Troop Research

This post is about 3 Tier Troop Research worlds.  3 tier worlds are more of a pain in the arse and make the time honoured simulator ineffective, or at very least in accurate, but it also makes the game a little more interesting.  I used to avoid the 3t worlds like the plague, but have recently joined one and am getting used to it.  I guess.  Keep in mind that I'm an old schooler and don't particularly like the 3 Tier worlds.

So, the idea is that in your forge you have 10 "points" to allocate to increase the effectiveness of each of your troop type.  Now you can revoke certain types to free up these points to customize your troops as you see fit, the points that you allocate effect all existing troops you have built - meaning if you build 1200 level 1 knights, you increase your knights to level 2 and build 200 more knights, all 1400 knights will be level 2.  In the same breath, if you send 1000 lvl3 support to a city it defends at the lvl the city your defending currently at. So if you send lvl3 guards to a city that doesn't have guardians researched they'll defend at lvl1.

Now, each level increases the effectiveness of the troops and the details of this are located in your Forge in game.  I had every intention to post what each one does, but they pretty much spell it out in game, and if you are reading this you are smart enough to follow what they have written in game - its pretty clear cut.

Now if you grow 50 level 3 scouts, then revoke the scouts to level 0 the 50 scouts already grown will work as level one, even though it shows level 0.   This can be useful if you want to grow a few scouts in a city to farm effectively but still use your allocation points on other troops.  This works for all troops, and can also be used to create false security in someone attacking you.  If you have a few of each troop grown, then when you are scouted the person who is attacking may think you are daft and have all your troops at level one - he MAY not send enough troops to clear, and will be surprised when he gets there and all your defense troops are all at level 3. :)  Good times.

Now for some reason you HAVE to have lancers allocated at lvl 1 in every city, which is a severe flaw in my opinion. But, I don't make the rules I just enforce them, so to customize your cities, its good to pair up and have an attack only city (level 3 Bezerkers, L3 Knights L3 Rams) with a defense city (L3 Lancers, L3 Sentries L3 Guards).  The biggest flaw I've come across is that when you cap a new city you have to take the time to revoke what the person has allocated before you can build what you want.  Its also douchey that you not only have allocation points but also have to spend an arse load of resources if you want to upgrade. 

As you can tell I'm not a fan, but some ppl swear by the 3t worlds and well good for them.  As I get more familiar with the Tier system I'll post tactics but for the short term, that's all she wrote.  However it would be nice if they gave you the option to 'unresearch' the one tier worlds so those of us who have plus 60 cities can remember which cities were designated as attack cities and which were for defense.  Like I said, I'm not the rule maker.
Good Hunting Friends :)

Capturing Cities

Capturing player cities is more difficult then defending - they can side step Cleaning Crew Troops. they can get support. they can generally make it difficult. Which is half the fun!! Here are some tactics I've learned to wage war.

• Team up with a guild mate or two. It makes it easier if they get support from their guild mates if you have a reserve supply of troops and a Scholar Train.
• Scout your target and sim your attacks. I can not stress enough how important simulating is. Fwd your scout report to anyone helping you.
• After sending in a cleaning crew, scout again. It's good to have a wave of cavalry in standby to shoot at your victim just in case.
• Keep an eye on it - when ever I assume it's gonna be ok I am always disappointed and usually pissed at the hyjinx your unmonitored troops can get into.

I scout repeatedly in between - but only because I hate surprises. I like to leave time to slip in an extra strike just before my first scholar hits,

If your prey is dodging troops - hide your troops in a fake ballistic attack. More on that HERE.

OK so you've found your Victim.  First thing to do is launch a scout contingency.


Scholar Report

So you scout them, and assess their strength, the example Victim has minimal defense troops for Calvary (Lancers), but is stocked up on Infantry Defense (Guardians).

If you are confident you can always launch your scholar train first, and send clearing waves timed to land just before your first scholar hits. This can be a gamble with the introduction of the purchasable "truce" option in the store, it is better to have your clearing crew in a city that is further away from your target and slow them down by adding one ram or one sentry to adjust the timing so your cc lands just before your train.

Note the Wall Level is maxed out at 25, You'll need to bring it down to prevent loss of troops.  It is quite possible to capture a city completely intact, however for those of us who usually have a need for troops, rebuilding the wall after capture only takes a day or two, depending on how committed you are to it.



Also note at the bottom where he has 250 Lancers outside the city, this maybe support for a guild mate or maybe he is farming, or thinks that they can be brought back into the city just in time to kill your scholar.  Make sure that when you simulate you add those units.




Cleaning Crew Report

The purpose of a cleaning crew is to kill your victims' troops.  Expect your men are to be sacrificed for the greater good of the kingdom, I usually send two waves, the first with Rams and Ballistas to Wall Break your victim and a second wave to mop up the carnage afterward. 

Note that I did not send scouts with this wave, mainly because I knew that I would take down the wall completely, aiming my 424 Ballistas at the wall to accompany the rams bringing it to 0.  I also knew that my Second CC Wave would be following this wave and I'd get a better picture once I got the report back on that.

Cleaning Crew Report #2

A few things to note, first the time the second clearing crew landed.  I timed it so that it would land within 15 minutes of my first attack.

Second, I sent Rams just in case he tried to rebuild his wall or purchased gold to rebuild his wall.  I also needed to slow down this clearing crew, adding Rams slows it down considerably.  I usually only add 1 Ram if I want to slow down my cc or if I want to disguise it as ballistas.   Your victim will leave his troops in city if he thinks you're going to send ballistas to knock down his farm.

I always send MORE troops then actually needed, you collect serious looting, and you can never send too much.  I effectively killed all his troops, and his wall is completely down, the path is paved for my scholar train.

Scholar Report #1

Even though the path was clear, I sent a decent contingency to accompany my scholar.  If he had a decent guild they would have sent support, and hopefully your first scholar hit lives.  I send 4 in a train.  This example is based on a 4 Train Cap.  I recently got cocky and only sent 4 to cap a city that was a 11 hour walk and got burnt hard because even though my scholars landed within 7 to 10 minutes of one another, I only brought the loyalty down to 2.  I had to wait for my scholars to return before I could send more out.  LUCKILY I had three extra scholars in reserve so it wasn't that big of a deal, but still.  Its better to be safe then sorry.

The more resources you can pull away from your Victim the less he'll be able to build to defend.  This guy was clearly not logged on as there was nothing building in queue otherwise you'd see a hand full of whatever troops that is currently building.


Note that my scholar took off 28 loyalty points.  Your scholar takes off between 20 - 30 points with each strike, and sending more then one scholar doesn't take off more loyalty, its just a waste.  If you have two scholars built in one city, divide up your troops evenly between your two waves.

Scholar Report #2

Note the time. This scholar land is from another of my cities, it landed within 10 minutes of my first scholar, I sent my defense troops to protect my scholar because I used my attack troops in my cleaning crew wave earlier. 

Breaking your troops up like this is very effective, you can clear out the troops with your attack troops and protect your scholar easily with a few thousand defense troops.  Note: Guardians are very versatile for this reason, they are great for attack and defense.

He still doesn't have any support, which is good for me :) but had he gotten some  in between hopefully my contingency would be enough to keep my scholar alive.

My scholar brought the victim's loyalty down from 72 to 45.  Because I landed the second scholar so soon after the first, no loyalty built back up between attacks so my scholar took off 27 loyalty points leaving them at 45.

Scholar Report #3

I messed up this land by 10 minutes, because math isn't my strong suit apparently.  It still only took 4 scholars to capture this city, so it worked out, but I've had small mistakes like that cost me a cap.

This is another city where I used the attack troops to hit the city then used the defense troops to accompany my scholar.  I was confident in my troop count, and I also bet that he wouldn't have support.

The scholar took the loyalty down from 45 to 22 that's only 23 points.

Another really good haul resource wise, leaving him less and less to rebuild with.  Clearly he is not doing this as no troops are being built.  There's a really good chance that he is going to log into his city in the morning and whoops! Its gone :(
mwahhahahahahaa



Scholar Report #4 for Capture

I sent a wave in between the last scholar wave and this one to "sweep" the troops and make sure there were no surprises.
With my claiming scholar I sent Guardians which are a good accompaniment to your scholar.  Had i had Bezerkers I would have sent them as well, but I sent them from this city as a sweep to clear out any support troops he could have had.

This final scholar took the loyalty down from 23 to 0 capturing the city as mine and effectively ruining your victim's morning.

That is it, basic capture in a nut shell.  If you don't catch your victim while he's offline like in this example, there will be more back and forth, and your scholar death chance increases significantly. 

A couple things I like to do to before I engage in war with someone is Ballista the warehouse of nearby barbarian cities.  This will significantly limit what they can farm to restock their resources. 

I also like to Ballista THEIR farm in the first attack.  This limits what they can train in city to defend, but doesn't limit their support.  It can be fairly easily rebuilt, and once you capture, it doesn't limit what support you can get either, if your opponent is a worthy adversary, this is a really good cripple tactic.  What doesn't help is Ballista-ing their Forge or City Hall.  If their troops are already researched reducing their forge only frees up farm for them to use in defense troops.

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.