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Effective Guide to Avoid Being Plundered

DeletedUser3052

After so much testing of theories and actually putting them into practice, I have decided to put together a little guide for those who are playing the game for the first time. Read on which method will suit your needs/time:

Defense Method
Create your troops and station all on the defense team. It's best to get a balance of close (fast/light melee/heavy melee) and far (long/short) ranged units that will optimally win you on your defense and keep the attacker at bay (24 hours) by them losing or retreating from the fight. You don't lose units on the fight for defense. The attacker, though, loses units for the fight.

Turning Off Production Lines
If the first method fails because your attacker is able to break through your defenses, then this method requires careful planning with routing and resources used. You simply remove the roads from around your town hall to the point your buildings will have a link icon above them requesting that a road needs to be created. In this state, and it is proven already, all your building's productions are 'paused' and you can laugh at the attacker when they try to find something to plunder and they couldn't. Do keep in mind, that they will have a 24-hour window to plunder your stuff if you're not careful to pick them up. This method is effective to putting short-term buildings (15 min ones) on hold as well as those goods productions (8-hour on average) on hold as well so you can resume at the time you want it to resume (I don't go for the 24-48 hour ones unless it is requested in a quest) and pick it up. I got two worlds on hold with this method while I am concentrating on Arvahall.

Combo of the Two

Just as the title implies, you can have your defenses set as well as holding off production for your items. This will make the attacker think twice about losing their units, if they are barely making it through, and coming to a paused station which probably will wear out its plunder time until they go and try it again, 24-hours later. Again, your production will be paused (not reset) in this state.

Whichever the method you desire, you can effectively secure your valuables now.

A special note on diamond purchased roads: if you're one of those, instead of removing them, just move them away from the town hall to an area that you got space for.
 

DeletedUser2952

As far as your choice of defense, will you join my neighborhood? A good strong defense is great. Until the Colonial Age, most heavies move to slow, horse fall too easily to light infantry (skirmishers). 8 Long range units (except throwers) will deter most saboteurs. In reference to turning off production lines, the phrase "cut off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind. Basically what you propose is for the player to lose ALL coin and supply production to prevent a small loss. Wow!
 

DeletedUser1862

I agree with corwyn, I generally don't do long-term productions, and if I end up losing it, the plunder happened to get lucky and catch me with 'my pants down' *shrug* not a big loss.
It's better to just be intelligent with production in most cases, don't make it worth the cost.
 

DeletedUser3052

As far as your choice of defense, will you join my neighborhood? A good strong defense is great. Until the Colonial Age, most heavies move to slow, horse fall too easily to light infantry (skirmishers). 8 Long range units (except throwers) will deter most saboteurs. In reference to turning off production lines, the phrase "cut off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind. Basically what you propose is for the player to lose ALL coin and supply production to prevent a small loss. Wow!

How is it losing 'all-coin'? It's been tested and confirmed that the production lines are paused with whatever time they got remaining. Sorry to say, but I won't do either a 1 day or 2 day production whereas 3 (or even 2) 8-hour productions within a day provides much more effectiveness and stock, and 15 mins provide even more. Too much waiting time for some low res on return. But on the units part, it depends only on the person who deploys them for defense. I had a few, from viewing the replays, that showed some sort of promise of succeeding past my defenses (without even breaking a sweat), but retreated before the battle even gotten underway. Do I call myself lucky? No. I cannot dive into that person's mind and find out the method on why they drop the ball and leave. I haven't reached CA yet, but I had learned through playing that beyond the Bronze Age you either have to negotiate some goods or have a solid plan to conquer sections and get the bonuses to further grow on this game, and that's 'gold' on this game.

On the other game I play, it's quite different. We have all sorts of PVP going, exception would be League and Arena matches, as both sides always lose ships (unless they are properly built and effective with the commanders that are assigned to lead them). Only cool down is using a truce card (12-hour/72-hour) as you can be hit as many times without one or not being in an alliance. Planetary defenses are trash for the advanced ships. And when a person loses the defense, they lose 20% of the total resources harvested, not produced in a building or stored in a storehouse, which if they are 'fat' a single hit can yield millions (if not upwards of a billion) of resources that can be used by the attacker to build more ships or upgrade their planet/research.

I like this game, because it's quite different. I find a way that is beneficial to me, and I felt like sharing to the world, hoping it will help the next one who is starting out and wants to 'pause and protect' their resource production and resume on their own terms.
 

DeletedUser2711

I don't care what army you put up, I'm still going to attack. And just because someone retreats, doesn't mean your army scared them away. It just means they will be back tomorrow with a different mix of units. If you are sweating the loss of the coin of one house per battle loss, I am not sure you have things in perspective. There are players that have absolutely nothing left to plunder and I know this before the battle, due to my notes, but I'm still going to attack for points. I'm suddenly hearing the Serenity Prayer in my head. :laugh:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

So make a plan for when you will be able to collect your goods and products, but let the victor have his or her spoils.


PS, I could explain why they retreat but I won't do so on a forum. Most of the time, it has absolutely nothing to do with thinking they can't beat your defenses.
 
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DeletedUser3052

Hey, points for PVP are not bad, LOL. Just I don't let anyone in my stash.
 

DeletedUser2952

Aeos, you are right that not being connected "suspends" production. But, it also means that if you get a 5 minute break with access to a computer you can't make a quick grab. The further along you go, the more time it will take to pick up. The more likely your coin producers end up being on an hourly cycle. And not to mention, the costlier things get. You will have an extremely hard time saving up to pay for a 100,000+ coin expansion using your method, not to mention other resources. You are also right about using shorter time periods, but if you suspend them the result would be the same, or worse than a daily schedule. So it basically comes down to 2 facts; put up the best defense possible, collect as often as you can, but, if you lose even 10%, you would still have more than your method.

I admit, I am not a trader and do not belong to a guild. I produce goods for which I have deposits, minimum plus a little to go on the market. If nobody takes my offers, I scout the neighborhood for goods I need. I stop almost as soon as I acquire the game necessity. The drawback is I sit near the top of the neighborhood which usually means only a couple may be producing what I need. Once I shut down goods with deposits, I may open a producer just to keep my empire from advancing.

I would call my method successful. I am short 7 silk, which I will have tomorrow, and have half the level 6 goods without any producers. I project having the continent in a week or less (negotiated 1 sector to fulfill Frosty's quest). I project game completion (as is) in 3 weeks (basically 4.5 months total). With the current rewards for provinces and quests, I probably will have no need for any level 6 production. I did not pay my way through nor did I worry about spectators (pvp towers or rankings).

I could knock down completion time since I have 50 Forge Points sitting in inventory from Frosty.
 
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DeletedUser3052

True that corwyn, and I see where you're coming from when it comes to that. However, not many of us can be on the game when the productions are finished to collect upon them. Reasons might be, but not limited to: working, sleeping, going out, running errands, etc. I only leave the 8 hour productions active because, I know I will come to pick them up. However, there comes a time, where this method would have worked because if I want to pause my houses, I can. I don't see about building any house that is beyond the 1 hour mark in the EMA as a good point if one looks at the output per hour on average. Also if one doesn't have a suitable defense, that person might be visited by 79 (max allowed plus that person = 80) others in an attack/plunder run that their stuff is nil and they have to start all over again in producing. Some I had attacked but couldn't plunder because everyone else got to them first before me, LOL.

Right now, I got 1 hour buildings built up and I am going to build some goods factories to keep up in Arvahall. I am practically a 1/3 of the way through EMA (not bad for playing under 2 weeks now). I paused the other two worlds for now, until if and when I feel I finished up there; in which I will want to do to get the full effect of the game before any other ages get added in the future.

Anyways, grats ahead on getting that remaining silk. Hoping I will get there soon enough.
 

DeletedUser1862

Another thing about cutting off the roads, it also blocks helpful things, so anyone who visits during that time can't help you either with polish/motivate you're not only cutting your losses, you're preventing anyone else from gaining the 20 coin.
Eventually that'll come back to bite you possibly and dealing with the fallout if you end up losing just seems like a small price to pay.
 

DeletedUser

seems to me that an eight hour overnight production is worth the small risk of plunder not to mention the benefit of that production getting motivationally boosted.

but that's just me, I'm sure your way of playing does it for you.:unsure:
 

DeletedUser

Turning Off Production Lines
If the first method fails because your attacker is able to break through your defenses, then this method requires careful planning with routing and resources used...
This is a very bad method. You are hurting yourself, more than plunderers can do. There are better ways to deal with this problem.
 

DeletedUser2711

In both worlds I play, I see maybe 10% that attack... on a good week...

So max that's 8. I never have 8 hits in a day. So I mean my whole neighborhood ever, maybe 8 all together.
 

DeletedUser

I have always said the a good defense is the best deterrent along with a revenge policy. I am on all three worlds which means I can't spend a lot of time on each. Because of my the defense, I usually only have 0-3 even try to raid on any world. Maybe 1 will be brave enough to take up the challenge. When they leave with about half the army dead, even if the had the opportunity to plunder, it still cost them more than what they got. The battle consumes a lot of their time, which means they can get fewer battles per day. The easiest targets are those where there is little or nothing in defense, the battle takes 2 minutes, they lose nothing, and gain the spoils!

I have read a lot of posts where players say they defeated this or that. Later on, they begin to talk about how they negotiated this sector or that. This just reinforces the policy about a good defense. That "military player" is willing to pay coins, supplies, and/or goods NOT to battle (or get the points). Now in all fairness, I must admit I negotiated for a sector. Frosty made me do it and I am a little disappointed that 25/25 is a portrait of him. Well he may consider that a "worthwhile" prize!
 
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DeletedUser2382

defend with troops that will inflict more damage and thus more gold/supplies of your attacker to replace these lost troops then the attacker can gain by plundering you. Not rocket science, pretty simple.

This is an option at any age, provided you check in often enough that you haven't left yourself hopelessly behind the rest of your neighborhood.
 

DeletedUser3052

Actually it kinda helped me in doing that method as I do not play the other 2 worlds as much as I am playing Arvahall. I try not to do it on there what I did in others and see where it went off to. I only had one person that passed through my defs, but didn't collect; possibly because the production was still going as I am up to either doing them every hour or 8, depending the case. However, I will shut down production if I know I am going to be away while I got the production on queue, so I can resume when I get back (with whatever time I got left). I don't believe in giving away free stuff unless it's from polishing (possible BP), motivating (while the productions are active --- possible BP), or if I build a great building, from those who helped leveled it up.

But yeah, I defend well from others who lost a ton of troops or retreated, so that method does work.

Also doesn't take a rocket scientist to know all about residential buildings and what their times are in terms of 'ready to be collected'... for an attacker to plunder on.
 
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DeletedUser2699

it saddened me to plunder 20 goods (well, like once in a blue moon)(err actually I am more than hapy to plunder 20 goods), BUT if I want to tell him something - if you produce your goods at this rate, please check the estimate time when your production will finish. I wont bother coming back to see your city again, I just rotate the neighborhood for points and ocassional profits, most of the time I dont even bother to plunder if its just houses and small resources.

it saddened me more to plunder 4 goods...
 

DeletedUser4844

I notice that people keep asking about how to avoid/deal with getting plundered, in game and on the forums. I thought it would be a good idea to (A) resurrect this thread from obscurity, and (B) add my own advice, as I disagree somehwat with some of the things the original poster said. Anyway, I hope the following advice helps:

You can't attack more then once every 24 hours, but after you attack you can plunder someone any time within 24 hours of the attack, so sometimes a player doesn't see anything good to plunder, and waits for as much as 23 hours and 59 minutes, then plunders the person he attacked. 1 minute later that player can be attacked by the same guy again (1 minute after the plunder, but 24 hours after the attack), and is vulnerable to plunder again immediately.

There is no such thing as a foolproof defense, just the way the game works. You can, however, make it hard enough that people will generally leave you alone if you have a defense that will generally cause your opponent to lose a lot of units. Still, that's not something to count on.

Most people that attack you won't plunder you unless you don't put up a decent defense. Obviously, there are exceptions. A decent defense is 8 units from your own age or the one below it. There are a lot of people that will plunder you if you put up a very poor defense (or no defense at all) because really they wanted battle points and your defense made it so they got very few of them.

But the best strategy is to just accept that you will occasionally get plundered and to try to make sure they don't get anything good. By setting collection times to when you are online you can pretty much guarantee that your opponent doesn't get any goods (the only really valuable type of plunder) or supplies. You can time coins to some degree, but if you are stuck with 1 hour houses, or even 8 hour houses, you probably can't always be online when the coins are ready. With 24 hour housing you should generally be able to find a good time to harvest them. However, people tend to build lots of houses, and losing the coins from a few housing productions when you have 30 or 40 houses on 1 or 8 hour cycles isn't generally a big deal. The main thing to understand is that the plunderer is unable to plunder anything but goods, coins, and supplies, and only stuff that has been produced but hasn't been collected yet. The plunderer also does not know when stuff finishes getting produced, but you can. If you always set things up so that you are online to pick things up as soon as it gets produced there won't be anything to plunder.

Although turning off/delaying your own production by moving/removing roads does work, it will generally hurt you more than any potential plunderers. That is, unless you are getting more then half of all production (coins, supplies, and goods) plundered every day. I would not advise this tactic.
 

DeletedUser

I'm being attacked daily by at least 10-12 players in my hood. I'm practically daring them to come and plunder my goods, if they can. So far none has been able to. My advice: invest $6 and get Photon Flash for IOS and Android. Then set your goods production to sometimes in the morning, preferably around lunch. That way when you get off for lunch you can spare 5 min to log in and collect your goods. Coins/supplies can also works too if you prefer, although goods are more important. I GUARANTEE with this approach your goods will NEVER be plundered again.
 

DeletedUser

I'm being attacked daily by at least 10-12 players in my hood. I'm practically daring them to come and plunder my goods, if they can. So far none has been able to. My advice: invest $6 and get Photon Flash for IOS and Android. Then set your goods production to sometimes in the morning, preferably around lunch. That way when you get off for lunch you can spare 5 min to log in and collect your goods. Coins/supplies can also works too if you prefer, although goods are more important. I GUARANTEE with this approach your goods will NEVER be plundered again.
That's interesting. What is Photon Flash, and will it work with a world that does not have an ap? I've tried logging in on my phone, but it will not work.
 

DeletedUser2145

It's a flash player app for phones, so with it you should be able to play the game. I've seen quite a bit of players using flash apps to playing from their phones, and Photon's the most commonly mentioned app.
 
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