World Domination Levels

DR = Dominance Rank

Defense Force Strength = 500 + DR * 50

In other words, you start out at 550 at Dominance Rank 1 and gain 50 per rank.

World Domination Bug: Can't Attack

There are several different bugs that players encounter when trying to fight in World Domination.  With one bug, you can't select an opponent to attack as in the following images:

World Domination Facts and Strategies

Four Levels of Strength

There are 4 levels of Strength that a World Domination Attack Force or Defense Force can fall in, depending on what the fielded force's total Strength is as a % of the maximum allowed Strength:

• High Strength (green): 80-100% of maximum allowed Strength
• Medium-High Strength (yellow): 60-80%
• Medium Strength (orange): 40-60%
• Low Strength (red): 0-40%

You can do a quick visual check of which level your Defense Force is in by nothing the color (green, orange, yellow, or red) of the Defense Force Strength in the WD main screen or the Defense Force set-up screen.  You can do the same visual check when picking your Attack Force.

I haven't tested the boundaries between levels; so, for instance, I'm not sure yet if exactly 40% is low or medium Strength.

Dominance Rewards and Penalties

Let's say you attack someone in World Domination.  You can win between 30-150 Dominance (in multiples of 10), depending on the difference between your Dominance Rank and your opponent's.

If you are taking Revenge, you can win bonus Dominance depending on how many times you and your opponent have fought:

• 30 Dominance if you've fought 1-2 times
• 20 Dominance if you've fought 3-4 times
• 10 Dominance if you've fought 5-6 times

You can retreat by forfeiting 50% of the Dominance Points that you could have earned if you won the battle.  If you lose the battle by losing all your units, then you lose 40% of the winnable Dominance ONLY if you used a Low Strength attacking force.  You will never lose enough Dominance for your Dominance Rank to decrease.

If you win the battle, the amount of Dominance that the defender loses depends on which Strength level their Defense Force lies in:

• High Strength (green): defender loses 20% of Dominance that you win
• Medium-High Strength (yellow): 40%
• Medium Strength (orange): 60%
• Low Strength (red): 100%

Therefore, anyone interested in minimizing the loss of Dominance should field a Defense Force with a Strength that's at least 80% of the maximum allowed.


Game Theory of World Domination

World Domination was designed to make cooperation and collusion between players more difficult.  The fact that it's possible to lose Dominance makes most players put up the strongest possible Defense Force they can.  Some hackers go beyond that.

If you have a very high Dominance Rank, then you probably win virtually every battle that you fight.  The same goes for most of your opponents when they attack you.  So why should all these players with high Dominance Rank make it difficult for each other to gain Dominance?  To out-complete one another?  Let's face it.  There isn't much skill involved in this game.  Devoting many hours each day to playing is the most important factor in advancing in the game.

If you've just leveled and decide to take a break, a nice thing to do would be to set up the weakest Defense Force you possibly can, such as one Cadet Soldier. Everyone who attacks you will easily win, not lose any units, and not spend much Energy or Element Z in attacking you.  Since you've just leveled, you might lose a bit of Dominance, but not enough to lower your Dominance Rank.

Due to the Dominance penalty for losing, you can't put up a weak Defense Force like that all the time if you actually want to level up in World Domination.  What you can do instead is put up a Defense Force that's barely High Strength but includes one weak unit.  Usually, that one weak unit will be the one attacking invaders.  For instance, you might put up 4 Mantis Infantry and 1 Cannon Artillery.

Another benefit of having an easy-to-beat Defense Force is that it encourages opponents you've beaten to take revenge on you, especially if you let let them know ahead of time via taunts.  If they take revenge on you quickly, then you can return the favor more quickly as well.  This can be a big deal when you're at a high Dominance Rank and there are few opponents to come by.

Such cooperative strategies work much better if many people employ them.  This calls for people to be unselfish and trusting.  Think of it as being unselfish (set up a friendly Defense Force) to ultimately be selfish (easier for you to beat others' friendly Defense Forces).

World Domination Cheaters

Are you curious about how many players are possibly cheating in World Domination?  So was I...

Here are some statistics on the last 100 players I fought against in World Domination.  Players that I fought multiple times count only once each.  These battles occurred over the past week (March 14-20, 2012), but I took a break from World Domination for 3 of those days.  In that time period, my Dominance Rank progressed from 54 to 56.

This table shows the % of opponents that had a given number of Tier 8 units (the Chimera and its brethren):

# of T8 Units	% of Opponents
0	47%
1	9%
2	23%
3	20%
4	1%
5	0%

Basically, about half of my opponents used at least one Tier 8 unit in their World Domination Defense Force.

Here's a similar table that includes both* Tier 8 units and World Domination units that players definitely shouldn't have had access to (Phoenix Bomber, Sea Hive Carrier, etc.).  I excluded the Buzzard Autogyro since many players could have received them as rewards from an earlier quest.

# of Units*	% of Opponents
0	45%
1	5%
2	19%
3	29%
4	2%
5	0%

Keep in mind that probably some of these players actually paid for their Tier 8 units.  It would be interesting to know what percentage that actually is.  Well, we know that the ones with World Domination units they can't possibly have unlocked yet are definite cheaters.  That gives us a lower bound for how many cheaters there are.

# of Cheat Units	% of Opponents
0	87%
1	8%
2	4%
3	1%
4	0%
5	0%

We see that 13% of my opponents are definite cheaters.  The actual % might be as high as around 50%--it depends on how many of those Tier 8 units are legit.  It could be even higher since some people are tactful enough not to use illegal units in their World Domination Defense Force.

The percentage of players with Tier 8 units who are definite cheaters is approximately (11 / 53) * 100% = 21%.  I'd bet the actual % is far higher.

This may or may not be a good estimate for how prevalent cheating is in Empires & Allies.  Keep in mind that this analysis was for players who were matched up with me; they had Domination Rank in the mid-50's and most of them had Attack Wins close to mine.  There is probably far less cheating among lower-level players, and greater amounts of cheating among higher-level players.

World Domination: Set-up

When World Domination is activated for you, you'll see this pop-up when you enter the game:

This is the second pop-up:

World Domination screen

This is the set-up screen that first pops up when you select World Domination:

You can see "Attack Wins" and "Defense Wins" on top.  Both are tracked separately.

Attack Wins = Total number of victories from attacking an opponent
Defense Wins = Total number of times opponents have lost against your Defense Force
Global Standing = Percentage of players with more Dominance [points] than you

The "1" in the eagle insignia is your Dominance Rank (DR)--this is analogous to Honor and Infamy.  Your initial DR when you start is determined by your existing XP level.

Many players are confused by Global Standing, especially high-level players who are at 0%.  The lower the %, the higher ranked you are.  High-level players will start out at a high rank.  If your Global Standing is 0%, that means you are in at least the top 1% of all E&A players in terms of Dominance points.

Here's the same screen (different player) with the pop-up help enabled:

The units shown here for Defense Force are the default ones.  You can change them.  The "Assemble" box is first grayed out.  After the first time you try attacking someone (or just try to and then cancel), you'll be able to select this button to change your Defense Force.  Your own Defense Force is used to defend against any other player that selects you to fight.

There are 2 tabs: "Global" and "Rivals."  There's a limited number of other players--not necessarily your neighbors--that you can select to attack.  Notice there is a 24-hour timer.

In the middle of the screen, you can see a list of players that you can choose to attack.  You can see their Level, Dominance Rank, Attack Wins, and Defense Wins.  Defense Wins is the best indication of how strong their Defense Force is.

You'll tend to see players listed that play World Domination a lot.

World Domination Unlockable Units

At the bottom of the World Domination screen is a scroll bar listing all 24 World Domination unlockable units.  After a unit has been unlocked, you can build it in your barracks, shipyard, or hangar.  Here is a list of the units.:

3 – Elite Bazooka Soldiers

6 – Elite Chinook Airship

9 – Elite Assault Battleship

12 – Elite Harrier Fighter

15 – Elite Heavy Carrier

18 – Elite Abrams Tank

21 – Elite Mechanized Soldiers

24 – Elite Comanche Airship

27 – Elite Railgun Battleship

31 – Elite Advanced Gunship

35 – Elite Advanced Rocket Artillery

39 – Elite Hypersonic Bomber

44 – Mantis Infantry

49 – Gator Patrol Boat

54 – Ghost Bat Fighter

59 – Tarantula Artillery

64 – Sea Hive Carrier

69 – Buzzard Autogyro

74 – Badger Tank

79 – Yamato III

84 – Phoenix Bomber

89 – Sand Shark Hovercraft

94 – Owl Fighter

99 – Armadillo Tank

Attacking

When you select someone to attack, the screen looks like this after you've selected your units:

The theater of the battle (Land, Sea, or Air) is determined by the Defense Force of the player you chose to attack.  You must select an attacking force from the same theater.

Notice how you can't see the enemy units (the other player's Defense Force) while selecting your own units.  The "1620" is the total Health of your Defense Force.  The "2050" is the maximum total Health that you can field in battle--it is not the total Health of the enemy force you're facing.

The battle is NOT live on the part of the other player--it acts out just like in any other battle.  That is, the other player is not controlling his units turn-by-turn; it's AI driven.  You do not get to select allies as in Campaign Mastery.  Your can choose to retreat, but it will cost you Domination points (less than what you would earn if you won the battle).

If you win the battle, you win a certain number of Domination points depending on the Domination level of the other player relative to yours, while the other player loses Domination points.  The amount that you can earn is displayed in the main World Domination screen where you select who to battle.

After you win, you can see the other player in the "Rivals" tab--that player has a chance to attack you back.

If you lose as the attacker (by having all your units destroyed), you won't lose any Domination points.  If you surrender, you do forfeit some Dominance points.

If someone else attacks your Defense Force, the battle plays out on their end--you make no combat decisions.  If the other player wins (your Defense Force loses), you lose a small amount of Domination points, but never enough to lower your Dominance Rank.  If the other player loses (your Defense Force wins), you don't gain or lose any Dominance points.

The only time you actually lose units is if they get destroyed when you are attacking someone else's Defense Force.

No one's empire is invaded.  Combats happen in a virtual battleground.  The World Embassy's Neutrality has no effect on World Domination.

World Domination: Preview

On Feb. 15, 2012, many of you probably noticed connection problems in trying to play E&A, especially in trying to engage in battle.  The reason is probably because Zynga's servers were being updated for a new feature called World Domination.  Here's a sneak preview.  More to come later!

Zynga's announcement

World Domination is a mode related to Battle Blitz.  As the name suggests, you will probably be able to battle other players on a much wider scale than the limited 15 random neighbors in Battle Blitz.  Unlike Battle Blitz, you will not choose an area to invade--it'll be more like virtual arena PVP.

New Controls

On Feb. 16, 2012, the controls at the lower right corner of the game screen was changed to the following (which is the same as the above screenshot, but in a different state):

The lower left button can be toggled between the two PVP "Battles" modes: Battle Blitz and World Domination.  The middle button is for Survival Mode.  The right button is for Campaign Mastery, which can be toggled between the Wrath of the Raven and Molten Terror campaigns.

These controls are now consistent between different game screens.  For instance, when you visited a neighbor before, there was only a big button in the lower right to return to your empire.  Now you see the same controls when you're visiting your neighbors.  You still can't go directly to Campaign Mastery from a neighbor's empire, however.


World Domination Screen

This is the first screen you get when you select World Domination:

World Domination Battle Screen

Here's what a battle screen in World Domination looks like:

Notice the new arrangement of bars on the top of the screen.  There's also a new Domination bar.  The Dominance Rank is 31 and the Dominance points is 37,480.  It's this high because when you start World Domination, you start out with a certain Dominance Rank and points based on your XP at the time.  The "1620/2050" is the current and maximum allowable total Health that you can field in battle.

New Units

Here are some of the units that you can unlock in World Domination:

From upper left going in the same way you read in English, the units are:

• Owl Fighter, Phoenix Bomber, Ghost Bat Fighter
• Buzzard Autogyro, Mantis Infantry, Tarantula Artillery
• Armadillo Artillery, Badger Tank
• Seahive Carrier, Gator Patrol Boat

Here's a scroll bar showing some of the unlockable units:

Here's the first quest that goes with the roll-out of World Domination:

Check back later for more info!

Source:
Official E&A Facebook


More info on World Domination:
http://empiresandalliesgame.blogspot.com/2012/02/world-domination-set-up.html