The Cold Wars (Classic Server) - Help

AS WRITTEN BY JAYDEN_149

Contents
Nations
Users must choose from one of five nations when they register.
Each nation offers different advantages, leading to a different set of strategies and game play. The nations are all equally playable and able to ascend the ranks if you use your skills wisely!


  • China: 25% Attack bonus
  • Britain: 25% Covert bonus USA: 25% Income bonus
  • USSR: 25% Defense bonus
  • Australia: 25% Anti Covert bonus
Game play

The game is turn-based, with turns occurring every thirty minutes. Upon each turn, you generate a certain amount of in-game currency, and 'Civilians'. You can use currency for everything from training troops to upgrading technology or buying weapons. You must guard this well, for the more money you have, the more likely it is that someone will try and attack you to take it. In turn, though, you can use your attack turns to attack other players, to get their money.

Civilians are gained from your Unit Production, they are also trainable into the various unit types in the game. Either on their own, these units (and therefore UP) is critical to grow your army, and should be a primary focus when starting.
Another part of the game is either recruiting other players as your officers, joining a commander, or joining/creating an alliance. These in-game relationships can be crucial to your survival, or you can risk being a lone wolf. Each option has different bonuses, advantages and disadvantages, explained in more detail below.

Starting Out
When you first start, there are several things to do, and several ways to progress your account. While the options are numerous, a simple yet effective strategy is outlined here. With your few units, you will likely want to train at least one attacker, and one defender. You will want at least one weapon (get what you can afford after training the units). One spy would also be helpful but not necessary. Now, you need more money. Going to the 'Battlefield' screen will give you available targets from whom you can get money (the more you see out the better). You can then either spy on them, to see what defence they have and if your attack is higher than their defence, or you can attack with 1 turn to 'test them out' and see if you can win. If you can, use the full 15 turns to take their money. With your money, you will want to first repair your weapons, and then put all or most of it into unit production to increase your Civilian rate. This is key. You can optionally put more into weapons, defenders, or attacking units. Build your technologies when you can as well, and when you are comfortable with how to get money you can look at upgrading your covert levels too.

If you can find a good commander higher than you in the ranking, they will help by providing you income (and hopefully other help) you can find people looking for officers on the forums, or just by clicking 'make this user my commander' on the rankings/stats screen. An alliance likewise may help, but both of these are completely optional. When you get enough units such that you do not want to easily lose the money they produce to others, start to build defence and more covert power so you can defend, and avoid easy sabotages. Once you have done the above a few times, you are well on your way!

Rank
This is your overall rank. The rank is the average of your three distinct ranks (attack/defence/covert) compared with other players average. The easiest way to climb ranks is to have all ranks as equal as possible, while the easiest way to drop ranks is to 'zero out' one or more individual ranks.

Market
The Market page is where you can access the Auction Market where you can trade you ingame resources with other players. You can also access the Trade Market where you can trade Attack Turns for ingame money and Civilians. You can access your P2P transfer logs here also.

Turns
How many attack turns you have to use. Attacking takes from 1 to 15 turns, the more turns used, the greater the rewards and damage.

Currency
An always visible record of the currency 'on hand' or in the open. This is the currency that can be taken from you on a successful attack.

Bank
Use the bank to deposit your money. Money in the bank is safe and cannot be removed from you. You have an unlimited bank.

Next Turn
The amount of time until the next turn.

Messages
A display of how many in game messages you have. Clicking this takes you to the in game messaging system where you can read, reply and delete messages. To send a message, you use the 'rankings' or 'attack' link to find the player you want to send to, at which point an option to message them will be presented. If you receive a message you do not like, you can 'blacklist' the sender, preventing any further messages from that player. (You can also unblock all previous blacklists here). If a you recieve a message with insulting, threats or bad language click the "Report Player to Admin" button (this can result in that player losing all messaging ability, or even banning of account).

Game Boosters

  • Attack Turns: You can use these to attack other players.
  • P2P Credits: (Player to Player Transfers) Every 1 Credit allows for 1 P2P Transfer to be performed.
  • 48hr Protection: Adds 2880 PPT to your account which you can activate by clicking PPT in your menu. Protection protects you from most attacks.
  • Lottery: A chance to win ingame money!
  • World Power Status: Automatically win a portion of the lottery - 10 P2P Credits - 48-Hour Protection - 25,000 Attack Turns - 2 Uranium.
  • Economic Fortune: Automatically banks your cash on hand every turn for 7 days. You can only purchase EF once every 4 weeks.
  • Nation Changes: You will lose nothing when you change your nation. Also, there are some nations you can only acquire by paying to change your nation (such as Australia). You can not change someone elses nation. Even if you put in someone else's user id, it is your nation (not theirs) that will change.

    Command Center
    The Command Center or 'base' is the page you see after logging into the game, or clicking 'Command Center'. It displays the statistics about your account. The Command Center is subdivided into three main categories: User Information, Military Effectiveness/Ranking, and Personnel.
    User Information: The User Information section deals with your account information, your Commander, Technologies you have purchased, while also giving current statistics, including Unit production, available currency, income per turn, and total turns. Directly below the data, this section also shows what alliance you are in, and the officers you have under your command.
    Military Effectiveness: This section is divided into three distinct scores and rankings: Strike Action, Defensive Action, and Covert Action. Beside each one of these is a rank, comparing your power in that skill to that of all other users in the game. Strike Action is a measure of attack power, similarly Defensive Action is a measure of defensive power. Covert Action is a measure of your ability to spy or sabotage other members.
    Personnel: The personnel section deals with your troop and unit counts. It tells you your totals of Attack, Defense, Civilians, Mercenaries and Spies. The names of your troops differ from nation to nation (much like the currency).

    Attack
    This option takes you to the rankings screen, starting with players at the top rank. You can search for players here, jump to any page (30 per page), or click on a player name to engage them. At the top of the page, are other ranking listings including: Alliance Ranking and Commander Ranking. More information is available in each ranking by clicking the appropriate links you are encouraged to explore the options to see how you might best use them. On any ranking screen, clicking a player name takes you to the 'stats' page, which shows their basic information (if your covert is not high enough, it will replace their info with '????') and offers the different ways in which you can interact with them.

    Def Con
    Use Def Con to change the alert level of your army. The higher the level you choose, the more alert (therefore less suspectable to attack, spy or sab) your troops will be.
    Each Def Con Level offers different amounts of protection, but this protection comes at a cost, as shown below.

    Def Con Level % Spy Increase % Income Decrease
    Def Con Level 5 0% 0%
    Def Con Level 4 5% 5%
    Def Con Level 3 10% 10%
    Def Con Level 2 20% 20%
    Def Con Level 1 35% 50%

    Your def con level can only be changed once every hour, and costs three attack turns.

    Spy
    This option allows you to send intelligence agents into their realm to survey their stats and inventories. If you succeed you have a *chance* to discover each of their stats. The higher your covert action above theirs, the more likely you will discover their secrets but it is not guaranteed no matter how high your covert. Multiple incursions are usually necessary to get all details. With spying and sabotaging, they will not know you were there unless: you fail, that they do notice you.

    Raid
    This option allows you to use your attack strike to raid enemy Civilians. The more Attack Turns you use the more Civilians you shall receive!

    Sabotage:
    This option allows you to send covert agents in to destroy enemy weaponry. If successful they will do an amount of damage equal to the difference between your, and their, covert action. They will keep destroying weak weapons first until either they are not powerful enough to take on the next weapon, or they feel they've destroyed enough at which point they return. All sabotage missions have casualties whether successful or not. Additionally, if an enemy has been targeted with too much covert activity, your agents will refuse to engage, and let you know about the unsuitability of such a 'busy' target. Covert actions require surprise too much activity forces the enemy to be extra vigilant and paranoid, and prevents surprise

    Attack Log
    The attack log records all attacks made by, and on your realm. It contains several pieces of information: the amount of turns used, quantitative result of the losses/gains, number of troops losses on both sides, damage done by you, damage done to you (if the damage of the enemy is too great, you can only tell that it was a LOT since you were busy running away), and finally a link to the official battle report.

    Weaponry
    The Weaponry is, as the name suggests, the place to buy and sell weapons of various strength and costs. The Weaponry is divided into two main categories: current weapon inventory and weapons purchase, along with a display of your Military Effectiveness, rank and your personnel such that you can balance weapons to units, and see the results of your changes on your military powers. Current Weapon Inventory The Current Weapon Inventory (top of screen) lists your current quantity of weapons you own, separated into Attack then Defense Weapons, ordered by weapon power. You can fully repair each weapon type, partially repair each weapon type (input the number of points of repair desired), or scrap or sell your weapons (again input how many to sell if desired). Prices are listed for all activities. Tip: if you want to make a large purchase, consider selling some weapons to get the currency quickly. Weapons sell at a percent of cost, but can still be a great source of funds when needed badly. Buy Weapons This is where you purchase your weapons. The weapons are listed in two sections (on the right column of the screen): Attack Weapons and Defense Weapons, sorted ascending by power. Weapon cost is cost to buy it, the strength is the base damage it can do (which is multiplied by the unit power who holds it), and how much damage it can take before being destroyed. A weapon at 50% strength only does 50% of the damage it would at maximum. You will find that weapons that fall into disrepair get damaged more quickly than ones near or at full repair so it is worth keeping your weapons in good shape. The weapons types and prices differ for each nation



    Propaganda
    Propaganda is when you receive Civilians when someone attacks you and fails! The higher your Propaganda level the more Civilians you recieve.

    Training
    This section is for all types of troop and population training, the most common being used to train the 'Civilians' you receive each turn into troops or guards. You can also 'un train' units. The only troop type not covered in training are mercenaries. Additionally, the training center has the ability to increase your Unit Production, increase your Spy level (helps spies). Below is a description (using the generic name of each unit) and training type:

    Civilians
    Gained each turn, based on your Unit Production (and commander/officer bonuses if any), they can be trained into most other specialized unit types.

    Attack Troops
    These are units specialized in offensive battle. They will fight on every attack (if they have a weapon). They will also suffer casualties, so it is good to keep a steady training of these units going at least enough to match your weapons.

    Defense Troops
    These are units specialized in defensive battle. They will fight on every attack on your own realm (if they have a weapon). They will also suffer casualties, so it is good to keep a steady training of these units going at least enough to match your defense weapons.

    Spies
    These are units specialized in covert actions including spying and sabotage. Their power is determined not by weapons, but by your 'spy skill'. Every covert action pits your covert agents/spies against those of the enemy. Although counter intuitive, the more you send on any covert mission, the more your chance of success since they will work together to create distractions, false leads, counter intelligence and overall confusion while the operation is carried out. Failure (or even success on sabotage) though, costs you a percent of those sent, so finding the perfect number to send to maximize success and minimize loss of agents is important. Your covert agents automatically defend against enemy spy and sabotage attempts.

    Unit Production
    This is the measure of how many Civilians you can generate per day/turn. Arguably the most important stat in the game, since this will directly determine possible army sizes, income, covert, and indirectly determine weapon counts, etc as all things require enough currency which these units generate. This production can never be taken away by enemies. The cost of the next upgrade is always a bit more expensive than the last upgrade.

    Intelligence
    All covert actions taken by you are recorded here. You can review any sabotage or recon mission via the 'Logs' page. Additionally, missions into your realm are recorded at least all sabotage and failed recon attempts on you. Successful sabotage does not record who did it to you, and successful recon does not show up at all. If you are missing weapons check your Intelligence logs immediately, as you were likely the target of sabotage!

  • Change E-Mail / Password / Vacation Mode/ Swear Filter/ Timezone Here you can change your email, password, and timezone. Changing email automatically changes your password, and emails you the new password. Make SURE you enter your correct email, or you will not be able to get back into your account. Changing password does just that, and is recommended periodically for security reasons. Please don't use the same password as other sites, forums, or chat rooms. There have been numerous examples of forums, chat rooms, proxy servers, and even other game sites, using this information to break into accounts and remove all the goods, or even delete the account. Also if your MSN or IM is the same email as you use in game, be very careful not to give other people enough information to guess your 'secret questions/answer' as Hotmail accounts can be broken into this way. Vacation Mode Here you can put your account in 'suspended animation' for a minimum of 2 days, no maximum, your account 'freezes' Nobody can attack you, you do not gain income or units, and nothing in your account changes. "Change Player Name" - This allows you to change your player name. By default you have only a limited number of name changes, and when they are gone, you can no longer change your name. "Change Race" - Like name changes, race changes are limited. Changing race is also costly you will lose all technology upgrades, all trained units, all currency in your 'bank', all covert/anti-covert agents, and all weapons. You keep your untrained, covert levels, UP level. More detail is available when clicking this option.

    Recruiting
    You are given a unique link to use. When someone clicks this link, (and the security number displayed), you are given Attack Turns. They then also have the ability to register for the game, with you as their commander. If they register, you get even more Attack Turns, and them as an officer. You are limited to clicks on this link per day. Also don't spam this link use it responsibly.

    Officers:
    % Income to Officers: If you are a commander, you can give a specific percent of your turn income to your officers each turn. The maximum you can give one officer is 50%, the maximum you can give to all of your officers in 50%. This setting also determines how much additional Unit Production you will get per turn the more you give them, the more they give you. (although unlike income, it does not cost the officer to provide you additional units per turn an example of the whole being greater than the parts). Accept

    New Officers:
    This checkbox determines if you are willing to accept new officers. If you are happy with your current officer/commander situation, you may want to not accept new officers. If you are not accepting new officers, the 'Make This User My Commander' option on the stats page (given after clicking a user name on the ranking or attack screen), is not available.