Hello, all. There are many great guides here about how to use your troops better, how to make a better economy, and how to win games. However, there is one factor that matters more than knowing all of these good skills. Activity is very important in this game. It is much harder to win a war when you are not online for most of it. This is a problem I have to deal with. Between school, sleep, and sports, I have 2 8 hour shifts every day where I cannot be online. I have been dealing with this for most of my CoW career. I imagine most of you have, too. Here are some tips and tricks I have used to survive this.


1. Start games when you can be active. I have found that when I start games on Mondays or Tuesdays, I quickly fall behind. I simply cannot be as active on weekdays. However, when I start on a Friday or Saturday, I can establish a base from which to work with pretty fast. I can get the quick research and first conquest out of the way fast. Then, I will have a solid base on the weekdays, making it easier to invade.

2. Try to begin major wars when you can be active. While it is inevitable that you will be attacked when you aren't ready. However, if you attack someone, make sure you do it when you can be active. If you are attacking someone much weaker than you, who you will beat easily, you can attack when you are less active. If you are attacking someone to start a major war, it is best to delay it until you can be active. Even if they are more prepared after a few days, you will be more prepared to fight them.

3. DEFENSE.

It is much easier to defend than attack. Especially when you're inactive. I tend to consolidate my forces into a few stacks defending vital terrain, rather than spreading out over a whole front. If you spread your forces along a front when you are inactive, it is easy for the enemy to attack one weaker province and go behind your lines. As you cannot send reinforcements to provinces being attacked, enemies can easily break through your lines. However, if you retreat and consolidate your units into short supply lines, you can stop any enemies that attack and reassume positions if they don't. It is much easier to keep air superiority over 1 stack than 10.

4. Airforce Patrol is your best friend. Patrol over chokepoints with your air force, and you'll usually be able to defend your soldiers from air, and hurt the enemy ground forces badly. Interceptors are best if idle.

5. Navy Consolidate your capital ships into several groups. Your subs can stay alone. If inactive, keep your ships close to shore with naval bomber protection.

When you can be more active, attack again. I hope that this rambling guide had some useful information.