Post by David Joiner on Feb 5, 2013 7:42:40 GMT -5
I think it's a good time to post up a basic Tutorial for newbies, that gives information which you won't find on the game's tutorial. Here are some basic pointers that every newbie should know.
BEFORE you hit level 15, make sure you spy on every single castle within range, especially if the target is level 15 or lower. This is the best way to make sure you have Farms once you pass the 5-day/Level 15 barrier. They all become "Enemies", and you can hit them every day, even if they only made it to level 10, and you're level 40. There will be days where Raiding low level farms will net more than trying to Raid the higher level ones which all your neighbors are also trying to hit.
ARMY SAVE: The #1 most important thing to learn is how to save your army. If you don't learn this, you'll never have an army. To save your army, ANYTIME you leave your computer/tablet to do anything that takes more than 20 minutes, you should conduct an Army Save. To do that, find a castle near you that's level 1 to 3. Click on the "Send Reinforcement" icon, and send all your military there. Even your Silent Ones. Don't worry that people can spy on your castle, because if they want to, they will anyways. When you get back from your Shower, Dinner, Nap, or a long night's Sleep, or even a 3 week Vacation, you can recall your troops. Nobody can attack the level 1 to 3. Nobody can spy on him. Nobody can have any idea where your army is, and they're only 3 to 5 minutes away for when you need them....
RESOURCE SAVE: The #2 most important thing to learn is to save your resources (without necessarily having to spend them). It's easy. Build up your Warehouse/Barn to a level where you stay at less than half of your "Limit". If someone attacks you, they receive only 5% if your Warehouse/Barns are under 50% capacity. OF course, letting your resources pile up without spending them won't help, so do spend, but this protects you when you're away for 8+ hours, and even when you're not.
SAPPHIRES: The Tutorial tells you that your Fortifications are your best way to spend Sapphires. I think they're wrong. If you play smart (Ie: Army Save as described below), the best things to spend your Sapphires on are Wyverns, and maybe Dragons. Admittedly, if you're losing Wyverns to Encounters or Raids, they're not worth it. But the idea is to NOT lose them. Why are they the best things to spend Sapphires on? They have a huge carrying capacity (1440) and are by FAR, the fastest unit in the game. 3 of those (900ish Saphs) will be more than enough to quickly raid all your farms daily. If you try with an army that includes Infantry, you will take 4 times longer to finish farming each day. People will grab up those resources while your army is trying to get there. I farm 10 Castles in 1 hour every day.
ENCOUNTERS: Don't do Encounters past level 6, and when doing an Encounter, don't use any Dragons, Wyverns, Griffins, Necromancers, Golems, or other nice units that you receive from doing Encounters. You can't replace those units for many months, and your Dragons/Wyverns (should you be lucky enough to get those) are your surest meal ticket. If you're losing more than 10% of your army for a certain Encounter Level, quit doing that level until you have more units.
SIEGES: Don't. Sieges do nothing beneficial for you. Just avoid doing them.
RAIDS: Do. I realize most people that read this will be pacifistic in nature, and that's ok. I don't recommend that everyone attack active players. As a matter of fact, that tends to be a bad idea. But do spy on all your neighbors, keep track of their levels, and if they're not going up in levels, don't have military units, they are, by definition, a Farm. Raid them. Don't want to spy? Then go purely by level. If they're under level 25, and go 2 days without going up a level, they're a farm. If they come back, it's not like they'll have a military around to retaliate.
DEFENDING: I see a LOT of people trying to defend, getting neighbors to help them defend, and building up Fortifications and such to help defend. Defending doesn't work. The Offense units are far more powerful than the defensive ones, and a level 15 -CAN- have dragons. 333 Saphs per, for 5 dollars, they got nearly 3 of them. You just can't hope to defend, even if you pump that same amount of cash into Griffins. Defending with units does 2 things. It reduces your unit count, and leaves you with nothing for it. If you're smart and doing the RESOURCE SAVE, then your losses are minimal. They'll get tired of it, your units are ARMY SAVEd, so they get no Experience, no Offense score, and not enough Resources for their efforts.
OFFENSIVE: For all the reasons you don't Defend, you'd probably expect me to encourage Attacking. But again, you risk losing powerful units, even if you do beat up the kid, to his army. I would only encourage this if you can 1) Annihilate his army and 2) Make it up in Resources through your newly discovered Farm that you can hit daily. If the reason for Offensive is retaliatory, it's not going to work out.
SETTLEMENTS: Once you have a House of Lords up, do not waste time. Go capture a Settlement and try to hold it. This requires little more than a couple of Knights to take over it (Spy first and make sure it's not over secured) and a single Archer to hold it. Most people aren't THAT active that they will notice they lost a Settlement right away, and if you can hold it even for an hour, you paid for the Archer that you'll lose when someone else claims it. MY first time grabbing a Settlement with a handful of Knights, and a single Archer (recall the Knights!) I hold it for 12 hours before anyone even considered spying on it. Admittedly, you'll have times where you'll tug-o-war that Settlement or go in search of easier prey, but generally, it's always worth it, and it's extra coin in your pocket. NOTE: Don't try to hold a Saph settlement. Gold or Iron is where it's at for newbies. You'll know when you're ready for a Saph.
UNITS: Don't build them until you can build Nomads (and maybe Knights). You should be putting all your resources, from your own generating, from Settlements, and from Raiding Farms, into Infrastructure. Minimum of 10 in Townhouses, Mines, and Farms. Maximum of 12 in Townhouses (Max of 10 in Mines and Farms is arguably the best Max). Once you can build 'real' units, you should have your Infrastructure complete, and a better idea of what to spend your resources on.
RESOURCES: As stated, best levels to take your Resource Buildings to is level 10 (maybe up to 12 for Townhouses). This is the point where your profits take Months, instead of Hours or Days, to show. Your Warehouse and Barns should be level 14+ at this point, and well on their way to level 20. This should also, roughly, be the point where you're starting to build your Army, and be less dependent on the 'free' units you received through Encounters and Tutorials.
SPYING: This is a tough area... some targets will have tons of Silent Ones, and you just lose and lose by trying to spy on them. At times you just have to go in blind and hope for the best. There is no number of spies that you should have. But... you should always spy every target before you hit them, even Farms where people can "Send Reinforcements" for a surprise visit. You will lose spies, it's the most annoying, costly, and yet necessary aspect of the game.
EXPERIENCE: Remember, the weaker you look, the stronger you are. People may suggest that you do things for the purpose of gaining XP. Don't listen to them. Level's don't matter in this game other than as a "marker" for how much you've supposedly done. You're not stronger for going up in levels, you just look stronger. Ideally, you should wait as long as possible to go up in levels. This is done by avoiding doing Tasks which aren't necessary for infrastructure, like building up your Embassy/Townhall/Market (unless you need them of course), and definitely not doing Lost Arts... at least not the advancing of their levels part.
BEFORE you hit level 15, make sure you spy on every single castle within range, especially if the target is level 15 or lower. This is the best way to make sure you have Farms once you pass the 5-day/Level 15 barrier. They all become "Enemies", and you can hit them every day, even if they only made it to level 10, and you're level 40. There will be days where Raiding low level farms will net more than trying to Raid the higher level ones which all your neighbors are also trying to hit.
ARMY SAVE: The #1 most important thing to learn is how to save your army. If you don't learn this, you'll never have an army. To save your army, ANYTIME you leave your computer/tablet to do anything that takes more than 20 minutes, you should conduct an Army Save. To do that, find a castle near you that's level 1 to 3. Click on the "Send Reinforcement" icon, and send all your military there. Even your Silent Ones. Don't worry that people can spy on your castle, because if they want to, they will anyways. When you get back from your Shower, Dinner, Nap, or a long night's Sleep, or even a 3 week Vacation, you can recall your troops. Nobody can attack the level 1 to 3. Nobody can spy on him. Nobody can have any idea where your army is, and they're only 3 to 5 minutes away for when you need them....
RESOURCE SAVE: The #2 most important thing to learn is to save your resources (without necessarily having to spend them). It's easy. Build up your Warehouse/Barn to a level where you stay at less than half of your "Limit". If someone attacks you, they receive only 5% if your Warehouse/Barns are under 50% capacity. OF course, letting your resources pile up without spending them won't help, so do spend, but this protects you when you're away for 8+ hours, and even when you're not.
SAPPHIRES: The Tutorial tells you that your Fortifications are your best way to spend Sapphires. I think they're wrong. If you play smart (Ie: Army Save as described below), the best things to spend your Sapphires on are Wyverns, and maybe Dragons. Admittedly, if you're losing Wyverns to Encounters or Raids, they're not worth it. But the idea is to NOT lose them. Why are they the best things to spend Sapphires on? They have a huge carrying capacity (1440) and are by FAR, the fastest unit in the game. 3 of those (900ish Saphs) will be more than enough to quickly raid all your farms daily. If you try with an army that includes Infantry, you will take 4 times longer to finish farming each day. People will grab up those resources while your army is trying to get there. I farm 10 Castles in 1 hour every day.
ENCOUNTERS: Don't do Encounters past level 6, and when doing an Encounter, don't use any Dragons, Wyverns, Griffins, Necromancers, Golems, or other nice units that you receive from doing Encounters. You can't replace those units for many months, and your Dragons/Wyverns (should you be lucky enough to get those) are your surest meal ticket. If you're losing more than 10% of your army for a certain Encounter Level, quit doing that level until you have more units.
SIEGES: Don't. Sieges do nothing beneficial for you. Just avoid doing them.
RAIDS: Do. I realize most people that read this will be pacifistic in nature, and that's ok. I don't recommend that everyone attack active players. As a matter of fact, that tends to be a bad idea. But do spy on all your neighbors, keep track of their levels, and if they're not going up in levels, don't have military units, they are, by definition, a Farm. Raid them. Don't want to spy? Then go purely by level. If they're under level 25, and go 2 days without going up a level, they're a farm. If they come back, it's not like they'll have a military around to retaliate.
DEFENDING: I see a LOT of people trying to defend, getting neighbors to help them defend, and building up Fortifications and such to help defend. Defending doesn't work. The Offense units are far more powerful than the defensive ones, and a level 15 -CAN- have dragons. 333 Saphs per, for 5 dollars, they got nearly 3 of them. You just can't hope to defend, even if you pump that same amount of cash into Griffins. Defending with units does 2 things. It reduces your unit count, and leaves you with nothing for it. If you're smart and doing the RESOURCE SAVE, then your losses are minimal. They'll get tired of it, your units are ARMY SAVEd, so they get no Experience, no Offense score, and not enough Resources for their efforts.
OFFENSIVE: For all the reasons you don't Defend, you'd probably expect me to encourage Attacking. But again, you risk losing powerful units, even if you do beat up the kid, to his army. I would only encourage this if you can 1) Annihilate his army and 2) Make it up in Resources through your newly discovered Farm that you can hit daily. If the reason for Offensive is retaliatory, it's not going to work out.
SETTLEMENTS: Once you have a House of Lords up, do not waste time. Go capture a Settlement and try to hold it. This requires little more than a couple of Knights to take over it (Spy first and make sure it's not over secured) and a single Archer to hold it. Most people aren't THAT active that they will notice they lost a Settlement right away, and if you can hold it even for an hour, you paid for the Archer that you'll lose when someone else claims it. MY first time grabbing a Settlement with a handful of Knights, and a single Archer (recall the Knights!) I hold it for 12 hours before anyone even considered spying on it. Admittedly, you'll have times where you'll tug-o-war that Settlement or go in search of easier prey, but generally, it's always worth it, and it's extra coin in your pocket. NOTE: Don't try to hold a Saph settlement. Gold or Iron is where it's at for newbies. You'll know when you're ready for a Saph.
UNITS: Don't build them until you can build Nomads (and maybe Knights). You should be putting all your resources, from your own generating, from Settlements, and from Raiding Farms, into Infrastructure. Minimum of 10 in Townhouses, Mines, and Farms. Maximum of 12 in Townhouses (Max of 10 in Mines and Farms is arguably the best Max). Once you can build 'real' units, you should have your Infrastructure complete, and a better idea of what to spend your resources on.
RESOURCES: As stated, best levels to take your Resource Buildings to is level 10 (maybe up to 12 for Townhouses). This is the point where your profits take Months, instead of Hours or Days, to show. Your Warehouse and Barns should be level 14+ at this point, and well on their way to level 20. This should also, roughly, be the point where you're starting to build your Army, and be less dependent on the 'free' units you received through Encounters and Tutorials.
SPYING: This is a tough area... some targets will have tons of Silent Ones, and you just lose and lose by trying to spy on them. At times you just have to go in blind and hope for the best. There is no number of spies that you should have. But... you should always spy every target before you hit them, even Farms where people can "Send Reinforcements" for a surprise visit. You will lose spies, it's the most annoying, costly, and yet necessary aspect of the game.
EXPERIENCE: Remember, the weaker you look, the stronger you are. People may suggest that you do things for the purpose of gaining XP. Don't listen to them. Level's don't matter in this game other than as a "marker" for how much you've supposedly done. You're not stronger for going up in levels, you just look stronger. Ideally, you should wait as long as possible to go up in levels. This is done by avoiding doing Tasks which aren't necessary for infrastructure, like building up your Embassy/Townhall/Market (unless you need them of course), and definitely not doing Lost Arts... at least not the advancing of their levels part.
