Invading

[KoSaC]

Until you gather resources for swordsmen, with an army of 1000 spearmen or archers (or a mix composition), you are able to attack 2 days before and take a big amount of resources. And, also, if you use only 1000 spearmen or archers you can colonize 2 provinces after you collected a good amount of money

as far as i know,i said that upper 

[KoSaC]

also, an early composed of swords pushes points too high, thus reducing the availability of targets

@Arutha, archers have their use in attacks. for example, in killing enemy`s spears

and for taking their morale down 

[Arutha]

wrong 
i know better then you my friend,trust me...
first build 1000 soldiers that are mix of spears and archers... they are 2x lesser expensive and when you get them,if you are fast enough,like me,you will be in first 5 in realm who has army...then you rob the suckers and at the same day you can put 500- 1 k swords if you want to 
if you are playing realms like r2 you can build 500 spears like i am doing atm and get second province...
P.S. dont use too big armies of light soldiers if it is realm v4 then ok....but in other realms,where cent is cheaper,there is no need to build bigger army then maybe 2500 lights 

this may be true.  but if the first thing you hire is enough archers to fill your fort then 100 spear will not win against it.  i was the first to have a standing army of more than 1000 in realm 31 and it consisted mainly of sword horse and battering rams.  in new v4 realms u can attack any goldmine player as long as they are over.  so it is true that at first your targets are limited but a lot of people go for high points (no army) strategy at the start to build economy quickly. so u can feed off these people.  you will find that 2 weeks into the realm there wil be a lot of new players who have quit and u will have a steady supply of gold from goldmine players.  this will feed your army and make you rich without you losing your army.

i am not discounting the use of spear and archers but a lot of rookies hire way to many.  i say always have twice as much horse as you have spears. and never send more than 250 archers into an attack.  only hire them for defense (in your fort).

[KoSaC]

this may be true.  but if the first thing you hire is enough archers to fill your fort then 100 spear will not win against it.  i was the first to have a standing army of more than 1000 in realm 31 and it consisted mainly of sword horse and battering rams.  in new v4 realms u can attack any goldmine player as long as they are over.  so it is true that at first your targets are limited but a lot of people go for high points (no army) strategy at the start to build economy quickly. so u can feed off these people.  you will find that 2 weeks into the realm there wil be a lot of new players who have quit and u will have a steady supply of gold from goldmine players.  this will feed your army and make you rich without you losing your army.

i am not discounting the use of spear and archers but a lot of rookies hire way to many.  i say always have twice as much horse as you have spears. and never send more than 250 archers into an attack.  only hire them for defense (in your fort).

archers are very important in lowering morale at the opponent + they kill spears like maniacs 

[Arutha]

sword kills spear just as effectively as archers.  plus they are harder to kill.  1000 horse would kill around 5000 archers (not sure but its around that).  and 1000 sword will kill at least 2500 archers.  so as far as im concerned archers are a waste of time.  even when i hit elite archers and everyone else was still on heavy soldiers i still did not send them into attacks.

They may kill spear at a rapid rate but they also die at a rapid rate meaning that in an alliance war you will decrease the points you win from an offensive victory as you are losing more soldiers.

i dont really care what you do this is just my game plan and its worked really well for me so far.  hire archers like crazy if you want..... (but if you play r31 let me know who you are so i can destroy you to prove my point) 

[Radooo]

i am not discounting the use of spear and archers but a lot of rookies hire way to many.  i say always have twice as much horse as you have spears. and never send more than 250 archers into an attack.  only hire them for defense (in your fort).

Then you have a lot to learn 

[tiger]

@ arutha Your strategy isnt so bad, but in r1-r4 it wont work good. Centralization is very cheap. In other realm it works but your army networth is almost 1k. We were talking about army with which you can hit players on day 3 and players with 50 networth without losing honor. Later its ok.

[KoSaC]

sword kills spear just as effectively as archers.  plus they are harder to kill.  1000 horse would kill around 5000 archers (not sure but its around that).  and 1000 sword will kill at least 2500 archers.  so as far as im concerned archers are a waste of time.  even when i hit elite archers and everyone else was still on heavy soldiers i still did not send them into attacks.

They may kill spear at a rapid rate but they also die at a rapid rate meaning that in an alliance war you will decrease the points you win from an offensive victory as you are losing more soldiers.

i dont really care what you do this is just my game plan and its worked really well for me so far.  hire archers like crazy if you want..... (but if you play r31 let me know who you are so i can destroy you to prove my point) 

i see you havent read manual yet. there are certain bonuses archers have..they are weak in attach (they attack with 0.25 of their attack) but we still hire them for 1 reason...lowering morale...besides ALWAYS carry some archers in attack sou you dont lose morale for nothing 

[Arutha]

im just talking from past experience.  i have only lost 2 offensive attacks (412 victories) this era and have killed 5 times the enemy soldiers that i have lost.  so my strategy cant be too bad.  follow the manual if you wish.  i find that archers die too quickly for my taste and i dont have the population to keep recruiting them.

[KoSaC]

im just talking from past experience.  i have only lost 2 offensive attacks (412 victories) this era and have killed 5 times the enemy soldiers that i have lost.  so my strategy cant be too bad.  follow the manual if you wish.  i find that archers die too quickly for my taste and i dont have the population to keep recruiting them.

nice....but still...any better player can confirm what i am telling....archers aren't for nothing...

[tiger]

I didnt said its bad. And i dont hire a lot of archers on the begining and not even later. Especially on the begining. They can come handy in some situations but generally as you say die to fast.

[KoSaC]

I didnt said its bad. And i dont hire a lot of archers on the begining and not even later. Especially on the begining. They can come handy in some situations but generally as you say die to fast.

they make my honor look good   

[Radooo]

an experienced player knows what army to send...there are situations when you don't need to send phalanx, there are situations when you need to send even archers...that's not a general rule

[tiger]

an experienced player knows what army to send...there are situations when you don't need to send phalanx, there are situations when you need to send even archers...that's not a general rule

I agree totally. And wont even write long message to explain. 

[KoSaC]

I agree totally. And wont even write long message to explain. 

  i like archers...but i prefer raiding cavalry    and pillages with it