A lot of players seem to struggle deciding which bonuses in the Obelisk of Power they should prioritise. Whilst I am normally hesitant to be so prescriptive in this case I will give a list of desirable bonuses and a suggested order of learning. I won't be listing any of the bonuses required along the way, I'm sure you can manage that on your own.
Wait... you do know that you only need to train each prerequisite to level 8 or 10 before the next bonus becomes available right? Right.
1) Discovery Speed 20/20
2) 1st Additional Raid Attempt 10/10
3) Discovery Speed II 20/20
4) 2nd Additional Raid Attempt 10/10
5) 3rd Additional Raid Attempt 10/10
6) Combat Experience 20/40
7) Food Consumption 80/80
8) Darkening Cost 50/50
9) Combat Experience 40/40
These are your core bonuses. If you are someone who uses settlements often you may at this point want to pick up Maximum Settlements 30/30, for everyone else I would start looking at Training Times.
When selecting units to apply runes to, consider that all the bonuses reach the same final percentage (12%) but there are a varying number of levels, 40 or 50, so that means the 50 level units require a greater investment of runes and time for the same result as a 40 level training time bonus, but other units have many more units before it that you will be required to level up partially before you can level the one you want.
With that said my suggested Training Speed units are:
Griffins
Golems OR Demons
Knights OR Great Lords
Pikemen OR Paladins
Nomads
Archers
Warlocks
Wyverns
Huntresses
Great Lords OR Knights
Paladins OR Pikemen
Undead Dragons
Silent Ones
Demons OR Golems
By which point you may want to start looking to improve the movement speed of certain units, but that's for a later date.
Espionage
Spying out locations is an important part of rss farming and pvp and whilst the fundamental method of sending Silent Ones towards your target doesn't change there are a number of variations that you can use to improve your chances of success and to confuse or confound your enemies.
Farming: This is going to form the majority of your spying work and will quickly become the largest portion of your in-game time expenditure. Always spy out your farms before you send a raid, you never know if it has been farmed recently or if reinforcements have been sent there for some other purpose.
Settlements: Usually a good idea to send one or two to any settlements you might be wanting to capture. Although be aware that the resource cost of losing a Silent One adds to the time needed to recoup any losses you might incur owning a settlement. This is also why it's a good idea to have your settlements defended by Silent Ones, the loss of a spy is often a good deterrent.
Farming: This is going to form the majority of your spying work and will quickly become the largest portion of your in-game time expenditure. Always spy out your farms before you send a raid, you never know if it has been farmed recently or if reinforcements have been sent there for some other purpose.
Settlements: Usually a good idea to send one or two to any settlements you might be wanting to capture. Although be aware that the resource cost of losing a Silent One adds to the time needed to recoup any losses you might incur owning a settlement. This is also why it's a good idea to have your settlements defended by Silent Ones, the loss of a spy is often a good deterrent.
Castle Building
Overview
A strong castle is critical to your ability to fight over the long term. You should always have your craftsmen working on upgrades, and when they are working you should be thinking about the next upgrade, how long it will take and ensuring you have kept or gathered enough resources to build it before it finishes. Wasting time asking for caravans or farming for rss because you spent everything on more units is a dumb move.
If you are ever planning on buying sapphires I suggest getting them as early as you can and using them to buy more craftsmen before anything else, it will help you the most over the long term.
Keep
The keep is the centrepiece of your castle. It does everything and nothing. The keep adds a whole 191 to your food production, this will remain the same regardless of the level of your keep.
A strong castle is critical to your ability to fight over the long term. You should always have your craftsmen working on upgrades, and when they are working you should be thinking about the next upgrade, how long it will take and ensuring you have kept or gathered enough resources to build it before it finishes. Wasting time asking for caravans or farming for rss because you spent everything on more units is a dumb move.
If you are ever planning on buying sapphires I suggest getting them as early as you can and using them to buy more craftsmen before anything else, it will help you the most over the long term.
The keep is the centrepiece of your castle. It does everything and nothing. The keep adds a whole 191 to your food production, this will remain the same regardless of the level of your keep.Unit Analysis
Below is a chart that compares statistical values, given and derived between the different built combat units.
Whilst most of the values are self explanatory the derived values need some explanation.
Adjusted Cost Per Hour: The build cost per hour based on an average of the Gold, Iron and 3/4 Food cost multiplied by the number of Units built per hour. This value is for comparison purposes and includes the assumption that Gold and Iron are equally valuable and that Food is only 3/4 the value of Gold or Iron. This is an arbitrary value based on the relative ease of raiding for food.
Whilst most of the values are self explanatory the derived values need some explanation.
Adjusted Cost Per Hour: The build cost per hour based on an average of the Gold, Iron and 3/4 Food cost multiplied by the number of Units built per hour. This value is for comparison purposes and includes the assumption that Gold and Iron are equally valuable and that Food is only 3/4 the value of Gold or Iron. This is an arbitrary value based on the relative ease of raiding for food.
Be a Paragon
Paragon Status is a temporary boon that affects various in-game attributes, from combat performance to unit speed and rss generation. You can see exactly what you get at each level by tapping on the crown at the top of your screen.
There are 10 levels of Paragon Status, each one requiring a near geometric increase in points. When you can a new level of Paragon you will have an automatic 24 hour activation, however this activation won't take place if you already have an automatic activation running (particularly noticeable at lower levels).
Additionally you can activate paragon status by using an aptly named Paragon Activator. These activators come in a variety of durations from 30 minutes to 30 days. Tokens can be bought or gained through quests, tournaments and Gifts from Amelia. Unless you are paying for it you will be unable to keep Paragon Status running non-stop.
There are 10 levels of Paragon Status, each one requiring a near geometric increase in points. When you can a new level of Paragon you will have an automatic 24 hour activation, however this activation won't take place if you already have an automatic activation running (particularly noticeable at lower levels).
Additionally you can activate paragon status by using an aptly named Paragon Activator. These activators come in a variety of durations from 30 minutes to 30 days. Tokens can be bought or gained through quests, tournaments and Gifts from Amelia. Unless you are paying for it you will be unable to keep Paragon Status running non-stop.
Dramatis Personae
Feeling confused with all the names used in the game? Here's the run down on each of them.
Lord Oberon: The level 124 Lord who sets you the goal of becoming the defender of Stormfall. You can find him at X:0; Y:0 but he can't be interacted with.
Lady Amelia: Amelia is your guide, tutor and aide. Listen to her closely and consider her suggestions wisely.
Lord Oberon: The level 124 Lord who sets you the goal of becoming the defender of Stormfall. You can find him at X:0; Y:0 but he can't be interacted with.
Lady Amelia: Amelia is your guide, tutor and aide. Listen to her closely and consider her suggestions wisely.
How To: Battlegrounds
The first thing to be aware of is that Battlegrounds exist for two purposes. The first one is to drive the Rise of Balur storyline. Your battleground level determines your maximum Saga Quest level. The second reason is to convert your armies into more powerful units via Spoils of War. This conversion is based on chance, the only details of which are found in the game's Guide.
The second thing to be aware of is that you will lose troops, lots of troops. Unlike PvP where you will often save a third to half of your force should you lose a fight (unless facing an overwhelming force) in BGs your army will fight to the death.
The second thing to be aware of is that you will lose troops, lots of troops. Unlike PvP where you will often save a third to half of your force should you lose a fight (unless facing an overwhelming force) in BGs your army will fight to the death.
Show me the Power!
The obelisk of power shouldn't require too much explanation so this should be a short post.
What is the Obelisk of Power? It is an in-game building that allows players to further customise their playstyle.
How does it work? By applying Skull Runes to the various abilities. Most abilities have pre-requisites, typically 8 or 10 points in the preceding ability.
What is the Obelisk of Power? It is an in-game building that allows players to further customise their playstyle.
How does it work? By applying Skull Runes to the various abilities. Most abilities have pre-requisites, typically 8 or 10 points in the preceding ability.
Defending your Castle
Defence Bonus Upgrades
Below is a table breaking down the cost effectiveness of each defensive structure or upgrade.
Obviously I am missing some data, either because I haven't upgraded to that level or didn't write it down when I did so. But the trends are clear in terms of most cost effective.
In first place are all your Catapults and Sentries, I'm not including the Level 1 Wall because you begin the game with it. Following that are all your Castle Defence Units outside your castle walls. The best part of those units is that they can upgrade, all the way to the Red Dragon. Finally after those is a Castle Skin (purchasable through the Black Market) and only then should you look at upgrading your Sentry/Catapults and Castle Walls.
Tips:
Build your Sentry/Catapults First.
Don't pay for upgrades unless you are a wallet warrior.
Build your defence units when you get a quest from Amelia to do so, the value of the reward can be greater than the cost of the Unit.
| Structure | Power | Cost | Ratio |
| Walls L.1 | 60 | 0 | |
| Walls L.2 | 60 | ||
| Walls L.3 | 60 | 750 | 0.08 |
| Walls L.4 | 60 | ||
| Walls L.5 | 60 | ||
| Walls L.6 | 60 | ||
| Sentry/Catapult L.1 | 100 | 150 | 0.67 |
| Sentry/Catapult L.2 | 50 | 375 | 0.13 |
| Sentry/Catapult L.3 | 50 | 500 | 0.10 |
| Sentry/Catapult L.4 | |||
| Sentry/Catapult L.5 | |||
| Sentry/Catapult L.6 | |||
| Immortals | 100 | 400 | 0.25 |
| Crusader | 200 | 800 | 0.25 |
| Belrathian Guard | 250 | 1000 | 0.25 |
| Troll | 300 | 1200 | 0.25 |
| Guardian Hydra | 400 | 1600 | 0.25 |
| Red Dragon | 500 | 2000 | 0.25 |
| Hexholt | 1000 | 5000 | 0.20 |
| Magmountain | 1000 | 5000 | 0.20 |
| Sternstone | 1000 | 5000 | 0.20 |
| Branhold | 1000 | 5000 | 0.20 |
| Draconis | 800 | 4000 | 0.20 |
| Necropolis | 800 | 4000 | 0.20 |
| Ranhold | 800 | 4000 | 0.20 |
Obviously I am missing some data, either because I haven't upgraded to that level or didn't write it down when I did so. But the trends are clear in terms of most cost effective.
In first place are all your Catapults and Sentries, I'm not including the Level 1 Wall because you begin the game with it. Following that are all your Castle Defence Units outside your castle walls. The best part of those units is that they can upgrade, all the way to the Red Dragon. Finally after those is a Castle Skin (purchasable through the Black Market) and only then should you look at upgrading your Sentry/Catapults and Castle Walls.
Tips:
Build your Sentry/Catapults First.
Don't pay for upgrades unless you are a wallet warrior.
Build your defence units when you get a quest from Amelia to do so, the value of the reward can be greater than the cost of the Unit.
Advanced Resource Management
In my previous post on resource management I took a look at what I call primary resources, that is Gold, Iron and Food. This post will take a look at your tertiary resources, Soulstones, Skull Runes and Sapphires.
I suspect some of you might be a little confused, where are the secondary resources and why do I even call the above resources.
Your primary resources create your secondary resources which then create your tertiary resources.
I don't consider Maranian Amulets as either a primary or secondary resource as they exist as a control on special units, an opportunity tax.
Your secondary resources convert themselves into tertiary resources primarily through tournaments.
Sapphires
Sapphires have 4 sources; settlements, tournaments, Amelia's gifts, and credit cards. The relative ease through which sapphires can be gained make them the least valuable but they will continue to remain relevant for the lifetime of the game whereas the others have an eventual cap. Units are the least effective way to spend sapphires as units are temporary and a resource themselves. I strongly suggest spending sapphires on things like defensive emplacements and craftsmen. While craftsmen do have an eventual expiry date that is months away as the build time on your upgrades take longer and longer and defensive emplacements last forever. Should you find yourself having bought your 4th craftsman, a castle skin, and all defensive upgrades then sure, buy some units.
Skull Runes
Skull Runes can be sourced through leveling, tournaments and purchasing with soulstones. I believe they can also come from the completion of the highest level battleground available to you but I haven't been able to confirm it.
Although I said above that Skull Runes have a cap, that cap is very high. To fill every bonus in your Obelisk of Power you will need
Unit Group 1: 411
Unit Group 2: 722
Unit Group 3: 362
Unit Group 4: 576
Unit Group 5: 530
For a total of 2601 Runes. Not as many Soulstones to reach cap but much harder to reach. Runes I consider the no. 1 reason for spending troops in Battlegrounds and PvP.
You do not need to completely fill a Unit Group before proceeding to the next, and indeed it is inadvisable to do so. Focus on long term utility bonuses like Discovery, Additional Raids, Combat Experience and Food Consumption. Speed bonuses on your slowest units are a waste of time, no matter how many points you put in them they will still be very slow.
Soulstones
Soulstones can be gained through Saga Quests and Tournaments. The relatively few avenues are made up for by their low cap and quantity of stones for the effort invested.
The primary purpose for Soulstones is to purchase a range of scrolls for your higher level units. Anything more powerful than Great Lords needs to first have scrolls purchased and then discovered through your House of Scrolls. You will need 2700 Soulstones to obtain all the scrolls, by which time you should find that your caravans are large enough that you don't really need to upgrade them. Spend any excess Soulstones on Skull Runes.
Maranian Amulets
As I mentioned above I don't consider Maranian Amulets a resource as such but in lieu of making an entire post about them I will cover here why I consider them a tax, and in a later discussion on comparing Units I'll discuss their use.
You can obtain Amulets through Amulet Shrines or later on converting Gold and Iron on a 1+1:1 basis once you have the Altar of Mara. Note: You won't be able to build any units with Amulets until after you have discovered the Lost Art that allows you to build the Altar.
Amulets can be converted at a best rate of 500 amulets/hour. Assuming you don't sleep that means you will at best do a little worse than 12,000 amulets/day (including client/server delays on starting each new cycle), but a more realistic cap is around 8000/day.
Lost Ones will use 7980 amulets in just 9 hours and 30 minutes. This is where the opportunity tax comes in. With focused farming you should be able to easily keep an infantry queue working non stop all day, realistically you'll fill less than half a day with Maranian Units. With two Shrines captured you might keep the infantry queue running 24/7, but that will also cost you units to keep control of the Shrines.You're better off using Amulets as a supplement to your queues, I consider the Unit Building League Quest an ideal time to build them, an easy way to block fill one of your queues.
Tips:
Consider Units a resource to be spent
Don't use Sapphires on units unless you're a wallet warrior.
Look through the entire Skull Rune tree before spending
Save your Soulstones for Scrolls
Maranian Amulets are nice but not a viable part of your logistics
Plan ahead.
I suspect some of you might be a little confused, where are the secondary resources and why do I even call the above resources.
I don't consider Maranian Amulets as either a primary or secondary resource as they exist as a control on special units, an opportunity tax.
Your secondary resources convert themselves into tertiary resources primarily through tournaments.
Sapphires
Sapphires have 4 sources; settlements, tournaments, Amelia's gifts, and credit cards. The relative ease through which sapphires can be gained make them the least valuable but they will continue to remain relevant for the lifetime of the game whereas the others have an eventual cap. Units are the least effective way to spend sapphires as units are temporary and a resource themselves. I strongly suggest spending sapphires on things like defensive emplacements and craftsmen. While craftsmen do have an eventual expiry date that is months away as the build time on your upgrades take longer and longer and defensive emplacements last forever. Should you find yourself having bought your 4th craftsman, a castle skin, and all defensive upgrades then sure, buy some units.
Skull Runes
Skull Runes can be sourced through leveling, tournaments and purchasing with soulstones. I believe they can also come from the completion of the highest level battleground available to you but I haven't been able to confirm it.
Although I said above that Skull Runes have a cap, that cap is very high. To fill every bonus in your Obelisk of Power you will need
Unit Group 1: 411
Unit Group 2: 722
Unit Group 3: 362
Unit Group 4: 576
Unit Group 5: 530
For a total of 2601 Runes. Not as many Soulstones to reach cap but much harder to reach. Runes I consider the no. 1 reason for spending troops in Battlegrounds and PvP.
You do not need to completely fill a Unit Group before proceeding to the next, and indeed it is inadvisable to do so. Focus on long term utility bonuses like Discovery, Additional Raids, Combat Experience and Food Consumption. Speed bonuses on your slowest units are a waste of time, no matter how many points you put in them they will still be very slow.
Soulstones
Soulstones can be gained through Saga Quests and Tournaments. The relatively few avenues are made up for by their low cap and quantity of stones for the effort invested.
The primary purpose for Soulstones is to purchase a range of scrolls for your higher level units. Anything more powerful than Great Lords needs to first have scrolls purchased and then discovered through your House of Scrolls. You will need 2700 Soulstones to obtain all the scrolls, by which time you should find that your caravans are large enough that you don't really need to upgrade them. Spend any excess Soulstones on Skull Runes.
Maranian Amulets
As I mentioned above I don't consider Maranian Amulets a resource as such but in lieu of making an entire post about them I will cover here why I consider them a tax, and in a later discussion on comparing Units I'll discuss their use.
You can obtain Amulets through Amulet Shrines or later on converting Gold and Iron on a 1+1:1 basis once you have the Altar of Mara. Note: You won't be able to build any units with Amulets until after you have discovered the Lost Art that allows you to build the Altar.
Amulets can be converted at a best rate of 500 amulets/hour. Assuming you don't sleep that means you will at best do a little worse than 12,000 amulets/day (including client/server delays on starting each new cycle), but a more realistic cap is around 8000/day.
Lost Ones will use 7980 amulets in just 9 hours and 30 minutes. This is where the opportunity tax comes in. With focused farming you should be able to easily keep an infantry queue working non stop all day, realistically you'll fill less than half a day with Maranian Units. With two Shrines captured you might keep the infantry queue running 24/7, but that will also cost you units to keep control of the Shrines.You're better off using Amulets as a supplement to your queues, I consider the Unit Building League Quest an ideal time to build them, an easy way to block fill one of your queues.
Tips:
Consider Units a resource to be spent
Don't use Sapphires on units unless you're a wallet warrior.
Look through the entire Skull Rune tree before spending
Save your Soulstones for Scrolls
Maranian Amulets are nice but not a viable part of your logistics
Plan ahead.
Building your Armies
So I thought I'd try and help people with understanding more about how to build an army, there is a little bit more to it than just queuing up units to build.
You need to understand an army's purpose, then you will have a better idea of what units to queue up, but before that there is a fundamental rule that you need to learn and apply to your builds
(Nearly) Every Unit builds at the same Power per Hour (pph) according to it's purpose and resource.
Offensively your units build up to 480 pph, or 430 pph when built from Maranian Amulets
Defensively your units build up to 450 pph, or 380 pph " " " " "
This means that in terms of maximising your build queues there is little difference between Warlocks and Pikemen when you queue up an hour's worth of building.
This does not account for levels in lost arts or skull runes. But as they are both percentage based and both max out at the same percent (40% and 12% respectively) you can directly compare and choose based on whichever is higher, ie. Level 20 pikemen gives more pph than Level 12 warlocks.
With that in mind, here are some purposes for which you might build an army.
Offensive Defensive
Farming Castle Defence
Battlegrounds Friendly Garrison
PvP - Raiding/Quest Team Defence
PvP Beacons Beacon Defence
Farming:
Normally you can get by with anything for farming but as time goes on you may wish to build an army specifically for the purpose of farming, in which case you are typically looking at building very fast units like Wyverns and Chimeras. Wyverns move at 4 kph and Chimeras at 5kph. If you have sapphires to spare you may want to buy Thieves, units specific for farming but very vulnerable to dying in combat. If you don't have access to them then Seekers (4kph), Eldritch Necromancers and Knights (3kph) are good substitutes. Consider how much you are taking in rss from your better targets to determine how many units (and their total capacity) you build.
Battlegrounds:
Often you will want to be building units that maximise your pph so build whichever units are high level and have points in reducing queue times. These units don't have very far to travel, so speed doesn't matter, and they usually won't live beyond the next bg quest so food consumption isn't important either. Pikemen are great for this as they are usually one of the first units you get to Level 20 and you'll have probably put some runes into it's build time. Paladins are actually a poor option, in an exception to the 480 pph base rate their rate is only 450, so unless for some reason you have more Levels in Paladin than Pikeman you should always prefer pike building for bgs.
PvP - Raiding/Quest:
This is assuming a general raiding cycle based on the global tournaments.
Like bgs you usually want to maximise your pph but as you typically won't lose much more than half your units in raids (as opposed to bgs where you will lose an approximate number depending on the level of bg and your army makeup) you might want to think about having more of a focus on units that give you more Power per Food Consumed (PFC), generally what we consider more 'powerful' units like your Cavalry, Occult and Bestiary units. This helps lower the total lifetime cost of units that are more likely to stick around for several weeks.
PvP - Beacons:
Attacking, and taking over a beacon is a league-wide effort that requires sizable armies from everyone attacking. As the time for an attack approaches you'll want to focus on maximising your pph but by planning ahead and prebuilding Maranian Amulet based units like Seekers and Priestesses you can reduce your food burden whilst providing a comparable army.
Castle Defence:
This ultimately depends on your play style and your relationship with local active players. If you're managed to make yourself a popular target then you'll want to build fast, your army likely won't be around for long so don't worry too much about the upkeep.
For those who have a better relationship with their neighbours go for those low food units. It will take you longer to get a similar sized army but you won't have to do it nearly as often.
Friendly Garrison:
These units are nothing more than an alert system to let you know when your friends have been spied on or been attacked. You want as cheap as possible. Archers, and then Lost Ones when they become available, are the best bet. You'll only need to keep one on each castle.
Team/League Defence:
For me these are typically made up from units that I have built in order to balance out the iron/gold ratio after building my offensive units. For the more conscientious among you, you might want to preference building nomads. Defensively you have very few fast units outside of the eldritch varieties, even barbarians, equal to nomads in overall power, cost and consumption are strangely 1/3 slower than nomads. Fast units = fast response.
Beacon Defence:
Maximise your pph, beacons get attacked a lot and you need to get defence there often and in size. Send a mix of unit types to get the best performance from them.
Good luck, build big and build smart and remember that your units are just another resource.
You need to understand an army's purpose, then you will have a better idea of what units to queue up, but before that there is a fundamental rule that you need to learn and apply to your builds
(Nearly) Every Unit builds at the same Power per Hour (pph) according to it's purpose and resource.
Offensively your units build up to 480 pph, or 430 pph when built from Maranian Amulets
Defensively your units build up to 450 pph, or 380 pph " " " " "
This means that in terms of maximising your build queues there is little difference between Warlocks and Pikemen when you queue up an hour's worth of building.
This does not account for levels in lost arts or skull runes. But as they are both percentage based and both max out at the same percent (40% and 12% respectively) you can directly compare and choose based on whichever is higher, ie. Level 20 pikemen gives more pph than Level 12 warlocks.
With that in mind, here are some purposes for which you might build an army.
Offensive Defensive
Farming Castle Defence
Battlegrounds Friendly Garrison
PvP - Raiding/Quest Team Defence
PvP Beacons Beacon Defence
Farming:
Normally you can get by with anything for farming but as time goes on you may wish to build an army specifically for the purpose of farming, in which case you are typically looking at building very fast units like Wyverns and Chimeras. Wyverns move at 4 kph and Chimeras at 5kph. If you have sapphires to spare you may want to buy Thieves, units specific for farming but very vulnerable to dying in combat. If you don't have access to them then Seekers (4kph), Eldritch Necromancers and Knights (3kph) are good substitutes. Consider how much you are taking in rss from your better targets to determine how many units (and their total capacity) you build.
Battlegrounds:
Often you will want to be building units that maximise your pph so build whichever units are high level and have points in reducing queue times. These units don't have very far to travel, so speed doesn't matter, and they usually won't live beyond the next bg quest so food consumption isn't important either. Pikemen are great for this as they are usually one of the first units you get to Level 20 and you'll have probably put some runes into it's build time. Paladins are actually a poor option, in an exception to the 480 pph base rate their rate is only 450, so unless for some reason you have more Levels in Paladin than Pikeman you should always prefer pike building for bgs.
PvP - Raiding/Quest:
This is assuming a general raiding cycle based on the global tournaments.
Like bgs you usually want to maximise your pph but as you typically won't lose much more than half your units in raids (as opposed to bgs where you will lose an approximate number depending on the level of bg and your army makeup) you might want to think about having more of a focus on units that give you more Power per Food Consumed (PFC), generally what we consider more 'powerful' units like your Cavalry, Occult and Bestiary units. This helps lower the total lifetime cost of units that are more likely to stick around for several weeks.
PvP - Beacons:
Attacking, and taking over a beacon is a league-wide effort that requires sizable armies from everyone attacking. As the time for an attack approaches you'll want to focus on maximising your pph but by planning ahead and prebuilding Maranian Amulet based units like Seekers and Priestesses you can reduce your food burden whilst providing a comparable army.
Castle Defence:
This ultimately depends on your play style and your relationship with local active players. If you're managed to make yourself a popular target then you'll want to build fast, your army likely won't be around for long so don't worry too much about the upkeep.
For those who have a better relationship with their neighbours go for those low food units. It will take you longer to get a similar sized army but you won't have to do it nearly as often.
Friendly Garrison:
These units are nothing more than an alert system to let you know when your friends have been spied on or been attacked. You want as cheap as possible. Archers, and then Lost Ones when they become available, are the best bet. You'll only need to keep one on each castle.
Team/League Defence:
For me these are typically made up from units that I have built in order to balance out the iron/gold ratio after building my offensive units. For the more conscientious among you, you might want to preference building nomads. Defensively you have very few fast units outside of the eldritch varieties, even barbarians, equal to nomads in overall power, cost and consumption are strangely 1/3 slower than nomads. Fast units = fast response.
Beacon Defence:
Maximise your pph, beacons get attacked a lot and you need to get defence there often and in size. Send a mix of unit types to get the best performance from them.
Good luck, build big and build smart and remember that your units are just another resource.
Resource Management
G'Day peeps, this post, along with the previous Farming 101 should help you keep control of your RSS and turn you into a provider to those in need.
Why do I need to control my RSS? Essentially, so you aren't a beggar. Now as a league we certainly try to help out everyone with RSS or defence when needed but as we've seen with beacon attacks we can find ourselves all short on a single RSS or in a position where we just don't have enough to give because we're barely keeping up ourselves. The better we control our own RSS the more effective we can be for others and for the league.
How do I get RSS?
Firstly build up your townhouses, mines and farm. They aren't enough to keep up with your needs but it is a passive income that occurs whether you're playing, working or sleeping. It runs 24/7, you don't.
Secondly Farm!
Thirdly take over settlements. This is a poor option however and does require some pre-planning. If you need 1000 food now then taking a farm and having to wait an hour to get 900 food is a bit of a waste.
Finally you can always use those food tokens you get as rewards, either from league chests, daily log on or similar (or paid for!)
Note: There is another source of RSS that I haven't mentioned because of it's inconsistency. That is when it is a reward from a BG. Sometimes instead of units as a reward you will find your coffers nearly filled with RSS. As unit rewards aren't a guarantee, and RSS is a subset of unit rewards I don't suggest using BGs for gaining RSS.
Plan ahead!
This is what I consider to be the single most important part of resource management. Think about what your upcoming costs (Lost Arts, Construction, Maranian Amulets) are before you pour all your RSS into building units. You'll quickly turn into a beggar if you fill up your queues, with no raids left and a lost art upgrade finishing in 40 minutes. By the same token you'll want to try and organise your building construction with an eye to finishing when you have both RSS and are awake to start the next job.
Your profile tells you how much of each RSS you produce per hour. If you know your next building will cost you 12K of each RSS type and you produce 1500 per hour you should either raid up to 12K and save it, or know that if you finish raiding with 8 hours till the current building ends your passive income will cover the cost of the next building.
Save Food!
Food is usually the most sought after RSS, I try to stay above 1K net per hour, if it's below that I use the third point below. There aren't many food multipliers (lost arts, forges etc.) and a chunk of it is always being used to maintain armies, so how can you save food?
Firstly, if you aren't being pushed to build power quickly, build armies with maranian amulets. They don't require food to build and they use a fraction of the food to keep.
Secondly, preference holding your eldritch units. They use half of the food of the non-eldritch unit. If you're sending reinforcements to a castle being attacked send your normal units. You know there's a good chance they'll die so don't send your money saving units unless it's really needed. The same with attacking.
Thirdly, send units to their glorious death in a BG. There is always a good chance you'll get better units as a reward and those powerful units consume less food per power than the ones you should have sent. See the paragraph above for which ones you want to send to their death. Sagas are especially good for this as you are guaranteed units as a reward and they are Eldritch units, it's a Save/Save scenario.
Fourth, build that Spring of Life as high as you can. Preference it above lost arts and unit building until it is done. At 4.5% per level after the first it is the biggest multiplier you will encounter.
Plan ahead!!
Yes I know I've already said it, but it is that important.
Waste not, want not.
You've planned ahead, you know you'll have enough from passive for the next building/art/etc. so you've used up all your iron queuing up 100 paladins. You now have excess gold and it will reach cap while you sleep.
A better idea might have been to queue up 50 paladins and then use all the rest of your gold and iron on archers. Keeping balanced means you won't find yourself wasting RSS or falling short when you need it. Offence uses more Iron, Defence uses more Gold. Keep them relatively similar and you'll have a balanced force to use for BGs or helping out your fellow league members.
Build Powerful Units
At a certain point in the game you will find yourself with queues you can't possibly fill without some very generous farms. I'll get into power production in a later post but for now consider that more powerful units require less food per power. A dragon eats 4 food per hour, four times as much as a pikeman but is 42 times more powerful. A good return on upkeep.
Enjoy the challenge of resource management and keep your coffers and queues full!
Why do I need to control my RSS? Essentially, so you aren't a beggar. Now as a league we certainly try to help out everyone with RSS or defence when needed but as we've seen with beacon attacks we can find ourselves all short on a single RSS or in a position where we just don't have enough to give because we're barely keeping up ourselves. The better we control our own RSS the more effective we can be for others and for the league.
How do I get RSS?
Firstly build up your townhouses, mines and farm. They aren't enough to keep up with your needs but it is a passive income that occurs whether you're playing, working or sleeping. It runs 24/7, you don't.
Secondly Farm!
Thirdly take over settlements. This is a poor option however and does require some pre-planning. If you need 1000 food now then taking a farm and having to wait an hour to get 900 food is a bit of a waste.
Finally you can always use those food tokens you get as rewards, either from league chests, daily log on or similar (or paid for!)
Note: There is another source of RSS that I haven't mentioned because of it's inconsistency. That is when it is a reward from a BG. Sometimes instead of units as a reward you will find your coffers nearly filled with RSS. As unit rewards aren't a guarantee, and RSS is a subset of unit rewards I don't suggest using BGs for gaining RSS.
Plan ahead!
This is what I consider to be the single most important part of resource management. Think about what your upcoming costs (Lost Arts, Construction, Maranian Amulets) are before you pour all your RSS into building units. You'll quickly turn into a beggar if you fill up your queues, with no raids left and a lost art upgrade finishing in 40 minutes. By the same token you'll want to try and organise your building construction with an eye to finishing when you have both RSS and are awake to start the next job.
Your profile tells you how much of each RSS you produce per hour. If you know your next building will cost you 12K of each RSS type and you produce 1500 per hour you should either raid up to 12K and save it, or know that if you finish raiding with 8 hours till the current building ends your passive income will cover the cost of the next building.
Save Food!
Food is usually the most sought after RSS, I try to stay above 1K net per hour, if it's below that I use the third point below. There aren't many food multipliers (lost arts, forges etc.) and a chunk of it is always being used to maintain armies, so how can you save food?
Firstly, if you aren't being pushed to build power quickly, build armies with maranian amulets. They don't require food to build and they use a fraction of the food to keep.
Secondly, preference holding your eldritch units. They use half of the food of the non-eldritch unit. If you're sending reinforcements to a castle being attacked send your normal units. You know there's a good chance they'll die so don't send your money saving units unless it's really needed. The same with attacking.
Thirdly, send units to their glorious death in a BG. There is always a good chance you'll get better units as a reward and those powerful units consume less food per power than the ones you should have sent. See the paragraph above for which ones you want to send to their death. Sagas are especially good for this as you are guaranteed units as a reward and they are Eldritch units, it's a Save/Save scenario.
Fourth, build that Spring of Life as high as you can. Preference it above lost arts and unit building until it is done. At 4.5% per level after the first it is the biggest multiplier you will encounter.
Plan ahead!!
Yes I know I've already said it, but it is that important.
Waste not, want not.
You've planned ahead, you know you'll have enough from passive for the next building/art/etc. so you've used up all your iron queuing up 100 paladins. You now have excess gold and it will reach cap while you sleep.
A better idea might have been to queue up 50 paladins and then use all the rest of your gold and iron on archers. Keeping balanced means you won't find yourself wasting RSS or falling short when you need it. Offence uses more Iron, Defence uses more Gold. Keep them relatively similar and you'll have a balanced force to use for BGs or helping out your fellow league members.
Build Powerful Units
At a certain point in the game you will find yourself with queues you can't possibly fill without some very generous farms. I'll get into power production in a later post but for now consider that more powerful units require less food per power. A dragon eats 4 food per hour, four times as much as a pikeman but is 42 times more powerful. A good return on upkeep.
Enjoy the challenge of resource management and keep your coffers and queues full!
Farming 101
Alright peeps, here I'm going to explain some of the basics of farming for rss and some suggestions on how to get the most from your farming.
What is farming? This has nothing to do with the food farms inside your castle, here we mean the farming of enemy castles to steal their rss. Your townhouses, mines and farms cannot keep up with demand, you will have to farm the enemy to grow.
Who do I farm? 99% of the time you will want to farm the castles of players who have quit the game. This is because they will have no, or minimal defences and will not attack you in return. There is no point in farming a castle if you're going to have to farm another castle for the rss to replace the units you lost farming the first castle.
Target selection:
Here is a map of a random location, as you can see there are 16 castles, but only one of these is a worthwhile target.
When selecting targets consider first their level. A reasonable result from a raid is 15k, approximately 5K gold/5K iron/5K food. Castles below level 30 are very unlikely to have this much. Sometimes you'll find one as low as level 28 but below that they will have left the game before building up their warehouses and barns to hold enough.
Right away we see we are left with 3 out of 16 targets.
The second consideration is if the castle is in a league. If you have seen that these castles haven't leveled up for a reasonable amount of time (a couple of days for castles below level 45, a week or more for higher levels) then you can check the league to see how active they are, if they claim to boot inactives or have a high ranking. If it looks like a dead or weak league then send some scouts and check it out. If it does have armies out then you might want to wait until the pvp global quest before you start using it as a farm.
For the purposes of this exercise we will assume that the two league members on screen are active, that leaves us with the one castle, a level 38.
The third consideration comes after scouting out the castle. Here is a scout report...
As you can see there is more than 5K of each RSS, so that's a go right!? Not quite.. you see every castle has a portion of it's RSS that can't be raided because it is safe and sound in the catacombs, so I'd actually only raid about 4.3K gold and iron respectively. To achieve that 5K figure I'd need to hit a castle of that level with 8K. If it were a level 50 castle I'd probably need to hit a castle with 10K or more, the higher the level, the larger the catacombs. So does that mean I shouldn't raid this castle? Well that is up to you, I'd certainly keep it in mind should I need extra food or if there aren't any other better options around.
My final consideration is When did I last attack it? There appears to be diminishing returns on multiple attacks in a day by the one player, my own experiences point towards a 24 hour period rather than an ingame day. Avoid attacking the same castle more than once a day or you might find you get nothing in return.
Tips for farming.
Feel free to add any more farming tips in the comments.
What is farming? This has nothing to do with the food farms inside your castle, here we mean the farming of enemy castles to steal their rss. Your townhouses, mines and farms cannot keep up with demand, you will have to farm the enemy to grow.
Who do I farm? 99% of the time you will want to farm the castles of players who have quit the game. This is because they will have no, or minimal defences and will not attack you in return. There is no point in farming a castle if you're going to have to farm another castle for the rss to replace the units you lost farming the first castle.
Target selection:
When selecting targets consider first their level. A reasonable result from a raid is 15k, approximately 5K gold/5K iron/5K food. Castles below level 30 are very unlikely to have this much. Sometimes you'll find one as low as level 28 but below that they will have left the game before building up their warehouses and barns to hold enough.
Right away we see we are left with 3 out of 16 targets.
The second consideration is if the castle is in a league. If you have seen that these castles haven't leveled up for a reasonable amount of time (a couple of days for castles below level 45, a week or more for higher levels) then you can check the league to see how active they are, if they claim to boot inactives or have a high ranking. If it looks like a dead or weak league then send some scouts and check it out. If it does have armies out then you might want to wait until the pvp global quest before you start using it as a farm.
For the purposes of this exercise we will assume that the two league members on screen are active, that leaves us with the one castle, a level 38.
The third consideration comes after scouting out the castle. Here is a scout report...
My final consideration is When did I last attack it? There appears to be diminishing returns on multiple attacks in a day by the one player, my own experiences point towards a 24 hour period rather than an ingame day. Avoid attacking the same castle more than once a day or you might find you get nothing in return.
Tips for farming.
- Always scout first, just because you haven't farmed it recently doesn't mean that someone didn't hit it an hour earlier.
- Only farm the good stuff. You have a limited number of raids per day, make them count. Non rrs farming attacks can still be made once you have run out of attacks so leave your aggression at the door until then.
- Go long. Looking only 20km away from home is a waste of time, your range should be at least 50km, and if you leave your pikemen and dwarves at home it won't take you an hour to get there.
- Don't send everyone. Just send enough to get the loot and bring it home. If the empty castle you're attacking only has 25K in rss there's no point in sending enough units to bring home twice that.
- Defence can farm too. Save time by sending your defence out to farm. They shouldn't be facing any enemies so what does it matter that you're only sending 10K in attack power?
- Group your speeds. If you only have enough units for two farming forces then try and split them into a fast and slow group rather than two slow groups. That way the faster ones will get back sooner and you can send them out again.
Feel free to add any more farming tips in the comments.
Co-ordinate Geography
Players seem to struggle with explaining where they or their enemies are so here is a short post explaining how the world is mapped and why precise co-ordinates are required.
So here is a partial map of the world, specifically that part centred on Oberon's castle. For those who missed all the storyline parts at the beginning of the game Oberon is the bigwig who made you a Lord or Lady and has given you Amelia to help guide you.
The coloured tiles are the areas controlled by the various beacons in the area.
Here I have added a simple X/Y axis pair to demonstrate co-ordinate directions.
Quadrant 1 has a negative X component and a positive Y component, ie. X: -100, Y: 100
Quadrant 2 has a positive X component and a positive Y component, ie. X: 100, Y: 100
Quadrant 3 has a negative X component and a negative Y component, ie. X: -100, Y: -100
Quadrant 4 has a positive X component and a negative Y component, ie. X: 100, Y: -100
This means that while you might think 500, 400 is close to -520, 400 they are actually 1000 kilometres away.
When communicating with your league members the location of an enemy castle, a settlement, beacon or any other point of interest make sure you include any negative signs and the name of the location/target to reduce any possible confusion.
The coloured tiles are the areas controlled by the various beacons in the area.
Quadrant 1 has a negative X component and a positive Y component, ie. X: -100, Y: 100
Quadrant 2 has a positive X component and a positive Y component, ie. X: 100, Y: 100
Quadrant 3 has a negative X component and a negative Y component, ie. X: -100, Y: -100
Quadrant 4 has a positive X component and a negative Y component, ie. X: 100, Y: -100
This means that while you might think 500, 400 is close to -520, 400 they are actually 1000 kilometres away.
When communicating with your league members the location of an enemy castle, a settlement, beacon or any other point of interest make sure you include any negative signs and the name of the location/target to reduce any possible confusion.
League Quests
There are types of League Quests, each lasting for a 24 hour period and each quest has 4 levels of rewards.
Each level of reward is dependent on the total accumulated by the entire league and rewards are only given to those who participate.
Unit Building
By far the easiest of the league quests, just build as many units as possible in the time frame. All units built count in this quest so make sure you have all queues operating, even new players can build both Infantry and Bestiary units.
If you are having trouble keeping your queues full then make sure you ask for more resources to top off what you get through raiding.
The number of points does not equate 1:1 with units built. More powerful units can contribute even more points, up to 46 points for a Dragon.
Using your Maranian Amulets on units during this quest is a great way to reduce the rss burden.
Things to research: Do 'hired' (bought) and liberated (bg rewards) count towards units built?
Resource Collection
Another easy league quest however some forward planning and regional awareness will greatly improve your results. The aim is simple, raid enemy castles for resources. You do have a limited number of raids per day so raiding level 3 and 4 castles is not going to be very productive.
Firstly scout out castles of at least level 30, particularly aiming for those which are no longer being played, notable by their lack of league membership and static level. Send sufficient units to make sure you raid all of the possible resources, if the castle is undefended then also send defensive units to increase your carrying capacity.
A return of 15K or more for each raid is a realistic goal.
Activating your paragon status at least once will also give you an additional number of raids dependant on your paragon level.
Things to research: Do resource packs count?
Daily Quests
Do your daily quests as normal, this is one of the few times I would advocate activating your Paragon Status more than once in a day. If you're doing all 3 quest refreshes you should be able to reach 40 or more quests in a day. With a little pre-planning you can get even more by saving some already completed daily quests to finalise during the League Quest period.
Note: The quests below have now been converted into Tournaments along with additional varieties of tournament play. Stay tuned for a post covering Tournaments.
Unit destruction
Now it's time to get your PvP on. Go out and kill enemy units.
This one is simple in theory but can be a little harder to do in practice.
Offensively:
Go out and scout enemy castles. If you are concerned about enemy retaliation then scout castles in the 20-30 range that are static in level but still in a weak league. Many leagues are as inactive as the playerbase and haven't kicked inactive members. The league membership is enough to deter casual or opportunistic attacks so make sure you scout out these castles.
Defensively:
Take the opportunity to leave your defensive units in the keep and not in the catacombs, additionally capturing a settlement and stacking your defence there can make for a lucrative source of unit deaths. Sapphire and Amulet settlements generally work best. Consider sending reinforcements to other member's castles or settlements for shared fun.
Things to research: I want to confirm that your own unit losses do count. Also to check if all units count as one point or if some are worth more than others.
Battlegrounds
Go forth and do battlegrounds. I'll cover battlegrounds in more detail in another post but it is important to remember that while you can be rewarded more units for winning a battleground you will in the long run lose more than you will be rewarded. Be prepared to lose lots of units.
Try and use your easily replaced units (infantry especially) to soak up most of the losses. I recommend not using any legendary units for bgs and definitely no thieves.
Saga Quests (Balur's Chasm and House of Whatsit) do not count as bgs for the purpose of this or any other global quest.
Things to research: I haven't yet looked at the relationship between quest points and the bgs done.
I encourage everyone to get involved with these league quests. The more that participate the less is required from any one player for a greater reward, and as those higher level rewards include some juicy items there is even more incentive to put in, even just a little.
Unit Building
By far the easiest of the league quests, just build as many units as possible in the time frame. All units built count in this quest so make sure you have all queues operating, even new players can build both Infantry and Bestiary units.
If you are having trouble keeping your queues full then make sure you ask for more resources to top off what you get through raiding.
The number of points does not equate 1:1 with units built. More powerful units can contribute even more points, up to 46 points for a Dragon.
Using your Maranian Amulets on units during this quest is a great way to reduce the rss burden.
Things to research: Do 'hired' (bought) and liberated (bg rewards) count towards units built?
Resource Collection
Another easy league quest however some forward planning and regional awareness will greatly improve your results. The aim is simple, raid enemy castles for resources. You do have a limited number of raids per day so raiding level 3 and 4 castles is not going to be very productive.
Firstly scout out castles of at least level 30, particularly aiming for those which are no longer being played, notable by their lack of league membership and static level. Send sufficient units to make sure you raid all of the possible resources, if the castle is undefended then also send defensive units to increase your carrying capacity.
A return of 15K or more for each raid is a realistic goal.
Activating your paragon status at least once will also give you an additional number of raids dependant on your paragon level.
Things to research: Do resource packs count?
Daily Quests
Do your daily quests as normal, this is one of the few times I would advocate activating your Paragon Status more than once in a day. If you're doing all 3 quest refreshes you should be able to reach 40 or more quests in a day. With a little pre-planning you can get even more by saving some already completed daily quests to finalise during the League Quest period.
Note: The quests below have now been converted into Tournaments along with additional varieties of tournament play. Stay tuned for a post covering Tournaments.
Unit destruction
Now it's time to get your PvP on. Go out and kill enemy units.
This one is simple in theory but can be a little harder to do in practice.
Offensively:
Go out and scout enemy castles. If you are concerned about enemy retaliation then scout castles in the 20-30 range that are static in level but still in a weak league. Many leagues are as inactive as the playerbase and haven't kicked inactive members. The league membership is enough to deter casual or opportunistic attacks so make sure you scout out these castles.
Defensively:
Take the opportunity to leave your defensive units in the keep and not in the catacombs, additionally capturing a settlement and stacking your defence there can make for a lucrative source of unit deaths. Sapphire and Amulet settlements generally work best. Consider sending reinforcements to other member's castles or settlements for shared fun.
Things to research: I want to confirm that your own unit losses do count. Also to check if all units count as one point or if some are worth more than others.
Battlegrounds
Go forth and do battlegrounds. I'll cover battlegrounds in more detail in another post but it is important to remember that while you can be rewarded more units for winning a battleground you will in the long run lose more than you will be rewarded. Be prepared to lose lots of units.
Try and use your easily replaced units (infantry especially) to soak up most of the losses. I recommend not using any legendary units for bgs and definitely no thieves.
Saga Quests (Balur's Chasm and House of Whatsit) do not count as bgs for the purpose of this or any other global quest.
Things to research: I haven't yet looked at the relationship between quest points and the bgs done.
I encourage everyone to get involved with these league quests. The more that participate the less is required from any one player for a greater reward, and as those higher level rewards include some juicy items there is even more incentive to put in, even just a little.
Glossary
As these posts develop I will add to the glossary here to explain any terms found in game, terms I have adopted or created.
Amulets: shorthand for Maranian Amulets
bg/bgs: an abbreviation for battleground/s
Maranian Amulets: a specialised resource for building certain units
Quests: a mismanaged term in that quests are used multiple times for different things. There are 'Quests' given by Amelia, Saga Quests, League Quests, Global Quests, PvP Quests and Daily Quests, which themselves come in 3 flavours, Individual, League and Paragon.
rss: an abbreviation for resources, your main building blocks. Gold, Iron and Food are your primary resources.
Saga Quests: a type of battleground that is only accessible by achieving a certain level of normal battleground and the previous Saga Quest level.
Wallet Warrior: A player that uses money to support their play style. Whether you like it in the game or not it exists and is a style of play obviously strongly supported by Plarium.
Amulets: shorthand for Maranian Amulets
bg/bgs: an abbreviation for battleground/s
Maranian Amulets: a specialised resource for building certain units
Quests: a mismanaged term in that quests are used multiple times for different things. There are 'Quests' given by Amelia, Saga Quests, League Quests, Global Quests, PvP Quests and Daily Quests, which themselves come in 3 flavours, Individual, League and Paragon.
rss: an abbreviation for resources, your main building blocks. Gold, Iron and Food are your primary resources.
Saga Quests: a type of battleground that is only accessible by achieving a certain level of normal battleground and the previous Saga Quest level.
Wallet Warrior: A player that uses money to support their play style. Whether you like it in the game or not it exists and is a style of play obviously strongly supported by Plarium.
About
This is a guide to Stormfall: Rise of Balur for the support of the members of the Game of War (W0G) League.
W0G is a league started by a group of Game of War players who moved across to Stormfall. The membership however is not limited to GoW players and we count many players who previously opposed us who have now joined our active and supportive community. More details can be found in game.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)