Discussion Catapults usage and other things

[DeletedUser29371]

Hello fellow Grepolis players.

I am actively learning Grepolis at rapid pace however i came across a very ''difficult'' or rather say tough problem.

Its Catapults... I am now over 2100 points player with only my friend very close to my points range (he is almost 2000) but now there are a couple of players on nearby(1 on same island) with points range 700-1200 and we would like to ''farm'' them effectively...

So they are 25-140 min of sailing/walking distance away, however some already have wall 4+ (those 1000+) which always give casulties even to my horsemen so its difficult to be profitable. So my friend is actively getting catapult but i realise it takes over 16hours for Catapult to arrive when my troops arrive within 2h 20min...

So i wonder if anyone can share their idea for using catapult effectively on such stage... my idea is to destroy their walls so my horsemen can pillage after constant attacks.

Or do you guys use catapults in other ways?

Also i believe there is no way in making a player leave their troops behind their wall (aka in polis) untill ill be able to put him under constant pressure and have Conquest researched?

The thing is i came to a stage where Grepolis isnt particulary funny since those over 1000 points dodge my attacks (obviously) and catapults will take ages to get there (leaving enough for preparation)

So how is it possible to fight players unless i get ''lucky'' and attack exactly when he sleeps (which is impossible with catapults cos of 17h time to get to 1200 pointer!)

 

[DeletedUser]

Catapults are something of a nuisance at an early stage in the game. Their slow travel speed makes them rather ineffective when used across land because, as you rightly mentioned, you leave the other player with plenty of time to prepare.

The best way to use catapults effectively is to use them with transport ships. When your troops are sent with transport ships, they travel at the speed of the slowest ship (rather than the speed of the slowest unit) - which makes it much faster than sending catapults across land! This is not entirely a useful thing to do at early stages, however, as you should always use Light Ships when sending transports. Light Ships are expensive at that stage and are more difficult to acquire than Biremes, which means that your opponent may well be prepared to defend if you send just one or two.

So yes, the best way to use your catapults (to avoid those pesky 16 hour travel times) is to make use of transport ships. My advice with transport ships is to always send Light Ships with them (so that they are not sunk unnecessarily).

 

[DeletedUser29371]

Yeah... well i just realised if i only click on catapult and transport ship and move my cursor over enemy polis it says 17h but if i go under attack option on that polis it says 2:21:xy to arrive...

so its not that crucial afterall guess the tooltip just does not display transports when you click both land unit and transport ship on map and not under option ''attack''

 

[DeletedUser]

Yes the map timer will display the travel time for the slowest unit, rather than taking into account units traveling on transport ships. It's always best to rely on the attack window instead of the map timer.

 

[DeletedUser]

Corinthian II makes good points, but there are circumstances where catapults travelling across land isn't too problematic. This can be if your target is inactive, offline, or if you're playing a server with unit speed 2 or faster.

 

[DeletedUser29371]

So my attack of 5 biremes just landed in enemy harbor he had 6 transport boats and neither me neither him killed any units?

How is that possible?

 

[DeletedUser29371]

got info already apperently you cannot kill transports until you kill his army first

lame

 

[DeletedUser]

I will not recommend anybody to research cats in their first few cities,just to bomb a level 4 wall its really madness to spend 8 precious research points.
A level 4 wall won't make much losses and whatever you will lost that can be easily replenished as when your troops will return they will return with lots of BPs and resources

BTW Don't attack with birs by the way,they are defensive units

 

[DeletedUser]

imo catapults are one of the most useful units early on (as in before you have a real navy to speak of) precisely because they are so slow, and i for one tend to research them in my first city. well, maybe tended to - in v2 of the game you can just buy one from the merchant. but anyways... because of their terrible speed, they are the best unit by a long way for troop saving when you are offline (again, before you have enough of a navy to transport your entire army. safely).

before you go to bed, send an attack including a catapult. because they are so slow you should be able to find a city on your island which is about 4hrs away, giving you 8hrs of peaceful sleep with no risk of your precious attacking army being massacred.

 

[DeletedUser29371]

I will not recommend anybody to research cats in their first few cities,just to bomb a level 4 wall its really madness to spend 8 precious research points.
A level 4 wall won't make much losses and whatever you will lost that can be easily replenished as when your troops will return they will return with lots of BPs and resources

BTW Don't attack with birs by the way,they are defensive units

1st I attacked with biremes cos i am 1st in my Ocean who has any offensive/defensive ships as we speak (its a new world and i palyed alot) so i was safe.

2nd The point why i have risen such discussion is because i use like 30 horsemen sending them in groups of 5 every 2hours to 1 polis... but if there is wall 4+ i will always loose 1 and is as such unprofitable.

Thats why i ask about catapults.

 

[DeletedUser]

imo catapults are one of the most useful units early on (as in before you have a real navy to speak of) precisely because they are so slow, and i for one tend to research them in my first city. well, maybe tended to - in v2 of the game you can just buy one from the merchant. but anyways... because of their terrible speed, they are the best unit by a long way for troop saving when you are offline (again, before you have enough of a navy to transport your entire army. safely).

before you go to bed, send an attack including a catapult. because they are so slow you should be able to find a city on your island which is about 4hrs away, giving you 8hrs of peaceful sleep with no risk of your precious attacking army being massacred.

Very true actually, hadn't considered that. I usually get transports/LS as soon as possible, so don't have to use catapults to keep my troops safe while offline, but for many it would be a good technique.

 

[DeletedUser]

In the later game they can be just as useful as Hydra to send fake a colony ship attack. Time some fake supports to land after them. It can be rather amusing seeing the city you are fake attacking stacked with birs or fill with trans in the 3 or so hours it sometimes takes for a CS to normally arrive granted this is better for conquest players, its only effective in Revolt if you have more than 1 revolt going on.

 

[DeletedUser29371]

a thought...

In this game its too easy to defend....

Wall bonus is too high, and militia should be weaker (1 defense to everything tbh)

Its very annoying that someone is 2200 points+ with 250+ FS offensive army and cannot really effectively destroy 65 swords and 195 militia behind wall lvl 6

Mid game stage (so 1500-2.800 points) is a grindfest tbh... anyone half active and understanding game will dodge you give you no or very little BP, anyone newby will be less than 1000 points...

Now its up to who gets to colony ship 1st and conquest so people will be feared of conquering and finally not run away from a fight.

proposing: If everything is killed you can choose 1 building out of following (warehouse, timber/quarry/silver/) to be delvled instantly. That way many players would not want to dodge you since youd set them back for 4+ hours of building time.

Now they just laugh.

 

[DeletedUser]

You need to propose this in ideas section .

 

[DeletedUser29371]

You need to propose this in ideas section .

Its more of prupose to start discussion.

I mean what do you guys do to interfere with militia as little as possible?

I cannot spend 24/7 analyzing when is someone potentionally sleeping.

 

[DeletedUser]

I always try to get intel on my opponent's offline timings like to which timezone he belongs to,or just simply message him have a chat with him and note the times when he usually replies just don't attack at that time,and before sending attack also check by sending a message if he is online or not,if he replies then don't send the attack and if he didn't reply than just enjoy the party

 

[DeletedUser]

Mid game stage (so 1500-2.800 points)

I'm sorry, but I have to point out this.. if a player is at 1500-2800 points, they are certainly not at a mid-game stage. That is early early early early early game. Players can have several cities and still potentially be at an early game stage..

Secondly..

I cannot spend 24/7 analyzing when is someone potentionally sleeping.

It's important to realise that Grepolis is a long-term game, with worlds continuing for months (if not years). Once you are fighting the same group of people, on and off for several months, you start to learn their offline times just by simple things like tracking when their attacks are launched or when they aren't dodging attacks, or when they aren't activating militia regularly.

It's not something that you can expect to figure out overnight, but if you are playing for a long time with the same people you will eventually start figuring it out.

As for militia, it's just a part of the game. Many suggestions have been made to change them, but it's unlikely that they will be changed. Yes, the game is heavily weighted in favour of the defender. That's nothing new. The onus is on the attacker to become stronger than the defender, to overcome.

 

[DeletedUser]

Very true actually, hadn't considered that. I usually get transports/LS as soon as possible, so don't have to use catapults to keep my troops safe while offline, but for many it would be a good technique.

yep, LS and trans are definitely better, but it's not as easy to get LS and enough trans to carry your troops as it is to get a 'pult (which can be done before BP even ends). it just gives a couple days of safe sleeping, which i will buy into any time

 

[DeletedUser]

yep, LS and trans are definitely better, but it's not as easy to get LS and enough trans to carry your troops as it is to get a 'pult (which can be done before BP even ends). it just gives a couple days of safe sleeping, which i will buy into any time

Safe sleeping? So using a catapult is the Grepolis equivalent of sleeping with a gun under your pillow? Hmm..

 

[DeletedUser29371]

Another question.

Do biremes also kill land units sometimes?

What my friend told me