Playing from a Colonized position

[0Spawn0]

The biggest thing you miss out on is the ability to draft japanpimp, most good Suzerain find them selves drafting totals of 50k+ archers daily, that's 50k archers you can't build.

This is why you will always be behind even if you mange to cap Historical cities, which will be hard as you won't be able to hold good heroes for long since you will just get them "Sow Discord" and lost.

[japanpimp]

The use of ghost cities, taking your explanation in hand, is not good gameplay and VERY close to breaking the rules. Getting players from other servers to log on to create lots of dead cities that you as host recruit and store your armies is VERY poor form. While not EXACTLY breaking the rules, its as close to it as its possible to get as it mirrors multi-accounting exactly but uses other players to do the task for you.

I would prefer to have an alliance of actual players than dead cities. ROME has at least 10 Ghost players around you, thats 10 players that are useless, cannot use FB (as they never play the server) to visit your city, never grow or develop, never train armies, etc.

You have a handful of active players, some steal valleys or constantly uprise with gates close or just annoy for the sake of annoying other players.

Does anyone think (not Rome players) that this is a healthy alliance.

A "healthy" alliance? How dare you. We take our vitimans, the Fred Flinstone ones. We are Flinstone Kids!!!

[japanpimp]

The biggest thing you miss out on is the ability to draft japanpimp, most good Suzerain find them selves drafting totals of 50k+ archers daily, that's 50k archers you can't build.

This is why you will always be behind even if you mange to cap Historical cities, which will be hard as you won't be able to hold good heroes for long since you will just get them "Sow Discord" and lost.

Yes, not being able to draft troops from individual players does mean that I cannot draft "x" troops per day. But the player with the most troops is not the strongest. It's all about the heros. A player with a strong hero can win with a fraction of the troops. So yeah, losing my heros is a problem. And it is something I need to protect against. And if you play smart, "Sow Discord" does not drop loyalty by 30 on any heros you don't want it to nor does it allow the Suzerain to cap my best heros.

Invading enemy territory, setting up camp and building up. Hey, again, it's what I do. And it is what any player needs to do if they want to take an area from a enemy. Thus, we need to find ways to protect troops and heros from drafting and Sow Discord. That way we can build a nice and strong presense deep in enemy territory and eventually take the area.

[0Spawn0]

Troop count matters, and good Suzerains have good heroes, you can keep giving your heroes gold to keep there loyalty up but Sow discord always has a chance of taking the hero even at 100% Loyalty.

Trust me you might thing this position is working for you at the moment but that's because its all you have experienced.

Its like someone saying that Dark Chocolate is better the White Chocolate, but never tasting White Chocolate.

*Example is so so, but you get the point.

[japanpimp]

Troop count matters, and good Suzerains have good heroes, you can keep giving your heroes gold to keep there loyalty up but Sow discord always has a chance of taking the hero even at 100% Loyalty.

Trust me you might thing this position is working for you at the moment but that's because its all you have experienced.

Its like someone saying that Dark Chocolate is better the White Chocolate, but never tasting White Chocolate.

*Example is so so, but you get the point.

Sure, troop counts matter, but there is a limit on how many troops a player can support. And it is not infinite. If you draft 1 billion archers per day from various cities you will only be able to keep and use "x" amount of them. What that limit is depends on alot of stuff.
Well, doesn't your example also work on you too? You have never experienced playing from this position on the scale that I have. As for me, yes, when Age II first started I had 5 cities and 10 colonies, so I experienced Suze life on a small scale. I am not saying it is bad, it is just different. There are many ways to play Age 2. And I believe that my way of playing is best... for me. So I made this thread to help others learn about this style of play as well. I think what we are doing at this point is basically saying "KungFu is better than Karate". Well, it all depends on how the fighter uses it. A KungFu pro will say that KungFu is best, A Karate pro will say Karate is best. Perhaps both are best when the right fighter uses them in the right way.

As for my heros, no, they cannot be captured by my Suzerain. I have found ways around that.

[0Spawn0]

What you must understand is that you can support a lot more troops as a Suzerain, because of certain factors. More archers means you can farm more lv10s for food if needed so.

Also you may think your heroes can't get captured but when you decide you have enough troops to try for a Historical, then as you get your heroes ready, your Suzerain may be watching, waiting and bam there his.

Also remember Historical Cities can not be Colonized so this won't work with one of them and you won't be able to hide behind anything if you ever manage to take one. Which of course makes this style quite useless in the long run.

And playing AGEII without ever getting a Historical city just isn't playing it at all.

So you need to have a real think about your strat, you are just disregarding everything we saying basically just going no my strat its better, well you really need to look at the information and have a real hard think, once you analyse the data you will see the downfalls of your strat.

Honestly the main reason I post these thought is not to scorn you or anything like that but if you going to have a guide about this you should make it clear that is is simply a Beginners strat to AgeII, advanced players are only letting selling them selfs short trying to play like this.

The goal of this strat should be to get strong enough were you become the Suzerain. Basically building up in till you are ready to turn the tables and take control.

[japanpimp]

What you must understand is that you can support a lot more troops as a Suzerain, because of certain factors. More archers means you can farm more lv10s for food if needed so.

Also you may think your heroes can't get captured but when you decide you have enough troops to try for a Historical, then as you get your heroes ready, your Suzerain may be watching, waiting and bam there his.

Trust me Brother, I have been playing this style for quite some time. The heros that I choose to build up will always be safe from getting taken by any Suzerain who Sows Discord, no matter if they are in my city or not.

Also remember Historical Cities can not be Colonized so this won't work with one of them and you won't be able to hide behind anything if you ever manage to take one. Which of course makes this style quite useless in the long run.

Yup, you got a point there, one which I have thought about... alot. When I cap a historical I will switch by strategy.

And playing AGEII without ever getting a Historical city just isn't playing it at all.

100% agree with you there.

Honestly the main reason I post these thought is not to scorn you or anything like that but if you going to have a guide about this you should make it clear that is is simply a Beginners strat to AgeII, advanced players are only letting selling them selfs short trying to play like this.

The goal of this strat should be to get strong enough were you become the Suzerain. Basically building up in till you are ready to turn the tables and take control.

100% agree with you there. Yes, this strategy is for a player at a disadvantage who wishes to build up. I knew I was going to build 5 new cities deep in enemy territory and be outgunned and outnumbered. But I had to to it in order to gain a foothold in the area. This is why I came up with it. It allows me to enter a very hostile area, gain a foothold, build up, and prepare for a larger offensive. This is what the Elite Military Forces do. They enter enemy territory outgunned and outnumbered in order to establish a foothold so other troops can come in.

If players just want to hold down the fort, ok. But being in an area with nothing but friendlies around me and other alliance members is like Club Med. That's when this game turns into Farmville. I'd rather be right in the middle of it surrounded by enemies and start pushing them back and expanding my perimiter of control.

So this strat serves two purposes: It allows players at a disadvantage to build up. It allows players to setup and take over enemy territory. The second is not a passive position at all, but in fact very very offensive.

[0Spawn0]

" It allows players to setup and take over enemy territory. "

Your not taking over there land unless you are colonizing them so it doesn't allow that since you can't colonize.

And it is a passive position as you can't attack its not offensive at all, you have things mixed up.

[japanpimp]

Your not taking over there land unless you are colonizing them so it doesn't allow that since you can't colonize.

And it is a passive position as you can't attack its not offensive at all, you have things mixed up.

I respect your opinion, however, I disagree with you on this one. When you capture an enemy historical and hold it, that is taking control of the enemy area because by way of the historical you are colonizing the entire area. Fighting one on one colonization battles with individual players is a waste of time in my opinion. Why colonize a single player when you can capture a historical and colonize 50 at once? So yes, indeed a colonized player can colonize enemies by way of capturing a historical.

And I also disagree in that it is not passive at all. If you invade enemy territory that is not passive. If you attack and capture an enemy historical, that is not passive.
And another point, in Alliance War reports guess who the defender is when a uprise happens? The Suzerain. The Colonized player is doing the offensive attack, the Suzerain is defending against it. Offense is not passive. An uprise is an attack on the Suzerain. Capturing an enemy historical is also offensive, not defensive.

[Gringo]

Have you worked out how Draft works? I use it against one city that has over 15k archers and all I get each day is 1 measly archer! If I knew how to protect my troops from draft without having to move them out, being colonized wouldn't be such a big deal (Sow Discord aside).