Tile Trapping: A Dead Art Form?

Tile trapping requires quick reaction time and vigilance beyond anything else in Game of War.  Be sure to practice and work through the execution steps and scenarios if you get a “bite”.  In many cases you will have only a few seconds to react.  Train your muscle memory to do exactly what it needs to do.  If you don’t want to take the hit know where the recall or shield buttons are located and how you will avoid the hit.

Back in early 2015 when March Size Increase research came out it was possible for big T4 players to bait other into hitting them on tiles. The early days of trapping was actually possible on tiles, but nowadays tile trapping is a rare occurrence.

We are updating this article show players how tile trapping works if they want to attempt it, but mainly show it’s very apparent danger and that you probably shouldn’t try it unless you are extremely crafty and fast with your fingers.

[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Editors Note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness on April 11, 2016. [/box]

The Rules Have Changed

With March Size Increase of 50%, 75%, 100% bigs can now place over 1M T4 onto a tile for farming.  Unless you care to use expensive march size boosts you are opening yourself up to being hit by a larger march while tile trapping.

For a short period of time, it was easy to trap on tiles because a gathering march size limit was much greater than an attack march size limit.  Since you typically outnumbered the attacking opponent you’d win nearly every battle.  However, march size research leveled out the playing field.  

Also, if new core sets such as Zeus and Frostbitten hit you on a tile, you’re guaranteed to lose a lot of troops unless you are wearing a counter set.

Furthermore, with Hermes set a march can hit from offscreen very quickly, allowing you very little reaction time.
If you still think you are up to the Tile Trapping challenge below are some tips below to pull it off.

How to Use A Tile Trap

1. Tile Trapping should only be attempted at this point if you are burning a set of top cores with march size increase boost.  Otherwise, you are placing your hero and troops in an extremely vulnerable position.
2. Research the March Size Increase in the March tree.
3. Use a 50%, 75%, 100% March Size Increase and send a massive army of T4 with enough T3 to ensure you lose no T4. After some feedback, it is recommended that you use a 20-30% meat shield ratio because you do not have the bonuses of your buildings and traps from your Stronghold. With a March Size of 1 M troops you will want at least 300k T3 even after all Item and VIP boosts are activated. Some people will suggest using all T4, but the benefits of having T3 meat shields are that you can win on points, and lose less T4 which are far more costly in terms of resources than T3. However, most players intentions these days are to capture the enemy hero, which is impossible when using T3. 
4. Include your Hero.  With the increased power of cores and research it is now a battle of cores on the tiles in most cases.  Have a preset of cores prepared for an attack.  If you have game crashing issues it is recommended you do not try tile trapping.  It will require quick reaction time if an attack is launched. If you have a desktop PC or Macbook we recommend downloading and using Nox App Player.  It’s stable and utilizes your PC’s hardware which is typically far superior than a phone or tablet.
5. Turn on Anti-Scout and wait for a hit.
6. Also, a quick way to prevent being crushed by an attack is to use a resource shield.  If you are awaiting a specific troop type and core set but the attacker launches something different you can either recall troops or activate a resource shield should you have one.

Executing A Tile Trap

1. Leave your Troops Gathering in the forest or wherever for awhile before a kvk or kill event starts so that enemies think you have forgot your troops out there. Make sure your Hero is on the tile, and use an even mix of Normal Troops.
2. Change your name and port somewhere else every time someone hits you so that it’s hard for enemies to keep track of you.
3. If available, gather from tiles that noobs farm, ie. gold tiles or monster tiles. This will make you look inexperienced.
4. Risky: Send your troops out a little far from your Stronghold so the enemy does not immediately check your Power. Some bigs will just attack a tile without actually looking at how much Power the enemy has, or will attack even if the gatherer has a lot of Power because the enemy wants to smash them on a tile.

Tile trapping requires great skill and trickery in today’s Game of War.  If done properly you can capture enemy Heroes and set them up to be rallied or soloed.  However, the reverse is also true. Use great caution when Tile Trapping and have a clear plan in mind before proceeding.

Pro Tip: Plant your farm nearby with a nearly identical name as your main. Send marches to nearby tiles with your farm so that it is hard for enemies to spot the one tile that is occupied by your main.

Is anyone out there able to successfully tile trap these days? Even in new kingdoms maybe?

Enjoy!

Navi

Special thanks to KoopTheTroop and LT for their input on this.