Total Destruction

[That Guy]

If you want to turn a player into a gold coin, kill his army first and foremost.  Beyond that, don't let him rebuild.  Siege every province.  When he produces resources or brings home gold, go take it.  He won't be able to hire soldiers and any gold he gets will be wasted rebuilding fortresses.  He'll get sick enough of you to quit, capitulate, or convince a powerful friend to take you out depending on the sort of player he is.  If none of these things happen, enjoy farming him at will the rest of the era. 

[Silverdot]

*tear* that's so beautiful,  you guys are the best! 

I can't wait to just smash this guy. 

+ Karma for everyone.

[FengXian]

if the enemy is at least a medium player, is almost impossible to destroy. at vest, you can slow him.

What is the meaning of that? 

[k_mihai]

What is the meaning of that? 

it means that the game is too much economical centered for a player to be really destroyed, if he takes some precautions like army saves, move resources though the provinces, don`t leave res at home when log off, not to mention cowards favorite, capitulation. things like pillages, destroyed forts etc, only slow down a little

[FengXian]

it means that the game is too much economical centered for a player to be really destroyed, if he takes some precautions like army saves, move resources though the provinces, don`t leave res at home when log off, not to mention cowards favorite, capitulation. things like pillages, destroyed forts etc, only slow down a little

Right 
   I even think that you will write some sarcastic joke like: "how can medium player destroy another medium player completely?"     
  good opinion 

[k_mihai]

Right 
   I even think that you will write some sarcastic joke like: "how can medium player destroy another medium player completely?"     
  good opinion 

Well, some of us tried to destroy players, or spend a whole era in R1 intl, where everyone tried to destroy us (being pillaged all the time, all the forts down). Even a 4 to 1 alliances war can be won, with a good strategy and some luck (won as beating all 4 alliances). The weakest point for a player is somewhere in the last month, when if you are able to kill the army, recovery is almost impossible (but if that dude already has a high position in ranks, won`t be so effective). For the rest, there are solutions. When u are pillaged, invest in med and granaries, pillage back, ask for friendly pillages, kill the enemy`s army. For empty forts attacks, keep only the fort in the main province (boxed mountain or wf) at a high level, the rest low, high depots to move resources, and spend all resources when you log off. Compensate the loss of production by robbing other players, hitting gold mines or war income. When someone tries to kill the army, keep carto at a low or level, and do saves on targets situated at different distances, so the return pattern is difficult to predict (ie send the army so that it will arrive after 20 mins of ur log in time, 20 mins to have time to take bonus and move resources to the province where the army is based). To recover from army lost, have a reserve of soldiers under training, war income saved, raid for money, don`t mobilized soldiers until you have a big part of the army ready.

That`s only for a mixed strategy, who includes fighting in earlier stages, and excludes capitulation. Farmers can`t be destroyed, cause the growth based on game mechanics always outpace the losses by pillages etc. 

[That Guy]

k_mihai makes plenty of accurate points.  But, if a player has a big army and then a group of players team up and hit his army repeatedly over one or two days, he is typically destroyed.  This is true, not because he can't rebuild, but because losing something that took weeks or months to build demoralizes most players and they will quit instead of trying to come back.  Even if he shows some heart and keeps playing, he won't be a threat again anytime soon. 

[k_mihai]

k_mihai makes plenty of accurate points.  But, if a player has a big army and then a group of players team up and hit his army repeatedly over one or two days, he is typically destroyed.  This is true, not because he can't rebuild, but because losing something that took weeks or months to build demoralizes most players and they will quit instead of trying to come back.  Even if he shows some heart and keeps playing, he won't be a threat again anytime soon. 

if that player knows how to do army saves, is unlikely that he will suffer a catastrophic loss. the groups of players will probably have misses after misses

[FengXian]

   WOOOOW   
   I see medium player with percision can make advance better then advance player. 
  or maybe I'm not good enough to be called advanced. 
  Karma for you sir.

[Silverdot]

things like pillages, destroyed forts etc, only slow down a little

In order to have a successful pillage is there an type of troop that does a better job then the other?

If he has 200K pop. I need to send 30% or 60,000 troops (eliets) to that province for a successful pillage. But is there an advantage to sending all spears, guardians etc.?

What's the ratio / percentage of population to troops needed to be sent?

[Radooo]

you need to send army equivalent to more than 20% of his population from that province
And cavalry is a bit better for pillages because they travel faster, but pillaging only with cavalry is used when player is offline or he doesn't have any army. Usually, the army sent to pillage is the one that can defeat the defender's army (in case he wants to defend)

[That Guy]

Like the last post said, cavalry is the way to go as long as they won't get beat by the opposing army.  Watch out for players who have a lot of spears at home.  Cavalry travels twice the normal speed plus any upgrades you have made to your horses.  Compared to an attack with siege weapons, you can possibly get to an enemy 4x to 5x faster.

[Silverdot]

Well I just want to thank everyone here for the input. I recently crushed my foe and it was beautiful! I had about 50K (200K elites) troops in each category and 500 siege. Took about a week to build that up.   

I first crushed his Army which was all in Province 8. Then I split up my army into 3 groups and pillaged all 6 of his provinces. Then when I was done with that I split my army up into 2 groups and sieged his castles 2 at a time.

End result... He ended up capitulating me and went on vacation. 

Now If people will quit messing with me I can get back to farming.

[Starbuck]

Sorry mate, but playing IO is a (almost) neverending fight for supremacy ...   

congrats on your victory

[Цезар]

Excellent work !