Defence Guide

[cha1n89]

Number 5 i think wont work anymore.

Yes, you can hide the gold from a scout but it will be plundered anyway.

good work on this guide!

k............

[cha1n89]

Lives on.........

[Gorono]

An idea that i haven't tested is if you know of a very large amount would be to send as many resources you can to a valley but send a fair sized group of soldiers about 50% of your collection to attack their city while a large amount of their troops are going to yours. The damage that you would take would be far less if kept everything there and there place would be damaged to. I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS WORKS IF SOMEONE WOULD BE KIND ENOUGH TO TELL ME IF IT WORKS I WILL THANK YOU.

[cha1n89]

i'll try it out =)

[Satan]

Okay, I dont like the Wharehouse part. You dont need them. Just hide evrythig in your market.

[cha1n89]

Number 5 i think wont work anymore.

Yes, you can hide the gold from a scout but it will be plundered anyway.

good work on this guide!

thankyou....

[TiC]

Okay, I dont like the Wharehouse part. You dont need them. Just hide evrythig in your market.

This won't work anymore, you know... Now, when you try to use market banking and you're attacked, everything from the market can be plundered too

[cha1n89]

This won't work anymore, you know... Now, when you try to use market banking and you're attacked, everything from the market can be plundered too

that sucks........

[Ulfhere]

Purpose
Background

It is assumed that you have spent the last seven days preparing for this. You have built a strong economy and have a healthy hourly flow of resources and gold. You have built as many traps, abatis, and archer towers as possible. You have a truce agreement or two and a handful of other buffs available. You have at least a level 5 beacon tower coupled with a mid level in informatics. You have constructed two or three warehouses per city.

That is a lot of assumptions. My assumption would be you joined a guild and made a lvl 4 Embassy, Much better for defense.I would also assume you made ZERO traps and 50-150 abatis, the rest archer towers. NEVER build more than 1 Warehouse. NEVER.

The Strategy

You will be facing overwhelming numbers from your opponents. The key to survival will not be attempting to outgun the enemy. You must protect your assets- both military and resource.

If you are in a guild, the strategy would be to overwhelm your enemy. It works better.

1. Close your city gates. Although you will be vulnerable to enemy scouts, the fact is: you don't have not much of value, anyway. Closing your gates will allow you to conserve your army for offensive operations: the conquest of valleys, raiding barbarian villages, and counter-attacks.

Better plan, spend 100% of your resources. Fill your walls and barracks. Then take the rest of your resources and transfer to your second city or attack a target far away and fill your troops with the excess resources. The single warehouse should do the same. Spend all your gold on resources in the market. Since the gold is spent and the resources won't arrive for 30 min, your gold is 100% safe. Obviously spend the gold so the resource arrive after the attack. If you are in an alliance, leave the gates open so the reinforcements kill the enemy troops.

2. Your wall defenses will be decimated by a superior attacker or group attacks. While this is discouraging, you must continue to rebuild your wall defenses. Strike a balance between improving your economy, building military units, and rebuilding wall defenses. The strategy here is to make attacks on your city an expensive and bothersome proposition for aggressors. Their military assets will be better used elsewhere on easier targets.

If you were in an alliance, 4 members could send 90k archers each with food. 360k archers with your gates open from Rally Point and allow garrison checked in Embassy is a MUCH better defense for even the weakest of new players.

3. Attacks effect loyalty and public grievance. This is where a healthy economy will come in handy. Use comforting to keep your loyalty up and public grievance down. Disaster relief is an inexpensive way to do this. Reduce your taxes as needed post attack to increase loyalty if you are unable to use comforting.

If you change your warehouse to 100% food, Disaster relief is an effective way to prevent your city from being taken. If you only have 1 city, they are trying to take you out of the game if they attack more than once. Sell ALL your resources that you couldn't spend in the market andbuy more food. You can heal forever compared to the damage they can do.

4. Spend resources on intelligence, namely beacon towers and informatics technology. You will gain acceptable intelligence reports around level 7. If you know the size of the force being sent against you, you will know whether or not to counter attack by opening your gates.

Knowledge is power. Best and only good advice so far.

5. Hide your gold. Use the marketplace: place a low bid on an expensive commodity, ie. 0.1 for lumber. Hit the max button, then post. Your gold will be held in the marketplace until you cancel the bid. This is known as banking your gold and is the safest way to hold on to your gold while under attack. This works best on a level 2+ marketplace as you will still be able to conduct trade even while banking your gold.

July 1, 2009 Edit: You cannot use the marketplace to hide your gold. Alternatively, load transports or workers with resources that you want to keep, then send them to another city or valley. After the attack has passed, recall your transports or workers.

You can buy resources with your gold. If the bid goes through, your gold is gone and you have to wait 30 min for your resources. Transportsing is VERY effective.

6. Build and upgrade warehouses. Most attackers cannot loot goods under the protection of a warehouse. This is the easiest and most cost effective way to protect your resources. When you are able, research Stockpile technology. This will expand your warehouse capacity. Give emphasis to lumber and iron- the two most valuable and sought after strategic resources.

The goal is to make your opponent SPEND more than he GAINS. When he realizes he is gettingnothing, he will move on.

Counter Attacks and Loss Prevention Strategy

It is a common attack strategy to send a force to wipe out wall defenses, then send a couple of lightly armed forces later to pillage. Close your city gates for the first wave. If your tower indicates a smaller force approaching after the main force, determine whether you can defeat the oncoming wave. Do this by using the exercise function on your rally point. Open your gates and destroy the pillaging force(s). Your tower may be giving you estimates for the oncoming forces. The following chart will be helpful in decoding this:

Few 1-25
Pack 25-50
Lots 50-100
Horde 100-250
Throng 250-500
Swarm 500-1k
Zounds 1k-2.5k
Legion 2.5k-5k
Bulk 5k-10k
Giga 10k+

The follow up forces are heavy in transports or workers to drain your resources in one shot. They are NOT lightly defended, just lighter defended. If you think 40k archers and 50k workers are lightly defended, then you are not just out of 7 day protection.

Scout your enemy's valleys and check for occupying forces. If you can spare the manpower, attack undefended valleys. Withdraw your forces after your counter attack. This will hamper production of the very resources being used to attack you. It will force your opponents to dispatch forces to retake the valley. These forces will be unavailable to attack you.

Scouting and attacking can annoy an opponent, but a determined opponent needs a determined counter attack. Send ONE scout to attack every one of his valleys (make sure you can capture them) then abandon. Now he must spend time retaking them and may lose troops against the valleys NPC opponents.You AT WORST will lose 1 scout. You may make him mad, but if he attacks more than in one set of waves, he deserves it.

Lastly, use your Truce Agreement item. This item will not be effective on forces that are already inbound. You will receive a 12 hour reprieve from attacks, but you will be unable to scout or attack others. I suggest applying the truce agreement immediately after protection expires. An extra 12 hours of immunity will allow you further develop your economy and military assets.

You cannot use Truce while you are being attacked. Do not waste it for immediately after protection runs out, you wil need it later on.

Diplomacy and Alliances

A very good way to discourage attacks is to join an alliance. Look for one well established in your area and contact the officers via mail. There may be conditions for entry: prestige, gold, resources. An strong alliance is a good deterrent and your alliance may garrison troops in your cities to aid your in your defense. Your alliance may also provide resources for you to improve your defenses.

Hello? Troop reinforcement is an amazing deterant.

Contact those who are attacking you with mail. They may be under the impression that you have abandoned your city. Tell them that you are an active player, and a new player. You may be offered a spot in an alliance. You may buy yourself some time. If they are aggressive, stall them. Ask for some time to consider your options. Do not pay tribute. Any resources you give to other players may be used against you!

Or send a mail to someone with twice as much prestege or more that lives near the player and say this bully is picking on me, can you help? I just got out of my 7 day player protection. if a guy has 50k prestege, expect a 250k prestege to roll over him. Bullies usually learn their lesson.

[Torian]

What is the best balance if u have 45000 spaces like a lvl 9 wall. what balance of denfenses goes best with 20000 archers?

75% AT?
10% Treb?
5% logs?
5% abitis?
5% traps?