[PLAYER GUIDE] My KvK Experience

*Special thanks to bubbleboix  from K12 for contributing his KvK experience to us!

Hey hey hey, this is bubbleboix from k12 formerly k20, I am here to share my experience and some lessons learned from playing kvk since the inception of the event. My kvk is unique in the sense that I started from a small player at kvk 1 and ended as a sort of small whale in the most recent kvk 5. I am here to share my gameplay experience and some tips and lessons learned from all 5 kvk and how I played and should have played at different stages of the game.

Kingdom vs Kingdom 1 (My Rating: 30-40m ). 

In kvk 1, I just started logging on and doing dailies and was part of a small alliance that was mainly a diplomatic bubble up alliance (shout out to KNG ) and about 30m in power. The alliance was getting raided daily but I still wanted to go out and earn the kvk rewards, keep in mind gathering didn't score so well at kvk 1 and was mainly buffed in order for new or low BR players to contribute. 

What I did: Attacked a similar BR castle and lose 200k t3 and effectively zeroed myself in the first 5 mins of KvK .

What I should have done: Gathering, I should have bubbled up and gathered like a sensible person. 

Lesson learn: Attack below half your BR and under your role in the Kvk. 

Kingdom vs Kingdom 2 (My Rating: 50-60m)

In the 2nd kvk I manage to join some top 5 alliances in the server and they had a decent t4 with and a lot of active players shout out to SWW of K20. it was way more fun playing kvk at a lower level with an alliance as it allows you to experience the social aspect of the game. I think our server was matched up with United16, seeing a 700m roaming the streets was quite shocking in the early part of the game, having a t4 rally leader it was the first time I experienced taking a castle by reinforcing it and just scoring points by holding it. I also did manage to raid the smaller castle and score some kills. But I got zeroed by united 16 in by not knowing how to hide troops while taking a castle. 

What I did: reinforcing a castle with my troops unsheltered. 

What I should have done: ported in a few alts and shetler my troops and hide my troops in the bubbled castle. Only have enough troops exposed that is roughly about my hospital limit. 

Kingdom vs Kingdom 3 (My Rating: 70-90m)

In this kvk, I had high military research and could actually do something, looking around during the map, we notice that they were purging the opposite server beforehand and I wasted a lot of time hitting empty castle and trying to find kills via castle. 

What I did: trying to find kills hitting an empty castle that was already purged an hour before Kvk.

What I should have done: hit nodes directly, don't waste time hitting empty castles always assume that the server has been purged, the only funny thing is that people don't purge nodes, it is seen as some kind of taboo, port over and hit any nodes u see with the enemy server gather.

Kingdom vs Kingdom 4 and 5. (My Rating: 150-300m)

Kingdom 4 and 5 I was playing as a mini whale, this is where the fun starts, basically in kvk as long as you are a whale, you are immune to getting soloed attack (most of the time) and never do rallies on players, as a single random port out can cancel the rally. Being a mini whale at this stage u can take a lot of castle solo and just hold for points and is mainly about 1v1 castle fight most of the time. I will not stress this part as not many people can relate and whales have already had their own style of playing kvk and it is really hard to say what is right or wrong. I am more of a solo player in kvk and dislike holding the castle for a long period of time. 

As you can see from the above, there are many ways to play kvk and knowing your strength and role in kvk server is critical to ensure points scoring and minimizes losses. As you progress in game, your role changes as u can do more in kvk to score points, I hope the above gives u a general idea on role identification and what you should do for kvk, but hey do not let me stop you from enjoy kvk and play how u want to play.

I will now start sharing some guides/tips that I notice is critical for KvK from the many lessons picked up in victory or defeat from different servers, I feel that you are only progressing when you learn something from every kvk. 

1. Always have a separate server chat group and not depend on the WC during kvk. 

In the 2nd and 3rd kvk I remember k20 had a dedicated person spamming the wc whenever enemies posted coords. This was to prevent the other server from having the advantage when it comes to sharing information. 

K12 has a dedicated group where all the active fighters are in to share coords for coordinated group attacks and we even have a dedicated VC for kvk where all the alliance joins during kvk.

2. Don't ever rally at a player’s castle during kvk unless…..

In kvk never rally a player castle, as during the 5 mins all the player has to do is transport into the enemy server to remove the rally. I got zeroed once in kvk when I was new and joined a person rallying a castle and leaving myself open to getting zeroed by a bigger whale due to being in fevor and not being able to teleport out and the rally leader also did not speak English and it was hard to tell him to disband the rally. 

There are only 2 cases when an alliance should rally at a player castle. 

When the players lose his lord and rage quit the game in the middle of Kvk (FoF did this to one of my alliance members it was painful to watch)  and went afk or 

When your alliances holds a castle, and player A and B from the opposite alliance starts rallying to fight for the castle, your alliance can rally either player A or B, to either weaken the rally that is coming towards your castle by forcing the rally leader to disband the rally or send back player B castle. 

In this scenario above, it forces them to either zero their weaken player that joined the rally or weaken their rally that is going towards your castle. 

3. Have alts to shelter troops or take the Great City.  

When an alliance takes a castle they will always leave their castle open to getting hit, porting alts or low level players that are in bubble to hide troops is a way forcing a rally on the great city and giving no points to the solo attacker that will be trying to hit castles that are reenforcing the great city. 

It is also evident that during kvk a lot of players will capture and disband castle during the course of the event, having an alt to take and hold an empty castle earn an alliance easy points without the cost or losses of troops. If you receive no scout on a great city it means that the castle is empty, Sending an alt means easy points for the alliance. 

4. Encourage everyone to do their part. 

Always encourage small players to go to the other server to gather and score points, it all adds up at the end of the day, I have seen a server capture and hold all castle in both servers but still got lost because they only had a small number of small players to gather.

5. Always use anti scout.+

Enough said 

6. Server purge an hour before the event. 

I am starting to see this becoming a common practice in every server. Before the start of an event clear out the unbubbled, unscoutable castle and zero them to prevent points being even to the other side.

7. Swapping 1 v 1 formation.

If u hold a castle and see a scout coming from far away, they usually do not monitor the castle, after the scout is going back u can change formation to trick them when they send an attacking countering your formation.

8. Gathering with t1 bowman. 

Gathering with t1 bowman, because they give you the most capacity and less risk when your nodes get an attack, they carry the most and give away the least amount of points. 

9. Manage your resources.

Knowing the total heals and precise transfer you have is important in kvk, knowing how much you can play is key in not over committing yourself to lose more than what you can afford. Always have enough rss in packs to fully heal yourself know when is the time to bubble up and kvk is over for u. 

10. Have fun

Kvk rewards are the worst in the game, there is no upset to this event expect the fun and social aspect of working together, the diamonds mines do not do enough to compensate and usually lead to my server woes after kvk. Just know that you're going to lose a lot of troops and rss playing kvk and just enjoy the event. 

P.S.: This was first published on 2020-01-10.