Words of Wisdom from President Lewis

[President Lewis]

Regarding general warfare, the only thing I want to stress with people is that research is absolutely vital - if you haven't even got bronze upgrades for your units, then you're wasting resources by throwing them into battle. Stay out of sight and upgrade until your units aren't dropping like flies.
Additionally,those of you who can build Steam Giants should build only these units unless going on the offensive - if attacking, Swordsmen make excellent fodder and pack quite the punch for the low res/build time they require. All other attack/defense land units are essentially a waste of resources and upkeep in my opinion. I'll throwdown the numbers for anybody interested, but the basic result is: fire any units you have left over from before. Or, if you're not interested in the minor return of resources you get from this, you can suicide your units on the enemy's defenses prior to major assault from one of the heavy hitters in order to ensure victory. Distasteful in my opinion, but then, war is never pretty.
Naval battles are still something of a mystery to me, since I haven't been involved in any major battles - the only time I've been attacked by a navy, I had two days to prepare, and did so quite well. However, I'll look into this and get back to you.
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Important:
Do NOT spy on resources, treasury, etc - only troops. You can raid to your heart's content later - I'm only interested in eliminating troops to take the pressure off the alliance.
Actually, that last "finally" was a lie - here's the last bit of information I want to impart. I'm only used to the battle system in this game from fighting for myself - admittedly I crushed an alliance who decided to raid a colony of mine, but organising attacks with other people is not something I've done. Additionally, due to the extremely buggy nature of this game, I don't want anybody launching coordinated attacks - the last thing we need is our troops killing each other(or, as happened me once, my own troops killing my backup units). As a result, this is going to be an ad hoc operation - if you know a target nearby that you feel you can handle, or you think you can take after they've been knocked back a bit, shout out and I'll see what I can arrange.

[TibereusX]

I have to agree with you on the majority of issues, however equally as important as upgrading units is Town Walls for defense. Level 10 is the same as having twice as many troops with a 100% bonus. I know they are expensive but i keep my walls even level with my town halls or 1 level above. The game penalizes wall bonus that is smaller than the town hall so it is hurting your bonus in the long run.

Secondly, I have to disagree with a complete Steam Giant army, yes they are the best all around troops for def/off however other troops do better for less money on defense or offense. I have actually tore a steam giant army to shreds because they gave out on stamina with marksman, phals, doctor/ and cooks. This is more technical however and cooks/doctors come into play but i will be happy to help anyone using the limited knowledge i hold.

And last, for newer players you need to calculate the enemies strength and your own. In warfare both offensive and defensive scores count tremendously whether u r attacking or defending. A golden rule i use is have 1/3 more offensive attack points than your opponets defensive score and have 2/3 as much defensive score as he will have on attack points. The reason for this i had to learn the hard way. When you are attacking your troops get attacked back of course and if you have 1000 swordsman with no defense when they are hit back then they will drop like flies. This is where the captains Steam Giant army comes in handy, but they loose stamina very fast with little help from doctors and cooks.

Now how to figure troop strength? I use this troop calculator, it is a little off but it is alittle off on both sides so no biggie. http://ikariamlibrary.com There u will find several useful tools. Any q's please ask... Thanks guys