My good buddy and Nerds on Earth contributor, Nash, got me hooked on Marvel Strike Force and has taught me a lot about the game through his Monday column.
Now, I’m writing this Monday’s strategy guide and I get to say… Welcome back to Marvel Strike Force (MSF) Mondays. Each week we break down one more aspect of the hottest mobile game, Mobile Strike Force!
This article will discuss the various approaches for WAR. Read this first if you are wholly unfamiliar with WAR because what follows assumes a basic understanding.
Build a 900 Point Offense
Our alliance lost our last WAR, scoring only 712 points. As is typical after a WAR loss, our Discord was filled with chatter around what we could have done differently when we set our defensive squads.
First things first, you won’t win WAR consistently by scoring only 712 points, so our obsession with defense in that case was misguided. Instead, you should build a 900 point offense, because if you score 900 points consistently, you’ll win more often than not.
So, how do you insure 900 points?
- Target clearing 4 rooms fully. Clearing a basic room earns your team 50 bonus points, plus 80 points for clearing the teams (16 x 5). So, clearing 4 rooms earns 520 points ((50+80)x4). Don’t hop around willy nilly, target 4 rooms and get those bonus points for clearing it fully. It’s gravy if you get the 100 or 200 point bonus for the key rooms.
- Knock out 75 other teams. This seems obvious but you only have so many attacks, which we’ll talk about later. So, you can hunt and peck to look for soft spots, but know that each of your 24 Alliance members will need to knock out roughly 3 teams each in addition to the focused attacks used to clear out the 4 rooms.
The math above isn’t perfect but that gives an Alliance a rough strategy for a 900 points offense: All 24 members work together to clear 4 full rooms, then each member chips in 3 extra wins. ~900
Position a 800 Point Defense
As for defense? Plan to hold the opposing team to under 800 points, because if you do that, you’ll win more often than not. Let’s discuss different strategies that limit the opposing Alliance’s offense:
- Drive them away from your Bridge. A common strategy is to position your defenses teams across top in such a way that it invites offenses to attack a certain side of your helicarrier first, while you know your Bridge is on the opposite side. Hey, if I see squishy teams on one side, I’d go after them. And I may have wasted a lot of attacks before I realize I’ve been misdirected.
- Stack your Bridge. Other Alliances put their best defense in their Bridge and other high bonus point rooms. The thinking there is they’ll sacrifice the 50 point bonus rooms in the hopes that the opposing team won’t get the big bonuses. Risky, but it can work.
- Fortify the front. Some Alliances place their best defensive teams at the front of the room. The thinking there is the opposing team has to burn their big guns to get “in.” The bad news is it often leaves 17K teams and easy pickings in the rest of the room.
- Fortify the rear. This is a favorite of mine. Put wimpy defense up front but the opposing team doesn’t see that you have beasts fortifying the back of the rooms until they’ve burned a few lightning bolts to get there. By that time, they’ve committed to either getting that 50 point bonus or die trying.
- Sow confusion. This is my absolute favorite. My defense teams aren’t the best, but I have some tricky ones that I mix throughout, like a 125K Emma Marauders, a 100K Asgardians, and a 100K Red Skull Hydra. They see a couple lightweights up front that draw them in, but once they get 4-5 teams in, the tricksy teams wear them out more than they realize. I had 9 defense victories our last WAR and I regularly get a half dozen.
Why is sowing confusion important when setting your defense? Well, let’s talk about baseball. Baseball teams play 9 innings of 3 outs each. That means a team has 27 outs and a pop up, strike out, or ground ball might seem different but they are all equally outs.
Similarly, a WAR offense has a limited numbers of “outs.” 24 Alliance members get a limited number of lightning bolts and most members shouldn’t be expected to spend resources to purchase more, so you’ve got what you’ve got.
Each lightning bolt will ideally lead to 5 points because the offense will win outright the first time. But if you cause an opposing Alliance to run around chasing dead ends or taking cracks at the same team over and over only to whittle them away, their lightning bolts (outs) are being wasted.
If an Alliance has full participation of all 24 members (unlikely) and each member is attacking as soon as their lightning bolts replenish (unlikely), then each member will have about 10 attacks over the course of a WAR. That’s 240 “outs.” (24×10) So, if everything breaks well you have a theoretical 1,200 points without room bonuses (240×5).
So don’t give away lightning bolts! Focus to clear 4 rooms fully! Make your attacks count with a goal of 3 additional knockouts per member! And sow confusion to make your opponent waste lightning bolts!
Well I hope this helps you take your Squad from a D+ to a B- Commander!
Game Radar
Blitz: Monday we get the general of Dora Milaje, Okoye! Thursday, things heat up with the Human Torch.
Events: Chaos Theory Event is back, so make sure you level up your Wakandans.
Upcoming Legendary: Invisible Woman starts tonight – you’ll need those Sinister Six (or Seven) to unlock this legendary character!
Black Bolt: April 27th, August 17th, December 7th (Requires Asgardians 5-star)
Shuri: May 11th, August 31st (Requires Spider-verse 5-star)
Ebony Maw: May 25th, September 14th (Requires Inhumans 5-star with Black Bolt)
Phoenix: June 8th, September 28th (Requires Mystic Villain Controller 6-star)
Star-Lord: June 22nd, October 12th (Requires Guardians or Ravagers 5-star)
Nick Fury: July 20th, November 9th (Requires Kree Minions 5-star)
Magneto: August 3rd, November 23rd (Requires X-Men and/or Brotherhood 5-star)
Previous Installments
- Early Player Tips
- Avoiding Early Player Mistakes
- Understanding Alliances
- Building Wide
- Farming Guide and Seed Theory
- Underrated Characters
- Blitz, please!
- Team Positioning Tips
- Daily Objectives
- WAR, what is it good for?
- Expect a Cold Front
- Swarm to the Next Event
- Why Am I Losing at PvP?
- MSF Terms You Should Know – Part 1
- MSF Terms You Should Know – Part 2
- MSF Terms You Should Know – Part 3
- ISO 8
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Tabletop Takeaways: Tips for Dungeon Masters with a Narrative Spin