Warhammer Chaos and Conquest guide: Events

Events: Making order out of the Chaos

There’s several pa¥s;$, sorry, several ways of considering events. Some are a gift, some are, for most, pointless, the rest are a blatant attempt at raiding your wallet, or draining you resources for a later wallet raid.

They can be broken down into event type (e.g. personal), and event content (e.g. gain power). Like everything else in this game, the scales do not balance. Sometimes it works in your favour, sometime it can be ‘work as intended’ in your favour (exploits in many other games ;) ), and sometimes you just have to walk away.

Ironically, the better your alliance, the worse off you can be, it’s a curve thing. Empty or inactive alliance, well, it’s all on you, and you’ll struggle; this is a not a game to solo, equally, it is not a game to be in a dead ‘guild’. The problem here is you really want to be a low level fortress (or at least have a low-level keep, plus a main), and the more active the alliance, the more it shifts focus on PvP and level 22+ fortresses. By which type you are into heavy time and money commitments. Invite only people, ‘we’ don’t want dead wood, no matter how active you are. Not always true, but close enough to an accurate assessment.

The events types

Personal event are, as the name suggests, all on you. Gold is often do-able, the ladder is pay to win, for the most part.

These are personal events with a 2-hour timer. Some are, with planning, easy wins, most are cash sinks whose soul intent is to suck your cash and or resources dry. Be smart, do the maths. Do not get suckered by these.

This is a middle ground, you have to pull your weight to get your personal share, so all on you, but also, the more everyone else does their fair share, the better your position on the ladder. The top rungs are pretty much still pay to win, but you can get in the top 100, top 50, even top 25 but extras, so group effort. Solo and inactive alliances, not so much.

We are legion. You cannot solo this, period. Unless you are in the top 10 or 15 alliances you will almost never get gold, in fact your alliance may struggle to even get clay, depending on the event. Pure way to win for the whales with 22 to 30 keeps.

Factors to consider

Server population. The more active people on the realm, the greater the competition for the resources.

Server aggression. Some servers are more toxic that other, some have feuds; being in the wrong alliance on the wrong server, well, sometimes it’s better to start over elsewhere, or find an easier game. (Staying can fall under the ‘sunk cost fallacy’). It’s a posh way of describing throwing good money after bad, whether the cost is time, cash, or simply warpstone. Sometimes it’s smarter to walk away.

The events, contextually (PvE)

This is basically what you have to do, and falls into ‘yes, ‘maybe’, ‘nope’, and ‘WTF? No!’. Always do the maths, ‘cos a lot of the time you just have to walk away. In psychology terms it’s system 1 vs systems 2 thinking. System 1 is reactive, emotive, Monkey see, monkey want, so you grab at it. And the trap springs shut. The devs, and ‘pay to win’ games in general, are devious as heck. (I’ll cover than shortly). In comparison, system 2 is careful planning and analysis.

Gain resources
Dead easy. Or easy dead. Can be pay to win. Generally it is do-able without to much trouble. Unless you have a lot of tile-hitters around- especially a risk if a resource event overlaps a pvp units one.

Here’s a few smart examples:

I have a level 5 keep, too new, too keep for gather 2m resources for an infernal event. But he does have 3,000 warpstone, with which he can buy 2m of one resource, use it to add to his stock, and boop, instant gold achievement. But he’s broke. But the balance is it’s a two-hour event. When it’s over he gets a total of 2,750 warpstone back. A loss, but also an investment as he gains several souls, speed-ups and other goodies worth far in excess of 250 warpstone.

A few levels later he has a number of troups, but nowhere near enough marches to gather 2m, but he has been hoarding loot drops, 500,000 worth in fact. And he has enough units to gather 500,000 more in the short time. Now he only needs to buy 1m resources to get gold. Later it gets easier.

Added to this, there are champion skills to help, greatly, and equipment with gathering bonuses. It starts to add up.

At lower levels it’s 2m, then 6m, then 10m. Being higher is a mixed blessing of sorts: you have more marches, you can carry more, faster, you are in areas with bigger nodes, so gather faster. But you increasingly can become a target for tile hitters. If you are paying attention you can recall them, but it’s a pain.

Gain iron (PvE)
As above, with the focus on just iron.

Another tip here – and above – it to start early. And allow time travelling times. Here’s an example:

You need 6m iron in 2 hours, and can send out 4 marches. When the event starts every who hasn’t already will be dashing after nodes, so it’s too late then. At varying distances away there’s 4 level 6 (1m) nodes available, so tot up the time to get their (and double it, ‘cos you have to get back as well), then add it the gathering time. And send them off to return just after (and not before) the event starts. That leaves you 2 hours then to gather the remaining 2m iron.

The sum will vary with your gathering bonuses, available nodes, etc. but doing it right means gold every time.

Champion XP (PvE)

Rituals are great for XP, and you can but it with warpstone as well, but I liike using alliance coins are they are easy to accrue.

As I’m typing this I am watching 4 events, current, and upcoming. These include a 48 hour ritual event, rewarding a ‘Great Unclean One’ (requires 160k of ritual power gain), an infernal XP (300k gain), an infernal power (200k), and a bog-standard 8hr ritual completion.

Even at a low level (11) I already a Great Unclean One, but a second never hurts, but I have over 18 hours for this. And in the sorcerer’s tower I have Monster Bane 7 with 5 hours remaining (for 25k power, and 40k xp), and Defence Salvaging 9 with 2h 14 remaining.

Undecided about the later, ‘cos 62 hours is a lot of speed-up for little gain, but I might be able to find something good to use with Monster Bane 7, in the time allowed. For now though, 1.2m coins is 300,000xp, and I have 1.63m and 42k worth of tokens. Tick tock.

And done, with 555k of Alliance coins left towards the the next event, or something else of value.

Gain Power (PvE)

Unless a long, high value ritual falls right, power is pure pay to win and generally lousy value. Buildings are rubbish and take too long, rituals can take days, weeks, months even so it generally comes down to units. If you are on the ball, gold may be possible, with a longer timer, often it’s pay to win. But have building and units and so forth contributing make this easier.

Train units (PvE)

Pretty much pay to win. Or a a fortune to win. Long rituals aside, it’s a money pit and the worse value. There’s a some variables, and it may improve with t4 and t5 (can’t say, yet), but a good rule of thumb with dungeons and rifts etc all going, is 4 to 5k power per hour. Skills, level of buildings, rituals are all factors but for a rough calculation, it works.

And it does not add up.

At level 10 I can gather 500 Chaos Chariots in 4.5 hours for units in 5,000 power.
Dungeons etc add up to similar rates giving me 2,000 t2 every 5 hours (rounding up).
t2 = 10 points, so that’s 20,000 points total, or 5,000 points per hour.

The two-hours infernal train units for this alt is 150,000 points, which is roughly 30 hours.

You level up, the bar raises. You might get 25 points per unit, but instead of 150k you need 600k.

My best would be Chaos Giants, at 880 in 17 hours for 22,000 power. 50 an hour, roughly, 1,250 points per hours, even quadrupled that’s yep, 5,000 points per hours. Or now 120 hours of power up – for essentially the same reward.

It’s a huge cash sink. do the maths for yourself, factor in all the resources also needed. Then walk away from the event. Get what you can, ignore what your can’t.

Ritual completion (PvE)

This one is a sod, it truly is!

In this game rituals are uber important, but the ritual completion events either offer little or interest, or are infrequent. At very low levels, such as a new fortress, you just train to a level 7 keep and ignore the rituals until one offering an epic warlord (you want) turns up, plenty to do at that level anyway, building units and such. Then 30k, thank you ma’am, it’s a slam dunk win.

Get to a level 8 fortress though, and it’s 160k, same reward, not so easy.

Jumps up again around 12 or 13, where it’s a cash sink, until you cross over into level 18 and you are getting 40,000 power for a ritual that might take 7 days to learn – when the event (again same reward) now demands 1.25m points. That’s might be 100 days worth of rituals to compress into 48 hours. Forget it.

I have covered this elsewhere in the guide and will be adding more on the subject. My disgust for the developers is complete, as regards shit like this.

Also, as well as exponentially growing costs, there is another problem the devs cannot and will not address, though it’s possible no-one’s reached this level yet: one some point (perhaps years from now) you will run out of rituals to do. Pay to winner’s win run into this wall a lot sooner.

Defeat armies (PvE)

Doesn’t matter if it’s an 8 hour, 48 hour, or 7-day event, it’s a grind pure and simple. Just kill at your level; if you can’t one shot (or one-shot snipe) an army, aim a level lower, anything else just fills up your sawmills and more than doubles the farming time as you have to keep running back to finish them off, or sending several marches to one target.

Not the place to go into troop composition, but small changes can make big differences, using highest tier and power in a march, obviously, increasing march size (several ways) to bulk out the armies, swapping the warlord, different equipment on the champion. It all adds up.

Unless you are farming materials and components (plumes anybody?), in which case it is a remorseless, soul-destroying time-sink whose soul purpose is – in my opinion – to make you so depressed and miserable you give in the the nerfed drop rates and the constant ‘chosen’ for you pop-ups and spend £50 or £500 or £2,000 on the things rather than spend another minute farming.

Understand this:

General explanation:

Below below Jenifer Fox-Gerrits (of Life Management Strategies LLC) explains how several MMO games hire behaviourists to increase the addictive elements of their respective games. In return, a higher revenue is generated for the company at the cost of destructive behaviours on the users’ part. You’ll probably have several ‘aha’ moments in the video below.

Defeat Foes (PvE)
The longer events are tedious but do-able, especially if you can snipe. Working together with someone else around your range can be great too, if they are trustworthy (take turns on the kill). Boosting is good for this event too.

The short events, especially the infernal, are cash sinks, intended to drain you of stamina pots and quietly nudge you to buying more, ideally with cash.

The Skulltaker event must have REALLY rammed that home for the whales for the game! Taking bets the devs repeat the formula for the next three legendary warlords. If mugs are going to keep wheeling out barrow-loads of cash for this digital tat, then the devs will – I guarantee – keeping milking them (you?) for all they can. Until folk learn, or max out their credit cards. You are not a player, not a person, you are a tally on a spreadsheet, your only true worth being the net balance on the quarterly profit and loss. All sales are final. No refunds.

Complete Trials (PvE)

These are basically the 2min to 1h30 click for resources events, every six hours, (also repeatable with tokens or for warpstone). Level 8 prestige allows instant complete for solo, level 10 10 prestige allows instance complete for alliance trails. Prestige obviously have a lot of other benefits, but this is the most noticeable.

The events, contextually (PvE and or PvP)

Conquest Challenge (PvE and or PvP)

Basically it’s all of the above, and or all of the events below, so an easy event. Gather resources, gain power, train units, complete rituals, complete solo and alliance trials, trample others, gain experience, they all give points.

Occupy cities (PvE/PvP)

This is PvE in that you attack npc cities, not players, but attacking cities attracts high level players that don’t like you having their toys. If you stay chances are you and anyone supporting you will be thrashed.

Not something I have tried or particularly want to try. Essentially you want to be really high level, backed up by an equally powerful alliance. One willing to risking getting zeroed. All of them. Seen it happen. Players quit, alliances disband, hate and venom spew out. No thanks!

Oh yes, as well, as I understand it, if you are the Lord of a City (e.g. Altdorf) it disables the sawmills for the person holding the town. All unit losses are permanent losses.

(The same loss occurs if you are zeroed and you have more units that sawmill capacity. e.g. If you have a sawmill capacity of 1m and 1.5m troops and are attacked, the sawmills fill up up with the first to die (the lowest units) and the rest – 500,000 of your highest, most expensive units – having no triage safety net – they are killed dead., never to return.)

The events, contextually (pure PvP)

Raid resources (PvP)
Not a fan of PvP myself, it can be done well, but often it encourages bullying and when – in games such as Chaos and Conquests – bullying is profitable for the business, well it rapidly becomes toxic.

A lot of players – this being a PvP game – may well has a wholly different view on the matter, but the fact remains a fact, whether or not there is a bullying or fair-play involved. You have a high level fortress, so you either need to farm or buy shields, or spend heavily on resources to power up and upgrade. You get zeroed, the repair cost can be eye-watering. Weeks, months, up to a year out of the game. Or reach for your credit card.

So, raid resources – you hit them, if they can, they hit back. Eternal tit-for-tat.

There are two ways to ‘exploit’ this, both of which are legitimate within game rules. The first, most used, is to look for dead fortresses. They will have no shield, no units and the shield is typically called GROB, or renamed to something appropriate like “KillMeNow.” Mostly likely, as below, it will little to take, but if it’s been left for some time, or is newly abandoned, it can have substantial resources.

The other way, more unusual way is you raid yourself, or rather your alt, or one of your alt’s labour camps. Have to be in different alliances, obviously, or it gets weird, but essentially it’s a case of “no foul, no harm.” Whether the devs are happy with this is another matter. They are aware of this guide, yet they choose to ignore it, neither offering advice nor corrections. *shrugs*.

Defeat units (PvP

This is the same as above, without dead keeps, but a lot of fortress attacks and tile-hitting. Can’t say I approve, but that’s just me, I chose to play a PvP game, if I get a march zeroed, all part of the game.

But what if you can’t do that, without getting squashed? What then? Or, in my case, you simply don’t want to go around attacking folk? But you want the points and loot? Well, you attack yourself again :D Or your alt at any rate. Simply send an appropriately size march to gather near your alt and when it arrives, attack. It’s quite possibly a MAD solution! Depends on march sizes and so forth, obviously, but essentially a lot of units die and one or both parties gain points – without antagonising anyone at all. (Except perhaps the devs :D ).

Encampment destruction (PvP)

Basically that, stamp over other players outposts.

A word on event imbalance

For apparently no logical reason – other of course than to make the game unnecessarily harder so as to try and wring money out of players – the game adds ruddy great hurdles every few levels.

1 to 7, fine.
8 the event change increase around five-fold
13, another huge increase
18, a devastatingly huge issues,
and again at 23, and 28.

So every five levels, with other increases for some events pasted in between. Basically, every 5 levels the PvE and PvP events get 5x harder to achieve.

Here’s an example the the 8-hour ‘defeat armies’ event.

These jumps are arbitrary, they are not, as you might expected, linked to increases in the level of your troops, they are there to catch you unaware and, it seems PAY to keep up – or quit. They do not care if you quit, ‘cos if you are not paying, you are unwelcome. How it seems, certainly, a view deflected by the players. As I’ve said elsewhere, the poison starts at the top, with the Hunted Cow studio, and seeps downwards.

Given – as seen above – the vast majority of the game is pure PvE, this is the most toxic PvP game I have every experienced.