Cronus's noob faqs for Conquest worlds

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DeletedUser

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ok I have been working on these for a while. People in my alliance ingame love these and keep copying them to their desktops.. so figured I would share them with the general public. These are still a work in progress and I don't mind feedback. If you think something in here is wrong send me a pm about it no need to muddy up these faqs and guides.


*edit

Ok I guess I need to explain better....

these are noob faqs. to help people get started. Everyone plays their own style and not any tactic faq is 100% right for every person. This isn't about how you play the game.. sure if you got 40 cities you have expanded or travelled your own path. This is for BEGINNER PLAYERS ONLY. As people play they will learn their own paths they think is right. If you think your 100% right then you gots issues. I knew people would disagree with some of my tactics but that's why its a strategy game. everyone has their own strategies.
 
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DeletedUser

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Buildings

Do you love buildings? Sure you do right, well here you are...

Farms
Oh to have more troops; be warned though because it maxes out at 40. This may seem like a lot, but when you get to the point of getting to 40 you're crying for more troops and defence as everyone wants your city. This is one of the few buildings you will no doubt want maxed out. By the time you hit 7.5 thousand points you should have a level 35 Farm. At 8.5 thousand hopefully you're maxed out. This will help provide super defence and offensive units.

Resources
Ok I am not going to go through each one of these individually as they are always good to have. Try to keep up on these in production. If you have resources and other buildings aren't popping up, then build more resources. Sure farming towns are awesome, but these build you up while you sleep. With Hera's resource bonus spell I can max out my resources overnight and have a great building frenzy the next day.

Warehouse
The bread and butter of your town. I try to get this building to at least level 20 as fast as I can. This allows more farming to be done and more resources to stock up overnight. I level this to max once my resource buildings are maxed out. If you're on daily and never miss more than 7 hours to sleep you might as well leave it at level 20. (edit: You need a higher level to complete some of the researches)

Barracks
Troops ahoy... gonna getchya. Getting this to level 10 helps at the start and when you're ready in the academy to start researching chariots get your barracks to level 16. This allows you to recruit chariots and catayuks (Oops I mean catapults :p). With the barracks at 16, you protect yourself from not being able to build certain troops if someone hits you with a Lightning Bolt from Zeus while you're offline. Upgrading this more than level 16 is for point freaks and if you're one then go for it. In all it gives you from level 16 to max - an extra minute or so off the production times for your units. If you like that, then ok go for it. Make sure your resources are maxed first, and your academy and well... pretty much everything else.

City Wall
This is your defence extreme. Couple the wall with Militia and you have yourself an awesome stopping force. People would need to plan a way to get you with like 3 different towns against you at once if you couple your def troops into it. Level 10 for beginners is a MUST. Also get your farms up as the more farms you have the more militia you can get to help defend. After you're ready to expand, start levelling up your wall every so often so it slowly grows with you. A maxed wall is not a wasted wall. This maxes out at level 25.

Cave
Would you believe you can get 500 manticores in this cave? Would you believe 200? How about a chimp and a typewriter? Ok this is for spies. Spies are awesome, though EXPENSIVE. I keep my cave 1 level higher than I have points to my town. Though if there are tons of enemies around me I try to max it out at level 10 as quick as I can. At each level you're maxed out in the thousand for the level of the cave. Which means:
level 1 = 1000 max silver stored in cave
level 2 = 2000 max silver stored in cave
etc etc etc
At level 10, however, you can store and use as much silver in the cave as you can. So in this instance you're probably near max resources and buildings in other things so become a silver freak. Store as much silver as you can... 60,000 silver.. not good enough.. 120,000 silver now you're getting close but get more. The more silver you have the more untouchable you are to others. Most people (with maybe a few idiot exceptions) won't attack you unless they know what you have and spying against you does that. If you have tons of silver no spy can get through. Use that to your advantage.

Harbor
Pretty much the same as barracks but try to get it to level 21. With the harbour at 21, you protect yourself from not being able to build your CS if someone hits you with a Lightning Bolt from Zeus while you're offline. After level 21 the time difference for building ships are negligible. But you can still keep on point freakin if you want to :)

Academy
Ok this building you want maxed. It gives you oh so many upgrades and happiness. Let it grow with you. When you have the resources, buy another tier. :)

Here are your must buys for the Academy:
*Slinger
*Archer
*City Guard
*Booty
*Ceramics
*Plow
*Horsemen
*Bireme
*Chariot
*Light ship

You'll notice I haven't mentioned Colony Ship or Conquest. What I try to do is in every second city research Colony Ship and Conquest. The others I just use for troops/ships and boost the troop/ship upgrades.

After that, I get Phalanx and Battering Ram. I’m told that this gives you a great edge in battle.

The rest are up to you and what you want for yourself. I personally would stay away from the following:
**Diplomacy - Rewards are negligible and it takes longer to get the strength and moral back up to trade with the farms
**Architecture - By the time you're ready for this, most of your buildings should be built to adequate levels. This is more for point freaks.
**Democracy - your team should be able to help you out so the points for this can be spent elsewhere
**Triremes - Useless ships that are for lazy people who like the colour blue. You get better results from light ships and biremes.

Personally I dislike catapults. Someone else always has them near you and the cost and use of them hurts you more than the enemy. Unless you have an army of catapults... but then the pop used in cats are better put towards troops.

Temple
The fruit of your towns. Level 10 is good but level 12 is awesome. The only time you might want to put it past level 12 is with Poseidon, but that's so you can get the useless unit Hydra. To get it past level 12 is also nice for the extra favor points but the increase past this is negligible. 1 extra point per hour per level. To me not worth it unless you have way extra resources.

Market Place
Ok this is one of my favourite buildings. You can make a killing in the markets if you have too much wood or stone or silver put it in the market and mark it up. Some dumb guy will buy your wood to stones at 1:2 or your silver to wood or stone at 3:1. Personally, I now set my wood and stone at 2 units for 1 to trade and my silver at 2.5 rate because everyone else goes 3.0 rate. So you will get trades faster and more. You can make good money and trades in this one. I usually trade the strength on my island for the weakness. Helps balance out my town for the day.

Special Buildings
Merchants shop
Pretty much useless. It adds .1% to the village trade ratio for a total of 1.35%. Sure this adds up over time, but I would rather use the 1.25 rate and then farm the towns as opposed to wasting money on this ugly monstrosity. This building also increases your trade amount by 50% so if you want to trade on the market 10,000 max resources due to market this will increase it to 15,000 Return for investment Negligible

Oracle
Don't know who to trust... trust your handy dandy oracle. This one is good if you never use your cave. But if you keep your cave well stocked then keep on trucking past this handy dandy building.

Divine Statue
Awesome to be built for Hera. Other gods if you choose. This adds something like 5 temple levels to your current favor production. I love it for Hera as you get more resource spells to boost resource production. Only recently discovered this myself, so am now busy adapting some of my own cities.

Tower
Spectacular! Awesome! My favourite building for all towns, besides divine statue. Helps defend you to the nuts. You want spiked walls? You got them. You want pictures of the enemy's mother hanging off the tower? You got it. There isn't anything this building can't do... other than wash your unit’s socks – Yuck! This building adds an instant 10% defence to your troops and ships. Add this to other bonuses you would get and hey you got impenetrable forces. Unless you're group attacked.

Light House
This building is wicked if you decide to build an all boat town. Or if you're always conquesting from that town. You get an instant 15% increase in boat speeds. While 15% to your colony ship ain't much - hey it's better than nothing.

Library
Useless. What more can I say? If you don't get what you want with the points you get from building your academy to level 30, then you suck. If you build this or conquer a city that has it and you want to demolish, it you must have 12 unused research points. If you don't have them, then you will have to reset some of your techs (at 1 CP per tech) until you have 12 free points. When you demolish it, you lose the building and gain 60 pop back.

Baths
My personal favourite. Adds 10% to your pop total and that's an extra 300 population to spend on units. Demolishing this building takes away those extra pop points, though it does give you your 60 pop back. Only real reason to destroy this is to build the theatre as you don't need your population anymore when you are snuggled in your empire's embrace.

Theatre
Ok this is almost useless. UNLESS you're in the middle of the alliance and defended on all sides and have a nice cushion of mates that you know will get attacked before you do. If that's the case, then demolish that bath and build a theatre. Keeps you entertained while your neighbour goes to war.
 
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DeletedUser

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Troops and Ships

OK now we are going talk about the units in the game. You can find out about mythical units in the Gods and Spells FAQ.

Troops
Swordsmen
The starting unit that is to be feared... by someone... just can’t figure out whom :D Great at the start of the game. Not so great later on as they have a weakness to sharp weapons, as does the chariot which is another defending staple.

Slingers
A must have in any offensive force. These babies peel away militia like no one’s business. Also tear apart harpies easier. This is your main militia killer in the game. Get 300 of these babies and you can mow down any militia. Since militia are the staple of defence that means everyone pretty much uses them if they are logged in at the attack. I got hit with 2500 of these guys one time. It hurt. Before I found the use of slingers, I got beat back 4 times attacking this one guy's town. That sucked. I spent so much on units it was scary.

Archers
Where the swordsmen have a weakness to sharp units the archer have strength. Though a horseman will slaughter these units, most people move on to chariots for offense later on so archers are good. Awesome when combined with chariots/hoplites for defence.

Hoplites
Ok these units are a defensive and offensive nightmare. For the opponent. They are great for defence as their weakness is for arrows and ranged attacks. when combined with archers these swallow alot of damage, as such awesome to use for def. And with their sharp weapons they work in a snap for offense. Just don't use these units to farm. Farming NPCs isn't worth it and farming inactive players will just lose you good troops to nothing. Alot of people turn to these for land nukes... DONT! They may be good on intermittent attacks but I have seen hops splash on high level walls way too easily.

Horsemen
Basic resource butcher. These I use to farm inactive players as the horse has an awesome travel time and resource gathering ability and can withstand higher walls than other units. Till I get chariots, I use around 140 horsemen to farm people around me. Horse use blunt weapons and can take out archers pretty well.

Chariots
Now I told you that most people use chariots later on mainly because they work well in def and offense. Their weakness is to sharp objects and as such are weak to hoplites and other chariots. That's kind of a double standard, but to attack chariots with chariots both sides take massive losses. Attacking chariots with hoplites is a tad better.

Catapults
ewe yuk *twitch* reaches *throws up* That pretty much assesses cats for me. I hate them. The resources needed in building them and the pop needed to run them are horrendous. The return payment is negligible. At level 6 a wall instantly kills at least 1 catapult. That's automatic. So basically you're throwing it away. Get your neighbour on your island to build a couple as it’s not really worth it if you build them. Now if you build like 12 catapults you can knock down a level 20 wall fairly easy... though the defensive units behind the wall will kill all your catapults. At that level there should be LOTS of defenders. And if you send units to assist the cats what's the point in sending cats. The assisting units will be killed and they could have done better against a level 20 wall anyways. Plus, if you send a fleet of cats against the wall with units they face that wall at the level you hit it at. If you hit a level 15 wall down to level 2 and have 200 horse and 500 slingers and enough cats to do the job, everyone that is in that unit hits that wall at level 15. the next attack drops it to level 2 for hitting. Basically your commit suicide before your main force hits. Only use these if you hit the guy like clockwork and he has no mates helping him defend and you want to use him for resource farming. Just make sure you attack him 2-4 times a day to keep his walls low and his troops weak.

Ships
Transports
Must have... Research Bunk in the academy and you got awesome hitting power with units.

Biremes
Your staple defending unit. AWESOME def. Just as awesome but sucky in offense. Best ship def in the game. Worst offense in the game. If you sail these as offense you deserve to be hit upside your head with a ball of your own poo.

Light ships
Like biremes are to def, these are to offense. Same thing - you use these to defend and you’re a bonafide idiot. These kill biremes on offense at a rate of 1.25, and 1.5 if you got the Captain Upgrade (using Premium) and Battering Ram.

Fire Ships
Your basic trap ship. I don't like these as they are a one use wonder. If you want to play dirty, these take out light ships easy... but for cost effectiveness I would rather have 2 more biremes for these fire ships. These ships are anti COLONY SHIPS. If you have a colony ship landing these are the def for them. Your biremes fight the incoming ls attacks and the fire ships clean up whets LEFT OVER!! They don't fight in the battle. Remember this. They also dont take out cs's or transports.. they just clean up the attacking ships which prevents the defeat of the conquest.

Triremes
Useless. They work on offense and def but for every one of these you can get one light ship and one bireme or 2 of each. Triremes equal the def of .7 biremes. Good at everything best at nothing. These guys do have a hidden bonus when used in large numbers (140+) with biremes. The damage they absorb offsets the deaths on the biremes. It has to do with hit points being spread out over 2 types of ships and since these have good hit points they can absorb alot of damage saving you more ships in the long run.

Colony ship
Well what can I say about this... Everyone knows it - how about tactics. When sending these out you NEED light ships, triremes and/or biremes to survive the initial onslaught to hold the water. And you need troops to survive the landing to control the land. When sending make sure you over kill.
 
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DeletedUser

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Gods and Spells

This FAQ will talk about gods, their spells, and myth units.

Hera
In my opinion, she is the best starting god. She doesn't do much for offense, but she sure rolls in the resources. I cast the resource boost spell before I go to bed and I am almost guaranteed to have maxed out resources when I wake up.

Harpy
Almost useless unit. Really good for farming NPC farms as they fly, but that's all. Harpy sucks defending against slingers (one of the main stays in any offensive army).
Defence: Yes
Offense: No
Units best used with: - None. These things suck and you're an idiot if you build them for something other than farming towns overseas. I built these (I'm an idiot), but I use them to farm in actives on other islands to expand my resource collection as I run out on my main islands when farms drop too low.

Medusa
The best unit in the game for mythical units of favor use vs attack and def. The only one that beats her on def is the Pegasus. This was a comparison used by staff for favor cost of all so all had 10 units created and then measured attack strength of all in a ratio with the same favor cost and Medusas won hands down.
Downside: Takes up a lot of space on transports. Almost 1 medusa per transport.
Defence: Yes
Offense: Rarely
Units best used with: - I love medusa. Best thing to use with her is archers. If caught in a rough spot, you can also user her for offense as she does have an awesome sharp attack. Combine her with whomever for best results against an opponent.

Poseidon
My second favourite god. While Hera boosts your resources and troop production, Poseidon boosts your ship production. Since ships are expensive in wood, he even has a wood spell that gives you 800 wood for a ridiculously low priced 25 favor. So for 200 favor you can have your ships pumping out big time and for another 60 favor, you cut your ship production by 50%.

Cyclops
It's slow... it's ugly... and hits with arrows from everywhere.
Defence: No - sucks against chariots and hops.
Offense: Yes

Hydra
Useless really. They are ridiculously slow. For the same population, you can get 5 light ships for the same effect.
Defence: Yes
Offense: No
Units best used with: - Doesn't matter, they take too long!!

Zeus
I think he is ok but he is more of a hold back and use in emergencies god. His lightning bolt is useless unless you’re hitting a 10K town as the cost for buildings weighs out the 200 point cost. The troop damaging spell is awesome as well as the chariot summons which works for offense or defence.

Minotaur
Even if the offense looks pretty, most units have pretty good blunt def so it's better used as a defensive unit.
Defence: Yes
Offense: No
Units best used with: - Archers save the day again. Minotaur’s are weakest with sharp attacks so archers step up with a good sharp def... or you can use Hops.. either or.. but archers work best.

Manticore
If you have to use this for defence against a CS, send it to a farm nearby so when it returns after the colony ship has landed its using its offensive stats and not its defensive one. While able to fly to other cities to attack with its' awesome attack power, it NEEDS to be with other units. Send it with your transports.
Defence: No
Offense: Yes
Units used best with: - These suckers fly! As such, they don't need transports. Got a buddy on another island that is being conquered? Do they have minimal troops and a load of biremes defending the town? Well worry no more... Fly 10 manticores over the top of the biremes (ships can't hurt manticores oh yes hey can) and destroy those pesky troops. Or send with a siege of other troops for additional killing power... just make sure you have enough ships to get through the blockade.

Athena
An almost useless god. City Protection sucks as it's spell based only. The troops summons can help, but uses up precious population points with some useless units unless you cast 500 favor worth of that spell so it actually could make a difference. Personally I don't like her and only get her with my 4th cities as I need variance at that point.

Centaur
Almost useless unit. Really good for farming npc farms, but that's all.
Defence: If you have to
Offense: No

Pegasus
Awesomely useful in defence. Takes like 100 horse to kill 10 Pegasus. And they fly.
Defence: Yes
Offense: No
Units best used with: - Weak against sharp weapons so archers are your friend.

Multiple gods warning
When you have a full god in your city and get another city and put the same god in there you DON'T get increase your max favor of 500. You get points to the power of the whole for your temple level. This is why you don't double your gods till you get past your 4th city.

Reminder You cannot support a city with a mythical unit that is from a different god than is worshiped in the city you are supporting!

Spells alerts
People seem to think that Athena's City Protection protects against attacks. IT DOESN'T. It protects against spells. If you're getting hammered with earthquake or lightning bolt a lot, that spell works. It's only worth it if you have maxed out buildings since non-maxed out buildings are pointless to defend since it's cheap to replace. They do not stop unit or naval attacks. I know the description says it will stop forces but that's godly forces not physical.

Comparison of each Myth Unit: (just to note I did not do the math here. This was done by another player and I think is the best comparison done)

Myth units are by far better than regular units... but you CAN get away with never using them.

Here I will be comparing EVERY mythical unit except for the Hydra (for obvious reasons) and Harpy will be used in odd quantities because I prefer to keep the rest of the # down. I will use amounts of each unit such that the total population is 360, so 12 Minotaurs; 8 Manticores; 9 Cyclops; 20 Medusa; 30 Centaur; 18 Pegasus; 25 Harpies.

Now let us begin: *NOTE* this is compared via population of 360 used not unit for unit.

Attack
Minotaur: 5040 blunt
Harpy: 6840 blunt
Manticore: 7560 Sharp
Medusa: 8500 Sharp
Pegasus: 1800 Sharp
Cyclops: 6804 distance
Centaur: 4680 Distance

You can see the numbers yourself, Medusa wins, Pegasus FAILS.

Defence
Unit: Blunt; Sharp; Distance; Total

Minotaur: 8100; 3600; 6720; 18420
Manticore: 1360; 1800; 4040; 7200
Cyclops: 8505; 90; 11790; 20385
Medusa: 12500; 8700; 7500; 28700
Harpy: 2700; 1800; ~27; ~4527
Centaur: 4500; 13500; 1800; 19800
Pegasus: 16200; 4500; 5400; 26100

Speed
Here I will give a speed of 15 to all non- flying units because the MAJORITY of the time, you will be going by boat
Minotaur: 15
Manticore: 22
Cyclops: 15
Medusa: 15
Harpy: 25
Centaur: 15
Pegasus: 35

Pegasus wins, Manticore and Harpy trailing behind by a reasonable margin

Loot(without Booty)
Minotaur: 5760
Manticore: 2880
Cyclops: 6804
Medusa: 8000
Harpy: ~8742
Centaur: 6000
Pegasus: 2880

Use the Harpies for farming, kick Manticores and Pegasi out the window

Resources (without favor)
Unit: Wood; Stone; Silver; Total

Minotaur: 16800; 7200; 37200; 61200
Manticore: 35200; 24000; 27200; 86400
Cyclops: 18000; 37800; 30240; 86040
Medusa: 30000; 76000; 44000; 150000
Harpy: ~41200; ~10300; ~35000; ~86500
Centaur: 5200; 9000; 21000; 35200
Pegasus: 50400; 6480; 1440; 58320

Okay, the Medusa is not for the light-hearted, and you should not try to save your silver with the Minotaur, and the Centaur wins in terms of total resources

Favor (times based off of a level 25 temple in a speed 1 world)
Unit: Straight Amount (time in days; hours)

Minotaur: 2424 (484.8 hrs or 20 days and 4.8 hours)
Manticore: 3240 (648 hrs or 27 days)
Cyclops: 3240 (648 hrs or 27 days)
Medusa: 4200 (840 hrs or 35 days)
Harpy: ~7350 (~1470 hrs or ~61 days)
Centaur: 3000 (600 hrs or 25 days)
Pegasus: 3240 (648 hrs or 27 days)

Minotaur is the cheapest and I certainly hope that you are not planning on making an army of Harpies
 
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DeletedUser

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Conquest

Before conquesting someone's city:

1. Check to see if your alliance is allied with them in the Allies/Enemies thread of the Info forum.

2. Check to see if there are any of our own alliance members or allies on that island.
--2a. If there are, then ask them if that town is their farm or not.
--2b. If it's their farm, let them know you would like that town. If they are in your alliance and say no, take it to a leader. If it's a member of a different alliance and they say no, try and find out why. If the reason sucks talk to our diplomat and see if they can talk to their diplomat and work out a solution.

3. If your members or allies are on that island look to see if any are on neighboring islands. If there are, then ask them if they would like to help you clear that town. The reason for this is if you try and take them out by yourself, you lose way more forces. If you have a fellow member help you they can send out some troops with your force and you lose 50% of the troops you would normally, which means you can build back up faster.

4. SPY I cannot stress this enough. If you attack before looking, you run a chance of getting steamrolled. Make sure you have a ton of coin. Level your cave as fast as you can and fill it with as much as you can. It costs a lot of silver to spy so do your best. Towns with level 10 caves can store UNLIMITED amount of coins so this makes your spying easier. 10,001 silver in your cave is usually successful as not many people know that you can put more than 10K of silver in a level 10 cave though people with multiple cities know this and a 10k city on a silver+ island can cost over 150,000 silver to spy on.

5. Run a simulator attack through your Agora. Use the spy report as a judge. Remember - if the opponent is out of town farming or attacking or supporting someone else you wont see those troops so try for MAXIMUM effect, i.e. hit him hard with tons of troops.

6. Arrange your attacks with the person helping you. Have them time it to clear out your target with at least 1.5 minutes from your colony landing and max 3 minutes from your colony landing. This reduces the chance of your opponent dodging the clearing attack and betters the chance of clearing him totally. If you put them below 1 minute of each other, there is a randomizing effect that will choose whether your CS or your attack hits first. If your CS hits and then your attack, you could wipe out your own CS attempt.

When attacking on a spy report remember that each unit has a weakness. Some are major weaknesses. The ONLY ones that don't are certain mythical units. Arrange your attack around what they have. If this means you spy 2-3 days before you attack so be it. Or you can take your chances and load up on slingers, horse and chariots for the attack before you spy but you will take heavier losses - but waste less time.


Helpful tips about Conquesting:
1. All conquests happen by sea, even if the city is on the same island as the one you are conquesting from.

2. A CS must be sent with another type of attack ship, i.e. light ships or biremes and have at least 1 survive the landing attack, same with troops and transports.

3. When your conquest is over, don't forget to send your support back!
From the town that was colonized: Go into your Agora. You will see the troops stationed there from each city supporting you.
From the town that the troops were sent: Go into your Agora and click on the Outside tab. You will see the troops that you have stationed in other cities.

In these you have 2 options. 1) Send back all the troops OR 2) Send back some of the troops. Only the city that sent the troops has the option of partial returns. If you shipped them overseas you need to have enough transports to carry back whatever troops remain in the city if you partially recall.

Culture Points Needed Per Culture Level:
The amount of CP needed per level increases by 3.
Level 2: 0
Level 3: 3
Level 4: 9
Level 5: 18
Level 6: 30
Level 7: 45
Level 8: 63
Level 9: 84
Level 10: 108
Level 11: 135
Level 12: 165
Level 13: 198
Level 14: 234
Level 15: 273
Level 16: 315
Level 17: 360
Level 18: 408
Level 19: 459
Level 20: 513
 
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DeletedUser

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offensive tactics

Here's some information on offensive tactics.

The thing about offensive tactics, though, is it depends on city specializations, the size of the targets you’re going for and how far away you are and how close their mates are to them.

Stage 1: City Specializations
I will run through these as if your cities have maxed farms and upgrades for population.

Attack cities:
These cities are what you are going to be using against other players. I suggest making this city behind your front lines so that if you're attacked the targets are more likely your defensive cities.

Required Techs:
This is what I use for my cities. You don't have to if you don't want to.

**Slinger: Backbone of attacking. Best used against hoplites and militia.
**City Guard: Helps defend against incoming attacks and will be your main defence.
**Hoplites: Only if you're not going to use chariots. Personally, I combine these with horses so you have ranged sharp and blunt attacks in every attack.
**Booty and Ceramics
**Horsemen: Main attack unit with slingers
**Light Ships
**Bunks: Carry 6 extra troops per transport ship
**Plow: If you have to ask about this then just hit yourself in the head with a hammer and call it a day.
**Mathematics: Helps boost more out of your coin for light ships.
**Phalanx and Battering Ram: 10% more power. Who can argue with that?
**Cartography: Get your transports and colony ship there quickly. Every second counts.
**Colony ship (every 2nd to 3rd city)
**Colonization: With colony ship - so again, every couple of cities the rest spend at your leisure.

These cities are used purely offensively. If you're going to do this, make damn sure you don't have too many aggressors around you as it leaves you open. I use this as I login everyday and the most I am logged out is like 4-5 hours as I have insomnia. Because of this build, my offensive cities have level 3 walls max and I do this for a reason: I will see any incoming attacks and if they launch against my offensive city I can pull my troops out of there before they hit. Heck, I even keep them in an ally’s city on the same island if I can and if I know they have defensive units in there. This prevents others from attacking him and making me a better target. If a colony ship is launched against me, I pull back my entire force to get to my city within 45 seconds after the attacking party lands at my city which usually is before any support gets there. They'll hit my city and my own troops clear him as 99% of people launch offensive units with the colony ship. This means my offensive units are using offensive stats against his offensive units which cut through them like butter especially with only a level 3 wall. This tactic is a trap for easy BP.

Usual troop counts and ratios:
These are approximate as some counts will differ depending on how high your buildings are and pop used for them.

Slingers: 300
Hops: 300
Horse: 250
Light Ships: 64
Transports: 55-60

Colony Buster City:
Basically you have minimal troops - just 100 archers. Everything else is used for light ships. This way you get 200-250 light ships and should be able to take out or severely hurt any colony attempt in your neighbourhood. Ships also give better BP so randomly hitting other cities with your lightships in times of peace gives you better bang for your buck for BP gain.

Defensive City:
These cities usually are stagnant. They are used 100% for defence only. This means they are used to defend all your cities and your colony ship. If you use this, make sure you're in a battlefield area and attacked a lot.

Required Techs:

**Archer
**City Guard, Booty and Ceramics
**Bireme
**Chariot
**Conscription: Helps with chariot production as they take a long long time and are relatively expensive.
**Fire ships: These are ANTI COLONY SHIP ITEMS! Know this before you use them. They take out enemy ships AFTER they are done attacking. Not before.
**Plow and Bunks
**Phalanx and Battering Ram

You will notice I have never said anything about the following:
**Trainer
**Shipwright
**Demand troops
**Democracy
**Hoplites (defensive side)

To me these are useless. With the first two, you can use Hera and Poseidon spells to speed up production. 10% on 50% speed doesn't make much of a difference unless you're attacking daily and running out of troops each time.

Demand troops gives you swords, archers, hops, and/or slingers at random. Since slingers are thrown in, if you're specializing a def city that uses up precious pop spots. Swords, archers and hops are cheap so you’re better off farming for resources rather than units.

Diplomacy sucks crap on speed worlds. The conquer here is x2 so you basically get an extra 72 minutes. Not really worth it as battles don't get that close that you can save your butt with an extra 72 minutes.

Hoplites, as everyone knows, are usable for either defence or offense. The reason why I never mentioned them for defence is their weakness for ranged attacks. Everyone uses slingers in attacks. With hoplites getting easily killed by ranged attacks, this makes them useless as a defensive unit. Plus their attacks are sharp the same as chariots so if you have chariots, hoplites are almost useless in def mode.


Stage 2: Attack Strategies
1A: Smallish town 5k or less near you and no backup closer than 3 islands away

Unless you have just one city, you should be able to take this out relatively easy. The only drawback is your towns will have to be offensive towns for the most part to crash through the defence, except when both your cities are 7k+

1B: Smallish town 5k or less near you and target has allies next door
If you have less than 3 cities, ask an alliance mate to attack the neighbouring town so it lands the exact same time as your colony ship lands. Time you’re clearing attacks to land 1 minute before your colony ship.

Warning:
The game has a randomizer installed. If you launch an attack and it lands within 1 minute of your colony ship, then you have a chance of the randomizer having your colony ship jump ahead of your attack ships. This means if your colony ship successfully lands, you attack your own colony attempt.

2A: Target is 10+ hours via colony ship with his allies nowhere near him

Get allies to keep pounding him once you leave with your colony ship. Part 2 A & B are the reasons for squad units. The squad units hit him massively once your colony ship leaves. Since your colony ship is a speed of 3 and they're more than likely going to be sending light ships and transports, they should have plenty of time to hit him. Since squads are put together with players in the same vicinity of each other, they have tons of time to wait to launch their attacks. They should land the light ships with 10 minutes or less left on the clock for CS arrival. The closer to touchdown the better, as if the defending city dodges the CS could be up creek. I personally would have attacks hit with light ships first. Have them launch before cs release. This should catch them by surprise and gives attackers a chance to see if the defender dodges or absorbs the attacks. Only 2 people should launch at this time. Both with about 45-50 light ships. Time it so they hit around an hour or so before cs launch, which gives the defender a chance to call in and send back any defence other allies send him from far away. Once they are sent back, they have to wait for it to arrive at their home cities to resend them out. If they do, chances are they will be too late. This also allows the light ships enough time to return to their cities and be relaunched to land right before the cs gets there.

2B Target is 10+ hours via colony ship with his allies nearby

In this case you have a couple of options. So we now have sub sub categories: D

1. Single take out
Have squad mates send attacks to the surrounding allies when you launch your colony ship. Make sure when they send their distracting attacks, they do so with 1 single transport and light ships only. This slows down the attack so they know it’s not just light ships and leave their troops at home to absorb what they may feel is a colony attempt or a mass farm wave. This makes them less likely to help support a mate. Also, this causes them to use up favor points if they have Zeus or Athena. I have done this a lot, so been hit a ton of times by Zeus's rage. They think transports are on the way and as such cast that which wastes 250 points and they take out no troops. MAKE SURE all attacks including the colony ship land at the same time. For the colony ship, target having the main player and 1 supporting member attack the same city so the rest of the squad can spread out the attacks as needed. Also, all members should contribute half their defending forces to the cs for after it lands. By the point he notices them it will be too late to do much about it.

2. Multiple take out
Pretty much the same as part 1, but each player has a CS and combine as needed. Groups of 2 or 3 depending the amount of targets to be hit. Each one launches, though of course no 2 colony ships go to the same target. Again, having all land at the same time. This causes confusion and self preservation, which causes none of their allies to really support them.

Targets more than 24 hours away - make sure they are alone or EXTREMELY inactive. If you try to colonize further than this on an super active member with allies nearby you're pretty much kidding yourself.
 

DeletedUser

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Defensive Tactics

Ok now I am going to concentrate on defensive tactics as watching the reports roll in people are absorbing everything and perhaps winning nothing?

When you are being attacked the first and foremost thing you should be doing is figuring out what exactly is being sent at you.

There are 3 different types of attack that come in.
1. Light ship attack - The fastest in getting to your city
2. Troop attack - These are hated by most people as often light ships are sent as well
3. Colony attack - Slowest of them all and often the last attack before the support they send lands so easiest to pick out.

To figure out which attack it is, follow these steps:
1. Go to your city that's being attacked and look at the attacker's city on the map.
2. Go to attack them like you usually would but don't click on the send button.
3. Type 1 in the light ship bracket and look at the time it is going to take to send it.
4. Type 1 into the transport and click anywhere on the screen and it will tell you how long transports will take to get there
5. Type 1 in the colony ship and click anywhere and look at the time.

If it's not any of them, then look at what the closest time takes. Remember a Lighthouse and/or Cartography play a part. They might have them and you don't, or vice versa.

Now this is of course assuming you were on when the attacks were launched and so can see how long it will take. If you weren't on then you have to guess and act accordingly. This brings us to the most important part of our lesson today: dodging.

Dodging:

To dodge I do 1 of 2 things...

1. Send your ships and troops out across the ocean and time it for after the attacks or RIGHT before the attack lands if you know it’s the colony ship. Never EVER do this with attack units. Send them out EVERY TIME and have them come back after the attacks hit. I’ve learnt from others that they usually have them attack a grey banner town and get some resources and have them return after the colony ship would have landed. This moves their stats to the attack rather than the defence if I left them at home.

2. Send them out right before the attack lands - like 30 seconds before - then cancel the outgoing (you have up to 20 minutes to cancel troops going out) and have them return after the attack. Of course, spend all of your resources so nothing is plundered. If you're being farmed for resources and they get nothing out of this then they usually get bored and either conquest or move on.

Militia:

Again I don't see these much in reports so remember before you know an attack lands or colony attempt ACTIVATE YOUR MILITIA!! It's free BP and the opponent gets no BP from them.

If you're worried that an attack is going to hit you over night send your troops and such to an ally's base who you figure is safe and you trust. If a colony ship lands over night they can send the troops back (as you can't) and have them attack the colony ship that's landed.

These are basic defensive tactics.
 
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