PROTECT YOUR WILDS FROM FLIPPERS

Wild flipping is the practice of taking another player's wild and then abandoning it - essentially cutting supply lines to that player since the production bonus gained by controlling the wild is immediately lost.  In addition, this practice usually has the secondary effect of causing troop loss when the player is forced to retake a wild.  Although wild flipping is widely condemned in this game, there are some players and alliances who believe this is a valid technique for fighting a larger enemy.  Whatever your stance on the matter, the fact remains that wilds are vulnerable to be being flipped.

TIP:  To mitigate this risk, do not take wilds surrounding your cities!  This makes it too easy for a player to find and flip your wild.  Instead, on the map, plug in coordinates at random and then search for a wild at that destination.  Select a wild that is as far from other players as possible, especially higher level players and current and former enemies.  Once you have taken this wild, go to the map, plug in new coordinates selected at random, and repeat the process.

BARRACKS

Aside from just being the place where you train troops, Barracks also help to determine how many troops you can train and how fast you can train them.


TRAINING QUEUE

Troop training following the 1-2-4 training pattern
Your training queue, or number of separate groups of troops receiving or awaiting training, is determined by the number of Barracks you have in your city.  For instance, if you have 15 Barracks in your city, you will be able to queue up 15 groups of troops to be trained.

TIP:  Try to keep your training queue(s) as full as possible at all times so that you have uninterrupted training 24/7.  A system I use to quickly fill my queue(s) and keep them full is to follow a 1-2-4 training pattern.  I begin by training one group of Tier 3 troops, then two groups of Tier 2 troops, and finally four groups of Tier 1 troops.  Since the Tier 3 and Tier 2 troops take longer to train, they create enough of a log jam for me to fill my queues.



BARRACK'S EFFECT ON TRAINING SPEED

Barracks have a two-fold effect on training speed.  First, training speed is increased according to how many Barracks you have in your city.  Secondly, training speed is increased as you level-up your Barracks.  As soon as I can, I will post the exact amount of those increases here.

PLEASE NOTE:  I have read claims that the increases in training speed gained per Barracks are on a sliding scale with increases diminishing as more Barracks are constructed.  Since I began this blog long after my Barracks were built, I cannot say exactly how much training speed increases per Barracks and per Barracks level until I begin construction on my third city. 

What I can say now is that when I constructed a 16th Barrack in one of my cities, I immediately received an increase in training speed of roughly 4% and as I leveled-up this Barracks, my training speed increased roughly 1% per level.  

KNIGHTS

The importance of knights in this game cannot be overstated.  Here are the ways knights affect game play.

  • A knight appointed to Steward gives a 1% per level increase in resource production.
  • A knight appointed to Marshal gives a 0.5% per level increase in training speed, attack, and life of defenders.
  • A knight appointed to Alchemist gives a 0.5% per level increase in research speed.
  • A knight appointed to Foreman gives a 0.5% per level increase in construction and defense building speed.
  • Using a high level knight in attacks produces a more favorable outcome than a lower level knight does.

GAINING EXPERIENCE

Considering the effect knights have on the game, it is essential to develop your knights to the highest possible level.  All knights start at Level 1 and increase to Level 200 as experience is gained (See below for a trick to get knights to Level 212). 

As with everything else in this game, you can do things the easy way and buy experience by purchasing "Train with" items from the Shop or you can do things the hard way and actually earn the experience.  Knights gain 20 points for every victorious attack they lead and 10 points every time they are defeated.

TIP:  The best approach to developing knights is to focus on one knight at a time or at least one knight per city at a time.  By applying any "Train with" items you acquire to this knight and by using this knight as much as possible for attacks, you knight will level up faster allowing you to reap the benefits of that knight sooner.

TIP:  If you choose to earn experience the old-fashioned way, by attacking, then the smartest approach is to repeatedly attack inactive players with zero might.  This will allow you to gradually level up your knights with no troop loss.

PLEASE NOTE:  This is one instance where I highly recommend that you spend money on the game.  If you chose not to buy "Train with" items, it will take 19,900 successful attacks just to get you to you to level 199.  If any of those attacks are unsuccessful it will take even more attacks.  To further illustrate the point, if you sent out 50 successful attacks a day, which is a lot, it would still take you more than 13 months to reach level 199.  By comparison, it takes approximately 8 Train with Arthurs to take a knight from level 1 to level 199.  In current gem prices, this would cost roughly $50 and about 2 minutes of your time.



THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 212
 
As I stated before, all knights start at Level 1 and progress to Level 200 which is the limit under normal gameplay.  There is however, a trick that will allow you to surpass the limit and get your knights to Level 212.

TRICK:  To get a knight to Level 212, you must first reach Level 199 with 3300 experience points towards Level 200.  Once you have reached this, apply a Train with Arthur and your knight will be at Level 212.  

PLEASE NOTE:  You have just one shot at this!  You must reach Level 199 with 3300 experience points for this to work!  If you apply the Train with Arthur even one experience point too soon, you will not reach Level 212.  Likewise, if you reach Level 200 before applying the Train with Arthur, you will not reach Level 212.  

Before applying the final Train with Arthur
The same knight now at Level 212


REAP THE BENEFITS OF YOUR HIGHEST LEVEL KNIGHT

To save days if not weeks of wait time, make the following a daily habit:

TIP:  Assign your highest level knight to the appropriate position just before training, researching, or building.  As soon as the task has been started, switch this knight back to Steward which should always be the default position for this knight.  The time it takes to complete the task is locked-in the moment the task  is started.  Therefore switching your knight's position before a task is completed will NOT cause you to lose the time savings. When in battle, use this same knight for the best possible outcome.


MAXIMIZING BASE PRODUCTION RATES

Base production is the amount of each resource your city produces before bonuses are factored in.  To see what your base production rates are:

1. Click on your Castle
2. Then on the Overview tab
3. Then on the Production button
4. Finally click on the resource you want to see.


My current bonuses for wood equal a little more than five times the amount of my base production so, for instance, even an extra 5K base rate would equal more than 25K more wood/hr. after bonuses are factored in.


Since all bonuses are a multiplier of your base production rate, it is imperative that you reach the highest base rate possible.

TIP:  At the time of this writing, we are allowed just two cities.  In order to maximize base production rates, you should only produce two types of resources in each city.  By producing just two types of resources instead of four, each base production rate is higher.


PLEASE NOTE: You should keep one of the other two types of resource fields until you have completed construction of your city and have maxed out your research.

Notice the one farm in my NFC - I will keep this until I reach level 10 Fertilizer

THE BIGGEST SECRET OF THIS GAME

There is a secret to this game that very few players know about.  It is a big secret too.  In fact, those who learn this secret quickly become the most powerful players in their worlds while the others struggle to break a million troop might.  What is the secret, you ask?

TRICK:  YOUR  TROOPS DO NOT NEED TO EAT

Yes, it's true.  You can stop feeding your troops immediately and they will not starve, they will not die, and they will not desert.  They will remain exactly as they were before.

Why is this important?  It's important because it eliminates the biggest constraint to amassing a large army - Upkeep.  Take away the burden of having to find or produce ever increasing amounts of food to keep your troops fed and suddenly army size becomes limitless!  Now all of the food you produce is used for training troops, not feeding them, and you're churning out troops faster than you ever thought possible.


THE NFC

To stop feeding your troops, you simply put them somewhere where you produce no food.  Yes, you can send them to an alliance member's city for a while but this is not a good long term solution.  You can also send your troops to reinforce a wild but you risk losing them all if they are discovered and attacked.  The only practical long term solution is to house them in a No Food City.

My NFC
The No Food City, from this point forward referred to as an NFC, is just a 2nd city where you produce no food.  If you already have two cities then you need only convert one of them into your NFC.  If you have only one city, YOU MUST ACQUIRE A 2ND CITY!

I cannot stress this enough.  The only way to become a top player in this game is to have at least two cities.  At 3 million troop might, my food upkeep was already over 2 million per hour.  A much larger army becomes impossible to feed.  You simply cannot raise a large enough army without an NFC.




NEW PLAYERS - START FAST & GROW QUICKLY

RESOURCES

There are two things that limit growth in this game - the first is lack of resources and the second is the time it takes to progress.  I will begin with resources - specifically how to increase production of them and create a steady flow of these essential goods into your city.

First, follow the recommended quests. I tried to do this as much as possible during my first week and only stopped following the recommended quests once they prompted me to upgrade my castle to level 5. The reason being, once you upgrade your castle to level 5 you immediately lose your beginner's protection. There are so many more important things to do during that first week that I do not recommend leaving beginner's protection early.

In between quests I focused my attention on my resource fields. With a level 4 castle I had 22 resource fields. They consisted of 4 farms, 7 sawmills, 6 quarries, and 5 mines. This combination served me well enough initially but as you progress, your resource needs change.  Whatever the combination of your resource fields in your first city, you should set a goal for reaching level 9 in all of them as soon as possible.

While leveling-up your fields, utilize every other way to increase production. The first thing you should do is to appoint your highest level knight to be Steward of your city. You receive a one percent increase in production of resources for each level your knight has reached so even a level 1 knight will earn you an increase. If you have won or purchased any of the "Train with" items, apply them to your Steward.  This is an easy way to immediately see a considerable increase in production of resources.

Another way of increasing production is to research fertilizer, logging, stoneworking, and smelting. Every level of research in these areas represents a 10% increase in production of the corresponding resource.

Still another method is to conquer the highest level Wilds you can.  Each castle level allows you to conquer and hold a Wild.  Depending on what your needs are, conquer the Wilds that will benefit you the most.  There is a 5% increase in resource production for each level of the Wild you have conquered.  So a level 1 Wild will earn you a 5% increase in production and a level 10 Wild will earn a 50% increase.  The following is a list of Wild types and resource production increases:

Grasslands & Lakes - Increase production of food

Hills - Increase production of stone

Mountains - Increase production of ore

Woods - Increase production of wood

Bogs - Cannot be attacked and provide no benefit 

Attacking other players and Pictish camps is the most obvious method of attaining resources.  Pictish camps can be attacked even while under beginner's protection but as they only yield about the same amount of resources it takes to replace the troops you lose, they are not a good source of regular resources.  

Once you are out of beginner's protection, you will be able to attack other players.  New players should cut their teeth by attacking inactive players with no alliances. Most of these inactive players will have little to no might but may still yield a small fortune in resources and gold.  From there, move on to active players who have not joined an alliance.  Allied players are your last target.  Unless diplomacy has been set to hostile with a target's alliance, you may want to check with a leader before attacking.

Finally, there is a chance of winning resources in Chance and the far less appealing option of purchasing them from the Shop.  There are various resource production bonuses available with 24 hour and 7 day options along with actual resources in 40K, 250K, and 500K increments.


TIME

Along with lack of resources, time is a major constraint to growth in this game.  Simply put, training, researching, and building all take time and the time they take only increases with each new level.  Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to speed things up.

You can decrease the time it takes to train and build by researching Geometry and Giant's Strength.  Research of Geometry increases the speed of training by 10% per level and Giant's Strength does the same for construction times.  Leveling-up these two technologies will save you hours, if not days, of time.  What's more, your technologies carry over from city to city so your second and eventually your third and fourth cities will go up that much faster.

Appointing knights to be your city's Marshal, Alchemist, and Foreman is another way to speed things up.  For every level reached by the knights appointed to these posts, you will receive a 0.5% increase in speed.  Responsibilities of each post are as follows:

Marshal - training speed, attack and life of defenders

Alchemist -  research speed

Foreman - construction and defense building speed

TIP:  Make it a habit of appointing your highest level knight to the appropriate position just before training, researching, and building.  This will save you an enormous amount of waiting time.  You can change this knight back to Steward as soon as you have begun the training, researching, or building and you will not lose the time savings.  

Of course, if you really want something done quick you can always buy or try your luck at winning a speed up.  There are speed ups available to buy from the Shop or win from Chance ranging from 1 minute to 24 hours. 




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