Understanding Stacking

The Basics

To really undestand stacking, you must first understand some basic groundwork, and that's what this section is for. If you already know what stacks, stack multipliers, net power, dummy stacks, etc. are - then you can skip this first section and move on to the more advanced content below.

What are Stacks?

"Stack" is a commonly used term to refer to a group of units, a stack could be anything from 1 Unicorn to 10,000 Unicorns. "Stacking" is a group of stacks, or the act of ordering these stacks. You can only have one stack of a type of unit in your actual army (ie - the army you see in the Status Report). We will cover the importance of the term 'actual army' later in the guide.
 
The size of the stack in relation to your total army size, can be seen in the Battle Report with the percents next to your unit name. These percents are determined by the following formula: (( Unit Power Rank * # of Units ) / Total Army Power ).
- Unit Power Rank: The "Power Rank" listed in the Encyclopedia.
- # of Units: The number of Units in the stack.
- Total Army Power: Sum of (Unit Power Rank * # of Units) of all stacks in your army.

Why aren't my stacks listed by power?

Stacks in the Disband Screen are ordered by their position in battle rather than their actual net power. This is because in battle, different conditions cause certain units to move higher in a stacking, these are called "stack multipliers". Stack Multipliers are very important to succesful stacking in a strategic sense, and are one area a lot of people get confused. But to put it basically, there are 3 groups of units, each get a different multiplier.
- 1x Multiplier: Ranged Units, these units are ONLY the units that have the attack type "Ranged" listed in their PRIMARY ATTACK (listed as: "ATTACK TYPE" in the encyclopedia). EXTRA ATTACK TYPE does not effect a unit's stack multiplier (example: Lich is ranged, Unholy Reaver is not ranged)
- 1.5x Multiplier: Non-Ranged, Non-Flying units, these are units that do not have the ability FLYING and do not have the Primary Attack Type RANGED. (example: Sirene is Non-Ranged, Non-Flying, Djinni is Flying, Efreeti is ranged)
- 2.25x Multiplier: Flying units, these units are ONLY the units that have the ability FLYING, This overrides either of the other two multipliers. (example: Air Elemental is Flying, Mind Ripper is ranged)
 
These multipliers only apply to the units natural abilities, and are not effected by changed by the effects of items, spells, enchantments, heroes, etc. So yes, with the item Carpet of Flying you will still keep that 15% stack of Liches, behind that 10% stack of Djinni.

Is there a limit on the number of stacks?

You can have as many stacks as there are units in the game (over 100), but only the 10 highest stacks by net power will enter combat (usually you can determine this just by looking at the percents, sometimes though you'll have stacks too close for the percents to differentiate - so then it's useful to be able to calculate - if stacks are exactly the same NP, the one that goes into battle is determined by their order in the unit database).

Are there limits on the sizes of stacks?

A stack can be as small as 1 unit, or as large as 10,000,000 - or higher. Basically, no there are no limits to the size a stack can be, except for limits on your ability to summon/recruit/maintain them.

How do I know which stacks I'll send as reinforcements?

Reinforcements are impacted by several factors in the game:
- Distance between allies (close allies will send higher stacks than distant allies).
- Duration of alliance (you send no reinforcements the first 24 hours, and it takes even longer for an alliance to 'mature' to where you'll reliably send higher stacks to a near ally).
- Net Power of stacks (you can only send stacks that are 3rd or lower in Net Power). Sample Stack: 30% Djinni/35% Lich/35% Efreeti - you would only send Djinni as reinforcements, even though they are listed as the top stack in your status report (this is because they are the 3rd in Net Power of the 3 stacks).
 
If you want to reliably send reinforcements to an ally, you should focus on having as many stacks as possible (within reason). Generally a good rule of thumb is that if an ally is near you they will take stacks 3-5, if further away they will tend to take 6-10 (based on Net Power).

Basic Terms

To understand stacking, you will need to understand some of the terms used in discussion of stacking, here are a list of the terms that I most commonly use.

Deep Stacking

A deep stack is when someone stacks the majority of their power into 6 or more stacks. Deep stacking is useful against mono-stacking, and mono-stacking w/ fakes - this is because you can match a 'soaker' with your opponent's mono-stack, and then focus on dealing damage with your deeper stacks. Deep stacking is also the most versitile in allowing you to attack a wider variety of opponents by mixing strengths and weaknesses of units to deal with multiple threats. Deep Stacking tends to only be truly effective at higher land where the cost of summoning is more justified and feasibly attainable.
 
Example of a Deep Stack:
Archangel 9%
Unicorn 13%
Knight Templar 12%
Titan 12%
Spirit Warrior 11%
Medusa 8%
Werebear 8%
Mind Ripper 10%
High Priest 10%
Nymph 7%