my guide to becoming a hitter without spending a fortune :)

A WORK IN PROGRESS

First off here are some prerequisites that I think everyone should have, or work on having.

Assailant studies: as far as possible for two reasons.

1. you will need the materials, gems, exp they drop to create hero gear to enhance your army and boost your productions. so being able to kill assailants and gain these items with the least amount of effort  important.

2. in assailant studies there are two army related studies that will boost your attack and defense. (photo 1)

Military studies:

Unlock and upgrade the offense and defense of the unit type you plan to first use along with seige unit type. (photo 2 ex: ranged)

I suggest, untill you have multiple tier4/5 troops unlocked that you build troops like this. 

tier1, 90-100% seige for farming and meat shields. the other 10% should be of your strongest troop type.

tier2-tier3, a mix of siege and your strongest troop type. t2 about 50/50. t3 about 75/25 with 75% being your strongest.

tier4 will at first be just the one strongest troop type you have unlocked. After unlocking a second tier4 troop type I suggest a 50/50 mix.

(Same goes for t5)

Economic studies: You want all these studies over level5 to help your productions and tile farming except maybe gold mining study.

I suggest keeping the building speed study here as high as your academy level allows.

You can neglect these studies if you don't plan to hyper produce res untill after youre finished with military studies.

Training: focus only on upgrading the studies here that effect the troop types you actually use, siege and your strongest troop type.

Espionage: I'm personally not a big fan of using very many spies but I'll suggest unlocking tier3 and using a majority of those as tier1-2 are just meat shields.

When picking targets, choose someone of equal or lesser strength,/power. This way spies should not be necessary.

Late game they do become more important as you and your order may encounter traps.

These suggested prerequisites are not completely neccesary but the further your studies are the less troops you will loose when attacking. Just don't choose more powerful targets and you should be ok.

Once you do decide to make an attack you will first need to make sure several things are done.

1. item boosts. attack, defense, march, march speed. all 4 of these should be activated before attacking or raiding or spying.

attack and defense boosts add 10-20 percent to all your troops, not just one type.

March boost increases the amount of troops you can send in a single "march" weather its for attacking, raiding, reinforcing, or even farming.

March speed will give your target less time to spot your attack and prevent it.

2. Hero gear. Change your hero gear from farming or exp to gear that boosts the attack\defense\health of your army. you should have atleast one troop type that is your strongest because you've completed studies pertaining to that troop type. your hero gear should compliment that troop type aswell. I use standard gear type that boosts the attack of my ranged troops and have inserted jewels that boost range attack\army health\army defense.

it has been said by many experienced players that using assailant gear is better than standard because it boosts your health and defense instead of attack.

      2.1 Gems. as mentioned above, your gems should also compliment your strongest troop type along with army health and army defense.

3. Hero skills. The higher your hero level, the more skill points you will have to distribute. So while you are growing and preparing you need to kill as many assailants as possible!!! you need the assailants drops badly! the materials for making gear, gems for enhancing the gear, and the exp they give for leveling up your hero!

Once your hero is about level 40 you should have enough points available to boost your troops stats through hero skills enough to make your attacks noticeably better.

Your hero skills selection should go as follows: 

your troop types defense

your troop types health

army defense II

army health II

your troop types offense II

reduce enemy army defense

reduce enemy army health

Do not worry about the level 1 studies of attack, defense, and health until you can max reduce enemy defense\health

Now, the part about not spending a fortune!

The most important part of this is patience loll because its just simply a fact that money will help advance you more quickly. However, you are lucky enough to be a part of a great order, Valor!we earn many free boosts from order events and worldwide events.

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of the money you do spend.

First off do not buy a pack unless its value exceeds 15,000 percent.

When you first start playing don't buy for a week or two. instead, take the time to keep your studies and builds going all the time. after a week or so you'll notice the value of packs get better and better. there will come a point when you can spend 20$, 5,5,5,5 ore,5,5,10 and end up with almost a mil in gold and alto of items. this is the time to make your first purchase! buy a pack of boosts, a pack of res, and a pack or two of hero stamina or the "death to assailants" pack.

use the gold, boosts, and res to get your castle to lvl 21.

level 21 allows your clan mates to "help" your studies and builds by reducing the time needed to finish by 25 percent.

the academy and manor are two buildings you will want to keep leveling to 21 also because the level of your academy reduces your study time and the manor level increases the exp your hero receives.

Your council hall increases the max number of troops allowed on a march so keep this leveled too.

If you intend to play defdefense you need to keep your wall and outpost at max level as they increase overall defense.