GE fighting strategy for newbies

[DeletedUser30840]

So my first experience with GE I got through level one with about half fighting/half negotiating - used up a lot of goods though and had to wait for my troops to recuperate between battles. Now on Level 2 and stuck trying to fight the first 2 wave battle. I started trying to logically pick which units would have an advantage over the opponents units, But now most of the time whatever I pick may have an advantage over some, but another of the opponent's units has a bonus against mine. So it is a wash. I also just ran into the drummer for the first time - gave all opponents an extra shield bar and a 6% boost. So, is there somewhere to read about basic strategy other than the lists of what gives bonuses against what and using terrain? There's got to be far more to this that I'm not getting. I have an almost completely up to date set of units for my age (iron age) and a 9% bonus from my Zeus and still having difficulty.

 

[DeletedUser26120]

It will be difficult until you acquire rogues.

You say you're already using proper units and paying attention to terrain. There's not much more to add to that - except maybe paying attention to turn orders, although I'm sure you do that.

Seems like the only thing you can do besides getting rogues is to level up zeus building and try to get Catheral of Aachen along to Castel del Monte.

I had a very difficult time in GE until I got to around 40% attack, then it became easy after getting rogues.

 

[DeletedUser29377]

I seriously just lvled my Zeus to 6, have two extra barracks for archers, catapults and soldiers, and auto attack all the way through lvl 1 and most of 2 just fine. Sometimes I have slight issues with one or both of the final 8 encounter battles on lvl 2 - so I just negotiate those. And even then - activate the 10 or 30 attack bonus in tavern and you're set. To do lvl 3 easily this way, you'd have to have prob a high lvl Zeus and maybe CDM plus maybe tavern bonus.

The one thing I've noticed: you need to have one or two more of the catapults compared to whatever your enemy has. (Unless they have 4, then 4 against is fine) so if enemy has 2, I use 4 kinda deal.

Basically catapults are only really defeated by other, and preferably more, catapults. Putting them up against a fast unit doesn't work.. for auto attacking anyway.

Note that mounted archers are an absolutely waste. Get rid of them. Archers are much better.

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

So my first experience with GE I got through level one with about half fighting/half negotiating - used up a lot of goods though and had to wait for my troops to recuperate between battles. Now on Level 2 and stuck trying to fight the first 2 wave battle. I started trying to logically pick which units would have an advantage over the opponents units, But now most of the time whatever I pick may have an advantage over some, but another of the opponent's units has a bonus against mine. So it is a wash. I also just ran into the drummer for the first time - gave all opponents an extra shield bar and a 6% boost. So, is there somewhere to read about basic strategy other than the lists of what gives bonuses against what and using terrain? There's got to be far more to this that I'm not getting. I have an almost completely up to date set of units for my age (iron age) and a 9% bonus from my Zeus and still having difficulty.

Iron age? unit selection is going to matter a lot but mostly you just need to practice, practice, practice. If you post which unit you are facing in each wave and if the enemy has an attack/defense boost please provide that as well. I'm sure a few people will try and give you a few tips. One basic trick without rogues (although it depends on what enemy units you face) is to hold back mostly near my starting position so that I can get the '1st hit in' and kill a couple of enemy units before they can fire.

Are you on mobile? On PC you can see the movement and range of the enemy if you hover your mouse over the enemy unit before it has its' turn so that you can use that to help lessen your damage taken on the 1st round.

 

[Algona]

Generic advice for any Era of GE fighting: If you are determined to fight GE in every Era then do NOT advance in Era until you are comfortable with your current progress in GE. Each Era GE gets a little tougher, eventually the GE defensive units in mid Eras start getting combat bonuses that get higher with each Era. Advancing your Era does not make GE easier, it makes it tougher. (yes, I know there are exceptions, bur you'll learn those later. For now, don;t advance until you are ready.)

Success in GE leads to more success in a snowball effect. You win more unattached troops faster, you get more buildings and FPs to advance your game state and acquire and level your attack GBs. Extra time spent in an Era pays off with a better infrastructure to support the next Era's GE.

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There's a few things you should work on if you are not satisfied with your GE progress:

Dontt auto battle.

Put up different barracks types and experiment and annotate each different Encounter If experiments go bad surrender and save what troops you can. Note what works and use that in the future. Experiment, experiment, experiment. Each encounter you find the optimal technique for is one Encounter more you'll get past next week. Principles you learn now will apply in further Encounters in this GE and future Eras, especially the foibles of the AI.

Get and level attack GBs. You should try for all three as fast as possible and level them every Era. There's no such thing as too high an attack boost, too low is a waste of troops.

Get a Traz. Do it earliest. If you're in a Guild that can't help you get a Traz reasonably early (I got mine in EMA) join a good Guild. Make getting Rogue Hideouts your top priotiy in the next Seasonal Event (Fall, Winter, Summer, Spring).

Traz alone is good. Traz + RH is very good. Traz + RH + good attack GBs is an almost guaranteed completion of level 3.

That can take a long time. Do it now and reap the rewards now. Or slop you're way through until you get to a point where you can't do jack. Then you'll have to take even longer to do the stuff you should have done months before. And you won;t have anu of those juicy rewards.

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For the earlier Eras, when some troops have an attack range of 1 Encounters separate into two categories, those with range attack defensive units and without. Different tactics are used against each.

Those without ranged are relatively easy. 5 Heavy and 3 Ranged/Artillery are effective if you 'turtle'. If you have time get to the top corner, arrange the heavies in a line anchored against the top and left edges of the map with ranged behind. Against faster units arrange the heavies in a > formation anchored against the left edge of the map with the ranged behind. Stay in that formation as the enemy approaches, wait for them and start picking them off with the ranged units If you have moderate attack GB bonuses you will win these fights with minimal losses.

Note the > sometimes works against 2 range attack defensive unit Encounters if you use artillery instead of range.

Tactics change against raged defense, you;ll have to experiment to find which particular combination of troops is the most efficient against each Encounter.

And of course once you get to the Eras where all units have an attack range > 1 you will need different tactics. However, if you've taken your time, levelled your attack GBS, acquired Traz + RH, it will mostly be a matter of which unit to put with your 7 Rogues...

I can;t give advice for HMA - IndA. My new city hasn't advanced that far, my main city did';t start fighting seriously until ProgE.

Ask for specific tips on those Eras, there's a lot of darned good fighters out there.

 

[DeletedUser30840]

Wow, I'm so grateful for the time people took to help out a new player - thank you! Algona, I have been reading your advice on other issues since I started, and so am on my way to following some of the advice above. I will certainly stay in iron age for quite awhile longer I have my Zeus to level 3 and counting and working at getting my last LoA print. Is it worth the trade defecit to try and get later era goods to get a traz early or wait til I move to a higher era? It will take me awhile to level up my Zeus and hopefully soon LoA anyway. My guildmates have been fabulous. Lots of trade chains and support for new buildings.

Hoping to get a good chunk of time soon to practice all the great tips you all have kindly given me! I'm sure some others will benefit from reading this as well! Thanks again for the detailed advice.

 

[Algona]

I think it;s reasonable to spend time in IA and learn as much as you can about the game and position yourself for your next advance in Era. Going to EMA should be fun, new adventures, new discoveries, new challenges.

Not a grind ofhaving to resolve endemic shortages of needed FPs, Goods, Coins, Supplies to scramble my way through techs and i need more goods for continent negotiations and more supplies for my sloppy city renovations and damn i need to level my LoA and I'm getting killed in GE fighting and don't have the goods to negotiate i shoud be able to trad e 1 of my goods for 5 of yours and this game sucks and iNNO should give us more expansions and why on earth fo i have huts and i keep getting plundered by bullies and i can't finish an event and its all just a money grab by INNO and i quit

Of course that's just a personal preference on my part.

 

[DeletedUser27848]

I'm in LMA in 5 worlds.

I began fighting heavily in GE starting in EMA.

#1) By far the best advice I would give, is get Rogue Hideouts!

#2) Learn which units are most effective against whatever enemy faces you.

When you get to wave battles, where there will be a second attack wave, make certain to look at those troops, to make sure you put out a balanced-versatile attack force.

The troop combinations I use are always determined by studying the enemy unit I'm facing.

My preferred units are with 1 Mounted Knight, and 1 Heavy Knight, with 6-7 Rogues.

Of all the ranged artillery units available to me, I use Catapults/Ballistas/Trebuchets/Cannons the least.

Of the various ranged units, same thing: Archers/Crossbowmen/Longbow Archers, I don't use them a lot.


Saying Mounted Archers are useless is wrong, as any general statement tends to be.

If you are facing all Archers/Catapults, 7 Rogues with 1 Mounted Archer is a wicked offensive unit.

For instance, I'm in LMA, but in the early battles of GE level 1, I can still defeat certain enemy troops deployments, using those Mounted Archers, with Rogues.


Every unit can be used effectively, as long as you are able to field Rogues with them. And you have to understand how to use them tactically, of course, which only battle experience can give you.


When I first began facing the wave attacks, I thought they were impossible, but as I continued to fight, and really learned the effectiveness of all my various units, I learned how to do it.


I fight all 3 levels of GE, 48/48. But it's only possible because of my Rogues, CDM, Zeus, CoA.


FWIW, I only have Traz in 1 city.


I also have just started a new city in S world. Haven't decided how I will go about competing in GE, as I have zero troops, no Rogues.

But I probably won't bother with GE at all until the next USEFUL event, where Rogue Hideouts are available, and then only if I'm able to win some of those bad boys.

 

[Mustapha00]

I would give serious thought to not fighting in GE at all until I got an Alcatraz. It makes all the difference in the world having an almost endless supply of whatever units you want (subject, of course, to what military Techs you have unlocked and which military barracks you have built).

You earn the same GE rewards, so far as I know, by negotiating as you do by fighting. You earn your Guild the same among of..."crowns", is it?...either way. Yes, you will lose out on some tower points (and, by extension, personal ranking points) and whatever medals you might have won due to tower ranking (though medals awarded in early Ages as a result of winning your Age's tower is a bit underwhelming).

 

[DeletedUser27184]

I would give serious thought to not fighting in GE at all until I got an Alcatraz. It makes all the difference in the world having an almost endless supply of whatever units you want (subject, of course, to what military Techs you have unlocked and which military barracks you have built).

You earn the same GE rewards, so far as I know, by negotiating as you do by fighting. You earn your Guild the same among of..."crowns", is it?...either way. Yes, you will lose out on some tower points (and, by extension, personal ranking points) and whatever medals you might have won due to tower ranking (though medals awarded in early Ages as a result of winning your Age's tower is a bit underwhelming).

I would advise to GE as soon as possible. It had tons of good stuff. Don't negotiate (unless you stuck on specific encounter), learn to fight it through. Negotiating is super costly in GE. Troops are much cheaper (even if you have to buy those through barracks). And when you got the Traz the troops cost for you is close to zero.
I got my Traz only at HMA, and it did help TONS. But I did GE 3 almost from the beginning.
GE will give you FP+troops+goods+gold... and also some very strong building like the Terrace and sacred sky watch.
It will also give you lots of ToR BP. With which you can build ToR rather soon, and then you can have EXTRA rewards from the GE. I wouldn't build the ToR unless I finish GE level 2 fully, as the ToR is more effective the more encounters you win.
So - learn to fight your way, build ToR and you are good. (And do try for the Traz ASAP, but dont wait for it).

I started trying to logically pick which units would have an advantage over the opponents units, But now most of the time whatever I pick may have an advantage over some, but another of the opponent's units has a bonus against mine. So it is a wash.

Nope. Its critical to understand and use those advantages. For each fight, before you go in, you can see the enemy troops. So its really easy to find which troops will be better for this fight. And this gives you an advantage. True, some of the enemy troops will have their own advantage over your troops. But since you can think in advance what gives your *whole troops company* an advantage over the enemy company, you can plan to get MORE advantages. Is that alone enough? no. But a fight is the culmination of small advantages. Don't miss on the simple ones.

 

[DeletedUser30312]

I would give serious thought to not fighting in GE at all until I got an Alcatraz. It makes all the difference in the world having an almost endless supply of whatever units you want (subject, of course, to what military Techs you have unlocked and which military barracks you have built).

It's not the Traz that makes the difference in GE fighting, it's having a lot of rogues. The Traz does help there by generating lots of rogues, but even before I got a Traz setup, a few 10 rogue relics helped me push farther into the GE than I got without having extra rogues. The Traz is just a more reliable source of rogues than gold relics.

 

[DeletedUser27848]

It's not the Traz that makes the difference in GE fighting, it's having a lot of rogues. The Traz does help there by generating lots of rogues, but even before I got a Traz setup, a few 10 rogue relics helped me push farther into the GE than I got without having extra rogues. The Traz is just a more reliable source of rogues than gold relics.

Amen.

That is my experience for sure. I have at least 6 Rogue Hideouts in all 5 of my established worlds, with all 5 Rogues unlocked in each.

I only have Alcatraz in one of those cities. The bigger benefit with Traz for me, is the Champions it produces, as I have enough Rogues already.

I kill a lot of Rogues each week, fighting GE.

 

[DeletedUser30840]

All very interesting advice - thanks! There's clearly lots of love for rogues. But I need to learn more now and you can only get rogues from special events, right? So I'll look out for them when events come up. Meanwhile, I'll practice, practice. GE is a great opportunity for that. I find the comment about not using ballistas and archers so much interesting. I tend to rely on them a fair amount. Can you explain a little more?

And one semi related question, I peeked at level 3 today but didn't fight/neg yet. Can anyone tell me what the question mark above some of the negotiation goods means? I hadn't seen that at the first two levels.

 

[Mustapha00]

I would advise to GE as soon as possible. It had tons of good stuff. Don't negotiate (unless you stuck on specific encounter), learn to fight it through. Negotiating is super costly in GE. Troops are much cheaper (even if you have to buy those through barracks). And when you got the Traz the troops cost for you is close to zero.
I got my Traz only at HMA, and it did help TONS. But I did GE 3 almost from the beginning.
GE will give you FP+troops+goods+gold... and also some very strong building like the Terrace and sacred sky watch.
It will also give you lots of ToR BP. With which you can build ToR rather soon, and then you can have EXTRA rewards from the GE. I wouldn't build the ToR unless I finish GE level 2 fully, as the ToR is more effective the more encounters you win.
So - learn to fight your way, build ToR and you are good. (And do try for the Traz ASAP, but dont wait for it).

All true.

But you have the have units which are expendable in order to beat GE, if not level one, then certainly level two or beyond.

Now, granted, if you build multiple Barracks so that you can have ten plus of multiple troops types, then the task becomes much easier.

Or you could just wait until you have an Alcatraz.

Nope. Its critical to understand and use those advantages. For each fight, before you go in, you can see the enemy troops. So its really easy to find which troops will be better for this fight. And this gives you an advantage. True, some of the enemy troops will have their own advantage over your troops. But since you can think in advance what gives your *whole troops company* an advantage over the enemy company, you can plan to get MORE advantages. Is that alone enough? no. But a fight is the culmination of small advantages. Don't miss on the simple ones.

Again, all made easier once you have an Alcatraz.

In the earliest Ages, the loss of even one of the type of unit that you cannot yet build (because you haven't unlocked the necessary tech and only have said unit via chance reward in defeating one of the Troop Reward Steps in GE), can pretty much end that week's GE, or make it difficult to the point that the cost isn't worth the benefit.

 

[DeletedUser27848]

All very interesting advice - thanks! There's clearly lots of love for rogues. But I need to learn more now and you can only get rogues from special events, right? So I'll look out for them when events come up. Meanwhile, I'll practice, practice. GE is a great opportunity for that. I find the comment about not using ballistas and archers so much interesting. I tend to rely on them a fair amount. Can you explain a little more?

And one semi related question, I peeked at level 3 today but didn't fight/neg yet. Can anyone tell me what the question mark above some of the negotiation goods means? I hadn't seen that at the first two levels.

I has more to do with personal preference maybe, but I like the heavy infantry/heavy knight combination due to their durability.

I only use the ranged units when faced with a full squad of heavies, that have low range movement.

 

[DeletedUser]

All very interesting advice - thanks! There's clearly lots of love for rogues. But I need to learn more now and you can only get rogues from special events, right? So I'll look out for them when events come up. Meanwhile, I'll practice, practice. GE is a great opportunity for that. I find the comment about not using ballistas and archers so much interesting. I tend to rely on them a fair amount. Can you explain a little more?

And one semi related question, I peeked at level 3 today but didn't fight/neg yet. Can anyone tell me what the question mark above some of the negotiation goods means? I hadn't seen that at the first two levels.

In contrast to Imperiatus' position, I rarely used heavies or fast units in early era fighting. I mostly used ranged/artillery, with light units thrown in sometimes. Heavies take too much damage too quickly from ranged/artillery and move too slowly. Horse/fast units have no terrain benefits, and you have to wait until your second turn to even move them, unless you want them to get hit first. Now, if you have lots of Rogues, of course, all that changes, but you don't have Rogues, so...

 

[DeletedUser27848]

^ I got my ass handed to me pretty much until I got Rogues...

 

[DeletedUser]

^ I got my ass handed to me pretty much until I got Rogues...

If I remember correctly, I was well into Colonial before I started using Rogues. The first era I used them extensively was Industrial, where they are almost unbeatable with a Howitzer. I didn't use Rogues hardly at all until I got an Alcatraz, as you have to have a ton of them to make it feasible and I wasn't about to pay Diamonds to unlock slots or go all out to get multiple Hideouts to clutter up my city.

 

[DeletedUser27848]

I haven't bought diamonds in a long time. I did buy diamonds when I was acquiring Rogue Hideouts, SoK etc, during events.
But due to those (especially the Rogues), I've been fighting all 3 levels of GE for months. I've won gobs of diamonds in GE, all due to those Rogues.

I don't claim to be any great tactician. More like General Sir Douglas Haig. I fight a war of attrition... I'm also fortunate to be in Guilds that grant very good boosts, for recruiting all the Rogues that I lead to the slaughter each week in GE.

I'm not apologizing for the fact that I got those Rogues, cuz they have paid for themselves many times.

 

[Algona]

I disagree that Traz is not useful without RH. It's not as good, but you still get to year down most of your barracks and all of your cultural buildings and not have to worry about Happiness for Eras.

I would give serious thought to not fighting in GE at all until I got an Alcatraz.,,

...You earn the same GE rewards, so far as I know, by negotiating as you do by fighting. ...

But you have the have units which are expendable in order to beat GE, if not level one, then certainly level two or beyond.

Now, granted, if you build multiple Barracks so that you can have ten plus of multiple troops types, then the task becomes much easier.

Or you could just wait until you have an Alcatraz.

Not doing GE is crazy.

Thanks to Stephen Longshanks' excellent advice I found that 3 Catapult, 2 Ai, and 2 Archer Barracks took me into lvl 3 EMA GVG in the weeks before I built Traz. I scored a lot of treasure in those weeks hastening my acquisition of Traz. It takes patience, i had to rest and recruit more troops after 2-3 Encounters starting in lvl 2. But you do have 6 days...

Negotiating can take you farther in GE. but you're burning the Goods you need to trade for Traz, delaying it's acquisition.

Goods are no good (heh) when you need to counterpunch some idiot who attaks you every day. Taking them out to the woodshed and then plundering their city is not only immensely satisfying but can be quite profitable.

Fight. Get Treasure. Get Traz Sooner. Fight more. Get more Treasure. lvl Traz. Fight even more. Get even more ytrasure. Get RHs to go with llvled Traz. Get even more Treasure.

Seems simple enough.