Brothers2 GoodGameEmpire Alliance

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Adaptation of the townhouses

The townhouses have been revised to make them more attractive. They now give a bigger bonus to the population but will cost more rubies to build.
Players who have already built townhouses will have the population increase applied for no additional charge.

New premium benefits!

The new premium mode is here and this time round, it’s open to all players!
In the Kings Market there is a new range of premium benefits.
There are a total of 10 premium levels. The higher your premium level, the better the benefits that are available to you.
Each player starts with premium level 1 and can earn points to increase the level.
You can use rubies to purchase premium points, but you can also obtain them through the Daily Login Bonus and many game events.

In order to reap the benefits available to your premium level you have to unlock premium time.
Premium time can also be purchased with rubies or be obtained via the Daily Login Bonus and events.
When you reach a premium level for the first time you will be awarded 24 hours or premium time.

Depending on the premium level there are a number of different bonuses available such as free commanders, increased resource production and free recruitment slots.
Players with active Premium advantages are highlighted on the world map with a special flag. This can be disabled by the player if they wish.
If the premium benefits are not actively used, so that no premium time is used, then you will lose a portion of the premium points each day, much as is the case with glory

Thursday, 13 February 2014

Defense tools are an important part of your castle and outpost defenses as they help increase wall, gate and moat protection (read more on how to defend your castle). Most of the defense tools are available through your defense workshop building, while more powerful tools can be purchased with rubies from armorer during armorer event outside your castle. Each defense tool help you with specific aspect of your castle defense. Click on the defense tool icon or press to blue “i” button in the corner of each tool to find out the specific details.

Defense tools available from defense workshop building

Defense tools available from armorer

Few things you need to know about using the defense tools. Each tool can be placed in available wall, gate or moat slot. If you have 30 tools stacked in one slot the bonus will not be multiplied 30 fold. Only one tool is used per attacking wave per slot. However if you have identical tools placed in separate wall slots on each flank the bonus will be added. Look at the example below. Having two sets of defense rocks in center flank gives me 50% increase (25% + 25%) in wall defense bonus. Same goes for two sets of gate reinforcements.

You may have noticed that I have left of dummy soldiers from the list of defense tools and that is because I consider them to be useless. They simulate “fake” spearman, archers and bowman, which in itself are very weak defense soldiers. They cost sizable amount of resources, they tie up production slots and they add no real value to the defense of your castle. I can tell you right now, no amount of spearman, archers and bowman (real or fake) will stop me from attacking a castle or outpost. They may only be useful when you are low level player and best soldiers you can recruit are spearman, archers and bowman; but at that level you probably cannot afford them anyways; thus useless.

Defense tools placed in the wall slots

Keep in mind that defense tools will be used up if that particular flank is attacked.

How to defend your castle

How many defense soldiers should I have?

That is a tricky question. You should have as many as you can support. There is no general formula, but I would recommend having defense soldiers equal to (60-75%) of your total soldier count. I would recommend having one or two outposts stocked with defense soldiers only at max food capacity. This way when you are attacked, you can transfer in sizable amount of defense troops, or use them to support your fellow alliance members when they are attacked.
What type of defense soldiers should I have?
You need to recruit the best defense soldiers you have available. Do not recruit defense soldiers because they are cheap or fast to recruit, get the best you can have. I also recruit defense soldiers in such a manner that half are melee and half are ranged.
Should I defend with my attack soldiers?
NO! NO! NO! Under no circumstances have attack units at the castle or outpost about to be attacked. If the attack breaks through your walls and battle takes place at your keep, you will most likely loose most if not all your attack soldiers.
How should I defend myself?
There are many different methods of going about defending your castle. If you keep researching this topic I bet you will find a few, where some may or may not be in line with what you are about to read. This is how I defend my castles and outposts, and it works for me. If later I find a better way, I will update this page. I have two different “modes” of defending my castles and outposts. There is normal mode and attack mode.
Before we jump into different modes and their set-up, let’s look over the basics first. In terms of troop deployment, you can have soldiers on your castle wall and at your keep. The number of soldiers that you can station on your castle wall is determined by number of towers you have and their level. At your best you can have 20 level 5 towers, housing 20 soldiers each, for maximum total of 400 soldiers on the castle wall. If you have more than 400 soldiers they will be stationed at the keep. Strongest units get automatically stationed at the castle wall.

Towers – level 1-5

Moving on from soldiers to the castle wall. Having higher level castle wall will not allow you to station more soldiers, but it will increase the defense bonus of the castle wall, and it will open up more wall slots for defense tools.
There are two basic types of defense tools that you can put on the castle wall, and they are gate tools and wall tools. Each tool gives you specific percentage bonus for certain defense aspect. Click on the blue info button to see what the bonuses are. When a castle wall is attacked the tools on that side of the wall are used up. (see list of defense tools)
As you level up you will gain ability to build a moat around your castle for added defense bonus. The moat will also have defense slots available where moat tools can be places for added protection bonus. (see list of moat defense tools)
Settings for all of the soldiers, tools and moat can be found in the defense menu. To access this menu click on military icon (lower right) and press the defense button. You can also access the same menu by clicking on any tower or keep and pressing the defense button.

Navigation to defense menu

Normal Mode

The normal mode is a set-up where you have all the troops and tools set at best average defense positions. The purpose of this mode is to provide the best overall defense when you are not logged in and attacked. The first thing I adjust is the soldier distribution on the wall. By default it is set at 25-50-25, however from the past attacks it seems that 20-60-20 is more balanced. You can adjust that distribution in the defense menu by use of the slider bar

Soldier distribution on castle wall – slider bar
Next we adjust the Melee/Ranges soldier ratio on each flank. You will need to click on the Melee/Ranges soldier ratio icon for each side to access that option. I like to keep my ratio at 50-50 in normal mode. Keep in mind that you will have to do this three times, once for each side.

Melee to Ranged soldier ratio – icon

Melee to Ranged soldier ratio – slider
To finish up the castle wall defense we need to use some defense tools and place them in the castle wall slots. I recommend having all the castle walls slots filled, do not leave one blank. There are three basic defense tools that can occupy castle wall slots. There are ones that increase wall protection, increase gate protection and increase combat strength of ranged soldiers. You can construct them out of resources or buy slightly stronger ones with rubies. (see list of defense tools)
Since I rarely buy rubies item, my defenses consist of the following items. If you are just starting out you may not have sufficient resources to construct as many tools as shown, but since you can get attacked by maximum of 4 waves of attackers (depending on your level) I recommend having at least 4 of each. However, most of the time attackers break through your walls in first two waves, thus having only 2 of each tool would suffice in the beginning.

Defense tools placed in the wall slots

Depending on your level you may have access to a moat defense, assuming you have one build. Just like castle wall, moat too has defense tools that can be produced or purchased. Again have at least 2, 4 is better, or more.

The last thing that can help your defenses is Castellan and his equipment. To access the castellan equipment menu click on equipment icon (lower right) and on the following window select castellan (upper left). Equipment is too random to predict, thus use equipment to aid in defense of the castle. You do not really need anything that decreases travel time, decreases wall/gate protection,…

Equipment – menu for castellans

Attack mode

This mode is used when you are logged in and attack is incoming. As the attacking troops get closer you will have better resolution of the composition of the attacking army. Based on the type and number of attacking soldiers, you should modify your castle wall distribution (20-60-20 in normal mode), melee/ranged soldier ratio (50/50 in normal mode) and possibly defense tool set-up.

It is a little bit difficult to explain how I do things. The ultimate idea is to match defenders to attackers based on the total attack/defense power of each type of soldier (melee or ranged). Each soldier (melee or ranged) has a certain attack and defense strength (see list of soldiers). When you are attacked, each attacking flank will have certain number of melee and ranges soldiers. Based on what those types of soldiers are, they will have certain melee attack power and range attack power. Look up the powers of each soldier by clicking on the blue info button or soldier icon.Let’s look at one scenario and I will try to explain what I mean. You are being attacked by an army of 200. They are still far away and you do not see what types of soldiers are coming at you. As they approach you find out that the army is composed of the following soldiers. On the left flank there are 30 maceman and 20 crossbowman. In the center there are 35 two handed sword, 35 heavy crossbowmen and 30 maceman. On the right flank there are 40 two-handed sword and 10 maceman. Granted that you do not know what wave is composed of what soldiers, but let’s assume that they are evenly distributed. Right now we need to calculate total attack power for each type of the soldier (melee or ranged) for each flank. Maceman has melee attack power of 38, a crossbowman has range power of 39, two-handed sword is melee with power of 109, and heavy crossbowmen are range with power of 92 (see list of soldiers and their attack and defensive power). Now we calculate total attack power of each type of soldier (melee or ranged) on each flank. On the left we have 30 maceman thus 30×38=1140 melee attack power plus 20 crossbowman at 20×39=780 ranged attack power equaling to total of 1920 attack power on this flank. We do the same thing to center and right flank. Below is the table with results.

	Left Flank	Center	Right Flank	Total
Melee attack power	1140	4955	4360	10455
Ranged attack power	780	3220	0	4000
Total attack power	1920	8175	4360	14455

Now we know that we have 10455 melee attack power coming in on all flanks, 4000 ranged attack power coming in on all flanks, with grand total of 14455 attack power coming in on all flanks from all types of soldiers. If the enemy commander has any bonus strengths for melee and/or ranges soldiers you would add those in at this time, but right now we assume that he does not. From the total attack power we see that 1920 out of 14450 will be coming from left flank, thus we set the soldiers distribution to 1920/14455 = 0.13 = 13%. Similarly center flank has 8175/14455 = 0.57 = 57% and right flank 4360/14455 = 0.30 = 30%. Based on this attack we set the soldier distribution on the castle wall to 13-57-30.
Secondly we look at ratio of melee/ranged soldiers on each flanks. Left flank has total incoming attack power of 1920, thus melee ratio is 1140/1920 = 0.59 = 59% and ranged ratio of 41%. We do the same thing for center, thus 4955/8175 = 0.61 = 61% melee soldiers and 39% ranged soldiers. And the right flank has only melee soldiers so we set that to 100% melee and 0% ranged.
This setup is not foolproof, but it has served me well. Use as little or as much of it as you want.
IMPORTANT! When you are being attacked, do not have any attack soldiers stationed at your castle. They are not made to defend anything and you will most likely loose them if the incoming attack breaks through your walls. Furthermore, transfer in as many defense soldiers as you can from your other nearby locations. It appears advantageous to have overwhelming numbers over your attacker.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

How to pick good targets for looting

Besides attacking players for glory and honor I attack player to loot their resources. The downside of attacking players for glory, honor and loot is that once the battle is over you may have little to no troops left to carry the loot back. However, I have “special” method for picking targets and attacking them to maximize my loot not glory or honor. Here is my step by step procedure:

Note: some steps may need to be tweaked based on your level and soldier availability.

Start scanning area around you for abandoned castles. Spotting higher level abandoned castles is easier than finding lower level abandoned castles. Look for the castles that are at least partially stone (see image below) and that are not in alliance. Castles not in alliance do not have a half a circle under their names depicting their rank (again see picture below). The idea here is that if you are a high level castle, and you are not in alliance, you are most likely no longer playing. No alliance association is not definite pointer that castle is abandoned, but likely. Follow the next steps to find out more.

Castle in alliance vs not in alliance
Click on your potential loot target’s castle and click “visit castle icon” to have a look inside.

Casals menu
Once inside, evaluate the contrition and status of the buildings. If no buildings are on fire, the player is most likely still active. If building is being constructed or upgraded (even if on fire), player is definitely active. If some buildings are on fire it may be that payer has just been in battle and did not have time to repair all the damage. If most or every building is on fire, the player has most likely left the game.

Castle fire damage levels
If buildings are sufficiently on fire and not being repaired, at this point I send a message to the player saying something on the lines of “Hey, I noticed that you are on fire and probably not in the game. Just to let you know I will be looting your castle and outposts soon. If you are still in the game please let me know and I will not attack you. Thank you, <your name>.” Sending this message helps to filter out players that just had bad luck lately and are still in the game. After the message is sent, I give it about 2-3 days before I actually attack (more if it is over weekend), just in case player is away.
After you have sent the message nothing is stopping you from spying on the castle. First I send my spies to find out what resources are still there and how much. Then I find out what defenses are in place and where. Higher the resolution of the spy report the better for you. You may need to send all spies for military espionage, and when they get back for economic espionage, and that is OK.
Here is where my OCD kicks in, and you may or may not choose to do this. I have an excel file with all my loot targets sorted by the distance from my main castle (or outposts that has all my attack troops). Then I also write down the castle name and their coordinates. Once the reports come in, I write down if they are defended and how as well as what resources they have. Also I write down what loot my soldiers came back with (once I attack them) and subtract that from the spy report from earlier. The idea behind this is to prevent me from sending 100 troops over and bring back only 200 units of resources. You will see when the resources are being depleted if you keep proper track. Sooner or later you will need to send in spies again, as some resources will be produced while you are looting and you may not be the only one looting this castle.

Keeping track of looted resources
Once the 2-3 day period has expired and you did not hear back from the payer, start looting. Depending on your troops, and defenses of the target castle, you may lose some troops the first time around; however every following time it should be easier. Also send in troops that can carry a lot of loot like marauders, pyromaniacs, traveling nights or maceman if you have nothing else.
It may happen that two weeks into your frequent looting of a castle or outposts the player comes back and he may not be too happy with you. If that happened apologize politely and stop looting him.
Depending on your level and honor, and level and honor of your attacker, you may actually lose some honor points in the process, however they will be minimal.

Disclaimer: Attack and loot with care. If you get yourself attacked after following this guide, I will not be responsible for you being beaten back to Stone Age.

Soldiers (troops) in the game

Source: http://goodgameempireguide.com/

There are two types of soldiers in the game. Attack soldiers and defense soldier. Both attack and defense soldiers are further subdivided into melee and ranged soldiers. Some soldiers are stronger than others, while some are faster and other can loot more. All of that you can find out from the soldier information, by clicking either on the soldier picture on the blue “i” button in the corner of the picture. If you remember only one thing from this article, may it be the following:

Do not send defense soldiers to attack and do not have attack soldiers at your castle while it is being attacked.

I see a lot of new players building up an army of attack soldiers, and then their castle is attacked and wonder why they lost when they had 10 times as many soldiers. Or they attack someone with 10 times as many defense soldiers as the target has and still loose.

Unless you are the highest level in the game and have built, researched and been in all maps and events, there are more soldiers in the game than you are currently aware of. They will be available to you as you progress in the game and participate in events.

Before I list all the soldiers (or at least the ones I have access to) let’s look at the identifying features of each soldier. When you pull up soldier information you will see the following data. Reading from top left to right they are:

Melee or Ranged combat attack power
Strength in defense against melee soldiers
Strength in defense against ranges soldiers
Looting capacity
Travel speed
Food consumption (per hour)

Soldier details

Hover over each of the numbers you see for further details. Also note the icon right before the combat attack power. If you see mace and sword, the unit is melee, if you see bow and arrow the unit is ranged. Furthermore if unit has superior melee combat attack power or ranged combat attack power over any defense power, the soldier is for attacks, otherwise it is defense soldier.

Which is attack and which is defense unit?

For example the below listed Two-handed sword is an attack unit because its attack power is 109, while its melee and ranged defense powers are only 19 and 5 respectively. The mace and sword icon next to his attack power indicated it is a melee unit. Thus Two-handed sword is a melee attack unit.

Two-handed sword

Longbowman on the other hand has attack power of 20, but his melee and ranged defense powers are 51 and 125 respectively. The bow and arrow icon next to his attack power indicated it is a ranged unit. Thus Longbowman is a ranged defense unit.