I can’t sum up the need for a layered defense any better than this report will show you. The ONLY reason this guy lost over a million archers to 100k of horsies is that he had no layers in troops nor in wall defenses.
There are exceptions to this, for example, when a mech wave is incoming you want layers OUT. If you’re online you need to tailor your defense for what is incoming but layers are easily moved in and out to valleys.
Mech waves dump a lot of honour and can kill a lot of troops. Take a look at the honour drop on this wave:
This is a result of a combination of a much higher hero on the attacker’s side and a lack of wall layers on the defender’s side. Yes, AT’s are important but you need some of all wall defenses. Traps, abatis and trebuckets are necessary to properly defend. And check out the hero experience too.
Battles start at the maximum range of the units involved. AT’s have a maximum range of around 2600, but traps, abatis and trebuckets have a range of 5000. This is why you will hear them being called “range setters”. They start the battle at 5000, giving your AT’s time to mow down the attacking troops. Even ONE of each can do major damage to an incoming attack.
Layers in attacking are just as important. Even ONE of each layer can make a difference in getting the damaging troops up to the gates. For example, you don’t send ballista with a range of 2100 to a city with level 10 wall and AT’s having a range of 2600. The AT’s will be making mince meat out of your ballista before they are in range to fire. They are used as a layer in mech waves or farming NPC’s up to level 5 (where they still outrange the AT’s).
For more on range, see the Evonywiki Range Guide
Ok kids, I cannot stress this enough … level up at least one hero! Mech waves are scary to most people. They see one coming and they start hovering over the teleporter or truce in their items. But get the meat out, and take a look at what a really good hero with some archers and AT’s can do for you:
If you don’t have one yourself, and you have an incoming mech wave, get an alliance member to scout in the highest they can offer.
Here’s an example of a cav/phract smack gone horribly wrong. The reason this went wrong was … 1 trap. Without that trap, the defender would have lost all.
Its always nice to see treasures from farming, attacking or defending. 10’s will give up Mickey Scripts, amulets, holy water and various other treasures:
This first order of business when you set up your city is to build a solid defense.
Walls: Build them up and fortify as soon as you can. The higher the level of wall you have the more archer to AT ratio your attacker needs to send. A level 5 or 6 wall is about 5 to 1 so they only need to send 5K archers to kill off 1K AT’s Level up to 7, 8 and 9 walls and they need to send about 10 to 1 to break through. Once you have 10K AT’s on your walls they have to send more than 100K archers to make a dent (depending on techs including archery, military tradition and iron working). But with your doors open to fight with your archers, it makes your city too costly for many and they will move along to an easier victim.
Next, build a layered defense.
Build archers and swords in almost equal amounts. Swords are excellent on defense and often overlooked. Build lots of warriors which, besides their usefulness in farming and leveling up a hero, create a very cheap and quickly made meat shield in your city. Have about 3 times the warriors to archers for best results. 100K archers will keep most people out of your city but 150K archers and 150K swords will make a seasoned player think twice and that’s important.
Of course, build lots of scouts for scouting and bombing, as well as quick transfers of resources between your cities. Keeping a little more than 100K is advisable. Most players won’t attack if they don’t know what they’re walking into. Pikes should be made to fight cav attacks. Cav’s are a nice to have troop but not absolutely necessary right in the beginning. They are excellent for lowering loyalty on cities you’re trying to take.
If you want to get an attack in and out quickly and its a little far away, try workers. Not only can they act as a cheap meat shield but they carry a lot of resources and move very quickly considering. Transporters are the big carry all units but they are slow to move and make, particularly until you get your techs up. Make a 100k workers and you’ll be surprised how versatile they can be for attacking and transporting resources to your alliance mates.
A lot of people know enough not to build farms and quarries but often will make half lumber and half iron for resource fields. On the surface this looks like a good idea since you need both of those constantly for troop making and both are similarily priced in the marketplace.
But look closer and you see why lumber mills are better. A level 9 lumber mill requires 450 in population. A level 9 iron mill requires 1,125 in population. Lumber is the more efficient resource for your city while still leaving some population available for troop making. Yes, you can zero your production, make your troops and then put production back up but production is lowered until its back up again and its a pain to do that each time. For those that run heavy troop making cities with 17 or 18 barracks this is most important.
Do:
Use your first Mickey Script on your rally point. Second on walls. You’ll get them from farming NPC’s later, especially level 10’s so worry about other upgrades then.
Build at least one barrack to level 9 and lots to 4 immediately. You should be farming at least level 3 NPC’s right out of beginner protection.
Upgrade your embassy and check mark to allow your alliance to garrison troops there. Keep doors open to deter attacks and allow your alliance mates to get into your city to back you up. If you’re in an alliance, let them help you.
Upgrade your Beacon Tower to know exactly what attacks are incoming. Otherwise you’ll get vague descriptors of how many troops are coming at you. Your alliance needs to know so they can back you up properly.
Don’t:
Use ballista on players. They are for NPC’s only. The only exception is when sending mech waves but by then you should really know what you’re doing.
Build more than 7 cottages. If you’re building more you’re playing Farmville and will be crushed momentarily when a stronger player finds you.
Concentrate on farm building or holding lakes and grasslands. You will have plenty of food from farming NPC’s. Build lumber mills and eventually tear down all fields but one farm, quarry and iron mine which you’ll want for research.
Send odd numbers on attacks. When you attack someone with 7316 archers, you’ve just told them exactly what you have in your city. Keep your numbers rounded.
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