Defence whilst off line

[VSmith]

I'm getting tired of being destroyed whenever I am off line and cannot defend myself.   My army of 19,000 heavy troops and my Fortress level 5 has just been destroyed by an army of only 17,000.   BUT the attacker had 130 Battering Rams and 110 catapults.   I think the key must be the siege weapons.   Has anyone any advice please how to cope with such a situation?   It seems that there in no defence to large numbers of rams and catapults so the attacker must always win even though the attacking army in numerically inferior.   It's getting rather boring.

I have learned to keep my resources to a minimum and spread them out over all my Provinces but I still can't defend successfully.   Perhaps I should move to a stronger Alliance.   Help please!!!!!

[Horde]

When you are offline, make an army-save... (sending your army away to a distant target so it is on the move until you return) that way you will not lose your army during an attack... furthermore, numbers are not always everything when it comes to battles... 50k swords will easily kill 70k spears... Run some simulations on the calculator... if you do not want to get attacked a lot, make high lvl borders and build a good fort... but in the later stage of the game, even the fort doesnt help... lvl 8 forts are easily broken by 1k trebs...

good luck in the game.

[One-Eyed Man]

As Horde has explained, in this game "19,000 heavy troops against 17,000" means NOTHING. For example, I'm hunting for those farmers with 15000 heavy swordmen in, and I grant you 3000 light spearmen and 3000 light swordmen and 1500 (=7500 units, half in number and half in army value) can kill 15000 h.swords, and, for example on a plain terrain province, losing only about 20 morale points in 10-11 rounds ... so there are still 15-20 morale points to destroy the fortress with the siege equipment.... but the your fortress 5 is boxed? is build on a plain or on a mountain with forests ...
Army-save is the better tactic about your army, but I think you mean you can't hide your resources into the depots and you can't and wouldn't spend every coin before go offline... so a possible defensive strategy (but only on a mountain terrain boxed province) is this: 2/5 of light spearmen, 2/5 of light swordmen and 1/5 of HORSES, highest level you got, 500 heavy archers (or better elites) outside the fortress, and then stuffed your fortress with so many archers the max garrison number allow you to do (especially if the mountain has not forests, +20 archers bonus)... the light infantry help you to keep your net worth a little bit lower (lower net worth = littler players on your bottom 2x range) ... Ex.: 5000 l.spears, 5000 l.swords, 2500 heavy cavalry and 500 heavy archers OUTSIDE, 1600 (or more) heavy archers INSIDE... the light infantry will be helpful even to "allow" the enemy to lose more morale points than you after few first rounds... then to beat 2500 flanked heavy cavalry the enemy need a good number of spears and a good number of flanked horses... if he take several spears, then your fortress will be usefull........ but everything depends to the net worth points we are speaking about... this couldn't work if your net worth is 20000, but maybe at 4000 ...
Anyway you must look at tohse player in your top 2x range: if they have an army able to crumble you easily, you can't keep your army at home, and you just need to send army-save and spend your money everytime you go offline ... hope you find here something useful ... ciao

[Horde]

good explanation cyclops  I was a bit tired yesterday-night so I made my reply as short as possible...

[jeddut]

also build up your barracks and mili academy so you can build more troops then just keep them in barracks for ambushes 

[Moonshadow]

Capitulate!!! 

[Horde]

Capitulate!!! 

LOL!!! that must be a farmer talking 

staying with a white flag to EVERYONE in the realm for 11 months, and then in the last month try to show how much a warrior you are by killing the other farmers that forget to make army-saves... 

[Moonshadow]

LOL!!! that must be a farmer talking   

staying with a white flag to EVERYONE in the realm for 11 months, and then in the last month try to show how much a warrior you are by killing the other farmers that forget to make army-saves... 

You got it man!!! 

[VSmith]

Thank you for the tips my friends.   The army save is indeed a great help.   I use it every time I log out now.   So far so good...   My Fortress level 5 in Realm 11 Province 8 is boxed.   I understand the defensive structure of 2/5 spearmen 2/5 swordsmen and 1/5 cavalry plus 500 heavy archers but I don't understand why cyclops says "light troops".   Wouldn't heavy troops be better?   In other words, why sacrifice light troops when heavies would to a better job - or would they?   Perhaps I haven't got a proper grasp of how to play the game yet.   Prov 8 is flat and level.   Is there a better defensive structure for flat plains?   Cyclops 2:2:1 formula is for Mountains with Forests.

Sorry, Horde, I don't understand what you mean by "high level borders" and whatever they are what do they do?   The necessity of having strong forts is clear, thanks.   I am pushing hard to get some level 6's.

I really find the cost of keeping a defensive force idly standing by outside the fortress very expensive.   Is that something I must put up with or is there a way round that cost?    BTW   I'm in the Solomon Islands, where are you fellows?   I'm interested to know.   Is anyone playing realm 11?

Bye for now,   VS

[Moonshadow]

light troops are useless except spearmen which you can use to increase the size of your infantry at relatively low cost which enable more paladins in flank mode.
Plus they give more honor. because they die quickly.

If you have really strong fort a mountains with forests and boxed you will have several defensive victories if the enemy are not able to spy you and send their forces only on basis of rumors. Thats where border outposts come into play.

[Kim96]

Thanks everybody it was really helpful to read this :D

[VSmith]

Thanks Moonshadow.   I suspected that light troops would not be much use so I will go for my heavies as usual.   I ain't got Paladins yet so heavy cavalry will have to cope.   I think I get the idea now of high level border posts to intercept spies leaving attackers with the uncertainty of an attack based on rumours alone.   Thanks for that clarification too.   Unfortunately I cannot uproot my pesent fortresses and move them to mountainous terrain but I will build my next fortress in such a location.   Thanks again   

[Horde]

Like Moonshadow already said, the border levels are the border outposts... They prevent enemy spies from getting inside... meaning the one attacking you will have to send a blind attack. That way they don't know your fort-lvl... if they send less then 400 trebs to a full lvl 8 fort, they are screwed 

[PsYchOtiChiKen]

also build up your barracks and mili academy so you can build more troops then just keep them in barracks for ambushes 

Bad advice.  If he was online to ambush (s)he would not need to complain about losing the army.  Army increases your networth which also increases the networth of players who can attack you. 

Thank you for the tips my friends.   The army save is indeed a great help.   I use it every time I log out now.   So far so good...   My Fortress level 5 in Realm 11 Province 8 is boxed.   I understand the defensive structure of 2/5 spearmen 2/5 swordsmen and 1/5 cavalry plus 500 heavy archers but I don't understand why cyclops says "light troops".   Wouldn't heavy troops be better?   In other words, why sacrifice light troops when heavies would to a better job - or would they?   Perhaps I haven't got a proper grasp of how to play the game yet.   Prov 8 is flat and level.   Is there a better defensive structure for flat plains?   Cyclops 2:2:1 formula is for Mountains with Forests.

The "2:2:1 formula" is just to put the cavalry on the flank.  Less than 1/5th cavalry is always bad.  You can get more, 1:1:1 works fine.  Fewer swords will make you build more siege engines and that works well. Cavalry are still the best troops in mountains.  In mountains with forests that is more true. 

You want the lite spears and lite swords so that you can get more cavalry on the flank.  This is especially true on defense.