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Evony Age 2 - Capture level 8 NPC

I've become quite the fan of Evony Age 2, an online browser game that can be played through a link on Facebook, or through direct connection using your email address as your ID.  (WWW.Evony.com)

One of the more frequently asked questions by players as they an reach intermediate stage in the game, and a question for which I could NOT find a decent how-to summary, was how to capture a level 8 NPC.  This is part of the King/Queen's quest and is different from just "farming" the materials available at an NPC, this means actually taking control of the city and making it part of your own Empire.

This post will be something I can reference when I see the question asked again.

First of all, make sure that your rank/title allows you to add another city to your Empire.  The higher your rank/title, the more cities you are allowed to own and you must be sure you have the capacity to add another city or all your work will be for nothing.  (You can abandon a city if your capacity is already full.  Before you abandon, be sure to move everything out of that city that you might want.)

Secondly, make sure that the city/cities from which you will attack each has room for adding another valley.  If you don't know what this means, you're not ready to tackle this quest.  Do a Google search for "evony wiki" and read all about it there.

Next, you must have at least a few thousand of each type of troops, with about 80,000 warriors and 130,000 archers (or more).  You must attack from a city, or combination of cities, with several heroes with base attack skills (attack skills - hero level) of 65 and above.  You must also make sure you've got a bunch of food - each attack requires some food to feed the troops.

Now, you must also make sure that the level 8 NPC is very close to the cities from which you will attack.  If it's over 4 miles, you will be suffering much greater losses, or you will need a lot more troops and heroes.  If you do not have a level 8 NPC near you, you can create one.  Capture a level 8 flat nearby (flats increase 1 level everyday, so you may have to wait for a lvl 3 to become a lvl 8), capture that flat.

When you are fully prepared, build a city on the lvl 8 flat you conquered, then immediately abandon it - don't build anything in it.  It will become a lvl 8 NPC for just about 24 hours, then disappear and the space will become a flat again.  Once you've created a lvl 8 NPC, you don't have too long to begin your fight.

The fight to actually take control of the lvl 8 NPC will probably take 30 to 60 minutes.  You will send an initial large force, then follow it with somewhere between 40 and 50 smaller waves of troops and I saw no way to automate this - you've got to send all of those waves manually.

The first wave of troops should be what is called a "rainbow" of something like this - 1000 warriors, 1000scouts, 1000 pikemen, 1000swordsmen, 1000Cavalry. and 80,000 to 85,000 archers.  You will lose all of these troops except for the archers - I lost about 6,000 archers on the first wave.  This first wave should wipe out all of the troops and defenses of the lvl 8 NPC.  However, loyalty in the city remains high enough to allow the troop and defense levels to immediately begin to regenerate.

The following waves of troops are to lower loyalty - you must get the loyalty in the city to zero in order for the city to become yours.  You can track the loyalty by periodically checking an attack report.

About a minute or two after the first attack, when you are sure the next wave won't get there ahead of the initial attack (they'll all be wiped out of they do), send out a wave of 20K archers (20,000) and 10K warriors.  Do this every minute or two until the city is yours - about 45 attacks for me.  You will lose a few troops on each wave, but most will return to be used over and over again.  If you wait TOO long between attacks, loyalty will begin to increase again and lengthen the time of the war.

Once loyalty in the NPC drops to zero, you'll get a screen inviting you to name your new city - which will be filled with everything at level 8.  One problem for me, however, was that there were about 20 cottages in the city and only 1 barracks.  Also, there were few resources left - I had to send some in from my other cities.

Note #1 - use of ballista does not seem to help.  You won't lose them, but they won't do you any good either.

Note #2 - If you want, with your first attack, send about 1200 transporters and collect all of the resources in the city right up front.  However, if you don't send the transporters, each wave sent to fight will bring back some of the resources and you'll get most of the stuff anyway.

Note #3 - You don't want to try this unless most of your important research in the game is at lvl 9 - things such as archery, military science, military tradition, etc.

Good luck - and feel free to pass along any further information that you think is relevant.