Want to figure out how I'm doing so badly sometimes in idle battles. For an example, I just finished one on floating rocks. Near the beginning I was bouncing around between 1st-3rd places, and then out of nowhere I start getting slammed by attack after attack after attack. Ended up dropping to 13th place (2nd-to-last) for a while and was STILL getting bombed a lot. By the end I'd managed to scrape up to 9th, but even after I got knocked waaaaay back I was still getting hit by constant attacks.

After the battle these were some really confusing stats. Note unless otherwise stated player was at 150/150 territories. Max 15 attacks/person:

1st place
Earns 1.69K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 16

2nd place
Earns 1.24K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 16

3rd place
Earns 822 armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 44

4th place
Earns 1.73K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 12

5th place
Earns 1.28K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 8

6th place
Earns 1.52K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 6

7th place
Earns 1.36K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 7

8th place
Territories: 149 / 150
Earns 1.65K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 8

..........................................................
ME
9th place
Earns 1.56K armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 45
..........................................................

10th place
Territories: 142 / 150
Earns 824 armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 0

11th place
Territories: 137 / 150
Earns 792 armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 1

12th
Territories: 116 / 150
Earns 576 armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 1

13th
Territories: 101 / 150
Earns 290 armies per second
Times attacked by other players: 2

14th
Territories: 82 / 150
Times attacked by other players: 3

In total 169 attacks were launched during the game.
Of 14 players (17 but 3 DC'd before start so they aren't included), 26% of ALL attacks went towards me, even when I was far from the lead in territories conquered. Most players were attacked 10 times or less, 1 player even being attacked 0 times. The only other player that got hit an above-average amount was 3rd place, and even he was 1 less than me. I'm trying to understand why.

Random targeting doesn't explain it because it seems statistically very unlikely for 2/14 people to get hit by 89 (53%) of the attacks.

By conquered territories or unconquered armies doesn't make sense because they should target 1st-3rd place usually and I only spent a few blips in 1st place right at the start.

Most armies/sec? Maybe? At least at the end I definitely didn't have the most. I activated my AC supercharge when I could and perhaps I got super unlucky and everyone was hitting attacks in that short window where I could have had the most? I think I got 5 activations off and the session age was 123 hours, so it seems really unlikely that I would get about 3-5x the average of attacks the other players did when I had about 5/123 (4%) of my time in a supercharge. With 15 attacks on the map that's an average of once every 8 "hours" per player although it's probably less condensed at the beginning and more near the end, so it's about an average of a 1/8 chance for that to go to me if they're targeting by army income, which if everyone is, maaaaybe that would account for it for 13 people to shoot at least 2 at me when 15/8 ~= 2? That would require a very specific situation though so it also seems really unlikely and it didn't feel like the attacks were just coming while I was doing the AC supercharge.

I'm really confused how I was still getting pummeled while I was near the bottom of the leaderboard. This is not the first time I've experienced getting pummeled all the way to the bottom and then held underwater till my armies stopped breathing, so it's not an isolated incident.

Artifacts:
40% money boost
40% army boost
10% AC discount
1 hr AC supercharge

Advancements that seem relevant to a battle:
+200% Army camp production
+25% cache money
+20% cache resources
25% joint strike
25% auto-conquer
120 auto-smelt
20% auto-upgrade camp

Also, this REALLY doesn't make sense, 8th place shows as "149/150 territories" where I was at "150/150 territories". So... is the leaderboard NOT determined by the amount of territories that have been conquered? But by what then? I had more armies/second by about 200, had completed the map while they hadn't, so what gives? Are battles just buggy messes? Am I kinda clueless about how this all works? How does someone who has NOT completed the map place above someone who has?

How did 3rd place, who had almost half of my armies/second and got attacked once less than me, manage 3rd place where I barely managed to scrape up to 9th after hitting 13/14? Is there some popular strategy I'm missing?

How did 1st place manage to avoid getting hit by everyone? Wouldn't they be taking the most attacks?

I'm not even past phase 2 advancements, nothing above rare in artifacts, haven't at all optimized my advancements for battles (or in general probably) but I was doing pretty well until I got mass-bombed. Obviously I'm missing something.

Edit:
Just did another one on the siege of feldmere. Took 6th, Was attacked 103 times in a group of 18. Next highest two were 97 (7th) and 90 (5th), then dropping into the 30s. I've got a special talent apparently. Looks like that time might have just been a cluster of the top 3 people getting destroyed and then 4-6th places rushed in. Fizzer should implement a "Bullet Sponge" achievement. I'd be great at it haha! I did focus more on mercenaries and less on AC upgrades as per Parsifal's comment, and that kept me nearer to the top more consistently until the end of the level (I was somehow first & second place until the last 20% or so). I did delay using my supercharge AC for a little bit at the beginning to not draw as much fire although I ended up in the lead for a while anyway. Too little data to really know how much it improved things but that seemed to at least help me not get shot into last place despite my knack for consistently winning "public enemy #1"

Edited 9/22/2021 22:54:07

The short answer to your problem: auto-upgrade army camp advancement is your enemy in battles!

The longer answer:
attacks from most players will usually target the current 1st place. If you start a the lead, obviously you'll get a bunch of missiles that will throw you back. Until you have recovered from it the other players have already finished the battle.

Having SAC artifact is good, but 1 hour is not enough against players that have it on epic or legendary.

auto-upgrade camp is the advancement that in my opinion makes the battles more difficult, because you can't control anymore your camp upgrades, and it puts you as primary target to the Most armies/sec attacks.
As I said earlier, you generally don't want to be 1st at the beginning (unless you get better artifacts).
That also means that because your AI is constantly spending your income, you don't have enough to purchase mercenaries - those can help a lot at the end phase of each battle.

If battles are REALLY important for you, I'd think about resetting your AP and don't unlock auto-upgrade AC anymore. This is a must for challenges and a set back for battles.

How can other players avoid attacks:
many explanations.
- if you have great stats and artifacts you can finish the battle before most of the other players have reached their first attack.
- if you stay as 3rd, you probably won't get attacked, because everyone attacks the 1st player, and the 1st player attacks the 2nd.
- it is possible to be in the lead for some time and not getting hit, if exactly in those moments nobody is sending missles.

149/150 - yep, I noticed that as well. My guess is that the last attack happened simultaneously with the win register. Because the battle tend to lag, it can lead to such result. Sometimes you can even conquer all the territories and then out of nowhere get a missle that throws your progress back.

Don't give up. Continue battling!

P.S.
keep in mind that as you improve your advancements and upgrade your artifact, you'll notice that you can take more and more hits without losing your 1st position.

My own stats for battles:
Artifacts:
ACB - epic
BMB - epic
SAC - epic
Time Warp - epic

Advancements
400% army camp production
125% mercenaries
25% joint strike
50% auto-conquer

Edited 9/23/2021 10:55:36

touch grass

think we have also an problem which plattform u play of. i noticed some battles where i had 200 mil armies but ai dosent attack a 13k teri or it does to slow in main. im not sure if it depends on connection speed or plattform u playing from ( android. or PC) for min what i noticed my 4 year old smartphone hes 30 times of speed in challanges than my pc. but test it. maybe u have same issue or .... especially not!?