Winning More Fights - Mafia Wars Strategy

Winning fights is a brutal way to run your entire business. I
would never recommend focusing your entire mafia's force on
fighting until after you've built a huge mafia and mastered the
higher levels. After that, you can have all the fun you want
taking out hits for bounty or just picking on the weaker mafias
for fun or cash.
Your ability to win fights depends on how big your mafia is and
how well equipped you and the other members are in
comparison to the opposing mafia, and a little luck. The luck
factor is minimal, but it exists to help keep things a little more
balanced.
If you intend to be a major fighter, you will want to use your
profile point on health and stamina. Your attack and defense
aren't very
important because it's a lot easier to boost those stats with a
lot of equipment and strong mafia members. It won't hurt you
to boost your attack and defense stats occasionally when you
master a level and only get one bonus point. It's not enough to
considerably boost your health or stamina (requires two points)
so in those cases you can use the points on those stats.
In the early stages of the game, there will be a lot of
underequipped and inexperienced newbies (n00bs) that you'll
be able to pick on. They won't know half the secrets and tips
you now know, so if you want to have some fun taking out the
'little fish' then use money on getting lots of weapons and
armor for your mafia to use.
Here's how to almost guarantee that you'll win a fight:
1 If the opposing mafia is smaller than yours
2 If the opposing mafia is a higher 'rank' than you at the
same level of play. This means that player is pulling lots of jobs
and not doing many fights. This is an easy way to identify the
mafias you can overpower – and the good part is that they'll
have money and items for you to take.
3 If the opposing mafia has an overall losing record of fights.
If your enemy has lost 2/3 or more of his/her total fights, that
player hasn't figured out yet how to win consistently and you
should be able to beat them easily.
Before attacking a player, click on the player's profile. See what
kind of weapons and armor they have. If your opponent appears
to be carrying a lot more weaponry that your mafia, you may
want to pick a different victim.
You want to have lots of weapons available for your mafia
members to use so buy the cheap effective weapons like
grenades and hacksaws that have no upkeep. Eventually
you'll need Tommy guns and other heavy weapons to pull
jobs so always be attentive to picking up the best tools as
soon as you can.
The biggest key to winning more fights is to have a strong
defense. You can usually get this with some of the mid-level
loot items. My favorites are Bodyguards, Night Vision
Goggles, and Prop Planes. I recommend getting as many
prop planes as possible. The defensive power of prop planes
is extremely high and having a lot of them will keep you from
losing fights and getting killed in fights.
Since the new elements of Gifting have been introduced to
the game, you can request to have people send you prop
planes. Most people don't like them and will happily send
them.