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To sandbag or not? Here is the question!

oddin

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May 17, 2018
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I read almost everywhere (forums, line, discord) that the new matchmaking is not working as advertised and that unfair wars happen all the time.
I also read about leaders being obliged to fill in the empty spots with iron/classical/medieval age accounts.
And last of all, about alliances losing A LOT MORE than they win.

All 3 things are real and have to admit that not a single algorithm is flawless. Bad WW can still happen. All alliances will eventually lose at some point and there is no argument about that. The real reason behind many of the bad things that happen in WW is OURSELVES. We do some things in the wrong way. Be happy though! Cause are a few things WE (the WW organizers) CAN DO to favor our team, make better choices and have more chances of a fair WW and more wins at the end of the day.

1. Stop sandbagging.

If an alliance has the necessary number of players then do not sandbag at all. Every player is valuable and it is a waste of firepower NOT to have able people participate. If you sandbag, chances are you will get matched with another sandbag alliance that does it better than you and you will lose.

2. Do not force an alliance to do 20vs20 or 30vs30 WW

Some alliances simply do not have the necessary offensive capability to compete on a 20vs20 WW or more. This means that by insisting on doing bigger scale wars, they lose more than they win at the end. This is bad for morale. Instead choose your best attackers and do 10vs10 WW till more able attackers join your alliance. Constantly losing makes people even quit the game!!!

3. Understand that you can't participate in every WW

By going to smaller WW (say 10vs10), an alliance has to rotate players. But how do you choose which to include and which to leave out?
First of all identify the ones that bring the stars. The ones that attack above their level with success. Those MUST be included in every single war. The rest of the roster will be filled by other players and preferably, they will form your defence . In the next war, keep the offensive squad unchanged and change completely your defensive squad. This will allow for rotation among players. If on a weekly basis you can have 3-4 WWs, then most players will participate in 2, so its not a big deal.

4. Choose Wisely

Lets say that you have a pool of players from all ages. Choose every time a fair amount of players among ages and levels. Do not go CWA heavy and then have like the rest filled with industrial age players. An equal distribution leads to a better and fairer war.
In our alliance, our sweet spot for having a nice war is a medium of 195-205. Anything outside of those numbers will result in unbalanced WW quite often.

5. Have clear roles

Have the most able attacker, and not the highest level player, be your general. He will form a WW plan and everybody will follow his commands to the letter. It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. This is very important! If he says that player no3 will load 3 defensive coalitions and player 6 will have 3 Offensive coalitions and attack no1 in the war then this is what you have to do!

I have lots of advice to give but I believe that those 5 bits, are the most crucial for all to understand.
Obviously there are alliances that will face unfair WW no matter what. These are circumstances that happen on the top alliances (or some other extreme cases) and I don't know if there is a solution or not.
But for the rest of us mortals, those remarks will certainly help!
 
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Mountainking

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Aug 12, 2016
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767
Hello Wraith. Great post. I want to add my views on it.

1. Sandbagging or not does not really matter now. We sandbag most of the times to get 20 for war. We've done a few non sandbagging 20v and find the results quite similar in matchmaking meaning we find more sandbag alliances when sandbagging (which is fine).

2. I agree. If we can't have a proper 20v lineup, dropping to 10 is definetely wiser and we've done it 2-3 times.

3. Excellent point again. The big defenders, the constant good hitters and always opted in are always included. The occasional opt in are put in the lineup IF there is room and mediocrity is rotated so all can participate.

4. Agree. A mixed lineup results in best matchmaking.

5. The general can be someone who sucks at attacking...it does not really matter who... but can make good plans. The plan MUST BE FOLLOWED. NO FRIGGING question asked.
 

oddin

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May 17, 2018
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its weird that no matter if you sandbag or not, you get the same results. This is not the case with us. Maybe because we never use iron age accounts...
 

No Angel

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May 1, 2017
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Yeah I'm a lame attacker but I'm the General, Strategist, Spy, all in one 😋
 

duckfromhell

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Dec 12, 2015
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Lol :) i do not agree with point 5....i have been an alliance leader for 3 years and we won about 80 % of our battles by just letting ppl choose their own targets and their own tactics and coali tyions and stuff. What we did do, is give ppl explanations if we saw attacks of certain ppl were going badly. We guided ppl by reviewing how they attacked and defended and helping them to actually grow and develop an tactic mind of their own. There was only 1 thing in which we were strict: if you have your indicator on, then we expect to see 2 attacks. Not 1, and certainly not 0. We have had a participation lvl of 99% for all wars we were in.
There is absolutely no need at all to tell players what they may or may not do during wars. I am not their mother or father! But if i can help them to be strategic themselves, they benefit in normal gameplay also and thenit becomes fun for them!
 

oddin

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May 17, 2018
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not all alliance members know what they are doing. Having a role helps in the beginning.
 
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