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.
Types of Stacks
Different types of stacks serve different purposes - here are some terms:
Hitters & Soakers
Hitters and Soakers are two terms commonly applies to units in general. Hitters are units that can deal out significant damage - and are usually your key to dealing enough damage to win land on offense. Soakers are units that are good at taking damage, and are key in preventing damage to your more fragile units.
Some examples of 'Hitters': Horned Demon, Mind Ripper, Air Elemental, Titan, Earth Elemental, Treant (with Plant Growth), Chimera, Fire Elemental.
Some examples of 'Soakers': Archangel, Unicorn, Leviathan, Lich, Red Dragon, Treant (with Plant Growth).
Obviously you can't just grab one of these units, put it in your stack and have it perform 100% of the time, you have to think about who will be hitting you, what will be hitting you, and where these units strengths and weaknesses are. That however is a discussion for a color guide, not a stacking guide.
Fake Stacks
Fake stacks are small stacks designed solely to distract hits from your higher stacks. Fake stacks are typically 1 summon, or a very small stack, of expendable units. Fake stacks are most commonly used by mono-stackers and shallow stackers to help reduce the impact deep stackers have against them. Fake stacks can be comprised of any unit in the game, the key though is keeping the total net power of the stack small enough to not lose the battle for you, but large enough to distract the enemy stack. Usually you do not want the total % of all your fakes stacks added up to add up over 7% (lower is better, if you can get it below 3% and still have them be effective, all the better). The key is that you don't want the Loss to main stack + Loss of fake stacks to add up to over 10%, or it will cost you the battle usually. Fake stacks are commonly put under the misnomer of 'fodder stacks' - while they can serve the purpose of fodder, fakes are not there for the numbers, they are there solely to prevent hits on your main army.
Fatigue Stacks
Fatigue stacks are usually 3 initative, or higher, stacks, many times ranged to prevent counters from damaging them - although it is not a requirement (Sprites and FD for example make great 'suicidal fatigue stacks' that die when they fatigue an enemy stack). Fatiguing is the term of causing the opponent to suffer efficiency penalties by striking 1 stack multiple times (take my word on it for now, if you don't know Battle Mechanics). The size of the stack does not impact the amount of fatigue they cause - 1 Elvish magician can cause the same amount of fatigue as 20,000 Elvish Magicians - 20,000 however might actually kill something. The most commonly used units for fatigue are 3 initiative, small, ranged units - however there are some units that are great at fatigue that do not fit that mold, such as: Mind Ripper with its 3 init ranged primary, Efreeti with its 4 init ranged primary, Air Elemental with a 4 init ranged primary, and flying to boot, and then Sprite and Faerie Dragon both high initiative fliers *however they get hurt by counters*. Fatigue stacks aren't necessary to playing, but they are a very useful tool, and are the most common solution to filling up a full 10 stack army before a real deep stacking is feasible.
Fodder Stacks
Fodder stacks serve 1 purpose: Giving you enough units to gain maximum land on attacks. To gain maximum land on attacks you need to make sure you have enough units surviving after the attack to capture all the acres you want - the formula for sieges is (5 * Total Land of Target), the formula for regulars is (2.5 * Total Land of Target) - So against a 3000 land mage, you want 15,000 Units surviving after a siege to capture maximum land (100 Captured, 200 destroyed), or 7,500 surviving after a regular (50 Captured, 100 destroyed). Sometimes fodder stacks will serve other purposes (example: Knight Templar) while others are there simply for the fact you can get them in large numbers and will tend to still have enough left after battle for full land (example: Zombie). The key to remember - it's better to have a 95% win rate and get 90% of maximum land, than it is to have a 50% success rate and win 100% of the land - Fodder can cost you battles if it gets into bad matchups, or gives you so much power you can't do enough damage to win. After certain land totals you should consider switching to stacks where you don't explicitly need to keep a 'fodder' stack.
Dummy Stacks
Dummy stacks are temporary stacks in battle these include: Succubus from Dreams of Seduction, Shadow Monster from Mirage Monster, Capsule Monster from the item of the same name, Devil from Contract of the Soul, Squirrel from the Summoner Hero, and Illusionary versions of your own units from the Illusionist.
Stacking Techniques
There are terms used for different types of stacking techniques, each has its own pros and cons, and should be considered based on the current status of the server you're playing on. And yes, multiple titles can apply to the same stacking.
Gimmick Stacking
Gimmick stacking is a term used for basically any explicit 'counter stack' that serves no other function except to counter a specific 'common stack'. Some examples would be:
- Mono-Sprite w/ Sleep, Mono-Sylph w/ Double Time, or Mono/Heavy Nix w/ Oil Flask (all 3 are designed as counters to Mono-Dominion Whites, but don't serve much purpose beyond that)
- Mono-Zombie w/ Flight (gimmick stack designed to help blacks recover from an intense CoS run - not 100% fool proof though).
- Vamp over Heavy Ranged blue (counter to the common DoS/Carpet using black).
Basically it is any stack that is designed for an extremely 'niche' purpose - and isn't truly feasible for any other purpose. Gimmick stacks are set apart by this lack of versitility.
All-Flying Stacking
All-Flying stacks are exactly what they sound like - stacks comprised entirely of units with the natural ability "FLYING". All-Flying stacks have several advantages over other stacking techniques - Non-Ranged, Non-Flying units cannot hit flying units (reduces damage you take), you do not suffer an accuracy penalty when sieging on offense (helps the damage you deal), and are fairly easy to defend with. Their disadvantages though are: Limited number of flying units keeps your flexibility to a minimum, no matter the color will rely heavily on other colors for units, and after a certain land tend to be very inefficient at dealing damage and resummoning after a run (most of the strong flying units are either too slow or too unreliable for summoning at higher land).
Ground Pounder Stacking
Ground Pounder stacks are almost the exact opposite of All-Flying stacks. Ground Pounder stacks tend to be heavy on non-ranged, non-flying units (although sometimes a ground pounder will incorporate a few strong ranged stacks). Basically ground pounders aim to win on the ground, or win with the use of a carpet. Ground Pounding stacks tend to be capable of dealing out massive punishment. And even though green is the best at this type of stacking (thanks mainly to Treants), the other colors can also amass fairly tough ground pounder stackings. An advantage of Ground Pounder stackings, is it's harder for an opponent to 'mix and match' their units to aim at a specific unit of yours - because ground units can be struck by ANY UNIT, usually enemy stacks will match up 1st stack to 1st stack, 2nd to 2nd, 3rd to 3rd, etc. letting you have more control over which of your stacks is being hit by which of your opponents stacks. (All-Flying are more prone to 'mix and match' attacks because of how units match up - this is covered later on).
Mono-Stacking & Mono-Stacking w/ Fakes/Fatigues/Fodder/etc.
Mono-Stacking is again, what it sounds like, a stacking that is comprised of 1 very powerful stack, sometimes alone, sometimes followed by 'fake stacks' or 'Fatigue Stacks' or 'Fodder Stacks' etc. - Mono Stacking is most commonly used in defensive situations (by placing a highly defensive unit as your mono-stack, an assignment to help it, and then sitting there 'turtled up' to defend), however it also has offensive uses, especially when it comes to bringing down opponents much stronger than you (a take-down technique is oversummoning on 1 ultimate beyond reason, and attacking a target - decimating their top stack, and making counters easier to take for your guildmates). Here are 2 examples of Mono Stackings:
Mono Stacking:
Dominion 100%
Mono Stacking w/ Fatigues:
Unicorn 99.1%
Efreeti .2%
Catapult .1%
Renegade Wizard .1%
Nymph .1%
Psychic Wisp .1%
Dryad .1%
Soul Speaker .1%
Archer .1%
Shallow Stacking
Shallow stacking is when you've got most of your power in your top stacks, usually limited to the top 2 to 4 stacks. Shallow Stacking is most common in the mid-ranks where deep stacking isn't feasible, and mono-stacking has too many weaknesses exposed. Shallow Stacking is also a good way to deal with opponents who start deep stacking too early (or who leave a weakness open to your shallow stack). Shallow Stacking can be a powerful tool for gaining land if you can control your units and matchups well enough to gain maximum land on attacks, while still packing enough offensive punch in your top stacks to deal the damage (harder than it looks - because you are more likely to run into soakers in the top stacks, and softer units in the lower stacks - and their lower stacks are usually intended to damage your higher stacks, fodder, or fakes).
Example of a shallow stacking:
Phoenix 21%
Treant 30%
Earth Elemental 24%
Mandrake 20%
Efreeti 3%
Nymph .5%
Dryad .5%
Elven Magician .5%
Druid .3%
Soul Speaker .2%
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%
More to be added later...
