basic game tips
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:52 pm
aloha! the New Player Area Club (NPAC) is bringing you some more quality fun time with some general tips on playing this game.
if you're looking for a really in-depth guide to warring, i would suggest that you check out nymphsong's thread entitled protips on war. there's a lot of great information in there, some of which i will be repeating here in condensed form.
there is also a thread on building that you can consult, but i believe at some point we'll condense it to make it more user-friendly!
the general theme of many of these tips is turn efficiency. turns are the most basic resource of the game. turns generate income, build structures, allow you to war, sorc and scum. being good at this game is partially about being efficient with your turns. try not to waste them!
1. thieves: you should always have 100 G scum (e.g., thieves, changelings, aswang, drow, faeries, tricksters, shakes, etc.) on hand, from the moment you leave New Player Protection (NPP). do not train them! green troops die faster than elite troops. having 100 G scum on hand will allow you to detect scouts and sabotaged caravans. 100 E scum will not!
preparing for war
2. you should always know when your next war is, whether the game is domination or guilds. this especially goes for GMs. the moment you hit that peace button, your next guild strike should already be up on the banner, even if it's 8 days away (4 turnsets). this helps you and your players plan out their turn usage (turn efficiency) and what they're going to build.
3. when you go to war, your kingdom should have full turns and approximately 2.5mil cash on hand per 1k acres if you have a complement of offensive troops (plus maybe some scum). that means
-a 12.5k kingdom should have 30mil in the bank;
-a 25k kingdom should have 62.5mil in the bank;
-a 40k kingdom should have 100mil in the bank;
-etc., etc.
if you're going into the war with a defensive + scum fort (in other words, you have zero offensive troops), that number should be more like 4mil to 4.5mil per 1k acres.
to generate this amount of cash, it usually means you'll need to spend about 30-60 turns doing Calming Chant and/or looting to build up your warchest. plan your turn usage accordingly!
4. if you're going to war and you're going in with an offensive fluff, if you intend to hold anything less than 6k-7k scum, just go with 110 G to 150 G scum (don't train them). any scummer is going to get in unseen against 6k-7k scum. all you want to know is whether someone has scouted you, and whether your caravans have been sabotaged.
warring
5. be turn-efficient in your attacks: attack your enemy's weakness! if they've got a boatload of defensive troops, but no scum, don't try to bash your way through their army - go in with scum/sorc! if they're scum-heavy, go in with war.
6. on a parallel note, if it takes your summon spell in order to get "good fight" on a controlled strike for 1 acre, you shouldn't be warring that kingdom.
and in general, you should try to avoid situations in which you have to do "good fight" controlled strikes for 1 acre. use sorc instead to destroy that kingdom's buildings (top spell - parkinglotting, etc.).
7. sabotage ALL of the enemy's carvans during your first strike, and subsequently as well. sending caravans is a key mechanic for redistributing funds and maximizing war potential!
8. nymphsong suggests sorcing kingdoms down to 5k built land. the only caveat i'd place on that is that you not do that to sorc-heavy races like sidhe, vamp, fae, elemental and even humans: by pushing down their built land that low, they can downsize to 6k land and with 40 turns or so build enough temples to regain the top sorc spell and become effective parkinglotters.
my observation is that the sweet spot for races like sidhe, vamp, fae, elemental and even humans is leaving them with about 8k-9k built. it nearly doubles the amount of temples they need to rebuild from 600 to about 1100, which is a much bigger drain on turns.
forting/reforting
9. reforting is incredibly important. this is a very general rule, but you should stop attacking with about 55-60 turns remaining, assuming you have anything less than 500k cash per 1k acres. you're going to need to spend about 30 turns doing calming chant and/or looting in order to build up the cash to refort! you may have some cash left over, but that's good - you'll need it for your follow-up strike.
10. always hire and train scum first. scum has lower expenses than all other troop types, so it saves you money by hiring/training them first. i know most of the people who've played this game for a long time already know this, but it's a good tip for new players!
11. any kingdom can be taken down with enough turns. your objective when you refort is to force the other player (domination) or guild (guilds) to spend as many turns as possible to take down each of your or your guild's kingdoms on an individual basis. this means that you need to balance scum and troops. my general rule of thumb is that i aim to hold enough defensive troops to force them to get, at best, "good fight" on a summon + cs for 1 with a hefty quad (fully anchored), and hold enough scum to force them to burn seen (because the enemy will burn structures about half as fast if they're burning seen - forces them to use a lot more turns that way).
there are situations where you may be so large that it's feasible to hold enough troops while being able to avoid them being able to scout/burn you at all! fantastic, go for it.
additionally, there are likely to be situations where you're not be able to hold enough troops & scum to do both ("good fight" on a cs for 1, and seen burning). in this case, the best course of action is so situation-dependant that i can't provide a general suggestion on what you should do! you'll learn with experience :)
12. do not sabotage caravans if you're not at war with the person/guild that you're targeting. it can be tracked!
if you're looking for a really in-depth guide to warring, i would suggest that you check out nymphsong's thread entitled protips on war. there's a lot of great information in there, some of which i will be repeating here in condensed form.
there is also a thread on building that you can consult, but i believe at some point we'll condense it to make it more user-friendly!
the general theme of many of these tips is turn efficiency. turns are the most basic resource of the game. turns generate income, build structures, allow you to war, sorc and scum. being good at this game is partially about being efficient with your turns. try not to waste them!
1. thieves: you should always have 100 G scum (e.g., thieves, changelings, aswang, drow, faeries, tricksters, shakes, etc.) on hand, from the moment you leave New Player Protection (NPP). do not train them! green troops die faster than elite troops. having 100 G scum on hand will allow you to detect scouts and sabotaged caravans. 100 E scum will not!
preparing for war
2. you should always know when your next war is, whether the game is domination or guilds. this especially goes for GMs. the moment you hit that peace button, your next guild strike should already be up on the banner, even if it's 8 days away (4 turnsets). this helps you and your players plan out their turn usage (turn efficiency) and what they're going to build.
3. when you go to war, your kingdom should have full turns and approximately 2.5mil cash on hand per 1k acres if you have a complement of offensive troops (plus maybe some scum). that means
-a 12.5k kingdom should have 30mil in the bank;
-a 25k kingdom should have 62.5mil in the bank;
-a 40k kingdom should have 100mil in the bank;
-etc., etc.
if you're going into the war with a defensive + scum fort (in other words, you have zero offensive troops), that number should be more like 4mil to 4.5mil per 1k acres.
to generate this amount of cash, it usually means you'll need to spend about 30-60 turns doing Calming Chant and/or looting to build up your warchest. plan your turn usage accordingly!
4. if you're going to war and you're going in with an offensive fluff, if you intend to hold anything less than 6k-7k scum, just go with 110 G to 150 G scum (don't train them). any scummer is going to get in unseen against 6k-7k scum. all you want to know is whether someone has scouted you, and whether your caravans have been sabotaged.
warring
5. be turn-efficient in your attacks: attack your enemy's weakness! if they've got a boatload of defensive troops, but no scum, don't try to bash your way through their army - go in with scum/sorc! if they're scum-heavy, go in with war.
6. on a parallel note, if it takes your summon spell in order to get "good fight" on a controlled strike for 1 acre, you shouldn't be warring that kingdom.
and in general, you should try to avoid situations in which you have to do "good fight" controlled strikes for 1 acre. use sorc instead to destroy that kingdom's buildings (top spell - parkinglotting, etc.).
7. sabotage ALL of the enemy's carvans during your first strike, and subsequently as well. sending caravans is a key mechanic for redistributing funds and maximizing war potential!
8. nymphsong suggests sorcing kingdoms down to 5k built land. the only caveat i'd place on that is that you not do that to sorc-heavy races like sidhe, vamp, fae, elemental and even humans: by pushing down their built land that low, they can downsize to 6k land and with 40 turns or so build enough temples to regain the top sorc spell and become effective parkinglotters.
my observation is that the sweet spot for races like sidhe, vamp, fae, elemental and even humans is leaving them with about 8k-9k built. it nearly doubles the amount of temples they need to rebuild from 600 to about 1100, which is a much bigger drain on turns.
forting/reforting
9. reforting is incredibly important. this is a very general rule, but you should stop attacking with about 55-60 turns remaining, assuming you have anything less than 500k cash per 1k acres. you're going to need to spend about 30 turns doing calming chant and/or looting in order to build up the cash to refort! you may have some cash left over, but that's good - you'll need it for your follow-up strike.
10. always hire and train scum first. scum has lower expenses than all other troop types, so it saves you money by hiring/training them first. i know most of the people who've played this game for a long time already know this, but it's a good tip for new players!
11. any kingdom can be taken down with enough turns. your objective when you refort is to force the other player (domination) or guild (guilds) to spend as many turns as possible to take down each of your or your guild's kingdoms on an individual basis. this means that you need to balance scum and troops. my general rule of thumb is that i aim to hold enough defensive troops to force them to get, at best, "good fight" on a summon + cs for 1 with a hefty quad (fully anchored), and hold enough scum to force them to burn seen (because the enemy will burn structures about half as fast if they're burning seen - forces them to use a lot more turns that way).
there are situations where you may be so large that it's feasible to hold enough troops while being able to avoid them being able to scout/burn you at all! fantastic, go for it.
additionally, there are likely to be situations where you're not be able to hold enough troops & scum to do both ("good fight" on a cs for 1, and seen burning). in this case, the best course of action is so situation-dependant that i can't provide a general suggestion on what you should do! you'll learn with experience :)
12. do not sabotage caravans if you're not at war with the person/guild that you're targeting. it can be tracked!