30+ PSA: Kerr's Guide to Warring (Part 1)

Hi Everyone!

Kerravyn's Guide to Warring, Part 1.

This is basically going to deal with Ladder Wars. I haven't done enough mini-wars to do strategy on those.

My Qualifications: For over a year, I was the War Leader for TSF. During that time frame, I lost a total of two wars (while we warred roughly 1-2 times a week). Both times I lost, we'd been declared on. (And one of those, we very nearly won anyways.)

Basic War Types

The Zombie War



The Zombie War comes in two flavors: They Zombie, or You Zombie.

When the other side doesn't show up to war, that's called a Zombie war, and the other fleet's members are called Zombies. Zombie wars are often long to go through, and most often people do not spend points or regenabots to speed things up, since spending things of value on a dead and zombified opponent is silly.

If they have Zombied, you are in for a long haul. All you can do is slog it out until they are completely dead. Once in a while you might get a Live One who'll log in, attack one player, and then generally log off, but that excitement is often quickly gone.

If you have zombied, this means either: you were declared on and no one could be on during the chosen war time, or, you decided you can't beat the other fleet so there's no point in showing up - in other words, might as well make it as difficult and annoying as possible for them, and since you'll be dead anyways, might as well Zombie.

The Overmatched but We Will Fight Anyways War

Once more, two flavors; You declared, or they did.

If they declared, this is a defiant stand against overwhelming odds, wherein you show up and fight as if you had a chance to beat them. You basically go down swinging. Often there are (good-natured) taunts in the shoutbox, and fleet leaders often send each other messages calling for surrender. Usually the weaker fleet, around 500 points or so, will call on the winning fleet to surrender, "Because we have you where we want you!"

If you declared, you've got a cakewalk in front of you. The other fleet stands no chance, but they showed up to party. Be respectful of this! It's much better than they Zombied Out on you.


Evenly Matched, or close enough

Two evenly matched opponents who show up are what everyone looks for in a really good war; lots of fighting, action, and speed is required. There's no clear obvious favorite from the start, although usually one fleet will pull ahead at some point. these can be quite long, with both sides spending points and regens. Strategy plays key points of this kind of war.

[url]We're Overmatched, But We Have Better Strategy[/url]

The fleet you chose to declare on looks like it should beat you easily, however, after spying them, and watching them fight, and much consultation, you believe you have a strategy to beat them. These wars are usually long and arduous, but if you do win (or come very close) your bragging rights are AWESOME. This goes double if they declared on you expecting an easy win, but you beat them.

the Delaying War

Delaying wars are either negotiated or not. If not, one fleet declares on a weak fleet that will probably Zombie in order to keep themselves from being attacked by a larger opponent. Alternatively, this is done to keep the war immunity in order to force an attacker to choose a time more convenient to your own fleet.

If negotiated, usually both sides agree to terms before hand and have a long, two day war, usually to avoid either fleet being attacked by a larger opponent. Fleets at the top of a planetary ladder often use these to keep themselves on the ladder top spot, paying the other fleet for the delaying tactic. This avoids true challengers from being able to overtake them.

[url]The Surrendered War[/url]

For some fleets Zombie is not enough. They surrender before the fight begins. This can be for any number of reasons, but it is often done when there is no point to the fight.

Some fleets are mean, however, and will start the fight, let you spend lots of points and regens, and surrender close to the end without warning. Evil Fleet.

***


My next installment will go over War Preparation. Following that, I'll cover War Strategy.