This issue has been discussed many times on these boards.

First, be aware that the really ABSURD gold spending users are very rare. Yeah, they can ruin a game by taking the extra queen to the chess board... but there are many moderate spenders which you can beat without gold, by better tactics, more online time, superior diplomacy, etc.

Second, this is a free game for many of us. That is only possible because of players like the guy you just met. Sure, he ruined your experience, but ONLY on this one map. He also created the huge amount of games that are challenging and rewarding to all involved... because he paid Bytro, they are able to rent servers, pay programmers, pay taxes, and all those other expenses running a game like this has. So we should really be grateful to them. The best solution is to realize this, give him a thank you, archive the map and start a new one.

Finally, there are a few Bytro-sponsored events that are gold-free. They are very challenging environments where top players meet and fight without using gold; however does that knowingly just gets banned. There are currently two events running, the Player's League which is more or less continuously (Call of War Players League), and a current event "World in chaos" (CoW EN Community Event: World in Chaos).

Many of us have asked Bytro to introduce games with a one-time registration fee and without further gold use, but they have refused this so far. Thanks for your message, it may be one more drop in the bucket for them to reevaluate their policy in this respect.

I'd like to point out how rare it is for there to be gold spam people in games. I think I've seen a total of... 2 or 3, in my total play time. And I think all of those never did so to an excessive degree. I haven't played too many games, but I've played enough to know the typical way a match goes. Most players leave, not because someone spends tons of gold, but because the game itself takes so long. Admittedly, Supremacy has the same problem, but Supremacy is also based on WWI, where trench war is the ideology. Most everyone expects really mobile units from a WWII game, and most units do not become highly mobile until far later into the game. Instead of having something which takes a few hours, to a day at the most, many CoW games last upwards of 2 months. Most people can not tolerate that, and leave the moment they realize how the game actually functions. It's why maps have so many inactives pop up on the first day that the system starts taking out inactives, day 3. So many new people leave because of how the game operates as an RTS. They expect a TBS or a very fast paced RTS, or something else which displays the properties of WWII. This game is none of those, and many matches suffer as a direct consequence of it.

Also, take satisfaction in the fact that he spent far more than 100$ to push you back. It costs 850 to speed up the production of a unit or building by 12 hours, 1700 to speed up research by 12 hours, and lots and lots and lots of gold to pay for the resources to get all of those rather expensive units. 20 tacts will, by themselves, eat up around 100000 gold, factoring research, airport building, industry building, resources, and the like. An army of light tanks and anti-tank regiments is in the same boat. So minimum goal expenditure of 100$, at a guess, and probably closer to $200. Most people will not spend that much money. In fact, most people straight up leave the match before it truly gets underway, as I said above. Also, this game does have ads, lots of them. But most of the money comes from High command, and Gold. Supremacy has the exact same policy, as does Conflict of Nations(basically modern CoW). They are all very pay to win, in one way or another.

I will admit, I personally do not like the system myself, but, TBH, it is a (comparatively)small issue that I personally do not have a suggestion on how to fix. And it only ruins 1/50 games, if I had to guess an average. Besides, you can play with friends or make your own matches. Join an alliance and be a competitive player. Join the PL League. There is so many options available that make it less likely that you will be put against a heavy gold user(in the case of the PL league and other such ones, gold use is discouraged.). You know what ruins most games? The lack of active players after day 3, which is regardless of the fact of if there is a player using lots of gold or not.

An experience S1914 player says he won't play a 2nd game of CoW Mobile because his first game supposedly had a big spender that supposedly led him to also use a copious amount of gold.

Anyone else find the credibility of this story doubtful? I mean, who gets fed up with a game (forever) because of one incident?

I've played 20 games, won 10 of them on three different maps, and finished second behind an ally in 7 more. I have bought and used gold. I assume that qualifies me as an "experienced player."

And, yes, I have had very similar feelings to those stated above by the original poster, SgtDeath, on several occasions. Far from being alone, I think the OP expresses an opinion that many, if not most rational players share.

I don't think he means that. Pretty obvious that he doesn't... He means he is going to keep away from the game until it is fixed(which is far less than forever). Also, I've gotten fed up with games due to one issue or another, most being because the game crashes(iPad Mini), and I can't play the game at all. But there is also others which are boycotted because of only one reason. PTW is reasonable. If it isn't obvious already, I'm using my experience with Apple to give some examples. There is a lot of games these days which either has iAP's so unbalanced as to be PTW, or have a economy system that always favors you buying lots to play the game. Numerous MMO's use that model. So no, it is not unusual.

Would anyone like to change their rebuttal to my post? This quote sounds rather definite and eternal.

It does, but I offer evidence that Sgt Death has joined a second game.


SgtDeath: Games joined: 2




Game 2129056 is already on day 6, soon to be day 7 in an hour. This game was already running at the time the original post was made, so it could have been joined before or after.




Now as the the original subject: In ten games I have encountered two players who would spend whatever gold it would take to win. One did much the same as Sgt Death describes and comes out on day 4 with twenty something tanks and a dozen tactical bombers and a navy. He didn't have any skills but didn't seem to care. The second was in a 100 player match and he would spend whatever it took to produce units exactly where he needed them. I made a big advance one night and was two minutes from capturing a vacant city from him when he logged in for the day. In the space of a minute that vacant city sported 3 medium tanks, 2 light tanks, 3 infantry, 6 antiair, some artillery and a couple railroad guns for good measure. This player would spread by landing one armored car on a continent and building whatever he needed on-site. He reminded me of a virus, in that once there was one province turned purple it would spread and could not be stopped. When we tried to make an invasion on him he gold plated over a dozen nuclear rockets and vaporized every single stack of 8 units or more in the space of a couple hours. Over 200 units disintegrated, no more than a dozen per nuke rocket.

It seems that would be such a hollow victory to me. Any fool who wants to spend $50 in gold a day on a 60 day game can win I guess, but it isn't because they are smarter, faster, better, or more attentive.