Blog info

  1. About my blog
  2. Blogs content
  3. Other features

 About my blog


I was one of the top players on Delta, played the game almost since the beginning of Grepolis. I made to the top 3 of the total BPs in the advanced stage of the game, organised military operations in many wars, taking whole oceans from enemy hands, destroying huge alliances with a small group of teammates, actively participated in P&P wars on the public forum, creating some "turning points" during big conflicts, built up my own alliance and trained every member to become an elite player - yes, we focused on being "elite" and very selective. Having only ~25 cities I had more or as much Attack BPs as players who started months before me, who were in the strongest alliances and had 50+ cities. I was never interested in BPs, never "farmed" players for them - they were all a byproduct of my military operations.

I am an active member of the official Grepolis forum, keep reading questions and guides tab. I keep searching for new information or guides online to make my articles better. Even though Im not very active at the moment in any world, I keep contact with old friends who still play on the "competitive" level. They often give me advices and opinions regarding my guides. Im open for any constructive critic and opinions. Always ready to answer questions and discuss different issues so feel free to use comment box as often as you like.

Objectives of this blog
This is not a business project - I almost get nothing from it, except my satisfaction. If you have your own website or blog with Adsense installed, you will know how hard it is to actually make money on it, especially on the blog which is for people playing online games and searching information. I don't sell anything here, nor recommend any commercial products/services. The only things I recommend is obviously Grepolis or Google+ which can be helpful in some cases but I don't work for any of these companies and don't care if you use it or not.

This is my private hobby project - something to do when I have free time. My goal is to help people searching information and maybe create a little social group of Grepolis fans, to discuss different subjects or share with each other ideas and related projects.

Adds
I use Adsense on my blog as an opportunity to make some extra money. These are really small numbers (worth few beers in a pub in total from all the pageviews). I put them in places that will not interrupt or confuse anyone wanting to read my guides. There is always a banner at the bottom of any guide and one on the right side. 
Adsense are Google generated adds, they have nothing to do with me and are chosen by Google engine which analyse your "search" history and location. I haven't seen yet any dodgy adverts on my blog and they all look legit, not redirecting to any scam pages (in my case these are some online games, protein products, computer equipment or some social networks). 
By clicking on these adverts you ad a penny to my "tip jar" :P 

Translation
I always try to make my guides as friendly and useful as possible to everyone. English is not my first language - I've learnt it at school, from media and by playing games ;) I have nothing against using it and since it is commonly used to communicate around the world I write all my guide in this language, which is sometimes really hard work to try to make it easy and pleasant to read - coming up with all different ways of expressing my ideas is harder than actually building a guide.

However to make things bit easier for those of you who are not fluent in it and have some vocabulary troubles I installed new translating widget which is Powered by Google Translate. You can find it on the right side (right bar) just below g+ button and above the advert box. All you have to do is to pick a language from drop down menu and magic will happen. As it is not perfect solution it should still be helpful I hope. Unfortunately I don't speak fluently other languages and would never have time to translate my guides anyway.

Blogs Content


Just below the head banner (which shows the name of my blog and a soldier in flames), you can see the Main Menu bar, with list of sub pages leading to different type of content on my blog. At the moment there are button: Home / Basic Guides / Advanced Game / Useful Tools / Ancient Greece / Fun Club / Links. Each of them will redirect you to the page containing index of guides, tools or articles.

Home
This one will take you to the home page which shows the most recent posts.

These are the most basic guides about Grepolis, however I met many so called "pro" players who would learn a lot from them. Only because someone managed to get big in size doesn't mean he or she knows everything about the game. Please take a look over there and you might learn something as well.

Is focused more on guides for people who reached the advanced stage of the game. There will be no explanations of basics and most of them have general character. When I can, I do provide detailed explanations and step-by-step instructions, however it is not always possible due to the nature of subjects I talk about. Sometimes I will only show you "the right" direction - its of course my personal point of view based on my own experience.

There is a reason why my articles are called "guides" - they will guide you not do the trip for you.. Usually your next move depends on the very specific situation you are in and I can tell you how to cope with it, give you some general advices, point out the most important things that you should focus on, but cant always tell you exactly what to do. However by reading my guides you will become a better player, because you will be prepared for all types of situations. My guides will describe for you some ground rules, which I developed while playing and that always worked for me. All you have to do next is to use your common sense and imagination.

My page offers different tools which can help a lot in your game. They all can be found in the "Useful Tools" Tab in the main top menu (just below the head banner).




Two the most popular ones are 2 versions of Attack Planner (one in downloadable excel file, other as an online google doc). The attack planner made by me was created before 2.0 and it was greatly helping me in my game.

There are also online calculators:
I made my own ultimate units calculator, which will be great help for you. You simply put number of attacking and defending units, specify any Divine Powers, premium boosts, wall levels, player points (for morale) and research technologies. You can of course leave them all blank if you don't have any information about your enemy boosts, its totally optional. After that my calculator will show you all sort of important information - defenders weak points, attack/def ratio, resources (including population) used by both sides, will suggest the most effective nuke to break defense, estimate number of units to be used in your attack and casualties. It will not replace the ingame simulator but it is a perfect addition to it, helping you to decide which units to use for your attack or defense.

Production time calculator also made by me, will help you to understand how important it is to upgrade your barracks. It lets you to specify the number of units to be produced and shows you how much time you save bu having bigger barracks.

Other tools are not made by me and include: Grepostats, Grepolis maps, Building calculator and Grepostats Scanner.

I'm planning to add new content for those interested in Ancient Greece. If you are interested in real facts instead of simplified game mechanics and illustrations then take a look there from time to time. Ive collected some nice images from other sources which I really like. I will also add some basic info to complete the picture.





Fun Club
Fun Club is the place where I put some information from Delta where I used to play, like my old alliance info page or War Tales - series of stories posted on the main Grepo forum to demoralise my enemies. I also make some 2d animations for fun and soon should post those related to Grepolis as well.

Even though I am a creative person and came up with few ideas, tactics and general strategies, it doesn't mean I didn't use other external sources of information. While playing I was reading other people guides and still do. Therefore probably a lot of concepts presented in this blog could have been inspired by somebody else. Although in some cases its more than possible that few people came up with the same idea not knowing about each other.

However I don't like when people just blindly copy/paste other players guides and sign them with their names. I think everyone has enough common sense to draw a line between copying and plagiarism. Whenever I "borrow" some information from other places I always put a link directing to the source. I used other peoples comments from Grepo forum or their tools here and even Wikipedia articles but I never forgot to mention their nick names and to post links which redirect to the source.

Therefore feel free to use information on this site, even to write your own guides but please be respectful and mention where you took the ideas/information from. Thank you.

Other Features

I DO NOT work for Google company nor I receive any money from them, however I would like to propose to you this feature. Why? Because it might make your life easier.

As you might know I made my own Attack Planner in excel which calculates travel times for all your attacks. It must be downloaded to work. However thanks to Wellagain we have now new (very similar) attack planner in form of a Google doc. You don't need to download it anymore and can use it wherever you are (as long as you have Internet connection). However to be able to use it you need to have a Google account.

Basically Google + is another social network lik Facebook or Twitter. By having Google account you can have an access to Google docs, Google Calendar, Google Photos / Picassa (which is now integrated into your Google+ Plus account). Its not that easy to use though, but once you get used to it, you should get access to new things you never knew about. 

Its easy to share data and create "circles" - people you trust, your friends, who can recommend pages they like. That way when you surf using google engine, you will see pages recommended by your friends, who were there before you and marked them as good ones. I don't want to sound like a someone who tries to sell you anything - its just my personal recommendation for those who use Internet a lot - try it out and see by yourself.

This is why you can see under each of my guides or at the top right of every page g+ symbol. If you click it, you will recommend it to all people from your circle. Here is the full guide about G+.

At the same time you can use RSS feed feature to inform you about new guides or comments on this site. You can find it at the bottom of the right bar and have 2 options: you can add it to your Google homepage or Google Reader (a single reading list).


Comments
Under each guide you can find a comment box. Please feel free to use it whenever you have any sort of doubts, questions or comments that you would like to add. I will be more than happy to answer them all. I am also open for any discussions and new ideas.

This one was not being used often. Some time ago people were posting there questions but they don't any more. Therefore I took that page out and replaced it with the new content. However if enough people ask for it I will put it back. At the moment this page and provided here comment box will serve as the suggestion box.



I hope you enjoy my blog, please feel free to leave any suggestions or comments below. Thank you.


15 comments:

  1. The OSG Empire is in your debt G.R.O.M!!! =)

    Great info here, way to go!!! We'd welcome you in en29, Ephesus!!!


    Free SCV
    OSG4LIFE!

    Pic Gallery:
    http://s916.photobucket.com/albums/ad1/freescv/

    If you need any Grep pics, I tend to collect them. You had some real gems on here. I got a few myself. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey GROM, Turpitz again.

    Thought I'd try one last thing to try to get you to come out of retirement...

    What if we offered to keep you stocked with gold? Completely free. You just let us know when you need more and we get it for you. Easy and simple...

    Would that do the trick?

    Turps

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Turpitz,
      This is a very generous offer but my problem is not lack of money but lack of time. I do not work any more from my home and it is impossible to log in from my work (security reasons). That leaves me with only night time window, which is not enough to do anything in my opinion.

      Thank you for the interest, but unfortunately I just cant meet your expectations. Maybe I could be an adviser with no military power but not now (too many things going on). Next year? Maybe in the future my situation will change but not soon.

      Wish you the best

      Delete
  3. here is another example of what not to do when attacking. Need to make sure that you clear the harbor of this will happen

    http://s1353.beta.photobucket.com/user/Paul_H_WIlliams_Jr/media/not2do_zpsa811b60d.png.html"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi this may sound like a daft question.... but is there any point/advantage to building a catapult nuke or an offensive city with 100+ cat's and the 75+ transport to carry them and some slingers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. Catapults alone are useless. They are bad when used to attack (if you count attack/FS). Theirs main purpose is to destroy walls but never send them alone (best coupled with slingers). Read my article about city walls and catapults for more information. I have never used more than 30 catapults in a single army play with the battle simulator to see what happens when you attack with catapults alone and with other offensive units).

      Delete
  5. In your guide "Land Offensive City" you state that "70-80 LS will protect you against 300 BMs instead of 200."... Can you explain this as using the simulator 70 LS will protect 93 Fast Transport against 88 bireme...

    Also how do you cast a spell on a naval attack either as a defender wanting to use Poseidon's Sea storm or as an attacker wanting to use Zeus's Favorable wind... and as an attacker, is there a spell that will stop a defender casting Sea storm or Zeus' rage

    Thnx in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will check that this weekend. I used the simulator to check my numbers. Naturally numbers are rounded (not exact). Mind that I have not described any possible variables - reseach, spell boost, captain etc.
      Your question though does not tell me how many Transport ships you sent in total and I assume there are 88 Biremes only.

      Regarding spells - I played before 2.0 and then UI (User Interface) looked different. Before 2.0 you would select an attack (in the city window) and just select a spell to be used (so its limited only to your attacks and attacks against you, not your teammates).

      Defender will not be able to cast anything on an attack which has already active spell. So Zeus favorable wind should protect your attack from all spells including spying.

      Delete
  6. please can you fix the links for Units Calculator and Ultimate Units Calculator?

    "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I gave a full answer here (the last comment):

      http://grepolis-pro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/its-gonna-get-even-better.html?showComment=1372248046285#c6657140760855454285

      Delete
  7. What happened to the unit calculator? It's been down for a while now.. was hoping it'd pop back up, but I've lost hope in that idea. :( I really liked the calculator!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately it takes much longer than expected...work still in progress

      Delete
  8. Hello Grom,
    I'm wondering if you're still working on the calculator and if there is any estimation of when it'll be finished.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I apologize for late response but I was away for a while and then lots of work to catch up with...
      At the moment the project is on hold, since employing a dot.net developer was too expensive and I decided to learn it myself - not .net but Drupal, still it will take a while.

      Delete