WW - Strategies

Following my post with the general information about WW Age (click here), some might find some of the strategies that we worked out useful.

Note: No one strategy is perfect, each will work the best in their own way if you are organized, communicate well, and work as a team.

- Defensive Strategy
As we did in Delos, we worked hard to pick islands that were as far away from the enemy as possible to make them the safest possible. While the travel time to them were an inconvenience, you'll see in my other WW post, that it still paid off. Due to the nature of the enemy in our case, we were worried about someone being caught inactive for a day and us losing a city before we even knew what was going on. To prevent that from happening, after much deliberation, we all agreed to stack each city with defense. This proved to be the best option as we ended up having the enemy colonize nearby and try to sneak a CS in. (it failed miserably because of our stacked defense). We also made it mandatory that the god of each WW city was Athena. Many of us large players had pegasus nukes (click here to find out why) that we could send on a moments notice. On several occasions we had a "fire drill" and rushed the the scene only to find that we were in no danger, but it was good practice anyways.

By the time WW Age rolled around, we had each city with a fully upgraded wall and each harbor had a minimum of 1000 BR's. Land unit numbers differed based on who the owner of each city was and what they could send. This, combined with the WW island locations proved to be amply sufficient to hold them against an fairly un-organized enemy.


- Offensive Strategy
I've never done this personally, but have seen it done with huge effect. While always wanting to try it, because of the way our alliance worked and other factors, I've never been able to experiment with it. The idea is opposite of what most people think. Don't build a wall. Build slingers. As weird at that sounds, its true. Build nothing but slingers. They are cheap, fairly fast over land, and powerful in a nuke. It only works how ever if every city on a WW island is set up like this. It does take a high level of activity to pull off though, or just an attack alarm so that you can dodge. Having no wall doesn't effect using BR's though. So you can always defend against a CS that way, and if that doesn't work, you have 18-20 cities with a +2500 slinger nuke in them. If done right, nothing should be able to stand against that.


- Breaking Up a WW Island
There is just something satisfying in taking something away from someone in fair fight. And taking an enemy WW city is one of the most nerve racking part of this game. Having taken +5 enemy WW cities in my time, it comes down to a few simple things.
#1. Take, or colonize cities that are close to one of their WW islands. If possible, and they don't think better of it, try and pick a spot that is close to 2 or more of their WW islands. Once you are able to send a CS out of it, the potential targets are a lot more for you, and a they have a whole lot more priority cities to defend (also draws off valuable defense that they could use, or be using against your alliance else where)
#2. Work as a team. While one city near their WW islands is okay, the more your alliance has, the better. In Delos we colonized something like 10-25 near 4 of their WW islands that were close together. Needless to say, we saw a lot of action and kept them very busy for a while. Eventually, they got tired of taking the cities we kept colonizing and we eventually were able form a hub of cities that was able to land several CS's on their WW islands. (2 of mine ended up sticking)
#3. Look at stats and look for targets that have large inactive periods. To test if the stats are right, check some of their other cities no where near the WW islands.
#4. Finding a traitor/malcontent. Nothing is easier than just walking into a WW city that someone just hands to you. While not the greatest way of doing it, it still gets the job done.

WW - General Information

Since it has been a while since I've actually played grepolis, please bear with me.

On each island you'll see a cleared spot appear sometime during the game (I can't remember if they are there at the beginning or if they show up later). When ever they appear, if you click on them you can see the estimated time remaining until the server thinks that the world will reach WW Era. Depending on what speed world you're playing the total points required differ (I think), if that's not the case, it'll just take longer to achieve the points required on a slower world. After a world has been open for 6 months the total required amount of points required will start dropping by 12 million a month. (The points that are counted toward meeting the total required is the top 50 alliance points added together)

Once the world meets the required points, there will be an announcement that appears on your screen that the world is now in the WW age. Long before this you should be planning for it and be already to put that plan into action. Below is what our WW tab in our forum looked like. As you can see we noted what was needed for each WW after the # and the name of the WW. This proved to be the most effective (along with daily Mass Mails). It provided a quick reference and saved the leaders a lot of redundant questions. Some people are bothered by the level that we took the organization, but I think overall, a organized alliance will toast a larger, but un-organized alliance.

As crazy as it sounds, both of the times I've been through a WW Age we started prepping about 3-4 months ahead of WW Era. First off, the alliance needs 7 fully colonized islands that are in a safe area on which to place your 7 WW's. We found it useful to have more than 7 ready, more like 10 or so as right before WW Age starts everyone tries to disrupt the others by taking out their carefully laid plans. The next thing we did was to direct everyone to focus on making sure their temple and market was fully upgraded. Also, where it could be spared, to build Divine Statue to boost favor production. (if you have read my beginners guides, you should hopefully have your resource buildings maxed out long before this.)

Along with having the forum organized and preparing for several months in advance, we set up a command group that had authority over everyone in regards to the WW progress. (At this point we had 15 or so leaders) These people were picked not only because of their leadership skills, but also because their online times. The goal was to have at least 1 online at all times so that we had updates ASAP and everyone wasn't waiting around for direction. Below is what one of our priority WW's looked like. The enemy alliance had gained an early advantage because of the close proximity theirs was to their core while ours was put way back in deep safety. Over time, because of the great leadership in directing the building and managing of the WW's we caught up easily over the next 3-5 levels and finished it almost 2 levels ahead of them. While some of us, like myself, were big and could send a TON of resources from their cities, some of us were over 11 hrs away. But, because you can send more than is required for the level you're building, we almost always had enough resources for the next level. So in reality, we were sending faster than it would build the next level. This proved to be very effective as the priority WW's were only open for sending resources to for 6-8 hrs at a time before the next level started going up. Some times, we were forced to wait just so that we had a WW to send to because we had the rest leveling up at the same time.

Once we had them upgrading to the next level, the leaders in charge of the WW's decided which WW's were our priority for speeding up. You can speed up the build time of a WW by clicking on the WW, or the link to it (which we always put in our MM's and in the forum) and then clicking "accelerate construction". This will cost you 400 favor from each god (or at least that was what it was when I was playing before the game re-balance update) When you have it sped up 50 times in one day, that cuts a considerable time off of the upgrade time.

In the end, the more you organize, are prepared before time, and have a solid strategy to holding your WW islands and maybe even taking an enemy one or two, you'll be on the high road to victory. And maybe you'll be able to pick up something like this. :)

Re-balancing & What it Means for My Guide

After careful thought, I've decided to leave my guide like it is in regards to the re-balancing update. It affects much of my information about troops, what is (now was as it could have changed) the best, and their respective cost. I've decided upon this course due to several reasons. Mainly, since I no longer play I am not out their testing it out first-hand. That has been what my guide has been in the past. My first hand experiences being passed on.  Secondly, even if I was to try and figure all the units out again and run all the numbers, I've been told by several old friends that still play that there are many new spells, the hero worlds effects were merged into the game and it has become in some aspects a whole new game. To me, that makes it impossible to try and figure it out without playing for which I do not have to time for. I regret that my guide will not be complete in ever aspect as that was my goal when I started. I'm happy to see however how useful my review and opinion on the new hero's have been. It is still by far the most popular post in my guide.

With all of this said, I am not done with this guide yet. I still have yet to write about the WW Age. Many people have been asking about that so I will get to it sometime soon I hope. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have good New Year's. Thank you for all your support and your participation and views. It is a great encouragement!

~Maciver

Important Announcement

It has just come to my attention that Grepolis units have been updated. Apparently this happened some time ago but because I no longer play I was unaware of it. Therefore, it looks as if most of my opinions on the units because of their cost in resources & favor aren't true anymore as some of them have been changed. Mainly, myth units have gotten a lot cheaper but more powerful for the most part. I'm disappointed that my guide isn't up to date and will try my best to get it there. I don't know how since I'm not playing any more, but I will try. Otherwise the information that I have up right now will do you no good.

~Mac

Support Template for Forum

The below Support Template is all ready for copying directly into your forum.


The title of the thread should follow the format [b]OXX/CityName/Status[/b], where:
- OXX is the Ocean (ex: O54)
- Status is one of the following: CS Incoming, Attacks Inbound, Spy Attemtps, ...

Please use this template when posting for support.  If you don't provide us with the basic intel, we cannot adequately support you.  PM me if you have any questions.
_____________________________________________________________________________

[b]City Attacked:
City Wall:
God:
Support Type Needed:

Attackers Name:
Attackers City:
Number of attacks:
Attack(s) arrival: [/b]


[u]Use this template if you see that attacks include a CS[/u]

[b]City Attacked:
City Wall:
God:
Support Type Needed:

Attackers Name:
Attackers CS City:
CS Landing time:
Attack(s) arrival:
First six Enemy Support Times:[/b]


~ A BIG thanks to Forseti for coming up with this Support Template!

Forum Format for Recording Intel - Option #1

Unfortunately, not much remains of this idea as we replaced it with Option #2, (click here) but here is a picture of part of it. We made two tabs called Off. and Def. Both contained a thread set up like you see in the picture below with a thread dedicated to each ocean (or if not much activity in a few, we'd group them together)

Off. Tab

In each thread we post anything that had to do with us attacking, spying, or casting spells on enemy cities in that specific ocean. This way, we could see what had been hit, when, and what was currently there (or what the wall lvl was at that time) while not having to dig through a ton of random reports from different oceans to find what we were looking for. 

Def. Tab

Just like the Off. tab, we posted anything that had to do with our cities getting attacked, spied on, or spells cast on them. This is the the MOST important out of either of them, maybe even the most vital tab out of the whole forum. From here we would record what enemy city had attacked, with what, and the TT of the attack (to figure out when they had launched it and thus was online). Thus, it eventually gave us a clear picture as to what the enemy had, where it all was, and where to strike when we knew they were sleeping and kill their offense.

To pull this Option off, you'll need at least 2 people that can be dedicated to making sure all the intel is processed before the reports delete themselves. (generally have several days before this happens). Stealing an idea from Option #2, it would work best if they would edit each post and write Processed at the bottom of each report. Then, all the info should go into grepointel.com so that the maps will have the current intel and it should be placed in some sort of format at the top of each thread so that it is readily available to all. It takes a lot of work, but it making killing the enemy and knowing what is incoming (so you can counter it correctly) very easy in the future.

Creating a Forum Format

One of the most important aspects of a well run alliance. It can make or break an alliance in the midst of a major war. Communication is what matters most. If the forums aren't set up in a way that is understandable and user friendly, people are a whole lot less likely to work together and work as a team. Team work is the only way wars are won in Grepolis. No one person has ever won a war completely single-handed-ly. Below is the set-up that I've used and was taught since I started playing and it has seemed to have been effective and user friendly to most players. (from the feedback that we've received)

Important to Note: Tabs shared with other alliances cannot have threads moved to or from them by either party.

SUPPORT - Anything having to do with being attacked and the reports from such. Threads here have a city name that is under attack and current info about it (what ocean, name of city under attack - how  many attacks, CS launched, under siege) i.e. O54 - XYZ - CS Lands at 20:35:01. Also, at the top and marked important is the thread for posting attacks on your tripwires in other people's cities. This shows participation and that you have indeed taken steps to help secure your island.

General (Gen.) - Announcements & a list of leaders and who to contact when went here. Nice to have an area that was uncluttered so that there could be no missing it.

Offense - Threads under this tab have an enemy city name in the title along with a landing time or where in the process the claimant is. (what ocean - spying, clearing, CS launched, CS landed) i.e. O54 - XYZ - CS Lands at 20:35:01. Also kept a thread marked important at the top for putting random reports of attacking the enemy.

Intel - Click here & here to read my guides to recording intel on the forum. Depends on how you want to organize it as to how many tabs you have for it and such.

Guides - Leaders are generally the ones that post here, posting links to guides or templates for specific forum posts. (For posting in the support tab or for announcing that your CS is launched at an enemy city)

The Pub - Anything and everything that didn't go in any of the other tabs. May members used this area for joke telling (in a thread devoted to it) and for fantasy football. I mainly view this tab as a HUGE distraction, but I can see that a place to let down can be good for morale and so people don't burn out by being constantly overwhelmed by just pure grepolis.

Archive (Arch.)- After a while, in the alliances I was in, we found that we needed a thread devoted to any old post as we liked to safe the information in them. Who did what, who helped and with what. Also helped to show who was the most active and a team player. Since there isn't a limit that I know of as to how many threads can be under this thread, we dumped most anything that was outdated in here.

Leaders (Ldrs) - Hidden - Where what we called the "council" met and discussed the pressed matters that was currently facing the alliance. We had a thread in here that was devoted to Recruiting and if any leader had a suggestion or a recommendation it should be put there with anything that we knew about the player in question and we would all discuss it. Here was also where we discussed our next move as alliance and prospective allies and enemies. If we ever had a spy in this area we would have been royally messed up, so only a chosen few were ever aloud access. (before my retirement, we spent more type in the skype leadership room talking than we did here as it was faster and much smoother)

Leaders Archive (Ldrs Arch.) - Hidden - Like Archive, anything from the Leadership tab went here after it was outdated. But only those that could see that tab could see this one. Being able to go back and look at old stuff was a huge benefit on several different occasions.

World Wonders (W.W.) - Hidden until about 2 months before - Before WW age rolls around, the leaders got together 2-3 months before and decided on the 7 islands that we would used for building our WW's on. This tab, which was released for everyone in the alliance to see about 2 months before WW age starts gives them all heads up, information as to what we need where, and instructions as to what to do with their own cities in preperation. (Build you market up in each and build Merchant in many of them) The aspects of this tab change over time, but the idea behind it stays primarily the same.

WW Islands - (Made after the one above and released at the same time as it or close to it) - Here we had a thread devoted to each island with a link to each at the top of each thread. Anything to do with an island was put under its specific thread. Whether that be trips going off, requests for resources from players (to build up their walls and such) or for reports of attacks on them. Announcements as to what WW/s to send resources to where Mass Mailed out, but they were also edited in to the title for each island (send, hold, accelerate, done!) This proved to be quite effective and in the last WW race our alliance very quickly pulled ahead of our opponents. It proved quite capable of dealing with 160 players all helping and sending to the WW's. Would definitely use the same thing again if I ever played again.

----------------
Targets (Or known as Ops) - This thread constantly "changed". To the regular member it might like the same one, but we generally had 2 or 3 that were hidden and that we were working on behind the scenes only to be released when we were ready to launch the Op. This/these tabs had all the information that we had on the target cities and what our goal was and in what time frame. This is where team work was formed and how it played. If no one stepped up to provide a CS for a city then we went on to the next one. We always tried to have a plan before attacking a city so as not to just attack it, but to make sure we gained something by our losses. Did we gain the city? Even if they broke the siege we put on it, what was the ratio of our loses to theirs? Did we take out all of their LS in that area?
----------------

In the past there have been people that have complained that there is to many tabs and to much to read, and in-as-much as that might be true in some cases, if you are fairly active, and just keep up on what is in your area or what is marked as important, it isn't that bad as some make it out to be.

It Delos, because of how many oceans we covered (9 to be exact), we split the Offense tab into 2 tabs. West & East. And then in the description specified which oceans that included. Then, there was a thread for each ocean that that area covered. Anything that had to do with that ocean and offense went there. It lost a bit of the teamwork, but because we were so spread out we had to just PM or skype those who were close and might be able to help and just form our own little groups on our own if we were going to go after a big target.

This is no wise the "best" set up, but it is what we found to work for us and we made several changes in set-up over time as we found some things that worked better than what we had or vice-versa.