Guide to Builds

By Wingless_Tal

 

Build understanding is far too uncommon in the kaw community, so I’ve decided to share the knowledge that I wish someone had given me sooner. I’ll try to lay it out as simple as possible for all to understand.

 

Build “foundations” you need to know:

  • If you don’t plan to do much pvp (person vs. person) at the beginning and just want to grow fast then don’t worry much about your build mechanics until you reach 12 High Lands (HL). I recommend building a Guild Hansel (gh) until you reach that point.

  • Combined Stats (cs) do NOT determine the type of build you are.

  • Build types ARE determined by the ratio of troop buildings to spy buildings (towers are excluded from that count - with the exception of the tower build). This is the key to designing your build. Because Tier 5 (t5) buildings have not been released for Low Lands (LL) and Tier 6 (t6) have not been released on High Lands (HL) or Low Lands (LL), there are a lot of interesting build/stat combinations at your fingertips.

  • Your build strategy will be different depending on your style of play - eb hitter, Estoc (EE) warrior, farmer, etc.. Don’t waste your precious gold on a build that doesn’t fit your day-to-day KAWing needs.

Here are a few different types of builds:

**Build Ratio = troop buildings:spy buildings

 

The Warrior

Build Ratio: 3:1 (75%+ troop buildings)

Advantages: Plunders well, is hard for other builds to hit with troops.

Disadvantages: Without a lot of spy defense towers (sdt) and/or Bonus from Allies (bfa) this build will be an easy target for spy builds, strip-farming and Estoc (EE) wars.

Uses: Great for Epic Battles (ebs), Used as “meat shield” in Estoc (EE) wars to absorb hits, with high BFA this build can be really deadly. Used by majority of Leader Board (LB) players.

 

The Open Attack Farm (OAF) 

Build Ratio: 4:0 (no spy buildings)

Advantages: None

Uses: Back in plunder war (pw) era, before ebs existed, these builds were used to gain plunder from by unloading spies (steals) on them. As long as an oaf build has gold out, it can be hit continuously with steals - the attacking player earns much more than the OAF loses from those steals.

 

The Hansel

Build Ratio: 1:3 (75%+ spy buildings)

Advantages: Plunders well. When a warrior build tries to hit a hansel build with it’s troops and the hansel has no gold, it is dtw (defender too weak) to all troop attacks from the warrior build. Meaning warrior build can’t touch it. The Hansel is also difficult for other builds to hit it’s spies.

Disadvantages: Traditional Hansels (low attack stats, high spy stats) are easily plundered off of in Estoc (EE) wars by Hybrid builds. And if they have gold out Warriors can go to town on their troops.

Uses: Great for Epic Battles (ebs), often used for farming/ strip-farming due to it’s large number of spies and mechanic advantage over warrior builds.

 

The Guild Hansel

Build Ratio: 3:1 (75%+ Guilds)

Advantages: Plunders better than both the t4 (tier 4) warrior build and an SoS (Stronghold of Shadows) Hansel. And it’s very cheap to build! Has the same fight mechanics as regular Hansel build. In Estoc (EE) wars, if a Guild Hansel has high Bonus From Equipment (BFE), it can hit much larger accounts and gain a lot of plunder while not giving much up when hits are returned.

Disadvantages: Isn’t very strong. Hard to collect equipment on because large b2b eb clans don’t accept. Can be easily pinned in Estoc (EE) wars with scouts and assassins.

Uses: Most Farm Bank accounts (used to strip allies) are gh (Guild Hansel) because of how fast they can be built. Also used in Estoc (EE) wars to gain a plundering ability advantage in the matchup. Many EE Warriors who are Guild Hansels put large amounts of spy defense towers (sdt) up on this build to prevent it from being easily pinned.

 

The Pure Spy

Build Ratio 0:4 (no troop buildings)

Advantages: When pure spy build has zero gold out, it’s troops are dtw (defender too weak) to any other build (untouchable).

Disadvantages: When the Pure Spy has gold out it can be hit by troops continuously even though it has zero troops.

Uses: Great for farming and osw since it cannot be hit by troops when it has no gold out. Sometimes used in Estoc (EE) wars for its mechanic advantages.

 

The Open Spy Farm (OSF)

The OSF is a pure spy build with weak/no allies and no BFE. The owner of the account “opens” it by selling potions to give the account gold while other players attack it. The plunder lost by the OSF is minimal compared to that gained by the attackers. This build was very popular during plunder war (pw) era, but is still used moderately to this day.

 

The Hybrid

Build Ratio: 2:2/2:3/3:2 (under 75% troop buildings, under 75% spy buildings)

Advantages: Can hit Hansels even when they have no gold out. Can easily hit most Hansel’s troops and most warriors spies.

Disadvantages: Has no “special” mechanics. Can be easily hit by Warriors troops and Hansel’s spies.

Uses: The Hybrids versatility has made it very popular in Estoc (EE) wars.

 

The Tower Build

Build Ratio: Must have 75% of lands occupied by defense and/or spy defense towers.

Advantages: When the tower build has no spies, it is dtw to all troop and spy hits from any build (can’t be touched). This mechanic is disabled during Estoc (EE) wars.

Disadvantages: 75% towers doesn’t give you much to work with for your other buildings.

Uses: Off System War (osw) clans often use this build since it is nearly impossible to strip-farm.

 

Advanced Tips for PvP players:

- Keep in mind that potions (pots) give the attacker a 60m Raw Stat (or 1.2m cs) advantage on troop attacks and a 50m Raw Stat (or 1m cs) advantage on spy attacks. This is what makes towers so essential and allows smaller builds to get through bigger one’s easily.

- Consider the disparity between attack and defense in Bonus From Equipment (BFE). The new Rancor and Red Paladin equipment give a great advantage to the attacker (at full enchantment, paladin equip gives roughly 1.2m cs boost to troop attack strength over defense strength and 900k cs boost to spy strength over spy defense strength).

- If you’re in a clan that does osw or Estoc (EE) wars, learn the strategy, or “brand,” of war that the clan uses. Different types of builds will compliment certain clan tactics better than others.