Protips on War XII : Bounties

[Nymphsong]

Part XII – Bounties

So, Bounties have been in the guilds game for a while now. They can be a very efficient boost when in a war, prepping for a war, and probably being the most effective during a first strike. Bounties can be collected throughout the age, but there are many different kinds of bounties and when they are appropriate to use varies depending on where you are in the age and status of your guild.

At present, land taken is on the “low” level for a general warrior taking land. This means that the value of a bounty at present is almost even higher. Looking at the number of turns it takes to conduct a sorcery kill with a Sidhe, it means a massive turn advantage over building or warring. Example, if I use Sorcery to kill a 30,000 acre realm, I just got 9,000 acres that I can claim immediately. For the sorcerer, that is massive because they almost never gain that much land in a war. Additionally, when I claim, unlike the warrior who is drawing minimally built structures I get a free ~20% built structures in this case ~1,800. Even with a BR of 18 that is still +100 turns of building you saved. Bounties tend to give you random structures, and ideally, if you draw Quarries, it’s a massive win. But in any case…it is almost always a win over the warrior, unless they have a huge realm and are just anchoring away and getting really fat and untouchable. So, the base argument could be said, Bounties are pretty awesome, especially given the present game statistics. Now, if someone was really evil, they could use the sorcerers to get 95% of the quick kill and have a warrior finish them off and get fat that way as well, (which is extremely useful when targeting the NPC realms). There is so much efficiency to the Bounties right now, guilds would be extremely foolish not collect them and use them.

So, when is the best time to get a bounty? The answer is actually pretty simple. When you exhaust all of your “tithing bonuses” while building your realm, which usually (for most races) occurs between 11k and 15k acres. Any time after that it is game on. Now, there are some cautions to throw out. Using 250 turns to get 4k acres, just to get thumped by a guild that night may not be ideal. Always know your environment and what the threat out there is. Now, looking at the present state of the game, there are about 3 main guilds and 3 minor guilds in play. Major guilds are the biggest threat. If two out of the three are engaged in a guild war…guess what, it might be a good time to start collecting bounties in order to efficiently maximize “the time off award” of not being in a war where major resources are expended. Also, in most wars…whoever strikes first almost always tends to get 1-2 big kingdoms…this can enable you to keep pace with those realms and continue to threaten them as soon as the war ends.

When to claim them? I almost always say claim your bounties immediately. However there are some times when you should not. When in a defensive war, where you cannot protect the bounty you just captured, hold it. When your guild recovers and restores from the war, you then have two options, claim it to get your kingdom back on track…or save it for that first strike, in which it is a nice “semi-secret” weapon…and can give you a major unaccounted for tactical advantage. I say semi-secret because any guild worth their salt (either AGM of War or GM) will be looking at the kills constantly and checking for unclaimed bounties.

Nymph