"Farming" Hints

[DeletedUser]

Please be patient!
I've tried having a look for the information but can't find it.

I understand what farming is, but have no idea what sort of quantities and types of units I should be sending out.

I live in UK World 2 which has paladins.

I'm thinking of sending out a paladin and some spear units - but how many spear units should I use?

Obviously, at this early stage I'm thinking of abandoned barbarian villages or uncontrolled bonus villages.

Help!

Les

 

[DeletedUser]

I base a minimum of 10 spears and 1 palladin when starting out, but you really need to be up above 20 to be sure of no losses.

Play with the simulator at the rally point and give the defending village a wall of 2 and your "luck" at -5% to test out the variables.

When you start go for 10 - 20 spears, but then graduate quickly to a stable, that way you can research a scout. You can then send spears and 1 scout to see if there is any resources left for you to farm again. Of course, once you have a stable you should really be aiming quickly for the King of all farming units - the light cavalry.

 

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for the information.

Very early on I sent out 2 spears - won the battle - but lost 2 spears at the same time!
And I didn't know about paladins at that stage. Hadn't read that far.

Back to digging clay and chopping down trees!

Les

 

[DeletedUser]

Build your statue to get a paladin. You only ever have one

 

[DeletedUser]

One paladin coming Sir! (well at around 6pm today). I'd already started it when I made the first post.

 

[DeletedUser]

Spears on their own require 13 or so to turn a profit but only go for spears first on non paladin worlds, your paladin can farm on its own and its best to send your paladin out without spearmen until you get 4 spearmen and then send the 4 spearmen with the paladin. Build up spears until you have 50-200 depending on your situation.

If you are fighting over abandoned villages during beginner protection i'd go for axes next, and make groups of 3 axemen and 5-10 spearmen to split up your army and make frequent raids.

If you are in an easy spot on the rim you might want to just skip to light cavalry which require 10 hq 5 barracks and 5 smithy and 3 stable. Light cavalry are the best farming unit, you cans end them in groups of 1 light cavalry against a target with no troops and no wall and they will survive. They carry 80 resources each and travel fast. Build light cavalry constantly in your first village once you can and don't stop.

 

[DeletedUser]

Thank you "smite" for your helpful advice.
I was in fact wondering about the economics of farming as every unit lost in the process requires resources to rebuild.
Obviously, if you lose 10 resources and only "farm" 5 resources...
I note carefully what you say about the LC unit.
It takes so much effort to increase productivity rates because the initial rates are so low and the increases at each level are marginal.
Les

 

[DeletedUser]

Well when thinking about resources lost, don't just think about total numbers. A spearman may take 90 total resources to build, but 50 of that is wood, so a haul of 30/30/30 is not going to repay your spearman. Wood is key in the very early stages but this quickly switches to iron when you start building light cavalry.

Once you have a few spearmen you might want to build a market, as you started late there are probably people not too far from you that have finished with therr wood fathering and now need iron, so you could trade your iron for wood at decent rates. This wont happen in the core though where everyone is at the same stage early game, unless you get to light cavalry before everyone else, and then you can buy lots of iron cheap, which is fun.


PS. Although the increases in farming income are marginal, the increases become more and more frequent, so I think you'll find farming is exponentially profitable, just with a lowish exponent.

One more thing I intended to mention earlier, go to your rally point, and on the left hand side click simulator. Play around with this a bit, this will help you make judgements on how many units and what type to send against different targets.

 

[DeletedUser]

I see what you mean about the simulator.
I guess if I'd had a look first, I wouldn't have sent a 2 man unit to certain death!
But I was curious and impatient to see what might happen.
Les

 

[DeletedUser2765]

Wow... Ok Kaiama, some of the advice you've heard is good, however some of it is not.

First, you need only 4 spears and 1 pally to start sending them out farming. Before you get 4 spears, you only want to send your pally out alone (time vs capacity).

On a world without paladins, you can start sending spears out at 9 spears.

Second, on the rim you want to rush for 50 spears, build your wood 4-5 levels higher then anything else and just mass produce spears. When you get 50-60 spears, start upgrading your HQ/Barracks/Smithy to 10/5/5 and then your stables to level 3. Build light cavalry and don't stop building light cavalry, ever, for any reason. They are the gold of your empire so to speak.

While you are upgrading your hq/barracks/smithy for LC, it is important to build your market up aswell as your iron. If you can't sell your excess iron during this time, save it in your market by setting it at 1000 iron for 2000 clay. You'll need it later on. Once you get to 20 LC or so, continue to build LC, but also upgrade your iron to 3-4 levels higher then your wood production. After this, the faster you can produce LC, the faster you'll grow, so upgrade your stables. Troops are key in this game.

 

[DeletedUser]

If I understand correctly, the market can be used as temporary storage, in case the warehouse isn't big enough.
Provided I put a very high price on the iron then no-one will want to buy it.
I never have much in my warehouse as all resources seem to get used as soon as they arrive.
I currently have my clay and wood productions set at 1.5x iron production BUT noting the light cavalry requirement for iron, I guess I have to upgrade my mine at some point.
Stealing from other places is working out just fine. I'm managing 6,000+ resource units per 24 hours and I expect to increase this to 12,000+ in the near future.
This is a massive boost to regular production and at this stage, spears seem to be cheaper than upgrading regular production.
HQ/BA/SM 10/05/05 upgrading proceeding nicely.
Les

 

[DeletedUser1508]

If I understand correctly, the market can be used as temporary storage, in case the warehouse isn't big enough.
Provided I put a very high price on the iron then no-one will want to buy it.
I never have much in my warehouse as all resources seem to get used as soon as they arrive.
I currently have my clay and wood productions set at 1.5x iron production BUT noting the light cavalry requirement for iron, I guess I have to upgrade my mine at some point.
Stealing from other places is working out just fine. I'm managing 6,000+ resource units per 24 hours and I expect to increase this to 12,000+ in the near future.
This is a massive boost to regular production and at this stage, spears seem to be cheaper than upgrading regular production.
HQ/BA/SM 10/05/05 upgrading proceeding nicely.
Les

Yes, you will find that the more troops you have, the more resources you can get. Once you start getting lots and lots of troops, you can split them up and farm many villages at once, (assuming you haven't done that already)
You will find that income from troops greatly outweighs income from resource buildings. And yes, Light Cavalry do take a lot of iron... Many people raise their iron building higher than wood and clay once they get LC.