A guide to atWar: Advance

Table of Contents

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1. Game turns
Early game
Middle game
Late game

2. Deeper look at Game turns
Early game: Explanation
Middle game: Explanation
Late game: Explanation

3. Gameplay
Defensive gameplay
Offensive gameplay
Mixing gameplay. When to slow roll? When to rush?

4. Gameplay demonstration
Defensive gameplay demonstration (Slow roll, walls)
Offensive gameplay demonstration (rush, concurrent attacks)

5. Priorities
Priorities demonstration
How to use the turn block system defensively.

6. Miscellaneous
An even deeper look at Late game
Trial and error
Risk Assessment
Analyzing expansions

1. Game Turns

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Sometimes is preferable to divide the game by turn duration. We're going to classify them in three: early, middle and late game. In early game (Typically turn 1 to 3) the game had just started, and you're going to do your expansions. In middle game (typically turn 4 to 9) you've already got borders with other players. In late game (Typically turn 9 onward) the income had grown and the game is going to a war of attrition. We will explore more about theses stages, and will explain it deeper in the next section of the guide.


Early game
It is well-said that a good expansion can define the whole game. Early game is the most important stage as it will shape the rest of the stages. The country and strategy are important at this step as they will allow you to have a better or worsen early game, and how good you manage your starting funds. Even though it really depends on the starting funds, the following strategies are used to have the advantage during this step: Blitzkrieg, Sky Menace, and Naval Commander.

Blitzkrieg. Allow you to reach other countries with the boosted range. You can take places that on normal situation you wouldn't or would require to buy a transport (ATS, Sea trans) to reach. This will allow you to get income and reinforcements faster than any other strategy.

Sky Menace. The cheap transports and the bomber's range allow you to hit places that are far with a relatively powerful unit. Since your defensive units doesn't get a reduction in their defense o range points, you can hold your countries better than with Blitzkrieg.

Naval Commander. Unlike the last two units, this one lacks of strong offensive unit. The NC destroyer's biggest limitation is that they can't attack in-land cities, so you are forced to use infantries for expand. The sea transport with 20 capacity and a good range for 1/3 of an ATS cost allows you to save money for build more troops and expand bigger later on.

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Middle game
This is the most interesting part of the game, plagued by surprises. The player already have border with other players. The middle game is about defending countries, attacking enemies, and dealing with economy problems. Some players tends to be weak in this part due to their lack of macromanagement. The following strategies are very good for this stage: imperialist and perfect defense.

Imperialist. The cost reduction allows you to build troops faster and take the units advantage over your enemies. This gives you the edge as long as you have reinforcements to use.

Perfect Defense. Your infantries and militias have higher defense and are less expensives. With this, you can stall your opponent while expanding to other zones. This is specially useful when you have better troop production / economy than your enemy.

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Late game
The final stage. At this point is usually a 1vs1 battle. Players are constantly in need to damage the others economy/reinforcements and take advantage when possible. The strongest strategies on advance turns games are:

Guerrilla Warfare. Due to its efficient Marines, Guerrilla Warfare is considered as the strongest lategame strategy. You can spam marines for a relatively cheap cost and infiltrate yourself behind your enemy's trenches. You can also stack them for attack where your enemy doesn't expect!

Iron Fist. This strategy is bad for early game due to his short range. Surviving at this point of the game rewards Iron Fist with the income and reinforcements to spam both tanks and infantries, considered as the strongest land units for both attack and defense. Some players even says that it can beat GW if it is played correctly.

2. Deeper look at Game turns

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With a background about game turns, we can go deeper and analyze the stages according to what is supposed to happen there.


Early Game: explanation

As it was said previously, this stage is all about expansion. The one who get more countries before turn 5 is most likely to have the edge here. But your expansion is also shaped by your strategy: offensive strategies are meant to get rich countries, while defensive strategies are meant to get as much reinforcements as possible. Every country count with starting funds to aid in the initial expansions.



But beware - sometimes your enemy might expand too far from his/her home country, or too much that he/she don't have troops to defend his/her territories. This also means that he's going to beat you on middle game.For turn the game into your favor, there are many things you can do such as rushing the player's capital, overexpanding, or attacking its territories. Players who overexpand usually doesn't have enough troops to protect all the cities they have, or to attack your territories.

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Middle game: explanation

In most of the games, the middle game is archived in turn 5. Both players have frontier, some borders are defined, and the starting fund is over. Your countries are generating the income you're using, which means if you didn't got enough rich countries you're going to deal with economical problems. On the other hand, if you didn't got enough reinforcements then you're going to start dealing with reinforcements problems.

If you've manage to archive a better expansion than your enemy, then you're going to have advantage over him. Otherwise, you should consider turning the game into your favor with tactics as: expanding more, taking his territories or just rushing his capital. This will be a little hard since middle game is all based in defense until the economy had grow enough (From the FAQ: income of a city grow 25% every turn until 100%, then it grow 2% per turn).

Situation 3: Germany have a starting economy of 781. The United Kingdoms have a starting economy of 720. If no city were to be lost for both players, would Germany become even more rich than UK?

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Late game: explanation

After turn 8, the game is most likely an 1 vs 1 battle. The population, reinforcement and economy of all the countries had grow well-enough to allow the production of units at high scale. If you want to win, it is indispensable that you follow the next tricks:

1. Every country count. Is very preferable to take small, unpredictable countries instead of big, obvious countries. More country = more reinforcements even if they are 1-unit-country. This also includes expanding through neutral countries (if any).

2. However, take big countries when possible is also a big advantage, since it destabilizes the enemy economy and/or reinforcements input. However, they will be heavy protected, so only attack a big target when you are VERY SURE you can take it without problems.

3. Cause chaos is also one of the best way to win - Attack everywhere!

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3. Gameplay

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A gameplay is simply the nature of your moves. It can be for offense, defense, or even both purposes. Here we are going to divide gameplay in two: defensive gameplay, and offensive gameplay. Theses gameplays have their own divisions, and we're going to detail them in the following paragraph.


Defensive game-play.

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This mean play secure, and with secure I mean attack what you are sure you'll take. Is the most used game-play on Europe. Some of his forms are:

- Slow roll: consist in attack the enemy on the most undefended cities, without risk on a final battle (Rush). Expand on neutral cities near the enemy is also consider as slow roll. You should AWAY slow roll, unless you are forced to rush.

- Wall: A gameplay that uses the feature of walls. It consist in multiple forms of walls for delay your opponent. Seawalls and double walls are one of the examples of this. You should always try to wall when you have enough units for. Is better to spread 13 infantry and try to make some wall rather than leave them stacked on a city that won't be attacked.

Offensive game-play

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The standard game-play, replaced by defensive one on Europe. consist on strong attacks to decide enemy's fate. Some of its forms are:

Rush: The common definition is to attacking a place with great forces, but it can also be to attack places that were attacked by your enemy. Most of the games are decided by a rush.

Concurrent attacks: Consist on attack multiple objectives at the same times. It is VERY EFFECTIVE against defensive stats like PD or IF. It have a great chances for take various objectives. However, it can also cost a great amount of troop. More troop on all the objectives = more chances for win.

Stealth attacks: consist on attack the enemy from his back with marines. Very effective against unprotected target. Best used on small scale, a pack of 1-2 submarines and 4-8 marines are very good.

An excelent guide, made by learster can be found in the next link:
Master of Stealth: Demonstration

Mixing gameplay. When to slow roll? When to rush?

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In order to adapt to the situation, you need to know when you should slow roll, and when you should rush. The main rule is to slow roll when you're winning, and rush when you're losing. Some situations in which you should rush:

a) Your team is going to 2 vs 3 situation next turn or closer.
b) You get capped, and can't recap.
c) Your enemy over expanded. You can rush to prevent a late-game where he will have advantage.

4. Gameplay demonstration

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Disclaimer: the gameplay we're going to analyze here is my own gameplay. Other players might disagree and/or act different from what I do.

After knowing the theory of game turns, you need to put them in practice. But the real game is way more complex and requires more knowledge - some of them that can only be applied under specifics context. We're going to analyze different gameplays with screenshots, so you can have an idea about the basis of the different ways to playing atWar.


Defensive gameplay (slow roll, walls)

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The safest one, therefore, the best one for countries like UK and Germany. The walls make it so you can over expand without problems! The following gameplay is a demonstration of Perfect Defense with United Kingdoms.



As you can see, I left some infantries to defend both Belgium and Netherlands. I've walled Cologne, Frankfurt, Norway, Ireland, and also made a sea wall. I've broke all the enemy walls that were in my range. At last, I've took both Switzerland (4 units here, in case Germany attack) and Cork (Ireland's city).

You may be wondering: Why I walled cologne and Frankfurt? Why I walled Norway? Why I made a sea wall?
Would has be better to use all theses troop that I spent on walls for attack either cologne or Frankfurt?

I would like to answer yes, You are right. I could has took either cologne or Frankfurt with the 10 infantry I used for wall Norway, Cologne, Frankfurt and sea wall. However, there are three main reasons why I chose to wall instead.

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Defensive gameplay: wall clause.
When you wall a city and attack it with one unit at the same time, there are three possible situations:

a) The enemy forgot to protect them, I am taking both cities with 1 unit each.
b)The enemy protected them, I am losing 1 unit for each city that was attacked.
c)The enemy put some units inside for move them to other place. I am losing one unit, but also this grant me a chance for tb his forces.

Sometimes you don't know how much troops your enemy will put to defend those cities. This enable other four results:

a) The enemy stacked them with 1-3 troop. I wont capture them with 1 troop, but the wall makes it so they are an easy target for next turn.
b) The enemy stacked it with a moderate amount of troop(4,5 units). My wall will prevent those units from escaping for 1 turn.
c) The enemy WF the city, but doesn't defend them. I'm getting both cities for free.
d) The enemy WF the city. There's no win for me.

The wall clause encourages you to wall your enemy cities before attacking them (if possible). You will only lose the troops you've used for attack, but there's always the chance that your enemy forget to WF the place.

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Returning to our situation, I've walled Norway because I assumed his troops were too far away to attack the place. Overstacking a place is bad unless you're expecting an attack there, or simply want to lose less troops in the fight (Battle stacking bonus). Either way, by walling the city you are also assuring that you won't get Turn Blocked from that city.

As for the sea wall, it grant me an extra turn with no attacks from Germany against my homeland (since he can't cross to attack me). This also grant the same protection for my ally, France, but if France was my enemy, then this would has prevent ANY German help to his western allies.

This is the result of the gamble:



The enemy was ready to rush me or France ( check Leipzig) . BUT, the sea wall prevent this, which allowed me to attack without worry about my mainland, and give my two allies, France and turkey, the chance to rush Rome and turn the game in our side. Dear guys, this is how a simply wall give you huge advantage.

Game was almost won, 2 vs 3 situation. However, since Ukraine rank 9 pushed turkey rank 8 so bad, we can say it was someway a "2.5 vs 2.5 situation". With the help of Ukraine in scandinavia, Germany managed to retake the cities later on and push me a bit.

This was the situation some turns later.



From later on I was feeling very tempted to rush his general. This probably sounds logic to you, BUT this is not my best option. Specially because I don't know his stacking power. I'll explain this with a previous situation: he had general with 8 units later on. But I didn't had reinforcements near, so I tried to walk Denmark instead - he also tried to wall Denmark. we two got wall-fucked. I rolled a 27 infantry stack to hamburg, so in chase I get to wall him, I'll have a chance for kill his gen, or trap him. When we both failed wall, he left his general with only 8 units. The panic made him do a GREAT, COMMON ERROR: moved everything in the city without leave any wallfuck unit. This is how we got to the current situation.

The second reason is based on the following clause.

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Defensive gameplay: the troop number clause.
It is important to keep a high amount of troops. But this is even more important with affordable strategies like PD and IMP.

The infantry is a unit made more for defense that attack, so when you can avoid attacking, you should. There are as well some tactics for temp the enemy to attack you:

1) Attack a place, and "suddenly" leave it empty or barely protected. Then, next turn stack it.
2) Make a lot of walls. The enemy will lose units for break them.
3) Attack places with poor defense, and spread your troops out.

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What I did: Taking advantage of his error, I tried to wall Denmark once again, and split my troop for do my other moves.

Guess next turn.....



His troops got even more split, but this time I managed to wall his whole stack with general. Once again, I ignored his general's stack and went for a place that looked better, more important and weaker than Denmark. Reminding you that when you're slow rolling, you should avoid losing too much troops.

Which place I've attacked? Think for a while. Feel free to see the next screenshot after you've figured it out.
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SWEDEN!

WHY? because I already had 2 cities of the weaker unprotected, and somewhat unpredictable Sweden (unpredictable, because he was expecting me to rush his general.



This is the final: With turkey alive, me and France constantly pushing Balkans and a unless Germany, Ukraine surrendered. From somewhat 3 turns ago, France was pressuring me to rush Berlin. He had 18 units in range, I could get 47 units in Berlin too against the 35 - units Berlin. However, we are winning. Why risk on a final battle?

I'll repeat it again: If you are winning, why risk all in a final battle?

One of the essences of slow roll is to not do dangerous moves. Many players that are at a very good position in the game tends to Rush when "The victory is assured for themselves". How to do a proper rush will be explained some paragraph below, but when you're slow rolling or playing ANY defensive strategy, you should always consider anything before Rushing someone's capital.

As you can see in the final Screenshot, I guided my team for the last 3 turns. First I told him to skip rush for now and slow roll: I told him to take Czech ( can be see on the first SS), Munich, Leipzig, Slovakia, Wroclaw and Krakow ( Poland cities) and break Croatia + Austria + Poland wall.

Second he managed to take Most of theses countries ( Probably forgot to take the others) and also forgot to break Croatia wall... But for a rank 6, he followed my instructions very well. So he just keep going. Also, he got 34 units on Czech somehow....

Now in the final turn, he easy wiped out Germany from Balkans: Germany couldn't think on something except that he will get rushed, therefore, full stacked Berlin and left his Balkans unprotected. When he noticed that the only two cities he had left where Berlin and Croatia, he left the game.

This is another sweet part of slow roll: you can make your enemy to overstack one place while you are taking everything else he have.

Offensive gameplay demonstration (multiple attacks, rush)

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With countries with high starting funds or reinforcements, offensive gameplay can perform better than defensive. This situation is most common in European's east countries such as Turkey and Ukraine. When played correctly, it can cause a lot of chaos.

This is an example of Imperialist Turkey's gameplay. Hence the situation on turn 3:



Some suicidal attacks where made on Belarus and Gomel for TB purposes, while my general was marching to Russia central. Since I've spread my troops, it had becomes hard to my enemy to predict my next attack or to know how much units I have. Sure another round of multi-attacks could had turned him down, eh?

However, both of my allies were losing the west fight. I had to rush to avoid an inminent 3vs1. On the other hand, having my enemy walls broken made it easier to me to attack his capital - there were just too much targets to defend.



Next turn I found out that he barely defend Kiev.



Since I had troop everywhere he assumed I would go for Moscow, and I was planning to do that - but I decide to gather my strong force into one objective. I also should point that my rush was made one turn before reinforcements.

In the screen, you can see how uk almost disabled Germany with his slow roll, and was landing on Poland. Not good news for me. Also, Spain was captured the same turn. But I have an advantage, the east is strong enough for face the west. As quick as I took off Ukraine, UK helped France to kill Spain, as well as capped the weak defended Berlin.

It was reinforcements turn, so I gather up all my troop for do something against UK with full Germany. That was a massive economy against me, I am forced to go aggressive before his economy beat my reinforcements. The real background was to attack the enemy in several places, to force him to defend several cities and divide his stack. Then, I would take Berlin exactly in the reinforcements turn for turn the game into my favor. I range failed Italy, but luckily Spain did not attacked.



However, enemy managed to protect with more that 65 troop. I sure tried to gather all my forces together, and this is what I got:



taking into consideration that is IMP vs PD, this is not a safe bet. I would has bet it , but is not a wise actions. Discover what I did, then you can take a look to the next screenshot:
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CHAOS!


With all the walls broken, he though I would go direct at Berlin. The next turn was a surprise for him, and I've also won most of the targets.



Game was petty much mine. The multiple attacks and wall-breaks grave me a sweet advantage. However, the middle game comes in, and his strategy is more late-gamer than mine. I must deal with him carefully to avoid losing my positional advantage.

I decide to hit his cities with a moderated amount of troops. Notice how I didn't send just 1, 2, or 3 units. I send between 4 and 15. I was expecting him to defend some cities with few units, some with more units. But, was sure I would end up taking at least one city and ruining his country bonus.



It looks tricky since I could had beat 24 units with 50. But it was reinforcements turn, so I couldn't risk to fail against his reinforcements. You may noticed that France was a sweet spot too, since he only had France and Spain reinforcements for aids. However, since he didn't use his reinforcements, his stacking force was even bigger that uk one - I couldn't risk there. Sadly, I couldn't do that turn.

Let's speed this up, to another important decision:



Due to some walls, France greatly delay my reinforcements coming from Greece at the cost of his general and some troop - UK was losing fear and started to retake lands. I also managed to take Spain with 5 ATS. However, I cant cause more chaos. The following clause explains you what's wrong with staying in cities without reinforcements for a long time...

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Offensive gameplay: Staying in enemy zone and chaos clause.
Sometimes you can try and hold a position without reinforcements, if you have enough units for. However, there comes a time in which your enemy recover and start pushing you back. If you're attacking enemy's cities, you should try to annex the respective capital as soon as possible.

If you can't annex it, then it means that you're going to lose it soon. Try to hold the city as much as possible - even try to wall it if possible. Chaos the same region twice usually doesn't work since your enemy earn free militias.

This makes sense, and is because the enemy hold the country's capital. When he retake a city he earn militias and also if the city have, reinforcements. This charge between strategies. For some strategies like PD and GW, exchange cities is a good choice for earn a big amount of free militias. But for all the expensive strategies and IMP, this is not a good choice because militias doesn't get buffed, they have 0 range with Iron Fist and even a low defense with Blitzkrieg.

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I've got forced to rush, I can't hold the countries for longer here.

Lucky, the initial attacks weakened them enough - UK losing more that 1k income and 20 rings for the cities I hold in Benelux and Germany, while I got enough economy for bomber spam. Also, I finally recovered from France walls and retook Rome.

I got a deadly 150 forces, so I chose to rush Paris - Luckily for me, France attacked Spain.



This is the final. My concurrent attacks makes them lose a lot of money and reinforcements per turn. With that big loss, they never managed to recover back from it.

5. Priorities

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In atWar, when you attack a city or a stack, there's a chance that you will trap your opponent's troops. Your opponent also have a chance to escape. Theses are called Turn Blocks and are part of the priorities mechanics that lies in atWar. The formula, the way it works and a vast amount of studies in regards of the Turn Block system can be found in the FAQ and/or in several threads in the forums about the matter.

Learning to prioritize your moves correctly is not an easy task - it is one of the hardest concepts to learn and teach. Often there isn't one right answer and the probability nature of the system makes it so even your best bet can fail. Regardless, players who makes smarter decisions often get to Turn Block their opponents and put the trick into the game. Knowing how to prioritize is also what singles you out from the rest - there are still many top tier players who haven't mastered this concept.

One of the questions that have helped me to teach this concept to other players, is the following: Do you want to TB the other player, or avoid being TBed? It defines the double nature of the priorities as they can be used in either way (to TB, or avoid TB). The answer is, of course, dictated by the game flows and what you want to do.

If you'd like to avoid being TB'ed, pay attention to:

- Your sea & air transports. Specially when they are left in open land, makes them one of the easiest targets to TB.
- Your cities. Specially ports or other cities that commonly have a high traffic of troops are usually targeted by the other players. A few examples are the Netherlands for an United Kingdom player, or Istanbul for a Turkey Player.
- Your moves. A wrong stack mix could potentially lead to all your moves being blocked, or general going in suicidal mission.

Turn Blocking your opponent is harder than avoiding being TB'ed, and it's essentially to enter in their skins and sees the above from their perspective. Guess which cities they will use, which transports they will use. Which stacks they can potentially mix.

When doing my moves I usually prioritize like this:

1) Important moves that requires priority (either to block or avoid being blocked).
2) semi-important moves
3) Buffet
4) Late moves

Priorities demonstration.

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The following is an example of a casual Eu vs Asia game that I had against Hammer (both Guerrilla Warfare). Here's a full video about how the turn looked like (suggested to watch before continue reading).



Previously to that he had attacked one of my big militias stack in Syria and ended up with few troops. The flow of the game was quite obvious for me: Get Turkey cities and kill as much marines as I could before reinf turn. Also avoid my marines being killed / tb'ed by him. Here's a focus in the Middle East scenario:

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There you can see many transports left in open sea, a weak general stack and a couple of marines. It's quite clear that the one who gets to move first will have an advantageous fight (Marines have 7 attack, but 3 defense). Knowing this I decided to hit the 58 units stack as my first move (from Ankara). I knew I couldn't hold it, nor Turn Block the 4 sea transports that were walled in Odessa. It's fall was imminent.

My second move was to split the visible marine stack, leaving 1 unit behind. This is an interesting trick that prevents your enemy from following (TB mechanic) your stack. I could definitively use some extra marines to wipe out Turkey cities! However I won't do that now. My 3rd move was a key transport near Albania (looked with a big chances to be used to carry troops), and my 4th move was his general stack (not too valuable, but not invaluable either).

My 5th move was to Turn Block some key transports in Sevastopol, Ukraine.

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After those moves I'll take a jump to my Northern front. When prioritizing you should never focus your whole attention in a single front, as the other fronts might also have important moves that requires prioritization.

Here I hit his marines stack as 6th and 7th move respectively.

This sums up all the important prioritized moves that I had to do. The rest is what I'd like to call "semi-important" - Good if they work, but doesn't hurts me much is they fail either.

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Returning back to the Southern Front I TB'ed more transports, and saved mines. Do note that I avoid to use transports in open land as much as possible, and hopefully you also do in your games - it's a lot better to not risk than to play with the risk of them being sunk. You can see the result in the picture below.

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Right after I switched to the North and moved all my sentries in my opponent's position to break some far walls. Do note that I don't mind if theses wall break works or doesn't as I'm too far away to attack it. A common low rank mistake is to try to break a wall from an obvious spot or a place that is likely to be Turn Blocked.

I'll add my WF to Moscow later on, in the 'buffet'. You should always break or WF important walls from a safe place.

After moving the sentries I also proceed to attack my opponent's undiscovered marines. In some cases I used my own undiscovered marines (worst case: we both attack each others and we take turn to attack and defend).

The picture below describes my northern moves so far.

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Like in the North I proceed to do some "semi-important" moves in the south. Broke walls, hit every cities (For example, Caucasus) or units that my opponent had there. I'll remember once again that the outcome of those moves (TB or no TB) doesn't matters much to me.

I also tried to wall both Ankara and Egypt at this stage. Some players could think that if walling them was my objective then I should have used another troops as Ankara is likely to be TB'ed. The thing is, that such mean cities like those are also likely to be the target of Turn Block attacks and, to me, trying to wall it from another source is just not worth the air transport (didn't had militias any close). However if for any miracle Ankara get walled - that'd be sweet for me. Again, the outcome of it doesn't affects me at all. Same history for Egypt.

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If you guys were observant enough you'd probably realize that I had a 198 stack in open sea, as well as open-land transports in China. I moved them after finishing the above moves, late in the semi-important moves. Why would I take such a big risk with a big stack in open sea, would you guys ask? Or perhaps why would I pick more important a few marines in Middle East, above the expensive transports in China?

The thing is, that my stack is so big that my opponent would require just an huge amount of units to TB it (99 units for guaranteed 50%, goes up with each priority) that I doubted he had the units for. Even if my opponent had choose to send 1 unit as TB and also as his first move, he'd still need me to make a lot of moves before ever reaching 10% TB chances. Knowing how unlikely it was to be tbed, I played according. As for Chinese Air Transports, China was just not the front to focus on. I believe neither me nor my opponent payed attention to it until the very end.

This sums up my "semi-important" moves.

Next I did what I like to call "Buffet" - which is essentially everything that is unlikely to be Turn Blocked. Either because they are invisible (marines), or too far from my opponent (militias, sea trans in ports, etc). Usually the majority of your moves will belong to this group. After finishing doing the boring part of the game we'll advance to the last step, which are the late moves. Below my Northern Front:

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I made the wall as one of my latest moves in the 'buffet'. It looked very unlikely that he'll have range to attack Volga's capital this turn, but at the same time I wanted to clear out the possibility that he does.

At this moment of the game you assume that if your opponent were to attack volga, he'll have it done long ago. A high chance of TB is to be expected, even by 1 unit.

Therefore, what we're going to do in case we're not being attacked is to empty the city:

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In china, Ive also emptied Southeast and advanced my marines onward:

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Finally, a last look to the Southern front where I attempt to take Turkey Cities as my latest moves:

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That sums up the part of the late moves.


The result of all those gambles can be seen in this video:



-Overview: My first 2 moves TB'ed (which delayed my plans on Turkey, as he also got to wall Turk Cities) , but all my transports escaped and I got a nice development in the North. I also cleared out the troops that hit me in China.

Prioritization are a gamble, and even when you take the best choice you've always a chance that it fails. However, smart decisions will lead to more success and even define the game. The most important advice is, without doubt, to avoid relying on Turn Blocking a move (or escaping from a Turn Block) as theses moves are a gamble. Gambling your most important moves when the game is all on it is okay to do - however, doing it repeatedly and without justification is a common mark of a Risky Player.

Safe, defensive gameplays are the less vulnerable to TBs, while offensive gameplays are more vulnerable to them. Walls offers 100% protection as they prevent the attack from taking place. Use them wisely.

Using the Turn Block System defensively.

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Some players would expect Turn Block to be used as a mere offensive feature, in which you either get Turn Blocked or not. This is a wrong misconception and I'll explain in this section how to use the Turn Block System defensively.

Here some explains:

- If you are making moves that you think should not be blocked, then you must Prioritize them. This is easy to see, and most of the times your chances will be 50%. This is the standard and most used method, so I think I don't need to explain much about it.

- If you are making moves that you think should be turn blocked, then you need to lower their priority. Enemy can't know when you wanted to be turn blocked or no, so your chances or being blocked are likely to be rather high.

The second statement requires more explanation. Let put this example when I wanna protect Hungary but I also want to use theses troops:



You can choose to buy the infantries at anytime, since it doesn't affect the TB system. After I bought my infantries, I done my other moves which has more priority:



So, now Hungary have the lowest priority, therefore, the higher chances of be Turn Blocked. However, what if he do not attack Hungary? then I am moving theses troops as my lowest priority:



Theses low priority moves must be practiced, planned and made very careful. This is the result of the gamble:



He didn't attacked Hungary, so my moves went. Sadly, this can be easy prevent by 1 units tbs. But you can minimize the 1 unit turn blocks effect by either charging the priority from low to somewhere in the middle, or sending a part of the stack first, then the other part.

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Another example: there is no enough range for go from Angola to Congo, so I need to keep my units outside for be in range with these two countries:



After decide to no attack Congo's this turn, I moved my troop as 1st move to Angola, so in chase he attack me, my troop defend.



After finish up all my other moves, Luanda has turned into a low priority. The troops that I moved inside of Luanda are 1st priority move, so they are very likely to move to Luanda. BUT, the move I am doing now is to move all of them outside of Luanda, which is a late priority move.



Here the result of the gamble. Effectively he attacked with 1 militia which I manage to beat. Next turn I was in range to attack Congo. The result is because one unit have a very low chances of turn block a very big stack of troops, even if it is a move with high priority.

6. Miscellaneous

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Several topics to complement the guide. Enjoy!

An even deeper look at Late game.

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Since lategaming seems to be such a common topic, and there are frequently many questions about it, I've decide to extend the concept even further.

What was said in game turns still stands to Late Game. When playing on a small map such as Europe+, the game should end before Turn 10, but sometimes it last longer due to several situations such as: excellent middle game for both teams, great surviving skills, turn blocking events, fail rushes, etc. It turn hard for all the players to exit victorious when the game has go to dead point, usually due to the huge stack of infantries at defense.

Taking every single city and destabilizing your enemy is still the way to win. Taking neutral countries is easy, so there's nothing to teach you there. The problem comes when the game is destabilized or going to be destabilized. What should you do? If your team is winning? If your team is losing? This all reduces to applying the previous game mechanics but with some different objectives.

This is an example of a small scaled war, on late-game part. Notice how I've took all the cities closer to me but Cyprus.



The situation by turn 9 was a dead point - we were exchanging countries and retaking them. While I got the opportunity by turn 7 for take Germany off uk hands, Ukraine stole my chance by killing my general stack on turn 8. But since we took all the cities closer to us (with some very few exeptions), we had superior income and reinforcements. Back in Turn 8 the player in UK made a mistake and end up losing an important battle / part of his stack. Here's where my team and I decide to unbalance the game.

After that mistake, and with UK going to die soon, both Germany and Ukraine decide it is time for finish me. I as well decide is time for finish off Ukraine!

The whole plan start by taking every small country possible, and defending those. Wall is also an excellent way for turn the game. All I need to do is make Ukraine to do a mistake with either walls or attacking a small target ( and losing there), and game is our. By turn 9, I started to climb from turkey to Ukrainian cities, attempting to take Russian ( or make Ukraine think that I will take Russia ).

Some TB'S on capital where made. I also climb some troops for take Baltic. Notice how I climb over Russia central, for make him do a mistake, and take Russia south or Russia Volga. Remember, in late-game, every small city count! After finish my moves, I found an interesting turn 10:



Ukraine had the same idea as me - He started to push me though very small countries. UK also helped him.

While for me, I took Lithuania with the troop climbing from Serbia, and let my troops that where climbing from Russia in open land but with a unit near, for make a wall. I was going for take all the cities possibles, while Ukraine do the same too! Done my moves, let move forward to turn 11:



I've lost several cities in Balkans, but the game is still going on. I also forced Ukraine to decide between Kiev or Moscow - however, I didn't take none of them, but Lithuania. I also made a wall for prevent him to attack mainland turkey in next turn.

I made an air transport for take the weak unprotected Russia Volga, where he did an error and left it empty. Notice how we're attacking small countries - not big targets yet. The next turn he would do a mistake:



After saw his teammate drying, he rushed Ankara, however, with an impartial rush, losing many troops there. As for me, I decided to protected Bulgaria and paid by losing Serbia. UK was also taking care of the small Balkans countries, leaving me even more poor.

However, my ally decide to cap UK next turn. I, then, decide to hold Ankara's capital as much as I can. When your allies are winning, you should never risk your capital. Next turn would'be the end of the game.



Ukraine seeking for hope, attack Ankara with his general and a few troops while trying to turn block my stack. My mission is complete, and I made Ukraine to commit more errors that me - in which I took advantage. With his team dead and his bigger stack lost, he left the game.

Trial and errors clause.

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In a quick game, it is common even for the most highest ranks to commit errors - the time, the circumstances, the amount of decision to takes combined with other factors speed up the mistakes.

Theses can only be reduced by getting better time-management skills, by knowing what to do. You can always reduce the amount of moves you're making by having auto-production enabled and also by having a city walled.

Risk Assessment.

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When a mistake is made, a common reply is "If I knew that he would attack there, I would had defend". If you want to predict your enemy's moves, then you must evaluate the probabilities that he attack certain target. But don't worry! It is not very complicated.

Here is an example of my Turn 5 in one game:



All my walls where broken. While deciding what to do, I did some moves which where priority. Then, the main action will be which city will I defend. Let's see the enemy's situation:

1. A very noticeable stack of 41 troops. It had many infantries include, and also 14 bombers.
2. His position in Romania and a lot of walls break enable him the ability to have a very wide range of attack.

Which cities are important for me? There are 4 important cities, I'll let you figure them out.

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1. Ankara, my capital. Definitively something I don't want to lose.
2. Athens, Greece's capital and my second source of money.
3. Istanbul, my principal coastal city in Black sea. Without this city I cant even think in attack ukraine directly.
4. Hungary, my third money resource.
5. Everything else is not as important for be mentioned.


Now there is another important remark: It is reinforcements turn. I didn't got any relevant amount of money, and I don't know if he did. I can't defend all my countries from that stack of troops. Based on the situation, which countries do you think I should had defend? My allies are winning, so risking my capital is not a wise idea.

I've decide to defend Greece and Ankara. Ankara was defend with what I consider would'be enough units to hold from a Rush, and Greece with the rest of troops.



The next turn would be quite frustrating:



I lost Greece and Hungary( Hungary with reinforcements, ouch....) but I've managed to kill a very good part of Ukraine's infantry with my Greece reinforcements, and all his bombers. Also, the infantry spam on Kiev made me fell comfortable: He spent his reinforcements in defense.

With his reinforcements out there is no longer a mayor risk for stack Ankara. I started the counterattack, but away keeping a reasonable amount of units on capital.



Notice that Romania is tricky. He left it emptied but he could also stack it the next turn. For avoid failing in the trap, I just send few troops to Romania:



Next turn would be good for me; He didn't defend Romania:



He keep attacking places with his infantry - Now the weaken defended Bulgaria. After capturing Romania, his next target was quite obvious. Which countries should I defend?

Ankara was walled, so it is not in our list. The biggest threads are in Bucharest and Istanbul. I've decide to do a trick that will be explained below. First we defend Istanbul:



Then, after all my moves were made, I defend Bucharest in Romania. I've also attacked Athens considering that he didn't defend Romania the last time, it is more likely that he won't defend Athens.



Lucky for me, he didn't defend those places. He decided to defend and regroup his forces in Kiev.

The situation in overall was very good for me - the first wave of money arrived just in time. My team was pushing Germany even more harder that before. With this money and next reinforcements week coming, I decided to play safe again - so I defend my capital while re-taking Balkans.



Analyzing his situation, it was nothing good - his teammate was about to lose. A rush is to be expected, since there is no Balkans country that can turn the game on his way. He can take Athens, Istanbul, even both combined, still can't change the outcome of this game.

As expected, he rushed Ankara (sending few troops, by the way).



Evaluate risks is part of atWar. There is away luck involved, or other type of reasoning. As explained in the start, This can't be improved by just reading - you need to play a lot in order to evaluate better.

Some suggestion for evaluate risk best:

1. The evaluation is something you will earn instinctively. They come as experience from various games.
2. The cities which are vulnerable for attacks are away listed for be evaluated. Think about the most important ones, or the ones with more probabilities of begin attacked.
3. Sometimes for evaluate yourself you need to evaluate your enemy. Check battle screen for know his strategy and watch his form of playing from the start can help on this.

Analyzing expansions: When a city does not wort the cost.(*)

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There are some cities which reward better that others. When taking a city, you need to wait some turns in order to recover your initial investment. Check theses 5 examples:

1. Amsterdam - 226 income and starting troop is set to 2 militias. As PD, you will require 3 infantry (150 cost) in order to take it. For recovering your initial investment (150) you will need:

Turn 1: 56 + 11 = 67 total income = 67 recovered.
Turn 2: 113 + 22= 135 total income = 202 recovered.

For recover an approx of your inversion, you will require 2 turns holding the city.

2. Paris - 405 income, and starting troop is set to 8 infantry. As PD, you will require 13 infantry (650 cost) in order to take it. For recover your initial investment (650) you will need:

Turn 1: 101 income. = 101 recovered. (25%)
Turn 2: 202 income. = 303 recovered. (50%)
Turn 3: 303 income. = 606 recovered. (75%)

For recover an approx of your inversion you will require 3 turns holding the city.

3. Stockholm - 168 income and 4 militias as starting troop. As PD, you will require 5 infantry (200 cost) in order to take it. For recover your initial investment (200) you will need:

Turn 1: 42 income = 42 recovered (25%)
Turn 2: 84 income = 126 recovered (50%)
Turn 3: 126 income = 252 recovered (75%)

For recover an approx. of your investment, you will require 3 turns holding the city.

4. Moscow - 438 income and 8 infantry as starting troops. As SM, you will require 7 bombers 3 infantry (1090) in order to take it. For recover your initial investment (1090) you will need:

Turn 1: 110 income = 110 recovered (25%)
Turn 2: 219 income = 329 recovered (50%)
Turn 3: 329 income = 658 recovered (75%)
Turn 4: 438 income = 1096 recovered (100%)

For recover an approx. of your investment, you will require 4 turns holding the city.

5. Montenegro - 5 income and starting troop is set to 1 militia.

as IMP you will require 2 infantry (60 cost) in order to take it. For recover your initial investment (60) you will need:

Turn 1: 2 + 1 income = 3 total income = 3 recovered. ( 25%)
Turn 2: 4 + 1 income = 5 total income = 8 recovered. (50%)
Turn 3: 4 + 1 income = 5 total income = 13 recovered. (75%)
Turn 4: 5 + 1 income = 6 total income = 19 recovered. (100%)
Turn 5: 5 + 1 income = 6 total income = 25 recovered. (100%)
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Turn 11: 5 + 1 income = 6 total income = 61 recovered.

For recover an approx of your inversion, you will require 11 turns holding the city.

After theses 5 experiments we can see a clearly difference between countries, in the time you will need with them for recover your initial investment. The cheaper strategies also seems to recover the investment in less time. All theses situation lead to a complex analysis between when a country wort taking it or not. The situation can be compared to a debt: If you need the money now, then you might want to avoid cities that reward in larger amount of time. However, if you want to build up an economy for the future, then you might as well get all the countries possible.

The reward rate between countries is also present when you want to skip a country.

Side Note: As for the reinforcements recovery rate, the powerful and expensive strategies need less troops than the cheaper strategies, which lead to more reinforcements with less units lost. All the reinforcement lost by taking a city can be recovered in 1 or 2 weeks of reinforcements.

As for the statistics, I exclude the troops that are likely to survive and the casualties. Where taking the city, and next turn the whole country bonus can affect charge the stats or not, I also exclude it.

Reserved

Locked at request of thread creator.