When it comes to strategy games, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the tower defense subgenre — ever since I was introduced to Bloons on Newgrounds as a young, impressionable soul.
The format is fairly easy to pick up, although every game has its own particular twist. Build towers. Slow the enemy down. Kill them all.
Caravan War adds simulation game elements to the game format, encouraging you to build up your town and its buildings. Set in a cartoon-y medieval fantasy world, Hiker Games’s newest title also throws PVP play into the mix, encouraging player clans and the ambushing of each other’s caravans in the bid for riches and power.
So how to make it to the very top? These are some of the things you’re going to need to know.
Get to know your units
The tutorial blitzes you through the basics of setting up an ambush with both towers and your set of minions, but it doesn’t really give you the time to look and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each. After you get a head start building your town, take a minute to look over each of the bandits to check out their attributes. This will play into strategizing where and how you’re going to use them.
To continue progressing in this game, you’re going to need to keep your fighting force fit and up to the task. Make sure that they stay healed, and make sure that you upgrade them whenever you can.
Know how you want to set them up. Towers are handy, but you also want to make sure you’ve got the right minions set up where you want them. Heavily armored bandits are your best front line, while you should keep your squishier (but higher-ranged) archers further back.
Play through campaign mode
Not only will this acclimate you to the game and how ambushes should be played, but you will also receive general loot from completing each level. You won’t be able to just blitz through the chapters very easily right away, so make sure you keep your units upgraded so that you’re not underpowered for the task.
The most important thing is that after completing certain chapters, you unlock new towers to add to your arsenal in ambushes. Once you do that, learn your towers so you know when and where to deploy them since they, much like your minions, have different strengths and weaknesses that correspond to different caravan units.
Take a look at what the caravan is packing before you set up your stuff. If they’re coming in heavy, for example, bring out the Mage Tower, which allows for armor penetration. You always have a little time to study your enemy before you need to engage.
Keep upgrading and using your buildings
In order to keep up with the increasing difficulty of ambushes, you’re going to need to keep upgrading your units … and in order to upgrade your units and your towers, you’re going to need to keep your buildings upgraded as well. As the tutorial already shows you, you’ve got quite a few buildings taking up your town right from the start that are going to need your attention.
Make sure that you’re always keeping yourself well funded by sending out your caravan on trade missions — this is what keeps you in gold, which you’re going to need lots of to make your upgrades.
Since this game is fairly PVP-oriented, there is a good chance that your caravan is going to be attacked by other players when you send it out on trade missions. That’s fine. Pack them with as many units as you want so that you’re not quite easy pickings, but even if they’re successful, they’re not going to rob you blind. You’ll still come away with something, and you’re going to want to keep that cash flowing as much as possible.
Make sure that you keep your trade missions active even when you’re not actively playing the game because they’ll still count down the time necessary to complete the mission regardless of whether or not you have the game open. When you sign in again, they’ll still be there waiting for you.
Set out and do some ambushing yourself!
Since it’s a mobile game, it’s not like you’re going to have to sit through anyone cursing you through the Internet for your larceny. The rewards for successful missions are easy to see and show up at the top-left corner of the screen before you choose to engage.
Even better, after 10 ambush attempts, you are awarded an Ambush Chest that holds even better rewards compared to your regular loot chests (seven cards versus the usual four), a guaranteed rare, and a chance for epics.
Don’t worry about losing
Learning your units is the most important thing, and knowing what they can (and can’t) do against an enemy is what is going to make you better at it.
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Know any other strategies to get better at Caravan War? Let us know in the comments below!
