Guide:Handy Hints

Please Note This is a guide written by Kuriants for the .EN forums. Introduction from the Author: As an introduction let me be quick to point out that whatever appears in here amounts to my own opinion and nothing more. However I might add that such opinion comes out of a reasonable amount of experience and a desire to understand what works and what doesn't in the land of Grepolis. In other words I dont profess to know everything but there are some things that I do know and such knowledge has been tried and tested over time and under duress.

Build with Purpose

As in life goals generate activity and consistent activity produces results. Its no different here, if you want to build something that stands the test of time and trials then you must build with purpose to do anything less is to squander your resources and frustrate your efforts.

Take What you Need

My Golden Rule has always been only Take what you can hold sometimes as in life you need to cut your losses and move on.

Choose your battles carefully, what ground are I willing to fight for and which cities are I willing to contest? Why do I want this particular city? Why expand into this particular quadrant of an ocean or into any ocean for that matter? Establish Clear Objectives and Well defined goals in others words Build with Purpose.

The Benefits of Specialization

Note: Specialization becomes available a little down the line generally your first city will have to be a jack of all trades as opposed to a master of anything but the rate some move this bares mention now.

Extreme Specialisation

What do I mean when I talk about extreme specialization?

Specialization is developing in this frame of reference a city to its maximum potential in regard to what you design it to do, in other words if its offensive then thats all it is cut back to the bone carrying no flab just plain mean ugly offensive!

Heres an example of what I call extreme specialization in regard to an offensive city:

Troop numbers:

1600 pop of offensive troops eg slingers 1,000 + Horsemen 200 + Light ships 50 + Fast Transports 100 Relevant Building stats attached to this type of offensive city: Barracks level 30 Wall level 25 Farm level 40 Tower and Thermal Baths

Research tree:

Phalanx - Trainer - Cartography - Battering Ram - Light Transport Boats - Bunks researched

Summary:

A maxed out Barracks for the build speed both initially and to a greater degree due to losses in the field, remember the higher the level of Barracks the faster you can produce troops from it and trust me during wars of attrition it can be the difference between survival and extinction.
Trainer for the same benefits as above build speed. Note Remember to augment build speed whenever possible with Population Growth (Hera) and call of the Ocean (Poseidon) - Cartography and Fast Transports for the speed boost to your attack remember this is a game of timing the quicker your attack arrives the less time your adversary has to prepare and deal with it adequately, bunks to offset the loss in transport capacity and Battering Ram and Phalanx to give your offensive arsenal that additional punch to help them break through Bireme walls and defensive troops.
The light ships while modest in number should follow strikes that you make from a dedicated Light Ship Base (Generally between 200 - 250 in number)

• Tip Never send an unescorted attack and by that I mean an attack that doesnt come with offensive naval forces whether thats an extreme Hydra or more standard Light Ships or Triremes. Exceptions to the rule are units that dont require a ship escort ie Manticores or internal strikes that take place between two cities that share the same island.

Every other type of attack faces the prospect of facing naval defensive units in the harbor and an unescorted attack ie one with only transports and men will find itself sunk with all hands on deck should it run into even 1 Bireme in the harbor.
Defensive tip here whenever you see a stream of close running and tight attacks coming in lets say at intervals of 1 min or less try and arrange for Biremes to turn up between them especially toward the end of the attacks because its there that players get lazy and try and tag on attacks that either dont come with an offensive naval escort or one with too few numbers ie 10-25 light ships, their thinking generally runs along the lines of my light ships should have wiped out any defensive Biremes by then? Dont make the same mistake when launching your own salvos always have them escorted for the best results!
In capping off remember an average run of the mill city will never be able to produce the same results in a dog fight that a specialized one can. Its not easy to specialize early in this game because your initial cities generally need to be both offensive and defensive but as you grow and the number of cities at your disposal grows so will your ability to breed what I call thorough-bred stallions, they will see you stand head and shoulders above the rest of the teeming masses.