I have found a way to neutralize all guards.

[Mysterious Guy]

 What is the secret, you ask? Very well, I will now reveal how to make your opponent's 20,000 guards seem like zero. Guards, by the code, have one basic defect. They don't tell you. It's nowhere in the game guide. Only in the PHP sourcecode, which my friend manommonican was kind enough to look through. Yes, even guards have a flaw. And they can be made to look like zero.

See now, when the game calculates defensive points, it does it something like this.

(Racial bonuses aside):
Defensive_power = Troop_defense + Guards*500*min[1,Your_rats/(Your guards*100 + 1)]
Troop defense is simply how many DP you get from the troops you have. You know that bit. Guards*500, right. Now, wait, what's the long part there? Yes, that's the nub of it.
min[1,Your_rats/(Your guards*100 + 1)]

That means, the smallest of these two numbers: 1, and Your_rats/(Your guards*100 + 1). Hmmm... what's that? Your_Guards*100 + 1. The +1 is just to avoid dividing by zero if you have no guards. The rest... well, let's do the math.

Say, Horde A has 2 million rats, 200K weasels, and no guards. Horde B has 10,000 guards, 200K rats, and no weasels.
What happens if Horde A hits Horde B with a guerilla strike? Well, Horde A has 4 million offensive points, for 2M*2=4M. Horde B has, 10,000*500*min[(1, These are Horde A's stuff>>> 2M/(0+1)]. That would be 5M*min[1,2M], which is 1*5M, resulting in 5 million defensive points. Plus of course 200K for the rats. So, Horde A is repelled.

But now suppose Horde A has 0 rats, 200K weasels, and 0 guards. Not much of an army, I hear, but enough to make a good deal of a difference. Horde B still has 10,000 guards, 200K rats, and no weasels.
Okay, let's calculate. Horde A attacks, this time, with a Stone Bombardment. Horde A has 400K offensive points. A laugh against the guards, you say? Not quite. Horde B's defensive points look like this, since he has no weasels. 10000*500*min[These are Horde A's stuff>>> 0/(1+1)]. That makes, 5M*min[1,0]. Hmmm.... *stunned silence* That's right. 5M*0. The guards all vanished. Horde A breaks through easily.

Before we get too carried away with sympathy for Horde B (awww... poor guy with no brains), I'd like to point out the difference it made simply that Horde A had no rats. Obviously, a similar result can be achieved with very few guards (keeping the same number of rats as guards make 20,000 guards look like 200, hehe), and the offensive, of course, need not be with weasels. You get the basic idea here. If you have no rats, and about 8,000 guards (enough to ward of 2,000,000 rats, more than the blades will ever have), that just about makes the blades the tastiest target the game has yet seen.

Winding back to the strategic advnatage of guards again... Guards do have an endearing quality, if you're using them, and not the blades. That is... they are not affected by health. I realize it is a long time to sell all your rats, but if you just build many guards, you can make the blades' defense's look like Oreos on toast. Whatever heir health, they are also famous for massing rats, and rats only, forgetting other unit types. So the above few sentences no doubt will very much interest not only those interested in pure game strategy, but also those who dislike the blades.

And on a more cheerful note, not only will everybody find this quite useful... it may just.. just... be the longest post on record!


Yours,
Mysterious Guy

[Germania 4]

 The bug will probably be gone in a day.

it may just.. just... be the longest post on record!

[Mysterious Guy]

 It is not a bug. It is an integral, exploitable, permanent feature of the game.

[Retto]

 MM...I think you got messed up a few times in there.

It's not
Their_Defensive_power = Their_Troop_defense + Their_Guards*500*min[1,Your_rats/(Your guards*100 + 1)]

but instead
Their_Defensive_power = Their_Troop_defense + Their_Guards*500*min[1,Their_rats/(Your guards*100 + 1)]

ie. If you have no rats, you have, for all intents and purposes, no guards.

 Germania, where do you get those emoticons from? They're so cool...

[Mysterious Guy]

 Aahh... no I don't get that. I your enemy has no rats, and you attack him, then he has no guards... oh yes. So you have to keep your guards*100 rats to have guards... ah.

[Blood Wake]

 i think he is saying that if you have no army your guards have no pupose because no one could do anything if they are notified they are being attacked

[Germania 4]

Germania, where do you get those emoticons from? They're so cool...

Area 51 Forums, Clan L.V. Forums, CB4 Forums, and maybe the odd one off The Pagget Forums...

[calria]

 I am so confused now...

and yeah, long post, but I think Ad's Winter post was longer..

[Shadow Giant]

 ok, i am officially lost. so far i have-
no rats=no guards
weasels=good
blades=bad
Horde b=dead
i don't get it, put it in simple terms please.

[Orcrist]

 Look- if you attack someone and that person has 0 of that troop type, the defender's guards have no effect, thus the amount of troops you have decide the amount of effectiveness your guards have...

[Shadow Giant]

 oooooooohh.......so thats actually not too helpful, unless you attack someone with no army, right? or is it unless you attack someone with no army yourself? oh thats it. ok. i get it :blink: kinda.