Ally Max Plunder

 

What is Ally Plunder?

When you attack another kingdom and win you will notice that you get money listed from 2 sources.  One is related to your build or troop numbers, the other the cost of the allies you have.  The figure related to your build reduces as your troop numbers decreases, so you earn less per win.  The figure from your allies is a static figure.  It therefore makes sense for this figure to be as high as possible so you make as much money as possible from each attack you make.

 

So What is Max Plunder?

In KaW originally the amount of money you could make from allies went up and up and up.  It caused all sorts of fun and battles over allies as the more expensive allies you owned the more money you would make.  An ally cap was introduced so that for your build you can earn a maximum amount of money from your allies.  If you are at Max Plunder you will be making the most of your build in terms of making money, so definitely something to have.

 

So How do You Know if You Are at Max Plunder?

1. Attack someone you know you can beat
2. Make a note of the plunder from allies figure
3. Purchase an ally which costs about 200,000
4. Attack the same person again, and look at the ally plunder figure
5. If the figure has gone up you were not at max plunder, and need to purchase more allies to make more money per hit.

It is true that at the beginning of the game trying to get to max plunder feels really hard as you just want to get buildings and increase your statistics.  The truth however is if you keep to max plunder you will grow quicker over all, definitely worth considering.

KaW Dictionary

OK so this isn't my work… it belongs to Dillybar and can be found here on the forums, thought it would be good to have it here too as part of the basics series

This is a small dictionary of slang terms that are often used in KaW. Hoping you'll enjoy, Dillybar.
___________________________________

KaW Slang Terms

I'm going make all of these slang terms in alphabetical order, so if you have a certain term in mind you just have to scroll to the letter it starts with and find it there to find out what it means! If you find any other definitions I don't have please post them here and I'll edit them in.
___________________________________

A

AC- Ally Chat.
Active- Playing the game at the time.
AL- Ally List.
Ally Plunder- The gold your allies give you in an attack.
Assa- To Assassinate someone.
Attk- Attack.
Av- War Aviary.
Admin- Clan ability that let's you change normal member's titles, clan announcement, kick/accept/reject members, challenge/accept/decline wars, and edit your clan information (See Clan).
___________________________________

B

Ban- A Dev ability that stops you from being able to play (See Devs).
BC- LC with all fully upgraded buildings (See LC).
Beast- Beastiary.
Bil/B- Billion.
BL- Battle List.
Bldgs- Buildings.
Bots- Anything that plays the game for you (auto-clicker, etc). DO NOT USE BOTS, YOU WILL BE BANNED! (See Ban).
BTA- Bonus To Allies.
BUMP- Bring Up My Post (Forums only).
Bypassing- Avoiding the chat filter. You can get silenced for this (See Silence).
___________________________________

C

CA- Clan Announcement.
Castle- A unique building, that can NOT be sold or upgraded.
Cath- War Cathedral.
CC- Clan Chat.
Circ- Summoning Circle.
Clan- An organized group of people (Also known as Alliance).
Closed- No hits allowed (For OSF's and OAF's).
Combined Stats- Your Attack and Defense added together and your Spy Attack and Spy Defense added together (See Stats).
___________________________________

D

Def- Defense.
Devs- The people at AThinkingApe who made Kingdoms at War.
Dropping Pots- Selling one pot at a time to open for people(See Open, OSF, and Pots)
DTS- Defender Too Strong, which means you are too weak to attack that person.
DTW- Defender Too Weak, which means you are either too strong to attack that person, that person has no gold out, or that person is pinned (See Pin).
___________________________________

E

Element/Elmnt- Circle of Elementals.
Empty- To be out of troops/spies.
___________________________________

F

Farming- To hit 1 person over 5x daily (Definitions May Vary).
Found- Cursed Foundry.
FPW- PW that is forfeited so Plunder goes to OSF's (See PW, RPW, War Plunder, and OSF).
Full- To have all of your soldiers/spies.
Forums- A place with game information along with other things. This is found on the Kingdoms at War Home-Screen.
___________________________________

G

Go- An order given to start doing something, such as hire or attack.
___________________________________

H

HC- Health Crystal.
Hire- To buy someone as an ally.
Hit- To attack or steal from someone.
HTW- To attack someone until they are DTW (See DTW).
___________________________________

I

IF- Inactive Farm (See Inactive Farm).
Inactive- Someone who's not on at the time or doesn't play anymore.
Inactive Farm- Someone who no longer plays who you can farm.
___________________________________

J

Jam- To spam someone's news so that they are unable to see previous attacks, steals, etc.
___________________________________

K

K- Thousand.
KaW- Kingdoms at War.
Keep- Owning an ally.
Kingdom- A person playing the game
OR
A person's lands and buildings.
___________________________________

L

LB- Leader Board which contains the top 50 clans and people in several areas.
LC- Land Complete (All lands bought).
LCBC- Land Complete and Build Complete (See LC and BC).
Lurking- Being in a chat or forum but not talking (See Forums, AC, CC, and WC).
Lvl- Level (For Buildings).
___________________________________

M

Mercs- Players brought in from outside a clan to war (See War).
Mil/M- Million.
Mods/Moderators- Players chosen by the Developers to moderate the game (See Devs).
___________________________________

N

Naked- Having 0 allies and 0 gold.
Nob- Nobility Points.
NP- Not Pinned.
___________________________________

O

OAF- Open Attack Farm (An attack build who allows free steals).
Old BC- BC with Tier 3 Buildings.
Open- Unlimited hits allowed (For OSF's and OAF's).
OSF- Open Secret Farm (A Pure Spy who allows free attacks).
Owner- Owning an ally
OR
Clan ability that let's you change anyone's title, clan announcement, kick/accept/reject members, challenge/accept/decline wars, set admins, disband your clan, and edit your clan information (See Clan).
___________________________________

P

P- Pots.
Pal- Palringo, an app that allows private and group chat.
Permafarm- Someone who you permanently farm (See Farm).
Pi- Pinned.
Pin- To make a defender "Too Weak" (See DTW).
Plunder- The gold you earn from an attack.
PM- Private Message (Palringo Only).
Pots- Battle items from the Marketplace that increase your odds of winning.
Potting Up- Buying pots from the marketplace to prepare for a conflict (See Pots).
Pure Spy- Someone with just spy buildings.
PW- A war with OSFs on one side and attackers on the other. This war's only purpose is to make money. Considered by many not to be a "real" war (See War).
___________________________________

Q

None right now, please post any suggestions here.
___________________________________

R

Regen- To get more soldiers/spies.
RPW- PW that is forfeited so Plunder goes to OSF's (See PW, FPW, War Plunder, and OSF).
___________________________________

S

Scout Bomb- To scout someone a lot.
Sit- To keep a Defender "Too Weak" (See DTW).
Silence- A Mod and Dev ability that stops players from being able to chat. First 2 silences on a player last 24 hours, the last silence is permanent (See Mod and Devs).
SOS- Stronghold of Shadow.
Stats- Your bonus to allies (On Profile).
Strip- To hire someone's allies and take their gold.
Strip Farm- Someone who you continuously strip and farm (See Strip and Farm).
Sub- Subterranean Factory.
___________________________________

T

T1- A Workshop, Barracks, Stables, or Guild.
T2- A Forge, Beastiary, War Cathedral, or Stronghold of Shadows.
T3- A Subterranean Factory, War Aviary, or Summoning Circle.
T3 BC- BC with T3 Buildings (See T3 and BC).
T4- A Cursed Foundry, Circle of Elementals, or Titans Lair.
Tax- The amount of gold taken away in war (See War).
Titan- Titan's Lair.
ToS- The Terms of Service, which are basically just the rules of the game.
ToU- Another name for the ToS (See ToS).
___________________________________

U

Unofficial War- Unofficial Wars are wars that are conducted outside of the official war system and do not go onto a clan's war history. These wars are often very violent and competitive (See War).
___________________________________

V

Volley- Hiring 1 person back and forth (See Hire).
___________________________________

W

WA- The announcement in World Chat.
War- A fight between two clans lasting for 48 hours. The winning clan receives the War Plunder (See War Plunder).
War Plunder- The gold the winning clan in war receives (See War).
War Roster- The members in both friendly and enemy clans that are active in war (See War).
WC- World Chat.
Work- Workshop.
WR- War Roster (See War Roster and War).
WT- The amount of time left in a war (See War).
___________________________________

X

Xstal- Using a crystal from the oracle.
___________________________________

Y

None right now, please post any suggestions here.
___________________________________

Z

None right now, please post any suggestions here.
___________________________________

Conclusion

This concludes The KaW Dictionary. I hope you have enjoyed it and will use it well. I'd like to give special thanks to all of my friends who helped me do this:

Conclave of Shadows: For helping me through the game and giving me support.

My Editing Team: D_J_, OutdoorToast, IamJ3acon, BlueDrag0n, DarkFalcon, and LadyRose.

How Does a Plunder War Work?

 

Why Plunder War?

There are a few reasons people run plunder wars, to grow their clan members is the one most people think of, but the main reason spies put so much time and effort into staying open, is to grow pure spies.

Pure spies have a number of functions

• to open as an osf
• to be deadly during a system wars, and often make the difference as to why one side wins
• to be deadly in unfriendly wars where they can strip farm easily as most players have little resistance to a big spy

 

How Does it Work?

• When you attack someone during a 48 hour (system) war, war tax is taken off you. 
• The tax is put into a pot and distributed to the winning side
• The hitters forfeit so that the tax goes to the osf’s, so that they can be paid to run the next war and so they can grow.
• The war tax is divided amongst the winning side in relationship to how much the have one through out the war.  When you hear people talking about setting steals, they are working out how to divide up the tax and making sure the right amount goes to each player

 

But we beat the osfs, why should they get the war tax?

• Firstly, they let you beat them
• they worked really hard to give you gold
• without the tax they can not run the next war

but mainly

Plunder wars are about helping pure spies grow

How Come OSF’s Have So Much Money?

 

Well, actually, we don’t. 

The way the game is loaded the amount of money you make depends on the size of your build and the size of the build of the player you are attacking.  If a big player attacks a small player, they make very little, kind of a punishment for being a bully.  The problem is the small player will loose more than the big player wins.

if a smaller player beats a bigger player the smaller player will win a larger amount.

When spies are open, even if they have a single coin available to be taken, the attacker can win up to say 42m. 

The reason osf’s work hard is to try and limit the amount of money you take.  To do this they only have 50-100m cash for you to take out at any one time, and try to keep their spies as close to 20% as they can.  Doing these two things keeps they amount they loose as low as possible.

The bigger the spy, the more you will make.  This is totally down to their build and your build and nothing to do with the amount of money you take off the spy.

Contact the Dev’s

The following is the dev’s e-mail… just so its easier to find

support@athinkingape.com

Obviously you can use the feedback button, although you only get a very limited number of characters.  I've never found it long enough.

Farming

Clans Definition of Farming

“hitting a player more than 5 times within a 24 hour period.  This includes steals assassinations an attacks on active players.”

Basic advice is usually is

• if you’re being farmed DO NOT farm back.
• Tell an admin
• Self pin. The goal of this is to stop the farmer from farming you not revenge as you can always get the gold back off the OSF. 
• Avoid threatening the farmer
• farmers often thrive off the attention they get and it is more likely to make then farm you more
• you give them a link back to you so it makes you easier to find when they want to farm you.
• if they are sneaky they can use your words to demonstrate harassment, especially if you bypass the filter on their wall you could get silenced
• Retaliation is normally done as a clan, hence telling an admin

And just as a thought clan members caught farming and not playing by clan rules may be kicked from the clan and farmed by the clan

 

 

Grel’s Thoughts

So I’ve been mulling the idea of farming since being strip farmed overnight.  Going to bed with 2b worth of allies for the clan to open me, waking up to find some one other than the clan had opened me.  Got me thinking… When is farming bad? Why is farming different to war? What exactly do we mean by farming.  I know I don’t like farmers, but what am I saying I don’t like?

 

So Where does the term farming come from?

Initially the concept of farming goes back to the origins of OSF … open secret farm (no I haven't got that wrong that’s what they were originally called).  These guys would allow people to attack them 5 times a day, which is the origin of the no more than 5 hits rule.   There would be hidden threads in the forums to say who was open, hence secret and there were enforcers who made sure this was stuck to.

 

So what is farming?

There seem to be a number of definitions out there, please correct me if I’m wrong.

• More than 5 hits in a day
• 1 scout and more than 5 hits in a day
• hitting another player consistently over a period of time, several times an hour to once a day.
• 5 or more hits on 2 consecutive days

So there is some kind of idea that its is about the number of hits, but also the prolonged nature of it. 

Its a war game, I expect to be hit, and I expect to retaliate, and do (oops not following the rules above).  As some clan members have found out when they have hit me outside of plunder war when I’m not open.  Hit me  5 times, I will hit back five times (or more *cough*), hit me more I will get my friends involved because you are going down. But that's war, and this is a war game. 

 

So why talk to an owner and admin if there are problems?

The consequence of the approach above is that there may be negotiations that need to happen to stop these attacks.  Having been a clan leader and had to try and smooth feathers I would prefer it if you talk to a clan leader because it makes their job easier… just saying.  Generally with new players a gentle word from someone much bigger than they are, saying its against the rules to hit a player more than 5 times, please join my clan to learn how to grow, is enough to solve the problem.  I’m not sure this is farming so much as us conditioning new players into how we want them to behave. 

Bigger players who are actively choosing not to follow the 5 hit convention, this is unlikely to work, but it’s always worth seeing if this will make a difference.  However the key about talking to an owner or admin is that it is likely that the clan will need to take action to resolve problems.  This is because the farmer knows about the farming conventions and chooses to play the game by different rules, they choose to get their enjoyment at the expense of others.

The other thought about talking to an owner/admin first before retaliation is that farming another clans player is often used as a tactic to initiate a non-system war.  So before things escalate it is worth everyone being on side to resolve problems.

 

So is it farming to find an easy target and consistently hit them, say 17 times spread out throughout a day?

I’ve been mulling this and yes it is.  I know that some people say that 24 hits, in one go is not farming,  it is simply a troop dump and part of war.  But the issue with the idea above is that you have found an easy mark and you are exploiting it just as you would do with another clans OSF over a period of time.  They are farming that individual for the profit they can reap.  If you are a spy to ensure you are not found out you are need to spy at full troops.  That takes planning and cunning… but again is that just war? Does it help the other person improve and change their build and strategy so they cant be exploited?  That for me is a key question in the idea of farming, exploiting another player.  I think it’s wise to have a build to make it hard for others to hit you, but consistent attacks over a period of time need to be revenged, need to be prevented and our clan members need to be protected from exploitation.

Having been farmed and farming others (pre dark moon, ask me I might tell you the story) the bit that gets me the most about farming is that it is intentional and planned and feels like bullying.  And for me that's the difference between being hit because this is a war game and being farmed.  Ignoring bullies doesn’t work, neither does giving them attention, what works is showing that you are stronger than them.

Please remember these last statements are my thoughts and do not necessarily represent the clans opinions

How To Make Money

You actually have several options, although currently plunder wars seem to be the most favoured.  When your osf is closed, try the following to make money.  The list below is not exhaustive, and I’m certainly not recommending all of them.  We are also awaiting the changes the developers are making for Player vs.. Environment as the suggestion is that this will make clans more money

• Ally trading
• Attacking off battle list
• Attacking inactives
• Being hired/vollied (although this is capped at a max of 1m)
• Buying allies off players who are in a friendly war as they are likely to buy them back straight away (there is a name for this, but forgotten it, and its not recommended)
• Farming other players (not recommended)
• Friendly wars (although the amount you loose in pots this is not true especially if your side looses and gets no tax)
• Hitting other clans osf’s outside of war (not recommended)
• Plunder wars
• Purchasing nobility points and exchanging them at the oracle
• Retaliation on farmers
• Stealing off battle list
• Stealing off inactives
• Quests
• Volleying
• Volley dropping money to another player
• When plunder wars go wrong and the attackers not the osfs get the money (I’ve been on the attacking side twice when this has happened)
• WC Opens

Build Calculator

A lot of the questions that get asked in the clan are about how much buildings cost, what is better and that sort of thing. 

I’m not going to tell you what type of kingdom you should build, that is completely up to you, but what I can do is give you a link to Stonefords Build Calculator, so you can beginning to work it out yourself. 

You will find it here in the forums.  In his post he links to the spreadsheet which you can use on line and the Google doc.