Hi, here is a guide to deal with ninja massing
What is ninja massing?
-this is where the opponent spam ninjas, and uses them as a hit and run unit. They run in, shinobi your units, killing archers spears merics mages then run out.
-once they get to a critical mass, they are almost unstoppable. They can run in, have enough shinobi to kill your giants, merics and mages then run back to base and hide, while you cant kill them because there are too many ninjas and they run very fast.
-ninja massing can be used in 2 ways: they can start spamming ninjas right form the start of the game after they get like 7 miners or they can switch into ninja mass when they are losing in the late game to your giant meric mage combo.
-this strat can be countered if played correctly, but many players fail to do so because they don't know how to counter it/ do not attack at the correct times (not patient enough)
- this strategy can be occasionally seen in the 1700-1800 ranks, and is sometimes used by higher ranked players in the above 2k ranks.
Ninja info
-450 gold/150 mana. The high mana cost makes it a little difficult to set up the ninja mass while defending against pressure at the same time in early game
-shinobi 1 can kill archers/miners
-shinobi 2 can kill mages merics. They need 1 shinobi + 1 hit to kill a ninja. They need a few shinobi to take down spears and a LOT to take down a giant (10 i think ?) so in late game, even with a sizable mass they can only kill 1 giant at a time
-runs very very fast. thats why albowtross cant kill them in time
-decent health. the worse thing is that when they mass up, it is very difficult to target a single unit, so your damage will be spread across them and may not even kill a single ninja
How do they ninja mass?
-to understand how to counter this start you must first know how it is done
-they start off with either a 3 miner opening or 2 miner + 1 sword to scout the center
-when your troops reach their base they go straight for castle archer. Then they build miners
-when they have 5 miners they go on mana, then they build more miners, putting some on mana, stopping once they have 8 miners on gold and like 3-4 on mana
-at the same time they go for miner hustle when they have 100 mana
-they then build the first ninja, go for shinobi 1, then another ninja
-they build miner wall to protect from ur spear attacks
-when they have mass ninja they kill u
How to counter
-their weakness is in the high mana cost of 150. In the early game, when they have few miners, it is a hard to get out ninjas. When they have 1 ninja, you can already have a spear + 2 archers. So this means you must attack them early to prevent it from being set up, because once they get . ninja mass in the early mid game, youre dead. As long as they get like more than 3-4 ninjas, theres a very very high chance you lose
-first you must identify that they are going for ninja mass, then you can counter it. Many people lose cos they don't know opponent is building a ninja mass till its too late. You must always scout their base. and stay just outside their second row of gold to be able to see how many miners they have on mana.
-If you go archer miner sword, and if ur troops reach his base and he builds castle archer (CA), its a sign hes going for ninja mass/turtle. because by right if he builds archer he can contest the centre, but by going CA it shows he is defending.
-another sign is where he has miners on mana very early in the game when he has like only 5-7 miners. then he puts 3 miners on mana. if they were going for early spear they would wait for 8 miners and only have 1 miner on mana. If they were going for turtle they would only need 2 miners on mana this early in the game.
-to counter, just spam a spear and archers and attack his base. He will have very little to defend because he is invested in the upgrades for his ninjas. when his ninjas go for your archers, kite backwards. if they shinobi, just run away. if they wait till they are on top of ur archer to shinobi, just run forward and dodge the shinobi.
-he'll be forced to pull his miners back to risk them getting injured. keep building spears. Spears are used as shields to tank damage and do damage to ninjas, archers are to kill ninjas. Usually in normal game u want to have more archers then spears but in this case u need to go spear heavy , number of archers and spears the same, because the spears can tank damage, especially if he doesnt have shinobi 2 at this point.
-attack only if you have enough units to kill ninjas or miners. Dont attack with very little units, wait for more, because if ur units die he can just rush for your base and kill ur miners and win.
-when you feel confident your winning you can switch into ninjas to counter his ninjas. replace spear production with ninja because ninjas can counter ninjas very effectively. just wait for him to shinobi first, then shinobi and follow him around till his shinobi wear off, then kill him. youc an produce more than him because your mining on the second row of gold while he can only mine on the first row if you pressure him enough.
Late game ninja mass counter
-in late game, when hes losing to your giants mage meric deathball, he can switch into ninja mass. This can take many players by surprise because he can just run in, kill giant then run out, and repeat this till ur units are dead.
-the counter is to switch into ninja giant albow. ninjas can counter his ninjas because when he tries to attck ur giant, you can shinobi back and kill his ninjas
-giants are there to make him use his shinobi on it rather than ur ninjas. they can stun the enemy ninja, allowing ur units to kill them.
-albowtross (2-4 is nice number) can help u deal damage while hes attacking ur giant
-use these 3 units and camp at the center and go for tower spawn 2. he cannot kill ur giant without losing his own ninjas.
-when ur spawn giant reaches his base, attack with ur giants too and have ur albows and ninjas sit back. When his ninjas come out and go for ur giant, u can shinobi and kill his ninjas and with your albows too
-pure albowtross sucks because he can just run past them without losing too many ninjas because the damage is spread across the ninjas.
-pure giant sucks because he can go in and kill ur giant, trading very little ninjas for it
-pure ninja is a good counter, but only when you are on even footing. if you are ahead, giant albow ninja combo is better
