Beginner's Guide

The strategy guide has more in-depth information on build orders and openings. =Welcome to LittleWarGame!=

LittleWarGame is a browser-based Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game that has been in development since September 2013. The goal of the game is to use the Castle and Workers you start out with to build a strong army and destroy your opponent or opponents through a variety of tactics, strategies, and units. If you're not familiar with RTS games or want to know a little more about the game, this guide is for you!

Units
This section will tell you what each unit in the game is strong or weak against and provide a small amount of extra information. It's a good idea to put units together whose strengths cover the others weaknesses. If you want more specific information about each unit, check out the Unit pages.

Worker --  Resource Collector Strong Against: - Weak Against: Soldiers, Mages, Catapults, Werewolves, Dragons, Watchtowers,

While its main purpose is to collect Gold at your Gold Mine, the Worker can be used to attack an enemy or to defend your base when you're low on units. They do well against low numbers of Archers and can fight back decently against Wolves. They can only attack ground units.

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Soldier ---  Powerful Melee Attacker Strong Against: Workers, Wolves, Archers, Mages, Catapults, Watchtowers Weak Against: Dragons, Rifleman, Mages, Catapults

Soldiers have many Hit Points and a strong attack, and so are very powerful against many different units. However, they only have a   melee attack and can take a lot of damage against ranged enemies or spells closing distance. Also, they can only attack ground units.

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Archer Basic Ranged Attacker Strong Against: Soldiers, Catapults, Dragons Weak Against: Soldiers, Wolves, Mages, Catapults, Watchtowers, Fortresses

While it doesn't seem strong against much, the Rifleman's biggest advantage is its range. With good control it's possible to fight against Catapults, Soldiers, and Mages, or to attack enemy buildings from a distance. It can attack both air and ground units.

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Mage Ranged Spellcaster Strong Against: Archers, Mages, Wolves, Wolves Weak Against: Archers, Soldiers, Mages, Catapults, Wolves, Dragons, Watchtowers

Unupgraded, the Mage is just a slightly slower and more expensive Archer. However, it can learn two very powerful spells: Flamestrike, which does damage to units in an area, and Slowspell, which slows down units in an area. Using the right spell at the right time can make Mages devastating against an unprepared enemy, but poor use can make it an inferior (and expensive) Archeri. It can attack both air and ground units.

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Priest --- Ranged Spellcaster "Strong Against": Archers, Soldiers, Dragons "Weak Against": Airships, Archers, Wolves, Soldiers, Catapults, Watchtowers

Unupgraded, the Priest is just a more expensive Archer. However, it can learn two very powerful spells: Heal aura, which heals units inside an area, and Invisible, which makes the target unit invisible for a short amount of time. Used well, it can cause devastating damage.However, upgraded Watchtowers or upgraded Airships can see an invisible unit.

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Catapult Siege Unit Strong Against: Archers, Mages, Workers, Watchtowers, Wolves Weak Against: Soldiers, Wolves, Dragons

Catapults can shoot from further away than Watchtowers, giving them an excellent role as both a base-buster and a  defensive unit. Catapults fire by picking a location where a unit is and firing at the location rather than the unit, this means that they will almost never hit Wolves if not manually aimed or if Wolves were slightly behind other units, which inflicts great damage. Catapults also must be at a certain distance from a unit to fire. It can only attack ground units.

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Wolf Light Skirmish Unit Strong Against: Archer, Mages, Catapults Weak Against: Soldiers, Dragons, Watchtowers

Wolves are fast, inexpensive, and take little time to build. Their speed means that can outrun Soldiers, their natural enemies, and quickly surround and kill ranged units. However, their low Hit Points mean that they tend to struggle in direct engagements. It can only attack ground units.

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Dragon -- Heavy Flyer Strong Against: Workers, Soldiers, Catapults Weak Against: Archer, Mages, Watchtowers

Large, flying, and with plenty of Hit Points, Dragons are incredibly versatile and fast units that are capable of picking off lone units and harassing buildings. However, they struggle in direct engagements against Archers and have an even harder time against Mage spells. It can attack both air and ground units.

How To Make More
There are four main things that will help you make more units, more buildings, more bases, and have more money. While these things won't make units appear from nowhere, they will make you much faster at creating them with less stress on your part. They are:


 * Hotkeys


 * Control Groups


 * Making Workers


 * Keep Money Low

You may also hear other players call this process or skill of making more things called macro. Learning each of the tips below will help you improve your ability to macro and have the units you want when you want them.

Hotkeys
Every unit or building in the game has a shortcut that can be when building them. Using these shortcuts, called hotkeys, is much faster than clicking on the unit in the command card and will help make you faster. Hotkeys become even more useful when combined with Control Groups (see next section). Below are the default hotkeys for all units and buildings in the game. Keep in mind that these hotkeys can be changed by clicking the gear in the top-left portion of the screen.

UNITS

Worker: e (While Castle or Fortress is selected)

Soldier: q (While Barracks is selected)

Rifleman: w (While Barracks is selected)

Mage: e (While Barracks is selected + After Mages Guild is built)

Catapult: q (While Workshop is selected)

Wolf: q (While Wolves Den is selected)

Dragon: q (While Dragons Lair is selected)

BUILDINGS

Castle: qq + left-click (with Worker selected)

Watchtower: qw + left-click (with Worker selected)

House: qe + left-click (with Worker selected)

Forge: qr + left-click (with Worker selected)

Wolves Den: qt + left-click (with Worker selected)

Barracks: qa + left-click (with Worker selected)

Mages Guild: qs + left-click (with Worker selected)

Workshop: qd + left-click (with Worker selected)

Dragons Lair: qf + left-click (with Worker selected)

Animal Testing Lab: ww + left-click (with Worker selected)

UPGRADES

Human Attack Upgrade - q (while Forge is selected)

Human Armor Upgrade - w (while Forge is selected)

Human Speed Upgrade - e (while Forge is selected)

Human Range Upgrade - t (while Forge is selected)

Mechanical Attack Upgrade - a (while Forge is selected)

Mechanical Armor Upgrade - s (while Forge is selected)

Mechanical Speed Upgrade - d (while Forge is selected)

Mechanical Range Upgrade - f (while Forge is selected)

Beast Attack Upgrade - q (while Animal Testing Lab is selected)

Beast Defense Upgrade - w (while Animal Testing Lab is selected)

Beast Speed Upgrade - e (while Animal Testing Lab is selected)

Beast Range Upgrade - t (while Animal Testing Lab is selected)

Control Groups
Control Groups allow a player to select a building, unit, or multiple buildings and units at the same time without clicking them on the map. Additionally, they allow a player to snap to a unit, building, or multiple building.

To create a Control Group, select a unit, building, or group of units or group of buildings. Press and hold Control (CTRL), then press a number between 1 and 0. Now, any time you press that number, you will select that unit, building, or those units or buildings. If you press that number twice in a row quickly, your screen will move over to that group.


 * EXAMPLE ONE: Start a Singleplayer game and click your Castle.  Press and hold CTRL, then press and release 1.  Click another building or unit.  Press 1.  See how the Castle is now selected?  Look at the middle of the map, then press 1 twice quickly.  Your camera will move over to your Castle instantly.

Control Groups and Hotkeys combine to make building things much easier, even on the other side of the map.


 * EXAMPLE TWO: (Make sure you've done Example One)  Look at your opponent's base.  Now press 1e.  If you have not changed the hotkey for your Workers, you have just made a Worker at your Castle without looking at your Castle.

Making Workers
Workers allow you to gather more resources faster, and the more resources you have the more units and buildings you can create. That being said, make a lot of Workers. If your Castle is placed as closely as possible to the Gold Mine (your main base is) then it takes 10 Workers to be mining that Gold Mine at 100%. If you are at 100% with one Gold Mine or are getting close, you should create another Castle by a new Gold Mine so that you can mine out of multiple Gold Mines at one time.

More Workers = More Money = More Units and Buildings = Bigger Army

Keep Money Low
Money is a resource that doesn't help you unless it's converted into units or buildings. If you ever have extra money, make sure to just spend it. Don't build any more than two units or upgrades out of one place at a time, instead, use the extra cash to build new Watchtowers, new buildings that make units, or make Castles. This will be hard to do if you have made a lot of Workers, but with time and practice you'll get better at turning your money into a fighting force.

= Vocabulary = 1.Cata-catapult

1.1-Catadrop - Airship + 2 catapults

1.2-Balistadrop - Airship + 2 ballistas

1.3-Catadrop+1 - Catadrop with +1 for attack mech (a thing in AA4,because with it you can 2 shotting workers for kill.Without it 3)

1.4-Invis catadrop - making both catapults invisible

1.5-Gat - Gatling gun

1.6-Gyro - Gyrocraft

1.7-Mech - Mechanical (units)

1.8-Rax - Barracks

2.Wolf rush - 2+ den on 1 base,allin

2.1-Wof rush - wolf rush

3.Wof-wolf

4.Raider rush - allin with mass raiders from 2+ barracks

5.Kite (kiting) - moving ranged units during their attack cooldown, ie archers, snakes and gatlings

6.Full catadrop-Catadrop + 2 repair workers

6.1-Repair worker - Worker with auto repair

7.Cheese-Proxy

8.Tower Rush-Using towers near opponent base

8.1-Cata tower rush-tower rush with using catapults

9.Smurf-multiaccount when player talk like newbie player

10.Div-division (Div5,Div4,Div3,Div2,Div1,GammaDiv,BetaDiv,AlphaDiv)

11.Weewoo-Werewolf

11.1-ww - Werewolf

12.Fake guest-When player make a different tab and join lobby,then immediately close that tab when the game starts (often for team and custom games)

13.Selection - pulling units

14.Macro 2 den - 1 base 2 den into castle (no second house)

15.Full ballistadrop - airship + ballistas with 2 repair workers and splash

(Rynus)

Controlling Your Units
Individual control of units to get the most use out of them is a way of showing skill in LittleWarGame and is commonly called micro. While there are multiple ways of controlling units to get the most efficiency out of them, these three tricks are the most common forms of micro:


 * Kiting


 * Positioning


 * Retreat

All micro is easier if you have put your army into a Control Group (see above).

Kiting
Continually attacking with ranged units, backing off, and attacking with them again is kiting. When melee units get close to your ranged units, run them back after they fire before firing again. This will keep your ranged units alive longer due to the distance that the melee units have to run before being able to do damage against you.

Positioning
Whenever possible, spread out your units before a battle a small amount so that they all engage your opponent at once instead of attacking as one ball. This also makes Area of Effect (AoE) damage less effective. Also, when units engage in a fight they tend to spread out and make a line. If the line is bending towards your opponent's army, you have good positioning. If the line is bending towards you and it's possible, retreat into a better position.

Retreating
Pulling back weakened units so that they don't die lets those units continue to do damage in a fight instead of dying. There's also nothing wrong with running away from a bad fight.

Scouting
Explaining what to expect in every scenario is very difficult as the metagame is not established, the number of builds is large, and the varieties of reactions are large enough that it's nearly impossible, if not pointless, to list them all. A common way to scout for slower openings is to send out an early Worker (0:25 - 0:30) and see what your opponent has, and periodically send out more units to check for expansions or tech choices. However, certain openings that involve wolves or are all-ins (strategies designed to either work extremely successfully and win rapidly or fail completely) oftentimes to not use a worker scout, but rather scout with other units.

Ultimately, scouting is only effective if you understand what your opponent's base means, and that is something that is only built with experience. The fastest way to get better at scouting is to attempt to scout in-game, and then save the replay and see what your opponent did. Practicing in this way will quickly increase your understanding of your opponent's capabilities at various times during the game.

Why do I get lag online?/Why is online so slow?
If you have lag on a multiplayer game, it is either your computer lagging or another player lagging (the game is designed so that the game runs at the pace of the slowest player). If you have lag even in a singleplayer game, either your computer simply can't handle the game, or you're using a browser that doesn't well support the HTML5 features the game uses (Chrome and Firefox tend to have the best performance).

How do I start a match/I can't find how to create my own game?
The buttons to create a multiplayer game and a singleplayer game are in the bottom of the main lobby screen

How do I join a game?
Click on the game you want to join on the left hand of the screen (Click directly on the text)

How do I spectate game?
The creator of the lobby can drag players to the second spectator box below the player box. Also anyone joining a full game will be made into an spectator.

=Gameplay Video=

=Guide to all common openings (As of 1.81)=