Land Defense

What is the perfect defense? well it is the one which will take every possible attack and make the attacker to pay the most for it. Its a defense which will take as many enemy troops to Hades as possible.

First I will show you how looks balanced defense (the one ready to defend equally against all types of attack). Basically its 6 Swords + 2 Archers + 5 Hoplites but read the whole guide to understand why. Then I will explain different tactics to make our defense as painful as possible to the attacker. Please mind that these are tactics for players who have their first few cities and should focus more on saving resources rather than destroying an enemy.

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DEFENSE PARAMETERS

A balanced defense means, by definition, that the one army-unit that is defending your village does not display any weaknesses (because weaknesses will be exploited).


Looking at attack values per Farm Space of all units we can see that the strongest attack is Range and then Blunt (in that order)

           Attack/FS

1.	Slinger	23
2.	Horseman	18.3
3.	Hoplite	16
4.	Chariot	14

Lets see which units have the highest defense per farm space:

Total Defense / FS - it is a sum of all types of defense divided by 3 and then by population cost. For example Swordsman blunt def=14 sharp=8 range=30, FS used = 1, so we count it as follows: (14+8+30)/3/1 = 17.3 Because units have three types of defense it’s a good idea to check their average from all of them and see how the unit contribute to the whole defense.

1.	Swordsman	17.3
2.	Archer	14.3
3.	Hoplite	12.3
4.	Chariot	12.3

Swordsman (weak against sharp weapons)
Archer (the highest sharp defense)
Hoplite (strong blunt defense, weak distance)
Chariot  (the strongest blunt defense, weak sharp)

UNIVERSAL DEFENSE

Now, a village's defense can be understood by breaking down all units' defensive values and adding all these values back together, thus seeing the entire defending force as one huge unit with three  values (blunt def, sharp and range). Our enemy can send against us a pure nuke (1 type of units) or a mix of them. We should be prepared for all scenarios but it doesn't mean that for example our blunt defence must be equal to sharp and range defense. All units vary in strength, something most people do not take into account when choosing a defensive strategy. Something you have to keep in mind is to recalculate all offensive/defensive values of a given unit so that you see one unit as one farm space. For example za attack made of 10 slingers is much stronger than one made of 10 hoplites.

When some players build their defenses they forget about population cap - all nukes are restricted in size and cannot be merged together. A player cannot stack offensive units from few cities. He can produce them in many cities but have to send them separately and can’t merge them into one big attack. Additionally each city has population cap which is 3500 (with upgrades) and therefore a player is limited in his attacks to this number (minus population needed for buildings or transport ships). Therefore he can invest more or less 1500 population into his land offensive units. For example he can send 1500 slingers or 1500 hoplites or 500 horsemen or mix of them, like 500 slingers + 500 hoplites + 166 horsemen etc. 

However each unit have different attack value per farm space - 1 slinger = 23 attack, 1 hoplite =16 attack, 1 horseman (is made of 3 population/ Farm Spaces) 55, but to be exact his attack/FS=18.3 (55 / 3 farm Spaces = 18.3). Attack units don't have the same attack values per FS and an attack made of 1500 slingers will be much stronger than the one made of 1500 hoplites or 500 horsemen or any mix. Therefore defender should be prepared for all these possibilities but investing more of his defending units into range defense rather than in sharp defense 

Combined attack of Horsemen/Hoplites/Slingers mix would be 18/16/23 per 3 farm spaces.
18(blunt)/16(sharp)/23(distance)

So to be prepared for all types of attacks per Farm Space equally we need to have:
112% blunt def / 100% sharp def / 144% distance def

Or if you prefer: 31.6% / 28.1% / 40.4%

It seems that the closest to it combo is:

• 6 Swordsmen + 2 Archers + 5 Hoplites

Blunt / Sharp / Distance = 31.9% / 27.1% / 41.0%

That of course doesn't take into account Mythical units but those cant be produced in masses and their usage is very limited. Naturally if you know that your enemy likes to send certain type of units then you can tailor your defense to it. This one is simply universal in case of all kind of attacks.

DEFENSE TACTICS

Now when it comes to defending...make the attacker to pay a lot and gain nothing. In that way you drain his resources saving yours - you gain advantage over him. This will slow down his attacks or stop them and you will be able to counter-attack.

1) Usually first attacks are sent to clear your defense and to prepare your city for the upcoming conquest (unless its a farming attack but it changes nothing in your tactic). Sometime players send first fake attack and hit strong just after. No matter what they do its best to avoid first hit/wave. Simply send all your troops just before the hit to support something and after first 2 attacks return them. If you cant be online, send them enough before so they avoid that fight. Its called dodging.

There are 2 types of dodge:

 -quick dodge; this is possible if you are online and work the best against conquest attacks. Simply few seconds before the wave you want to dodge, send your troops away and cancel the trip few secs later so they come back just after.

For example, clearing wave ETA is 12:59:45 and Colony ship ETA is 13:00:00

You can send your troops away at 12:59:35 and recall them at 12:59:41 - they will come back at 12:59:47 to catch enemy CS wave. Actually you can send your wave even a minute before but calculate when you have to recall it so it comes back when you want it.

However this method is risky because of the anti-timing rule.

"Such precision is not possible in this game in any case, owing to time randomization factor that is built in to any troop movement. This can add or subtract up to 30 seconds at the time you click the attack button."

"Farming villages are exempted from the antitiming rule when outbound. That is the strengthening waves will land before the looting attack. They don't always return in the same order. With a farming village they arrive at the appointed time but lose a few seconds or gain a few on their way back, the real anti-timing rule takes over when you use it against a player."

-normal dodge; you don't care here about timing as long as you avoid the hit.

2) Use your militia to fight first few waves - this will really piss off the attacker to lose his expensive units on your militia. It will also cost him a lot if your walls are high lvl.

Lets say you are being hit by 2 waves - first will hit at 12:00 and second at 12:02

If you can be online at that time switch on you militia at 9:01. The first wave can kill it but at 12:01 you will be able to switch on your militia again as 3 hrs time passed already. So you will be able to hit both waves with your full militia squad even though they are so close to each other.

3) Use all your resources - another way to make your opponent pay a lot for achieving nothing.

a) make some troops, buildings

b) if you have enough time sell your resources to farm villages (even if you lose on that deal its still better than to lose them all and make your enemy richer)

c) send your resources via market to any member of your alliance

d)Hiding resources.

- the market allows trades which no regular player would bother accepting. low offer, high demand. putting your resources up at max ratios. Max ratio is 1:3, so offering 2000 wood and asking for 6000 stone shouldnt get accepted (unless someone is desperate) and will hide your resources. Good thing about this is after attacks have passed, you cancel trading, spend what you need, then put it back up.

4) The attack which takes a lot of time to reach you is probably the one with colony ship and that's the one which you should kill with your defense units.

Always check times of all incoming waves. You can do it by simply clicking on the city which sent the attack and select your CS to see travel time (even if you don't have a CS you still can type "1" in the box and it will show you the time) or you can use this little tool in the bottom left corner of your map to check travel times for all types of units.

5)* If you are being farmed for BPs, then your enemy is interested only in killing your units. It migth happen that you will get into the point when you cant play because you are being attacked few times a day. In that scenario dont build any troops. Only build the following building:

• City wall- this increases the effectivity of your militia
• Farms- Every additonal level you produce gives you 15 more militia to fight with.
• Temple- for reasons I'll go into next you need a lot of favour points.

Remember attackers can only destroy city walls so if you have a choice of what to build go for the farm or temple. Pick Zeus and collect points to be able to bolt your enemy. It will only piss him off and he might make him more active for awhile but then he will cool down. After few bolts maybe he will think its not worth it and leave you alone.

Join an alliance. You have probably heard that MRAs are bad and they generally are. But in this case they will work for you. First they generally don't care that your being farmed so they will let you in. Second they have lots of members who also generate favor. Join the biggest alliance you can. If you can join a 1000 man alliance then do so. It doesn't really matter if your close to them or not your not getting support anyway.

Put up a thread in your alliance saying you are being farmed and ask them to bolt your attacker. Most of them would be happy to oblidge as bolting really takes very little effort. Remember if only 1 % of your alliance listen to you thats still 10 bolts a day aimed at your attacker. If you feel there is not enough people who have agree to help you then be proactive and start private messaging random members of your alliance and ask them to help.

* This was taken straight from grepolis wiki.

If you have any question or would like to add anything, please leave your comment
cheers :)

GROM