by: Liam Hayman
Military; be it or hike it
To have a good army, you need to be able to do the following;
* Build it
* Support it
* Use it
* Regenerate it
* Win with it
* Know it’s limits
Each section mentioned above will be explained in separate sectors, use the index for speed (using the Ctrl+F feature).
Index
1. Build it
2. Support it
3. Use it
4. Regenerate it
5. Raiding npcs
6. Know it’s limits
7. Military techs
8. Fortifications
9. Scouting
1. Build it:
Before you start building your army, let’s focus on where.
You need barracks to build your troops. I advise having 12, but 10 will do fine. Get them all up to level 4 and 1 to lvl9 ASAP, and then when you can, get them all up to lvl9. The more barracks you have, the faster they train, just remember to check the ‘share production’ checkbox in the bottom left of your troop training window. When you’re training your army, make use of the ‘attack hero’ feature which cuts the training time depending on the attack attribute of your mayor, remember to switch back as the hero doesn’t have to stay as the mayor throughout the training.
Your basic army for raiding should consist of workers, warriors and archers. 2k workers minimum in each attack (4k preferred for optimal plunder) and a archer:warrior ratio of 80:20. You should be building archers immediately when you being, and once you hit bp’s end, you should have plenty of them and a meat shield of warriors.
Note: it’s better to train 4k archers in 4 slots of 1k, than 1 slot of 4k!
1. Support it
You have to be able to support your army, always. If you keep them on the move when you’re online then they should pay for themselves and some, but at night they’re camped and should (if you have a good army) result in a (-) production of food. If you farm npcs enough (see 5.) then food should not be a problem.
1. Use it
Countless times I see people attacking with 10k cavalry and getting crushed. Having strong units does not mean everything, the basic rules is, archers > the rest. Here are a few tips for combat:
Every unit ranged attacks;
This is a great tactic (ranged). If you hit 20k warriors you can kill them all without losses with a smaller force of archers. You simply take your archers, your meat shield and 1 of every other combat unit and attack. The opponent if forced to stop to kill each type of unit, giving your archers about 7 extra rounds to pound arrows into the chest of the enemy’s troops.
Waves;
Waves are very useful, they come in two main forms – plunder waves and trap waves.
The purpose of plunder waves is to optimize your plunder rates. You simply send in your attacking force to wipe out the defences, and then have a wave of transports, cavalry and workers hit straight after. Remember to time it right!
Trap waves work differently. If you find a city with 4k traps and rolling logs, you don’t want your archers to get killed. So, you send in a wave of warriors (or scouts) to take out the traps, logs and rockfalls. Then send in your main army to wipe the defences.
Medal hunting with scouts;
Scouts are cheap and fast. If you gather an army of them you can hit low level valleys for rose medals.
1. Regenerate it
When your troops die, you can cure a certain amount of them in exchange for a sum of shiny gold. Simply go to your rally point, select the medic camp tab and click cure. There ya go J
1. Raiding npcs
Raiding npcs is vital, they give you huge amounts of food and gold. If you send the right amount of ballistas and transports, you can completely clean an npc out with no losses! The most up-to-date table I could get is this, but patches may have changed details.
Level 1: 10 Ballista (archery 7)
Level 2: 36 Ballista (archery 7)
Level 3: 150 Ballista (archery 6)
Level 4: 200 Ballista (archery 6)
Level 5: 400 Ballista
Level 6: 600 Ballista (archery 10)
Level 7: 1000 Ballista
Level 8: 2400 Ballista
1. Know it’s limits
Every army has limits, and every army is mincemeat if the opponent as superior technology. I get people with lvl 5 archery hitting me with 10k archers, my 5k archers wipe them out simply because I have lvl9 archery. I can’t tell you your army’s limits, but take the time to work it out!
1. Military techs
Military technologies are any techs which effect your army;
* Metal casting
* Informatics
* Military tradition
* Military science
* Iron working
* Logistics
* Compass
* Horseback riding
* Archery
* Medicine
Metal casting: enhances the speed of mechanics training by 10% per level, such as ballistas and catapults
Informatics: each level here increased the value of your scout reports
Military tradition: each level raises your attack by 5%
Military science: tops your troop training speed by 10% per level
Iron working: each level raises your defence by 5%
Logistics: increases your army’s load each level
Compass: each level speeds up your infantry by 10%
Horseback Riding: increases mechanics and cavalry speed by 5% each level
Archery: 5% more range for every level
Medicine: 5% more life for your army per level
1. Fortifications:
Your fortifications are immobile defences situated on or around your walls, they are always activated and fight even if you close your gates; in this section I will give you a few ideas of what they do, and then explain why they are completely useless to any strong Evony player.
Traps: the only time you should ever build these is if you have NO other defence and want to shift your resources to save them being plundered or you can build them in mass. They affect any infantry but nothing else. Any half experienced player will send a wave of warriors before their main army anyway to activate these and save their archers.
Abatis: these are basically your last defence against city capturers. As long as you’re not inactive for too long, the enemy will have to send cavalry to lower your loyalty due to their speed. These will wipe them out and cavalry are expensive!
Archer Towers: they are the only fortification I advise having, and even then, only if you have a large army as well. Unless you meet the requirements all that towers do are make you a big target for honour hunters like me!
Rolling Logs: don’t get them. Simple.
Defensive Trebuchets: again, no point getting these.
1. Scouting
You should always scout before you attack!
Scouts are cheap and fast to build, they’re also very fast movers. I usually have about 10k scouts per city or more, this means that you almost always win scout battles.
Scout battles are when you a player scouts a city and the two sets of scouts clash, whoever has more scouts wins, regardless of technologies.
Tip; if you’re attacking a city more than 10 minutes away, scout it a few times during the march, this should prevent you from being surprised by newly arriving troops and fortifications.
