[FAQ] Help, I am being plundered!

[DeletedUser]

Don't forget that you can set your defending army as well. Your defending army never dies (unless you use them to attack). If you stock your defending army with strong units, you'll be able to stop a lot of defeats. They can't plunder you if they either lose the battle or surrender. Many use the default defense which is easily defeated. When you use stronger units some of us who like to plunder might withdraw if the battle looks too be too costly. When those of us attack and win after taking heavy losses, nothing is more frustrating than finding nothing worthwhile to plunder, so please make sure you leave me something like produced goods that you did not harvest on time, they really make my day.

HAHAHAHA!!! Sorry to those who are offended by that - I couldn't help it. He's right. Choose stronger army soldiers. Here's something that I found helps: When you win a new character whether it is from a quest, or a special event you save your special characters for defending your city. They'll die if you use them for attack, but survive to fight another day if you only use them for defense. The unattached ones don't stay especially if they die during battle. If you build up enough you can use them to defend your city by appointing them while you rebuild your regular army. I've been saving my quest soldiers for this cause. DON'T destroy the army barracks of your last ages' army - save them to do the same so that if you feel so inclined that you can attack more than one enemy. Or simply use them to fill the slots that are empty from your regular army soldiers that are dead. Replenish your army right away after battle.

Plundering is part of the game, even though not everyone enjoys that aspect. When I first started playing, I never attacked, but found myself an unwilling victim. Once I began to retaliate and found out all the goodies people would leave available, things I needed, and learning about obtaining medals for the top tower rankings, attacking became more commonplace. Sometimes I feel guilty about plundering and will leave someone alone, but when I have lost my expensive troops in battle, the spoils of war are for their sake. You see, we take a risk when we attack you. Our units will be injured or killed, but your defending army will always remain in tact. If we plunder you, your seeking revenge upon is also part of the game, and we won't complain about it.

I too, was an unwilling victim to others who were so unmerciful. I only attack in retaliation for those who attack AND plunder me. Here's an easier way to defend your supplies, and goods: Set them for every hour while you play - set your alarm on your cell phone, alarm clock, or stove. When it goes off - COLLECT IMMEDIATELY!!! Then set your collection times for when you KNOW for a fact that you'll be wide awake, and ready to collect all goods, supplies, and gold. It's easier to set for four to eight hour intervals so that it's not a consistent time. Don't set your collection, or production times when your not going to be awake, or when your not going to be around to do so unless it's an eight hour interval (while you sleep, or are at work). Maybe this will help discourage plundering when you don't have anything to plunder.

IT'S NEVER FUNNY, and NO - IT'S NEVER YOUR FAULT if someone attacks you unprovoked!! Blaming someone for that is the same as saying "It's your fault I came over to your house, and robbed you". Some people have no sense of pride, or shame! ~ Red

 

[DeletedUser11463]

As a last resort, set things to provide little benefit. Not much you can do with goods or houses (coins), but supplies can be set on 5 minute intervals, same with those multi-type buildings like bazaars. Nothing sucks worse than plundering a bazaar hoping for goods and getting a few measly supplies. You can also keep a few older hourly houses going. Unless the person wants to check up on your stuff every hour or so, if they only see that house they will either plunder it (at minimal loss to you) or skip the plunder altogether. You can even rotate items so that they never know what's going to have the crappy collections. These are strategies that can be used against those much higher than you and who consistently get your stuff.

 

[DeletedUser18814]

This is probably the single most common thing that people ask about on the forum. There are several ways to address it, depending on what you are looking for:

What are some strategies to minimize my chances of getting plundered?

There is no way to eliminate the chance of being plundered, but to minimize it you can:​

• Schedule your production times so you can collect right after they finish. You can only be plundered when you have uncollected items in your city, so this is by far the best method.
  
• Run multiple short productions; you can only be plundered once per player per 24 hours, so if you can't collect on time, this will at least minimize your losses. You should still collect as often as possible.
  
• Post the strongest defensive army you can. This won't stop players who are several ages ahead of you, but it will often deter players in your age or lower.
  
• Send a friend invite to your attacker. You can't attack friends, so if they accept this will make you safe. Implicitly you are promising to aid your friend regularly, and if you don't you will probably get dropped from their friends list and become subject to attack again.
  
• Offer to contribute a few FP (per day, per week, or just once) to the attacker's Great Buildings. This may be a smaller price than the plundering losses, and also gives you a chance to receive rewards for the Great Building donations.
  
• Try to join the guild of the player who is attacking you. You can't attack fellow guild members. Do be aware of any guild policies in the guild you want to join.
• Join a guild that has some powerful cities in your neighborhood. Many guilds will try to protect their members by threatening to plunder people who have plundered one of their own. (On the other hand, some guilds try to plunder people in other guilds that they are at 'war' with, so this could make you a target; talk to someone in the guild about your situation first.)

Being plundered makes me angry, can you help me feel better?

You certainly have my sympathy, especially if you are being plundered by a player much more advanced than you. It is unpleasant to be stuck in a neighborhood with aggressive advanced players. But you will probably be rotated out of this neighborhood before too long. Over the long run, things tend to even out. You'll find yourself in easy neighborhoods sometimes too.

In the meantime, take advantage of high-age players in your neighborhood. By aiding them you have the chance to get blueprints for high-age great buildings. You might see if some of them would like to trade high-age goods for forge point donations; you can earn a lot of goods that way. If you have a lot of high-age players, there's a good chance a few will be using two spears as a defensive army. You can beat that, and a single plunder from a high-age building can make up for all your losses from being attacked.​

I am philosophically opposed to games that reward conflict and aggressive behavior. Is there any way to opt out of the player-vs-player part of the game?

No, it is an intrinsic part of the game and the developers have made it clear that they don't plan to change that. If this makes the game unpleasant for you, then your best bet might be to find a different game that doesn't have this element. Elvenar is another city-building game that doesn't have PvP fighting.​

I think it is immoral for people to plunder me, will you support me in condemning them?

No, players who plunder are playing the game as intended, and are not acting in an immoral way. No actual damage is being done to anyone, and by playing the game yourself you are agreeing to subject yourself to its rules. Condemning someone who plunders you doesn't make any more sense than condemning a chess player for capturing your pawn.​

If you really want to “Get Even” but like the Age you are in. Start A Guild of your own, (you can be the only member), build up your army, than when you get Attacked by a player using higher Age troops against you, look at what Guild they are in, than go to GvG and throw multiple sieges on there sectors, you don’t really need to win, they have to fight and break the sieges.

 

[DeletedUser26191]

This is probably the single most common thing that people ask about on the forum. There are several ways to address it, depending on what you are looking for:

What are some strategies to minimize my chances of getting plundered?

There is no way to eliminate the chance of being plundered, but to minimize it you can:​

• Schedule your production times so you can collect right after they finish. You can only be plundered when you have uncollected items in your city, so this is by far the best method.
  
• Run multiple short productions; you can only be plundered once per player per 24 hours, so if you can't collect on time, this will at least minimize your losses. You should still collect as often as possible.
  
• Post the strongest defensive army you can. This won't stop players who are several ages ahead of you, but it will often deter players in your age or lower.
  
• Send a friend invite to your attacker. You can't attack friends, so if they accept this will make you safe. Implicitly you are promising to aid your friend regularly, and if you don't you will probably get dropped from their friends list and become subject to attack again.
  
• Offer to contribute a few FP (per day, per week, or just once) to the attacker's Great Buildings. This may be a smaller price than the plundering losses, and also gives you a chance to receive rewards for the Great Building donations.
  
• Try to join the guild of the player who is attacking you. You can't attack fellow guild members. Do be aware of any guild policies in the guild you want to join.
• Join a guild that has some powerful cities in your neighborhood. Many guilds will try to protect their members by threatening to plunder people who have plundered one of their own. (On the other hand, some guilds try to plunder people in other guilds that they are at 'war' with, so this could make you a target; talk to someone in the guild about your situation first.)

Being plundered makes me angry, can you help me feel better?

You certainly have my sympathy, especially if you are being plundered by a player much more advanced than you. It is unpleasant to be stuck in a neighborhood with aggressive advanced players. But you will probably be rotated out of this neighborhood before too long. Over the long run, things tend to even out. You'll find yourself in easy neighborhoods sometimes too.

In the meantime, take advantage of high-age players in your neighborhood. By aiding them you have the chance to get blueprints for high-age great buildings. You might see if some of them would like to trade high-age goods for forge point donations; you can earn a lot of goods that way. If you have a lot of high-age players, there's a good chance a few will be using two spears as a defensive army. You can beat that, and a single plunder from a high-age building can make up for all your losses from being attacked.​

I am philosophically opposed to games that reward conflict and aggressive behavior. Is there any way to opt out of the player-vs-player part of the game?

No, it is an intrinsic part of the game and the developers have made it clear that they don't plan to change that. If this makes the game unpleasant for you, then your best bet might be to find a different game that doesn't have this element. Elvenar is another city-building game that doesn't have PvP fighting.​

I think it is immoral for people to plunder me, will you support me in condemning them?

No, players who plunder are playing the game as intended, and are not acting in an immoral way. No actual damage is being done to anyone, and by playing the game yourself you are agreeing to subject yourself to its rules. Condemning someone who plunders you doesn't make any more sense than condemning a chess player for capturing your pawn.​

This game, like your attitude sucks. People are allowed to bully their way through the game and you, like the developers allow it. That is the sad part. We are unable to protect ourselves and unable to move neighborhoods in order to have a better playing experience. Thank you Mr I Don't Care for ruining another game...this whole set up is a bunch of BS and crap.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

Evidently there are not enough players to be able to limit the range to a closer point spread rather than putting players with 2 million points against players that have 24 million points, a 12 times greater advantage. Sad, so sad. It is obvious the developers do not understand how to put a game strategy together. I don't understand why players are allowed to plunder anyway.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

Don't forget that you can set your defending army as well. Your defending army never dies (unless you use them to attack). If you stock your defending army with strong units, you'll be able to stop a lot of defeats. They can't plunder you if they either lose the battle or surrender. Many use the default defense which is easily defeated. When you use stronger units some of us who like to plunder might withdraw if the battle looks too be too costly. When those of us attack and win after taking heavy losses, nothing is more frustrating than finding nothing worthwhile to plunder, so please make sure you leave me something like produced goods that you did not harvest on time, they really make my day.

Plundering is part of the game, even though not everyone enjoys that aspect. When I first started playing, I never attacked, but found myself an unwilling victim. Once I began to retaliate and found out all the goodies people would leave available, things I needed, and learning about obtaining medals for the top tower rankings, attacking became more commonplace. Sometimes I feel guilty about plundering and will leave someone alone, but when I have lost my expensive troops in battle, the spoils of war are for their sake. You see, we take a risk when we attack you. Our units will be injured or killed, but your defending army will always remain in tact. If we plunder you, your seeking revenge upon is also part of the game, and we won't complain about it.

You would be right if the odds were more even, but all what you said is for not if the opponent is 10, 20 or 100 time greater strength, then re-read your comments and see if they apply. They don't do they?

 

[DeletedUser14066]

If you really want to “Get Even” but like the Age you are in. Start A Guild of your own, (you can be the only member), build up your army, than when you get Attacked by a player using higher Age troops against you, look at what Guild they are in, than go to GvG and throw multiple sieges on there sectors, you don’t really need to win, they have to fight and break the sieges.

But unlike chess one player doesn't have two kings or 3 queens or a bishop that can not only move diagonally but laterally also. You see, the game is flawed by having neighbors so grossly miss matched it is immorally unfair. The developers, I hope, have enough intelligence to fix it.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

Here is a thought. Unhook your roads. I have not experimented greatly with this but I believe it leaves nothing to plunder until you can resume the game at a later time. See if that works for you.

 

[iamtheemperor]

I don't understand why players are allowed to plunder anyway.

Because historically, real-world armies plundered the cities they conquered. Because probably every game with a war element allows the player with the conquering army to take something as a reward for winning... at least every one I've played does and I've played a bunch. Besides, FoE is incredibly tame with its plundering system compared to many similar games.

 

[DeletedUser]

Plunder them back.

 

[DeletedUser]

if you unhook your roads, you won't produce anything, will you?

 

[Algona]

if you unhook your roads, you won't produce anything, will you?

Absolutely correct. Which is why it is truly awful advice. surferbum, how could you play this game for 18 months and be so wrong on so many points?

This game, like your attitude sucks. People are allowed to bully their way through the game and you, like the developers allow it. That is the sad part. We are unable to protect ourselves and unable to move neighborhoods in order to have a better playing experience. Thank you Mr I Don't Care for ruining another game...this whole set up is a bunch of BS and crap.

Reading is not fundamental, reading comprehension is. I think you got everything wrong you could. Impressive.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

Absolutely correct. Which is why it is truly awful advice. surferbum, how could you play this game for 18 months and be so wrong on so many points?



Reading is not fundamental, reading comprehension is. I think you got everything wrong you could. Impressive.

I didn't realize I was dealing with people that couldn't read. Try to understand each word instead of assuming things. It is a simple way of putting your game on hold. No wonder this game is all jacked.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

How about this. Make the game send a sound if you are being attacked so if it is running in the background you can opt in and defend your own city instead of letting the not so AI do it for you.

 

[cbalto1927]

I didn't realize I was dealing with people that couldn't read. Try to understand each word instead of assuming things. It is a simple way of putting your game on hold. No wonder this game is all jacked.

My suggestion is to be aggressive, and consider yourself lucky that this game is tame in terms of plundering. Other games i played you would lose your armies, cities. If you were down to the last city and lose it then game over. As other people have stated time again is to collect on time or ask a stronger friend to plunder your rival for you. It appears that you dont like this game then it seems the game isn't for you.

 

[Algona]

I didn't realize I was dealing with people that couldn't read. Try to understand each word instead of assuming things. It is a simple way of putting your game on hold. No wonder this game is all jacked.

Of course it's the game that 'is all jacked' couldn't possibly be you.

In a thread on what to do about being plundered, disconnecting is bad advice, steaming pile of dooky bad. "Instead of only getting some of my stuff, I'll get nothing! That will show those plunderers!"

As is trying to defend manually. Aside from requiring a completely new combat system. and the problem of 'oops, my internet dropped' on either end, folk who are getting repeatedly plundered are usually being snot bubbles beaten by folk more powerful. Plunderers don't waste their time on level playing fields.

 

[DeletedUser14066]

My suggestion is to be aggressive, and consider yourself lucky that this game is tame in terms of plundering. Other games i played you would lose your armies, cities. If you were down to the last city and lose it then game over. As other people have stated time again is to collect on time or ask a stronger friend to plunder your rival for you. It appears that you dont like this game then it seems the game isn't for you.

Yes, you are right. This game isn't for me because I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars just to advance to plunder other people. I have better things to spend my money on. So it doesn't bother me one bit to let my city set idle for awhile, big deal, I don't live for this game. But it does give me a cheap thrill to piss off players that don't get it. Being a bully is not admired any more. So maybe being a human isn't for you.

 

[DeletedUser9433]

Yes, you are right. This game isn't for me because I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars just to advance to plunder other people. I have better things to spend my money on. So it doesn't bother me one bit to let my city set idle for awhile, big deal, I don't live for this game. But it does give me a cheap thrill to piss off players that don't get it. Being a bully is not admired any more. So maybe being a human isn't for you.

You kids throw around the word bully like you think you know what it means. Attacking someone and plundering them in a game designed for such a purpose is far from bullying, it is simply superior gameplay. Pretty sure you are the one that "doesn't get it" and is getting pissed off.

 

[Algona]

Well said, Jenny.

Yes, you are right. This game isn't for me because I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars just to advance to plunder other people. I have better things to spend my money on. So it doesn't bother me one bit to let my city set idle for awhile, big deal, I don't live for this game. But it does give me a cheap thrill to piss off players that don't get it. Being a bully is not admired any more. So maybe being a human isn't for you.

You just keep being wrong. I'm one of the cheapskates, I haven't spent a cent. I have not plundered for over a year, not because I object to plundering, but because it ain't my style. I think I gain more productivity from Goods buildings then Barracks. But a LOT of very good players tell me I'm wrong.

I don't care if you limit your progress in the game, you can play however poorly you want. My objection is that novices might read your awful advice, look at how long you've played, and not realize that you don't know what you are talking about.

You get excited making other people mad? Nice.

 

[DeletedUser24552]

You would be right if the odds were more even, but all what you said is for not if the opponent is 10, 20 or 100 time greater strength, then re-read your comments and see if they apply. They don't do they?

You may not realize this, but some high-level players use this as a type of calling-card. Yes, it's very painful to watch your defenders being decimated by a vastly superior force (although the hover tanks are impressive to watch). Instead of becoming indignant though, send a friend request. In fact, every time your neighborhood shifts, send a friend request to the new high level players. Opportunities for better GB blueprints, and many of them will accept your request. Those who don't, well that's what a 24-hour production cycle is for. I'm well down in the ranking, but have friends in the top 10 of my world due to this strategy.