Basic Tips and Tricks - Starting, Resources, and Farming

As a starting player in Grepolis, you face many challenges and many dangers, but hopefully, if you get anything out of this guide, you will understand the basics and the core ideas to survival after reading this.

I feel it unnecessary to explain every aspect of the beginning game because Grepolis has done such a good job on the beginning tutorials so I'll discuss and point out key information that I think is vital to your success and survival.

If your looking for just a quick format as to how I think you should start, here it is.

-Build up resource buildings while balancing that with military (some defense, but mostly offense)
-Select Hera as your god once you build your temple (do this as soon as you meet the building  requirements). The tutorial quests will give you many large batches of favor which can be put to good use by building Harpies (awesome farmers, can fly as well, so can farm off-island)
-If  no one is attacking you, you don't really need to build your wall up any higher than lvl 6 for the time being
-Don't accept the first alliance invite you get. Look up players name here and see what experience they have. Another thing to look at is any awards they have showing on their profile. You can generally tell what type of player someone is by looking at their stats/and or their awards.
-Find a good alliance to join and help others when ever you can. Hopefully they will return the favor.
-Make use of every resources, and if attacked, use up your resources so they can't steal any. (also activate militia and dodge all your troops, this will really tick an enemy off)

Use and power of farming villages. 
Pretty easy to use, and fairly simple to gain once you get going. They are one of the most useful aspects of Grepolis. Whether you are hyper-active and can farm ever 5 minutes, or you work 2 jobs and have a family of 8 kids so can only play in the early mornings and late evenings, you can farm to fit your online schedule.

Personal Tip - Figure out how long your sleep averagely. Then, right before you log off for the night, farm all your villages for the time closest to the time you'll be offline sleeping. In this way, you'll get the most out of the time that you can't be on doing 5 minute farming.

I can't stress how important this is in the first 3 months of a world. If you aren't farming every chance you got, you will soon fall way behind those who are. (and it is very important to try to keep up)

Using Resources Wisely
Because resources are the most important part of the game, you must be wise in how you spend them. As I stressed above, farming every chance you got is a MUST. Why? Because it gives you the resources you need in order to get a jump start on the game. As a beginner, it is frustrating to build from the ground up as I know from personal experience.

Personal Tip - Build up your Resource production buildings ASAP. But, at the same time, try to balance that with building some military. (which means you have to build up the barracks a little) By doing this, you produce more, letting you build more.

Another way of gaining resources is by looting other peoples cities. Look around your island and find someone that isn't growing in points for a day or two. Then build up some slingers so kill the swordsmen that each player starts out with. Now, once you have the city clear, work on "farming" it everyday. It also helps to figure out at about what time the resources are replenished, so you can soon get on a regular schedule of farming them. If you suspect that someone else is farming the same city as you, place a tripwire (I'll talk more about this in the Advanced guide) in the city (i.e. 1 swordsman) as support and leave him there. If he gets attacked you'll receive notice as to who attacked you. Then you have two options. 1. send your offense to try and kill their offense in their own city. or 2. send a bunch of defense to the "farm" city and wait for them to attack again. Clearly #2 is the best option as they will have no idea who put the support there letting your remain anonymous.

If you are lucky enough to end up on an island with only 2-3 players active and the rest little inactive cities, try to build up some horsemen. Then are quick, powerful, and care a large amount of loot. They are a little costly and take a while to build, so try to protect them at all costs in the beginning.

Personal Tip - DON'T build hoplites, chariots or myth units during the first month or so. The first two are just a huge waste of resources, and myth units take a lot of time and favor making them very cost in-effective at this stage in the game. Later down the road it will be more useful to use these units, but this won't be till you have +5 cities.

When building, only build the things that are necessary at that time. One building you can never have enough of is your warehouse. You'll need it to be larger if your going to be looting other cities so that it can hold the resources your troops bring back.

Personal Tip -  ALWAYS have a purpose and a plan in mind when you do something. Don't just attack someone just to attack them. Are you trying to provoke them? Are your clearing their city so you can farm it? Make sure that you have the means by which to complete your plan before you even start it. If you can't, then as the saying goes, "Failing to plan means planning to fail".