Defence Question

[knights_templar]

Hi All,

I see that most Topics (including) the manual are regarding Attacks...However I have few regarding Defense...

This morning i logged on and saw that i was being attacked...only a few minutes left...
So i quickly paid for building a new level farm, and employed some more soldiers for my castle...
However...the battle was lost...and my castle is in ruins...

The question...what happens with my building farm level in progress?
I have to rebuild first the castle, ok...but then...will it automatically starting building that level farm again?? Or is it lost...!

THanks!

[k_mihai]

it`s still building

[knights_templar]

Thanks for the answer,

But the farm should have been ready and the maximum is not upped.... so, you gotta wait till castle is rebuild...?

[Leila]

Building process does not stop while your fortress is destroyed. But if you're not a premium member you'll have to manually activate your buildings - either repair your fort and use the activation button from buildings page or (if you do not want to repair the fortress for now) go to reports/buildings and researches, where you can activate everything finished in your empire with one button.
In order to see the changes in population limits after activating your farm switch to another province and then go back to the first. I think going to reports/province is also refreshing the limits. You can also log off and then log in again if you like - it works for sure.

The only disadvantage to have destroyed fortress is that you're unable to order new buildings/researches in provinces with destroyed forts, so (unless your farm limit is grater than the maximum possible population limit OR you don't care about population growth) eventually you'll have to repair the fort and upgrade your farm.

[knights_templar]

Thanks, it worked!

Ok, I have one more question...
I've tried a bit with the battle calculator (and siege calculator)...
How can you best defend the castle? With archers, swordsman..or?
Because the space in the castle is quite limited (expensive to upgrade) and the attacker can easily come with 3x more swordsman as you can have in your castle...then + the attacker brings some batter rams, some archers, spearman... and you are lost...
So to be able to defend a castle (level 3 / 4), its best to make sure to be able to put in at least 1000 soldiers, extra walls...(fortification...)?

Or is there any good combination of soldiers to put in the castle ? (as a defender you can't use catapult against the attacker I guess...)

Thanks.

[Radooo]

In fort is best to put archers and if you want, put archers and cavalry

[codegrrrl]

Yeah, load the castle with archers.  They can attack with a stronger army, but what is important is that your archers are attacking their army while they knock down the wall.  This decreases their morale and hopefully they will get tired and flee.  Building up your Fortress Levels and Fortification also helps, but the best defense I've found is high Border Outposts.

[knights_templar]

Thanks for you answers!

but what is important is that your archers are attacking their army while they knock down the wall.

But you have no influence in this right? Just full of archers (To the maximum) and order fight when attacked...

the best defense I've found is high Border Outposts

Wow! I've never thought about this! The idea is that you defend against spies so that the attacker can't see how big your army is, and therefore possibly won't attack?

Thanks.

[Radooo]

It is better to keep your army on retreat...they will fight only at fortress siege
And having a big border means few spies will enter and only few will know what you have (not too much people attack without a spy)

[Leila]

The attack/flee order DOES NOT affect fortress sieges, only pillages and field battles (so, unless you want to easily lose your army, always set your army to flee - you can always change it back if you have to stop pillage for example). When someone attacks your fortress your field army WILL fight no matter what you have chosen.
Most players won't put anything but a handful of archers in their forts - usually 1/3 - 1/5 of the fortress capacity, the minimum number is 50 and as always elites are the best option. The main reason to put archers in the forts is for lowering your enemie's army morale during the siege stage of the battle - he'll lose 7 morale each round till the fortress is destroyed and eventually drop below 50, which makes possible for his army to flee.
However you'll need decent field army, because even with archers inside, but with no army outside each fortress is easy to capture - you just need some extra swords and siege weapons to have clear 50+ morale victory. Always have archers in your field army, do not underestimate spearman, do not produce too much swords instead of healthy swarms of horsemen.
However the most important thing is NOT to keep your resources "open" - always hide them in depot stations/spend them before going offline for more than 40 minutes. The main reason for the vast majority of attacks is the need for gold. If you have no resources (or a reasonably small amounts) in your provinces then you have less possible attackers. Note that in the last 3-4 weeks of each era (and rarely in earlier stages) most people tend to attack for military points (to destroy armies) regardless of the possible economic disadvantages, so keeping your army away is a good decision. Just find a rich target further than 2000 miles and send your army on a long journey while you're having 6 hours break (and any other longer period of inactivity).
Border outposts could also help - if you keep your level high enough to prevent most people in your 2x from infiltrating spies then they won't risk with blind attacks (sometimes they would, so be prepared)
So to sum up how to defend yourself:
- do not keep "open" resources - use depots to save for expensive structures/researches or spend all for army. Doing this on 2-3 hour basis will keep away most gold leechers.
- do not hold your army at home for long periods - attack players in close proximity (when you can stay online) for gold (even "treasure chests", in case you do not want to make enemies) to overtake the higher upkeep. attack distand players when you have to be offline for longer periods. Make sure you can be online when your army comes home so you can send it on a mission again. Doing this will keep away military rank runners
- build your army carefully - readings on this subject can be found in the old forum, but generally having army with too much/few of any type of soldiers is unhealthy.
- have decent defense - maximum level fortress in your boxed province (of course never box plains/plains with forest...hills are acceptable depending on the surrounding provinces) , some archers (elites) inside, decent fortification level (you can even go for 13+ if you want to surprise enemies badly...not recommended though), high enough border outposts, some even upgrade their armor higher than 10lvl... the main thing you have to observe is the networth values of your upgrades - sometimes you'll get too much networth points for upgrade, which will give you just a little bit better defense, but you'll be target for many new stronger players. Fortresses are kind of exception - it's always better to have your lvl6 and lvl7 in boxed province as soon as possible, no matter they will boost your networth a lot.

good luck and excuese me if i missed something

Leila

[licancina]

only one simple question, what do you think; is it better to have 12k elite archers in your fortress or, for example, 3k elite archers and 9k paladins (lvl. 7 fort of course)?! or is there maybe some other combination that you prefer?

[Radooo]

only one simple question, what do you think; is it better to have 12k elite archers in your fortress or, for example, 3k elite archers and 9k paladins (lvl. 7 fort of course)?! or is there maybe some other combination that you prefer?

It depends. If someone with big army will want to destroy your fort or you are in war is better only archers, but paladins are good for lowering the attacker's morale after the fort was destroyed, but only if it isn't a big army

[kalivan]

My vote goes for archers and paladins, maybe not in that ratio, but close.  If attacker have a big army you'll lose anyway 

[licancina]

My vote goes for archers and paladins, maybe not in that ratio, but close.  If attacker have a big army you'll lose anyway 

it alludes that you already have some of your army for lowering the enemy`s moral outside the fortress  *Cheesy* *Cheesy*