Designing and implementing Kill Zones

[Brand Marrow]

So, a while back I tried to ask other forum goers about how to make a good kill zone and they were very hush-hush about it (as if there's enough traffic on forum that they would have to worry about giving away trade secrets, I've had all of one attack by a forum member since I joined months back....)

Anyhoo, I finally designed my own kill zone and it is working beautifully! Super fun to watch entire armies linger on barbed wire while being pounded by mortars and then finally escaping into a field of landmines for the coup de grace, (evil chuckle).

So, I am happy to give away my secrets and ideas about designing these things so all forumgoers can join with me in evil chuckling and the deep schadenfreude (yes I checked the spelling) that comes from watching your attackers suffer miserably and die horrible deaths.

Tips...

1. Design your base so that there is one direction (preferably north or east so artillery is hidden by TC) from which your TC is easy to attack. I just made it so that there is only one wall to reach TC from the north and two or three walls from all other directions. I also position the TC so it is closer to the forest in the north, more distance and bldings to fight through coming from the south.

2. Dont make this path of least resistance too obvious.

3. Position mortars so that there is cross-fire in this same direction.

4. Place all of your traps along this path to the TC. I put barbed wire (adult caltrops) spaced out to cover maximal area (mine cover about 12 spaces across and 8 spaces deep), then interspersed some landmines (adult spike traps) and ambushes.

5. Place some oil wells and houses in the mix with your traps, this way there is not an obvious blank space on your map that says ''KILL ZONE, PLEASE ENTER HERE''

6. Put your factory and war academy nearby so that a heavy tank and some little tanks with spawn from them and join in the devastation party.

Ok, that about covers it for me. I am hoping this post will unlock a flood of advice and ideas on kill zones and greatly increase the amount of evil chuckling and diabolical laughter in the forum..... he he he...... hua ha ha ha hua ha ha


PS: no i am not going to post a pic

 

[Hong Kong Army®]

Wow sounds great fun to me, would definitely wanna try attacking your base lol

 

[ScipioA]

please post a screen shot of your base

 

[Brand Marrow]

I did put in my PS that I wasn't going to post a pic, but i may anyway...we'll see how many other forum goers are willing to lay bare their kill zone secrets...

 

[Hong Kong Army®]

If u would like to share with us your in-game name, let see if i will meet you in the future

 

[Brand Marrow]

its Brand Marrow, lol. Best way to meet me is to invite me to your alliance. I am a wanderer and like to visit folks on forum.

 

[kirsteym]

Nice post, Brand Morrow. If u want to pay Bleeding Souls a visit, we'd be happy to chat.

 

[IDEAS15]

Nice post BM! Stop and say hi at the Bebbanburg USA alliance. We are a new start up and would love a VIP visit!

 

[Magnifico]

Thanks for a very interesting and provocative post, Brand Marrow. What medal range are you in, if I may ask? Do you often get wins on defense with this setup?

For what it's worth, I take a different approach. When they finally killed the forced quit exploit, I started thinking about how, at long last, I could actually try to defend my town center. But after thinking about it a bit more, I decided that it still wasn't worth it. I am in Empire III and don't want to go lower (I like the league bonus) or higher (past 2700 I start getting "no opponent found" too often). So I don't mind losing medals as long as it's not so many that it knocks me down a league. What I do care about is defending resources, so I definitely want a peace treaty when I get attacked. I worry that if I make a base like the one you describe I will wind up losing more resources if a failed attack springs my traps and opens the way for others. At the very least I'd have to pay more to reset my traps.

I'm curious about whether an exposed town center (like mine) wouldn't also be the way to go even if you care about medals. Here's my thinking: in the higher medal ranges, you will definitely get attacked by somebody within a few minutes at most of logging out. I get a fair number of town center snipes, where my attacker takes the quick victory and then either quits right away so as not to waste precious Training Blessing time or else falls quickly to the suddenly-much-stiffer defenses past my TC. I do occasionally get 4- or 5-starred by a maxed Global army with 5-6 tactics and a full air force and mercenaries and generals and whatnot. But my guess is that with a more defended town center I'd get more of those full-on attacks and fewer snipers. So instead of getting 2-starred, I'd get 4- or 5-starred, which might translate into at least as many medals lost, and a lot more resources to boot. I'm too chicken to experiment with this, though, so this is just speculation.

For similar reasons, I'm leery about placing factories on the path to my TC. Sometimes the heavy tanks that will appear when they get destroyed will be a nasty surprise for an attacker, but if the attacker is packing Betrayal I don't want to hand over a lot of momentum at the start of the attack. I'd rather have my attackers come across the factories later on when their forces are worn down and more spread out.

 

[Ravenlord]

I was thinking the same thing as Magnifico in that once your traps are triggered they're exposed for all too see.
Although, having said that, mortars creating a crossfire combined with spawning heavies will still create a sufficient roadblock if your traps are sprung.
Although, having said that, a betrayal or two grants the attacker a formidable force. And, if your towers are close enough a single sabotage can take out a number of them.

Your kill zone sounds great - if any novice is silly enough to go for it - but you might want to layer your defenses so that you wear him down bit by bit. Use small groups of traps with defense towers and stables - this way all your traps won't be triggered in one attack but you still create a roadblock. Sort of like a guerrilla defence - hit-and-run but in a defensive posture. Anyway, that's just how l do it.

Although, having said THAT, I have a 2nd base with a killing zone similar to yours with my mills behind my tc ...... and some traps just behind my tc .....

PS: by killing attackers after they've destroyed my tc they not only need to fully retrain but l get a peace treaty.

 

[BV123]

I actually prefer creating numerous but smaller kill zones. Makes even more experienced players waste time coming up with a good plan in that 30 secs.

But to each his own. =)

 

[Hong Kong Army®]

haha feel free to take a stop at Hong Kong Army® and have a look at my interesting base, Im Lannister

 

[Brand Marrow]

Thanks for your comments Magnifico. I am currently at 2100ish medals and am getting 1 of 3 defensive victories. If I dont check back in, often get a defeat once my traps are sprung (as you predicted).

I was running with an exposed TC for a long time and this worked very well for rss protection. I agree with you that this is the best strategy. I actually made my town center kill zone base to try it out as a design for my warbase. Based on what Ive seen in PVP, I'm excited to try it out in WW.

The side benefit that I didnt anticipate, was how fun it was to watch the replay of the kill zone victories. I am totally hooked and haven't switched back (helps that I am in the Global Upgrade Morass so that I dont really care too much about losing rss)

Another side benefit is that more experienced players avoid the kill zone forcing them to attack my base from the other sides and across two sets of fully defended walls. So they've got a pretty tough cookie to crumble anyhoo....

 

[Brand Marrow]

Thanks Ravenlord
I've got two antitank cannons waiting for betrayed heavy tank plus the mine fields and barbed wire, so this has not been a problem.

I think some experienced players have attacked into my kill zone because the intermixed houses and oil wells do make it a bit less obvious and also they sometimes circle around into it from the side (once those brits start their circle dance, they just continue on mindlessly, guess that why I think of Brit attackers as ''Circle Jerks'')

Love the idea of two layers of traps to get the PT and the evil chuckle! I'll have to try that..... he he

 

[Brand Marrow]

What do you use for a smaller kill zone BV123? and where do you like to place them?

 

[nikki bella]

My kill zone shouts out... hit me here... i make no attempt to try to protect my town centre and its still so satisfying to see those idiots that cant resist the temptation to go in for the kill and then get chewed up. Note to self: subtlety might be something to think about!

 

[GailWho]

@Brand Marrow great post! You're the best! BTW you are coming home sometime soon right? We miss you!!!!!

 

[Brand Marrow]

Thnx Queen Gail, I'll b back soon .

 

[Yellowmar]

I can understand the excitement when a empire or dynasty player trolls through my kill zone and end up throwing the kitchen sink just to squeeze 1 star. Hehehehe.

 

[BV123]

Well Brand Marrow. For example, those that have a squarish base layout, concentrate the firepower towards the 4 corners. Make the 4 paths in between look inviting. I'm more complex than that but you get the idea.