| Ochana | Date: Tuesday, 2013-02-26, 3:36 PM | Message # 1 |
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Sergeant
Group: Administrators
Messages: 13
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| Bigger army vs. Bigger city
The bigger your army, the more devastating it is in battles. So it would seem to make sense to always have the biggest possible army at the expense of everything else, yes? Well, not quite, although many people would disagree with me on this - but hear me out…
A bigger army takes a lot longer to build, particularly in the case of Light Ships. And, in battles, you will always lose some troops. So, if you’re regularly fighting battles, you’re army is never going to be maximum size anyway, you’ll constantly be rebuilding it.
And, sooner or later you’re going to start a war with a strong alliance, one that knows how to defend and attack really, really well. When that happens, it doesn’t matter how big your armies are, they are going to die on a regular basis. So again, you’re going to be constantly rebuilding your armies.
The issue here is the sustainability of your army - the speed at which you can rebuild it.
In wars, the speed at which you can rebuild armies makes a massive difference over time. That’s why I’m going to recommend maxing out the upgrades on most of your buildings, because this gives you the best ability to rebuild your armies quickly and regularly.
You’re obviously going to want the farm at maximum level. It creates population slots instead of using them. It should always be level 40 in every city.
Resource buildings, as I’ve mentioned in another post, should all be upgraded to maximum level. You’ll need vast amounts of resources during wars, because you’ll constantly be rebuilding your armies. And during battles you spend a lot of time fighting and rebuilding, so there’s less time for farming (unless you’re glued to the computer all day).
Because you’re going to be using so many resources, you also want your warehouse at max. level. Luckily the warehouse doesn’t use population slots. And, during peace time, you’re often going to have loads of excess resources so you want to store them up and hold city festivals or theatre plays to get more Culture Points (CPs).
To get the maximum recruitment speed, you also need your barracks and harbour upgraded to the max. level, with trainer and shipwright researched at the academy. You can’t rely on divine powers (even with help from your alliance) because sooner or later you’re going to be doing so much rebuilding that there isn’t enough god favour to sustain your rebuilding efforts.
You’ll certainly want your city walls at their maximum level - those last five levels (20 to 25) make a huge difference to your city defence bonus. I’d also recommend a tower in most, if not all, of your cities to further increase defence bonus.
To build two special buildings, your senate should be level 24. Once you’ve built up your city, you could choose to demolish your senate - but I never do. You see, if your buildings get damaged by bolts, having a level 24 senate allows you to rebuild them quickly. This is particularly important in the case of your city walls - if they get damaged you want to upgrade them again as quickly as possible.
Next is your academy. Assuming you want to capture lots of cities (which is kind of the whole point of the game!) then this should be at maximum level so you can do more cultural events to get CPs so you can get new city slots.
Your enemies will be spying on you, so you’re going to want your cave at level 10 which allows you to store lots of silver in it.
You’re also going to benefit from having a theatre (cheaper CP production), thermal baths (more population slots = bigger army) or lighthouse (faster ships) in the left “special building” slot.
Then there’s the market. I’ve found that I never really need to upgrade this beyond level 16 (which gives me trade capacity of 8000 resources). I used to have smaller markets (you’ll need at least level 10 to trade with other islands) but I found it to be very cumbersome and time consuming when I needed to move lots of resources around. Being able to send shipments of 8000 resources between your city is perfect for most needs.
That leaves us with the temple, and probably my most disputed recommendation. I’m going to urge you to upgrade your temple to level 25. Yes, you heard me right, level 25. I’ve found that when you’re in the thick of battle, having the extra god favour gets you out of some tricky situations. Being able to cast an extra sea storm or Zeus’ rage can save the day.
All my cities (with a few rare exceptions) are 12955 points. Now, you might be thinking “Hang on, that means he’s got a max. level barracks and harbour in every city!” and you’d be right. Even in my naval cities I have a level 30 barracks, despite the fact that I never recruit troops there. Why? Because if I’m under heavy attack, I need all the defence troops I can get and being able to create a few extra archers and swordsmen can mean the difference between life or death (well, saving a city or losing it).
Keep reminding yourself: You’re army won’t be max size for long during wars.
The reason I got in to the Top 10 rankings is because I maxed out my cities (to make my armies sustainable) and then got lots of cities (so I could have more armies). It was my desire to have a strong and sustainable military that led my decision making, I wasn’t doing it for the points (although I do enjoy that side effect).
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