Should you defend your TC?

[Redgar]

This is on going discussion, so let's discuss it in terms of the latest balance changes.
Personally, I have never put my TC outside and I feel quite comfortable with minimal resources losses. Nevertheless, I am defending only one resource at a time, swapping mills and markets from time to time and trying to keep my gold low. For IA having more walls and defensive structures, I am going to rebuild my base, so it may also defend trade goods and oil.

So should you defend your TC and how much?
I think that a lot of depends on your defenses level, your medal range, how much resources you keep and of course an attacker.

Let's take typical outside TC base. I think it definitely should work well for lower medal ranges, where you may get ALOT of n00b attacks, even if your defenses are strong. You may loose even more resources in total if you defend TC, because of many attacks and defensive wins, so it's better to put it outside to get a peace treaty.

However, situation changes starting from 1300-1700 medals. This is basically my range of medals, so I know what I am talking about. Majority of attackers there CARE about medals and wins, while medal losses are quite significant. Also, attackers (sometimes they have 2400 medals and higher) get bigger league rewards, so they want to win first of all. In such case, making your TC an easy target is not the best idea. Once they took it down, they have a full army and wall-breakers to see here and there and take what they currently need. Usually, they don't need food, but the higher you go, the less they care about your gold too, caz league rewards are so good. They may need your oil and trade goods even more. So here, I am using so called semi-defended TC. It is easy to take it down, I am leaving one side protected with just 1 wall, but attackers still have to pay for that a fair price. I require at least half of their army and sometimes all of it. Ideally, they have to waste their first wave of attackers, so they have to use the second wave or even mercs to take my TC down, but not for stealing resources. It works pretty well. The stronger your defenses are - the higher on medals you should stay. If I go lower than 1300, I am getting attacked by hordes of raiders who give me defensive wins, but trying to take my resources instead and this is not my plan.
Also, I am sure it keeps a lot of attackers away, so the last 3 attacks I had were with full IA armies and 5 tactics and suspicious IA max bases. Usually, they can't 5-star my base, but I am getting a nice long peace treaty, not that short one you get after just TC is destroyed, so you may get attacked twice in the evening and in the morning and loose your crystals.

If you get into top leagues, situation may change over again.
The funny thing is that if your goal is still to protect your resources, you probably should defend your TC first of all at 2000+ medals range, may be even putting your resource buildings outside or semi-defended. There won't be too many people willing to exchange their medals on your resources. Because league rewards are so good and medals have MUCH bigger priority there, so sooner or later you will be 5-starred by 100% buffed army and may loose even more medals than you'd loose from a simple 2-star TC loss. So, from this 'medals saving perspective' outside TC also may be a good option for higher leagues.

So the summary is that it is not the only correct option now to put your TC completely outside, but it does have sense in some situations. What do you guys think?

 

[dbukalski]

I agree with redgar. Defending your tc is important. It also feels right

 

[EternalRookie]

Here is another perspective .... from a non-crown buyer.....

An outside TC makes your base an easier target for quick medal and possibly trade good so you can expect be attacked soon after going offline. I am in EA and at the 1500 medal range but 90% of attacks on my base ends with TC defeat, minimal res, 1-3 medal loss. In return, I get 1-3 crowns per attack and peace treaty. However, at times you may lose more medals by making it simpler for the attacker so there is a risk here.

If you are trying to protect medals, then a more defended TC is a better approach. If you want to earn sucker 'crowns', then an outside TC is a viable strategy (may not be for everyone who is risk adverse).

 

[Redgar]

Well, there are still too many variables, Rookie. I have a guess that once you're not getting attacked for too long, it moves you to a special 'chater's queue or smth', so you get those max IA attacks which can bring you as much as -39 medals, so it may be better to get a couple of small losses instead. So at higher medals it may be totally vice verse. Put TC outside to save your medals and protect it to save resources. It would be good to hear empire league player trying both approaches.

 

[CarlosSuarez]

I agree with redgar. Defending your tc is important. It also feels right

then why are you not defending your tc??

 

[Redgar]

If you just hunt for crowns, you may always break your peace treaties, I have no issues with not getting attacked lol )))

 

[Redgar]

With the loot he's getting, he may care more about maintaining medals than resources, so outside TC may be better in such case as I write above. Or he just wants to play misleading ppl lol )))

 

[dbukalski]

then why are you not defending your tc??

Ive been meaning to change it but its a lot of work in edit. But i think redgar is onto something and i agree with him

 

[EternalRookie]

Exactly. You break treaty and get attack again for more crowns. Consider the crowns earmarked for future 'Revolution' or 'Wonder change'.

 

[EternalRookie]

Having trouble attaching images (keeps getting Invalid File error). The screenshots shows logs of -1 or -2 medal lost and minimal res looted (<3K) over and over (each time earning me 1-3 crowns) from my bait TC.

Just another note, a well defended TC generally deter quick victory hunters (generally -1 age relative to you) which leaves you open to attacks by much stronger players (which translates to potentially more res and medals loss). From that perspective, TC outside wall can be viewed as a defensive strategy

 

[Eddie F1]

I'm EA L101 (haven't done the road), offence just about done, mostly blacksmith upgrades left and at 1650 medals. So pretty similar to EternalRookie.

I have TC outside and get attacked within 5 mins of logging off, it's nearly 6 days since the zeppelins came over backed up with tanks, etc and got demolished, lost 18 medals, 46k gold, 300k food.

The other 16 since then snipe the TC and barely pilfer 1k total, lose 1-5 medals, gain 1-3 crowns.

But ever since I climbed above 1200ish, everybody starts in the same place, so traps are my No 1 defence - 90% start with the usual 15-20 troops to pop the TC, but they all go down as there are 8 defenders in the TC, 12 ally troops, 15 ambush guys and 4 forest defenders, castle is in range too, so if much resources lying around there's a general or two on hand. As they now have to wait 30 seconds before relaunching, garrisons and stables have spawned - I have a bigger army than they have.

So that works well, with 3 PTs a day, 8 hours apart, which means with the Training Blessing, I have a skirmish over breakfast, one after lunch and one late evening. Gone are the days of spending 3-4 hours grinding away.

So the best way to keep your resources is climb medals, TC outside. I have no problem leaving 5-6m food and gold lying around, most they can twock is 300k/300k on average once a week.

Being attacked by early GP is the funniest usually, must get giddy with the loot numbers and proceed to lose their entire army just taking the TC.

Not been there for a long time but below 800, folk only wanted loot so attack from any old direction and half the time didn't do the courtesy of knocking over the TC for a PT, they had the audacity to die at the hands of my defenders, then not long after another chancer would turn up to thieve more of my hard-earned spoils of war, hence the stories of "I got attacked 23 times last night... blah, blah". life is much easier and predictable now.

 

[dbukalski]

Tc outside is bad. Doesnt feel right. Inside defenses is definitely the way to go. Look at all the top players for example

 

[Eddie F1]

I'm hardly a top player at 1600 medals - happy as a pig in shit with my current layout and light playing times.

 

[dbukalski]

People with tc outside are newbs. Also this dbukalski guy is a newb

 

[EternalRookie]

​Disagree that TC outside means the player is a newbie. I would concur that their goals are different than that of top players that primarily focuses on medals. However, I do agree that once you are in medal mode (which I consider and end game goal), TC should be defended behind upgraded walls.

 

[Porcupine]

I keep switching both approaches from time to time and experiment with them.
For example, earlier this week protected my TC, Good defense (for my lvl=90. EA, 2100-2200 medals, non crown buyer) with Lvl8 walls.I lost around 90 medals in 2 days, 5 attacks maybe.
I changed my layout back to exposed TC and lost around 35 or 40 medals in 2 days.
When you leave your TC exposed the first player who scouts your village will attack you, stop at 2 stars, get 1-9 medals, leave and give you an 8 hours treaty or 10 if you'tr japaneese. (70% of the times), However when you protect your TC well, all normal players will skip your village until one "Maxed out base" attacks you and utterly destroy you taking 30+ medals, if you're lucky 20.

Sure you'll get attacked more often and faster, sure the peace treaties and shorter, but for a player in my medal range and level, exposed TC proved to be better for medal advancement especially when all the bases you find are only with a 1 medal reward, and a full attack on you is a 20 and 30+ medal loss.

This is different for top players of course, with maxed out walls, or even lvl 9 or 10 or maxed out everything.

 

[Redgar]

Well, it depends on how outside it is and how well the rest of your resources are placed ))) for those tricky bases, I have some cannons. But really, this 1600 medals range is soo poor. Either you meet max walls EA/IA or bases with 20k resources in total, lol. 1300 range is the way better.

 

[Redgar]

Again, it is a matter of many factors. TC may be outside, np, semi-defended with structures and traps. This is also some defense. I am just saying that completely not defended TC can make you loosing more resources on higher levels. Regarding medals it is a question what's more efficient defended TC or not, unless you're having really strong defense and walls

 

[Redgar]

Oh, thanks for basically confirming my theory.

So simple formula may look like this:

TC outside is good at low medals to protect resources. TC outside at high medals is good to protect your medals. Semi-defended TC is good at mid medals to protect your resources. Defended TC may be also good at high medals with max defense/strong walls.

 

[Eddie F1]

I'm going to try something different when I've chopped down a bit more forest for more space.

Basically we are defending against the AI, all a player can do is choose a place to drop their chosen troops and use rally. The AI takes over after that.

So TC in the centre, but use bits of wall only as guide paths, hopefully the AI will realise troops don't need to hack at walls and walk round over and past my carefully laid out traps and fields of fire. Spawning garrisons and stables will act as blockers in the narrow pathways, nobody makes it to the TC.

Just wish the Map Editor had a save function so I don't have to put it all back when it doesn't work!