PREPARATION for KvK

EDIT: There is currently no word on when the next KvK will be. This post is meant to be informative to start preparations as early as possible.

A Kingdom vs. Kingdom (KvK) event is an event in which the walls of two kingdoms are brought down for a weekend. The two kingdoms battle to get the most points. Prizes are give for the alliance with the most points out of both kingdoms, the individual with the most points through the kingdom, and the kingdom with the most points get a reward as well.

Ways to prepare:

1. Safety Rally. A safety rally requires a hall of war. A safety rally, sometimes called a ghost rally, is when you create a rally against another city with an 8 hour timer. If your troops are rallied, they cannot be attacked. Make sure you are rallying either and inactive city, or a city that you created. You don't want to rally a player who might hit you because of it. If you can't get back on until ten hours, I recommend rallying a city that takes about an hour or two to march to. That gives you the 8 hour rally timer, plus the time it takes for your troops to march there and back. If you get back on before the 8 hours, cancel the rally, then create it again to start the timer over. Safety Rallies are extremely important. NOTE: If your hall of war is not large enough to hold all of your troops, keep in mind you only need to rally at least enough troops so that none will die if you are hit and they will just to go the hospital. If you still have troops unprotected, reinforce a shielded city.

2. Kill off farm troops. If you have a farm account that you train troops in for whatever reason, make sure that you either kill the troops or put them in the hospital so they cannot be used for easy points.

3. Store resources. Even if your troops are safe, the last thing you want to do is give the enemy free resources. Either shield if you want them safe, or have your alliance set up a bank. A bank is a city that is used solely for storing resources. It is kept shielded all the time if possible. If you are creating a bank for your alliance, give the login to all Rank 4 members. A bank functions best with farms created inside of it to maintain food. Also, tell your members to donate 24 hour shields whenever they can so that it can be shielded each day.

4. Store resources (part 2). Build traps. We all know traps take a long time to build. Worst case scenario, you can start a long lasting trap build, something that takes at least 3-4 days. Then you can either let the traps finish, or cancel the build. This will at least save some of your resources. Canceling a trap build will refund half of the cost you paid for the traps, so you'll have some of your resources back.

5. NO FARMING. Seriously... Don't do it. You should know by now that troops killed outside your city are gone for good, and it's too easy for someone to port and hit you on tile.

Attacking and Defending:

1. Attack Right.Make sure you are sure you can win when attacking. Do not send full marches at people who overpower you just to try to weaken them. You're just giving them free points and not getting near as many points yourself because their troops are just going to the hospital. In fact, you really shouldn't attack anyone at all except for three reasons

         a. You are powerful enough to potentially wipe them out with minimal losses to your own troops

         b. The losses of you attacking them are going to be less than if they burned your whole hive. For instance, if I was defending a hive where I knew not a lot of my people were rallied, and I thought I could scare away an attacker by hitting them, I would because my losses will be less points than the points they would get burning the whole hive. Just be careful when doing this, because it doesn't always work. You need to have an intimidation factor

         c. You are burning a hive with multiple people with you to help. Also, I'll note that if you are burning a hive, unless you have tons of troops to keep at home and you're not worried about getting attacked, only send one march at a time, that way you can recall it if someone marches on you.

2. Rally Right. Just because you rally someone with 500k or 600k T3 troops, doesn't mean you're going to do any damage. During our first KvK, I was hit with a rally of 450k T3 troops, and I won. I only had about 360k troops, and about 30k wall traps, but my research was higher and my skills were set better so I won easily. Only rally if you know your rally will win. Also, make sure that when rallying or attacking that you watch for larger players who might reinforce. During our first KvK, the only attack I lost was when I wasn't paying attention, and a 115 Million Power player reinforced them with 250k T4 troops, which devastated me.

3. Skill Right. When setting up your skills, do not just go top down, and max out everything as you go. If your hero is in the 30s or 40s, you should just do the minimum until you get down to the level 2 attack skills. Personally, I go all the way to the bottom and max out Troop Defense and Troop Health level 2, then work on Infantry, Cavalry, Ranged, and Siege level 2 attack, depending on how many of those troops I have.

4. Boost Right.Using Attack Boosts, Defense Boosts, Anti-Scouts, Shields, etc., at the right time can make all the difference. If you are attacking someone, I recommend using a Defense Boost, as it will minimize your losses. If you are defending, I recommend an Attack Boost because your troops will just go to the hospital anyways, so you want to do as much damage to them as possible since it results in pure kills. Anti-Scout is important when burning hives, as it doesn't allow people to see how many troops you are leaving at home when you send out marches, so they are less likely to attack you because they don't know if you are being reinforced, if you have full traps, or if you just still have 400k sitting at home. Whenever you are attacking a hive, it's important to have a shield handy just in case. If someone ports and tries to attack you, it's much quicker to recall your troops and shied than it is to create a rally to save your troops. I'll note here, that if all your troops are out on a march, unless you have resources that need saved, sometimes it's smart to let them hit you while your troops are marching so you don't waste recalls or speedups trying to get back, then just wait for your troops to return and time your shield perfectly. A good attacker will try to time the attack on your to reach your city one second after you do. A good defender will just sit and spam the shield button until it allows you to shield. If it's going to be too close, then speed the march up once and shield as soon as you can.

5. Don't give up points. Above all, just think about everything you're doing with the mindset of, "Is it worth it to lose troops doing this?" Think about how many points they will get versus the points you will get doing what you're doing. It's important to be able to make the call whether to risk it or not. A big part of why we lost our first KvK was because so many people made reckless decisions to attack people they absolutely weren't going to win against.

6. Encampments.During every day use, encampments are great for protecting your hive. During KvKs, encampments need to be pulled away. During double points, lots of enemies will just go attack encampments for easy points. Every encampment becomes worth at least 6 points because of the one troops on it, and if your hive is surrounded by layers of them, then that's quite a few points.

Tough Love Act

In preparation for a KvK, several steps will be taken to assure everyone is ready. In the 24-48 hours before the KvK, alliance leaders should start working on getting everyone either shielded or rallied and making sure that troops are kept safe. About three or four hours before the KvK starts, bigger players will visit hives and scout players to make sure they are protected. Players who are not protecting their troops will be messaged and if they do not respond in a timely manner, then they will be hit to prevent the enemy from getting those points. There are no exceptions to this. This is not so that people will be hurt or anything like that, it's imperative that we give up as few points as possible and this is how that is done. Also, if anyone is found farming during the event, they will be sent a message and given about 2 minutes(or less) to vacate that tile before they are hit. There is no easier way to give up points than to be out gathering on tiles. Several times during the last KvK, I messaged people who were on tiles gathering, and before I could even hit send or before I got a reply, I saw someone port next to them from the other kingdom and attack them on tile. Millions of power are lost this way. It's not about your losses, it's about the points given to the enemy. Communication is key. Stay alert, stay aware, make sure you are protecting yourself and others. Fight as a team, and work together.