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General defense guide
Defense is pivotal in a conquest universe, unless you are surrounded by active alliance-members who can retake your city within 12 hours of its capture (normally, it's 24 hours, but this is a 2x speed universe). Granted, no matter how are you defend, some people can capture your city if they want to, but the point is to discourage attacks and make sure other targets would be more viable.
City wall
While your city is still small, you main worry will probably be that of being farmed (attacked for resources/battle points) by bigger player. Bigger players will attack you to gain battle points and possibly to take your resources. The key to making yourself an unattractive target is to have a high level city wall, which will make your defender much more cost-effective and thereby my attacks less cost-effective. Therefore, the attacker would rather attack someone else, with worse defense and lower city walls. Once your city grows beyond 5000 points, you will want to have both tower (depending on city strategy, see multi-city guide) and level 25 city as it will otherwise be a juicy target because of being such a big city. Having such good defenses also means you can focus a bit less on defensive troops and spend more of your available population on attacking units.
Defensive unit mix
When you create defense, you have to consider the defensive properties of units. It's important to have the right mix of units to defend against different attacks. One thing you should probably take note of is the armies of the big players close to you, since they will be the ones trying to farm you and they will also be the most likely to launch a conquest attack, since a city close to their own might be convenient and with short travel distance they will be more likely to succeed. Therefore, if you adjust your unit mix to their army rather than making a "generalized" unit mix, it will likely benefit you. Mind you, if you have a big defensive army, it should not be necessary to adapt to individual players like this.
You can espect mainly to face two different kinds of attacks: attacks with only one unit-type (this is people who have a big offensive army and have enough units of one type to overwhelm you) and attacks with three unit-types times but with one main unit type (this is people who attack with their full army to have overwhelming numbers, but who prefer one type of unit). To rank which kind of units you are likely to defend against:
1. Sligers
2. Horsemen
3. Hoplites
4. Chariots
5. Mythical units
6. Catapults
If you look at the Grepolis unit table, you can see the attack-type that these units use. There are three different: blunt, sharp and ranged.
Slingers are ranged attackers, so you need defenders who do well against them. Swordsmen are the perfect counter to slingers since they have 30 in ranged defense. However, if you only have swordsmen, the attacker will see this when he spies you and simply attack with another type of units. Since swordsmen only have 8 in defense against sharp attacks, chariots or hoplites do very well against them. So, this means that you have to have something against sharp units as well. Archers are the units you want to use against sharp units, since they have 25 in defense against sharp units. Someone might attack with horsemen, so you need something to defend against blunt attacks as well. Here, your choice is between chariots and hoplites. And thus, you will end up with a balanced mix of units for defense, since you never know what you will be up against.
While you are certain that you need swordsmen and archers, some people prefer either chariots or hoplites. If you compare the two units in their overall defensive values (stats against all attack-types combined), it looks as such:
Hoplites
Cost: 225
Overall defense value: 37
Resources per defense value: 6
Chariots
Cost: 960
Overall defense value: 148
Resources per defense point: 6,5
As you can see, hoplites are slightly cheaper for defense. In terms of population cost, both units are completely even, with 37 defend points per farm space. What could make chariots preferable, though, is that they are really good against horsemen and so will likely be able to discourage attacks from those (mostly relevant in a situation where you are being raided from the same island). Hoplites are more general defenders, only with a slight weakness against ranged attacks. However, one thing that you have to keep in mind is that hoplites and chariots are versatile units that can be used for both attack and defense. If you compare attack values, chariots cost 17,1 resources for every attack point while hoplites only cost 14 resources per attack point. Once again, hoplites are cheaper, but do keep in mind that chariots are faster when you attack on your own island, can carry more loot (8 times as much, despite only costing 4,2 times as much) and are less likely to die in marginal situations you attack a weak defender who might be able to kill two hoplites but cannot kill a chariot. Another factor to consider is your resources balance. If you find it hard to balance your resources while using hoplites for defense (and occational attacks), you might want ot use chariots instead. Save for a few special situations, I would always recommend that you use hoplites. The most important difference is that they are better attackers as well the fact that you can compose a stronger balanced defense using hoplites because you get to include more swordsmen (which have a higher defense value per population than archers). And keep in mind that if you use hoplites, you save the eight research points that you would have to use to get chariots.
Unit ratios
So, if we need to define a balanced defensive. Early game, you will be more likely to face hoplites than horsemen, so a good ratio good be:
10 swordsmen / 5 archers / 5 holites
If you combine all the defensive values, you will have the following ratio:
This defensive is best against ranged attackers, since you will be most likely to face them and since an attack solely consisting of slingers will be more powerful (as slingers have more attack points per population that other attackers). However, it is not too weak against blunt nor sharp attacks.
Normally, you will need mostly to defend against attacks that mainly have slingers and horsemen, though. So, instead, the ratio should look like:
10 swordsmen / 3 archers / 7 hoplites
Which equals:
Depending on how often you are attacked by horsemen, you can decrease or increase the number of archers or hoplites. While hoplites only provide 37 defense points per population against the 43 defense point per population of archers, they have the added advantage of being decent attackers as well. You should never count out the possibility of being attacked with sharp attackers. If people have mixed offense/defense cities, they will often include whatever hoplites they have for defense in a city to attack along with their horsemen and slingers. And if you have no archers, you leave yourself vulnerable to a manticore or medusa nukes, both being very strong sharp attackers that people often build a lot of in one of their cities if they have a lot of favor (mostly relevant in older worlds).
Militia
When you are being attacked, always make sure to activate militia (city overview → farm → enlist), unless you don't want to show that you are online or suspect that you might need the militia against a conquest attack that is yet to be launched. The attacker will not gain any battle points for killing militia, but you will gain battle points for killing his units with your militia. Once militia is summoned, it will take three hours before they disappear and before you can summon militia again. So, if someone is attacking you with several attacks and it takes them more than three hours to reach your city, make sure to summon militia in advance (for instance, once the timer shows that there is 2:59:55 left for the incoming attack) so that you will have militia to face the first attack but can also summon the militia for the second attack).
Spells
Of course, if you have any good defensive spells such as Desire (-10% strength for attackers), Zeus' Rage (kills 10-30% of attacking units), Sea Storm (kills 10-30% of attacking ships), make sure to cast these. When you can them, you need to click on the icon for attack shown in your troop movement overview, not the city name, which is also clickable. However, if you think that a conquest attack might be incoming and don't want to give away that you're online, make sure you don't cast your spells too soon.
Defense is pivotal in a conquest universe, unless you are surrounded by active alliance-members who can retake your city within 12 hours of its capture (normally, it's 24 hours, but this is a 2x speed universe). Granted, no matter how are you defend, some people can capture your city if they want to, but the point is to discourage attacks and make sure other targets would be more viable.
City wall
While your city is still small, you main worry will probably be that of being farmed (attacked for resources/battle points) by bigger player. Bigger players will attack you to gain battle points and possibly to take your resources. The key to making yourself an unattractive target is to have a high level city wall, which will make your defender much more cost-effective and thereby my attacks less cost-effective. Therefore, the attacker would rather attack someone else, with worse defense and lower city walls. Once your city grows beyond 5000 points, you will want to have both tower (depending on city strategy, see multi-city guide) and level 25 city as it will otherwise be a juicy target because of being such a big city. Having such good defenses also means you can focus a bit less on defensive troops and spend more of your available population on attacking units.
Defensive unit mix
When you create defense, you have to consider the defensive properties of units. It's important to have the right mix of units to defend against different attacks. One thing you should probably take note of is the armies of the big players close to you, since they will be the ones trying to farm you and they will also be the most likely to launch a conquest attack, since a city close to their own might be convenient and with short travel distance they will be more likely to succeed. Therefore, if you adjust your unit mix to their army rather than making a "generalized" unit mix, it will likely benefit you. Mind you, if you have a big defensive army, it should not be necessary to adapt to individual players like this.
You can espect mainly to face two different kinds of attacks: attacks with only one unit-type (this is people who have a big offensive army and have enough units of one type to overwhelm you) and attacks with three unit-types times but with one main unit type (this is people who attack with their full army to have overwhelming numbers, but who prefer one type of unit). To rank which kind of units you are likely to defend against:
1. Sligers
2. Horsemen
3. Hoplites
4. Chariots
5. Mythical units
6. Catapults
If you look at the Grepolis unit table, you can see the attack-type that these units use. There are three different: blunt, sharp and ranged.
Slingers are ranged attackers, so you need defenders who do well against them. Swordsmen are the perfect counter to slingers since they have 30 in ranged defense. However, if you only have swordsmen, the attacker will see this when he spies you and simply attack with another type of units. Since swordsmen only have 8 in defense against sharp attacks, chariots or hoplites do very well against them. So, this means that you have to have something against sharp units as well. Archers are the units you want to use against sharp units, since they have 25 in defense against sharp units. Someone might attack with horsemen, so you need something to defend against blunt attacks as well. Here, your choice is between chariots and hoplites. And thus, you will end up with a balanced mix of units for defense, since you never know what you will be up against.
While you are certain that you need swordsmen and archers, some people prefer either chariots or hoplites. If you compare the two units in their overall defensive values (stats against all attack-types combined), it looks as such:
Hoplites
Cost: 225
Overall defense value: 37
Resources per defense value: 6
Chariots
Cost: 960
Overall defense value: 148
Resources per defense point: 6,5
As you can see, hoplites are slightly cheaper for defense. In terms of population cost, both units are completely even, with 37 defend points per farm space. What could make chariots preferable, though, is that they are really good against horsemen and so will likely be able to discourage attacks from those (mostly relevant in a situation where you are being raided from the same island). Hoplites are more general defenders, only with a slight weakness against ranged attacks. However, one thing that you have to keep in mind is that hoplites and chariots are versatile units that can be used for both attack and defense. If you compare attack values, chariots cost 17,1 resources for every attack point while hoplites only cost 14 resources per attack point. Once again, hoplites are cheaper, but do keep in mind that chariots are faster when you attack on your own island, can carry more loot (8 times as much, despite only costing 4,2 times as much) and are less likely to die in marginal situations you attack a weak defender who might be able to kill two hoplites but cannot kill a chariot. Another factor to consider is your resources balance. If you find it hard to balance your resources while using hoplites for defense (and occational attacks), you might want ot use chariots instead. Save for a few special situations, I would always recommend that you use hoplites. The most important difference is that they are better attackers as well the fact that you can compose a stronger balanced defense using hoplites because you get to include more swordsmen (which have a higher defense value per population than archers). And keep in mind that if you use hoplites, you save the eight research points that you would have to use to get chariots.
Unit ratios
So, if we need to define a balanced defensive. Early game, you will be more likely to face hoplites than horsemen, so a good ratio good be:
10 swordsmen / 5 archers / 5 holites
If you combine all the defensive values, you will have the following ratio:
Code:
blunt sharp ranged
260 265 395This defensive is best against ranged attackers, since you will be most likely to face them and since an attack solely consisting of slingers will be more powerful (as slingers have more attack points per population that other attackers). However, it is not too weak against blunt nor sharp attacks.
Normally, you will need mostly to defend against attacks that mainly have slingers and horsemen, though. So, instead, the ratio should look like:
10 swordsmen / 3 archers / 7 hoplites
Which equals:
Code:
blunt sharp ranged
284 239 385Depending on how often you are attacked by horsemen, you can decrease or increase the number of archers or hoplites. While hoplites only provide 37 defense points per population against the 43 defense point per population of archers, they have the added advantage of being decent attackers as well. You should never count out the possibility of being attacked with sharp attackers. If people have mixed offense/defense cities, they will often include whatever hoplites they have for defense in a city to attack along with their horsemen and slingers. And if you have no archers, you leave yourself vulnerable to a manticore or medusa nukes, both being very strong sharp attackers that people often build a lot of in one of their cities if they have a lot of favor (mostly relevant in older worlds).
Militia
When you are being attacked, always make sure to activate militia (city overview → farm → enlist), unless you don't want to show that you are online or suspect that you might need the militia against a conquest attack that is yet to be launched. The attacker will not gain any battle points for killing militia, but you will gain battle points for killing his units with your militia. Once militia is summoned, it will take three hours before they disappear and before you can summon militia again. So, if someone is attacking you with several attacks and it takes them more than three hours to reach your city, make sure to summon militia in advance (for instance, once the timer shows that there is 2:59:55 left for the incoming attack) so that you will have militia to face the first attack but can also summon the militia for the second attack).
Spells
Of course, if you have any good defensive spells such as Desire (-10% strength for attackers), Zeus' Rage (kills 10-30% of attacking units), Sea Storm (kills 10-30% of attacking ships), make sure to cast these. When you can them, you need to click on the icon for attack shown in your troop movement overview, not the city name, which is also clickable. However, if you think that a conquest attack might be incoming and don't want to give away that you're online, make sure you don't cast your spells too soon.
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