Your 1st Village
That first village:
There are a few guides available online on how to grow fast, but I have yet found any that teaches what I am writing below, that is, in particular to the very first village.
So here goes.
Since most people are on their first village here, you have to decide how would you want to play this first village and there are two ways - either being offensive or being defensive.
Offensive:
If you always have a computer in front of you, you should consider being offensive.
Troops: Initially build spears to maybe 50-100 then stop. These spears will be the initial farmers. Switch immediately to building axes and LCs non-stop. Axes are cheap - use axes to clear your neighbours, use LCs to farm.
Buildings: Just focus on barracks and stable, then gradually upgrade farm to accommodate more troops and upgrade smithy to get an academy. In no time you will see there's totally no need to build mines as long as you have a lot of LCs roaming around. Otherwise, the only mine worth investing in is iron, since your LCs will eat a lot of them.
Weakness: Your village will be very vulnerable as offensive troops can't defend. In fact, don't even bother building walls, since you have no defensive troops at all. When you get an incoming you will need to keep on dodging, or backtime your enemy - ie. dodge, launch and follow enemy home, and kill em all. To play this effectively, you will need regular acct sitting partners, or alternatively, remember to send your troops away and time them to return when you get back online. This approach is obviously not meant for those who can't be active.
However, if you are growing fast enough, your enemies would normally think twice before even thinking about attacking you. And if they scout you and find loads of offensive troops waiting to go, they will again think twice about sending real attacks on you.
This strategy only works if you farm hard + build troops fast and outrace everyone in your area.
Strategy for second village: Having the first village as an offensive village allows you to capture a large second village, since you do have the ammo to kill and noble.
Defensive
If you can't afford to be active always, build your first vill as a defensive village - at least you don't get killed so fast and have to restart somewhere.
Troops: Focus on a balanced defensive troops - initially heavy on spears (for farming), then sword and archers, and also rush for HCs. In the initial stage you may also need to build a small LCs troop (300-500) for farming, and when HC is ready, switch to producing HC. Build some catapults too, as they can also be used defensively, especially if you have the catapult pally weapon.
Buildings: The principle is the same, barracks + farm. Here stable will not be a priority, as long as you can have the initial 300LCs roaming around to farm for you. Compared to the offensive village, in a defensive first village build, you will actually need to build up the mines more, since you don't have the luxury of a lot of LCs farming for you.
Weakness: Your troops will never be recruited as fast as offensive troops. Consider this: Axes build faster than swords and archers. LC build at half the time of HCs. In other words, If you have a very active aggressive offensive player in your area, you are still in trouble. The good thing is, you could defend yourself pretty well on first or second assault, meanwhile giving you time to ask for tribal support, which is a good thing If you can't always be active.
Strategy for second village: Since you wont have a good offense to strike, the strategy is therefore to get a noble as fast as you can, then noble a nearby barb village, or a very weak player whom you can clear with small amount of LCs and your existing spears and swords.
I must add that I have met players who have grown very big by just building defensive villages and nobling barbarian villages. We normally term them "turtles" as they are just a nightmare to defeat. Totally harmless but annoying as they keep on taking away nice farms. Plus. I don't understand what's the point of playing TW when the intention is to not to war but to play simcity.
Final word: Don't build mixed balanced villages. If you are following this so far, you would notice I only preach building either full offence and ignore the defence or loads of defence and a small amount of LCs for farming purposes. Building a mixed village is neither nor - your offence can never be threatening enough, and defence can never be strong enough to withstand an aggressive player's troops. I can undertstand its an intimidating thought to just build offence and ignore defence and not even build walls. Use the ingame simulator and try out a few permutations - you will see a mixed vill can never take out a full defensive player and can never defend against a full offensive player. I hope you can be convinced.
There are a few guides available online on how to grow fast, but I have yet found any that teaches what I am writing below, that is, in particular to the very first village.
So here goes.
Since most people are on their first village here, you have to decide how would you want to play this first village and there are two ways - either being offensive or being defensive.
Offensive:
If you always have a computer in front of you, you should consider being offensive.
Troops: Initially build spears to maybe 50-100 then stop. These spears will be the initial farmers. Switch immediately to building axes and LCs non-stop. Axes are cheap - use axes to clear your neighbours, use LCs to farm.
Buildings: Just focus on barracks and stable, then gradually upgrade farm to accommodate more troops and upgrade smithy to get an academy. In no time you will see there's totally no need to build mines as long as you have a lot of LCs roaming around. Otherwise, the only mine worth investing in is iron, since your LCs will eat a lot of them.
Weakness: Your village will be very vulnerable as offensive troops can't defend. In fact, don't even bother building walls, since you have no defensive troops at all. When you get an incoming you will need to keep on dodging, or backtime your enemy - ie. dodge, launch and follow enemy home, and kill em all. To play this effectively, you will need regular acct sitting partners, or alternatively, remember to send your troops away and time them to return when you get back online. This approach is obviously not meant for those who can't be active.
However, if you are growing fast enough, your enemies would normally think twice before even thinking about attacking you. And if they scout you and find loads of offensive troops waiting to go, they will again think twice about sending real attacks on you.
This strategy only works if you farm hard + build troops fast and outrace everyone in your area.
Strategy for second village: Having the first village as an offensive village allows you to capture a large second village, since you do have the ammo to kill and noble.
Defensive
If you can't afford to be active always, build your first vill as a defensive village - at least you don't get killed so fast and have to restart somewhere.
Troops: Focus on a balanced defensive troops - initially heavy on spears (for farming), then sword and archers, and also rush for HCs. In the initial stage you may also need to build a small LCs troop (300-500) for farming, and when HC is ready, switch to producing HC. Build some catapults too, as they can also be used defensively, especially if you have the catapult pally weapon.
Buildings: The principle is the same, barracks + farm. Here stable will not be a priority, as long as you can have the initial 300LCs roaming around to farm for you. Compared to the offensive village, in a defensive first village build, you will actually need to build up the mines more, since you don't have the luxury of a lot of LCs farming for you.
Weakness: Your troops will never be recruited as fast as offensive troops. Consider this: Axes build faster than swords and archers. LC build at half the time of HCs. In other words, If you have a very active aggressive offensive player in your area, you are still in trouble. The good thing is, you could defend yourself pretty well on first or second assault, meanwhile giving you time to ask for tribal support, which is a good thing If you can't always be active.
Strategy for second village: Since you wont have a good offense to strike, the strategy is therefore to get a noble as fast as you can, then noble a nearby barb village, or a very weak player whom you can clear with small amount of LCs and your existing spears and swords.
I must add that I have met players who have grown very big by just building defensive villages and nobling barbarian villages. We normally term them "turtles" as they are just a nightmare to defeat. Totally harmless but annoying as they keep on taking away nice farms. Plus. I don't understand what's the point of playing TW when the intention is to not to war but to play simcity.
Final word: Don't build mixed balanced villages. If you are following this so far, you would notice I only preach building either full offence and ignore the defence or loads of defence and a small amount of LCs for farming purposes. Building a mixed village is neither nor - your offence can never be threatening enough, and defence can never be strong enough to withstand an aggressive player's troops. I can undertstand its an intimidating thought to just build offence and ignore defence and not even build walls. Use the ingame simulator and try out a few permutations - you will see a mixed vill can never take out a full defensive player and can never defend against a full offensive player. I hope you can be convinced.
