Some players simply aren't built for war. Those players normally quit or never get anywhere. A primary issue that often comes up in losing battle reports is troop formation. There's a number of ways that you can arrange your troops with varying degrees of success with each one of them, but three in particular will be devastating to your health.
NEVER fight in any formation that leaves boxes empty. I repeat, NEVER. When you do this, you allow your enemy the ability to outflank you, which I will explain later.
Another formation to avoid is the "Flat" formation, in which you arrange your troops with the exact same amount in every one of the 5 boxes. This formation is only useful in two circumstances--fighting wild devils and killing loose troops.
Finally, the last formation you should avoid under all costs is a mixed formation, in which you just cram whatever you have into 5 boxes. That's not a formation, it's slop. Anyone doing this deserves to get wiped out, and, if they do not change their ways, quit. Keep to making a minimal number of troop types and try to use formations of just one or two kinds of troops. This will make it easier for you to refill heroes and maintain a decent army and war effectiveness.
In the following message I will begin to explain formations.
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I mentioned before that leaving boxes empty is bad and here is why. Each box of troops gets the opportunity to attack and defend ONE TIME per round of battle. In the event that a box of troops from one hero does not have a box of troops to fight against on another hero, that box still gets to attack. What happens is that that particular box SHIFTS to the next available box. Here is an example (boxes A-E identified with the amount to troops in them)
Hero John- 300--300--150--0--0
VS
Hero Barry- 01---01-300-300-150
What will happen in the above battle is simple. John's box A & B will wipe out Barry's box A & B while Box C belonging to Barry will likely beat John. However, Barry still has Box D and E. These boxes will then SHIFT to fight box A and B belonging to John, but because they already had their turn, Barry will then wipe out John.
Any formation made by a player that has empty boxes is referred to as NOOB formation and anyone still doing this needs to break themselves of this habit.
In the event that John had uses a flat formation, the results still would have been in Barry's favor because box C and D would have overpowered him, leaving John with less boxes of troops remaining for round 2.
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Now that you understand why you should NEVER leave boxes empty, it's time to go over some finer points to formations.
On occasion, you may desire to put more than one troop in your end boxes, where I displayed only 1. The only reason to do this is to assure that all 5 boxes of troops will survive to round 2. However, if you KNOW you're facing a similar setup, this will serve no purpose and ultimately may cost you the battle, since you had to weaken another box to make that adjustment.
Another important detail in setting formations is understanding what the SHIFT is. In any battle where some boxes of troops survive and some die, in the following round, the boxes remaining all SHIFT to the left. For example, if your hero loses all the troops in boxes A, B, and C but D and E survive, in round 2 box C will become A and box E will become B. The same will happen to your enemy. The key here is to arrange your troops so that you have more surviving boxes than the enemy, thus giving you the FLANK attack. For instance, if after the SHIFT you have boxes A-C remaining and your opponent has only boxes A and B, your box C gets a free shot that his troops cannot defend against.
The last part of this training will cover scroll based formations.
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There are 4 scroll types that offer bonuses to your army based on the type of troops being used and the formation you place them in. Those scrolls are: Whirling Caste, Sky Archer, Golem that Ride, and Best Infantry.
Whirling Cast and Best Infantry add speed and attack bonuses to your 4Cavalry and 5Infantry, respectively
Sky Archer and Golem that Ride add HP and attack bonuses to your 2Cavalry and 6Infantry, respectively.
All 4 scrolls can tip the scales in battle if properly uses and if they have been improved to a higher level. There is one stipulation to their use, though--your formation. These scrolls only affect troops that are loaded in boxes 2-4, or B-D, to keep in tune with this training. What that means is that you need to be in a formation similar to 1--300--300--150--1. More commonly you'll see this written as 1-Full-Full-Half-1 or 1-F-F-H-1. What "Full" refers to is the recommended amount allowed by the system and "Half" refers to the remaining troops left after the other 4 boxes are filled. You may adjust this formation however you choose so long as your end boxes are filled with the least amount of troops, anticipating that they will die. If using a scroll formation against another player who is not, you will often devastate your competition.
