Terminology :

A

Army :

Asia :

B

Bonus :

Boot :

C

Chat :

CLOTR :

Counter-pick :

Creep :

D

Defense :

E

Elimination :
Def.: Removing a player from the game.
Example : I eliminated a player. It was a 3 vs 3 game. Two enemy players were already eliminated. We won the game.

Enemy :
Def.: A player not part of your team.
Example :

F

Forum :

G

Good Game :

H

Hot Spot :

I

In-game :

J



K



L

Ladder :

Leader :

M

Mail :

Map :

Multi-attack :

N

Negate :

O



P

Picks :

Plan :

Player :

Production :

Profile :

Q



R

Reinforce :

Reinforcement :

S

Spread :

T

Teammate :
Def. : A player that is part of your team.
Example :

Tournament :

Trade :
Def. : Exchanging a territory for another one in a game.
Example :

Triple Pick :

Turtle :

U


V



W

Wall :

X



X



Y



Z



&

Edited 1/25/2015 00:11:53

Why is "Be right back" part of the compendium? What does that have to do with WarLight? And if it's included, then afk, lol and roflmao should be included as well, no?

General thinking :

War is not about gaining an advantage on the opponent but rather minimizing your losses.

Claiming a territory that cannot be protected is losing the territory twice.

Attrition warfare is a stalemate if there is no territory to hold.

Build strong and your defenses will be impenetrable.

The one that receives the least losses wins.

Expose the enemy but not yourself.

The best way to protect a line is placing your troops equally.

It is better to lose once than lose all.

Force others to commit errors. Create uneasy situations.

Everything should be used. Having idle forces is the same as having none. Move them out near your borders.

A mixed front is an unified front. Never go far from your allies.

The only obstacle to expansion is the amount of territories available.

Kill the weak before he becomes strong.

Never repeat your turns or you are becoming predictable. Doing this will make your game dependent on luck.


Expansion and Picks :

Expanding has two functions : acquiring production and gaining a higher reach.

A higher reach gives you access to more territories.

Both reach and expansion are important.

---

Picks are used in two ways : A starter territory to expand, gain production and reinforce OR a territory to expand your REACH.

Their second use is not intuitive. You must remember that the map you are playing on is limited. There is only X territories on the map and Y total production that can be achieved. If you know where the opponent is, you can negate or deny a territory. If you know where the opponent is not, you can secure the area or expand without much concern about your borders.

A strongest border has no *holes* and is a straight line. If you expand in one particular direction only, you will have the army advantage at a certain place and may deny the neutrals better. A particular strategy is picking picks near all the point of entrances. You will defend well your continent and you are denying the neutrals inside. You are likely to deny other continents early while expanding slowly towards the center.

Picking a central territory inside a superbonus makes you safe against others. You will not be noticed until a few turns.

Making counter-strategies is next set of skills to master if you want to rank in ladders.

Edited 1/25/2015 02:13:57

Quote :

"Why is "Be right back" part of the compendium? What does that have to do with WarLight? And if it's included, then afk, lol and roflmao should be included as well, no?"

I removed it. Please consult internet slang dictionaries if you see strange abbreviations.


"brb" is the second most used internet slang probably. Players *write* this in chat when they plan to take their turn in a few minutes. Most seen in multi-day games where all players are online.


-------------------------------

1,2,3,4,5...

Neutrals :

A 2 vs 2 is useful if you don't want *extra* armies. It is rare that it works for the first time.


A 3 vs 2 is the most used. If you have no definite goals and want to expand everywhere, use 3s.


A 4 vs 2 is used by top players. It is simple why this is the most effective method. Any extra armies go for the next territory. A 4 vs 2 is used when you want to have access to more territories in a bonus. I use 3s for the territories nearest to me and 4s to complete the bonus. It gives good results.


Enemy :

A 2 vs 1 is the most used when spam attacking. Many players don't know how to handle spam attacks and just protect a single territory.

A 3 vs 1 is used to kill the 2s your opponent may spawn. You may place higher armies if you have the production for.

A 4 vs 1 is deadly. There is often a territory or more behind the one you are taking. You can use the remainder to take territories in the second turn with 2s if no army was placed. If armies were placed, you may still take over.


Neutral versus Enemy :

There is something I call the effective *damage*.

---

Taking the territories from neutrals give you production. More production means more armies to place.

Taking the territories from the enemy gives you production AND it is a mean to reduce the number of his armies.

Comment : Most newbies will defend and expand everywhere. This is a bad thing to do in a team game where you may clash into other people. The smart player that have spent most of his armies to gather an attack force has the upper hand.

---

You want to achieve balance between *passive* and *active* conquests.

I use the 80/20 rule. The numbers are not important. It is either you expand a little just to take a single territory and use the remainder for attack/defense or do the complete opposite.

Expanding and attacking equally is useless.

In a FFA, decent players will avoid to enter into a vicious fight in the early turns. The reasoning is that you may win against a single player with your 5,10 or 20 production but you will be behind everyone else. Taking a good chunk of the map will give you a position.

---

Threat range :

It is simple to define this. A territory connected to multiple bonuses has a high threat range. Territories that have high threat range are usually part of a high defense bonus.

The most common example of a high defense value bonus AND a high threat range are islands.

Defense value :

A bigger bonus is usually harder to protect. All you need is to lose a single territory to have your bonus negated.

Most high defense value bonus are small.

They constitute point of entrances most of the time.

Cover :

A neutral that covers many of your territories. It is a good idea to place walls or defend in those long/large territories. Losing your cover means that you become exposed. You can have multiple lines of cover and exposed territories. If an enemy meets your exposed territories instead of you cover, you are in a bad position.

Super bonus :

Most strategies turn around super bonus. The first one to take a super bonus receive an incredibly high production.

---

Tactics :

Wall : Many armies placed near borders. The other player does the same. It happens in tight areas as a point of entrance connected to other point of entrances.

Cut : You block the expansion of the enemy.

Food : Eating someone who does not protect his territories. It happens often in FFA.

Sandwich : Two or more players are attacking you from different directions.

The Mine : Taking a pick in a bonus and place a significant part of your production. Once the bonus is almost complete, you can attack back or stay. It is a good way to deal with foreign problematic territories. You can use a blockade to negate the territory early.

Spread : Attack every enemy territory in sight. It happens after you cut the frontline.

Creep : You send a large army to the other base (main production bonuses) very slowly. You eventually reach a high number of armies and breach his bonuses. You have two options once your production is stable : expand or attack. Creep if you are a few territories away from the enemy. It is likely that he will have half bonuses when you see him.

Scout : Scouting is important. You can negate a bonus before it is complete.

Surprise Transfer : You place a few armies to protect your bonus. The opponent believes that you have low production and he sends his armies next turn without any new deploys. Transfer your 2-turns army and win.

Defense Transfer : Transfer while defending two territories at once. You place all your armies on a single territory and transfer to the other. It is believed that it gives you higher odds to protect your 2-territories.

Offense blockade : Attack a bonus and abandon/blockade.

Abandon-delay : Take over your abandon. Neutrals are used as allies. It works if your territory is attacked by a large force.

Breach : Send a single large force through territories until you reach the approximate center. The defender may lose armies if attacking you, miss you or place *useless* armies for defense. The odds are in your favor. Once you are deep enough, you can work backwards and spread your armies.

Single-negate : Send a single large force to negate a superbonus. It gives you an edge in production for 1 turn. The negate lasts 1 turn only. You can harass your enemy by breaking different superbonuses randomly while he tries to protect them. The opponent will finally reach a numerical inferiority even if he has more territories.

Friendly backstab : It works in team games. Attack Player 1 territory and meet Player 2 territory. Player 2 attacks you and is in Player 1 Territory. I like to use this when I can because the negate often last two turns (me occupying territory;teammate occupying territory).

Double attack : Both you and your opponent issue the attack order. It results in high losses for the one who attacks the first or has low armies. It happened a few times that I and my opponent had equal forces but I won. You can use this tactic to take over a territory with *minimal* forces if you want to take risk AND the player is always attacking.

Comment : Why newbies attack larger forces ? I often see a large army coming at my teammate and the first thing he does is (losing) all his production with an attack. It is even worse when double attack happens and only a 1 is left in his territory.

Turtle : You have one of the top position in a FFA. Do you use your armies or hide your position ? If you hide your position, you can let the low players attack the other players holding the top positions. You will later use your two/three/... turn-army.

Quick surrender : You have a low production. You decide to use all your production to breach his bonuses. You take a long detour through Europe with a large army while your territories are ruined. The opponent thinks that you have Europe AND that you are not defending because you are about to end the game. He surrenders and you win. Taking a high threat range territory and use an element of surprise is the recipe for quick surrenders.

Mirroring : Expand where your enemy expands. Make the same walls as your enemy. If you have a higher production, you will win through numerical advantage without any strategy.

Trade : Negate a large bonus but lose a small one in exchange. You can also use it to get a better position/placement. An island that opens the way to all enemy superbonuses is worth more than a single bonus.

Value-defense : It is a better version of the line tactic. Instead of equal defense, bonuses that are worth more are better protected.

Value-defense variant 2 : Divide the value by the number of exposed territories.

Edited 1/25/2015 02:43:18

About the compendium :

I joined Warlight in 2011 and have matured since. :)

I have played many strategy games. You start to think differently and develop abilities when playing strategy games seriously for a long time. I will take over battle.net in 10 years. :P


There are many terms used in Warlight Chat as Wall, Cut, Spread, Scout, Negate, Trade, Triple Picks. New players don't understand what it means and they don't ask. There are some players that still ask in chat if they should go with 2s, 3s, 4s or more when taking neutrals.



As you see, the compendium is divided into sections :

Terminology, One-line advice, Mechanisms and Tactics.


There is no need to repeat the wiki. I will not give large definitions in the terminology section.

Profile/Chat/Clans are under-used features. This is why Warlight site features are included.


Quizz/simulation and images will be added for better understanding.

Popular Classic maps from 2011 and earlier will be here.


Extras : Scenarios with AIs, Templates.

Java Warlight simulation (?) : It will generate statistics and make tree of events. A tool to evaluate your strategy.

Edited 1/25/2015 02:37:51