Ranged/Compact Defense (CD)

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Vi


Knowing the defense someone is using in Evony will determine the best way to attack them. Each defense has an advantage and disadvantage and knowing where to exploit each defense is the key to winning. I will explain the general defenses and how to get around them. Not one defense is always right depending on the troops you have an what the attacker has and their knowledge of the game. Learn both defenses well and you’ll be able to make an educated decision on which one is best for you.

Range (Traps, Abatis and/or Trebuchets)

What range means is you have one or more traps, abatis or trebuchets. You can have any other combination of fortifications including archer towers but if you have “1″ or more of traps, abatis or trebuchets you are in ranged defense. These units set the battle field to a distance of 5000 is your walls are 1-9. If you have level 10 walls you get a bonus of 200 bringing your distance to 5200. This defense will typically favor you if you have a long of ranged units. The big advantage to this is the attacker is marching toward your ranged units when you outrange them. This means you can shoot them when they cant shoot you. If you have enough shooting them they never get a chance to shoot back. This being an overwhelming victory in your favor. Now this defense does not protect your melee units, in particular your fast moving units. Now keep in mind scouts do not march outwards during battles. Your cav being the fastest will charge out ahead of your armies followed by the fastest to slowest melee units. Ranged defense is not good at protecting melee units but rather any ranged unit. With this defense your goal is to use your melee units aka your layers to your advantage but without losing more then is needed. Often times the term layering is used to describe putting “1″ of each melee unit in front of your archers. This gives you more rounds for your ranged units to shoot them as they approach. The rule of thumb against layered arch attacks is try to put up 1 of each unit whenever possible. When attacks are well timed you will typically want to get the fastest moving units out first which is typically cav. Your best defense is always keep 1 of each melee up whenever possible. Like any rule here are some exceptions:

■ Mechanic waves – the most dangerous and will actually put your archers in jeopardy since they are capable of outranging all melee and archers. Your layers can be completely cleared.
■ Exchange / Tradefire – this exploits the positioning of troops when the defender has no melee layers using cav and archers so that the attacking archers and defending archers are able to “exchange” or “tradefire” within the same round.

Advantages
1. Does well defending against melee and most ranged attacks
2. Ability to layer to stop advancement of ranged attackers

Disadvantages
1. Your melee units are typically put at risk during battle against ranged attackers
2. Defense can be exploit through lack of layers
3. Many troops can be killed at one time
4. Typically need a decent amount of ranged units

Compact Defense (Archer Towers, Logs or none)

What this means is you have NO traps, abatis or trebuchets. No having these units sets the battle field range to 1700 which is a much shorter distance to travel then the 5200 of ranged defense. Sometimes this defense is referred to as walls only. Bottom line this is less distance for an attacking army to travel. The great thing about this defense is it protects your melee troops. Your defending archers and archer towers are in immediate range to defend from round one. Ranged attacks under this defense are exchange fire. Now if you read about battle mechanics you would know that ranged units must attack other ranged units first and then troops fastest to slowest. So if someone attacks your compact base with archers they first engage your towers, archers, and mechanics before ever touching any melee. The good thing about this defense is archer towers are strong and they must get through your towers to do damage, the bad part of this is typically once your towers are down they are down. Most players wont have an instant archer tower hero to bring them back quickly. When you have lost your towers the attackers effectiveness goes up. A smart attacker will go after your weakness, whether its lack of melee of lack or ranged. An attack you have to watch for is called a “jack attack” or sometimes called “jaq”.

Advantages

1. Your archer towers are strong and difficult to break
2. Protects your melee troops from ranged attacks
3. Lessens the amount of troops killed at one time
4. Breaking through Compact Defense typically takes time.
5. Less ranged troops are required to run defense

Disadvantages

1. When your archer towers are gone you become exposed
2. More melee units are needed to prevent defense collapses
3. Attacks that are range versus range are exchange fire