Air Attack Strategy

Aerial Forces Attacking
 

Eventually I am a great pilot, as a aviation plans officer, in this section i would like to share my experiences about how to fight well by using airstrike units.

In E&A, there are only two kind of air forces you can have, Attack Drones and Apache.

At level 6 HQ, players can able to deploy Attack Drones (I called it Fly) into battlefields. Attack Drones are light, fast swarms that hunt and kill enemy defense structures. Weak vs anti-air defenses and enemy infantry; strong vs ground targets.

Apache appears at HQ12, which provide overwhelming airborne firepower that can win any battle; Weak vs Patriots and Domed Aerial Defenses; Strong vs ground targets. 

Both air force units have pro and con, so you’d better know their strengths and weaknesses before making conclusion to go either aerial force or ground force as your majority of squids strike.

(PRO) The most selling points of Attack Drones and Apaches are their great mobility, which can let them able to fly across the screen in rapid speed. Plus they are easy to lock on any ground targets; so you can assign Alpha, Bravo and Charlie group to attack several targeted objects individually.

Another great advantage is these air force units can ignore attacks from heavy fired ground defenders, such as Railgun, Metal Rain, Artillery and Guard Tower. Landmines are also under its immunity. On the side of base defenders, Spider Drone, Tank and MLRS will not attack airstrike attackers at all. 

(CON) However, They are not perfect units in some reasons which makes most players rather select ground forces instead of air. Air units were easily trapped by Stealth Tanks and EMP. Once they got trap then they will freeze at the air, any anti-aircraft defensive units which closer to them can destroy them with no resistance. 

Beside of Stealth Tank, other ground units like Domed Sentry Gun, Domed Aerial Defense, Patriot, Ion Cannon, Striker VI, Commandos, defensive Apache and Hunter MK.I, which has anti-air ability can also kill airstrike units in no time. In addition, I have recently found that the explosion of Shock Mine can even freeze them when they fly though the EMP burst where it released.

Air Strike Strategy:

Now you understand both pro and con with airstrike units. The essential elements to win any airstrike battle will depend on how much you can take from advantages and how much you stay away from dis-advantages. Therefore, targeting your right opponents has already been half way through your victories. For Example: When I search and scout my target bases, i will always concern all these following conditions before my planes attempt into any battlefield.

First, how many rally flags of stealth tank are there? Let say I see a HQ14 base has 2 troops and 2 spiders, that means two stealth tank rally flags are there because HQ14 suppose to have six rally flags in total. Or if I see a HQ13 base has no troops at all, then it means all five rally flags are stealth tanks, etc...

Don’t forget stealth tanks in this case are your natural enemies, so I will try to avoid them. In most cases, I will definitely fight the bases which have zero non anti-aircraft rally flags, like some players setup six groups of tank (12 tanks), or six groups of MLRS (6 MLRS), or these units mixed with some spiders. Without zero attacks from rally flag units, then I just keep focusing on destroy all anti-air defenders

However, there not many players will only setup one kind of rally flag units. So my second option will  lookup some bases, which have less rally flags of stealth tank on it. Let say If I have 14-16 Apaches on Tarmacs then I will consider to attack a base which has two rally flags of stealth tank. (6 stealth tanks) What about three rally flags of stealth tank? Maybe, depend on how much resources it contained because it takes some risks. More than three rally flags? Oh, No No, forget it! There is totally not a good idea to attack four to all stealth tanks bases except you are super lucky or you have any special skill to get rid of all those stealth tanks attacks. 

Attack Drones somehow have less restriction with stealth tanks because of their number of planes. Each stealth tank can only lock up several “Flies” at once, then the rest of “Flies” still able to move and attack stealth tanks to rescue their buddies. But they still have very high chance to get all frozen up by the large groups of stealth tanks.  

 

Second, how many command strike points present in this battle, which should take out how many anti-air defenders? (For how to collect and calculate command points please see Command Strikes section) As I said in above, non anti-aircraft defense buildings you don't have to worry about them since they don’t attack your air units. Therefore, use command strike weapons only against anti-aircraft buildings such as Patriots and Domed Sentry Guns or Aerial Defenses, and Ion Canon. (To verify which one is Ion Canon or Airmed Drone Hive please see Home Base Data section as well) 

Since you only have limited number of command strikes in each battle, so enemies base layout also is part of your concern. You need to plan ahead before you attack them. Remember, always look for chances to apply a single command strike into several air defenders at once. For example: use Orbital Strikes to burn down Ion Canon, Patriot(s) and any nearby Dome(s) which built within 2 tiles apart all together. Or use one to two A-10 strike(s) to bomb as many Patriot(s) with Dome(s) which built within 6 tiles diameter as possible. See example pictures in below...

If you have to attack some bases which contain stealth tanks then don’t send in an entire squad at once. You should start send in couple tarmac aircraft at first to see any stealth tanks around. Once u got freeze then add another tarmac aircraft to attack these stealth tanks, got freeze again then add more aircraft to rescue....but remember, either fly in from their side or their back to attack these stealth tanks. Otherwise, your planes will be trapped together with all other aircraft that reached the EMP bursts.

For Apache players, I found a simple way that can max out all resources an enemy base contained. It works effectively in most higher levels there people usually have high demand in steel and tech for their upgrades. What I use is the greatest advantage from Apaches – Mobility.

First, I attack a base normally, apply strike forces in troops and command building, use command strikes to take out defenders, etc...Once HQ down then I use Alpha team (about 8 Apaches) to take out Steel, Supply, Tech and Oil stockpiles and factories barely in this sequence; and leave Bravo team (about 6 to 8 Apaches) attacks freely to clean up rest of the buildings. If time is short then I will have both teams work on resource buildings only. This way you might only get two starts but mostly you will get all resources from each battle.

BTW, I have tried using both air units as well. the reason why I picked Apaches instead of Attack Drones is because of two facts. 1) Once you level up your Apaches then you can use them in both offense and defense. 2) Retraining cost of Apaches are more cheaper than Attack Drones. If you can control them well then you can save them all without any losses from battles. However, there will be some losses in Attack Drones no matter how careful you use them. And they take tons of oil for retraining, which I found you may even spend more oil in retraining then you make from wars.

However, I do not suggest players use all Apaches as their Rally Flags defense. Why? That is because Apaches are weak to against Rangers, Strikers and Stealth Tanks from attacking. If you really want to use them then you had better pair with other defenders like commandos, Stealth Tanks or Spiders.      

Ground Attack Strategy

Ground Strike Strategies:
 

Similar to air strike strategy, select your attack targets carefully by scout their base beforehand with a fine-toothed comb. A pro ground attacker will most likely choose the bases which has less natural obstacles and has a clear view to attack. Any poor base layout which defenders and buildings built closely together also is a good pick as your target. Check if there any hidden rally flag behind trees. Use my Airmed Drone Hive vs Ion Cannon data sheet to identify the location of Ion Cannon because you need to destroy it immediately.

In general speaking, all ground forces attack strategy pretty much the same. You start out with command strikes first. Burn down Ion Cannon and Metal Rains with Orbital Strike(s), then use A-10 bomb(s) and hellfire missile(s) take out as many Artillery units as possible. I recommended to save three command points for Combat Stim or five command points for Medpack. Once troops deploy into battlefield and the opponent defensive units start attacking your troops, hit Combat Stim to boost their speed and damage ability to quickly destroy all enemy ground forces or to heal allied units on the battlefield. In this way you can save more troops from being destroyed and get more building destruction, in order to trade more command points for more command strike attacks to use.

If you unfortunately ran into a Domed Defense Alpha Configuration Aerial Defenses base ( I called it disco party), you do have some chance to survive if you have EMP on hand. Use it to shut down these domes attack, then click Combat Stim (If you still have command points left) to quickly destroy them.

Advance players usually don't break down troops in several teams, and control their path to destruct buildings. They will let them attack freely with command strikes to help clean out any impediment. There only one exception is CnC vehicle that you may want to drive it through the map to shut down defenders.  

   

I do not recommend players mix and match ground forces with air forces. Since there ground and air defenders you need to concern them all that takes too much work and energy in strategy. Plus your effort may not worthy because you split resources to develop, upgrade both ground and air units; while other players have developed couple high level ground troops then you might only have few kinds of average troops for your attacks. 

    

Remember, there are no fixed rules for victory, any way or style you fight to win a battle is definitely what you need in any strategy game. Always know what your limit is in each HQ level and try not to exceed that. As I said, you basically have an ability to win a base which has 10+ exp then yours. But since each player has different combination and level on their troops, you have never know what exp and hq enemies you can handle unless you do some experiments.

Observes how people (buddies and opponents) attacks is a great way to learn fighting skills. See how they use command strikes to apply into what defenders, where they start their troops deployment, and which method they use to move their squad forward. These information will be valuable as your reference before you find yourself best attacking style from achieving complete destruction victory.

If you have maximum upgraded your Weapon command and troops level, and applied all your command points into command strikes, plus strike forces on your troops with all attack strategies I mentioned in above and still have difficulty that keep loosing your battles. Then my final recommendation for you is choose the opponent bases which has equal or less Exp with HQ level than yours to attack. 

      Any suggestions or ideas that you think up which can improve this article then please e-mail me.

E&A Game Data Sheet

Have you tried to Google search any useful data for Empires and Allies game play? I did, however, only found bunch of Youtube videos that show you how to do better base defense, how to walk through Killswitch missions, etc.

Any game data? so far I only found E&A Wiki site that provides limited data from attacking strategies to building information. But it seems that site have not been updated for quite a long while. If you still interested to take a look then following is its web address: 
http://empiresandallies.game-k2.net/en/hq-info/

Well, don't feel disappointed. As a senior E&A player, of course I would not let you down. I created some Excel sheets which contain the game data that you might want to know. However, they are not fully completed. The reason is because they all basis on my game play and some offense / defense units that I do not use them; or have been discontinued in certain levels.So whoever have a chance to read this then please help me to finish this puzzle. Any missing data or incorrect data then please let me know. You can either write me a short message in my common box at bottom of the page, or send me a screen shot to my email. You can found my email address on top right at home page.

E&A Home Base Data Sheet

E&A Game Data For Level vs Number

Data Airmed Drone Hive vs Ion Cannon

      

P.S. I will constantly update my sheets once I have any new data to add it in. Any valuable opinion will be accepted.




 

Multiple Accounts

Since Zynga allowed players to use one mobile device to access and control multiple accounts, lots of folks like my E&A friends and me have started setting up several accounts for different tasks. Most common purpose is you can keep playing the game at account B while waiting for your constructions or research get done at account A. However, I found that the usage of multiple accounts actually is over your imaginations. The following examples show you what advantages of multiple accounts can being applied into your daily game play.

(1) For troops donation reason. If you have at least two accounts in the same alliance, then you should able to do self reinforcement. You wait no time for somebody else to fill in your troops requests. Plus you should able to know which and what level of troops you are going to get. So you will not being upset with anyone who sent you the wrong troops. 

Whenever account A needs troops then place your troops request, then switch to account B immediately to fill your own request. Keeps other clans out of filling your requests, you’d better to leave some message into your troops request dialog box, reminding people do not fill in your demands.

(2) For helping reason. Whenever any of your account posted speed-up help build assist requests, war factory advanced material component donate requests, or Killswitch build gunship help requests, you can use your multiple accounts to help each others. That will be shorter your time for your requests to get filling up.

(3) For storage reason. If you have at least two accounts in even same or different alliance, then you should setup one of your account as an storage account to store resources which sending from your primary account.

Once your primary account finished up two to three fights in each round, then you can send all your supply, steel, tech and some oil over into your storage account. Only leave whatever amount of oil that storage bunker can hold for your troops reinforcement. For instance, if you have level 13 bunker which holds 190k oil capacity,  then you must always keep oil in your primary account below 190k.

    

However, your storage account must have maximum defense, maximum bunker upgrade and maximum stockpile volume in each level. Plus you’d better to keep lowest medal points as possible. (you can do world map secure globe regions missions but strongly recommended not to war any other alliance players) The main reason to keep zero or lower medal numbers is because of security. As you know medal 0 -499 is basically for newbies who just started the game play right? Within this medal range, all newbies may see your base but they will turn around because of your base size and defenders way much higher than their offenders. Sometime, there are still few fearless stupid attackers war you but definitely for sure they got themselves killed. 

Of course, there always have exceptions. Some high level players know the trick how to reduct their medal numbers back to zero and re-attack people again in cycles. In this case, you have nothing to do about that because their offenders mostly powerful than your defenders. But it will only happen sometime, so your base still always under solid stage.

The concept of Alliance Bank is basis on this principle. If an alliance has one storage account which service their members, and everyone contribute extra resources from their wars into this storage account. Whenever people want to withdraw then just place requests and whoever manage this account fills in their requests. In this way, it sounds like some pirates have one secret place to hide treasures from their robs, and no matter they got caught or got robbed by other thieves then they will have no lost because they didn’t have an penny left in their pockets! 

     

(4) For virtual storage reason. If you think storage account is not 100% secure, then you may want to use virtual storage (cloud storage) to storage your resources. Virtual storage does not need any minimum requirement, only need two accounts with connection. (friend each other) Since E&A allow you to send and receive gifts from clans and friends, that you will have 24 hours to collect them before they expired. Then the concept of virtual storage is basis on this rule.

Similar to my statement above, once you finished each round of fights in account A then send out your stuffs to account B immediately. Within 24 hours, you can collect them in account B. Once you collect the items in account B before they expired then you can either send back to account A immediately or use them for upgrades in account B. These cross resources transfers in between accounts can able to make you stock up some resources because you left nothing but oil in both accounts, and your oil has been protected by bunker. Therefore, no matter how many attacks or retaliations you got then you had nothing to loose. Attackers won zero resources from you and you had nothing but medal points to deduct.

Just keeps in mind that there about 15% fee charge on each transaction of transfer. When you send 100k from account A to account B, then end up you need to pay 115k in order to send it out. Therefore, think backward that you will be lost about 15% resources each time you sent out stuffs to someone including yourself. Although I lost 15%, I would rather pay E&A instead of my opponents, right?

  

To setup multiple accounts is not difficult, but different device OS platforms require vary methods. 

Apple IOS just uninstall your current E&A game and reinstall E&A again. Then the new second base will appear when you starting the game. Go over the basic training section then click on setting icon (gear icon), click on either Facebook or Game Center button and enter your account login info as same as you setup your first account. Then now you should bridge your both old and new accounts together. Every time when you want to switch account then just click on setting icon again and hit SWITCH button, select which account you want to go then click SWITCH TO SELECTED ACCOUNT button.

Andriod devices do similar procedure as Apple IOS which just uninstall and reinstall the game, and go through the training processes. The only difference is Andriod use Google+ instead of Game Center. So Andriod users can connect their accounts with either Facebook or Google+.     

 Video demo please click below:

 

Home Base Setting

Hey my friend, if I tell you no matter how unbreakable home base setting or design  you have, your enemies can still able to sneak in and destroy your HQ. You may want to say “Are you kidding me, Hitman 007?”

In fact, I did not lie to you because this is the truth. Unless we cannot stop all invaders, but a well setting can able to block some attackers who have equal or lower level than your defenders effectively, or minimize the damage from their attacks.

Then what is the most puzzling aspect of the whole setting? In my opinion, these elements you should consider when placing defenders around your HQ.

First, you should better to know the attack range of each ground defense.

·         Guard Tower – 9.5 sq Tiles

·         Dome – 8.5 sq Tiles

·         Artillery – 4 to 10.5sq Tiles

·         Patriot – 12.5 sq Tiles

·         Railgun – 14.5 sq Tiles

·         Metal Rain – 14.5 sq Tiles

Key concept is: Gets long range units (Railgun, Patriot) closer to your HQ, then medium range units (Artillery), then short range units (Dome, Guard Tower), then places resource buildings and other facilities along the borders. In this order, your long, medium, and short range units can be able to attack enemies together once they entering into their ranges.

Overall players always use command strikes before deploy their armies into battlefields, and A-10 is the most common command strike weapon which can destroy large area. To avoid buildings being destroyed at once by A-10 bombing, leaving spaces in between buildings is absolutely necessary. Defenders need at least three to six tiles apart. (For both horizontal and diagonal) Resource and other facility buildings need separate at least two to three tiles away from each other. Don’t squeeze buildings together; I can take down all six stockpiles with one single A-10 hit, or all defenders which glued with HQ by two A-10 bombs. In this way I can just keep mowing down buildings which keeping my command points up to strike down even more other buildings. There is whole base area you can use and why don’t you spread them out?

Wisely building walls as obstacles to block or delay any direct attacks against HQ and some major defenders. Or use walls to redirect enemies, make them unable to maneuver comfortably in the battlefield. Placing landmines and shock mines at some main entrances where enemies always step in.

Many traps can be set for the enemy troops, like placing commando, stealth tank rally flag units near by domes or patriots to help against air strikes. Hiding defense units behind big trees is also a strategically thoughtful manner. Therefore, you’d better to keep all these big trees, they are your buddies.

Always think way in revise direction, when puzzling aspect of the whole base. As a attacker, what elements you like to see the most and what you hate the most? Then just simple apply everything you passionately dislike as your defenses. Watching replays from clip board also can tell what problems you possible have in defense. If enemies mostly came from one particular direction to start their attacks, that mean your defense from that part might be fragiler than the others. Then you may need to adjust your layout or make stronger defense on that area to patch your flaws.