Tactics
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Tactics

http://www.siderus.net/~sypto/strat.txt Quite a few folks have expressed a certain
amount of either confusion over the starting
strategy or out and out unwillingness to use it.

In this thread, I will explain in detail why we
do some of the things we do. Feel free to respond
or critique. At this point, we don't have a better
one.

I reached 300k nw on day 5 of this age
It is not only possible, but easy to do.
But in order to get there AS A GUILD,
we have to buy into certain conceits
that are usually, (but not always), true.

1. Guilds will usually not start to attack
other guilds until day 6-8 of the beginning of an age.
2. You have to avoid using turns for miscellaneous
stuff like training troops and so forth. 3. You have to use every turn you have to its maximum effect.
_________________
Step 1. The importance of build rate.

Build rate is determined by your percentage
of quarrey structures of your total acreage.
As everyone knows, you start with a build rate
of 4. Each 5% of quarreys you have as a
percentage of your land size increases your
build rate by one increment.

Therefore:

0%-4.99% = 4 br
5%-9.99% = 6 br
10% -14.99% = 8 br
15 - 19.99% = 10 br
20 - 24.99% = 12 br
25 -29.99% = 14 br
30 - 34.99% = 16 br
35 - 39.99% = 18 br
40 - 44.99% = 19 br
45 - 49.99% = 20 br
50 - 54.99% = 21 br
55 - 59.99% = 22 br
60 - 64.99% = 23 br
65 - 69.99% = 24 br
70 - 74.99% = 25 br
75 - 79.99% = 26 br
80 - 84.99% = 27 br
85 - 89.99% = 28 br
90 - 94.99% = 29 br
95-100% = 30 br

The build strat calls for an ending build rate of 14 on 10,000 acres or 2500 quarrey structures. So... why do you not build up to a build rate of 14 and stay constant with it throughout your build?

Answer: Because it is slower.

Building at a constant build rate of 14 will allow you to fully build 10,000 acres in 714 turns or therabouts. I reached 10,000 fully built, had troops and had already hit one unguilded target by turn 665.

How?

Answer: Build up to your eventual total in quarreys at the beginning of your startup. This allows you to build at a higher build rate than 14 all the way up to the last 1700 acres or so. And for a significant portion of startup, you will be able to build in the 20's and high teens.

For those especially desirous of eking every turn out of the strategy that they can, here's a little trick.

Divide your total number of quarreys by the percentage it would take to maintain your current build rate and you will find the maximum amount of land you can hold in order to stay at that build rate. I will even do it for you here.

BR30 = 2500/.95 = 2631. This means in order to maintain a build rate of 30 with 2500 quarreys, you can have no more than 2631 acres.

Obviously, this is a rather silly goal since with the other buildings that the strategy calls for, you will never really be building at build rate 30. So let's proceed to some more plausible goals.

BR29 = 2500/.9 = 2777
BR28 = 2500/.85 = 2941
BR27 = 2500/.8 = 3125
BR26 = 2500/.75 = 3333 <- This is probably the highest build rate you'll have using our strat and you won't have it for very long.
BR25 = 2500/.7 = 3571
BR24 = 2500/.65 = 3846

This is the area in which this trick really becomes helpful.

BR23 = 2500/.6 = 4166
BR22 = 2500/.55 = 4545
BR21 = 2500/.5 = 5000
BR20 = 2500/.45 = 5555

This means that over 50% of the land target goal can be built at build rate 20 or higher. And if you are careful with your offering, you can maximize turn usage to eke out every turn at a higher build rate that you possibly can.

Now comes the fun part though. Thus far, we've been calling for people to offer a standard amount. I'd say we've been wrong on this and here is why:

BR19 = 2500/.4 = 6250
BR18 = 2500/.35 = 7142
BR16 = 2500/.3 = 8333

Notice that on the last three build rate increments the maximum land total at that increment increases dramatically. What I mean by this is that a build rate of 19 can be sustained for a possible total of 695 acres, while a build rate of 18 can be sustained for a total of 892 acres and one of 16 can be sustained for a total of 1191 acres.

Therefore, a standard offer and build cycle is not smart at this point, because you will make a hell of a lot more cash to offer with building 695 acres all at once than building 230, then offering, then building 230, then offering, etc. If there are questions about what this means, please ask, because this is very vital to a true speed strategy.

But for those who just want results, here's the bare bones process. Make sure that when you're at a certain build rate, you offer all the way up to the extreme of the land total allowed for that build rate.

For example, if you're building at BR22 and your offer only nets you a total of 4300 acres, offer again to reach 4545. And conversely if you're at BR22 and your offer nets you 4571 acres, drop 26 acres and go down to 4545.

Maximizing land per build rate increment accomplishes two functions:

1.) It increases the amount of money you make between offers, which reduces turn usage because it virtually eliminates the need to cast the calming chant spell.

2.) It increases the number of turns that you can use to build with between offers, which reduces the dwindling effect that most have noticed, as in, for a an income x 10 + change offer, you first get roughly 500 acres, then 450, then 383, etc. This causes the number of turns you spend between offers to dwindle, which reduces the amount of money you can offer, which causes you to have to use chant.

3.) Addtionally, you get more bang for your buck if you offer up to the maximum land amount that can sustain a specific build rate. That is: If you have 7142 acres and an income of 258k or so, each offer costs 258,001 to make. That means that if you offer all the way up to 8333 acres at that point, you'll save money. If you offer up to, say, 7500 acres, then build that, your income will rise. So now, each offer costs 280,001. Doesn't sound like much, does it?

Trust me. It adds up.
---------------------------------------------
Stage 2: The importance of Economy structures.

Alrighty:

So now we look something like this:

120 guildhalls
120 hovels
2500 quarreys
601 temples
3341 acres or just under 75% quarries, so we're at BR 25. This is about as high as our build strat ever gets us

So where do we go from here and why? And where the hell did those 601 temples come from and why are they in my kingdom?

1.) Building temples as you're in the offer and build cycle is vital. Your god likes you better and gives you better stuff if you build temples.
2.) Building temples as you go also allows you to build elan, which is important even to warrior kingdoms because we need it for ghost troops and fog.

The way I do it is to build the last 100 acres of every bit of offered land (roughly) as temples. But I don't go over 601 because I am a warrior. Does that mean that a sorceror should continue with the process and build 100 acres in temples all the way up to 2500? Answer: I'm not completely sure how that would affect their startup. At the moment I would say that it couldn't hurt it that badly. But we'll assume for the moment until every kingdom stops at 601 until all the quarreys are built.

Complaint 2: Hey, the banner strat only calls for 100 guildhalls and 100 hovels.
Answer: You're right and that will be fixed. Kit and I discovered that things go a bit fast if you build up to BR12 to start with and then build 120 each of ghs/hovels/temples during the first 500 acres.

So, anyway, where do we go next?

Answer: Economy if you're a warrior or a scummer and temples if you're a sorceror.

Why?

Answer: Because our goddess really digs folks who give her LOTS of money. Historically, we've been building barracks first for warriors and that's been a mistake, because we've been missing out on the really cool offer gifts from Isonia at the end.

Offer gifts, as near as I can tell, are influenced by two factors:

1.) How often you offer.
2.) How much you offer.

That means when you're in the last stages of your buildup, continue to offer in INCREMENTS of income multiplied by 10 with change on top of it.

For example, my income would be roughly 400k and my chest would have like 25 million, right?

Instead of offering the max amount twice and then about 5 million. I would offer 6 different times at a little over 4 million per offer. Why? Because the more times you offer a huge amount, the closer you come to the city gift, which is desirable, because your goddess gives you 500 extra acres, already fully built.

(Not greatly built, mind you, but fully built.)

So what does all this mean?

It means after you're done with quarreys, unless you're a sorceror, (sorry, sorcerors, we want you building elan as quickly as possible), build your economy structures next. Build up to 1000 each of them. Sorcerors, build up to 2601 temples, then go to economy structures.

-----------------------------------

Barracks and Forts

Alrighty,

So now we look like this:

1000 guildhalls
1000 hovels
2500 quarreys
601 temples

5101 acres or at 49% quarreys, so we're at BR20.

However, if you're a sorceror, you instead look like this:

120 guildhalls
120 hovels
2500 quarreys
2601 temples

4841 acres at 51% quarreys, so the sorceror is still at BR21.

Where do we go from here? Well, now we're on day 3 of the new game, assuming you started when the game reset and have been diligent about playing your turns, so we might be concerned about the odd random attack coming our way and slowing us down. So what do we do? Well, the sorceror goes on to his economy structures for the same reasons that I've outlined above, but now it's time for the warrior and scummer to move on to barracks with a middling number of forts.

This is another major reason that we've built economy structures first. You see, if we built forts first, then we would not make enough money per turn to continue to sustain our build because our expenses for maintaining the forts would kill our momentum. However, with an income near 300,000 per turn, we can easily sustain about 300 elite forts and still continue to build. It's a balancing act though, because without barracks, even a small number of forts cost a load to maintain. So what do we do?

Well, it's a variation of how we intermixed temple construction while we were building quarreys. During this stage, build predominately barracks, but the last 100 acres of every offer total you receive, build as forts until you reach 300 forts, then don't build any more until the end .

For example, if you're building between BR20 and BR19, you have about 454 acres left to work with. So build 354 barracks and 100 forts. Then, between BR19 and BR18 you'll have 695 acres to work with, so build 595 more barracks and another 100 forts. Finally, between BR18 and BR16, you'll have 892 acres, so build 792 of them as barracks and another 100 as forts.

Don't be too concerned if you run out turns during this at some point, because you will. However, two important tithe gifts grant you forts, so at the end of all this before you reach the final fort construction stage, you'll have about 450 forts anyway, which is more than enough to protect you from random attacks. Additionally, because you're building barracks predominately during this stage, the lowering of your expenses that comes with that will help you absorb the costs of having forts. At any rate, during this stage, the warrior should construct 3500 barracks, while the scummer should construct 3000.

The WARRIOR Finish

Alrighty,

So now we've reached a point of real division among the three kingdom types. I am not necessarily saying that the three different types will reach this point at exactly the same time as optimally, people will all reach 10,000 acres fully built at roughly the same time... on the same day at the very least.

However, the warrior looks like this:

1000 guildhalls
1000 hovels
3500 barracks
2500 quarreys
601 temples
300 forts

8901 acres at a build rate of 14. All the warrior has left to construct after barracks construction is 401 more temples and 699 more forts.

However, because of offer gifts the warrior is likely to instead look like this:

1050 guildhalls
1050 hovels
3500 barracks
2500 quarreys
601 temples
350 forts

In this case, the warrior must be careful, because the city gift, (those 500 fully built acres I mentioned before), is on the horizon.

He will soon look like this as you keep offering.

1150 guildhalls
1150 hovels
3600 barracks
2600 quarreys
701 temples
450 forts

This is unavoidable and the answer is simple. Instead of a 10,000 acre build, we're actually doing an 11,000 acre build. Obviously, the additional 100 quarreys is not enough to maintain a BR14 on 11,000 acres, so the first order of business is for the warrior to correct his percentages when it happens. Go up to 2750 quarreys. Then correct everything as follows:

11% guildhalls or 1210
11% hovels or 1210
25% quarreys or 2750
1001 temples (flat, not a strict percentage)
999 forts flat (also not a strict percentage)
3830 barracks (flat, not a strict percentage)

Then fortify, depending on when the strike has been called. If the strike is forthcoming, fortify with 1 set of offense troops and as many scum as you can cram into the kingdom.

If the strike is not forthcoming, fortify with 1 set of defense troops and the remainder scum.
_________________

The SCUMMER Finish.

Alrighty,

If you're a scummer, at this point, you will look like this:

1000 guildhalls
1000 hovels
3000 barracks
2500 quarreys
601 temples
300 forts

8401 acres at BR14.

Though you're far more likely because of tithe gifts to look like this:

1050 guildhalls
1050 hovels
3000 barracks
601 temples
350 forts

In which case, like the warrior, your city gift is coming. At that point, you'll look like this:

1150 guildhalls
1150 hovels
3100 barracks
701 temples
450 forts

This is also just a matter of cleaning up for 11,000 acres instead of 10,000 acres . The scummer wants to make more money than the warrior does, so after the scummer goes up to his 2750 quarreys to get back up to BR14, he's going to spend some more turns on economy structures. In the end, he should look like this:

1650 guildhalls
1650 quarreys
3350 barracks
2750 quarreys
1001 temples
599 forts.

Notice that the scummer has a significantly lower number of forts. I will explain the reason for this when I talk about troops and how troop maxes are calculated.

At any rate, at this point, the scummer fortifies with straight scum.

A small variation:

If you are a human scummer, you will have a lower number of scum than your elven counterparts. This is automatic because human scum are inherently more expensive than elven scum anyway. As such, human scummers will rarely be used as scouts and will be predominately used for offensive scum activities during war strikes. Therefore, I see no particular reason, if people must make human kingdoms, which some seem to want to do, to utilize the one advantage that human scummers have over elfs. That being the strength of their forts. Therefore the ending look for a human scummer should be as follows:

1430 guildhalls
1430 hovels
3350 barracks
2750 quarreys
1001 temples
1039 forts

Human scummers should also be fortified with pure scum troops.
_________________

The SORCEROR Finish.

Alrighty,

If you're a sorceror, you now look like this:

1000 guildhalls
1000 hovels
2500 quarreys
2601 temples

7101 acres or BR18. Obviously, at 7142, we reach BR16, so the majority of barracks building for the sorceror will be at BR16.

Seemingly, you are way behind, but in reality you aren't. Remember, everyone is building at roughly the same rate, so you will reach your end result at about the same time as everyone else. But obviously, in the explanation of this strategy, we are not at the same place we are in terms of actual game play, so we need to catch up with the sorceror.

Obviously, the next step for the sorceror is to get barracks and forts as we did with the warrior/scummer kingdoms. We don't have major jump-off points as we did for the warrior and the scummer, so we'll only be building 200 forts before major fort construction at the end. Leave the last 200 acres at BR16 for forts. Remember, you have 1191 acres to work with during BR16, so at the end of it, you'll have a little over 1000 barracks and 200 forts. After that, build up to 2400 barracks and up to 499 forts.

When you get the city gift then, you'll look like this:

1150 guildhalls
1150 hovels
2500 barracks
2600 quarreys
2701 temples
599 forts with

With about 500 acres to work with.

Build to 2750 quarreys, then build the last 350 acres in forts, so your end build looks like this:

1150 guildhalls
1150 hovels
2500 barracks
2750 quarreys
2701 temples
949 forts.

Your fortify should be straight scum.