Protecting Yourself

One of the first and most important things you need to learn in Game of War is that you must protect yourself at all times. This is a game that is based on having war, so even in times of “peace” there is always a risk of somebody attacking you. You will need to be mindful of protecting your troops, hero, and resources. 

Never leave yourself unprotected for any extent of time, because more than likely there is somebody out there that will be more than happy to kill your troops or capture your hero for you.

A couple things to note is that at Stronghold levels 1-10 your hero cannot be captured, from 10-14 your hero cannot be executed, and at 15+ if your hero is captured it can be executed. In addition, always be aware of how many resources you are holding and how much your Storehouse will protect. Big players are always looking for free resources so you don’t want to become their farm. 

There are several ways to protect your yourself in Game of War.

Shields:

There are several types of shields you can get that offer protection for a set amount of time. This is the preferred method for most players. The two I recommend using most often are the 24 hour and 3 day shields. While these will normally cost you gold (you can sometimes get 24 hour shields through gifts) they are the best to use for keeping your city safe. 

While you can get 8 hour shields cheaper in the Alliance Store there is a risk that something will come up before you can get back on to shield.  I only suggest using these if you only need to shield temporarily, such as during a KvK kill event.  I would never use an 8 hour shield when going to sleep. 

There are also resource and dig site shields. You can get this through packs that you buy form MZ. They will protect your troops on a resource (not gold) or dig tile. A resource shield will last for the full time it takes to gather the resources. A dig site will last for 3 days. If your dig is longer than that you will need to activate another shield at the end of the 3 days.

If you do not plan on attacking, scouting, or reinforcing for more than 24 hours I recommend using a 3 day shield. These cost 2,500 gold while a 24 hour cost 1,000; so it is 500 gold cheaper to just use a 3 day shield then 3, 24 hour shields. 

There are two other shields that you may have and rarely use: a 7 day and a 30 day.  7 Days are only available in certain packs that you can buy from MZ for real money.  30 days are expensive 45,000 gold to buy.  It is cheaper to just buy several 3 days and reapply them so you would only want to buy one of these if you know you will not be able to get on for an extended time and can’t reapply other shields.

Tips:

If you need to shield and you are short on gold never hesitate to ask your alliance members for help.  Many will be more than happy to trade or give you a shield. 

Always use 24 hour or 3 days shields during a KvK kill event. Do not run the risk of your 8 hour expiring before you can get back on.

Pros: Your hero, troops and resources are safe from attack for the duration of the shield

Cons: costs gold to use

Ghost or Fake Rallies:

Another way to protect yourself is to do a fake rally. A fake rally is when you set an 8 hour rally on a target and rally your troops and hero. When your troops and hero are rallied they cannot be hurt if your city is attacked. This is a free way to protect your troops and hero without shielding. 

Please note that a fake rally does not protect your city resources. Your Storehouse is what protects your resources up to a certain point, so if you are fake rallying be sure not to have too much above your Storehouse level or your city will still invite being hit. 

Another important thing is that while you can cancel a rally at any time before it marches and you get your troops back once it marches you would have to use a march recall item to get it back if your troops and hero start their march.  So, be sure to cancel before the end of the timer.

This is really useful early in the game when you don’t have a lot of troops and resources.  If you can rally all your troops and hero this is a great way to protect them at no cost.

You can also extend your time by letting your rally actually march.  For example, you want to make sure you're protected in case you oversleep (sleep for 9 hours) you can set an 8 hour rally on a target that has at least a 30 minute march you will have 8 hours of rally time + 30 minute march time to target + 30 minute march time back = 9 hours. March through the forest and use siege troops to make the march even longer.

Tips:

If you have more troops than your current march capacity will allow you can ask if your shielded alliance members will allow you to stash your extra troops in their Embassy. Please note that if the alliance members resets their shield your troops will return home. 

If this is something you will be doing regularly you may want to setup bookmarks at various distances and name them for the distances. For example, rally 10 hours, rally 12 hours. If you are set up close to the wonder forest you can also use this to extend time as marches through the forest are slower. 

Once you get big enough to capture heroes and you would like to try to hold a hero for execution this is a way to protect your troops while you are waiting for the hero’s time to come up. You can protect your troops while holding in case somebody decides to hit you while you are holding. Just be forewarned that you will always be holding at your own risk. 

Pros: free way to protect your troops for extended periods of times

Cons: does not protect your resources, can commit your troops and hero when you may need them

General Tips:

Set a timer on your phone. Whenever you set a ghost rally or shield set a timer to go off at least 15 minutes before it is set to end. This will help you to remember that you need to go reset your protection.  While there is life outside of Game of War other players won’t care.  If they see you unprotected they will use that chance to attack you, so protect your investments. 

In my opinion shields are always better.  I prefer to have my fellow alliance members shielded over fake rallied. The reason for this is that it helps deter unwanted attention on the hive. This is especially true during a KvK kill event. If somebody is looking for a hive to hit and yours is completely shielded they will pass you over. If they see somebody unshielded, they don’t know if that person is fake rallied or not so they will port in and attack. So shielding not only protects you, it protect your alliance members as well.  

Never, Never, Never leave your troops gathering unattended, unless you have a resource/dig shield up. There are players that get a certain kick out of killing troops on tiles so they will go around and hit troops on a tile. If you are gathering, be sure you do it during a time when you can be online to pull your troops within seconds.  

Never, Never, Never gather with your hero. This is the easiest way to lose your hero and I have captured many a hero just by hitting tiles during KvK Kill Events. The only reason you should have your hero on a tile is if you have prospectors gear and you are trying to gather resources fast and only do this with a resource shield.