Warbook Strategy

There are also some legitimate techniques that I’ve seen work which I’ll list below.

• Dont be a dickhead. Only attack once, do not abuse your enemies, keep a list of the people you’ve attacked, be polite on the forums. This is probably the most important rule to keep your kingdom strong especially at the lower levels.
• Be a soldier seller (1). If you’re a warmonger, you can make soldiers for as little as 25% of the usual cost. Through the forums, you can sell soldiers for say 35% of the usual cost and skim 10% profit for your own uses either through buying land or more soldiers for yourself. It is competitive however and the prices have dropped. Also, most Alliances have such soldier factories without the markup.
• Be a soldier seller (2). As with above, but you can use other people’s soldiers / gold for your own campaigns before you give it back to them. Why would you do this? To prevent yourself from going into negative gold and to expand beyond your means. This is not a problem if your customers are in no hurry. Also, be careful not to extend yourself.
• Be a soldier buyer. This is pretty much the only way to keep on top of the arms race. Find a good supplier and buy soldiers (or join an Alliance). I use this myself.
• Be a bottom feeder. Search only for kingdoms that are nearly at the limit at which you can attack. Select the weakest and gain land from them. Seeing as you’ve gained land and they’ve lost, they will not be able to retaliate until they come within range. If you do this continously, you should be able to streak past the majority of those you’ve attacked.
• Farm weaker players. Keep a list of easy targets and hit them regularly - especially if they are not in an Alliance. This a variant of the bottom-feeder strategy but much more annoying.
• Dont worry about defence (1). This works especially well if you’re a magician. At the end of an attack run, your kingdom should be significantly bigger but you’ll also be vulnerable to others. Dont worry about being attacked in turn because if you have enough mana you can cast Alchemy and get the gold for your new kingdom size. Buy soldiers from a soldier factory - get your soldier factory to delay delivery. After the retals have finished, you’ll be smaller but have a lot more soldiers than anyone your size - plus you havent lost any of your soldiers from retaliation. You could even store some of your soldiers in a friendly kingdom.
• Dont worry about defence (2). If you chain attack weaker kingdoms and Alliances, you’ll be guaranteed an unending series of attacks. This is not a bad thing if you can grow quicker than you’re being taken down for especially if your kingdom will get put into alert for most of the time. To conserve your troops before you’re in alert, you could either transfer to a friendly kingdom or you can put your gold in a soldier factory for when you need it. Once you’re in alert, attack mercilessly and grow as quickly as you can. When finished your attack round, put your soldiers and money in a friendly account or a bank. Be careful though as you’re still vulnerable to spells. However, you can take assurance that mages dont work well together.
• Be a bank. Offer to store money and/or soldiers for other kingdoms while charging a small fee. Or you can offer interest rates.
• Build a strong defence and dont leave your flank exposed. Any chance you get, buy pikemen. They have the lowest maintenance cost per defence point. Dont attack with your pikemen, only with your soldiers. This means you always have a fallback defence.
• Join an Alliance. Alliances protect you. Pick an alliance that matches you and follow the Alliance rules. Contribute as much as you can. Offer assistance.
• Attack Alliances strategically. If you’re a solo player and dont care about your reputation, it’s quite possible to attack lots of the weaker members of an alliance consecutively while swearing vengence. When they start attacking you in turn, ask for a ceasefire immediately and start talks with the Leader. Also start other talks with other Alliance members. Lie about who attacked you, stall, break ceasefire and attack randomly, stall, start talks again, lie some more. The amount of noise you’ve introduced into the Alliance should give you enough time to grow very quickly.
• Attack others while being protected by your Alliance. If you’re an Alliance member and dont care about your reputation, it’s quite possible to attack other Alliances or other players while under protection of your own. At this time, Alliances cannot cast you out. Choose an Alliance with a nasty reputation for retaliation and then chain attack everyone outside of it for as long as you can. Where possible, lie to your Alliance about who has attacked you and after they’ve been softened up, go in for the kill. Always maintain your innocence. Be as helpful within your Alliance as possible and try to be as much liked as you can. People will more likely believe you.

~source~