Kingdom Design Part 1 - Spoke Wheel

This section covers the Spoke Wheel design where you cap, cluster and branch to expand quickly.

The design of your kingdom is important as you grow and conquer cities.  I cluster my cities for ease of defense and growth, pairing a Main City with both a Defensive and Offensive city.  I usually conq a 4th to be versatile, grow scholars and assist with Defense in my first cluster and Atk in my second cluster and then alternate.  As my cities grow I eventually open the academy in all to assist with scholarship contribution, but initially I market resources to my main city and grow them there.

Everyone starts with the Main City, you have a nice mix of def and atk, open your Academy, and Rams.  I typically don't train Ballistas until my 3rd city.  I try and max out my buildings in my first city, but I grab my second city as soon as I can grow 2 Scholars.

From my main city I grab the best looking largest city near my main city within 6 to 8 grids away. This second city is always my defensive city. I grow only Lancers, Sentries and Guardians. I max my Barracks and Stable, Wall, Warehouse and Farm I keep my resource buildings around 25 to 30. If the acad isn't built I don't build it until I've got a good solid troop base.

My third city is offensive atk troops, Zerks, Scouts and Knights. I usually research Ballistas at this point mainly to Crop Barbies. City 3 is in the opposite direction of city 2 on the other side of city 1. It is 6 - 8 grids away from main city. City #4 is used as both a scholar city and Defensive.  Again, this I alternate this 4th city between Atk and Def in each cluster of cities.

Once you have your cluster, branch out to a new area. This 5th city is your new Main City. I use it as a foothold to a new area. I typically conq a barb or inactive player city close to acad lvls. Less work and res put into it the better. Build troops as if it were ur main city, then cap a city for defense nearby and so on and so forth.

Everyone does it differently, I have found it very helpful to have a mass of specific troops that I can send as a "nuke", a "city breaker" or as support to my other cities and or guild mates.

Troops

Units Overview can be located in the ? help section in your Recruit Page

Troop size grows as your city grows.  It is good though to have a target goal in mind when first starting out. Initially you want to have anywhere from 20 to 200 lancers and 10 zerks (only because they are given to you).  200 Lancers will haul you about 3K pieces of resource or effectively haul all resources in the common barbarian city.  If you want to get technical, a city that is 1085 has a farm level of 0, that means they have 799 pieces of resources each, multiply that by 3 (because there are three types of resources Wood, Clay and Iron) that gives you 2397 pieces you need to haul.  Divide that number by 15 (that is how many pieces of resource each lancer can haul) and you'll need to send 160 lancers to clear every possible resource in that city.


This is self explanatory, but a few things to note, how long it takes each troop to get from point A to point B. That is listed in Minutes per "field" or grid area between your starting point and destination. If there are Six (6) squares between you and your target and you are sending only Zerks it will take them 66 minutes to land at the target.  Just remember it will always take just as long to get home, so make sure you factor that in. This also depends on your unit speed.  Check your world info for your unit and world speeds for the most accurate timing.  You can also skip the math, my personal fave, and just go into the attack details of your wave, this will tell you exactly how long your attack will take.

That screen shot is for a 1-Tier Research world, I don't get into the 3-Tier bcs I hate them, too much math and stuff to remember so I just don't play those worlds.  They do explain it in game for those of you interested in 3-Tier worlds. I've bitten the bullet a few worlds and have played 3t worlds to get a better grasp on them for you guys... the things I do for my fans... I still loathe them, however I've been able to gather some info on it and you can find that HERE.

When sending your troops to atk a combatant target, if possible scout first, and use the simulator.  At least until you get a feel for how the troops react.  There is nothing worse then to send everything you have at a target just to have everything die but your target's troops.  This leaves you wide open for your victim to turn around and take your city from you.  After you have been playing a while you start to get a feel for how much you need to take down what the scout report says your target has but Simulating is very important especially when you are working with others.

You'll notice in your recruitment page that it takes your troops a different amt of time per troop to 'train' or build, to decrease the amount of time per troop you build your Troop Buildings in City Hall. The higher each troop building is decreases the amount of time each troop takes to build. Increase the following buildings to decrease build time of the corresponding troops.

• Barracks for Lancers, Sentries and Bezerkers.  
• Stable for Scout, Knights and Guardians. 
• Workshop for Rams and Ballistas. 

Each Troop is meant to be used a certain way. Lancers and Sentries are defense troops bcs their atk is low but their defense is high.  Zerks are used mostly as atk and are good against Lancers.  Scouts only scout - lol more about them HERE - they have their own section.  Knights are mainly used for atk.  They are great for farming and are fast.  Guardians are expensive and takes forever to train, but they are amazing in a fire fight.  I try to keep about 500 around in most of my cities.  Rams are good to build in your first and main city.  After you conquer a second or third you won't need to build them in every city, more on kingdom design HERE. Rams knock down the wall which decreases your prey's wall bonus.  More about Wall bonus HERE.  Ballistas are versitile and are used to knock down anything but the hiding place.  You can use them as strategic tactic, crippling your victim before you pounce. If you knock down an enemies Academy or Farm, he'll have a bad day the next time he logs in.  I also use Ballistas to crop barbies.  More on creating farms HERE.

Once your resource buildings are at 20 - 25 levels, start really concentrating on your troops.  You should make the following standard minimum in your city before you open up your academy.

1000 Lancers
500  Sentries
1000 Zerks
250 Scouts
500 Knights
500 Guardians
75 - 150 Rams or Ballistas

This is a good army against anyone the same size as you and makes your first conquer easier.
Once your Academy is built you should keep one or two "spare" scholars to assist with your guild mates.  If you help, others will help you, the basis of being in a guild. It will also help YOU take over cities faster, I keep 3 on hand to set up scholar trains.  More on that HERE.