How to Step Up Your Game
(Part 2: Trapping Tactics)
Welcome back warriors to the next part of the “How to Step Up Your Game” series. Where we will take a step back from what set up is best and what is stronger and talk about what is equally important. Yes, that is right, trapping tactics. It does not matter if you have the strongest defender account in the game if you can not entice people to attack you then are you a “trap” or are you have a strong defensive account.
Before we continue I am sure a few people are asking what is the difference between a strong defender VS a trap account. As an attacker, the difference to me is when I attack an account I have three thoughts in my mind:
- This account is about to get annihilated
- This might be a close one
- We are about to get wrecked
A great trap account will make an attacker think they’re about to annihilate them, but end up destroying the attacker.
How You Are Viewed By An Attacker
Ok warriors, let’s first start by saying that not all attackers do what I will cover in this training session; however, if you adopt these tactics to your gameplay it will make you a better all-around player against the player who does and therefore will make you even better against those who do not.
The most common mistake I see with people becoming traps is they do not take into consideration how their account is viewed by the bigger players they intend and build to get attacked by. There are many facets to this part of “Trapping Tactics” training. Defending wins VS losses, gear, hero, power, and so many other things, so let’s get into each of these.
Defending Wins VS Losses
As an attacker, many others and I will inspect an account before rushing in and soloing/rallying the target. You are the target, so the goal should be to look weak while being very strong. The first thing I will look at is your defense wins VS your losses. This is a very easy thing to learn by simply inspecting your account. If I inspect your smaller account and see that 90% of your defense attacks are won, to me this screams you’re a trap account. The easy way to combat this teamwork!!!
Train a lot of T1 wall defenses and let an alliance member attack you enough to completely ruin your stats. This may seem counterproductive but remember you do not want to be viewed as strong until AFTER the attacker attacks.
Gearing Your Hero
When it comes to gearing your hero, this one can be difficult because the game changes so much. Therefore, there is no perfect gear set and when there is, it doesn’t tend to last long. So the general rule of thumb would be to not have the latest release best gear possible before it being easy to achieve.
With that said, with the mechanics in the game today, you can obtain gear presets. This allows you to have gear like syndicate gear or builders gear equipped with defense gear in a preset, wait for an attack and instantly swap to the better gear before being hit. By doing this trapping tactic you will potentially be viewed as weaker by an attacker which can bait a few extra hits during an event.
Account Stats
There is a lot of confusion when it comes to account stats and things like health, armor, and attack. As a Trap, health and armor are always important; however, the one stat I always see players overkilling is attack. The only way for you to understand your needs for an attack is by testing your account. For instance, say I come and attack you with my maxed march and you’re not able to kill my entire march, you can correct this in two ways: troop count or higher attack.
On the flip side, if I attack you and you’re able to kill my entire march but you lose more than I kill, there is a probability that you have stressed attack too much and armor/health, not enough. Emblems, usable boosts, reinforcements, research, building selection, and gear play a big part in this. Remember attack has a cap, and you can only kill as much an attacker can send, there is no need to kill more!
Which is why I suggest you find your needs by testing with a strong player because if you can defend against a strong player you can defend against the mass majority of attackers.
Hero Selection
In the hero selection of trapping tactics, there is no end all be all correct answer. Use a hero that allows you to be strong enough to defend better than an attacker attacks. The one strategy I will point out is hero swapping. As we covered earlier about trapping with poor gear choice. You can also use poor hero choice, like the one you did not level and is equipped with poor gear.
Once an attacker attacks you can very easily swap heroes to the better defender that is already set up in defense gear. Another trapping tactic I would recommend to try out is instant swap back after the attack ends.
As an attacker, if they lose, a lot of attackers tend to reinspect the player to see if they changed anything to figure out how they lost. If you’re able to swap back before that reinspect you could very well gain the ability for a hero saving rally. If you can take a rally then a simple swap back just gained you double action.
Power
Power can easily be the make or break it in your defending game, and while this changes every week we play, there is one thing that never changes: Too much power can deter so many attackers.
The goal with this trapping tactic is to determine what power is essential, for instance, when leveling a good defending hero. Also to determine what power is not essential; for instance, other heroes that do not help you defend, mercenaries that do not help you defend, or even something as small as buildings that do not help you defend (like having 25 farms at your command center level). When it comes to a trap there is such thing as being too big!
Talking
World War Command is a social game, we all love it, we all play to win. For a trap, talking can be the fastest killer to their potential though. The reason for this is very simple and it’s an attacking tactic that many big players use. This is the block function! For instance, during an RvR, you win an attack and the first thing you do is start talking in the realm chat, or you just keep talking about people needing to attack you, period. Bigger players can just block you, this allows them to track your name changes, which allows them to not make the mistake of hitting you. This may not seem like a big deal but I can personally that this has saved me multiple times from making the mistake of hitting a base that is a good defender.
Command Center Position
Where you place your Command Center while trapping is a big factor in the number of attacks you get to deal with. However, this can also be a killer for getting attacked as well. Being at the edge of a hive or being close to the edge is a good option most times. Being in the very back of a hive while filling all holes with your own occupy is a clear sign of being a trap. Another big mistake I see a lot of traps doing is finding a group of big players rallying and porting beside them and scouting them all.
Final Points
There are so many things that go into making and being a great trap. Account set up and mindset is the most important. Think about the points given in this article and look at your account. When building/playing a trap account the first question I ask myself is “would I attack me.” If the answer is no then adopt these strategies and turn that into a yes.
If there is anything you need help on that was covered or not covered in this article please contact us using one of the many social media networks we have. To include Facebook, Discord, Line, or comment on the article itself. Thank you all for enjoying World War Command and helping us to be the greatest gaming community.
