Economy
Resources
First thing's first: establishing your economy. If you don't have any money, you can't train troops, build buildings, or do any research.
There are 5 resources you can gather:
Food is by far the most important resource; you'll want at least 1/3 of your field plots to be farms. You'll see why when you have to keep your armies well-fed.
To increase resource production:
There are 5 resources you can gather:
- Food (from farms)
- Wood (from arboreta)
- Stone (from quarries)
- Ore (from ore mines)
- Gold (from taxes)
Food is by far the most important resource; you'll want at least 1/3 of your field plots to be farms. You'll see why when you have to keep your armies well-fed.
To increase resource production:
- Level up your resource building
- Control more wilds (Lakes & grasslands boost food, woods boost wood, mountains boost ore, and hills boost stone)
- Research appropriate technologies (Fertilizer for food, smelting for ore, etc.)
- Assign your highest level hero to resource production at the great hall (costs gold for his salary)
- Use a rune from your items. You can buy them with real money or win them from Gollum.
- For gold, increase your population by building houses or increase your tax rate (which lowers your population)
Farming
The problem with gathering using your resource buildings is that there's a hard limit to how many resources they can gather per hour. If you need more than you're getting and you need it now, you can always try farming: taking it from other cities.
There will be another page devoted to farming strategies, so this section is just a Farming 101.
Each troop can carry a certain load of resources from a conquered city. Porters, supply carts, and supply wagons carry the most by far.
Train a few porters at your barracks and go attack a few cities - BUT ONLY CITIES WITH 0 MIGHT! Porters can't fight, so if your enemy has even 1 soldier defending his city, you're screwed. If you want to attack with more than just porters, read the farming guide when it comes up.
There will be another page devoted to farming strategies, so this section is just a Farming 101.
Each troop can carry a certain load of resources from a conquered city. Porters, supply carts, and supply wagons carry the most by far.
Train a few porters at your barracks and go attack a few cities - BUT ONLY CITIES WITH 0 MIGHT! Porters can't fight, so if your enemy has even 1 soldier defending his city, you're screwed. If you want to attack with more than just porters, read the farming guide when it comes up.
Vault
Your vault is one of the most important building's in your city - make sure that it is always at least as strong as your keep. In other words, if you have a level 5 keep, you need at least a level 5 vault.
Your vault is what keeps your resources safe when someone tries to farm you. It protects 100,000 each of food, wood, stone, and ore (Gold is a special thing - read the "Gold" section down below) for every level your vault has. This means a level 5 vault will protect 500,000 food, 500,000 wood, 500,000 stone, and 500,000 ore. You can also increase this amount by researching the "Strongbox" technology at your academy.
You should never let your resources pile up above what your vault can protect. If you can't spend it fast enough (which is a great problem to have), you should pass it on to a friend in the alliance. If you know you won't be on for a while (i.e. you have to sleep, you're at work and can't check in, etc.) then you should spend/pass on enough resources that you can go that long without stockpiling beyond your vault level.
Remember: stockpiled resources aren't building up your city, and stolen resources are building up your enemy's city.
Your vault is what keeps your resources safe when someone tries to farm you. It protects 100,000 each of food, wood, stone, and ore (Gold is a special thing - read the "Gold" section down below) for every level your vault has. This means a level 5 vault will protect 500,000 food, 500,000 wood, 500,000 stone, and 500,000 ore. You can also increase this amount by researching the "Strongbox" technology at your academy.
You should never let your resources pile up above what your vault can protect. If you can't spend it fast enough (which is a great problem to have), you should pass it on to a friend in the alliance. If you know you won't be on for a while (i.e. you have to sleep, you're at work and can't check in, etc.) then you should spend/pass on enough resources that you can go that long without stockpiling beyond your vault level.
Remember: stockpiled resources aren't building up your city, and stolen resources are building up your enemy's city.
Gold
Gold is the red-headed stepchild of the resources - you can't protect it with your vault, it's gathered indirectly via taxes, and it's only used to research technologies at the academy or to pay your hero to do something for you.
The best way to gather gold is through farming. This means that other players will be looking to steal gold from you too. Set your tax rate to 0 and leave it there. Only farm for gold when you need to research a technology, and pass on any extra when you're done. This keeps you in control of how much gold is in your city and discourages people from farming you.
The best way to gather gold is through farming. This means that other players will be looking to steal gold from you too. Set your tax rate to 0 and leave it there. Only farm for gold when you need to research a technology, and pass on any extra when you're done. This keeps you in control of how much gold is in your city and discourages people from farming you.
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