Tactics for WarBOT-based Non-Random Games

Compiled and Edited by Bob Heeter. Last Revised June 28, 1998.

This section explains tactics for optimizing your use of WarBOT in League and Tournament games against other humans. WarBOT (The Warlords Battle Odds Tool) is a utility which lets you determine the survival chances for all units in any battle. Under the Tournament rules, only those units whose survival percentage is 50% or higher are allowed to survive a battle. Using WarBOT and Tournament rules, optimizing your stacks becomes a life-or-death issue for your kingdom, rather than simply a statistical advantage. And it turns out there are a lot of interesting tactics that can be used to win battles with WarBOT while suffering minimal casualties. All the ones I know about are explained below.

Got any new ideas? Discoveries?

Why not share with the rest of us, and make things more challenging and fun for everyone? Send me your ideas!

WarBOT Tactics

Choose What You Lose! With WarBOT and Warlords, you can adjust the fight order, so that you only lose your weaker units, and the stronger ones survive. This trick is essential to preserving the best units that form the core of your strong stacks and provide your other units with the bonuses they need to fight well.

Here's a simple example: Suppose we have a griffin and 3 light cav attacking a city defended by 3 light cav. A novice player might run the attack with the default fight order, giving you this:

WarBOT beta 9
Armyset: Tournament b1-4
WL version: Mac Classic
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   0     0     0     0                  *0*     0     No
DEF:   0     0     0     0     1            *1*     0     No

                     Entered    Final
Attack Units:        Strength  Strength  Survival %
---------------      --------  --------  ----------
Griffin                   6         8     0.82768 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.21728 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.08492 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.01557 <-- Dies..

Defense Units:
---------------
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.17232 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.06570 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.01146 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remaining

It's an easy win, but here the attacker loses three light cavalry. A veteran player would look at this and figure out that by having the griffin fight first, he can win the battle without losing any units at all:

WarBOT beta 9
Armyset: Tournament b1-4
WL version: Mac Classic
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   0     0     0     0                  *0*     0     No
DEF:   0     0     0     0     1            *1*     0     No

                     Entered    Final
Attack Units:        Strength  Strength  Survival %
---------------      --------  --------  ----------
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.82768 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.74875 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         2     0.65401 <-- Lives!
Griffin                   6         8     0.55127 <-- Lives!

Defense Units:
---------------
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.17232 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.06570 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.01146 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 4 unit(s) remaining

A true expert would go one step further and not use the Light Cav in the battle, because they aren't even needed and they can probably be more useful in another battle somewhere else. At a minimum, they waste movement by attacking the city (2 movement points) when they could just march in after the griffin takes it (1 movement point).

The Art of Almost Dying: (Or, the 50.1% Win) In an ideal battle, your victorious unit should win with just a little over 50% chance of surviving. In this way, you generally lose as few units as possible. Ideally, the unit which survives with 50.1% is also your strongest unit, such as a griffin (if fighting in a city) or an ally unit. The closer a unit is to 50%, the more "damage" he is taking (in terms of probabilities) in the battle. That means that the unit is contributing as much as possible to your victory, without actually getting killed himself. In an ideal battle, you can put peon units below your strongest unit, and protect your valuable non-peon units by letting the strong unit do most of the fighting.

Example: The "50.1% Win" -

   Suppose you have a hero with a base strength of 7 (+2 natural bonus)
   and a +1 command item, leading a stack of, say, 7 light cav, and you
   want to capture a city (with 1 build and thus +1 defense) defended by
   a giant bat, 4 light cav, and 3 light inf.  You decide to try the
   battle in WarBOT.  First you do the obvious thing, and attack with 
   every unit in your stack:

WarBOT beta 9
Armyset: Tournament b1-4
WL version: Mac Classic
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   2     1     0     0                  *3*     0     No
DEF:   0     0     0     0     1            *1*     0     No
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        Note: WarBOT figures out your +3 hero bonus!

                     Entered    Final
Attack Units:        Strength  Strength  Survival %
---------------      --------  --------  ----------
*Hero                     7        10     0.97490 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.85410 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.72832 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.54869 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.33974 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.15456 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.04243 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.00448 <-- Dies..

Defense Units:
---------------
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.02510 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.00923 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.00245 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00037 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00007 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00001 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00000 <-- Dies...
Giant Bat                 1         2     0.00000 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 4 unit(s) remaining

=============================================================

Now, a novice player would simply fight the battle and
lose four light cavalry, since the odds are good.  But a
veteran player would remember that movement points are precious,
and using smaller stacks makes for a more flexible offense, so
the veteran would leave behind three light cavalry, since it
costs 2 movement points to attack a city but only one movement
point to march into a city you own.  (Even better, those
three light cavalry are now free to march somewhere else
altogether, if they aren't needed with the hero stack this turn!)

So then we'd have this battle:

WarBOT beta 9
Armyset: Tournament b1-4
WL version: Mac Classic
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   2     1     0     0                  *3*     0     No
DEF:   0     0     0     0     1            *1*     0     No

                     Entered    Final
Attack Units:        Strength  Strength  Survival %
---------------      --------  --------  ----------
*Hero                     7        10     0.79567 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.33974 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.15456 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.04243 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.00448 <-- Dies..

Defense Units:
---------------
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.20433 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.11680 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.05364 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.01717 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00591 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00138 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00016 <-- Dies...
Giant Bat                 1         2     0.00000 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remaining

=============================================================

The veteran player still wins the battle (of course), losing 4 light
cavalry and taking the city with just a hero, but now 3 of the 7
original light cavalry are free to do something else, since they
didn't have to fight.  Pretty good!

But the expert player will look at those odds and laugh,
because the hero is winning with a survival percentage much
higher than 50%.  That means that the light cavalry are doing
all the work (statistically speaking) and the hero is hardly fighting!
Why fight with all those light cavalry when you only need 50.1% to win?
The expert player will go back to WarBOT and ask if there's a "50.1% Win"
that lets him save some units.  The expert would discover this:

WarBOT beta 9
Armyset: Tournament b1-4
WL version: Mac Classic
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   2     1     0     0                  *3*     0     No
DEF:   0     0     0     0     1            *1*     0     No

                     Entered    Final
Attack Units:        Strength  Strength  Survival %
---------------      --------  --------  ----------
*Hero                     7        10     0.50129 <-- Lives!
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.04243 <-- Dies..
Cavalry, Lt               2         5     0.00448 <-- Dies..

Defense Units:
---------------
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.49871 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.37239 <-- Dies...
Infantry, Lt              2         4     0.24316 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.12721 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.06571 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.02549 <-- Dies...
Cavalry, Lt               2         3     0.00578 <-- Dies...
Giant Bat                 1         2     0.00023 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 1 unit(s) remaining

=============================================================

Now the attacker is only losing 2 units instead of 4!  That
means the attacker is going to take the city, and still have
5 light cavalry free to reinforce the city, fight other battles,
or otherwise make mischief.

Let's compare the three outcomes:

Novice:   Ties up 8 units in 1 battle, wins with 97.5% odds, loses 4 units.
Veteran:  Ties up 5 units in 1 battle, wins with 79.6% odds, loses 4 units.
Expert:   Ties up 3 units in 1 battle, wins with 50.1% odds, loses 2 units.

===========================================================================

Here's a more subtle example: A hero/worm stack with an archer and some spiders is going up against a well-fortified enemy city. Rather than doing the obvious (and losing the archer as a result) -

WarBOT v1.5
Armyset: Tournament b1-4     
WL version: Mac CD
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   1     0     2     1                  *4*     0     No 
DEF:   0     0     1     1     1            *3*     0     No 

                     Entered    Final
Att Units :          Strength  Strength  Survival %
----------------     --------  --------  ----------
*Hero                     5         9     0.73960 <-- Lives!
Worm, Giant               7        11     0.62201 <-- Lives!
Archer                    4         8     0.41501 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.29943 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.15069 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.05422 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.01151 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.00092 <-- Dies..

Def Units :
----------------
Ghost                     5         8     0.26040 <-- Dies...
Archer                    4         7     0.17353 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.11730 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.05444 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.01964 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00497 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00073 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00004 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 2 unit(s) remaining

An expert player might try this (protecting the archer to help with defense of the newly-taken city, and fight again later) -

WarBOT v1.5
Armyset: Tournament b1-4     
WL version: Mac CD
Intense Combat: Off
Terrain:  Enemy city 0,1,2 prod

   Hero Bonuses  Non-  For-                TOTAL  Minus  Fly
   Natural Item  Hero  tify  City  Cancel  BONUS  Enemy  Item
--------------------------------------------------------------
ATT:   1     0     2     1                  *4*     0     No 
DEF:   0     0     1     1     1            *3*     0     No 

                     Entered    Final
Att Units :          Strength  Strength  Survival %
----------------     --------  --------  ----------
*Hero                     5         9     0.73960 <-- Lives!
Archer                    4         8     0.62201 <-- Lives!
Worm, Giant               7        11     0.51096 <-- Lives!
Spider                    4        10     0.29943 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.15069 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.05422 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.01151 <-- Dies..
Spider                    4        10     0.00092 <-- Dies..

Def Units :
----------------
Ghost                     5         8     0.26040 <-- Dies...
Archer                    4         7     0.17353 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.11730 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.05444 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.01964 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00497 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00073 <-- Dies...
Spider                    4         9     0.00004 <-- Dies...

Attacker wins with 3 unit(s) remaining

Softening Up the Enemy: If you have a lot of units available for offense, but no single stack can completely eliminate the enemy, you can often win a battle by "softening up" the enemy with small attacks first. The idea is to assemble just enough units (usually peons) to kill one or two enemy units at a time, and gradually knock down his strength. Then when the enemy is weak enough, go in with your strongest stack for the kill.
For example: Rather than doing this -
Do this instead -
The Baguette Defense: Sometimes it's wise to adjust the fight order so your strongest defensive units in a given terrain fight first. (Typically heavy infantry, spiders or griffins, in city battles with the tournament army set). Softer units (especially the ones that provide you with your stack bonuses) should stay high in the fight order. This way your enemy cannot easily pick away at your units with a softening-up strategy. Your stack is like a nice French baguette: crunchy on the outside, but softer on the inside.
For example: Rather than doing this -
Try this instead -
Prioritize Your Bonuses: Before leaving a stack on defense, or sending it in to attack, it helps to adjust the fight order to protect the units whose bonuses you rely upon most. The odds are heavily influenced by who has the most bonuses on his side, and if you start losing your heroes, allies, and other units which supply bonuses, you are going to end up in trouble. For example, unless speed is essential to your strategy, an elemental (+1 stack) should die before a Giant Worm (+2 stack). If you let the Worm get killed, someone will no longer need to worry about your +2 stack bonuses, and that can tip the odds against you later on.
For Example: Rather than doing this -
Do this instead -
Optimize for the Local Terrain: Most battles are fought in cities, so it pays to build units with city terrain and stack bonuses. For offense against enemy cities, units which can cancel enemy bonuses become essential, such as elephants and catapults. When fighting elsewhere, bring in units which will fight best in that terrain. For instance, a hero with a flight item, a heavy cav, and a bunch of pikemen will make a great navy-killing stack, since your units will all get their open terrain bonuses over water/shore. Because you will often benefit by having units that can move and fight in non-city terrain, it helps to build a variety of units optimized to the terrain types you expect to fight in. Spiders with a giant will often fight just as well as dwarves in the hills, and dwarves with a pegasus will often fight just as well as spiders in the cities.
Warlords Poker Hands: Here are some common odds combinations to remember. Just as 3-of-a-kind beats a pair in poker, there are groups of unit strengths that will win small battles with few losses:
1. A pair of 4s beats a 6 or 7.
2. A 3 and a 4 beats a 6.
3. A pair of 5s beats an 8.
4. "Invincible 14s" - a 14 beats a whole stack of 4s (such as navies).

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