[PLAYER GUIDE] Formation and Countering Part 1

*Special thanks to WAR Angel from K27 for contributing her game guide to us!

*Notice: This is a long gameplay guide and may take you 10 minutes to read.

Click here to read Formation and Countering Part 2

The results of fights in Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming, are not determined by the power of players. Fights in this world are determined, by the Buffs and Bonuses of the two players and their strategies. A weaker player with the right formation and reinforcements can defeat a stronger enemy who is attacking arrogantly and with no proper strategy. In this guide, I will first do a short review of what we know about the battle mechanics in the current meta, then I will discuss formations and countering and related topics about advanced battling.

Troops Attributes

As you know there are 4 troop types in this game. Infantry, Cavalry, Spearmen and Bowmen. Each of these troop types has 4 main attributes that are related to the way they act in the battlefield:

- Attack: This attribute determines the damage your troops can deal to the enemy. The higher it is; the more damage can be done to the enemy.

- Defense: This attribute is basically the direct counter to enemy attack, meaning it will reduce the damage caused by the enemy and will reduce your wounded/dead as a result.

- Health: This attribute determines the survivability of your troops. Basically the higher health your troops have, the more damage must be done to them to get them killed.

- Speed: This attribute affects several things:

> The higher this attribute is, the faster your troops move on the game map. Your speed in the map is determined by your slowest troops that are involved in the march.

> Troops take some time to reach the fight to be able to damage the enemy. The higher this attribute is, the faster that troop type will join the battlefield.

> Troops take some time off, between each of their attacks. The higher this attribute is, the more times, they will deal damage to the enemy during the fight.

This following formula is very naively showing the main battle formula in this game and might give you a better sense of what is happening in the battlefield:

Your damage rate=  (Your Attack-Enemy Defense)/(Enemy Health)

This formula is not accurate for several reasons that I might discuss in another guide in the future, but it’s giving a close to reality and good sense about the way the troop attributes affect each other.

Here is a list of all troop attributes and base values in different tiers:

Discussing troop attributes and how exactly troops engage each other in the battlefield is a very large area to cover as there are a lot of variables involved in it.

In this guide, I’m about to focus on one specific event that happens during the battle and that is called countering.

Countering

To show you the effect of countering, I’m going to start by providing some examples. Please look at the following 3 report logs, that are made by two fresh and new alt accounts with no buffs:

1 - 100 T1 infantry vs 100 T1 infantry

2 – 100 T1 spearman vs 100 T1 spearman

3 – 100 T1 infantry vs 100 T1 spearman

It’s not that hard to observe. The infantry is dealing around three times more damage to the enemy spearman than what they were dealing to the infantry. Spearmen are dealing around half of the damage to the infantry than when they were dealing to spearman. 

This effect is called countering.

Basically this famous circle exists in this game:

Just like what it's drawn there, your cavalry deals more damage to enemy infantry. Your infantry deals more damage to enemy spearman and your spearmen deal more damage to enemy cavalry. This is called countering the enemy.

There is another relationship as well! Your Spearmen deal less damage to enemy infantry, your infantry deal less damage to enemy cavalry and your cavalry deal less damage to enemy spearmen. This is called being countered.

Now, why did I separate countering the enemy and getting countered? Here are the reasons:

1 – The damage each side cause for the other side is calculated separately. I mean the damage you deal to the enemy, is based on your attack and their defense and health and the damage they deal to you is based on your defense and health and their attack. These two are calculated separately at the same time and they have zero direct effect on one another. Although they have indirect effects on each other like “Moral”.

2 – Countering is a buff on your attack and getting countered is a de-buff on your attack. These are basically two different factors affecting your troops.

3 - The troops should not be in the front row to counter the enemy, but troops can only counter or get countered by the enemy’s current front row as they can only attack the enemy front row.

Pay attention that countering is calculated for each pair of troop types that are in the battlefield separately. For example, if you attack an enemy with Infantry-Cavalry formation and the enemy has Spearman-Cavalry formation the relationships there will be:

- Your infantry will counter the enemy’s spearmen (will deal 3 times more damage to them)

- Enemy spearmen is countered by your infantry (This means they will deal half the damage to your infantry)

- Enemy cavalry will counter your infantry (This means they will deal 3 times more damage to your infantry)

- Your cavalry is countered by the enemy Spearman (They will deal half the damage to them)

Your infantry will only damage the enemy spearmen as long as the enemy has spearmen so they won’t be countered by the enemy cavalry (won’t have half damage) as long as enemy spearmen are fighting. Also, if your infantry die, enemy spearmen will find 3 times damage as your next frontline is cavalry.

Based on calculations and estimations, the countering troops deal around 3 times more damage to enemies and countered troop types deal half the damage to the enemy.

Bowmen don’t counter any other troop types, but they get countered by all even enemy bow. This means they will be dealing half the damage when there are no frontline troops to protect them. Because of that, if you have bowmen, make sure that they are always behind a secure line of frontline armies.

Based on what was discussed we can change the last battle formula to this:

Your damage rate=  (Your Attack*Counter Bonus-Enemy Defense)/(Enemy Health)

P.S.: This was first published on 2020-06-15.