[Question] Is it better to spend forge points on great buildings or research?

[DeletedUser28697]

I've noticed some players progress through the ages very slowly because they put all their forge points toward great buildings. As a result, they are often at the top of their neighborhood.

Then there's people who zoom through the ages as fast as possible.

Which is a better use of forge points, research or leveling up great buildings?

 

[DeletedUser24787]

if you are able to speed thru the tech and not care about the events, plunder, or progression on the continental map then tech away till you find a age your comfortable with if you like to be more established for events and reap rewards and not struggle with GE, Continental map then take your time

 

[DeletedUser8152]

It's good to spend some points on GBs. Whether you want to spend most of your points on them or not just depends how you want to play the game.

 

[DeletedUser25273]

It really isn't an either/or decision, but a finding of the right balance. You COULD spend all your FP on tech and none of Buildings, but you will soon find your armies out classed (since you have no boosts). You can't really spend all your points on Great buildings, as at the start you don't have any.

The BIG question comes, what are you expecting out of the game. If your goal is to 'finish', that is likely completing the tech tree, which would imply focusing more on tech, and just the needed of GBs to keep you going. If you goal is to be a strong player experience a lot of the game, then you may want to spend more on GBs.

 

[DeletedUser24236]

I usually go for GBs ONLY for most of my time - I get few lvls on them until I'm pleased (or out of BPs). Then I get on ONLY Techs for a while (most likely change eras and get to a stable tech point (like goods buildings + military buildings) and then back to ONLY GBs.

 

[DeletedUser10080]

From the standpoint of someone who has been around a while, I think you are mostly missing the point of this game. Without a doubt (or even a close second), the most important thing in this game is space.

I will get all philosophical on you now. Think of this game as a finite universe with an infinite amount of time. FP's represent time. Expansions represent space. In the beginning, it seems that time marches on slowly. One FP each hour as you trudge forward. But time can be sped up. You can buy, win, or wheel and deal for more FP's. In a sense, you are speeding up time. You can advance through the ages without being limited by the tick, tick, tick of an hourly FP. Time is malleable here.

Space is limited. You need to gain expansions in order to increase your space...and expansions are limited.

Other than buying expansions with diamonds there are four ways to gain space.

1. You can get lots of medals and purchase expansions with them.
2. You can advance through the tech tree and gain expansions with each age.
3. You can advance though the continent map and be rewarded with expansions as you do.
4. You can get better, more efficient buildings to place in your city to gain space within its confines.

All of the above require tech advancement. Let's not be mistaken.

As said earlier by nomad richie, balance is required. Some great buildings (Cape, CdM, Inno, etc.) produce FP's so you do get a return on your investment. The Arc uniquely powers up you rewards when you contribute to others' GB's...thus gaining you FP's. The attack GB's (Zeus, Aachen, CdM) allow you to fight PvP, GvG, and the continents which can get you medals and expansions. Traz gets you free troops so you can fight without worrying about losses. It is the most important building in this game.

Again, without mistake, your best bet is to advance technically. You cannot, however, ignore your Great Buildings.

Speaking from someone who awaits each new age, I save some FP packages just to advance through the tech quickly. I usually can make it through any new age now in less than a day. After I do, I can go back to working on my GB's.

 

[DeletedUser28697]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

[DeletedUser26175]

My strategy - such as it is - is three-pronged. First, I put all of my resources into the tech tree and spend everything to get to the end. That way I can build the best houses (at the end) and the military I want. Second, I sit there and grow my resources and GB's for as long as I can and have patience for... could be weeks, could be months, if I can hold out. Third, when I'm ready to make the jump, I open the next era right before GE starts. The game gives you the first week with old era challenges and new era rewards - including military units on towers 3/4.

 

[DeletedUser28697]

I didn't realize that about the guild expeditions. Good to know!

 

[DeletedUser26154]

My strategy - such as it is - is three-pronged.

I go for the two-pronged attack.
It's quite the shocker for my foes.

 

[Mustapha00]

On my first server, I made what I consider to be a mistake by speeding through the first few Ages without putting many levels in my military GBs (Zeus, Aachen, del Monte and Alcatraz are the basics). In fact, I don't think I even built my Zeus until I was in maybe Late Middle Ages. As a result, I had a really hard time fighting for sectors and had to spend a great many goods negotiating for them. Fortunately, a good Guild and some really smart folks here on the Forums set me straight and so I am not totally overwhelmed when it comes to GE.

I do think I have had a somewhat easier time, with less frustration, on subsequent worlds in which I used a far more balanced approach, culminating in my fourth world in which I have (for me anyway) a really good military boost which makes fighting for sectors and GE (at least until mid-level three), if not an outright breeze, then easier than on my first world.

As a poster stated very well above: so long as you don't worry about being Plundered and are willing to spend Goods to Negotiate rather than Fight (if you do GE at all- some do not), then speeding through the Ages and seeing the new tech faster can obviously be rewarding. But word seems to get around if you are unable to defend your city from player attacks, and so the potential for frustration and aggravation is surely there.

 

[Czari]

My strategy - such as it is - is three-pronged. First, I put all of my resources into the tech tree and spend everything to get to the end. That way I can build the best houses (at the end) and the military I want. Second, I sit there and grow my resources and GB's for as long as I can and have patience for... could be weeks, could be months, if I can hold out. Third, when I'm ready to make the jump, I open the next era right before GE starts. The game gives you the first week with old era challenges and new era rewards - including military units on towers 3/4.

I like this approach but I'm finding a glitch in it, especially if I want to gain the last best military/housing - if I want to then stay in the age for awhile to build up my GBs, some events (and, unlike when I first began, it seems like events are now ongoing) require completing a tech so if I don't leave a few tech spots open for this I am either forced into a new era before I'm ready or abandon the event at that point. Many events offer an alternative for the tech quest but there isn't one for the current event so I can't always count on that.

 

[DeletedUser26120]

I didn't work on my GBs heavily until Progressive Era. Seemed to work well for me, you didn't much need the attack boosts before PE.

 

[Algona]

Seems the way GE is set up that low Era players should invest heavy into their attack GBs and reap massive GE rewards. Leastwise I think if I were starting a new world I;d be doing that combined with farming recurring quests.

 

[DeletedUser33740]

My strategy - such as it is - is three-pronged. First, I put all of my resources into the tech tree and spend everything to get to the end. That way I can build the best houses (at the end) and the military I want. Second, I sit there and grow my resources and GB's for as long as I can and have patience for... could be weeks, could be months, if I can hold out. Third, when I'm ready to make the jump, I open the next era right before GE starts. The game gives you the first week with old era challenges and new era rewards - including military units on towers 3/4.

I am guessing that this is valid right after GE annouces the current era champion? It is a really good hint.

 

[Lancer]

I didn't work on my GBs heavily until Progressive Era. Seemed to work well for me, you didn't much need the attack boosts before PE.

I was the exact same way. I reached PE fairly quickly. Now a year or so later I'm only 2/3 of the way through the modern era, because of working on my GBs along with contributions being made to others GB as well for the rewards.

 

[DeletedUser]

My strategy - such as it is - is three-pronged. First, I put all of my resources into the tech tree and spend everything to get to the end. That way I can build the best houses (at the end) and the military I want. Second, I sit there and grow my resources and GB's for as long as I can and have patience for... could be weeks, could be months, if I can hold out. Third, when I'm ready to make the jump, I open the next era right before GE starts. The game gives you the first week with old era challenges and new era rewards - including military units on towers 3/4.

I am guessing that this is valid right after GE annouces the current era champion? It is a really good hint.

It is a really bad hint. In fact it is dead wrong. If you move up to the next era before GE starts, you will have to face challenges based on the new era, not the old. As far as I know this has been true since GE started, so I don't know where @Zeidy Z got the wrong information. You should move up to the next era right after GE starts. Then you will get to face the old era's challenges all week, giving you that time to progress in your new era before having to face the new era's challenges. During that week, your GE rewards will still be from your old era, but if you have a Temple of Relics, any rewards from it will be from your new era.

 

[Falconwing]

This thread was one day away from being dead an entire year and someone used the Necronomicon to bring it back to life. Now it has to shamble around looking for brains to eat while staying away from Rick Grimes. Poor lil Necrothread.

 

[DeletedUser31592]

It is a really bad hint. In fact it is dead wrong. If you move up to the next era before GE starts, you will have to face challenges based on the new era, not the old. As far as I know this has been true since GE started, so I don't know where @Zeidy Z got the wrong information. You should move up to the next era right after GE starts. Then you will get to face the old era's challenges all week, giving you that time to progress in your new era before having to face the new era's challenges. During that week, your GE rewards will still be from your old era, but if you have a Temple of Relics, any rewards from it will be from your new era.

Yup.

I'm ready to age 3 of my cities up, but I like to go a step even further and wait until hood swap weeks. We've been locked forever now (week 6!!), so I'm getting impatient. Anyway, next Tuesday, after the hood swap on Monday and GE starts on Tuesday, I will age up my cities in A and Q for sure. I'm still a bit on the fence with my city in R. I may wait 2 weeks to give myself time to focus on the other two.

Why hood swap weeks? Then I'm locked with lower players for 2 weeks. Helps prevent a bit of plundering and if I get a DC requiring me to win battles, I can easily do it while I build up new troops.

 

[DeletedUser31882]

I'm ready to age 3 of my cities up, but I like to go a step even further and wait until hood swap weeks.

Why hood swap weeks? Then I'm locked with lower players for 2 weeks. Helps prevent a bit of plundering and if I get a DC requiring me to win battles, I can easily do it while I build up new troops.

To throw my style of hat into the zombie ring, I move up in era before GE starts post hood swap.

That gives me 1.5 weeks to use next era troops to give me an edge on any entrenched hoodies, win a free tower [whoopee...], and the benefits JCera states. I currently full clear GE with Military, so goods for negotiating are not a concern and I don't worry about military techs since my military is produced by GE. I also don't rush tech for economic buildings, as I prefer controlling the new ages quests so I have less chance of being caught in a DC or event quest that requires 'another' quest completed while being stuck in a long non-RQ quest.

To be fair, this is probably only possible due to my High ATK GBs, Traz supplying expendable rogues & my tactic only being tested in IA -> EMA -> HMA.

The beauty of FoE; many variables leading to multiple strategies and outcomes.