Hiding your LS Nukes

When going offline for a while, it is a really good idea to hide your LS. There are several ways of doing it which I'll discuss and give the pro's and con's to so that you can see which is the best way of protecting your LS while keeping them safe, but yet "close" by.

For the sake of explaining the options, I'll use the figure of 8 hrs (about the time you sleep) in all examples.


Option 1.
Send your LS to support one of your own cities, stack that city with BR (about 1,000) and call it good.

Pro's - Honestly not many, if any. Main one I can think of is that your LS aren't in their native city, so that if the enemy knows where your nukes are built and attacks, your LS aren't there.

Con's - Quite a few.... For starters, you just put all, or most of your LS in one city. And, you gave the enemy 8 hrs to find out which city. If the enemy finds this out while you are counting sheep (sleeping) and attacks,  you are going to suffer massive losses, if not lose ALL your LS and 1,000 BR. Secondly, your LS are supporting the city. Meaning, once you get back on, you have to recall them and wait for them to all get back to their native cities. So much for being able to respond quickly to snipe an incoming CS.....


Option 2.
Send your LS as support to a friendly neighbor on the same island or close by.

Pro's - Well, your LS aren't at home if someone visits. Besides that, nothing else.

Con's - Uh oh, friendly neighbor wasn't online as he was sleeping too and didn't send your LS home to avoid the incoming LS attack. All your LS are now dead (lets just hope his LS weren't at home too or the enemy will have had a bp feast) Also, same as in Option 1. You have to recall them and wait for them to get back home before being able to use them. Hopefully shorter travel times than in Option 1, but still, every second counts some times. Personally, I don't leave my LS in one place for more than a few hours unless I'm on and checking the game every 30 min. so I don't get surprised.


Option 3.
If your going to be offline for, say 8 hrs, find one of your own cities about 4 hours away from the city you have your LS nuke in and attack your own city. Your nuke will just visit and return home, doing no damage.

Pro's - During the 8 travel time, no enemy can get at it as it isn't in any harbor. I do this any time I'm going to be offline for a period more than 2 hrs. (which is based on where the enemy LS nukes are in relation to mine) so that I know my LS nukes are safe and can't be seen (spy on the city their hiding in) and the enemy can't touch them until I come back online :) (if you have a frontline city that is the travel time you want, it can also help protected it as if the enemy lands a CS in it before your LS nukes come to visit, they'll attack the siege. Thus possibly saving your city without you being on to do it :)

Con's - Only thing I could come up with was if you end up checking the game in the middle of the night and you need your LS nukes, they won't be there for you to use until the time that you "set" to come online again. But some people don't want their sleep to suffer, so they don't purposefully wake up to check, so this shouldn't be a problem for them.

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As can be clearly seen, Option 3 is the best option because of the safety and security it provides. I should also note that these same principles can apply to GOU nukes as well, thus keeping your offense safe and "hidden" while you sleep.

Pegasus - The Most Useful Unit of All

Pegasus

Cost

2800 wood

360 stone

80 silver

180 favor

20 population

Attack - 100 sharp (comes out to 5 sharp attack per pop. - as bad as a swordsman attacking)

Speed  - 35 (for a unit speed 1 world, 70 for a speed 2 world, etc.)

Booty - 160

Blunt def. - 900 (45 per pop.)

Sharp def. - 250 (12.5 per pop.)

Distance def. - 300 (15 per pop.)

As can be seen from the stats, it is the fastest, cheapest, and strongest units in the game. Its speed can get you there faster than anything else. They are cheap to rebuild, and their strength compared to any other unit in unmatched. What makes them even more enticing is that they fly.Yes, I said fly. Meaning, you don't need transports. Meaning, all available population can be put into more pegasus creating an even bigger nuke.

Ideally, I prefer to use my pegasus as the ultimate defensive sniping force. What with their speed, awesome defensive capabilities, and the potential to build a massive nuke, these "flying horses" are the best for sniping incoming CS's. Just so that its completely clear, I'll say it again. Pegasus are NOT meant for attacking.  (except for harbor checks, but I'll get to that later)

Personal Survival Tip/Trick - If you are in a high combat zone, dedicate a city a little to the rear (but not to far away) to building a pegasus nuke. At the same time, convert all your cities to worshiping Athena. By doing this, you can snipe any CS that is incoming without having to change your god and waste favor. As I've already said, Pegasus are the best units for sniping a CS... they are the fastest unit in the game, cheapest defending unit to build, and the best defending unit in the game. Combine these three stats together and you have one awesome killing machine. But I will warn you.... you must decide when you start building your pegasus nuke whether it will be reserved for just sniping CS's or for actually helping defend against the attacks that will show up before the CS lands.

If you choose to use them for active defending duty, I can in no way promise you that they will still be alive when the CS lands. If, on the other hand you want to make absolute sure that the CS won't land, don't send the pegasus to defend against the other incoming attacks if you can help it and get them to land as support as close to the CS as possible. Though I said it before, I'll say it once again. DO NOT use pegasus for breaking sieges. I've seen hundreds of pegasus go down in attempts to breaks siege, and it DOES NOT WORK. Just look at their stats..... though their attack may look okay, you must count in the population they take up. When we do, 100 sharp attack divided by 20 population comes up to 5 sharp attack per pop. That is the SAME attack value as a swordsman. (I would hope by this point that you know that in all cases, swordsmen are NOT to be used in attacks)

Personal Trick - Instead of building Manticors to do off island harbor checks for you, build several pegasus. Not only are they faster, but they are imensely cheaper both resource and favor wise than manties. The point in your harbor check isn't to kill things, but to just check the harbor and see if its worth attacking (i.e. stacked with biremes) so the attacking value isn't important, but the cost is very important as it adds up quickly. Even with a full nuke of some kind, it will take less than 80 population to do a harbor check. (probably from 70-75) So, all you have to do is build 4 pegasus and there you go. Also, 10 pop. less than 2 manties. As an added bonus, you can also used these small numbers of extras in the event of needing extra chances to snipe an incoming CS. Very rarely will you be able to consistently put your pegasus nuke into a space of 2-3 seconds to snipe the CS. So add to your chances of landing something in that small space by sending your 4 pegasus  from various cities. Sure, they aren't doing what they were built for, but, if they save your city, it was worth it the chance. :)

Biremes & Efficiently Defending your Harbor

Biremes are you best friend. Whether it be defending your own city from an LS attack, or by holding a siege on an enemy cites, or drowning the enemies GOU's, biremes are the most useful. But please note: biremes are NOT meant for attacking. You will kill virtually nothing and give the enemy nothing but free bp's. Definitely something you want if you are on the receiving end of someone attacking with biremes. :P The only downside to biremes is that compared to an equal population of LS, they are weaker and will die (if on equal terms of luck and boosts)

To give you a good idea of the imbalance between an LS nuke and a BR nuke on equal bonuses, I ran a few figures through the simulator and came up with this. 250 LS hitting 313 BR will kill each other off. That is 2500 population from the attacker and 2504 population from the defender. Generally, this is the average size for LS and BR nukes that you will see ingame. Some smaller, and some noticeably larger.

Because of this imbalance, I highly discourage you not to stick a BR nuke of 300 in-front of a LS nuke (which could be from 250 - 320 LS). It is more probably that you will lose your BR at a bad bp ratio compared to the number of LS lost. Now, not only do you have to spend lots of time moving resources so that you can rebuild it quickly, but the enemy knows that you are now short a BR nuke. Besides getting a poor bp return.

Another important use of biremes is defending your land troops from sea-born  attacks. Due to the majority of a GOU nuke being consumed in the land troops and the transports for them, the LS escort size suffers. Generally, they range from 20-50 LS thus making it easy to sink them with a BR nuke.

For example, if there are multiple incoming to the same city, try dodging the first 2 attacks and then drop a BR nuke in behind. It is more likely that these following attacks are GOU (ground offensive units) and will only have a small escort. This will give you tons of practically free bp's as their troops won't even get to shore, and there is nothing more annoying than seeing your huge GOU nukes drown without doing a thing. (it also helps if you keep track of what each of your enemies cities have built in then so that you know which are LS nukes which you should dodge and which are GOU nukes which you shouldn't dodge thus using your resources, time and resources to the fullest extent)

Personal Tip - When facing many incoming attacks with a suspected CS in the mix and you have a handful of BR to play with, try this. Before every attack, land 1 BR as support. Some attackers miss the landing time they are aiming for, and for the sake of having another GOU nuke hitting the city, they send the GOU nuke without the LS escort (assuming the GOU are carried on FT (fast transports) which are faster than LS) If they do happen to do this, your 1 BR will sink ALL un-escorted transports and drown all the troops without letting them hit the beach. Sure, those that have LS escorts will kill your 1 BR, but hey, that isn't that great of a loss for the chance that you could sink everything, right?