Latest Technology - Gain an Advantage NOW!!!

CHECK THIS LEGAL SCRIPT OUT!!!!!

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?52104-DIO-Tools&highlight=List+Approved+Scripts

A brand-new release, DIO-Tools offer so many features that would have completely changed my game if it had been out a year ago. The ease in which you can keep track of your troops, boats, etc. with this new tool is AMAZING!!! I'm not one to get super excited and use lots of caps, but now is one of those times. It is super easy to download, and works great on Chrome (my favorite browser). Don't worry about it being legal, if you check the top of the page in the link, you'll find that it is Officially Approved to use by En.Grepolis. So have at it!

Check it out today and let me know what you think of it!!

Grepolis Terminology / Acronyms

Below are a list of terminology/acronyms that will come in handy when reading my guide and in interacting with experienced players.

Land Units

Swordsmen - sw

Archers - arch

Hoplites - hops

Chariots - char

Slingers - sling

Horsemen - hm

Catapults - cats

Naval Units

Lightships - LS

Biremes - BR

Triremes - TR

Fireships - FS

(Slow) Transports - ST

Fast Transports - FT

Colony Ship - CS

Terminology

DLU - Defensive Land Units

OLU - Offensive Land Units

Nuke - a large body of one type of unit from one city. For example, 1600 slingers from City A. Many inexperienced players consider 500 slingers a nuke. This is hardly the case. So when I refer to a nuke, I'm talking as big as you can get it.

Harbor Check - minimal amount of population sent over land to attack a city on the same island. This will generate a report showing you the current wall level and what is in the harbor (and how many transports are there as well). This can give you a good idea of what your up against and help you plan wisely.

Dodging - the act of moving troops or boats out of the way of an incoming attack to either give a false impression of what is in the city, or just to keep them safe.

Fake - a small attack or support meant to confuse or fluster the target. Mainly used when trying to land a CS in an active players city to confuse the city own which is the real target, or when the CS is really landing (i.e. putting a few little 8 LS attacks after the real CS landing time)

Turtle - a player who is primarily all defense. Generally doesn't build transports, fills each cities population with DLU's, and builds their wall up to lvl 25 + Tower. Turns each city into a strong fortress that takes some muscle to take. Rarely will you find a turtle that is very experienced and good at sniping. If you find one of these, avoid them if possible. As if you are all defense, you can't strike back.

Inactive - someone who isn't logging in regularly and thus letting the team down if they are in a key position or location as it opens the door for the enemy if they take advantage of it. In my leading, I was especially hard on inactives and didn't tolerate poor excuses and had to part with some members because they weren't holding up their end of the "deal".

Sniping - an attempt to "pick off" a incoming CS by either dropping in BR's or DLU's right before its landing time, or by hitting your own city with LS right after the CS lands. Timing is everything. Sniping with OLU's is possible as well, but remember, you'll be hitting your own wall which benefits the enemy now.

Spy Bombing - large amounts of 1,000 silver increments (minimum amount you can send) launched at one city to drain the cave. Can be used as an irritant. 

WW - short for World Wonder Age which is the way an alliance is declared "winner" of a world.

TT - Travel Time

ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival

Mac Attack - my personal secret weapon. 

Mac's Morale Motivator Maneuver - not too complicated, but very effective when used properly. Not only will it affect one player, but it could potentially hurt an entire alliance.

G.R.O.M. Maneuver - to detailed to explain the whole thing, so I'll just include the link for it. Click here (its in the lower half of the page)

Building the "Perfect Nuke" without Hurting Yourself

Building the "perfect nuke"

- When building nukes (any kind) try to build them the biggest that you can without hurting your resource and favor production, your wall (if the city isn't in a danger zone, you don't need it, so drop it to lvl 1) and if its a naval city, demolish the barracks down to lvl 5 or if a land troop nuke, demolish the harbor down to 15 if you have an escort or expect to have to rebuild the transports. Once you have your city built and your positive that you aren't going to be build anything else, you can drop your senate to lvl 14. (you save 66 population) The larger the nuke, the more effective they can be.

(this hop. attack is on the small side of what I call a "nuke" but it is much more effective than two 600 hoplite attacks)

Unfortunately, attackers can't combine attacking forces to form one large force like defenders can, so, attackers can only do their best to try and get their nukes as large as possible to make them the most effective that is possible. Personally, there is no such thing as a "perfect nuke". Each person has their own playing style. If you don't know yours, just keep looking. After 6 months or less it should start becoming apparent what your preferences are. For example - would you rather have 220 LS + Lighthouse (special building instead of Thermal Baths = +300 population that increases your LS nuke's speed by 15%) or 250 LS at regular speed? It all comes down to what you intend on using it for and its position in relation to the enemy and to the rest of your cities.

Most other guides suggest that you should bring your resources building down a bit to save on population. Especially the resource that the island is weak in. But think about it, when it comes down to it, you are only saving about 50 population while in the process losing many resources per day. Say you lose 100 wood an hour because you wood camp is only a lvl 30 opposed to 40. 100 x 24 hours = 2400 in a day. That might not seem like much, but 2,400 x 30 days (roughly 1 month) = 24,000 wood. Some might argue that that only equates to ~24 less LS produced, but that can make a world of difference in the long run. Say you play a world for a year. 24,000 x 12 = 288,000 wood. That equates to a whole LS nuke.... what could you have done with it? Saved an important city? Help break a turtle? The consequences of trying to "save" roughly 50 population to build 5 LS more is going to cost you a whole LS nuke by the time everything is over with. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?

Useful Tools

Below are a few tools/sites that I found most helpful. Notice, when using grepostats and grepointel, you'll need to make sure the world you want is selected or you won't get the results your expecting.

grepostats.com
- this site contains...

• alliance rankings 
• player ranking 
• unit stats 
• building stats
• building population calculator
• unit calculator (great for figuring out how many units to build + transports and LS escort)

grepointel.com
- I relied on this site for most of my intelligence.

• Nice player stats and conquest records
• Keeps a fairly accurate online-offline bar graph on each player (easily manipulated though)
• has a Time on Target calculator (great for finding which attack out of many is most likely the CS)
• Target Planner (once you select your target city it shows you the TT's from friendly cities or enemy cities to the target. So good for showing who has what in the area and how far away it is. Used it a lot when trying to get a close range CS in to see how far away enemy BR nukes that we knew about were)
• Most importantly this site is set up in a way that you can take a report from in-game and add that info to a players "record". It keeps a list of each players cities and allows you to input intel about each city. Then, with the map generator, you can view on the map where each city is, and if you mouse over the city, a pop up box will show you the name, points, alliance and any intel you entered on that city. It also has the ability to create intelligence groups where you can choose to share intel with fellow members. Picture Illustration This is definitely a MUST HAVE!) (refer to Advanced Tips and Tricks to read how to get the most out of it)
• Can generate a signature to go on your external grepolis forum profile

grepointel.com/map

- the map function of grepointel.com, another Must Have!

http://grepolis-pro.blogspot.com/

- this is where I learned about the main mechanics for grepolis and got started off on the right foot. Would definitely recommend this to ANYONE new to the game or under 1 year of experience. (hey, even us veterans can learn a thing or two if we're willing to adapt)

http://grepolis.potusek.eu/
- this is an extension that you can install on chrome. It adds an attack alarm, enables you to save your wall, cool little emoticons you can use in PM's and on the in-game forums, and bunch of other cool things. Best part is, its free! (may require you to download tampermonkey first as I  can't remember if it needed anything else to run or not)

My Personal Overview of Land Units

Swordsmen

Defensive Nuke => 2000 sw + 125 Fast Transports

Best unit for defending against distance attacks (slingers). The most common defensive unit in any world. Weak against sharp attacks (hoplites, chariots, manticors). When setting up my own LTS, I generally follow the ratio of 5 swordsmen, 4 archers, 3 hoplites for a fair balance, but still heavier on the distance defense as slingers are the most common offensive unit of all time. Though they use no stone to build them, rebuilding them can have their advantages. I can send all of that unneeded stone over to my slinger nuke cities to help rebuild them while not hurting myself for resources.

Archers

Defensive Nuke => 2000 arch. + 125 Fast Transports

Best unit for defending against sharp attacks (hoplites, chariots, manticors). More expensive than swordsmen, but still a far cry from the cost of hoplites. Personally, I keep a bunch of these around in frontline cities with fast transports so as to be able to support CS's we've landed in enemy cities. Also useful in helping to snipe enemy CS's as its common to send a hoplite or chariot nuke (otherwise known as a hybrid nuke) with the CS attack. A personal preference is to build a nuke of 2000 archers + Fast Transports in a "middle line" city. (insert link for city categorization based on location)  This can be a lifesaver when dealing with enemy manticor nukes that are trying to break a siege you and your team are trying to hold.

Hoplites

Defensive Nuke => 2000 hops. + 125 Fast Transports

Offensive Nuke => 1800 hops. + 113 Fast Transports + 30 LS

Cheapest of the 2 "hybrid" units, a hoplite nuke is the cheapest and most cost effective sharp nuke. Definitely needed for taking out the myriads of swordsmen that most people build for defense. Takes a TON of silver to build and no wood, so be wise with your hoplite nukes as it'll take forever to rebuild them. Beauty of a hoplite nuke is that it can be used to defensive or offensive snipe enemy CS's. Also, they are the best counter (besides myth units) to horsemen nukes. Their greatest weakness is the most common offensive unit, slingers. So be very careful where you leave them. If you take a look at the stats on hoplites and chariots, you'll see that while they are "hybrid" units, that comes with a price. Neither has stunning offensive stats, and both have very defined weaknesses. So when I build them, I decide before hand what I'll use them for (offense or defense) and I try hard to stick to that as if you try to do both, your setting yourself up to be short on offense or defense when it might make a huge difference one way or the other. Personally, if in a danger zone, I would "hide" them while I'm offline if I'm using them for offense. Click here to read my guide about "hiding" nukes.

Chariots

Defensive Nuke => 500 char. + 125 Fast Transports

Offensive Nuke => 400 char. + 100 Fast Transports + 40 LS

Although popular, they are practically one of the most costly and cost-inefficient units in the game. Eats up a TON of resources and population for not that much of a punch. Would personally only build a nuke of these to escort a CS where there is a chance of having something to kill on attack, and then an attempt at a offense snipe after the CS lands. Otherwise, building a nuke of hoplites would be your better bet if your looking for a effective sharp nuke. The only reason a lot of these get built is because their "flashy". The use some of each resource, stone more than anything. To a lot of people, they like spending resources "equally" as it has more appeal. But this can be a HUGE downfall as a chariot nuke is easily taken out while on the offense by a couple hundred archers and on the defense with a hoplite nuke. So my final verdict - don't bother with them and use something more cost effective. (see first comment below by a good friend of mine for a slightly different opinion and how he uses them)

Slingers

Offensive Nuke #1. => 1400 sling. + 25 catapults + 111 Fast Transports + 30 LS

Offensive Nuke #2. => 1900 sling. + 119 Fast Transports + 20 LS

Personally, my favorite unit of all time. Stat wise, they are the cheapest and most cost-effective attacking unit in the game and as an additional bonus, the require what all of us overflow in. Stone! Generally, I'll build slinger nukes from the size of 1200 + 20 catapults - 1900 and a reduced LS escort. The bigger the nuke, the more effect they are going to be (assuming that they make it ashore). Compared to the "hybrid" units, slingers have NO defense to speak of. So, if at all possible, DO NOT defend with them. Slinger nuke vs. slinger nuke is the most effective way of taking out an opponents slinger nuke. While I've been tempted to have only slinger nukes for my offense, the thought of thousands of swordsmen waiting for me quickly destroyed that idea. Though a good portion of my offense ends up being slinger nukes, I also try to throw in several hoplite nukes and my second favorite offensive nuke, a horsemen nuke. Slingers are definitely cheaper and more cost effective, but many times you need to adapt to what the enemy city is weak in and take them out that way, otherwise your going to waste a lot of troops against a defense that is especially strong against what you've foolishly mass produced. So while they are the best attacker, don't go overkill in building them and have some variation to your offense.

Horsemen

Offensive Nuke => 600 horse. + 113 Fast Transports + 30 LS

Without a doubt, ranked my 2nd favorite attacker. Horsemen are the best land unit when it comes to farming. They excel in killing archers, and they do fairly well when going against swordsmen. While not super expensive, they still are a bit spendy. With all their good-points, there always comes some negative aspects. #1. They have NO sharp defense. (or any other defense to speak of) When caught napping by a sharp nuke, horsemen will just roll over and die. So be sure if you have a horsemen nuke in a danger zone (insert link for definition of danger zone etc.) that you hide while your offline or you might find yourself giving the enemy easy bp's for not much return. In every world, you'll always find "turtles" that will go all defense and turn many of their cities into in-penetrable fortresses. Lucky for us, we have the good old horseman nuke to crack them with. Generally, the weakest point in any turtled-up city is blunt defense, but always check first as they might be aware of this and leave another area weaker. Above all though, be careful of hoplite, chariot and pegasus nukes as they'll turn your horseman nuke into a scrambled egg. But overall, horsemen nukes are very powerful and can be a lifesaver when it comes to cracking stacked cities.

Catapults

Offensive Nuke => You should NEVER build a catapult nuke. Read below to see why.

While powerful looking, nothing could be further from the truth. By themselves, catapults are HORRIBLE attackers. The game mechanics dictate that in a battle, catapults attack the wall while the units escorting them keep the defenders busy. But, the theory that the more catapults, the more damage, is completely off-base. I'm personally seen a full GOU nuke smash into my cities escorting +30 catapults and the most they destroyed was 1-2 wall levels. The reason.... the escort didn't keep all the defenders busy and it appears that most of the catapults got "destroyed" before they got a chance to bring any wall down. Besides being super expensive, taking up a lot of population room, catapults are SUPER slow when traveling across land giving the defending possibly and hour or 2 to get more defense into the city before your attack finally arrives. So, the best bet for using catapults is to build 10-20 to go along with a slinger nuke. I've never tried building them to go with a horseman or hoplite nuke, but I've seen others do it with the same results as with a slinger nuke. 

Consequently, the more LDU that is in the defending city, the less effective = less damage your catapults will do. However, if the defender dodges your attack, your catapults (assuming you have 20 in with your nuke) will practically level the wall. This is all great if your just attacking for the sake of killing the enemy and trying to destroy their wall, BUT, if you intend to attempt to conquer the city, you just destroyed the wall that would help you once you land against attempts to break the siege by land or myth nukes. So, use catapults very wisely. If you have a CS enroute to a city, I would HIGHLY recommend NOT sending catapults and letting your fellow alliance members know that as well so one of them doesn't accidentally shoot your siege in the foot before it ever gets started. If it happens that you can't hold the siege and have to pull it out because of the wall being down, some good can come out of that depending on the situation. If you can't hold it, that means the owner is going to have a hard time holding it against you until he gets that wall back up, so you opened the door for at least one more opportunity. (assuming the harbor doesn't get stacked with BR's)

So overall, I use catapults sparingly and definitely DON'T build them with most of my GOU nukes.

Divine Envoys - To Use or Not to Use?

During my playing I got in a conversation with a good friend over the usefulness, or the lack there of, of the Divine Envoy. Below is several quotes from our conversation which might help to clear up a few things and express our mutual thoughts on this newest unit.

SaintScott: when I started playing again I saw the envoys and divided their attack and defense per farm space and I was asking myself, who the heck would waste favor to build these? Now look at me. lol
Although I do have one built in my attack cities for when I am offline. When you send them to a small city with no god as support, they bounce. There's one for your guide.

While this unit doesn't cost any resources,  it costs 15 favor. Its defense value, though balanced, is pathetic. Its attacking value sucks. But..... they do have a BIG bonus. At the very beginning of every world, if you do the tutorial, you receive TONS of Hera favor for completing different "missions". While this doesn't seem like much, it can make all the difference. To take more farming villages, it takes more and more population to take the next one. Simple solution. Divine Envoy. Use all your "gift" favor from the tutorials to build yourself a nice division of Divine Envoys. They are cheap, quick to build, and fast moving. Perfect for getting more farming villages quickly at the beginning of the game. If you get behind at this point, it could put you days, if not a week behind everyone else and that can mean the world to you in a very competitive world.

SaintScott: Here's a tip: If you just used 500 favor to build 33 envoys for farming village pop. That is NOT the time to switch gods. You lose all envoys in the queue AND 500 favor.