# How to come back from an almost inevitable loss

Article by: Marcus.

You are in a competitive game when all of a sudden you find yourself with half of your base destroyed and an ever dwindling population. It doesn’t matter how you got into this situation, maybe you were busy building in your base and your shaman was lighted or maybe you were suddenly backdoored, but now the only thing that matters now is how you are going to comeback and win this game. If you want to learn the best strategies and techniques in order to comeback from an almost inevitable loss then please, read on! If not, well I know you want to so in any case I encourage you to read the rest of this article!

Don’t stress out and Don’t give up

The first step to staging an unlikely comeback is to not freak out. This one is probably pretty obvious but still needs to be said. When your base is damaged and you are losing it is easy to forget basics like upgrading or managing wood because you are too busy thinking of other things. However if you want to have ANY chance of coming back to win, these basic skills become even more important. Also don’t give up just because you are at a disadvantage, I have staged many unlikely comebacks from dire situations, you never know what can happen so never give up!

Defense

This one is a big must. You are already at a disadvantage and if you let them in your base one more time the game is surely over. So how do I make a good defense with less population and mana than the opponent you ask? Well you don’t necessarily need a better physical defense as in more towers or troops. You have to change your playstyle and that becomes your defense. You need to control the middle of the map and be constantly pushing your base outwards towards the enemy and yes you need to camp as well. If you can control the map and keep your enemy on defense this will give you time to recover and get back in the game. The second part of defense is troops, troops, troops. Yes I said it three times because that is how important they are! You need to double, if not triple your troop production when staging a comeback. The first and most important reason is to defend your base as once you are wounded you can almost guarantee 50 warriors will be heading to your base in order to finish you off. The second reason is to hold the middle and troops will do this wonderfully. Like I said earlier if you can hold the middle of the map and and keep your enemy on defense your base will have time to recover and you won’t be able to be doubled. How nice! The third aspect to defense is shaman deaths. This is a commonly overlooked stat in how important it is, and I will admit it can sometimes be misleading like a camper may have a lot more kills than deaths but that doesn’t mean that they played well. However in terms of staging a comeback that stat becomes extremely important. If your shaman can kill theirs continuously that means they won’t be attacking your base.

Identifying a weakness and attacking

So eventually you are going to have to stage an attack that is going to destroy the enemy. I have to make this clear though that you have to remain somewhat offensive throughout your recovery period. This means just casting earthquake or using troops on their defense and keeping pressure on them throughout the game while holding the middle and rebuilding your base. So now onto identifying a weakness, you have at look at and analyze your opponents situation. Maybe they don’t have a lot of warriors and you can exploit that, or maybe their is a weak part in their defense. A big part of it is also waiting for the right time to attack, you may be eager to wound the opponent but waiting for the ideal time is the best idea. If you rush in too early you may end up dieing without hurting them and leaving your base wide open ot be attacked. The situation is different in every game. You need to capitalize on their weakness. One big thing to keep in mind is that you have to think outside the box. For example you don’t need all spells in order to finish off an opponent, sometimes just two earthquakes and some warriors can finish off the opponent if you wait for the right time to attack.

Conclusion

So after reading this guide you can now successfully comeback and win a Populous game. I hope you learned a thing or two and can use these strategies to help you win. Thanks for reading!