonuses Non- For- TOTAL Minus Fly Natural Item Hero tify City Cancel BONUS Enemy Item -------------------------------------------------------------- ATT: 1 0 2 1 *4* 0 No DEF: 0 0 1 1 1 *3* 0 No Entered Final Att Units : Strength Strength Survival % ---------------- -------- -------- ---------- *Hero 5 9 0.73960 <-- Lives! Archer 4 8 0.62201 <-- Lives! Worm, Giant 7 11 0.51096 <-- Lives! Spider 4 10 0.29943 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.15069 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.05422 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.01151 <-- Dies.. Spider 4 10 0.00092 <-- Dies.. Def Units : ---------------- Ghost 5 8 0.26040 <-- Dies... Archer 4 7 0.17353 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.11730 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.05444 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.01964 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00497 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00073 <-- Dies... Spider 4 9 0.00004 <-- Dies... Attacker wins with 3 unit(s) remaining
For example: Rather than doing this -
Do this instead -
For example: Rather than doing this -
Try this instead -
For Example: Rather than doing this -
Do this instead -