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. 

MAKE IT SNOW IN CAMELOT

Now you can make it snow in the game by typing a "magic phrase" into either global or alliance chat.  In case you haven't already figured it out, the phrase is "Let it snow".  To turn off the snow, just type "No more snow".

 

HOW TO REPORT AN INCOMING ATTACK

Time is of the essence when under attack so it is crucial that you quickly give your alliance members the information they need to help defend you. 

TIP:  At a minimum, your alliance members need to know when the attack(s) will land, if you need reinforcements, where to send them, and the level of your Embassy.  Knowing who is attacking, how many incoming attacks, and what they are sending is also helpful.  To efficiently report the incoming attack in alliance chat, use the following as a model:

3 incoming from 576,150 in 6 min, 270K mix, need rein at 577,131, lv 9 emb.

Though not absolutely necessary, it would be reassuring to your alliance members if you would follow this initial message with some information about your own defences such as the level of the knight set to Marshal, research levels of Poisoned Edge and Healing Potions, and any attack and defence bonuses you may have applied.

POP A PLAYER'S PROTECTIVE BUBBLE

Beginner's Protection and Dove of Peace protect players from attack. After this protection expires, the "bubble" over their city/cities will remain in place until they send out an attack or until another player pops the bubble. If you click on the city from the map, you will still get a message stating the player is under protection or truce. However, a simple trick allows you to bypass this protection and pop the bubble.

TRICK:  To pop the bubble, simply attack from your Rally Point instead of clicking on their city.

CHOOSING THE BUILDING SITE OF YOUR 2ND AND 3RD CITIES

The locations of your cities will likely change from time to time as you select new farms and move cities closer to or away from enemies.  However, the building site for your 2nd and 3rd cities should be a little more predictable.


TIP:  Choose a building site close to your established city/cities as you will initially be transferring a lot of resources to your new city.  I recommend a location no further than 2 minutes away in transport time.  Once your new city is more self-sufficient, you may move it wherever you would like.

GET TWICE AS MANY MERLIN'S GIFTS EACH DAY

All players receive one free Merlin's Token each day that can be redeemed for a Chance item in Merlin's Gift.  However, you can earn one additional token each day if you send out 10 emails inviting others to play the game.  Email can be found by clicking on the Share icon.      

TRICK:  To take advantage of this without spamming friends and family do the following:

In the To and Subject fields enter a period and click send.  You will receive a message that reads "." does not appear to be a valid email address.  Do you want to send it anyway?  Click Send.  Repeat this 10 times for a free Merlin's Token. 

PLEASE NOTE:  You are limited to just one token a day for sending email invites.

DONATE OR SWAP YOUR WILDS

If you are reorganizing your Resource Fields now that you have multiple cities and find that you have Wilds you can no longer use, or if you need to replace your Wilds with Wilds that are far from your cities, consider donating or swapping rather than abandoning them.

TIP:  Instead of abandoning Wilds, donate or swap them with an alliance member or an ally.

To donate to or swap with an alliance member, simply have the person receiving the Wild leave the alliance just long enough to attack and take the Wild from you.  To donate to or swap with an ally, simply make the arrangements for them to take your wild and for you take theirs if swapping.