Why does my guild want me to not advance in eras?

[jsc29]

Several people in my guild have recommended that I stay in LMA and do not advance. The stated reason is that I will be able to fight better supposedly.

I do not understand how staying in LMA will make me a better fighter. Certainly in GE, the higher the era of the player, the more points the contribution counts for.

If I am in Colonial, I can make more valuable goods than the goods I am making in LMA, and it will also give me more quests, since I currently have quests I cannot complete because they require Colonial things.

 

[Emberguard]

The higher age/era you go the harder the game becomes. Enemies get more boosts. Costs increase in general. Upto you how quickly you advance. There are some advantages to advancing but by the end of Colonial Age if you’re auto battling you’ll probably want all your attack boost great buildings at level 10 to keep up with the continent map. If you want to fight in GE to lvl 4 you’ll either need them higher lvl’d or manually fight. My Colonial Age city has a Lvl 14, lvl 21 and lvl 30 attacking GBs. Gets most of the way to end of lvl 4 auto battling using 2 heavies + rogues

 

[Agent327]

How are we supposed to know why your guild wants you to do something? We are not in your guild. We can not answer these type of questions. We do not know if the reason stated is valid in your case. They might need the LMA goods, but tell you something different. We have no insight in your guild. If you do not like what they want you to do, go look for another guild.

 

[RazorbackPirate]

Play your game your way. If your guild doesn't like it, find a new guild.

 

[jsc29]

Play your game your way. If your guild doesn't like it, find a new guild.

This is not a responsive answer. First of all, this is obvious, so there is no need to be stating the obvious.

Secondly, my question was not about how I want to play the game. The question is how (and if) staying back helps fighting or would make me a more effective fighter. Emberguard has said that one reason is that units at higher eras have more boosts, but I assume I will get more boosts and stronger units if I advance, so the implication is that the enemies will be getting stronger faster than I would if I advanced, so I want to know if that is true. It would be useful to know by how much.

I don't have enough experience to gauge the effects of leveling up, so I am hoping that more experienced players can give me some concrete and specific ideas of why it is easier to fight at LMA versus Colonial.

 

[Emberguard]

but I assume I will get more boosts and stronger units if I advance,

incorrect assumption. Aging up in itself changes nothing in your units boosts.

To get better units through aging up you have to replace your units with new units from the new age. BUT that only changes unit skills and unit base stats. It doesn’t give boosts, you still have to increase that yourself through special buildings and great buildings.

What I meant regarding the enemy units is the higher the age battle you’re facing the higher the boost is in addition to base stats. So they’ll have a base stat which will match your new age units base stats, but they’ll then have a increased bonus on top of that. So it could be base +50% or base +200% for example. At the start you only face against base stat units. Later on the bonus added on top of base stats get higher the higher the age. So you need to be able to keep up with the additional increase from the base amount.

 

[Cured Meat]

This is not a responsive answer. First of all, this is obvious, so there is no need to be stating the obvious.

Secondly, my question was not about how I want to play the game. The question is how (and if) staying back helps fighting or would make me a more effective fighter. Emberguard has said that one reason is that units at higher eras have more boosts, but I assume I will get more boosts and stronger units if I advance, so the implication is that the enemies will be getting stronger faster than I would if I advanced, so I want to know if that is true. It would be useful to know by how much.

I don't have enough experience to gauge the effects of leveling up, so I am hoping that more experienced players can give me some concrete and specific ideas of why it is easier to fight at LMA versus Colonial.

JSC, there are many reasons to Age up slow. I see you only mentioned Goods in your OP, If your guild has your best interest, than my bet guess is probably your GB's need to at a higher level than they are. If you level too fast, you won't enjoy the many aspects of the game, for example gbg, gvg, ge, and will struggle playing in the higher ages. Also like Agent said, we cant possibly know why or assume what they are saying. They might be asking you to stay lower for say your OBS, or if you have an ARC, for the Guild Goods donations in the early ages. Again, we don't know your GB situation, but I and a lot of other players would say slow down on research until you have your GB's at the good levels....as to what that is, well thats a whole other conversion, but we would need details on your GB's

 

[Agent327]

The question is how (and if) staying back helps fighting or would make me a more effective fighter.

How is anyone supposed to answer that if we do not know how effective as a fighter you are at the moment? For all we know you do everything on autobattle in which case staying back does not help a bit, cause the AI does not get any smarter. Do you ask a lot of questions about how to fight in your guild that makes them advise you to stay back? Do you know how to use the terrain? All factors we dont know.

Emberguard has said that one reason is that units at higher eras have more boosts, but I assume I will get more boosts and stronger units if I advance, so the implication is that the enemies will be getting stronger faster than I would if I advanced, so I want to know if that is true. It would be useful to know by how much.

Look it up in the Wiki

https://en.wiki.forgeofempires.com/index.php?title=Units_List

I don't have enough experience to gauge the effects of leveling up, so I am hoping that more experienced players can give me some concrete and specific ideas of why it is easier to fight at LMA versus Colonial.

More experienced players can not give you that type of advice. While it might be easier for them to fight in one age or the other, that does not have to apply to you. You have leveled up before. How that went should be your guideline on making the decission.

 

[DeletedUser47276]

How are we supposed to know why your guild wants you to do something? We are not in your guild. We can not answer these type of questions. We do not know if the reason stated is valid in your case. They might need the LMA goods, but tell you something different. We have no insight in your guild. If you do not like what they want you to do, go look for another guild.

I am just curious how you got to be a forum moderator with answers like that? Sure, I guess I would expect it from some of the people posting on the forums, but I assume this company felt you qualified and gave you that position. Maybe you already had some impression of the poster you are responding to that could somehow justify that, but the impression I am getting is that with forum moderators as immature as you, this company is already making more money than it wants, and that it wants word to get out that new players are going to be treated very badly by it if they dare give the game a try.

 

[DeletedUser47276]

incorrect assumption. Aging up in itself changes nothing in your units boosts.

To get better units through aging up you have to replace your units with new units from the new age. BUT that only changes unit skills and unit base stats. It doesn’t give boosts, you still have to increase that yourself through special buildings and great buildings.

What I meant regarding the enemy units is the higher the age battle you’re facing the higher the boost is in addition to base stats. So they’ll have a base stat which will match your new age units base stats, but they’ll then have a increased bonus on top of that. So it could be base +50% or base +200% for example. At the start you only face against base stat units. Later on the bonus added on top of base stats get higher the higher the age. So you need to be able to keep up with the additional increase from the base amount.

And here is a serious and actually helpful response. Thank you. I come here to learn about this game, and I appreciate intelligent and mature responses like the one you gave.

 

[Agent327]

I am just curious how you got to be a forum moderator with answers like that? Sure, I guess I would expect it from some of the people posting on the forums, but I assume this company felt you qualified and gave you that position. Maybe you already had some impression of the poster you are responding to that could somehow justify that, but the impression I am getting is that with forum moderators as immature as you, this company is already making more money than it wants, and that it wants word to get out that new players are going to be treated very badly by it if they dare give the game a try.

I was asked, but just like you I am willing to learn.

Where exactly do you think my answer is wrong? Not many on the forum will know what his city looks like, how active he plays,what guild he is in, or how good his guild is. Is it a guild with experienced players, or is it a small guild just with noobs?

Let's say your driving instructor tells you, you need 10 more lessons before you are ready for the exam. Should anybody but he know why he tells you that?

Emberguard gives a good, but general answer to a specific question. If he wants to know why his guild members advise him not to move on, he should ask them. We miss the insight why they tell him that. They don't.

 

[DeletedUser47276]

The tone of the answer was not conducive to encouraging people to come here, learn, play more, spend more and encourage the people they know to start playing. Many would read that reply, and then be hesitant to ask a question, if not discouraged about playing. I mean, why is this specific forum here if not for that? What impression would it give to someone on the fence about investing in this game?

I have bad days too. But I would strive to have asked a few questions, rather than be almost confrontational, unless perhaps, there was already a history.

 

[Falconwing]

This can go two ways. Either they want you to stay in LMA so you can level your attack GB's and get better at combat, or they need you in LMA for Goods production. Probably the first. Staying in a low age doesn't make you a better fighter, but the levels you can add to your combat GB's will.

Personally, I have a few basic requirements when figuring out when to age up. One, I have to be able to complete all 4 levels of GE by combat with a reasonable amount of troop loss, preferably on autobattle. Two, I have to have enough Diamonds to immediately buy the new ages two Diamond expansions. Three, I need enough 1 up kits to age up all my important prize buildings that need it (usually goods producers and anything that gets a higher combat bonus at higher ages). And forth, I need a substantial amount of my current age goods saved up. Both for New tech requirements and the rare occasions I negotiate a lot in GbG (we're talking drastic emergencies, I hate Negotiating). When I have all four, I age up. I just hit Modern last week and already have three of the four. soon as I get a ton of Goods, I'm aging again. I really need the space.

 

[Agent327]

The tone of the answer was not conducive to encouraging people to come here, learn, play more, spend more and encourage the people they know to start playing. Many would read that reply, and then be hesitant to ask a question, if not discouraged about playing. I mean, why is this specific forum here if not for that? What impression would it give to someone on the fence about investing in this game?

I have bad days too. But I would strive to have asked a few questions, rather than be almost confrontational, unless perhaps, there was already a history.

Fair enough, but no matter what questions asked, they would not make it much clearer. His guildmembers know him better than the players here on this forum, unless they happen to be in his guild. They could actually tell him why. All we can do is guess.

If there is a history you can look up

 

[DeletedUser47276]

This can go two ways. Either they want you to stay in LMA so you can level your attack GB's and get better at combat, or they need you in LMA for Goods production. Probably the first. Staying in a low age doesn't make you a better fighter, but the levels you can add to your combat GB's will.

Personally, I have a few basic requirements when figuring out when to age up. One, I have to be able to complete all 4 levels of GE by combat with a reasonable amount of troop loss, preferably on autobattle. Two, I have to have enough Diamonds to immediately buy the new ages two Diamond expansions. Three, I need enough 1 up kits to age up all my important prize buildings that need it (usually goods producers and anything that gets a higher combat bonus at higher ages). And forth, I need a substantial amount of my current age goods saved up. Both for New tech requirements and the rare occasions I negotiate a lot in GbG (we're talking drastic emergencies, I hate Negotiating). When I have all four, I age up. I just hit Modern last week and already have three of the four. soon as I get a ton of Goods, I'm aging again. I really need the space.

As a really new player, this subject is front and center for me. So I really appreciate posts like this that give me information to work with. I know my first impression as a new player was to age up ASAP. But I am learning some general rules, some guidelines, and some standards to go by. These things are really helpful. And they are fitting together well with what I am seeing in the game.

 

[Agent327]

As a really new player, this subject is front and center for me. So I really appreciate posts like this that give me information to work with. I know my first impression as a new player was to age up ASAP. But I am learning some general rules, some guidelines, and some standards to go by. These things are really helpful. And they are fitting together well with what I am seeing in the game.

Always try to keep a balance in techtree, quests and continent map. Try to keep them on the same level. It does not hurt if one or two are a little ahead of the other, but when it happens, catch up with the third again. Don't let your enthusiasm rush anything. This is a game of patience.

 

[ODragon]

Fair enough, but no matter what questions asked, they would not make it much clearer. His guildmembers know him better than the players here on this forum, unless they happen to be in his guild. They could actually tell him why. All we can do is guess.

I don't know, I think @Emberguard is doing an amazing job at answering this question and being helpful. Sure, his guild can give the exact answer for their purposes but it doesn't hurt to hear all sides of the argument. Plus, there is no guarantee they will give him useful/detailed (or truthful) answers.

Its also possible your guild has alternative motives you don't know about. Maybe they need/want you in that age because they have a deficit in goods for that age and want you to stay there so you can donate more.

My personal opinion is to set your own goals before you level up. If LMA is too easy for you, then its probably time to move up but at the same time, it can also mean its time to farm for a bit to get your GBs up, goods prepared for the next level, etc.

My own goals are to get the majority of the diamonds from recurring quests in an age (including all of the 24 hour supply building ones), get a SoH to Level 8 for that age (I want at least one for every age I am in), have about 20k of each of the current age goods and feel like I've gotten my GBs to a certain level. In LMA, I think my goal was most GBs to L10, including my arc. I camped in Colonial for a long time getting arc to 80, etc.

 

[Plain Red Justice]

If I am in Colonial, I can make more valuable goods than the goods I am making in LMA

So by your logic a new guild with a lot of SAAB players is a good guild? Nope, you just need a handful more guildmates from different ages to appear then you'll be making up trading holes (ex: A SAAB player would normally have a hard time providing specific Indy goods to a Progressive player) within your guild which either shouldn't exist or shouldn't be that big and messing up your GBG building reqs unless all of those SAAB players are very skilled in gathering goods from a lot of ages.

For this kind of high age guild to be effective and not inconvenience themselves, they would need to restrict themselves to higher age players closing out their opportunities to recruit lower age players which are very common (even FE, a common age for people to camp like a champ because of Arcs).

 

[Lady Gato]

@jsc29 - Have you read the glarging thread? I know you are past bronze age and iron age but some of the questions you are asking are similar to what I had a few months ago when I started. The whole thread has a lot of information of what to do to get your city up and running before you age up. Here's the llink.

 

[jsc29]

@jsc29 - Have you read the glarging thread? I know you are past bronze age and iron age but some of the questions you are asking are similar to what I had a few months ago when I started. The whole thread has a lot of information of what to do to get your city up and running before you age up. Here's the llink.

Thanks for the link. That is a very good tutorial, however, I am way past most of the stuff there. I have a space optimized LMA city with level 9/10 CdM, CoA, Zeus plus a level 6 Arc, Obs, ToR and LOA. I have almost 1000 FP banked plus about 8,000 goods. I am currently working on getting a Truce Tower which I expect to get by the end of the week. My current attacking boosts are 165% / 176%. I generally go to about 30 attrition every day.

So, this kind of brings me back to my original question. My guild leaders said I will fight better against lower age units, so their stated reason for me staying back is that they seem to think I will generate more advances in GBG if I stay in LMA versus age up to Colonial. Currently I do about 700-800 advances per GBG.

I am trying to understand exactly what the drawbacks and advantages of aging up are, especially with regards to fighting. For example, if the enemy units in Colonial are so strong that I would drop down to 400 advances and attrit out at 15 or something, then that would be a big problem. But if go Colonial and am still making 750 advances per run, I guess I don't see the advantage to staying back. What I lack is the knowledge and experience to know the real effects of aging up.

One thing that might help me understand better is to know exactly what the additional boosts the enemy units have in Colonial versus LMA. When I fight them at 0 attrition or the campaign map I don't see any boosts (+%) on the units at all, so I am not sure why people are saying the higher age units have higher boosts. What is the math here?