Introduction

So now and then players ask me how to deal with situations where large alliances or players bully smaller players. This guide suggests how to deal with this, but I am very open to learn more experiences and ideas.

Explanation

Unlike some other games, in State of Survival there is no restriction based on power or any other measurement of strength with respect to who can attack whom. Anyone can attack anyone in the same state and in some states the high power players have no problem at all to frequently attack even players with only a small fraction of their power, to get some resources, increase their kills, or just because they find it fun to show of their power. For non- and small spenders in small alliances this is often experienced as very frustrating: putting up a peace flare 24/7 is too expensive, but being unprotected makes growing that much harder.

Why Would Large Players Not Bully Small Players

For the small players it is quite clear why they prefer not to be bullied, but what is in it for the large players, the big spenders, not to bully the small players?

I am not yet sure how the state vs state events will look like in State of Survival, but typically this containc both combat and non-combat stages and having many active players is normally a huge benefit for non combat stages. Doing better typically leads to better rewards for all, so state vs state is a good reason to not bully the smaller players until they quit.

Small players can become large and contribute for combat as well. It isn't too hard to grow to HQ 30 and unlock t10 troops, and if you do that you can fill rallies of stronger rally leaders and have a good contribution.

Don't count out the social aspect, for some players it is hard to imagine, but states can easily be bullied to just contain a few 100 players and a lot of players like the dynamics of having many players in a state, different active alliances. Bullying can lead to large amounts of players quitting the game (or starting over in another state), if you look at the long term, this is not beneficial.

Also bullies can benefit from a more peaceful state. Even for them always staying shielded is not beneficial. I have seen it more than once in similar games that someone who was bullied too much decide to spend big and became a bully himself, targetting stronger places, for example by consistently hitting resource tiles, not adhering to any state rules.

Acceptable Attacks

You should realize you are playing a war game and some attacks should be considered acceptable. Especially during kill stages you should expect the possibility of being attacked and prepare yourself.

Don't Make Yourself a Target

Before complaining to the attackers, make sure you don't make yourself a target. Teach your players to not have large amounts of excess resources. There some simple tricks to keep your resource levels down, most important is to not open resource items and claim rewards until you are going to do a (major) building upgrade. Also make sure your Warehouse is always one of the first buildings to upgrade.

In general in my opinion it is good to stay out of State chat. For socail contacts try to keep a lively chat in the alliance, where you are between friends. State chats regularly lead to discussions potentially escalating into conflicts.

If you have been attacked, don't react by sending messages to attack, state chat or the attacker's alliance. This will hardly ever have a positive effect. Also don't attack back, this is normally a waste of troops. Heal and retrain troops.

Relocating

In most situation I wouldn't go through the trouble of relocating. Relocating an alliance and setting up the new give in a structured way is a lot of work and normally you are found very quickly again.

I make an exception if you have gotten some signs that the current spot your alliance is to close to the bullies. E.g. you can get close to resource level 8 tiles with a small alliance, but the bigger alliances that are also there might not like it that you are taking up space and gathering high level tiles. Move a bit more away from the center, perhaps to a location where you are between lvl 6 and 7 tiles.

Hospitals and Healing

I mentioned before you should work on your Warehouse as soon as possible after a HQ upgrade, but also the Hospital building is very important if you are regularly attacked, together with the More Beds research on the Development category. Healing troops is so much cheaper than retraining, you want to minimize the amout of your troops that are killed.

Healing speed is also important, and healing together with your alliance in small batches of troops so you can heal ten thousands of troops very fast with alliance helps. I have written a separate guide on that recently.

Preparing for Attack / Minimizing Casualties

If you know you are likely going to be attacked, besides the tips above, it is also good to keep your troops save as much as possible. I am going to assume the opponent is way stronger than you are and can zero you (put all your troops in hospital) without taking significant losses. In that case it is better to just focus on saving your troops rather than protecting your account. Keeping up peace flares 24/7 is too expensive, so focus on other tactics. For example hide a march of your best troops in the Blast Shelter, where they are completely safe. If one of your alliance mates has a peace flare, you can consider sending some troops to reinforce him, but make sure you know when the peace flare will expire. If there are some players in your alliance that are too strong to be solo attacked, reinforce them and your troops will likely stay safe as well.

Some states have rules that resource tiles cannot be attacked, if there is such a rule in your state (and players adhere to it), consider sending out your troops to a lvl 8 tile before you go offline for a while. If you make sure your talent points are set to Economy and you don't have any gathering boost active your troops will stay "safe" on a resource tile longer.

Combat Strategy

If your alliance is attacked, the natural reaction is to attack the attacker, but this is hardly ever a good tactic. The game favors strong players attacking weak players. Even attacking a player of the same or slightly less battle power is often a bad idea, because the one defending has two major advantages, they don't have the march capacity restriction and their casualties are wounded, not killed.

So even if for example in a relatively young state a 50m power players comes bullying 10m power players and your alliance also has a 50m power player, that player should not solo attack the attacker. If you want to join into the combat the best way is to reinforce each other. Especially if you have one or more strong players it is a good tactic for them to reinforce weaker players, this way for sure the attacker will take more casualties, and his troops are killed, while the troops of the defender and the one reinforcing go to the hospital. So having a high level Assembly Point is also good for all players.

Doing a rally could in theory work, but any smart player will not what is coming and with a rally has plenty of time to decide whether he will take the rally or relocate.

Since attacking is not really a good idea, just forget about scouting those attackers as well, this might just incite the bullies further.

Diplomatic Approach

If the tips to make your alliance less of a target does not have the desired effect, diplomacy should be the next step. Ideally you keep the emotion out of this, and chose someone level headed in your alliance to discuss things with one of the leaders from the attacking players. Don't just complain, but explain your situation and indicate you would also like to enjoy the game, grow, and ultimately contribute to the state by doing well in state vs state events. Unless they ask who attacks you, don't single out specific players. Try to keep it general and constructive. Tell them you read other states have only attacks within the state during scheduled periods (normally the kill stages of events), and whether this can be considered in your state as well.

You can let them know what are all the things you have already done to not make your alliance a target, to minimize the benefit players have of attacking you when it comes to taking resources.

Comments

Please share your experiences and view on how to best deal with smaller alliances constantly being attacked by larger players in the comments section below.