Post by Fhorar » Fri May 25, 2012 10:46 am
I completely agree with Bl1ndfury -- troop composition is largely situational as well as personal preference. When I first started playing I tried searching high and low through forums and talking to more experienced players in my guild to try to find the best/most efficient composition to aim for but it just doesn't exist currently because of the number of factors involved. Therefore, the best way to figure this issue out is to attempt to talk to as many people about their personal strategies as possible and come up with your own.
Personally, this is what I do (it is largely based on Bl1ndfury's strat but more tailored for my situation) (I play in a 3 level upgrade world):
I have 4 basic city types currently - RS (or 'Ram Strike'), BS (or 'Berzerker Strike'), GS (or 'Guardian Support'), and FS (or 'Feed/Support'). I cluster my cities as well - 1 GS/2BS/2RS - any city or cities I grab from other players in a war are FS and I like to make sure I take a couple cities in the same area or just grab barbs near them to have at least 4 FS in close proximity.
My RS comp looks like:
BUILDINGS (3577 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 19 workshop, lvl 17 market (I never use hiding place - max level it hides 10K resources which is worthless and a waste of farm space).
TROOPS:
7k zerk, 100 scout, 2.5k guard, 750 ram
FORGE:
1 Lancer (have to have that) 3 Zerk 2 Scout 3 Guard 1 Ram
EXPLANATION:
The building comp is to allow for some resource movement between offensive cities based on necessity along with allowing for almost exactly 20,200 farm space for troops. With RS cities being the vanguard of my assault (like Bl1ndfury's) they're a lot more likely to wipe in the troop department and this troop comp + building comp allows me to be able to rebuild that exact troop comp in approximately 4 days for zerks 3 days for guards and 2 days for rams. I also squeeze as much offense as I can out of it when compared to farm space and time to rebuild along with a least a little bit of defense to be able to support surround cities should my offensive cluster be attacked. I feel its the best balance overall for this type of city.
My BS comp looks very similar to my RS minus the amount of rams and the high lvl workshop:
BUILDINGS (3498 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 5 workshop, lvl 18 market
TROOPS:
8k zerks, 100 scout, 3k guards, 20 rams
FORGE:
1 Lancer, 3 Zerk, 2 Scout, 3 Guard, 1 Ram
EXPLANATION:
The main difference here is 1k more zerk and 500 more guard in place of the rams. I still have 20 rams to help with chaosing (as I do in all of my cities) but I find that the zerk/guard comp allows for quicker rebuilding of troops while maintaining decent attack/defense. These cities are used when I expect heavy defense or to help smaller players by clearing their targets for them during wars. The 20 rams are not only used for chaos but also to help with timing my clearing waves with my scholar waves. Because I play at work the most and because of the funky launch times my guild has, it's a lot easier for me to remember to throw my clearing waves at a target city approx 2-4 hours after I launch my scholars (by sending a single ram with the wave) vs 6-12 hours after -- it also has the added benefit of giving the target less time to log in and be able to truce (if they're a gold user) between my scholar and clearing launches.
My GS comp is pretty straightforward:
BUILDINGS (3098 food):
Max stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 10 barracks (demo'd after academy is built) lvl 7 workshop, lvl 17 market
TROOPS:
50 scouts, 5k guards, 20 rams, 5 scholars
FORGE:
2 lancer, 2 sentry, 2 scout, 3 guard, 1 ram
EXPLANATION:
This is my scholar city. I build a straight 5k guard because of the scholars - there is (IMO) very little reason to have lance/sent/zerk/knight here as I want as much defense and offense as possible simultaneously and I just like sending round numbers with my scholars (1k each). I have my lance/sent levels at 2 for when I receive FS or guild support (the level of the support unit is based of the level in the city it supports, not the supporting city). Not much more to be said here.
My FS comp looks like this:
BUILDINGS (4277 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy/MARKET lvl 29 city hall, lvl 6 workshop
TROOPS:
6K lancers, 3k sentries, 2550 guards, 100 scouts, 25 rams
FORGE:
2 lancer, 2 sentry, 2 scout, 3 guard, 1 ram
EXPLANATION:
This city is meant for 2 things: feeding and supporting. They have decent enough defense to defend against most uncoordinated attacks BUT their strength lies in pooling all troops for a 4 FS city cluster into 1 city being targeted. When any of my cities are under attack I immediately attempt to secure chaos on it and I send support from FS clusters (send guard/lancer/sents separately because of different travel times). In most cases I get chaos before clearing waves are sent or if clearing waves are sent far ahead of scholar waves it's easy to dodge and because of travel times my support usually arrives after clearing waves have hit. I try to keep clusters of FS cities no more than 12 hours travel time (as the sentry travels) from other clusters (kind of like a web). If I cap cities that are further than that I usually attempt to start up a cluster (when possible) halfway between the closest cluster and the new cluster to help support it. As far as feeding goes, these cities generally only build scholarships once they are complete and, as such, generally have an excess of wood and iron that my RS/BS cities (which have to rebuild troops relatively often given their nature) desperately need. This is where the max market comes in - being able to supply up to 400k wood/iron at a time from one cluster is a tremendous boon to the offensive capability of my war machine.
One final note: in a 3 level world guardians are most definitely king. I shoot for level 3 guardian in every single city - they support quickly and have great stats (althought not the best stats vs farm space). This is what works for me for the situation I am in (top 5 guild in a top 2 alliance that is very active) and hopefully it helps give you and other players reading this and idea of how to craft their empires :-).
I completely agree with Bl1ndfury -- troop composition is largely situational as well as personal preference. When I first started playing I tried searching high and low through forums and talking to more experienced players in my guild to try to find the best/most efficient composition to aim for but it just doesn't exist currently because of the number of factors involved. Therefore, the best way to figure this issue out is to attempt to talk to as many people about their personal strategies as possible and come up with your own.
Personally, this is what I do (it is largely based on Bl1ndfury's strat but more tailored for my situation) (I play in a 3 level upgrade world):
I have 4 basic city types currently - RS (or 'Ram Strike'), BS (or 'Berzerker Strike'), GS (or 'Guardian Support'), and FS (or 'Feed/Support'). I cluster my cities as well - 1 GS/2BS/2RS - any city or cities I grab from other players in a war are FS and I like to make sure I take a couple cities in the same area or just grab barbs near them to have at least 4 FS in close proximity.
My RS comp looks like:
BUILDINGS (3577 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 19 workshop, lvl 17 market (I never use hiding place - max level it hides 10K resources which is worthless and a waste of farm space).
TROOPS:
7k zerk, 100 scout, 2.5k guard, 750 ram
FORGE:
1 Lancer (have to have that) 3 Zerk 2 Scout 3 Guard 1 Ram
EXPLANATION:
The building comp is to allow for some resource movement between offensive cities based on necessity along with allowing for almost exactly 20,200 farm space for troops. With RS cities being the vanguard of my assault (like Bl1ndfury's) they're a lot more likely to wipe in the troop department and this troop comp + building comp allows me to be able to rebuild that exact troop comp in approximately 4 days for zerks 3 days for guards and 2 days for rams. I also squeeze as much offense as I can out of it when compared to farm space and time to rebuild along with a least a little bit of defense to be able to support surround cities should my offensive cluster be attacked. I feel its the best balance overall for this type of city.
My BS comp looks very similar to my RS minus the amount of rams and the high lvl workshop:
BUILDINGS (3498 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 5 workshop, lvl 18 market
TROOPS:
8k zerks, 100 scout, 3k guards, 20 rams
FORGE:
1 Lancer, 3 Zerk, 2 Scout, 3 Guard, 1 Ram
EXPLANATION:
The main difference here is 1k more zerk and 500 more guard in place of the rams. I still have 20 rams to help with chaosing (as I do in all of my cities) but I find that the zerk/guard comp allows for quicker rebuilding of troops while maintaining decent attack/defense. These cities are used when I expect heavy defense or to help smaller players by clearing their targets for them during wars. The 20 rams are not only used for chaos but also to help with timing my clearing waves with my scholar waves. Because I play at work the most and because of the funky launch times my guild has, it's a lot easier for me to remember to throw my clearing waves at a target city approx 2-4 hours after I launch my scholars (by sending a single ram with the wave) vs 6-12 hours after -- it also has the added benefit of giving the target less time to log in and be able to truce (if they're a gold user) between my scholar and clearing launches.
My GS comp is pretty straightforward:
BUILDINGS (3098 food):
Max stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy - lvl 25 city hall, lvl 10 barracks (demo'd after academy is built) lvl 7 workshop, lvl 17 market
TROOPS:
50 scouts, 5k guards, 20 rams, 5 scholars
FORGE:
2 lancer, 2 sentry, 2 scout, 3 guard, 1 ram
EXPLANATION:
This is my scholar city. I build a straight 5k guard because of the scholars - there is (IMO) very little reason to have lance/sent/zerk/knight here as I want as much defense and offense as possible simultaneously and I just like sending round numbers with my scholars (1k each). I have my lance/sent levels at 2 for when I receive FS or guild support (the level of the support unit is based of the level in the city it supports, not the supporting city). Not much more to be said here.
My FS comp looks like this:
BUILDINGS (4277 food):
Max barracks/stable/resources/farm/warehouse/wall/forge/academy/[b][u]MARKET[/u][/b] lvl 29 city hall, lvl 6 workshop
TROOPS:
6K lancers, 3k sentries, 2550 guards, 100 scouts, 25 rams
FORGE:
2 lancer, 2 sentry, 2 scout, 3 guard, 1 ram
EXPLANATION:
This city is meant for 2 things: feeding and supporting. They have decent enough defense to defend against most uncoordinated attacks BUT their strength lies in pooling all troops for a 4 FS city cluster into 1 city being targeted. When any of my cities are under attack I immediately attempt to secure chaos on it and I send support from FS clusters (send guard/lancer/sents separately because of different travel times). In most cases I get chaos before clearing waves are sent or if clearing waves are sent far ahead of scholar waves it's easy to dodge and because of travel times my support usually arrives after clearing waves have hit. I try to keep clusters of FS cities no more than 12 hours travel time (as the sentry travels) from other clusters (kind of like a web). If I cap cities that are further than that I usually attempt to start up a cluster (when possible) halfway between the closest cluster and the new cluster to help support it. As far as feeding goes, these cities generally only build scholarships once they are complete and, as such, generally have an excess of wood and iron that my RS/BS cities (which have to rebuild troops relatively often given their nature) desperately need. This is where the max market comes in - being able to supply up to 400k wood/iron at a time from one cluster is a tremendous boon to the offensive capability of my war machine.
One final note: in a 3 level world guardians are most definitely king. I shoot for level 3 guardian in every single city - they support quickly and have great stats (althought not the best stats vs farm space). This is what works for me for the situation I am in (top 5 guild in a top 2 alliance that is very active) and hopefully it helps give you and other players reading this and idea of how to craft their empires :-).