[265] The way of the builder - a general guide

So you wanna be a builder, eh? You think it's gonna be as easy as grabbing a hammer and going shirtless? No! Building is serious stuff. You can screw your whole team on the long run by building something where it shouldn't be. This guide is for the new and not so new who want to start fine-tuning their block-placing skills.
Being a good builder is all about effectively spending your resources. You have to build using the least amount possible on the right place for the biggest impact. I constantly see builders working on stuff that doesn't ever get touched by the enemy., huge,wide walls that just get climbed over.
A good builder follows the battle and watches how it flows, even if working by the tent. He/she needs to know where to invert his/her resources, get there and be quick.

Build phase
On this initial part it's important to maximize your block-placing. Until it ends, you have an unlimited amount of resources. Unless you have a lot of time don't bother going for complex now. Build simple walls with about 8 20 or something blocks between them, because a cluster of walls is easily bypassable once you get over the first one (more here).
Spike pits are forbidden. Every second you spend digging the hole is a free block you are not placing! In fact I'd go as far as to tell you to avoid building spike pits altogether as the effort vs results is usually poor, but some spike pits work really well (usually in conjunction with another trap, such as Acavado spikes).

Rush hour
Build phase is over! The following minutes are crucial, specially on those overrated big-middle-hill maps. Both forces will rush to the middle of the map to try to gain ground. If your team were to be run over, you might find the enemy loaded with resources building on your front door. To avoid this, you need participate in the raiding for these few minutes, then you can go back to your stuff.

Optimal Key Bindings
Often overlooked, key bindings are very important. Movement shouldn't be encumbered by other actions, such as block selection or using stuff. With the default key config, you can't select a block (f) or the use something (e) and move to the right without doing some awkward hand repositioning. Here's suggestion: Bind the "block selection menu" to spacebar and "use" to Shift. For the brave ones, here are my key bindings ; )

Selecting blocks
Now that you have your keys set, you have to be able to quickly select the three fundamental blocks: castle back wall, ladders and castle wall (stone block). These three are wisely placed on the middle horizontal row.
To select the stone block the "pro way": hold the spacebar (block menu), do a quick, short mouse move to the right, then release the spacebar., for the ladders, a slight upwards movement. Practice until you can do the three with your eyes closed!
Now here's something you won't find anywhere else: to select the spikes, hold right click and quickly press and release the spacebar, then release right click. Selecting doors is now as simple as using this shortcut plus tapping the spacebar., similar for the bridges, but 2 spacebars taps.
Congrats! now you can quickly access all 6 basic blocks!

Walls!
Walls are one of the main ways to stop those savages. I won't tell you how to build your walls - in KAG the limit is your imagination - but here are some general guidelines.
*Test your designs: improvising is good, but have some dependable designs for certain situations. Test those as if you were the attacker. Try to find ways around it and how to counter them. Always have in mind the bombs' damage! Those can be nasty to your traps that might end against your team.
*Don't spam doors: as everyone says, stacking doors slows down your team. If you are going to place more than two doors, leave a two block gap between each if possible.
*Don't spam bridges on the side of your wall: a couple of bombs could disable them and set an easy path for the attackers.
*Towers must have at least 2 exits (one of them could just be going over it): offensive enemy builders will try to seal your tower's exits to steal it. If your knights can't go past it to defend, the tower pretty much lost.
*Avoid doors at ground level (specially when they are the main support of the wall): enemy knights can easily destroy these doors (thus collapsing the wall). Friendly knights will most likely open them when repealing the attack, possibly letting the attackers in.
*Towers should be un-climbable from both sides for enemies: in the case they get past it (catapulted or bombjumping), they wont be able to make their way back that easily.
*Build an archers nest: a good archer will appreciate this and help you defend your tower.
*Make the ground right in front of your wall un-digable for knights. It's not much of an effort and can make a difference.


Frontline (rush) towers
My favorite kind. They need to be cheap, effective, high enough to give archers a chance against laddering builders and wide enough to resist the constant bombs blast. The last one is tricky as you often won't be able to repair the front part of the wall because of all the action that's going on. Here's what I use:

That configuration allows you to safely repair the outer wall from behind. The green marked stone blocks are reachable from inside.
Stacking two of those we get:

Note that there's no easy for your team to move through it. I always build a back wall to make it easier to climb over. It also creates a low transit zone where you can repair at ease.

​

I love this tower base. I've tested it extensively and I use it on all my matches. It's repairable from behind, self contained and relatively cheap. The back wall provides support and a safe "repair zone" where you can hide and that also can work as a panic room or a pit for careless enemy knights. I'm quite proud of it : D
Of course, it's just the base and you can (and should, to gain height) add whatever you want on the top. Here's a quick example (but don't use it. It's quite bad):


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A special mention: please don't dig tent-to-tent tunnels. It's stupid. The several minutes you spend doing this, your team practically loses a teammate (or several!). Once you reach their base, the enemy can use that instantly-made tunnel to raid yours. Tunnels go both ways, even if you fill'em with spikes. It is just a bad idea.

I had fun writing this. I'm hoping it will be helpful to you and will help shape the builders of tomorrow.
Next: modular building and my infamous tower, "the weird tower". (nvm that)

This entry has the



Addendum here.

 

Protip.
When your near the enemy castle,block their outposts with stones.
It causes more grief to them then a few knights can,plus backup will come till they cleared an exit.

 

Wow strathos, Thats a genius tower design. I used to do something similar, except mine was only 2 wide and had one team door depth for repairs. I feel like I should have naturally progressed to what you've made. Very very clever.

I guess we need more write-ups on how to be an offensive builder. Great job on this one Strathos.

 

You certainly don't disappoint. :) I love the quickbuild tips. Thanks for sharing them.

 

You said the walls in the beginning of the game should have 8 spaces between them. What do the walls actually consist of? Like, 1 block wide, two blocks, what? Also do you put trap doors around them connecting them? So it'd look like this:


.--------.
.,,,,,,,,,,,, .
..............

 

Great tut, it's just a shame that the noob builders won't come to see it :(

By the way, this kind of design



is good also because it allows you to abuse a glitch where you can, as an archer, shoot charged shots to an enemy touching the wall. So no need to risk yourself to bombs!

 

Fixed that for you.

 

The master have spoken! I shall do my best and remember your words of wisdom!

 

Thanks for the comments and likes, guys!
This is the first of at least three guides. I will try to go in depth with tower designs and then builder combat.

FuzzyBlueBaron: we can never stress those enough! :)

Brine: note that this would be the ideal thing - mostly on servers with a short build phase, small maps and few players (20-30). The walls and towers design really depend on the situation: the terrain near your tent, if there are hills nearby, holes, etc.
In a flat map, I'd go with three wall variations:
*The first wall from the tent should be sturdy, have a base of 5-7 stone blocks wide and 8 blocks high (the maximum height from where you can fall without getting stunned), then doors and more stone blocks till a total height of 16+ blocks. If the enemy has reached that point, the idea is that it will buy you some time.
*The following towers a similar design but with 4 blocks wide and a tad shorter. Those are just to stop bombjumpers and catapulted units.
*The last tower should be the best frontline-type tower you can get done. With a catapult spot, archer nests, traps, etc. This is the tower that I think builders should keep working on after build time, not the one near the tent, as it usually happens.
If possible, connect them with bridges. Trees are a problem there, though.
I'll talk more about this on the next guide.

To be honest, I think it would be more than enough if people didn't cluster the walls or spent their time doing holes : )

Here's a very rough idea:

 

^ Press right click. GUIDE DONE!

Yeah I think the most useful thing about this guide that every builder should know (I actually didn't know this) is that the golden rule is to not cluster walls, it just makes a whole lot of sense. I think you should bold it on top of the guide, I think it's the most useful thing.

 

Builder fighting is not only about jumping around and holding RMB.

It is useful to find a good spot, headstomp enemies, jump behind their backs and try to confuse them, and run away to repeat it before they gather their minds. Fighting as a builder is extremely hard since you can do only little damage, therefore you have to be careful in your manuevers.

I usually kill only those knights with 1.5 hearts or less, killing a three-hearted knight is way too hard for me, even if he's alone and a newb, so I'll be waiting for that guide ;)

Edit: Oh and dropping blocks on them and entombing them is funny and effective, too.

 

This was very well written and no one I've met in the game is as skilled a builder as Strathos. Thank you and great work.

 

Well-done Strathos! You have put into words the very essence of the builder, I do not see anything wrong with the things you say, but on one of your concepts. . . The only problem I see . . . Is you should highlight this text:

"Note that there's no easy for your team to move through it. With some tweaking...:"

I have seen people building that repairable wall a lot on public servers, and they have a hard time climbing over them. You in your picture with your tower have a wall behind it for speedy climbing, most people do not add this wall. Maybe highlight this?

You were my first in-game inspiration as a builder, and I have yet to find anyone to build with as good as you. =S

 

Thanks for pointing that out, killatron. I was particularly vague on that part.
I've too seen some using the base (awesome). Most times they place bridges right next to the doors, which indeed makes it hard to climb if you press right.

 

great stuff here, one thing though tell me if its was mentioned, KEEPS!
a good solid 3 thick stout keep with a bomb shop inside has allowed team to reverse a crushing loss to a stunning victory

Strat, loved playing on the old US east 20 slot server ^.^

 

To prevent myself of prematurely dying...

...due to a popped brain vein, I've been writing down stuff that I really really would like to say in a debriefing after game. Since doing that in game really wouldn't work too well, this thread here is the next best thing. I'll be brief:

-Every single player in the team is an essential part of the battle, this means that you can't just build at your own pace some random stuff far away from the front since you're eating up a slot from a potentially more team-oriented player. Another thing you need to avoid is being class-religious; every time I see someone screaming something along the lines of 'omg wtf build bomb ship noob' I get the urge to sink my boot in their annoying little face. Change your damn class and do it yourself, or at the very least provide the materials to the builder.

-In the beginning and throughout the game, the knights require builders in order to efficiently advance so that's where the builders should be, in the front. The front is full of resources at the beginning of a match, so if you pick that stuff up not only can you use it to benefit your own team, but you also stop the enemy from getting to it (the knights should help with the difficult stacks). If it's capture the flag you're playing, you win by going to the enemy flag and taking it back, so why not just focus on that full force? If you push the enemy back they won't ever see your base so you don't really have to touch it after the build phase is over, since usually you've got plenty of time to put up the essentials. Then of course the faster you move your forces forward, the more confusion there will be within the enemy ranks, so keep them knights advancing builders!

Having a handful of men after a fight is not a success.

Victory or death!

End of rant, carry on.