I have played Tribal Wars for well over several months now, probably since mid or late April. It is a browser game I have seldom talked about except with another colleague who found an interest playing after I told him about it, and two other friends who have since quitted. And I also don’t talk about it for good reasons, since I want to experience the game for myself without anyone who thinks he is a pro telling me to do things the way he would do it.
There are several things I noticed in the game:
- Some players do not seem to understand that things don’t happen instantaneously in the game even though everything they built takes a certain amount of time to complete. They seem to believe they can find strength in numbers or just go along with the strongest. They foolishly think that being in the strongest tribe means they would go far because they will be well protected, without realizing that they are at some god-forsaken corner far from the rest and support will take too long – if not forever – to reach and do them any good when they come under attack. My personal recommendation, join a continental power, and even then, expect that even your neighbour won’t send you any help when you need it.
- Many players just panicked when under attack. They aren’t even capable of making a decent call for help. ‘I am under attack!! Help!’ is the best they can do. And it is painfully annoying to people who really wanted to help when they found out just how far away this player is, without any idea if their support would arrive in time or not. In summary, no one knows if it’s already a lost cause by the time they read their plead for help.
- Responses to calls for defense contribution to fellow members under attack can really make one weep. Generally, a tribe is lucky if just 10 – 15% of the players respond and contribute selflessly. The rest will ofen just sticking their heads into the ground like ostriches either by ignoring emails and the game forum. They do so to save their own ass and hope for the storm to go away. And while it is understandable one doesn’t want to send forces too far away as it takes the equal amount of time to recall them back. It is quite commendable because I know of one tribe whereby one cluster of their tribe members in another continent offered support to another cluster on another continent even when they themselves are under threat of attack.
- Also, a lot calls for co-ordinated attack on enemies also went unheeded and they fell flat even before execution. I felt really sad and sorry for the tribe leaders / members who tried to organize something. In once case, only 5 members replied favourably to a proposal for a concerted attack, while the rest didn’t even bother to read their mails.
- A lot of players seems to just sit tight and wait for the axe to fall on them when they are attacked, even for those who have more than one village. A common response would be to start building more troops madly, even though the force they need won’t materialise even after the enemy’s attack is done. And by then even whatever defensive forces they had originally would have been reduced to nothing and whatever they built would do them no good anyway. Somehow, I have seen no tribe which would go into an active counter attack with their assault troops – axes and light calvary – just to shake things up a little.
The last point above is the most surprising, because I would have preferred to kill as many troops as I am losing, and if possible do as much damage to enemy village(s) before they take mine. Above which, it almost will delay the attacker’s time table in taking the target village, since the attacker would be quite wary of the remaining troops which can serve as a threat to their nobles, which is the only unit that can conquer a village.
Anyway, if the entire tribe can get down to the act of actively helping in the defense a tribe member, they might as well also get down to actively attacking the attacker’s mustering point(s) to make it difficult for him to launch more attacks. And if the attacking village is taken, then those troops that survived the attack – either on their way back or serving as garrison in the village just taken are removed from the game (for reasons understood only by the makers of the game). Just why it is not done boils down to one simple reason: Self Preservation.
I am quite sure the reason why a lot of players keep a low profile is because of that voice at the back of my mind that is always saying “Are you fxxking nutz? If you send your army to help defend your tribe mate or attack the attacker, you might draw attention to yourself and you end up with your own ass kicked!”
Sure! But sooner or later, when all my tribe mates are gone, my ass will get kicked anyway, right?