Guide to maintaining control of Resource Bases
(or the psychology of domination)
You’ve captured a Resource Base, great. Now you need to maintain control of it, to maintain a steady flow of resources to your home base. This guide will offer some suggestions on doing so.
- A side note before we begin: The Resource Bases that just say “Resource Base” are new bases added to the pool by Supercell . They are unconquered and often are at a lower level to ensure the base is conquered. After it is conquered it is often upgraded to the appropriate level.
These “new” Resource Bases have no history of owners, you are the first. Simply because of this fact, these bases are likely to remain under your control longer because they will be less contested, or not contested at all. I have several of these Resource Bases that have never been attacked.
This Resource Bases has always been under my control and has never been attacked.
Ice Ice Baby
The most important tip to keeping resource bases is to use an Ice Building Health Masterpiece or Guardian (s) This goes against everything a Berserker style, offense-only player believes in, but trust me, this small amount of balance is one of the key factors in determining if you keep your Resource Base.
Ideally you want a 30%+ Masterpiece, but even a 10% building health Guardian is helpful.
This statue boosts the health of the Resource Bases defenses. Boom Cannons that could be destroyed with two Artillery, now require 3 or maybe even 4 Artillery after the boost.
Thought you would destroy this tower with 2 Artillery, nope, it will take 3 now.
That Rocket Launcher you could destroy with a triple-pop now would take 4 Artillery.
This RUINS attacks, before they even get started.
The player you took the base from may let their ego come into play and try to take the base back, no matter the cost, but many will see that the base they just held is no longer able to be easily conquered.
Even this little guy is a big help
Players that uncover your Resource Base through their radar will calculate that they can not destroy enough of the defenses with gunboat energy, and just “Find New Opponent”. They will move on to a Resource Base of the same level, same defenses, but without an owner that uses a building health boost. An “easier target”. You will never know because they never attack.
Realize this is psychological. Yes there may be some physical protection provided by the statue , but what you are doing is creating a barrier that must be overcome, a barrier that does not exist everywhere, as many players do not use this building health boost. This barrier is a wall for another player that will be much easier for them to just turn around and walk the other direction than walk through.
The rest of the tips are psychological in nature as well.
Mine!
After you conquer a base, the previous owner probably will want it back and most likely will attack, regardless of your building health boost %.
Expect this.
Many people are driven by or are in large part controlled by their egos. Not to get too far into psychology, but your ego is the part of you that gets offended, the part of you that is possessive “mine!”, the part of you that acts irrationally even when you know better.
When you conquer a Resource Base, the conquered base’s player’s ego feels you have taken something they possessed. Their ego gets offended, upset at this violation. They will act irrationally if they allow their ego to control their actions.
So expect that after you conquer a base, the previous owner’s ego will want revenge.
In preparation of this, I advise you to keep the same troop set you used to originally conquer base, training new troops to replace the fallen.
If they attack and are unsuccessful, great. Thank your helpful Ice Masterpiece. They may attack again, depending on how much their ego has them by the throat. Eventually they will realize that they should just move on. Controlling any resource base is better than controlling none. In the meantime, enjoy the laughs you get from their failed attempts.
If they attack and are successful, now the fun begins! You already have your troop set ready to attack, because you were anticipating their reprisal. Go conquer the base again, IMMEDIATELY. You are now playing a new game; who controls the resource base for the longest period of time.
You only want to allow them to possess the base for 15 minutes before you conquer it again, and hold it for hours or days. Often this quick of a response is not possible, but I can not stress how important this is to the psychology of the base. You want to reconquer base as fast as possible, make it a priority. If you have the extra diamonds to speed up training so you can attack sooner, that is advised. However long they control the base for, you want to hold it longer.
Opponent only controlled base for 13 minutes
Opponent only controlled base for 13 minutes
Again this is psychological, you may be battling back and forth but you are “winning” the entire time you are battling because you control the base longer. Eventually this person will realize that its better for them to control any base not that particular base and move on.
Depending on the person’s ego and stubbornness this battling can go on for weeks. Just make sure you are winning while you battle. Enjoy wearing this person down, breaking them.
Win BIG, ideally with minimal losses
When you conquer a resource base, especially one you are in back and forth battle over, win and WIN BIG. Make it look easy, and that you have more of everything if you need it.
If your troops are strong enough that you can flare them around to take out every defense on the base, completely flattening it, before going after the Outpost, do it.
If you can win with only some of your landing craft of troops, do so, but as the Outpost is about to fall, launch the unnecessary troops, to show that you have “backup” and can bring more muscle if the base gets upgraded.
If you aren’t able to demolish entire base or only partially use your troops, but have left over gunboat energy then display that. As the Outpost is about to fall, Fire off artillery, shock, smoke screen, etc, all unnecessary, just used to show that you still had more gunboat energy if you needed to use it.
These are displays of power. Some may call it 'intimidation' but you are not trying to tap into your opponents emotion. You are trying to tap into their logic, their reasoning. The part of them that makes them realize no matter what they do, you will always do it better.
Only lost one tank.
If you can minimize losses when conquering this is also powerful. While your opponent needs to train troops each time they conquer base, you don't need to train any or only need to train a few. This not only weighs on their gold storage, which may make them consider their cost in keeping this base, but also lets them know your troops are ready NOW. You don't care if your opponent conquers base again; Your troops are good to go, and you will likely conquer base again soon, reducing the time they control base.
I did not like the damage my Barrage did, so I aborted without landing troops. This prevents my opponent from getting a psychological "win" from seeing my defeat. I conquered base 2 minutes later.
They will pursue control of the base longer than they would have because of this, increasing the work you have to do.
If you have some coin, flex that muscle
If you have real money to spend on in-game diamonds , that can also be used to for psychological warfare.
If a base you just conquered with Warriors gets re-taken, and you upgrade your Warriors 2 Levels in the Armory, then retake the base, it shows that you have an advantage the other player may not have, the ability to upgrade troops to higher levels quickly. It lets your opponent know that you will ALWAYS be ahead of them, no matter what level troops they bring.
2 levels is important, because if it is just one level, that could have happened naturally, as part of an upgrade you previously started before conquering base. Jumping up 2 levels in a short period of time leaves no doubt that you used diamonds to expedite the upgrades.
REALIZE THAT THESE RULES WORK BOTH WAYS
What you are applying here is “psychological leverage”.
Leverage works both ways.
If you are battling with someone over a resource base, and they use these same techniques, BUT DO IT BETTER THAN YOU, then realize this, and move on.
That is important to say, MOVE ON. Don’t be controlled by your ego, become stubborn and “dig your heels in”. The Find New Opponent button is there for a reason.
If you destroy a base “with style” sending a message that you are powerful and not to be messed with, and someone comes back and destroys it in even grander fashion, with more power, move on.
Someone drops some serious diamonds in front of you, move out of their way, move on. You aren’t going to win against their wallet, if you don’t have diamonds yourself.
- Of course if your opponent sees you clowning them in a Strategy Guide/blog post on the Wiki, they may never give up on the base...