| Ochana | Date: Sunday, 2013-03-03, 11:16 AM | Message # 1 |
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Sergeant
Group: Administrators
Messages: 13
Status: Offline
| Guide to Defense:
1) Dodging
The most important skill to master in this game. It is simple - you move your troops and ships out of your city so that when the attack arrives, there is nothing for them to fight and they turn around and head home.
Do not fight battles that you don't have to. If you dodge an enemies attack, you keep your defenses intact, waste your enemy's time and give yourself more time to build defenses and you learn what his attack forces are.
2) Basic Tactics
The most common way to dodge is to send your military to the nearest player town on your island AS SUPPORT. Then when the attack has passed you recall them. You also want to be sure to spend the resources you have so the enemy gets nothing. You may also activate your militia to kill off enemies at no cost to you.
Just don't forget about your ships!
Support - If you are dodging you MUST send back any support from other players first. It is not fair to suicide their troops while you run off and hide.
In case someone is unsure how to do this, go to your City Overview then look for the Agora - it is the building that looks like a pillar. You will see the troops in your city from other players and you can click the arrow button to return them.
Advanced Tactics - Skilled enemies will attack you with waves of attacks. The first attacks are always clearing waves - a ton of Light Ships, then a ton of land attackers, then the colony ship wave, followed by defensive support.
Most of the time you can just dodge as explained in the Basic Tactics section, but sometimes they will time their attacks to be VERY close and so you have to do it differently. What you do in these instances is send out the units as support 10-15 seconds before the attack you want to dodge arrives. Immediately after the attack passes, cancel the order so they turn around and come back. It helps if you can have two screens open - one with the countdown till the attacks, the other with your support screen open and you just waiting to send the support and recall it. With good timing and a little luck, you can dodge attacks as little as 10 seconds between attacks. Keep in mind that due to server lag, just because you click the button before the attack, the order won't happen immediately. It seems there is about a 5-10 second "processing lag" So if there is a clearing attack then the colony ship attack is only seconds after, you might not want to risk dodging.
CONQUEST DEFENSE:
-You gotta fight conquest attacks. The single best protection is being active. The sooner you spot the attacks, realize it is a conquest, the more time you have to prepare your defenses and for friends to send help.
Buildings - City Walls are EXTREMELY important. A maxed out city wall will add almost 150% to your defense. So if you had 200 Swordsmen behind them, they would be defending like there were 500! The Tower adds another 10%. Make sure you always have free population - Farms are the #1 priority building if you have no spare population - use gold to rush it if you have it. If you have no free population, friends can't send you troops quickly with Divine Sign or Patroness. Thermal Baths can add another 300 population which can give you a LOT more troops.
Troops - It is best to have a balanced defense so that your enemy will have no weaknesses to exploit. There are 3 kinds of defense to counter the 3 kinds of attack: ranged, blunt & sharp. The most cost-effective units to train are Swordsmen (ranged defense), Hoplites (blunt defense) and Archers (sharp defense). You should try to have at least 200 of each of them - more if you are frequently attacked. Chariots also provide good defense against blunt and ranged so if you have a lot of them, balance them out with Archers who have good sharp defense too. Also, never forget to activate your Militia! Militia behind strong city walls can take out HUNDREDS of enemies!
Ships - A strong navy is very important. If you kill their transports before they get to your city, they don't even get to attack it. Biremes should be the bulk of your defenses. Triremes are OK, but not cost-effective. Consider this: Biremes cost 8 population and give 160 defense. Triremes cost 16 population and give 250 defense. So instead of 1 Trireme you could have 2 Biremes giving you 320 defense. Plus Biremes are almost twice as fast, so you can send them to help friends out much more quickly. Fire Ships can help, but they are just extra. Remember - Fire Ships will not attack Transports or Colony Ships! Probably have no more than 2 or 3 Fire Ships per 10 Biremes if you decide to use them.
Techs - You need to research Phalanx and Battering Ram. Period. This gives you +10% strength. Most good players have this so if you don't then you are at a disadvantage. Techs like Shipwright and Trainer are also musts. And of course Plow is awesome - 200 more population is great!
Premium - For about £2 a month you can buy enough gold to keep a Commander and Captain. This would give you a 20% bonus in land and sea combat which is a massive boost.
Advanced Conquest Defense - Some units are terrible on the attack (Archers & Swordsmen) and others are terrible on defense. Before an attack you plan on defending against hits, send out your Catapults, Slingers and Horsemen from your city. They will just die even if you slaughter the attacker. Plus it gives you a safety net. If by chance you barely lose, you can recall them to your city and they will turn around and ATTACK your now occupied city. Even if they lose, they will kill a LOT more enemies on the attack than if you had left them in the city defending. This will make it easier for your friends to lift the siege. You should also do this with your Light Ships.
STOPPING A CONQUEST:
Lets assume that despite your best efforts, your city is now being occupied. You now have 12 hours (13 if you have Democracy) to stop it. What do you do?
Support - The first thing is to make sure all of your friends immediately recall any support they sent. Any support sent to an occupied city helps the ENEMY! Also do not cast Divine Sign or Patroness as those troops will help the ENEMY!
There are three ways to stop a conquest:
1) Land Attack - If you have a friend on the same island as the occupied city, they can ATTACK your city. If they kill all the enemy troops in the city, then the colony ship returns home. However, the City Walls protects the enemy troops.
2) Breakthrough Attack - This option works best if the attack has few troops in the city, but has a lot of defensive naval support making it impossible to kill his colony ship. Just like in a land attack though, the City Walls will protect the enemy.
3) Light Ship Wave - This is the most common way to end a conquest. If you kill the colony ship the conquest ends. You just send a huge wave of Light Ships, or several people work together and send smaller attacks, until you kill it.
5. SPOTTING COLONY SHIP ATTACKS:
This guide is to show you a way to figure out of the attack IS or COULD BE a colony ship attack. If you have Wisdom (from Athena) you can check, but its expensive and often a conquest attack will have MANY attacks, so you need to know which ones to dodge, and which to defend.
The earlier you realize you are under attack, the more accurate this is. Many of you have never been attacked and don't know how to tell so here is what you will see if you are attacked:
You will see a big orange and red spear icon near the top of your screen. If you click that Spear icon, it will tell you where the attack was launched from, what city it is attacking, and a countdown timer until the attack arrives.
The timer is the important part. First rule - colony ships only have a 48 hour range. So if the attack is from farther than that is CAN NOT be a colony ship attack.
So lets say you have an incoming attack on your town and are not sure if its a conquest:
1st) Make sure you have the attacked town (if you have more than one) as the name at the top of the screen.
2nd) Click on the Spear Icon, then click on the name of the attacking town, then click "To the Map"
3rd) It opens up a map, with the attacking town highlighted. Now measure the time that it takes a C-Ship from your city to make it to it. If it's over 48 hours, it's not a C-Ship.
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