Evony Age II - Avoiding the draft.

Getting drafted in Evony, Age 2?

Yeah – me too. Unless you have possession of the largest Historic City in Evony – Atlantis at coordinates (0,0) – you have probably had some of your troops drafted at some point. It is frustrating, but part of the game, and there are a few things you can do about it...

1. When your troops are drafted, the person doing the drafting gets 5% of one of your troop types. I'd guess there is a formula built into the game as to which type of troops gets drafted (it seems random), but I don't know what it is. Sometimes it is scouts, sometimes warriors, even if you have more archers. So – I'd suggest that one way to minimize the damage is to load up on troops that don't get drafted as often and are the easiest to replace – scouts, warriors, workers.
2. Watch to see if there's a particular time of day when you get drafted – the players probably aren't on all day, or they may have a pattern – they do their drafting in the morning, perhaps. Once you've got it figured out, move your most valuable troops into a nearby valley that you own for that part of the day. You may not want to leave them there too long – they consume about 50% more food when they are not in your city.
3. Balance out your troops between your cities – if you have more than one. A lot of players have a “war city” where they keep the bulk of their troops, but if you have your archers split between 2 cities, the drafter will get only 5% of half of your archers. Splitting them up between 5 cities is even better.
4. Those doing the drafting do not have access to troops that are reinforcing the city of someone else in your alliance. You could send some of your troops to reinforce a friend's city – but the problem is that then he/she is stuck feeding your troops. SO, you want to strike a deal – he sends you a couple hundred thousand archers and you send him a matching amount. These troops are protected from being drafted!
5. Move your troops daily – never leave them in the same city for days on end – once the drafter finds out where you have them, he will return periodically to get more. He doesn't want to try to draft troops where there are none, so he shops around and revisits cities where he's found troops in the past. This turns out to be a bit of a crap shoot that he won't find your troops, but it's better than being a sitting duck.

That's all I've got for now – if you've got some suggestions, contact me in Evony (Horatio in NA1) or leave me a note here and I'll update this post.

Evony - Age II - medal farming

How to win medals in Evony Age II...

(Update 2/21/2012 – Since I hadn't done this in a while, I created an alternate account and tried out the process for myself again. I've made some changes and made notes of those changes at the bottom of the post.)

Medals are an important part of the game – especially early on - as building prestige and gaining rank are dependent on your ability to win medals. For the method I am going to discuss today, you need to know which medals can be won from which level valleys (lakes, deserts, hills, flats, etc.) and I ripped off the following chart from Evony Wiki...

• Cross Medal = L1-2 Valleys
  
• Rose Medal = L1-3 Valleys
• Lion Medal = L2-5 Valleys, L2-3 NPCs
• Honor Medal = L5-6 Valleys, L2-4 NPCs
• Courage Medal = L6-7 Valleys, L1-5 NPCs
• Freedom Medal = L7-8 Valleys, L5+ NPCs
• Wisdom Medal = L6-8 Valleys, L5+ NPCs
  

Now you need to know how many troops are needed to conquer each of the valleys....

• Send with your Archers: 1 Warrior, 1 Pikeman and 1 Swordsman
  Lv1 valley with 50 archers.
  Lv2 valley with 100 archers.
  Lv3 valley with 200 archers.
  Lv4 valley with 400 archers.
  Lv5 valley with 750 archers.
  Lv6 valley with 1,500 archers.
  Lv7 valley with 3,000 archers.
  Lv8 valley with 7,500 archers.
  

Now, to win medals...

Select a valley or flat at the correct level as close to you as possible (to speed things up) and remember – the valleys change size everyday - so wait a day or two to get one very close before you start this exercise. Make sure you have an hour or so to work on this – it takes time. Also make sure you have at least one vacancy for your city to hold another valley – or abandon one if you need to. This procedure requires that you capture a valley over and over again.

Now, start attacking the valley you've selected repeatedly – one attack every 20 to 30 seconds so that your attacks arrive at the flat about every 10 to 12 seconds (maybe faster if you can handle it) – you'll need to adjust this depending on how close the valley is and how fast your hand speed is on the keyboard.

As each attack you've sent hits the valley, click on the valley to open its window, click on the Enter button and then click the Abandon button. This needs to happen prior to the next attack hitting – you want to capture the valley each time. Do this for every attack.

When all of your troops have returned, repeat this process – 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 10 times. Somewhere in there you should start getting a streak of medals. Some days are luckier than others. And you may go through several attacks and get nothing – then get 3 medals in a matter of a couple of tries. It is quirky like that – but that's the randomness of medal drops.

Repeat this process as needed – later in the day or the next day or even every day for the next week. I've been playing this game for about 2 years now on 3 different servers and this is the best way I know of to win the medals you need.

1. Later on in the game you will have more medals than you can use – at that point you can use them to reward heros to increase their loyalty – do NOT do that early in the game – you need those medals for your promotions and quests.
2. In the charts above, “valleys” also refers to flats – either one of which is fine.
3. When you do this, you want to increase the size of your feasting hall and your rally spot as quickly as you can – the more heroes you have (feasting hall) and the more attacks that you can send (rally spot), the faster you can win medals.
4. This whole process will go a lot faster if you can attack a valley right next to your city (1 mile).
5. Winning medals is nothing more than a game against the randomness of the game – Evony will randomly assign a medal to an attack so winning the medals you want is a matter of making as many attacks as you can in as short a period of time as your can.
6. As a result of understanding no.5, you don't want to SEND attacks every 10 to 20 seconds, you want them to ARRIVE at the valley 10 to 12 seconds apart. Because the heroes are probably of different levels and travel with the troops at different speeds, you need to watch the arrival times and the length of the trip required to time this just right.
7. As soon as most of your troops have returned, start sending them back again. Repeat this process for as long as you need. You can take a break and return at a later time.
8. If the valley you are attacking is at just the right level and you want to attack it some more the next day, be sure that you do NOT abandon it on your last attack – instead, just recall your troops. This will leave the valley occupied and it will remain at the level you want during the reset.

Evony - AGE 2 - for beginners

Just a few thoughts on Evony for those who are considering playing the game from a guy who has been playing for a couple of years now.

1. Evony is an online game about building an empire, city by city, as well as conducting wars and managing diplomacy. You are playing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other players.
   
2. Evony is a map-based game in a world which has about a dozen states, and it is not animated. You will only see the maps and reports of unseen actions – you will not watch graphical representations of your troops or see your opponents as you might in other civilization games such as World of Warcraft. or Sid Meir's Civilization.
   
3. You CAN play Evony for free – I have never spent a dime on it myself. BUT there is a push from the managers for you to buy packages of materials and game coins that will allow you to build your empire much more quickly. I will NEVER be a big player in the game without shelling out some cash, and am intimidated by players who spend a lot of money and could easily dispose of my empire and armies in a day or two. As a non-spending player, you will never be secure.
   
4. There are actually a lot of Evony games going on. It started with the first servers, now called AGE I, which I have never played and can't tell you much about. I think there are still some games going on there, but I've never visited those servers.
   
   The second age, called New Age or Evony Age 2 also has 2 different levels spread among it's 40 or so servers, each server being a separate game. On the first 21 servers (named NA1, NA2, etc.), which you can still join, if you are captured by a larger player, which will most likely happen as you grow, you can continue to play. Your Suezarian (captor) will draw off about 10% of any resources that you build, but you can still continue to play the game. At some later point, when you gain size or join an alliance capable of helping you, you can get rid of your Suzearian and play unimpeded.
   
   In the games on servers NA22 and above, the game is different in that captors of your cities have a choice – they can Suze your city and draw resources, or they can completely eliminate your city. It's a tougher game to join once it is established as you can be wiped right out of the game overnight. If you want to play at this level, join the game on the highest numbered server possible as it will be the newest game and fewer of the players will have the strength to eliminate you right away. New servers and games are added about twice a year.
   
5. Some players love starting from scratch and enjoy taking new players under their wing – you will see them jump to nearly every new server as it is introduced, and once they have an established empire, they abandon it to move to the next new server – they are not fond of the quiet atmosphere that develops on the more established servers where a sort of balance comes into being with only occasional wars breaking out.
   
6. Some players play the game for the war – they love to attack and annoy their opponents. Other players join for the camaraderie – once you are in an alliance you can build friendships and support networks with other players. Live chat and email are both popular features of the game. The live chat feature drives me crazy because you can spend the better part of an afternoon saying “hi” and “bye” to players as they log on and off with very little in the way of substantive conversation taking place. But some folks love it.
   
7. Evony, more than anything else, is a game of patience. You don't actually watch buildings get created, nor armies being built, nor troops attacking a city – you watch a timer counting down the minutes. Some new players get frustrated at the amount of time ti takes to build a city to its maximum level, but that's the game – waiting. If you can't spend a couple of hours a day – at least on most days – playing the game, don't bother – it will take you forever to get anywhere in the game. It is not a game that can be played well in 15 minutes per day.

What I've done here is just present some random thoughts about the game for anyone who might be considering playing. I may well edit this as time goes by, but I just had some thoughts about the game that I wanted to get on record. If anyone ever bothers to read this, I hope you found it interesting.

Evony - Age 2 - Facebook Rewards and Bonuses

If you play Evony Age 2 - and if you have Facebook (FB) friends who also play the game - you can post "bonuses" or "rewards" to your home page in FB for your friends to see (and earn a reward for doing so). You will also be able to see, on your homepage in FB, the "bonuses" or "rewards" posted by your friends. By clicking on the posts left by your friends you can earn bonuses or materials that will help you advance in the game. It is to your advantage to click on as many of those rewards that will help you as you can each day. There are, however, some restrictions...

• The more friends you have in FB that play Evony, the more choices of these bonuses you will have each day.
• You are limited to clicking on about 25 bonus posts on your FB page each day - choose carefully which ones will provide you with the most needed materials/boosts.

Not all of the posts you will see on FB are clear as to the reward offered, nor is it clear what you will earn when you post a bonus yourself.  Following is a list of the results of the clicks.

The Black Death - the postee gets penicillin, and the clicker gets gold. (Only the first clicker gets the reward. So, click the like button if it is you, so that no-one else wastes a click)

 Drought - the postee gets ploughshares, and the clicker gets 100 food.

Heroic Companions - the postee AND clicker get a 5% reduction on troops upkeep.

Free Holy Water - the postee AND the clicker get a vial of holy water. (The postee will only get one vial. This can be clicked by multiple people)

Excess Lumber - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets lumber.

Mercenary Reinforcements - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 100 warriors.

Wild Horses - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 100 cavalry.

Knights' Jousting - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 500 prestige.

Archery Competition - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 250 prestige.

New Mining Tool - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets quarrying tools.

Bored/Buxom Wenches - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets a 1% increase in troops speed and hitpoints.

Swordsmen - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 50 swordsmen.

Marauders - the postee gets AND the clicker get 100 warriors.

Legendary bard - the postee gets a war horn, and the clicker gets gold. (Only the first clicker gets the reward. So, click the like button if it is you, so that no-one else wastes a click)

Extra Pikes - the postee gets a gold, and the clicker gets 50 pikemen.

Famed Hero - the postee AND the clicker get 250 prestige.

Notorious Criminal - the postee gets a speech text, and the clicker gets gold. (Only the first clicker gets the reward. So, click the like button if it is you, so that no-one else wastes a click)

Disease - the postee gets a speech text, and the clicker gets gold. (Only the first clicker gets the reward. So, click the like button if it is you, so that no-one else wastes a click)

Excess Stone - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets stone.

Excess Lumber - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets wood.

Military Tattoo - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 250 prestige.

A Festival - the postee AND the clicker gets food.

Excess Taxes - the postee a tax policy, and the clicker gets 1000 gold. (The postee will only get one tax policy. This can be clicked by multiple people)

A New Inn - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets a tax policy. (Only the first clicker gets the reward. So, click the like button if it is you, so that no-one else wastes a click)

Offering a Meal - the postee AND the clicker get food.

Extra Logs - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets Rolling Logs.

Hero's Visit - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets 250 prestige.

New Trade Route - the postee gets gold, and the clicker gets food.

Caravan - the postee AND clicker get food.

As an aside, the posts that appear to be most useful, at least for the way in which I play the game, are...

1. Heroic Companions - you can stack up to 10 of these each day and reduce your troops' need for food by as much as 50%. Best of the bunch and they get clicked on pretty quickly.

2. Anything that yields prestige - prestige is basically the score-keeping mechanism of the game and it is good to advance this a little each day. If other players are watching your cities and they don't see your prestige going up, they will assume that you are inactive and an easy target.

3. Wild horses - clicking on this gets you 100 free horses (cavalry), a pretty useful attack army unit.

4. Anything else that nets you troops.

But that's just my opinion.

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.