How to Survive?

by ArcticWind

In Alliances At War, every day is a hard day. However, it sometimes becomes really difficult to stay alive. This part of the guide explains how to stay alive when an enemy alliance tries to kill your tribe.

There are two main possible ways of being killed. The first is when your homes are destroyed, lowering your maximum population so much that all your citizens leave your land. You will be left with 200 citizens in your tribe, a low enough amount to be fireballed or raided to death. The second way is by simply having your citizens killed.

Protection from magic

Cast "Seal of deflection" to protect your tribe against magic. However, building a lot of Churches or having a high mage level is the best defence. Each % of churches gives a 3% chance to block the enemy spell, while having a high mage level makes it really hard for enemy mages to succesfully cast spells at your tribe.

Protection from thievery

A high number of thieves (thieves per acre, also known as TPA) will lower the chance of success of enemy operations. If you don't have many thieves, it is a good idea to build guard houses. 1% guard houses causes 3% of the enemy operations to fail.

How to prevent dying in general

First, be online, especially when the hour is almost past. Also, if a lot of tribes are online in an enemy alliance, they may be up to something. It is a good idea to check out potential enemies and see if they are preparing for war. An alliance is preparing for war when its tribes are running a high number of guilds, hideouts and weaponries. Second, make sure you have proper defences. Make sure Seal of Deflection is running, have your thieves set traps, run guard houses and churches or a high mage level or a large amount of thieves. Third, make sure you have enough goods. Without goods, you cannot rebuild your acres. If you cannot rebuild your acres, you are as good as dead.

Prevent dying due to loss of homes

Be online at the end of each hour, because they will destroy your homes just before your tribe is updated (which happens every hour at 00:00), and then kill your tribe right after the update. Their mages will void your selfspells away, cast dragonmage, their thieves will arson you, and their attackers will raze you. If they take enough homes, you will be unable to house your citizens and they will leave your tribe. If they did a thorough job, you will have 200 citizens left which they will easily kill using fireballs or poison water.

How can I survive this?

  1. Know when you are being targeted.
  2. Keep "Seal of deflection" running if you can, it will work miracles. Your alliance can be a great help by casting Seal of Deflection on you.
  3. Buy some money and logs from the market so you can rebuild any barren acres into homes/academies/guilds before the hour is past. If you are fast enough.
  4. Pay attention to your tribe news, keep multiple windows open to be able to do several things at the same time. If they use magical void on you and remove Seal of Deflection and elendian, you should recast those spells to keep your magical protection up and running.
  5. Open one window on the Mystics page. Recast elendian close to the update. That way, your homes can still house 10% extra citizens.
  6. Open one window on Construction to rebuild barren.
  7. Open one window on Population to check the number showing in the box on the right (with "balance" on it). If the balance shows a negative amount of citizens greater than your current maximum citizens, you will have 200 citizens after the update.
  8. Open one window on Military training, click Release Military. If you are going to have 200 citizens after the update, release some military. Try to have at least 10000 citizens. After the update has passed, you can use this page to release soldiers you bought from the market. They are a good source of instant citizens.
  9. Remain active and repeat the steps just outlined until you are safe. You are safe when your citizens once again have a place to live. If they continue to target you, consider getting more defences versus magic, thievery, or attacker, depending on which source of damage dealt most harm.

Prevent dying due to loss of citizens

You can also die by not having any citizens left in your tribe. This time, the enemy does not care about homes and will go straight for your citizens. It is generally considered to be less effective than destroying homes. The enemy alliance will attack with fireballs, poison water and raid, and try to make you run out of food so that your citizens will leave your tribe. As long as you are active and can buy soldiers from the market, you should be fine.

How can I survive this?

  1. The enemy will attack your farms. Make sure you can buy food from the market to feed your citizens and keep them in your tribe.
  2. Cast "Seal of deflection" to make your enemy fail as much fireballs as possible.
  3. If you run low on citizens, buy soldiers from the market and release them. They will become citizens.
  4. Make sure you have enough credits. Your alliance can help you by training soldiers to put on the market for you to buy.
  5. You may want to get more defence against thievery, magic and raid to lose less citizens.

What should I do when an attacker uses the Blasphemy Crusade attack against me?

A Blasphemy Crusade destroys guilds, academies, hideouts and barren. The barren acres can only be built after 2 updates. Blasphemy Crusade effectively reduces your mage level and amount of guilds. Without guilds, you have no mana; without mana, you cannot cast self spells. A lower Mage Level makes it easier for enemy mages to be succesful. A Blasphemy Crusade is often followed two updates later by a huge enemy assault. You should therefore be active. It could well be a good idea to build some homes right after the Blasphemy Crusade. That means the enemy has to destroy more homes in less time.

This is how you can successfully resist a kill attempt. But sometimes the attacks are simply too numerous. In that case, the only thing you can do is to release part of your own offence and defence. This will create space in your homes for your citizens, or the released military become citizens. With some luck you will survive, but your tribe will have suffered severe damage.

Last updated: January 2013