Update 12.4: New Skills/Hero lvl/buffs/troops…

Update 12.4 hit the stores a few days ago. And like most updates, it added quite some new features/additions to the game, or showcased what is to come shortly. In no particular order the updates are:

  • 3 New offensive Hero Skills: Spearhead II, Bullseye II, Close Quarters II. Their information has been added to the Hero Skills article.newskills
  • Permanent debuffs added, in addition to the perm buffs. Weapon Disarm (attack debuff) and Armor Exposure (life debuff) items function in similar fashion to BC/SW.newbuffs
  • New T4 wall troop: Stone Sheperds (elven) / Gates of Erebor (dwarf). Apparently they are set up as equivalent to Stone Giants for Wall Troops, with massive health, although first testing showed inconclusive results. At the moment, only six can be trained once. Adding to the Wall Troop article as soon as more concrete info comes out.newwalltroop
  • New Tactical Troop: Enchanters. A new troop sporting both high defense and offense stats. Although not shown anymore, lvl 120(!) is needed to train these. More info will be added to the TT article as soon as more info becomes available.new tt
  • Increased player lvl. There is good reason to think (see above) it won’t be long before the player level cap is raised from 100 to at least 120, to train the Enchanters.
  • Increased Hero lvl.  Another cap raised is Hero lvl. A glitch a few days ago enabled players to level their Heroes beyond 250. This was then revoked, but with the update it is now official: Hero levels now go up to 280!

So that’s it for now. Let me know how you feel about the new stuff, or share any information you might have 🙂

Input needed on Debuff mechanics

In relation to Hero Equipment and Gem Embedding, I wanted to do a piece on how to balance buffs and debuffs. For that of course, we need some understanding of the “Battle formula”. Now for attack and life this is rather straight forward, something like:

Troops killed = (Life*life buff) / (Attack*attack buff)

life debuffBut the debuffs factor in in some other way, and I would like one of you to fill me in on how, as I cant get my head around it for some odd reason, while my instincts tell me the math cant be that hard. Problem with debuffs of course is that they cannot reduce attack or life of the enemy to zero. So while 100% attack buff doubles your base attack (+100%), a 100% debuff will not reduce base attack or life to zero. So how does it fit in the equation? My guess from the above here is that buff and complementary debuff do not interact directly, like:

Troops killed =
(Life * (life buff(?)life debuff))
(Attack * (attack buff(?)attack debuff))

But more something like:

Troops killed =
((Life * life buff)/(1+life debuff))
((Attack*attack buff)/(1+attack debuff))

So in short, any help on this would be appreciated. Some time ago, someone either commented here or sent me an email with some info on this stuff, but I cannot find it anymore….Thanks in advance!!!

 

Finally: Troop attack orders updated…

LT pikemenPhew. Finally! I didnt like doing it, but I figured out all the new troop attack orders and updated the graph that goes with the article. I had to figure out the orders for the new Lake-town troops, and of course update all the orders for the older troops to see where those two figured in.

In short: For the Lake-town troops, the order is identical to the normal Tier 1 to 5 troops. The Pikemen are mostly found near the front of the other’s attack orders, while Longbowmen stay at the back, as their descriptions hinted.

Master Rangers‘ order simply adds the Lake-town troops in their normal positions, but switches Mammoths and Longbowmen in the back.

Stone Giants remain largely the same as Tier 1-5, with the biggest difference being the Pikemen moving more to the back of the queue.

Lyncean Raiders‘ attack order was already a bit messier, and the Longbowmen are now killed before Woodsmen even, while again the Pikemen move back to behind T1.

Woodsmen place the Longbowmen back at the back of the line, while again the Pikemen are staying away from the front.

So once again, take your advantage with this information for TKing, and let’s hope Kabam does not release more new troops any time soon….

Troop Attack Order

Updated with all new troops and attack orders! 14-01-2015

D_Dwarven_PhalanxBack in the days of Tier 1-3 and Wall, we knew which troops would be targeted first by an attacking army. Wall troops die first, then Tier 1-3 fighting troops, then lastly the supply troops. This held no matter what troops you sent at a city. The only ‘exception’ to this was the fact that a Dwarf army would (and will) attack Elven reinforcements first and vice versa, leading to the infamous cart rein shenanigans.

But unfortunately for us, the Tactical Troops messed this up, as they seemed to prefer other targets over the Wall troops to attack first, flanking the enemy armies and attacking the weak points at the back. For some Tactical Troops little changed, but for some, the order in which they attack enemy armies is a mess. This post lists all the attack orders for all troops available in the game right now, and will be updated when the new Tactical Troops are introduced.

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Hero Equipment: Best sets to use

pilferediconOne of the questions on everyone’s mind in this game is what the best hero equipment/gear are for attacking, defending and campaigning. With a pretty constant stream of newly introduced gear with differing bonuses, it can be difficult to decide. So here is a small overview of the best sets currently available, below the fold, as the article has grown a bit longer than anticipated.

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Tourney: Might popping order

Another short post. Probably a lot of you have this already, but here goes. With servers that are older than a few months, Tournaments of Might very quickly turn from who can train troops most efficiently, to who can press the pop-troop-chest buttons the fastest and longest. Training should no be neglected, but popping chests makes for most of the might gain.

troop chest poppingOf course, every chest pops a certain number of might, and with that comes strategy. Whether you want to go full out in the early hours, or start T1 slow and end with a T5 bang, knowing what order to pop boxes in is important. For that purpose, I’ve made a chart with all the possible troops chests ordered in the number of might that is popped per chest. Because of the size, I’ve put it below the fold. Please also note this is the version WITHOUT Wall troops. With those version will follow. Happy popping!

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Attack and Defense runes: When to use them

alone ROFI was tempted to put this article under the KoM101 category, but realized this actually isn’t that simple, going by the mistakes I see people make in attacking and defending. I’ve seen some weird attack reports, with people misusing runes and Tactical Troops.

alone ROIIn this article, I am gonna lay out the basics of when to use defensive, and when to use offensive runes. By no means is this stuff really complicated, but apparently many people still do not have a complete hang of it. So when do you use which runes? That and more, after the break.

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KoM 101: All Elven and Dwarf Wall troops

Following the article on all Elven and Dwarf troops, some suggestions came in on doing a similar article for the Wall troops of both factions.

headerWall troops can be trained in your City Walls. They provide good Might numbers, but are not overly strong, so most people do not actually build a lot of them, as it gives away easy tk’s for enemies. If you do want to use these, do so during Might tournaments or when you can back them up with a high Hero and normal troops. 

walltroopstats

Tactical Troops: All you need to know

mummakil

I have mentioned in past posts on campaigning and the latest update to the game, that new non-trainable ‘Tactical Troops’ had been introduced. Here, I will try to put all available information on these units. Any missing information will be added shortly. The new units are, in no particular order:

  • Pack Mammoths
  • Master Rangers
  • Stone Giants
  • Lyncean Raiders
  • Woodmen
  • Lake-town Pikemen
  • Lake-town Longbowmen

So what are they? What do they do? Where do you get them, and how should you use them. All that and perhaps more, after the break.

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What to spend your Hobbit Building Crews on

HBCA couple of times I’ve heard people ask, both in GC and AC, what the best building to spend a Hobbit Building Crew on is. Although I recognize that for many players this question will be obsolete by this point in the game, some newcomers might find my views helpful in deciding where to spend their HBC’s.

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How to train Tier 4 troops

dwarfphalkanxIn light of Tier 4 troops now being almost completely available for training (just waiting for Ranged troops atm), I thought it would be handy for those that do not train them yet, to chart which buildings and researches you have to upgrade to train them. It’s gonna take a lot of time to get there, and once there, the troops also train hella slow, but here goes.

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Useful tools and spreadsheets

Throughout my time playing KoM, I have made and used a number of spreadsheets and JAVA programs to help me out gathering information and making decisions. Some of the info from the spreadsheets was used in other blog posts here, but most remained private.

I thought it might be handy to publicize some of it so you guys and girls can use them too. Below is a list of description for the various sheets and program(s) and a link to download them. (More will follow)

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How to speed up troop training times!

DwarfBarracks01

16-02 Small update on Guardian buff

Once it is time to go from setting up your basic city to full-on troop production for might or a fight, troop training times can severely impact your ability to being able to burn through your resources, defend your city, or destroy your opponents. It is very important to optimize the training speeds of each unit as well as possible. This post serves as a small intro guide into troop training times; specifically, the factors that contribute to getting the training speed up.

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Why bonuses in training/ construction/ research appear smaller than expected

This happened to me a week ago: I go to train some troops, and look before queing at the training times: it was something in the order of 10 minutes. I remembered that I needed to put my hero in the training job, so I did. He was level 65 at the time, so, I expected something around a 30% decrease in training time.

To my surprise, when I did the calculations, turned out the decrease was only ~13%! This messed up my mind. I was thinking: “Wait, if the time normally is 100, it should now be 70, 30% less. And if other bonuses are in play, say, another 50% or something, 50-30 is 20 left, a 60% decrease…..i.e. the decrease in training time should ALWAYS be ~30% OR more!

I’ve never been so wrong in my life….

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Feeding your troops (2nd city)

We all know the drill….you build comfortably through the seven-days-protection period and start gaining might in making troops. But sooner or later, the upkeep in food they need will outnumber what you could possibly produce in your city. Especially for armies over 200k might it is nigh impossible to keep up with the needs, even with a high level hero helping production and wilds to give you bonuses.

Constantly asking alliance members is annoying and impossible, as they will also grow their respective armies. Luckily, there is a caveat in the KoM system to help you out.

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