THE HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE IN BATTLE

Like most games, there is a significant home-field advantage in BFTN when it comes to battle.  Defending cities have the following advantages over attacking cities:

• Army Size - An attacking city is limited to sending waves of up to 100K troops but a defending city's response is unlimited.  If troops are unhidden, a defending city's entire army will rush out to meet the attack.  Should incoming attacks threaten to overwhelm defenses, a defending city has the additional benefit of being able to hide its troops at a moment's notice and preserve what's left of its army.

•  Marshal - A high level knight set to Marshal greatly improves a city's defenses.  For instance, a level 212 knight set to Marshal would increase the Attack and Life of defenders by 106%.  That means every single soldier would have an attack that is more than twice as deadly as it normally is and could survive in battle more than twice as long as normal.  Essentially, a level 212 knight set to Marshal more than doubles the size of a defending city's army!  As if this wasn't enough, the real benefit of the 212 Marshal is that the benefit remains in place for as long as the level 212 knight is set to Marshal.  An attacking city may have a 212 knight leading the charge of its first attack but it is highly unlikely that it will have a 212 knight available for every subsequent attack.        

• Walls - Walls are the first line of defense in an attack.  When used in combination with an unhidden army and a level 212 knight set to Marshal, well developed wall defenses become a challenging obstacle for attacking armies.

• Reinforcements - Depending on the level of one's Embassy, a defending city can host up to 1 million reinforcing troops at any given time, creating a nearly impenetrable defense.

• Watch Tower Details - Depending on the level of a defending city's Watch Tower, the defending city receives precise details of an incoming attack(s) including troop composition, research levels, and level of knight leading the attack.  Since defending cities can be reinforced at any time, an attacker would need a continuous flow of scouting reports to approximate this level of information and even then, he still would not have any info on the defending city's knight levels. 

MAKE IT SNOW IN CAMELOT

Now you can make it snow in the game by typing a "magic phrase" into either global or alliance chat.  In case you haven't already figured it out, the phrase is "Let it snow".  To turn off the snow, just type "No more snow".

 

HOW TO REPORT AN INCOMING ATTACK

Time is of the essence when under attack so it is crucial that you quickly give your alliance members the information they need to help defend you. 

TIP:  At a minimum, your alliance members need to know when the attack(s) will land, if you need reinforcements, where to send them, and the level of your Embassy.  Knowing who is attacking, how many incoming attacks, and what they are sending is also helpful.  To efficiently report the incoming attack in alliance chat, use the following as a model:

3 incoming from 576,150 in 6 min, 270K mix, need rein at 577,131, lv 9 emb.

Though not absolutely necessary, it would be reassuring to your alliance members if you would follow this initial message with some information about your own defences such as the level of the knight set to Marshal, research levels of Poisoned Edge and Healing Potions, and any attack and defence bonuses you may have applied.

POP A PLAYER'S PROTECTIVE BUBBLE

Beginner's Protection and Dove of Peace protect players from attack. After this protection expires, the "bubble" over their city/cities will remain in place until they send out an attack or until another player pops the bubble. If you click on the city from the map, you will still get a message stating the player is under protection or truce. However, a simple trick allows you to bypass this protection and pop the bubble.

TRICK:  To pop the bubble, simply attack from your Rally Point instead of clicking on their city.

CHOOSING THE BUILDING SITE OF YOUR 2ND AND 3RD CITIES

The locations of your cities will likely change from time to time as you select new farms and move cities closer to or away from enemies.  However, the building site for your 2nd and 3rd cities should be a little more predictable.


TIP:  Choose a building site close to your established city/cities as you will initially be transferring a lot of resources to your new city.  I recommend a location no further than 2 minutes away in transport time.  Once your new city is more self-sufficient, you may move it wherever you would like.

GET TWICE AS MANY MERLIN'S GIFTS EACH DAY

All players receive one free Merlin's Token each day that can be redeemed for a Chance item in Merlin's Gift.  However, you can earn one additional token each day if you send out 10 emails inviting others to play the game.  Email can be found by clicking on the Share icon.      

TRICK:  To take advantage of this without spamming friends and family do the following:

In the To and Subject fields enter a period and click send.  You will receive a message that reads "." does not appear to be a valid email address.  Do you want to send it anyway?  Click Send.  Repeat this 10 times for a free Merlin's Token. 

PLEASE NOTE:  You are limited to just one token a day for sending email invites.

DONATE OR SWAP YOUR WILDS

If you are reorganizing your Resource Fields now that you have multiple cities and find that you have Wilds you can no longer use, or if you need to replace your Wilds with Wilds that are far from your cities, consider donating or swapping rather than abandoning them.

TIP:  Instead of abandoning Wilds, donate or swap them with an alliance member or an ally.

To donate to or swap with an alliance member, simply have the person receiving the Wild leave the alliance just long enough to attack and take the Wild from you.  To donate to or swap with an ally, simply make the arrangements for them to take your wild and for you take theirs if swapping.

PROVINCES

Here is the world we live in.  It is composed of 16 provinces, each containing 40,000 unique locations.  That's a total of 640,000 different addresses, most of which are Wilds and Pictish Camps.  My guess is that this leaves just enough space for about 125,000 - 150,000 players per world.

FARMING THE RIGHT WAY

Farming, the practice of attacking another player's city for the sole purpose of gaining resources and gold, is a major component of this game and like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to farm.  To minimize troop loss and maximize the gold and resources gained, follow these simple rules.

1. Never use a lot of troops when farming.  Since the vast majority of players have their troops set to hide, sending more than a small raiding party is not only risky, it is unnecessary.  I typically send 500 Heavy Cavalry and 500 Supply Wagons.  This is enough to net me over four and a half million in gold and resources but more importantly, this is the number of troops I am OK losing in a raid.   
2. Farm when you think your target is away from their phone or asleep.  I usually farm only the players who have attacked my alliance.  I would like to say that I do this for purely noble reasons but that would be a lie.  The real reason I only farm my attackers is because when they attacked my alliance they gave me intel on them.  The report they left gives me a sense of their strength and battle prowess but most importantly, it tells me when they were awake.  I know that if I attack them 12 hours or so after they attacked, I have a pretty good chance at catching them while they are asleep or otherwise inaccessible and my odds only get better if I have more than one report to study. 
3. Send a force large enough to breach the walls.  Have you ever attacked a city with no wall defenses and no defending troops only to receive a report that you did not breach the walls?  Well, here is something a lot of players do not know.  Walls, like troops, have a certain amount of Life.  This means that they can repel troops all by themselves up to a certain point.  I am planning on running tests during the construction of my third city that should reveal these limits but until then, be sure to use at least a few hundred troops when farming to ensure you breach the walls.   

Victorious, my attacker still gets nothing

An example of too small a force

SECOND CITY BUILDING GUIDE

In most ways, your second city will closely resemble your first city.  The following building guide will ensure that you receive the maximum benefit from your second city.


WITHIN CITY WALLS

Inside of city walls you will need every type of building except for a Round Tower.

TIP:  Do not build a Round Tower in your second city.  Instead, build another Barracks or Cottage depending on your training needs and/or preference.

Rally Point - Construct this building first so that you will be able to Transport, Reinforce, Attack, and Reassign from your second city.

Storehouse - This should be one of the first buildings you construct.  Level-up your Storehouse quickly to protect the resources you will need for construction and training.

Alchemy Lab - The research levels you have reached in your first city will automatically carry over to your second city so leveling-up your Alchemy Lab is only necessary if you still have a lot of research to do.  Having two high level Alchemy Labs will allow you to research two sciences at a time, greatly reducing total research time.

Knights' Hall - Construct a Knights' Hall and begin the process of reaching a Level 212 knight.  Focus on one knight at a time, applying any "Train with" items you have to this same knight until you reach Level 212 (See Knights for instructions on how to reach Level 212).

Watch Tower - You will obviously need a Watch Tower to warn you of impending attack.

Workshop - A Workshop is necessary to level-up your Wall and to train Ballistae and Catapults.  Your Workshop must be Level 4 to train Ballistae and Level 9 to train Catapults.

Blacksmith - A Blacksmith is necessary to train Swordsmen, Supply Wagons, and Battering Rams.  Your Blacksmith must be Level 4 to train Swordsmen and Supply Wagons and Level 9 to train Battering Rams.

Stable - Construct a Stable to build a Relief Station and to train Cavalry and Heavy Cavalry.  You need only a Level 1 Stable to construct every level of Relief Station.  Your Stable must be Level 4 to train Cavalry and Level 9 to train Heavy Cavalry.

Relief Station - While not necessary, I highly recommend building a Relief Station.  A high level Relief Station will save you a lot of time transporting resources and gold in between cities and can make all the difference between your troops arriving in time or arriving too late to reinforce a fellow alliance member.

Embassy - Many players choose not to build an Embassy in their second city but will instead build another Cottage or Barracks.  I originally built an Embassy in my second city but quickly realized its futility and have since torn it down in favor of another Cottage.  Reassigning troops from your troop city in order to defend your second city is time consuming, cumbersome, and risky.  Rarely can you get a large enough force reassigned in time to successfully defend your city with minimal losses.  Instead, you risk losing a lot troops if your attacker follows-up the initial attack with one or more sped-up attacks.   

Cottages - There are varying opinions on how many Cottages to build in your cities.  I have seen some players build as little as 4 while others build 8 or more.  My personal preference is six.  Since I don't farm much anymore, I find that 6 Cottages provides me with enough Idle Population to keep pace with the resources I produce.  If you are a constant farmer and are always sitting on millions in resources you will want to have more Cottages to provide you with more Idle Population.

Barracks - Like Cottages, their are differences of opinion on how many Barracks you should build in your cities.  As I wanted the fastest training time I could achieve without sacrificing too much Idle Population, I decided on 15 Barracks in my second city.


WALLS

Like your first city, you will want to level-up your walls so that once you have an army large enough , you can train all types of wall defenses.  Since walls take a lot of resources to construct, I would make this a lower priority and focus your efforts on leveling-up buildings and resource fields first.


OUTSIDE CITY WALLS

In order to maximize your resource production, you will want to produce just two types of resources per city (See Maximizing Base Production Rates for more info.).

However, make sure to build one of the other two types of Resource Fields in your second city as well.  Having at least one of each type of Resource Field will allow you to build a Stable which requires at least one Farm and a Blacksmith which requires at least one Mine.  Having all four types of Resource Fields present also helps to speed up research since you will be able to research all resource related sciences in from both cities.

SET YOUR TAX RATE TO ZERO!

Once you begin training troops in earnest, you quickly realize the importance of Idle Population.  You can attack other players or Pictish camps anytime you want to refill your stores of resources and gold but only you can provide the Idle Population necessary to maximize troop training.

TIP:  For increased Idle Population, set your tax rate(s) to zero.

One of the easiest ways to increase your Idle Population is to set your tax rate(s) to zero.  Since your tax rate directly affects Happiness and Happiness determines your Population, set your tax rate to zero for the maximum amount of Idle Population.