Clearly a lot of fighting going at the moment and some tears shed.

Thought would give some advice for those looking to start a beacon game.

I am going to quote some Sun Tzu because, why listen to me, take it from a world renowned tactician and strategist, whose words have stood the test of time.

Sun Tzu Said:

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.

The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.

Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.

Those that have tried and failed in the beacon game did so because they reached out blindly. They had no idea what was needed to hold a beacon. They had no idea the armies they were up against and potentially going to war with. They started beef with people that were completely out of their league.

To give you some help with that:

- Major established beacon leagues have 1bn off and def

- The very best leagues have multiple billions of offence

- The very best leagues have 1-2bn of defence

You need at least 50m def to hold a beacon. Learn the siege mechanics to understand why at that point it gets expensive to hit you. 

Bear in mind the the very best leagues in the game are still capable of dealing with that def if the beacon you have taken is strategically important enough to them. So don't limp into edge beacons at spawn with 50m def and expect not to get crushed. 

Emps 1.5bn hammer, Destiny & KT 1bn. If you make any of these league an enemy you need considerably more defending your beacons (400m to get 1 for 1 losses and cause pain to Emps hammer for instance).

You need to be able to get your def into the beacon, virtually immediately. It's no good it taking 24hr for your league to dribble into the beacon when they finally get on. At 0m-20m your def is just a sitting duck just screaming for PvP points to the big hammers.

Also shed your "entitlement". You don't deserve a beacon just because you are a small league. It's not bullying to take down poorly defended beacons. And it's a war game, while some people will think twice about wrecking your game just for fun there are a lot who won't. 

If you just blundered unprepared into the territory of a major league expect to be taken out. You are trying to take something from them. Expect a war. Even if their beacons got downgraded to lvl 1 by another major league in a war, their offence is still totally intact, their defence is what took a beating. If you are trying to snipe a beacon from them when they are down, its their offence you are going to be fighting.

That isn't to say never be bold and take a chance. You will find it difficult to get established if you play completely risk adversely. But to Sun Tzu's last point, you need to know what you are up against. You need spies. You need to built relationships with other leagues and collect intel. You don't go in blind.

Finally the major leagues are on a journey outwards, expanding into new edge beacons. That means they have interior beacons to simply give away at times. Many good leagues today, got their start from the benevolent gifts of established edge leagues. This is by far the least risky way to get established, under the wing and watchful eye of an already major league (just be careful you don't get dragged into their politics if they have enemies).

If you try and fail, it's not because the game is unfair, or someone bullied you, it's because you didn't know what you were doing and prepare correctly. You need to look inwards and improve your game not look to blame someone else.

(PS figures and info are for Dark Plains Stormfall server)