THE HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE IN BATTLE

Like most games, there is a significant home-field advantage in BFTN when it comes to battle.  Defending cities have the following advantages over attacking cities:

• Army Size - An attacking city is limited to sending waves of up to 100K troops but a defending city's response is unlimited.  If troops are unhidden, a defending city's entire army will rush out to meet the attack.  Should incoming attacks threaten to overwhelm defenses, a defending city has the additional benefit of being able to hide its troops at a moment's notice and preserve what's left of its army.

•  Marshal - A high level knight set to Marshal greatly improves a city's defenses.  For instance, a level 212 knight set to Marshal would increase the Attack and Life of defenders by 106%.  That means every single soldier would have an attack that is more than twice as deadly as it normally is and could survive in battle more than twice as long as normal.  Essentially, a level 212 knight set to Marshal more than doubles the size of a defending city's army!  As if this wasn't enough, the real benefit of the 212 Marshal is that the benefit remains in place for as long as the level 212 knight is set to Marshal.  An attacking city may have a 212 knight leading the charge of its first attack but it is highly unlikely that it will have a 212 knight available for every subsequent attack.        

• Walls - Walls are the first line of defense in an attack.  When used in combination with an unhidden army and a level 212 knight set to Marshal, well developed wall defenses become a challenging obstacle for attacking armies.

• Reinforcements - Depending on the level of one's Embassy, a defending city can host up to 1 million reinforcing troops at any given time, creating a nearly impenetrable defense.

• Watch Tower Details - Depending on the level of a defending city's Watch Tower, the defending city receives precise details of an incoming attack(s) including troop composition, research levels, and level of knight leading the attack.  Since defending cities can be reinforced at any time, an attacker would need a continuous flow of scouting reports to approximate this level of information and even then, he still would not have any info on the defending city's knight levels.