[1110][Guide] Koto's Guide to Defensive Mining

Greetings to all! This is Koto and Im here to present my first guide on Defensive Mining. So im pretty sure all of you have seen how mines are used in the battlefield. Mainly, knights use them offensively as a controllable mini-keg of sorts to bust down walls and bunkers. Occasionally you may see some mines being used defensively, placed out in the open like this >> *lying on the ground in the open


Pretty boring right?

But What Im about to show you will hopefully change that. Mines are not just bunker or wall busters. They are sure-kill sentries that will defend your base when you are not there and hold back the never ending torrent of knights.

Previously before the recent patch, mines used to cost a hefty 80 coins, limiting their usefulness. One had to bag a few kills or so in order to afford a mine. Now With build 1110 reducing the cost to 60 (well its still not that cheap) mines can be used more often abeit sparingly.
Note that these tricks can be used by all classes. "Treemining" works abit differently tho as archers cannot use it.

First up, I will break down the guide into two parts, above ground battles and underground battles.


Above Ground battles:
So how do we use mines? Keep in mind that there are 2 phases in Defensive mining.

The first phase of defensive mining is what I would like to call "Bushmining" as it relies largely on the limited and non-renewable resource- Bushes. Why bushes? Because they help you hide mines in Plain Sight.

Here is a comparison between a bush without mines and a bush with mines. The column on the right contains the bushes with mines.

Pretty hard to tell the difference no? I guess if you look CLOOOSELY enough you can see some dark outlines on the bush but thats about it.

Here is how bushes may look like if you do not place mines correctly.



Take note that using low bushes is not recommended as they cannot completely cover mines. Pardon my really small picture ><



With "Bushmining" being so hard to spot out of battle, what more for the enemy team rushing forward in the midst of battle? Unfortunately bushes, on top of being limited, are extremely fragile. So "Bushmining" only works once. This is the first phase as bushes run out fast and setting up the mine in the bushes takes little to no preparation time compared to "treemining" It can also be used in water as well.




The second phase "Treemining" is named after its use of well... Trees. The good point is that trees are renewable and will grow repeatedly. The bad is that this needs a certain level of preparation. There are namely 2 kinds of trees. Oak and Pine. Tactics change depending on which tree you use.

Each has a certain height at which their leaves start to block sight to the left or right of the tree.

Oak has a formula of 2 and 4, where leaves block sight 2 blocks high on one side and 4 blocks high on another, acting as a pseudo bush. update: Just to be safe, you may place an extra block on the side 2 blocks high to make sure the mine sits in the middle of the cluster of leaves.
Pine has a formula of 3 and 3. blocks sight 3 blocks high left and right

Height is measured from the block the tree grows on

Here is a picture of the set up, ignore the pine tree furthest on the left. The red circles indicate mine placement.



The thing about this is that you have to chop down trees (builder and knight only), dig a pit with wall heights for respective trees and place trees inside, waiting for them to grow and then place your mine. Im not sure how long it takes tho but it takes a minute or two? (uncertain)


Here is an example of how to use them near your base (Pardon my crappy wall). I usually tend to put one near but not too near my shops. When a competent knight bombjumps in and tries to rek everything, he usually goes for the shops first to buy a keg or so. Therefore, place a mine between your tower and your shops. Ignore the mine near the tree I just left it there. The red circles are where you should place the mines. The closer mines are to your base, the more effective they are. Enemies take longer to reach you and when they do they die, leaving you more time to set up things. Furthermore you have knights at the frontlines so placing mines there is redundant.




Mine Games (for knight battles):
1st phase:Simply act like you are about to confront the opposing knight with a mine between the both of you, then back off and run away. BOOM =D

2nd phase:Of course many of you may wonder, wont my opponents get cautious after a while? Of course they will but here's how to take advantage of it. With a bush or a patch of leaves between the both of you, simply shield and act like you are about the defend against the blast since mines can kill yourself. But of course, the mine is a lie! There is no mine! He may or may not get cautious and start to shield. Simply go in and slash the hell out of him. (ok it isnt that simple ><)

3rd phase:After killing him if he confronts you the third time, you can pretend to start to slash him. The opponent, remembering his previous folly will charge in. BUT THIS TIME THERE IS A MINE. *by now you probably have no bushes. Use Treemining to great effect*

Many other permutations of this exist. Experiment on your own. Remember to always be one step ahead of your enemy. If you are unlucky and he shields when there's a mine there you can either try to slash him before he reaches the mine (risky) or you can retreat and wait for him to land after flying up from the explosion.


Underground battles:

As for underground battles, tunnels are a giant bush LOL. So yeah its kinda hard to see. The main thing is to not put mines in a long straight tunnel as cautious knights or builders can still see a certain distance in front. -------Instead, place it out of their limited sight range and create a situation where they simply cannot react. How do we do this? We mainly place mines at LANDING SPOTS.


Here is a picture, Lamps are merely there to provide better view. Real tunnels dont usually have lamps :





In the split second when the mine comes into view as one drops down it is very hard to react and knights usually dont shield down as they dont take notice of the mine. Builders and archers just die outright. The Red circles indicate points where players jump off. Lines indicate trajectory.

So thats all for my guide to defensive mining. I hope that you guys found it useful =D I wouldnt like it if these tactics were used against me tho XD

One very important thing to take note. Do not set up mines near enemies since they can hear the clicking sound even if they cant see it. Do it out of their hearing and sight range

Update: Always remember to tell your team where your mines are placed. This is extremely important in a confrontation when your team's knights are losing. Simply ask them to retreat behind the mine and profit =D It also alerts builders and lets them know which trees or bushes to not touch.
There are two irritating ways your dastardly plans may be foiled.
1- By builders from your team who constantly ignore you when you tell them to leave a specific tree in your base alone. They usually chop the tree concealing your mine down, forcing you to re-position your mine

2- By enemy archers who randomly shoot arrows everywhere or when an arrow misses your team and hits the mine.

 

Nice guide!

Will post more guides?

 

Thanks haha. I'll see if there's anything to write a guide about. Maybe offensive mining?

 

i really liked the bush part. i will try to convince geti to make bushes grow back

 

By that do you mean bush seeds?

 

Nice guide! The way you explain all this is so unique. Its easy to understand and You give much info. I can tell this took you a long time to write down?

 

Thanks for the nice comments! Well, I did take quite a large chunk of my time to prepare the pictures. Had to get everything set up and print screen and paste into paint.exe for editing >< As for the guide it took considerably less time since I've been using these tactics alot on the Japan CTF Server so im more or less familiar with them.

 

Great stuff Koto! Very original, I haven't seen this used before. Especially relevant what with the new update, also the pun: 'mine games' XD

 

Well yeah puns~~ I may be writing another guide but its still in the works =D

 

This EXPLOSIVE guide caught me OFF GUARD (mines only kill you when you're not being careful). By the way, it's very well written and not littered with grammar mistakes and spelling mistake as most guides nowadays are, so good job on that!

 

Updated the part on "Mine Games" and added a tips and counters section at the bottom. Fixed grammar mistakes i could find. For the mistakes i couldnt find. Welllll XD

 

Great guide, very useful.
You should definitely do one on offensive mining. Include things like what can detonate a mine, explosion radius, or baiting.