Why pick on the little guy?

Picking on the little guy.....

Your a level 45... you go to the fight menu and you are aghast to see all that is in front of you are level 5 or level 15 folks. Maybe a level 20 or two. What do you do... go for a drink until the list of fight candidates is worthy of  your vengeance? Maybe you are philosophically opposed to beating up on the smaller guy - but this is WAR people. In war we destroy and break things. We don't mealy mouth around, and act like little wimpy hippie types putting roses in gun barrels. We maim, destroy, nuke and wipe out the enemy in war!! :) Better online than in real life.

As a strategy, if you are around a 30 level or so, let me suggest that when lower level people are showing up in your fight list, that this is a good time to do three things:

1. Go fight the faction war battles that are available to you first.
2. Return to the list. Go through all the pages of the list and find the person with the highest bounty and that is not protected. If any of the options is novice or even beginner. The trick here is to find a battle you KNOW you can win. If you loose any of these wars then it's to your detriment - but the benefits of wining outweigh an occasional loss.
3. Battle and WIN. Invade!


So, what's the risk to reward analysis?

Risk
Since you are taking the novice or beginner you minimize your risk as long as you have sufficiently strong forces. A 20 with units befitting a 20 will pretty much be able to beat a 5 with units befitting a 5.

You should not attack someone stronger than you. If you are a level 5 and you attack a level 20 beginner your probably going to struggle to win. but if your a 32 and attack a level 10 and have sufficient units then you should win.

Sometimes the low level players will surprise you. I've had a few battles with a certain level 2-3 player where is clearly bought some real upscale units with stars. Even at my 40+ level, I was challenged to beat him (I did thanks to well placed nukes). This is probably the biggest risk you face.

Rewards
The obvious reward is the bounty and related income from the invasion. The bounties alone can make this worth the effort. One time I found that some 8-10 people on a list of < 20's had 1,000,000 coin bounties on them. That made the effort worth it alone.

Perhaps the less obvious reward, but perhaps more important is that now you are gaining hearts. This new feature (awarding of hearts when you win a battle) was a wonderful addition of the latest release of the game. Hearts are important for obvious reasons. They help you buy and upgrade some great units!!

One last reward depends on the current events that are running. Often times there are events that want you to win a lot of land battles, or air battles, or do a lot of invasions. When you are a higher level player, these lower level players are a great way to increase your chances of success with these events.

Hope you enjoyed this tip. Enjoy the game and go fight your war battles!!!

General Robert

List of players who are worth battling

If you have a need or desire for coins - this is the list for you. This is the list of players (land or sea) who when you invade, offer a treasure chest of income. To make this list, the player in question has to have property that you can invade that will bring you > 1,000,000 coin or 1000 thorium...

Note, early entries do not contain player level. I'm now adding that information but the older entries won't have it as I'm not going to go back and update them. Also I'm adding the battle power of the units used against me for reference. This, obviously, might go up or down and does not include the impact of power ups used on their side.

ahtowka (k is backwards) (6/14) - land battle - level 59 - power 2233 - worth around 325k coins. Looks like there is some additional hotels waiting to have building completed so I'm wondering if this is an active player or not. Still with the fairly powerful army it would seem he is.
Baily (6/11) - Sea Battle - Level 46 - Battle power was around 800. Worth around 1900 thorium. Does not appear to be an active player (base is damaged). 
Bau bau (6/10) - Sea battle - around 1500 thorium here. Look to the depository at the bottom left of the base.
brave 23 (6/11) - sea battle - level 57 - power ~ 600 - while on the bad list for land battles, you can get about 1500 thorium from brave 23. 
Dr.DoooM (6/11) - Sea battle - Level 42 - around 1000 thorium here. around 500 battle power. Looks to be active and up and coming.
fra (6/13) - sea battle - level 63 - about 600 power - around  2800 thorium.
Gen.jafre (6/14) - sea battle - level 55 - 125 power - around 2100 thorium.
ice (6/11) - sea battle - level 59 - full on battle at 1800 power - around 3200 Thorium available. 
kronos (6/11) - Sea Battle - Level 45 - Clearly worth a fight with some 3000k in thorium. Battle power was around 600.
lalo (6/12) - Air battle - level 42 - around 800 power - 100k minimum on property. 
lleo tom1 (6/11) - sea battle - level 55 - Power ~800 - Thorium count around 1600k and this appears to be a very actively managed property though several subs were hanging around with obvious invasion past and they had not been cleared.
Make love (6/10) - Land Battle - Around 200k available here (hotels).
Mark (6/11) - Sea Battle - level 56 - power ~900 - around 1400 thorium here.
Meister D (6/11) - Land battle - power ~900 - Great property with hotels. MILLION COIN PROPERTIES.
monkey (6/11) - sea battle - level 52 - power ~600 - around 1300 thorium. Several subs so activity questionable.

Nash (6/12/11) - land battle - level 50 - power ~2200 -  over half-million coin available. Tough battle though. Seems active. No hotels at this point.
Nefrai-Kesh (6/13)  - sea - level 53 - power ~800 - good thorium haul around 4500+!
nerobyrne (6/13) - sea - level 41 - power around 200 - In one of the better plays in this game, this property provides around 2000+ thorium for very little fighting risk.  Seems active but the number (or lack of) subs seems to indicate player is not watching down below that much.
ojjy (6/11) - sea battle - level 53 - 500 power - top right hand side of property has two buildings that had around 1600 thorium in them.
pagoda - sea battle - level 54 - about 900 power -  3700+ thorium. Great property.
SAGARA (6/13) - sea battle - level 61 - about 1800 power - around 5200 thorium (bottom left)
Scay - (6/9) - Land battle - lots of money here.
serg - (6/11) - air battle - level 28 - ~600 power - pretty good chunk of change (100k+).
solito (6/13) - water battle - level 64 - 900 power - 1110 thorium. 
Tim -  (6/10) - Sea battle - around 1100 thorium. Base appears inactive.
Top Gun - (6/13) - sea battle - level 60 - power 334 - around 4000 thorium..
Tr - (6/13) - sea battle - level 82 - 300 power - 1200 thorium and appears active.
uyeng- (6/12) - air battle - level 44 - ~800 power - > 200k - appears active. Appears to have spent more time building income than taking property (which it good).
YeyHr (6/10) - Sea battle - Note that I can't do the characters that the name is really listed under. The r is backwards. and the two Y's look like upside down h's... 1000 thorium.
yulin0681 - sea battle - level 48 around 600 power -  around 1700 thorium.
Wah - (6/111) - land battle - level 62 - 1300 power or so - 2 hotels combined for just shy of 1,300,000 coin.
WARCHILD (6/11) - Sea battle - Level 66 - 500 or so battle power. At least 2500+ thorium.
wenect (6/11) - Air battle - For a level 51 the air battle was easy and at first glance, not much property at all. However, he's got some nice coin property. look to net around 500,000 coin or so.
yy (6/13) - sea battle - level 63 - power 748 - over 5000 thorium available.

List of useless people to fight/invade

Sometimes in the game I find people who are pretty much a waste of time to invade. Sometimes it's land, sometimes it's underwater - but in all cases they have nothing to actually take.

This blog entry will contain the names of users that are wasted time when you battle. I will keep it updated as often as I can.

Criteria for this list is < 10,000 coin collected or < 100 thorium. Also, if comes up unable to load base. I am exempting anyone below level 25 as I generally find them to lack sufficient property.

Note: When I started this list I didn't note the player level. I've started doing that now on all entries.. but the older ones will remain without levels.

Note: One hint that a higher level player has NO thorium is if they just have a little snapper sub come up. In most cases (but not all) this indicates that they have not done anything under water. In some (rare) cases it means that they have not played in a while and there might well be adequate thorium worth going after on an invasion but this is rare.  I generally do not invade if the only sub is a snapper.

Black Punk - (6/11/2014) - level 52 - ~800 power - Base failed to load, several times.
BORMS - (6/11/2014) - Level 35 - Low income on land property (around 6800).
brave 23 (6/10/2014) - Land battle - No income property at all.
General H (6/13/2014) - sea battle - 805 power - base failed to load. 
Jack (6/10/2014) - Sea battle - No thorium. Base appears long abandoned.
magu - sea battle - level 55 - 15 power - base abandoned - not active - no thorium at all.
MPC (6/11/2014) sea battle - Level 55 - For a level 55 and 500+ battle power sucks - no thorium at all.
one_night (6/11/2014) - sea battle - level 50 - Base failed to load.
ss (6/14) - faction #1# - sea battle - level 45 - 65 power- base failed to load.
Sven (6/10/2014) - Sea battle - 51 thorium.

Battle hints....

Hello troops,

General Freeman here. Let's do some battle training!

Going to battle is a fundamental part of our game, of course.

Here are some hints to help you with some basic battle skills:

1. If your unit turns blue tap it .... This means that for a moment it has extra power.....
2. I've not confirmed this one, and if anyone can please post a note here if they know for sure ... If your enemy unit turns red then tap on it.... I believe this will cause that unit more damage.
3. Even though its not required to fight a battle, I often tap my side and then the enemy side over and over, lightly of course. Why? First it makes catching the mines, missiles and other stuff easier and quicker. It's easier and quicker to touch blue and red units..... Also, it makes me feel more active in the battle and in my experience it *does* make a difference.
4. Battle with as *few* units as needed for victory. This takes some practice because if you are in a battle with an opponent with 200 defense you don't know what his offensive score is.... It might be higher. Also, even with the scores there seems to be randomness in success to a degree.

At first, I'd start playing with your units power at around 1.5 to 2 times the power of your opponent. Thus if they have 200, you want around 300 to 400 worth of units up there.

In this case, 2x100 power units is much better and efficient resource usage than a mass deployment of your top forces (say 2x100 and 4x25) that auto deploy will give you.

In many cases using auto deploy just serves to waste units.

Why? Even when you win a unit looses life points. When you loose, it looses even more life points. Survive a battle, the unit always looses 10 points. If the unit dies, win or loose, the it looses 20 life points.

So, in a battle where you only needed 150 points, if you do a mass deploy and get units of 2x100 and 4x25 for a total of 300 points , you are oversubscribed (over-allocated). Say each unit starts with 100 life. If in the battle You loose 125 points - you will loose 5 units total. Probably all the 25 point units and one of the 100 point units. That's a total life loss of 10 for the surviving unit and 100 for the units that were lost in the battle. Not,  when the battle started you had six units with a total life score of 600. Post battle your total life score was 490. 90 for the surviving unit and 80 for the remaining 5 units. That's a life loss of almost 20 percent total.

If you had must battled with the 2x100 units then your loss would have likely been one of the two units. Your life loss would be 10 for the surviving unit and 20 for the lost unit. You would have started with 200 total life and ended up with 170 total life. That's a 15 percent loss, however if you compare this to the previous configuration its only a FIVE percent loss of total available life.

Thus, right sizing your attacks will make your units last not only longer but much longer. 20 percent average life loss versus the lower five percent life loss it huge, and makes a difference in coin and in victory. It takes a bit longer to deploy manually but most of the time its worth it. at 20 percent loss your units will last, on average 5 battles. At 5 percent loss your units will last roughly 20 battles (assuming 100 point units). Since units cost coin, that's huge.

There are a couple of times when i will do a mass deploy. First, if i know i will need all of my highest value units because the enemy has really high points. Second, if i need two or three of my highest units ill mass deploy and then remove units from the battleground until i get the configuration i want.

Ill have. More tips and tricks for you later.....

Enjoy the game, fight like hell for your faction and BOOOYAH! ,

General Freeman

Initial strategies.... My take.....

If you are a new player, what should your initial stratagies be?

In my mind the priorities initially are:

1. Generate coin. Do this through income generating properties on your base.
2. Electricity production is critical.
3. Build your base up. Barracks, vehicle shop and workshops are critical to this goal.
4. Initially, limit your battles to limit losses. Build your forces first and fusion them to make them stronger. A few battles are fun, of course, but loosing can become frustrating too.
5. At the lower levels i would recommend buying one or two big subs from the tools->shop->underwater menu. Many of the lower level players don't invest in subs, so its easier to win battles and invade at lower levels. This changes a bit at around level 27 though....

Subs and invading seems to work well to win battles, and increase coin through bounty and invasion. However if more lower level players figure out this strategy then it may become less effective.

Also, don't be to quick to expand your base. Initially, just buying up property you don't yet need is a waste of coin.

Finally, don't forget your boosters..... Place them next to income or unit production properties and you will see production rates go up ... Sometimes way up depending on the booster. So check your stash for boosters. One other booster related thing is i would not waste space with the little trophy boosters you get for completing achievements. From what i can see they are just space wasters.

Do you have any hints you want to share.... Feel free to leave comments and share your thoughts with the team....

General Freeman

Greetings to the Black Sheep! About this blog...

The World at Arms Black Sheep Faction Blog
Welcome to the World at Arms Black Sheep Faction blog.

The Black Sheep Faction was started in May 2013 by General Robert Freeman.
As of 6/6/2014 it has grown from 1 member to 28 members!

About the Black Sheep Faction 
The Black Sheep Faction (called blcksheep on World at Arms) was named in honor of WWII Squadron VMF-214 (Now called VMA-214) which was known as the Black Sheep Squadron. The Black Sheep were led by Greg "Pappy" Boyington, a Medal of Honor winner. You can find out more about the history of the Black Sheep on Wikipedia here.

Faction Leadership

Currently the Black Sheep leadership includes:

General "Pappy" Freeman - General of the faction.

Captain Lori - Second in command. Capt. Lori is our faction XO who is responsible for maintaining the rules and tracking membership, ensuring that rules are followed. She also tracks who is pulling their weight and who is slacking.

Lt. Laskar_nkri (Lt. Laskar) - Third in command. Currently Lt. Laskar has not been assigned specific responsibilities but he is third in command.

Each of these three members has the ability to invite members into the faction. Feel free to communicate with these members if you have an interest in joining the Black Sheep.

This Blog

The mission of this blog is to:

1. Provide a forum for communication between the faction leadership and members and prospective members.
2. Provide a forum for experienced players to help new members play a more effective game.
3. Provide a forum for the leadership to easily communicate with the membership, and allow the membership to respond and ask questions in a single area.
4. Keep a written history of the faction and the amazing people in it.

Guest Posts
If you have a topic you would like to discuss, then let me know and I can arrange for you to do a guest post. If English is not your first language, we can work together to get your post written. I'm happy to help. This is a great way to practice your English writing skills.

I am actually a published author and have helped several people who's primary language is not English to write in my books. I am happy to help you write an article here. Perhaps you have some suggestions or strategy that you would like to share. Let me know!

Rules of the blog
The basic rules of the blog are simple:

1. Keep your speech clean.
2. Respect all members and prospective members. No wars or drama allowed.
3. All are welcome to participate - members and non-members.
4. Feel free to comment any time.
5. If you are a member - PARTICIPATE.

We have specific rules with respect to membership and participation. I will post these soon for the membership to review.

I hope you enjoy this blog, and enjoy your membership in the Black Sheep.

General Freeman