[IMP] Why Guerilla Fights are a Requisite

Day 2,109, 01:34 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Death and Taxes


OK I've done some major re-edits and would like to thank Cpl Jackson, Liam Tatlock and Roz for correcting some of assumptions. All changes are in bold

Hello again. This article is a bit different from the ones I normally publish. Again, it's community related and therefore designed to either enlighten, assist or comment on eRepublik stuff that I think might be of interest.

Again, it comes courtesy of the Irish Military Party, an organisation that ties in a political dogma of game mechanics along with the very necessity we need to have active wars with active alliances.

Please join us here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/party/irish-military-party-4478/1

So no, what makes this article special is that I don't want to advertise it to the international media. So there will be no shouts in my friends box, just a slow dissemination into our local media. So you might vote this up, but just quietly, right?

So, on to the topic du jour.



Here's the top 5 guerilla fighters in Ireland over the last 7 days. Up top, the esteemed BiednyMis, second up is me - although that's missing two days fights so I'm gonna put BiednyMis under pressure - then Cpt Jackson, Mr Jack X and Rikian. So what we can tell from this is that Irish fighters either hate or don't understand GF's (Guerilla Fights).



Now I can understand this. When eRepublik said 'Fight real opponents on the battlefield' most of us were happy with the toy comic impersonation of it. Participating in GF's are real fights with real opponents. Plus, if you lose, you might get your name in lights on the chat feed. Oh the embarrassment!

So this article is designed to give you some tips and hints in GF's and try and persuade most of you - although not all of you to get active. If you're looking for a compelling case as to why you should participate, then have a look at the following eRepublik stats:



In 2097 I started doing GF's. On average, this increased by damage output by about 50%. That's right, participating in GF's is like having a permanent 50% damage booster on 24 hours a day. While it's not entirely free, the costs involved are well defined and cheap.



By contrast if you look at the snapshot above, you'll see that on days 2104 and 2105 there was a huge drop off in output. Well, this is because I was away that weekend and was using the phone. Back to normal day 2106 and off we go again.

Now I can hear you saying:

"That's all very well for D&T, you're a GoW** so most of your opponents will be weaker than you. You're racking up the victory points to explain the extra influence. Weaker players will get hammered and so that's how the game balances out."

Partly right.

It's true that I have an advantage, in some fights I will have from +3 to +4 damage per shot. When even a +1 advantage can win the game for you, if you enter a fight with +3 or more advantage you should win every time. However, where you are wrong is that even if you lose the fight, you will still do the exact same damage for the 100 energy lost as you would on a normal battlefield with Q7 weapons.

Edit 1: Any health retained from your guerilla fight is added back to your energy pool regardless of whether you win or lose

You literally have nothing to lose

So at this stage you should all know the basics of GF's

1. GF's can only be accommodated in normal campaigns, no resistance wars
2. GF's can only function when either side is under 1400 points
3. You need to achieve 5 kills before you can start to search for a GF
4. After you 5 kills you carry in a max of 100 health into the fight, if you have less than 100 health at this time, that's what you bring into the fight.
5. While the GF program picks an opponent for you, the buggy nature means that you I've fought anyone from GoW*** opponents with 1600:250 kill ratios right through to Corporals in their first fight.



OK - so with that out of the way, go to a battlefield, make sure you have 300 health and click on your inventory. You will need to equip yourself as follows:



Sorry about the clutter. Here's what you nee😛

1. Helmet, Armour and Boots. This gives you a bonus of 16 damage that you can withstand before your 100 health starts to get affected. Each piece of armour has 3 integrity points, scroll over the item to see how you are fixed. Never bring armour into a fight with integrity of 1 as it won't give you full protection.
I'm not sure if the previous statement is true and will be testing it out

2. You will need three weapons in your four weapon slots. For main weapon I always go with the gold Sniper rifle. It does the maximum damage, and your starting position usually means it can be used straight away. Yes, it can only fire once before a reload, but the extra damage makes it a must.

3. I always carry a shotgun and a rifle as back up weapons. The range of these weapons should cover all contingencies from where you start to close combat. Obviously as they have multiple ammo they don't have the reload issues of the sniper rifles.

4. Finally, always carry a gold grenade. This means that when you do the dodge option, not only do you get the chance of avoiding enemy fire, but if they do fire, you can do up to 10 damage to them as well.



OK all equipped? Let's do our five hits and click the guerilla fights search button.



So let's take you through the combat. You may need to click repeatedly on the GF button before you get an opponent, this is why you should always try to get into a GF at the earliest time possible in a battle.



So that's my opponent. He's a GoW** like me but with an extra 10,000 strength. His bonus damage is +2 against my +1. So he should have a slight advantage all the way through the fight.

However, his win/loss ration is appalling. This means he is either badly equipped, very young, or just very bad at GF's.



So here we are at round three and we see what the problem is. If you look at the log on the top left hand side you'll see that in round 1 I hit him with the sniper rifle for 15 damage. You'll also see that he's armed with a pop gun - currently well out of range which explains why he is moving towards me. You can also see that he's wearing no armour as the 15 damage has been knocked off his health.



Knowing this, instead of killing the opponent, I am going to save my ammo, my armour, and my grenade by just retreating as he advances.



Round 16, and still running away. note that I am still 400m away. Please also note that there is a game mechanic that can prevent you from running away in the sense that you can retreat no further. I don't know what the rule is for that, it does seem random and buggy.

So that's how the fight ended at round 20. One successful shot from me, and no damage done by my opponent. Minimum expenditure, maximum gain.

Here's the result:



Here's the damage done:



Here's a salutary lesson of why GF's are critical.



So for the outlay of 100 health I have inflicted 886,442 points. That's nearly 90k per hit, the kind of damage associated with Titans.

Now let's move things along to the next combat. One that shows unequal this combat system can be.



That's right, a two-star field marshal against a two-star God of War. +1 damage against +4 damage. It's a totally unfair contest. But let me show you a screenshot of the battle:



This is half way through the contest. If you look at the track log the opponent isn't shooting at me, he's dodging. I can't run away anymore, but there's no point in wasting ammo, so I'm just changing weapons rather than activating them.

Now ask yourself, why would my opponent do this? You might say that he has no chance of victory so why waste his own ammo. He didn't come in with any armour, so even if he met an equal opponent he's also likely to lose.

To understand this, we need to go into the costing scenario with Guerilla Fights.



Bear with me on this, because it's important. The one defined thing about eRepublik that is for once, equal for all, is that everybody regardless of rank, age or strength, can only generate 2400 health per day. So, depending on your energy centre, the amount of energy you go through per day is how much sleep you get.

I usually calculate an average of 2200, whereby 200 is lost down to sleep or inactivity.

With 2200 as the norm then, we need to calculate how many GF's you can find in a day. Well, we know that we have to do 5 kills to get into a GF. That used to be 35 energy per kill, but it's closer to 25 these days. So rounding up, we know that we have to expend 25 energy x 5 kills to get to a GF which is say 130 energy. WE then lose 100 energy in the GF. So the total package is 230 energy per cycle.

However, the module is glitched in the same battle you might trigger multiple GF's without having to always kill 5 opponents. I've killed 5 opponents, finished a GF, then killed 1 more opponent and I'm back in a GF again.

So realistically, we are going to run with 10 cycles of standard combat and GF's in a 24 hour cycle. Now we need to look at the cost:

For equipment we need half a set of armour per GF's + 1.5 gold sniper rifles and 0.75 gold grenades. Occasionally we need other weapons and sometimes you might need 2 gold rifles per fight and one gold grenade. But we also get free items when we win combats so it all balances out.

The cost of this per GF combat is about 50 IEP. Sounds expensive right? So if you had 10 GF's per day you end up spending 500 IEP. Now that's a lot of money right? But here's the thing. Because you aren't using Q7 weapons in the GF's you are saving 1 per round or 13 IEP. So the real cost is 500 IEP less 130 IEP meaning 370 for the day.

So go back to what I said at the start. For D4 high GoW*+ fighters, for an outlay of 370 IEP per day you get a 50% damage booster on a 24 hour basis. Please compare this to the costs of building a rocket or a 50% damage booster for five minutes, that comes in at 700 IEP.

So if you are looking to increase your output and influence and are looking to get up the ranks quicker, this is not only the best way of doing it, it's also the cheapest.

So what about everybody else? What about Corporal Klinger? What about players that have no money? What good is GF's for them?

Well here it is, these players turn up for GF's with no armour and weapons, that's what. They spend nothing on the combats whatsoever. Not a sausage. Now they will carry some weapons, because sometimes they can get into fights they can win. But if they see me on the battlefield they just cut their losses and dodge all the time waiting to be killed.

Why do they do this? Because it means they don't have to use up Q7's in normal fights. If we take the 10 GF's in a 24 hour period cycle, then the savings per day are 130 IEP. So it means if you work in the Irish Army commune your weapons outlay per day is drastically reduced. The two combats I outlined above are perfect examples of that.



This article is not complete, because I didn't go into tactics too much. That's something you're going to have to learn for yourselves. I also suspect that some of the information above may not be completely accurate. After all, I have only has over 100 fights and can still be considered a neophyte. So I will change the article depending on what responses I get.

I will sign off below with some questions and answers that I hope to expand upon depending on what people say:

Q. Do GF's count for damage with Combat Orders?
A. I don't know, I have tried to prove this many times but no firm evidence. Edit 2 according to Cpl Jackson GF's count towards damage for CO's. I have not seen this myself but will post about it afterwards

Q. How do GF's work in relation to national strikes and important campaigns?
A. Very badly. The damage is erratic and occurs at non-critical times rather than at the end of the battle. Not recommended.

Q. Who do I fight on the battlefield?
A. Nominally someone on the opposing side that matches your rank. In practice this can be a complete mismatch or even someone on your own side!

Q. What happens when my opponent flees the battlefield?
A. You get 100 health back to replace the amount taken. Does not count towards victories or losses

Q. What happens to your excess health after a fight if you win or lose?
A. As I've just found out and can't really believe it, you get this health returned to you. So if you get a good run against weak opponents you end up doing multiples of damage for very little energy.

Q. So I know GF's add to rank points, what about experience points?
A. It seems that GF's do not add to experience points, so this might be a viable option for players who want to rank up without levelling up. In other words, a min/max option where you do your strength training and then do 25 kills + 5 GF's.