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Game Guide by TroyNEWBIE GUIDE by Troy
***GETTING STARTED***
(1)GAME RULES/GAME HELP
(2) INTRODUCE YOURSELF
(3) STATES Get accustomed to the "coordinate system" for viewing different states. Each state has unique coordinates, and each country consists of a set of 10 states. Coordinates currently run from [1:1] to [1:40], all the way up to [9:1] to [9:40]. You can use the "World Map" to navigate at first, but later it will be faster for you if you simply memorize the coordinate range for each country. For practice, go to "Top Scores" on your console, and select "Strongest States." Write down the coordinates for the top state, and then go back and enter in the coordinates to view the list of players in each of the states. It’s that easy. Got the hang of the coordinate system yet? Good - it's really not that hard. Keep surfing around the different coordinates - the more familiar you are with other states, the better off you will be in the game. Remember that countries and states always fill up in order – therefore, the most commonly-inhabited states is the [x:11] state, followed by the [x:12] state,…etc. Finally, look in country forums in case there are any specific important states you should be aware of.
(4) VOTING
- In the voting page, does one person already have a strong (or unanimous) majority of the votes? If so, then you may consider going with the flow in order to promote country unity. Factor these things into your voting decision. Once you vote, you can always go back and change your vote at any time you like. The voting pages are accessible through the Country Forums, in "State Politics" and "Country Politics."
(5) NEWBIE MODE - STARTING OUT EXPLORE. In the "Exploration" page, send out all 25 of your initial explorers. For each explorer that you send out, you will be rewarded with 1 land. It takes 24 ticks for all of your explorers to return. However, as some of your explorers return each tick, you can send them back out immediately. During newbie mode, you should always send out the maximum number of explorers as often as you can. This is almost always a good practice throughout the whole game, except perhaps for much later in the game as the cost of exploration will increase dramatically if you become very large. BUILDINGS. You should start out with 80 land to build on. Build all banks - don't build anything else yet. Banks are your primary source of income - each one earns you an extra $250 per tick. As you gain land from your explorers, continue to build mostly banks for the rest of newbie mode. You will need the income in order to build a larger military. ***Strategy: Some people even decide to *demolish* other buildings in order to build even more banks at the beginning of newbie mode. However, don't do too much of this unless you know what you are doing! ***Strategy: The 50% rule - for the first week, try to have at least 50% of your land built on as banks. As you get even stronger, you will need an even greater percentage of banks. MILITARY. Train the maximum number of Regular Infantry right away. Every tick, you will be able to train more Regular Infantry. Although Regular Infantry do not have any military strength, you need to use them in order to train any other kind of military unit. Every time you train R.I. or some other military unit, it takes up some of your barracks (or air base) space. You can see how much of your building space is used up in the "Building" page. If you ever see that you are starting to run out out of space, build more of the required building. (Remember that buildings take 12 ticks to finish building.) Before you begin training your actual military forces, read the "Military" section of the help pages to familiarize yourself with the different military units. DIFFERENT TRAINING STRATEGIES FOR NEWBIE MODE. (1) The "tanker" approach. Recommended especially if you plan to be a very active player, logging on several times per day. Most people who take this approach do not worry about research until later in the game. With this strategy, you want to spend all your money making your military the strongest it can be! You will focus on land units - this is where you will thrive! Armored Vehicles are the most cost-efficient offense tanks that you can build, and Light Panthers are the most cost-efficient defense tanks that you can build. M1A1 tanks are more of a combination of offense and defense, and they have a nice low networth, but they are less cost-efficient. You should train a combination of these three tanks - it is up to you to decide how many of each tank you will train. If you think you will only be able to log in to your account 1-3 times per day, you should build an equal number of offense and defense tanks. If you plan on being even more active, you can build twice as many offense tanks as defense tanks, or even three times as many (if you're the super risk-taker type). If you had built plenty of banks at the beginning of newbie mode, you should have no problem building quite a sizable land force by the end of newbie mode. You will use your massive tank forces to gain (and protect) all the land you could ever want! (2) The early researcher. Ok, so maybe you're not quite as trigger-happy as the tankers above. You want to be the first player to have all the best units researched and available for training! This alternate approach requires that you have your research facilities. Right at the beginning of newbie mode, instead of training military, train the maximum number of scientists that you can with your regular infantry. You can send them all to research "Heavy Armour" (which will allow you to then research the heavy land units), or alternatively you can send them to research a better air unit. Continue training Regular Infantry into scientists until you have anywhere between 1,500 and 3,000 scientists. (Don't forget to actually send all of them on research!) Your scientists will cost a lot, so use the rest of your income carefully, making sure to meet/surpass all of the recommended minimums. Your game will be primarily defensive at first, but once you get those advanced units researched, you will move forward at an accelerated pace! (3) The uber-intelligence. If you use this approach, you *really* like your privacy. If no one can see how strong your military is, then players aren't as likely to want to attack you because they don't know how many forces it would take to be successful. If a player attacks you blindly, it is likely that they will either not send enough forces (and fail), or they will send too many forces (leaving themselves open for retaliation). Having an excess of recons puts your enemies into that exact situation. Recons and commandos go very well together - your commandos will serve to protect your recons as well as your military forces. (There is no way for your recons to be killed by another player except by commando attacks.) Together, your recons and commandos serve as your blanket of protection. In addition, the recons will protect your money from being stolen, and you can use your large recon force to steal your enemy's money instead! And of course, there's nothing quite like the satisfying feeling when you see that a player has failed a recon or commando attempt on you. Concentrate your expenditures on recon and commando units. (4) The heavy air approach. This is great for players who love revenge. If anyone attacks you, you're going to make them pay for it. There's nothing like an enormous air force as a deterrant. Air is the quickest, and perhaps the most underused, way of destroying other people's military. Don't be intimidated by the high cost of air units - the damage they can do is immense. Once you attack an enemy with air, there is often little they can do to stop you from attacking them over and over again, crippling their military until you can go in and take their land. If you decide to go heavy on air units, you may be able to bring down certain enemies whose land and networth are much higher than your own. Train a good number of each type of air unit to cover both your defense and your offense. (5) Heavy on human units. This strategy is rarely used! That is because human units are notorious for being barrack space hogs and having a high networth. Land, air, and intelligence have historically been the driving forces in the game, not human units. However, having an excess of human forces will indeed earn you some extra money here and there. Even more than air units - you could potentially sucessfully attack people who are many times your networth, since many players tend to neglect their human forces. Human forces are most helpful in emergency situations when you may be in need of quick power, population, or money. Also, being able to attack regularly with human units (as well as land/air) will make it easier to progress in rank. (6) The Renassiance player. This means any combination of the above strategies! Most players do not tend to go all-out on a single type of unit. Many players like to combine heavy tanks with high intelligence and/or high air. Some others like to combine heavy research with high intel and/or land. Spreading out your strength has its benefits in that you will not have any obvious weaker areas in your defense. Think about the benefits of each type of unit, and evaluate for yourself what your ideal allocation is. For ALL strategies: Here is a list of *basic*, bare minimums that you should absolutely make sure to train before newbie mode ends:
1 Frigate Explanation: Even though it costs a hefty $500,000 - everyone should build at least one Frigate at the beginning of newbie mode. This one naval unit will give your buildings a substantial added protection from a posssible naval attack. Most players surpass all of these minimums very easily. If you don't meet/surpass one or more of these recommended levels, you could potentially have yourself a big problem when you exit newbie mode!
***OUT OF THE GATE - AFTER NEWBIE MODE*** (1) ROBBING. In the first few days out of newbie mode, you won't have a very impressive income. If you play your cards right, you could double (or even triple) your wealth through reconnaissance attacks. "Rob enemies' banks" is an option in the drop down menu for Reconnaisance attacks. In order to be successful in any recon (or commando) attack, you must send more recons than the other player currently has. Otherwise, you will fail, and the player will be notified that you attempted to carry out a reconnaissance mission on them. When you successfully rob a player, you will take 10% of that player's available money, and they will not know who did it. How do you decide who to rob? In order to maximize your profit, you want to rob players that have the most available money. ***Strategy: Look for seemingly inactive players that have recently come out of newbie mode. Look for players that have exactly 250 land and exactly 4000 networth. This means that they have not built/trained anything, including recons! You can send in 1 recon in your robbing attack, and it will be successful. If you receive a significant amount of money, then continue robbing. Otherwise, if you think you can do better, then find another target. If you're not robbing an inactive player, then you should usually get a normal recon ("Status of Member") of that player before you start robbing. With a general scan, you can see how much money the player has and how many recons it would take to succeed in a robbery. If you know how many recons the other player has, never send more recons than you have to - the more recons you send, the more you will lose in the attack, even if it is successful. ***Strategy: Note the amount of land that a particular player has (or a group of players). Wait for the next tick. If the player did not gain any land between the ticks, then they do not have any explorers out, which means that they probably haven't been online in at least 24 ticks and may have a significant amount of cash on-hand! This could help you determine who to try getting a recon of when you want to do some robberies. *Tip: Since you gain one recon turn per tick, and you can only store up to 12 recon turns, it is in your best interest to use as many of them as you can. If you are about to sign off and go to bed, then you might as well use all of your remaining recon turns - otherwise, they will be wasted. (2) ATTACKING. Attacking and gaining resources (especially land) is the key to the game! Throughout the game, you will attack other players in order to weaken them and to gain land and resources for yourself. ***General Rule: Do not attempt an attack unless you know how many forces to send! This means that you must either (1) have gotten a recent recon of the player in the current tick and have calculated the attack yourself, or (2) another trusted player has informed you of how many units will sucessfully "break" your opponent. Learn to calculate attacks using the offense/defense point system specified in the help pages - or use an attack calculator program. ***General Rule: Do not leave yourself vulnerable to attack! Remember that when you send out forces in an attack, your only defenses are the forces you still have at home, until your generals return. When a player sends out too many forces, this is called "going open." If a player is discovered to be open, he/she may find themselves stripped of half of their land by the time their defenses get back. When deciding whether to attack, be prudent and consider the amount of defense you would have left. One common strategy is to attack at the very end of a tick - this gives other players little to no time to respond to your attack in that same tick. Doing this reduces the overall time that your generals will be out, and thus slightly reduces your risk of being attacked while your generals are out. ***General Rule: Air/comms first, land second. Do NOT attack with air forces or commandos *after* you attack with land forces. The main purpose of attacking with air units and commandos is to weaken your opponent to make it easier to attack with land. If you are only attacking with land, that is fine - but if you are doing both types of attacks, make sure to do them in the right order! If you perform air or commando attacks, then get another fresh recon before land attacking. ***General Rule: For every recon scan that you perform, copy it and post it in your country forums, so that everyone else can see it and will have a good guestimate of the other player's units. This also helps save recon turns. If you use a recon that has been posted in the forums, check the date and time of the post to see how old the recon is. Look at how many recons the player had at the time - you can now guess how many recons they might have now. When you get your fresh scan, send in however many recons you think you will need. And of course, when you get the updated scan, post that in the forums as well. *Tip: FINDING TARGETS: You cannot attack anyone less than 1/3 your networth. You will find easier targets by finding players who are just above the cutoff mark. You can sometimes use the scoreboards to find players in your attack range. If your country is at war, then you should first look for targets in the enemy states (The 1/3 rule does not apply during a war). Also, don't hesitate to jump on an opportunity if you find that another player is open! Check your Country News. Have any of your country members been attacked recently? If so, then the attacker might be open. *Tip: You cannot always trust old recons. Even if you just recently reconned a player within the last 2-3 ticks, keep in mind that the player could potentially have many military units training. There is also a chance that the player's generals had been out when the scan had occurred, and they had returned since then. Try to get fresh recons when you need them. ***Strategy: It is good teamwork if you stick up for your fellow country members and perform retaliation attacks if someone in your country has been hit. If you are being hit, then you can request for aid and/or retaliation attacks in your country forums or through private messages. (3) DEFENDING You don't have to do anything to defend your territory - it is all automatic, and it simply depends on the amount of forces you have at home. What you do have to do, however, is recover from attacks. If you are land attacked, you may find yourself with 0 power plants and with not enough barracks/air base/recon HQ/commando HQ space to build. Fortunately, the game allows you to build power plants even if you have 0 power. If you have 0 power, then simply build more power plants, and wait a tick or two, and you will then have enough power to continue rebuilding. You can also get power by attacking someone with land or human units. Remember, however, that any excess power that you gain will be lost at the end of the tick. If you have power, then you need to recover your other buildings so that you can continue military production. *Tip: Your barracks and air bases only account for the units that you have at home. If you are attacked and do not have enough barrack space to build more units, then if you attack someone, sending out some of your units, then that will temporarily clear up space! This method of building does not always work so well in the long run, but in the short run it is a great way to continue building your military while you are working to restore your buildings. ***Survival Rule: NEVER let yourself run out of homes! If you are attacked and you have 0 homes left, you will die quickly if you are not currently building homes. Therefore, if you expect to be attacked, you should try to always keep several homes building. This greatly helps prevent the dreaded "pop kill," where you die as a result of having 0 population. The only other way you can die is if you run out of land - and that is usually a lot harder for your enemies to accomplish. It is also good to build several homes right before you log off for the night, or before you plan to be offline for any extended amount of time. (4) GENERAL TIPS *** Make friends. Actively participate in forums, and interact with other players. The more friends you have, the more potential alliances you can have. Cooperative teamwork is a recipe for success. *** Do not neglect the navy. When you have the money, build naval units as often as you can. In the long run, they are not too high of a cost for the protection that they are worth. *** Check the help pages and review your country bonus. Every country has a unique bonus, so that may influence your gameplay. Also, when you attack, check your opponent's country bonus to make sure they don't have an added defense bonus. You don't have to think very much about these bonuses, but they are a good thing to keep in mind as you play. *** Much of the game is simply a matter of player style. You can decide for yourself which units to research first. Decide how you will build your forces, and how much risk you are willing to assume when you attack. Everyone has different ways of playing. Experiment and find for yourself what your best playing style is. (5) FINALLY *** Have fun! Don't be discouraged if you have trouble or if you die - every player gets a beating every once in a while. It's all part of the game. Players can still do well and progress even if they are attacked many times. It is the players that makes this game great. The admins are here to ensure that your playing experience is as enjoyable as possible. Good luck! We will be looking for you up on the scoreboards!
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