Basics
Here you will find basic information about the game and what your first steps should look like.
Resources
"To brave men, the prizes that war offers are liberty and fame" - Lycurgus of Sparta
The exploitation of resources forms the basis for the ascent of your Polis to become a powerful island power. In Grepolis, there are 4 resources - 3 normal types and 1 special type. The normal resources consist of wood, stone and silver coins. The mythical Pantheon in ancient Greece played a large role and because of this the fourth resource is the divine favor of the Gods. For all units and building, you require resources. You get the resources automatically through your mines (lumberjack, quarry, silver mine) or the temple (divine favor). Resources are produced constantly even if you are not logged into your account.
The amount of resources you receive per hour depends on the size (level) of your buildings. To be sure that the produced resources are not wasted, you will need a warehouse that is as large as possible. The notice describing how large your warehouse is and how many raw materials are inside is in the upper right corner of the page.
The number under the warehouse symbol indicates to you how many resources your warehouse can store. This number is the total amount of each of the normal resources. The numbers to the left indicate how much of the respective resource is currently in the warehouse.
First Steps
"A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house" - Socrates
In the beginning, your city requires one thing above all others: Resources. The lumberjack produces wood, the quarry produces stone and the silver mine produces silver coins. The favor that the Gods will grant you in the course of the game is very important, but in the very first steps, it is unnecessary. The further you expand the production buildings, the higher your hourly production becomes. This expansion is of primary importance and you should focus your attention on that in the first few days.
As you build your resource building levels up it will be necessary to upgrade your farm. Each time a building is upgraded it requires more people to keep the building in good working order. As you get your resource levels up it be necessary to increase your warehouse. After this the security of your city will be a great task to start working on. In the end you want to protect your freshly acquired resources from the greedy hands of your neighbors. They can steal your resources with an attack. The warehouse offers some aid here. The bigger your warehouse is the more resources you can store and the harder it is for your enemy to take it all. Then you can have the resources needed to build up your Polis to defend yourself against your enemies. You should work on these tasks early especially if there are other strong cities on your island. In addition you should expand your city wall. Following these steps should be enough protection during the beginning phase of your Polis and help cause damage to a greedy aggressor trying to take your resources.
After the Polis production reaches a level you are happy with you should begin to produce troops and also begin trading. With a barracks, you can train swordsmen. These are not ideally suited for attacks, but they offer the possibility to raid very weak players or demand tribute from farm villages.
You should also be concerned with becoming a member in a strong alliance. Joined together, players can have better defenses and promote trade. In addition you can become acquainted with nwq people. It makes more sense for a novice to join an existing alliance in your vicinity, than to think about establishing a new one.
Late Start
"There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly." - Antisthenes
Should you get into a late game phase of a world adapting your strategy is important. A fast resource production plays an important role so that the construction of the Polis is completed quickly. It is also of the utmost importance that you should protect yourself against the raids of your neighbors. To prevent the loss of your resources, expand your city wall and the warehouse. Then produce a couple of units to defend your city. It makes good sense to write to your neighbors – a good contact with them can save you against hopeless battles as you group together. If your Polis has become large enough you should try to capture some resources from your neighbors (farms first, then real players when you are strong enough). Captured resources can greatly aid the expansion of your Polis.
Soon the biggest difference to the normal construction sequence comes: Do not commit the mistake to quickly leave your island boundaries to set off on colonial ships. It logically appears that this is the next stage in expansion. It is however an embarrassing mistake, because strong players will first try to secure their cities in your area in order to have in the course of the game a better strategic position. If you invest your raw materials only in building an offensive, you are an easy target for these players! They have the possibility from this to inflict high losses on attackers and in turn take few losses themselves.
The best strategy that there is consists of the constructing one strong defensive Polis, containing a garrison of numerous swordsmen and archers. You will be an unattractive target for the larger players. If they constantly have high losses in your city, they will usually stop attacking.
This phase of building a secure position costs you some time but brings a bonus because as you will be able to utilize the defensive troops again and again. If you now have a healthy defense, you can prepare your expansion and begin the construction of offensive troops.
City Overview
"The art of living well and the art of dying well are one." - Epicurus
The city overview delivers important information about your Polis as a separate view. So you can see there: the building steps; the current resource production; troops present in the city and your current troop movements.
The graphic representation of the buildings changes according to their extension level. With a quick glance you can see how far your Polis has developed. As each building becomes more advanced the style changed to show larger buildings. They will become more elaborate as they advance until they are fully upgraded.
With a click on the individual buildings, you are brought into the respective building menu and can use their internal options. For example: building ships in the harbor or conducting research in the academy.
Renaming your Polis
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato
You can rename your Polis easily. Click on the banner above the city overview that displays the current city name. After that you can click the down arrow to the right of the new name to save the new name.
Construct Buildings
"It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls." - Epicurus
If you want to construct or expand a building, you must click on the senate and then click on the "Expansion to X". You must have the correct quantity of wood, stone and silver coins to build. The amount needed depends on the type and the expansion level of the building. The larger you want to make the building, the more resources you require for the expansion level.
In addition the constructions of many of the buildings in Grepolis have a dependence upon the expansion levels of other buildings. For example you can only construct a market place if your warehouse and your cave have already reached a certain size. In the senate these prerequisites are indicated next to the resource costs.
Construct Units
"Brave men are a city's strongest tower of defense" - Alcaeus
You can train units in Grepolis in your barracks. The first available unit that can be trained is the swordsman, a simple defensive unit not to be underestimated. During the course of the game, you can conduct research in the academy and can then construct other units such as: Archers; Slingers; Hoplites; Cavalry and Catapults.
Once you have constructed a temple, chosen a God and produced some divine favor points you can then in the barracks train mythical units of your chosen God. They are superior to the normal units in the strength but their cost is expensive and also uses the divine favor resource.
In your harbor, you can construct naval units. You begin with carrier ships and can later also construct: Bireme; Fire Ships; Demolition Ships, Trireme; and Colony Ships according to extension level of the harbor and research stage in your academy. The latter are prerequisite for gaining other cities. If you worship Poseidon, you can construct the hydra in the harbor, a mythical being that is the strongest ranged water unit.
In the unit survey, you find a short description which outlines the prerequisites for production and strengths of the units.
Farm Villages
"Every care must be taken that our auxiliaries, being stronger than our citizens, may not grow too much for them and become savage beasts." - Plato
You are not alone on your island. In addition to other players you will find a multitude of farm villages as neighbors. A smart contact with them can give you ample resources that you can utilize especially at the beginning very well. To gain the resources of the surrounding farm villages you must send troops to demand tribute.
To attack a farm village you must: Select a farm village in your vicinity on the island, select the 'attack' view and select 'resource looting' option. Depending on how many troops you send, they bring you more or less raw materials into your Polis. The farm village will react to being asked for tribute and eventually will get annoyed by your demands. The mood value of the farm villages falls after each demand that you make. You start with a mood value of 100 percent. Eventually there's the risk of a resistance that puts the life of your troops in danger. The lower the mood value the higher the risk of resistance.
It is best to regularly demand tribute from these villages in order to grow quickly. This creates a problem as the mood value drops and you must react to this problem. You should try to attack different farm village on your island. You can increase the strength value when your troops perform civil works. They help the farm village in the erection of civil buildings, drainage of fields and harvesting crops. For you, this means that your troops are bound a time outside of the city without receiving resources for the invested time. Long-term this beneficial work brings you better resources from the villages. It is even possible, depending on the mood value, that the villagers will resist your efforts and defend against your incoming troops.
The higher the strength value the less mood will decrease when demanding resources. Strength of farm villages starts our at 50% over time it will gradually move towards this number irregardless of your actions. It is also important to note that strength is affect by all players. If another player attacks the farm village, its strength will be lower for you as well. However, mood is only affected by each individual player. It starts our at 100% and over time will slowly increase to that number when left alone.
Basically this simple formula applies to the farm villages: The more troops you send and the higher the strength values of the farmer village is, the more resources the farm village gives you.
Game Goal
"Success is dependent on effort." - Sophocles
The Goal of the Game is to live out the dream of the average Greek, to become a hero! You must conquer your enemies, destroy your foes and gain the ultimate favor of the gods!