…And Other Gathering Stuff
Many people don’t know that you can prevent a tile hit by raising a shield. Here’s how it works…
Also, tips for avoiding accidental tile hits, and how to attack dead bases to get resources!
Fundamentally, a shield prevents your base from being attacked by another player. However, a shield, once active, prevents YOU from attacking other players as well. A byproduct of this mechanic is that a shield will prevent you from hitting another player’s gathering spot (tile).
If another player already occupies a tile, clicking on it allows you to “scout” or “attack” the tile (rather than gather) or view the player’s information.
If your shield is active, you get a warning that attacking the player will deactivate your shield AND activate “War Frenzy” which prevents you from re-shielding.
However, if both players march on a tile at the same time, you get the dreaded screen flash.
In the above, I’m marching on Brad Sarlac Pitt — Don’t worry, he’s one of my farms. At this point, both Brad and myself have flashing screens, indicating that a conflict is imminent.
At this point, Brad has already landed on the tile. My screen is no longer flashing, but I’m still marching on the tile.
If I was NOT shielded, my screen would still be flashing
As my troops reach Brad’s tile, because I’m shielded, my troops immediately turn around without attacking. In fact, I don’t get a notification of any kind – no battle report, no gathering report.
If I was NOT shielded, I would have attacked Brad’s troops and stolen the tile (poor Brad).
There are 3 variables:
- Who arrives first (you or your opponent)
- Whether you are shielded
- Whether your opponent is shielded
Here is the matrix which describes the outcome (If there is a battle, winner gets the tile):
| Arrives First | You | Opponent | Battle? | Your Troops | Opponent’s Troops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You | Shield | Shield | – | – | – |
| You | Shield | No Shield | Yes | Infirmary | Killed |
| You | No Shield | Shield | – | – | – |
| You | No Shield | No Shield | Yes | Infirmary | Killed |
| Opponent | Shield | Shield | – | – | – |
| Opponent | Shield | No Shield | – | – | – |
| Opponent | No Shield | Shield | Yes | Killed | Infirmary |
| Opponent | No Shield | No Shield | Yes | Killed | Infirmary |
Tips for Avoiding Accidental Tile Hits
- Most states have a rule against speeding to tiles. First to march gets the tile. Speeding in front of someone is petty and stupid.
- Cars have the greatest carrying capacity of any troop type at the same level, but cars are the slowest. Riders are the fastest (shortest march time) but have the lowest carrying capacity.
- By sending only T1 troops to gather, you ensure that accidental (or intentional) tile hits result in low resource losses because T1 troops killed or wounded during a tile hit can be replaced or healed using food only.
- The attacker’s troops may die, while the defender’s troops may become wounded. Whoever wins gets the tile.
- Go slow and pay attention to where you’re marching before you dispatch troops. If you speed through, it’s easy to miss that someone might be occupying or marching on the tile.
- THE GAME HAS LAG. It’s easy to think that you marched first, when in reality, YOU might be the one who marched second due to lag.
- [Added 1/16/26] As a corollary, don’t log off immediately after you send your marches to gather. Hang around for a couple of minutes in order to make sure there are no conflicts.
- Realize that accidents happen. Don’t get crispy over what was probably an accident.
- If you think someone is intentionally hitting your tiles or speeding in front of you, reach out to the player. If you can’t resolve it, escalate to R4/R5.
- Under no circumstances should you attack someone over a tile. Beyond being petty and stupid, you are killing troops for no reason.
Don’t Leave Dirty Tiles
If you gather from a resource spot, but don’t gather all of the resources, this is known as a dirty tile.
Most states have rules against dirty tiles because they don’t re-spawn as quickly.
When you click on a resource tile, make note of the resources available.
When you select your troops to gather, check “Gatherable” on the bottom-right to ensure that this is equal to the resources before you click “Dispatch”.
If “Gatherable” is less than the tile resources, you will leave a dirty tile. Also, if you leave before your gathering is complete, or relocate to participate in an event, you will leave a dirty tile.
Hit Dead Bases For Resources
Many players hit dead bases for resources, which can be much faster than gathering. Resource buildings continuously regenerate resources, which means that dead bases can be hit repeatedly for a steady stream of resources.
HOWEVER, you need to make sure it’s a dead base:
- If a base is a member of an alliance, this is called “tagged”, and most states allow resource collection from only “untagged” bases (not a member of an alliance).
- Make sure you aren’t facing live troops, or you will suffer troop losses.
A “tagged” base will appear with the alliance name in brackets next to the name. In this case, there is no alliance name displayed.
To find out if a player has live troops, click on the base, then click “Player Info”
Click the button to the right of “Might” to show “Highest Might”
If Might and Highest Might are about the same, then all troops are dead. This is like scouting without scouting, and is one of the most powerful techniques in the game.
Once you decide to attack the base, Send riders, because they are faster, and the base has no troops to defend. Here, my troops are on the way…
My troops hit the base, which instantly burns because there are no troops to defend it….
After the battle, my troops leave with resources….
As you can see by the battle report, no troops existed to defend. No might was lost by attacker, nor defender. And, I picked up 100k food, 100k wood, 20k steel, and even a little bit of gas.
Larger bases have more resource buildings and at higher levels, so if you can find dead bases in the 30 HQ level range, you will get pretty decent resources for free. Advanced players generally tear down their food and wood, and maximize steel and gas.
Attacking dead bases can be a great way to gather resources, but watch your state rules….many states don’t allow this during VC/WLK because legitimate players could be untagged.
Reach out to your R4/R5 before you just randomly start attacking stuff….your state might have specific rules that you must follow.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading, and I hope this is helpful!