Grepolis - The West in Greece, or something

[Azaroth]

Awesome, I'm in the top 100.  For the moment.     Building an academy and a cave right in a row bumped my points up really quick.  I'll probably be back down to the 300s by morning.

The limited research points thing is freaking me out a little.  I know I definitely want archers, since they're the best anti-sharp defense by a long shot, but after that I don't know what's worth spending points on.  I guess there's always the respec option.

I've become intensely curious at this comment.

If you're top 100, how much have you paid into the game?

If any?

If none, does that mean that the amount of people paying is ridiculously low?

[Samwise]

I would never pay into a game like this.  Especially for a "beta".  You insult me, sir.

Getting a high rank at this point is just a matter of keeping all your guys busy.  Once people have teched up to the offensive units it will start swinging around in favor of the more competitive catasses in uberguilds.

[Azaroth]

Yeah, but wouldn't the fact that you can pay $2.99 for 30% more resources and extra building queue slots and so on mean that, with a top 100 spot, you are a prime example of how little money they're making?

[Righ]

Or just that most of the players are dolts. Judging by the number of people in the giant alliance I joined that are using premium points, Sam is clearly just pursuing a better strategy or paying more attention to the game. Most people in my alliance seem to be doing stuff like signing up to Netflix trials via GratisPay to get points.

[Samwise]

Or just that most of the players are dolts. Judging by the number of people in the giant alliance I joined that are using premium points, Sam is clearly just pursuing a better strategy or paying more attention to the game.

This.  People are retarded.

[Azaroth]

Well, I started late so I couldn't really tell. I'm gaining ground, but I just assumed that people in the 2/3/4000s were stupid. Once you got to 500 or so, I would expect them to be a bit more clued in. That and I'd assume a high dropout rate in the bracket I'm in.

[grebo]

Some dude is attacking me in 45 minutes.... guessing it's a probe so will send most of army out and I think I can spend all my resources.

Def going with Athena for a god, being able to tell what is incoming would be huge.

[Samwise]

If he's sending anything lower tech than hoplites, your swordmen will absolutely murder them.

[grebo]

Was just 3 archers, as expected.  They died.

My alliance mate sent an attack of 4 swords to see what he had... but apparently it doesn't tell you what the enemy has if you lose.  Interesting. 

I guess it makes the cave useful.... expensive as fuck, but useful.

[RUiN 427]

should we form an alliance?

[grebo]

should we form an alliance?

Seems to me that any alliance with only one guy on an island is going to have a tough time.  probably better off joining an alliance with a decent presence on your island.

[Righ]

I need to start testing the local players - I've burned down every farm on the island to a mood of 50% or under towards me. Doesn't take long with over 60 archers. I'll send a dozen hoplites to a couple of the small ones that haven't expanded.

[grebo]

Well, attacking the 200 point guys is pointless.  The 200 of each resource you can loot barely pays for the guy you lose in the attack.  Can't these inactives upgrade their warehouse before they quit?

[Samwise]

Once you've killed off their dudes, you can continue to milk them for a good long while, I'd imagine.   Seems totally worth it to me to have another income stream.

[grebo]

My point being that it seems like you will always lose a guy or two when attacking even an undefended city (I lost a swordsman and an archer).  No argument that it's worth it if you can find an inactive with a somewhat improved warehouse.  With level 1 warehouse you can only steal up to 200 of each resource.  I'd look for an inactive with at least 300 points.

[Samwise]

My point being that it seems like you will always lose a guy or two when attacking even an undefended city (I lost a swordsman and an archer).

Orly?  Didn't know that.  Wonder if it gets better when you use guys with higher offense (slingers, hoplites, etc).

(edit) Confirmed in the agora -- 2 hoplites or slingers attacking an empty city will not take any casualties.  Same for 1 horseman.

[Azaroth]

Does the city have a wall?

That might be what's killing your dudes.

[Samwise]

A 200-point city isn't going to have a wall.  It seems like cities have some amount of innate defense that'll kill small numbers of weak attackers.  Using stronger attacking units overcomes that effect, though.

[grebo]

Good to know.  Seems like you cannot lose any Hoplite even with the worst possible luck score (Edit:  If you send at least 17.. for whatever reason).  Wish they could carry more... and were faster...

Hmm, this may be a good job for Myth units.  Fast ones anyway.

[Samwise]

In case anyone was wondering, you can have equal defense against all three attack types if you build an army with 1:1:2 ratios of sword:archer:hoplite.

[grebo]

Got all the buildings built, which catapulted me into the top 50.

Market is pretty good at getting resources... trade with one NPC village at a 1.25% return, then trade back with another... then send the troops to loot them!

Now I just need a level 12 temple to get my flying horsie!  and a level 22! academy to go make another city.  That's going to take a while.

[LK]

It's Travian all over again. I thought people had learned.

[Samwise]

Nobody's assraping me right out of the gate, so it's unlike Travian in that respect.   

[grebo]

This game is noob friendly because it makes defense easy.  Noob units have high defense values.  Anyone attacking an active player would have a hard time making a profit at it.  We'll see what changes when people start getting to the point of being able to take over cities but that's a ways away.

[Aez]

Nobody's assraping me right out of the gate, so it's unlike Travian in that respect.   

Might only be server maturity.

[Samwise]

It's also that the military has diminishing economic returns.  I've hit the point of saturation on resource farming -- my soldiers spend more time strengthening than looting now because I can't keep moods up otherwise.  I've hit all the non-allied player villages on my island with my hoplites, and I steamroll their defenses easily but there's never any profit in it.  This is very different from Travian where you had giant armies that were supported only by the food they could loot from their neighbors.

[LK]

OK, there may be some merit here.

[CmdrSlack]

It's also that the military has diminishing economic returns.  I've hit the point of saturation on resource farming -- my soldiers spend more time strengthening than looting now because I can't keep moods up otherwise.  I've hit all the non-allied player villages on my island with my hoplites, and I steamroll their defenses easily but there's never any profit in it.  This is very different from Travian where you had giant armies that were supported only by the food they could loot from their neighbors.

This is very true. There is an inactive town next to mine. I hit it twice daily with my hoplites, because that's about the number of times I can get a full load of loot. It is still easier to send troops all the way across the island to the untouched farm town because it takes the same amount of time and I get about twice as many resources.

[Azaroth]

You can rape an island clean with a big group of horsemen *really fast*.

[Samwise]

I'm going to work on getting harpies soon so I can start raping neighboring islands.   

[grebo]

One more temple level and I get flying horsies.  Temple levels are damn expensive and take forever.  Level 12 is over 11 hours I believe.

After that it's the big push towards conquest.

Is it just me or is there little to no point in making a city on an empty island?  Resource production seems like it would be nonexistent without the farm towns.

[Samwise]

Yeah, I'm not sure why you'd go colonize an empty island unless you were trying to flee from meanies on your starting island.  I'm contemplating starting my second city on my starting island just to make it easier to reinforce it, but the downside would be not having a fresh pool of farming towns to plunder.

[Draegan]

I'm starting to fill up my town, but still have 40 footman, 40 archers and 15 or so hepolites.  Not sure where to go with this one.

[Slyfeind]

Which server are people on? I see Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

[grebo]

I think we're mostly on Beta.

I now has a flying horse.  Whee.