Retaliation attack direction?

[Spire]

On the 4th island greed sends retaliatory attacks whenever you break one of the portals. However, the direction this attack comes from seems to be random, so if it happens to be on the other side of the map you're guaranteed to take losses because you can't go and defend the other side in time. Is there a way to know which direction an attack is coming from?

I'm thinking I might just need to immediately ride out (on the side I'm already on) to check if the attack wave spawned there, then book it to a portal and get to the other side ASAP. I still think this might be too slow though.

[Spire]

I just tried quickly checking the nearest portal, then teleporting to the other side of the map as fast as humanly possible once I saw the attack wasn't coming from the side I was on, and I still didn't get there in time, lost a few people.

Is it just... designed intentionally to make you lose stuff when you do it? I don't mind if that's the case, I'm mainly asking because a lot of stuff is unclear in the game the first time playing. If there's a fast way to know the attack direction it would be very helpful to save a few extra lives.

[RCMidas]

It is random, and it is there to make sure you properly upgrade your defences on each side. Every portal you destroy does this, incidentally, not merely those on later islands. This is one of the facets of going on the offensive in the game - you need to either accept the element of luck, or be prepared for when you're missing it so that it doesn't matter.

[Stardustfire]

or have the dog around so it shows you from where the greed come. (it barks to the direction from where greed are nearer, means in this case the only side from where greed come)
retalation waves and blood moon waves ever come only from one random side and not both at the same time, that compensates you a little for the fact that the wave is stronger than normal ones and need to be defeated instead of retreating at dawn.
like RCM sayed, when you plan to attack a gate, fortify at least the side where you are not present to bolster agains the worst case.

[Spire]

Ah I see, thank you. I'm playing on Hard and no amount of fortification will save me from damage if I'm not physically there to help; it only takes about 20 seconds to lose 3-4 people from an attack wave that big even with maxed out defenses, though thankfully they begin retreating at that point so I don't lose any more by the time I get there to help.

I'm okay with that though, just the cost of going on the offensive. The dog barking would be a big help with blood moons, thanks for the tip there! Was getting annoying running across the map trying to figure out the blood moon attack direction every time lol

[Stardustfire]

when they retreat its no retalation or bloodmoon wave, they both dont retreat but fight until all are defeated (exclusion are this small shootercrabs in olympus, they seem to run when they loose all other kinds of greed with them)
so it seems you fight normal waves. and when they break down your defenses you dont planned and upgraded your defenses enove (2 wall short after each other for backup, a few towers long way before the wall, catapult, ballistae/fire-tower aso) and/or you wasted to much time, so the waves got much stronger.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Buy several fire barrels for your catapult on both sides before attacking or while attacking a greed portal. This will dramatically reduce the strength of the early blitz from the swarms of regular greed in the retaliation wave. You should be able to reach the opposite wall before the breeders and other big special greed get there if you have a remotely decent mount speed and/or portal system set up in your kingdom.

It's also a good idea to pick one side to be the defending side and fortify its defenses and towers while focusing on expanding and attacking greed portals on the other side. This way you can get more out of investing in towers and especially hermit defenses. And once you've wiped the greed out on one side, it seems the knight and archer AI's are smart enough now (at least they are in Call of Olympus) to move towards and focus on the only side that has greed left, which makes defending against waves on that side even easier.

If you're playing an older era of kingdoms, then a horn hermit will basically do the same thing for a small cost by focusing all of your archers and knights on one side of the kingdom.