How to win at Nation War

capnk
capnk Posts: 486 Arc User
With Cross-server NW supposedly on the way, this is a good time for me to write down the things I've learned about NW over the years.

This is NOT a guide to maximizing your personal token count. This is a guide to maximizing the chance of your nation finishing in first place, so that everyone gets more tokens.

This guide does not guarantee success, but it does help you make the most out of the cards you're dealt.

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THE RULES
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1. AVOID THE CENTER OF THE MAP. This is not chess. The center of the map is not the strongest area, but the weakest. Lands you capture there are not defensible. It takes too long to get reinforcements to the center, and routes are frequently cut off. There is no strategic value to the center whatsoever.

2. YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE NATION OPPOSITE TO YOU. I see this almost every NW, someone will cut across the middle (see rule #1) and attack the nation on the opposite side. There are two problems with this. First, the squad doing this has no way of defending the lands they capture. They are recaptured almost immediately behind them, so you don't get points from them. Second, that takes one of your strongest squads too far away from your own nation. Which leads to your own nation getting crushed while you're dinking around with the other side of the map. The way you beat the opposing nation is by crushing the two nations next to you and forcing them into the opposing nation because they have nowhere else to go.

3. A PROPER BASELOCK IS NOT A BASELOCK AT ALL. This ties in with rule #2. When you get to an enemy's base, you do not capture every single land around that base. Instead you capture the lands closest to your side and one or two lands on top of that base, leaving the lands on the opposite side open. This herds the baselocked nation into your enemy on the opposite side.

4. ALL NATIONS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. So why exactly does Flame Nation suck? There are a few reasons, both ingame and psychological. The initial placement of land favors some nations more than others. Specifically the starting order of nation strength is Frost -> Dark -> Light -> Flame. If all other external factors are equalized, Frost will win because of their starting position. This does not mean that Flame can't win, just that they have a harder job of it. Then the player psychology kicks in. Some players log off and don't bother when they see they get Flame, further weakening it. Also, Dark and Light tend to bottomfeed. They attack Flame more because they think Flame is easier. Whether this is true or not, it becomes truth because it's hard to face the full might of two nations at once. Meanwhile Frost laughs all the way to the bank as they scoop up lands without opposition. So what do we as players do to overcome the starting nation advantages? Simply send your stronger players at the stronger nation at the beginning of the game. Dark and Light's rank 9s should attack Frost, and Flame's should attack Dark. Weaker-geared players should attack the other nation. You can make adjustments later as you gauge the actual strength of the nations, but starting off this way will neutralize Frost's starting advantage.

5. DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET. So sometimes two squads of rank 9s will join forces, and these 20 people will march straight through everything, laying a path of destruction in their wake. People who run afoul of this juggernaut will scream for help in Nation Chat. But here's the trick: you don't fight this super squad. You ignore it. Those 20 people can only capture one land at a time when they stick together. You go around them and capture the lands behind them. Two squads of 10 will capture twice as many lands as that one squad of 20. Eventually that supersquad will realize that they're losing on overall land count and break up into smaller groups. That is the time when you crush them like bugs and send them back to their base.

6. CUT OFF MOVEMENT. Tying in with the above rule, the best way to stop a squad of rank 9s is to isolate them. Go around them and attack the lands behind them. This prevents them from getting reinforcements from base. As they slowly get picked off and sent back to base, they will be unable to rejoin their squad because of the disputed lands inbetween. There is another tactic that I personally don't care for, but I can't deny its effectiveness. I call it alt-seeding. When you win a battle, your main squad pushes forward to the next land. But you also send someone to attack an adjacent open land, and then leave the battle. By starting a battle there you prevent movement through that region. You typically start these battles with alts, because when you leave battle sometimes the game sends you all the way back to base.

7. ATTACK THE NATION THAT'S WINNING. The common mentality is to attack the nation that's losing because they're easy to beat. But here's the problem. Since they're losing, they don't have many lands. That means there are very few lands for you to take from them. You are limiting the amount of lands you can have, and thus your final token tally, by attacking the weak nation. Send a squad up the side of the strong nation, take their lands in the corner of the map. By the time they send someone to stop you, you'll have a lot of their lands and a lot more tokens in your pocket. But this rule does not mean you ignore rule 2! You attack the stronger of the two nations next to you.

8. SPEED IS AS IMPORTANT AS POWER. Yes gear is very important. But even low-geared players can contribute by finishing maps quickly. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) should carry Charger Orbs or equivalent pots (Sun Chaser from faction base works for some classes). These help you score flags quickly, get to the opposite side of a crystal battle, etc. You're not always going to be smashing your face into other players. There are frequent opportunities to capture isolated lands with no opposition. The faster you finish them, the less likely opposing players will come in to stop you. You'll get to the next land faster, get more land for your nation and more tokens in your pocket. Yes Charger Orbs cost money. If you're cheap, just farm the herbs yourself.

9. KNOW WHEN TO BREAK THE RULES. Sometimes it does make sense to attack the nation across from you. Sometimes it does make sense to do a total baselock. Just remember that these are exceptional situations. You should not be doing them on a regular basis. And if you are breaking a rule, take a second to think about it. Is this really the best use of your resources?


Okay now I want to show you the best way to expand outward from your base.


This is bad. You can't defend these lands in the center after you capture them.





It leads to this in a few turns.





This is good. It's very easy to defend and expand outward.





It leads to this.





Picture of alt-seeding:




If people want tips on winning individual battles I can provide those also, although most are pretty obvious. (HEY MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE DIGGING THE FLAG INSTEAD OF PKING IN THE CENTER OF THE MAP)

Comments

  • kittyempressa
    kittyempressa Posts: 268 Arc User
    Thanks for the guide! Kitty found this very useful. These hints are clear and effective.​​
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    Kitty's gone. She gave up on PWI. And she's a black metal Kitty naow.

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  • capnk
    capnk Posts: 486 Arc User
    Okay here's an image I took from qontroL's NW video. It's a perfect illustration of Rule 5 in action.



    That squad at D21 did not lose a single fight all NW. But they also captured very little land. They had two 25-minute flag battles. That's almost half of NW spent on two lands. They did keep Light tied up for a while, but towards the end Light figured out to go around them and you can see the end result on the map.

    Don't fight the supersquad. Just go around them.
  • capnk
    capnk Posts: 486 Arc User
    Bumping this topic because it's relevant again now that the accursed xserver NW has been done away with.