I find it oddly common where many bases contain Ice Statues. The most popular proposed play strategy in Boom Beach is to go purely offensive and worry about defense only once you’ve finished hitting HQ 22. If that’s the case, why are there so many Ice Statues, especially MP defense ones? Are they really that effective?
As with anything, the real answer to this question is: it depends. For myself, the moment I see an MP Ice Defense with a Grappler Prototype Weapon, I immediately end up skipping that base as a potential target. I’m not talking about high level bases but just those with HQ’s in the range of 17-20 (where I’m at HQ 19). The moment I have a chance to reroll on such a base, I swap in the hope of getting a lower level, full offensive base. And in my case, I use the Grenadier-Tank-Medic combination so Grapplers can present a huge problem against my troops.
Even bases with an MP Ice Defense and Shock Blaster or Doom Cannon will get ignored by me. I suppose you could say that an MP Ice Defense is akin to another defense system in your car; it won’t guarantee that your car won’t get stolen, but it will deter the thief. In my case, I prefer low hanging fruit type of bases where I know I can minimize losses and maximize gain.
Still, an MP Ice Defense alone really isn’t a be-all-end-all type of solution. On days when I boost all my MPs, I can still take down bases with reasonable defenses, including the occasional Shock Blaster/Doom Cannon even if it has an MP Ice Defense as long as the base itself has a mediocre layout. And I can do this without loss as well.
Even with losses, I feel that as long as I can defeat a base, the MP Ice Defense is nothing more than an annoyance. The MP Ice Damage statue isn’t much better against my troop combination. In short, if I really want to destroy a base, I’m going to do it for the much needed resources, which in turn means you will take a loss.
That brings me back once again to the question of whether Ice Statues really are worth it? I think that at lower stages they’re just a waste (unless you don’t have anything better). For an offensive player like myself, I’d much prefer to have more GBE statues for a few extra shocks, artillery blasts, barrages and critters as opposed to believing that I’m safe. Practically, anyone with a decent strategy, boosts, troop composition, etc. can wreck your precious base at any time. So even getting your Boom Cannons, Shock Launchers, etc. maxed out won’t do you much good outside of annoying your opponents.
Now, where Ice Statues do make a difference is towards the end game, once you’ve maxed your offensive troops out and become more focused on defense. Obviously, if you examine the leaderboards, you’ll see all the top players with maxed out, boosted Ice Statues. In their situation, they no longer need things like resources and need to keep their spot. So going all Ice is important for them.
What about resource bases? Resource bases truthfully aren’t that useful outside of an achievement and early game collection. By the time you hit the mid game, the amount of resources you collect is pretty insignificant to get your useful upgrades. So outside of having fun and irritating someone else in trading a resource base, they really serve no purpose down the road. The only way you can protect a resource base is to trade it so the defenses are upgraded. Depending on the player though, that either means they’ll beat you out because they’re far higher level than you or vice versa.
Again, you should emphasize offensive (red/purple) statues until you maximize your offense and start slowing down. Even then, I would probably keep most if my major defenses are lagging behind. But you could just do Doctor T’s and clear NPC bases with a combination like CRZM, which supposedly doesn’t require boosts.