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Hi, I'm Red 
I've been around for quite a while (W6.net, to be exact), though I've been mostly TW free for almost 2 years now. This summer I was tempted back for a brief visit, and along the way decided I might give writing my own guide a shot.
I copied this over from my thread on .net. Figured it could be used here too.
Efficiency and Village Dynamics - By (R)ed
1. Background
2. Setting your goals and defining your path
3. Considerations
4. Farming - Next Post
5. Queues and Buildings - Next post
6. General Tips - Next Post
7. Wrap up - Next Post
At the end of each section I’ll be adding a “****”, which is a sum up the main points, to emphasize them and to make it easier to read if you are short on time.
1. Background
**** This is a general guide about principles, not specifics. The goal of this guide is to give you a new perspective of this game, and understand how the village dynamics work, and a deeper understanding of proper efficiency needed to ideally run a village, and thus be able to be the decision maker on your own account.
2. Setting your goals and defining your path
**** Before you start, plan out ahead the way you want to play this game. Plan out a guidline which you want to follow, which will help you stay focused on your goals. Through your goals, you can work your way backwards to figure out a style of play that will fit the most, and thus you will be more focused and efficient.
3. Considerations
****There are two factors that limit each player’s growth. One being resources, the other being time. If you find yourself waiting to get enough resources for something, then that means you are limited by the income you are getting.
If you are able to keep everything running easily, and are getting a higher (or equal) income than you are spending, you are limited by time. That will be explained in further detail later on.
Resources can be gained through two sources of incomes. A steady and consistent income from resource mines or the more active and demanding income of farming.
While mines provide a solid income, growth through farming is exponential, as the resource you invest always goes towards increasing your source of income.
You should recognize your limitation, and always work towards getting over it (or in the case of time, balancing and shortening it).
**NOTE**
I’m sorry, but for this I have to stray from not going into the different ways to play, but since the focus of this whole guide is efficiency, if you do not farm, you are not efficient. It doesn’t matter whether you go offensively or defensively, as an uncontested fact, you will never be efficient unless you farm. I imagine this was noticed by the comparative emphasis I put on it. Your resource mines are in no way capable of keeping all of your village queues sustained by them alone. That means, that you will always be limited by resources, and your queues left for large periods of time idling, and thus a massive waste of potential and a smaller army over time. You’ll be forced to consistenly have to decide as to whether you want to develop your village itself OR recruit more troops.
That having been said, you might not want to entirely neglect your resource mines, whether it be for emergency resources in case you lose your army/farming ability or cant allow yourself to keep up with a high activity level. That probably belongs in different guides, though.
**NOTE**
Urgency vs. Benefit vs. Cost
****Those three overlapping factors are the key to making your decisions. First, you make sure that there isn’t any pressing emergency that you have to meet (based on extreme examples of the benefit/cost). Once you’re in the open again, you should look for the most beneficial next step, and compare it to the cost. Ideally, your next steps should always be towards fixing your limitation.
To sum this all up, simply arrange a list of priorities, according to how urgent the need is, how much you will gain from it, and how much it will cost you.
I will be going into further specifics later on.
Organized in spoilers to lessen the "Wall of text" effect
*I'll try to synchronize changes that I make in the two threads.
Here it was split up do to being just above the character limit
I've been around for quite a while (W6.net, to be exact), though I've been mostly TW free for almost 2 years now. This summer I was tempted back for a brief visit, and along the way decided I might give writing my own guide a shot.
I copied this over from my thread on .net. Figured it could be used here too.
Efficiency and Village Dynamics - By (R)ed
1. Background
2. Setting your goals and defining your path
3. Considerations
4. Farming - Next Post
5. Queues and Buildings - Next post
6. General Tips - Next Post
7. Wrap up - Next Post
At the end of each section I’ll be adding a “****”, which is a sum up the main points, to emphasize them and to make it easier to read if you are short on time.
1. Background
This is not a guide that is meant to run you through the development of your village, nor is it going to give you definite and ultimate rules. The intention of this guide is to hopefully provide you with a new insight as to the general management of a village, and thus your whole account. As the saying goes, give a man a fish, and he’ll be full for a night. Teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be full every night. I will not be giving you crunched numbers or unquestionable orders of building, since by understanding the reasons and principles, you will be given a toolbox from which you will be able to choose for yourself, adapt by yourself, and improvise as much as you require.
Well, that, and because I simply haven’t ever really delved into the number crunching either.
Having been (and still being) an avid reader of guides and new strategies of TW, as I started playing this game more seriously, I believed that I had a more than solid understanding of the game. I was constantly reading more about the game, and personally “interviewing” many renowned and excellent players, though for some reason my implementations of everything I knew never quite managed to get me very far. I can’t even remember what my personal justifications for that where (or whether I even had them), though all it took was one world in which I was asked by a friend and one of the best players I know to co-play for a certain world. There I understood the main thing I was missing. As you can guess, it was the extent of the efficiency required to run a top account. Of course, efficiency itself is a very broad term, whether it be the management of the village itself (the focus of this guide), farming, tribal operations or late game village planning, but hopefully I will be able to supply you with the principles with which you can connect the dots for any other subject you wish to implement it on.
I realize that there will be many who will view the contents of this guide as mere common sense, (which I believe is the reason I haven’t seen any other guide on this subject before), so this is for the players who, like me, came to this game not connecting it to principles used outside of this game, or not realizing how much further the game could be taken.
I will be using many analogies, metaphors and examples to emphasize the messages I’m trying to pass on, some of them repeating, so this will take up more space than the alternative of posting it as bullet points.
Well, that, and because I simply haven’t ever really delved into the number crunching either.
Having been (and still being) an avid reader of guides and new strategies of TW, as I started playing this game more seriously, I believed that I had a more than solid understanding of the game. I was constantly reading more about the game, and personally “interviewing” many renowned and excellent players, though for some reason my implementations of everything I knew never quite managed to get me very far. I can’t even remember what my personal justifications for that where (or whether I even had them), though all it took was one world in which I was asked by a friend and one of the best players I know to co-play for a certain world. There I understood the main thing I was missing. As you can guess, it was the extent of the efficiency required to run a top account. Of course, efficiency itself is a very broad term, whether it be the management of the village itself (the focus of this guide), farming, tribal operations or late game village planning, but hopefully I will be able to supply you with the principles with which you can connect the dots for any other subject you wish to implement it on.
I realize that there will be many who will view the contents of this guide as mere common sense, (which I believe is the reason I haven’t seen any other guide on this subject before), so this is for the players who, like me, came to this game not connecting it to principles used outside of this game, or not realizing how much further the game could be taken.
I will be using many analogies, metaphors and examples to emphasize the messages I’m trying to pass on, some of them repeating, so this will take up more space than the alternative of posting it as bullet points.
**** This is a general guide about principles, not specifics. The goal of this guide is to give you a new perspective of this game, and understand how the village dynamics work, and a deeper understanding of proper efficiency needed to ideally run a village, and thus be able to be the decision maker on your own account.
2. Setting your goals and defining your path
Before you jump heads first into the world, like almost anything in life, you have to take some time to set your priorities, your short term goals and your long term goals. For most people this is done on the subconscious level; however this is something you should do at least once. Bringing it out to the conscious line of thought allows you to have a constant compass to follow, and a tangible benchmark (a memory, even if you don’t write it down) to help you decide your next actions instead your choices being determined by your mood.
By doing so, you will be able to work your way backwards to determine the “how” and the steps along the way.
Even though this isn’t exactly the main subject being my guide, it’s the foundation on which is built.
I’ll do a quick demonstration, though you yourself might want to choose differently.
That was an example of one way you could do this. You don’t have to write it all out like I did, or set it up like that. You could go into more or less detail. It’s up to you. As long as you have a direction and overall game-plan ready for when you actually play, then you’re on the right track.
By doing so, you will be able to work your way backwards to determine the “how” and the steps along the way.
Even though this isn’t exactly the main subject being my guide, it’s the foundation on which is built.
I’ll do a quick demonstration, though you yourself might want to choose differently.
My Priorities:
1. Work as a tribe
2. Play competitively
Short Term goals:
1. Focus on offense
2. Reach nobling stage with as large of an army as possible.
3. Noble a large target
Long Term Goals:
1. Split into dense clusters. One inside the tribe lines, and one on each expected future war front.
Now that I have it all out on the table, I go over each one and work my way backwards to see how I can accomplish each one.
Priorities:
1. Keeping close contact with the tribe at all times. Working together to help each other. Meaning:
A) Once damage can be done to the villages (rams/cats coming out), I should build up a minimum defense, so that I will be able to support tribe mates under attack and be able to hold my own (and not leech off my tribe) when I’m under attack.
B) Get in touch with the nearby tribe mates to make sure we aren’t hurting each other with our growth, and let them know that I’m there to help if they need help.
C) Nearing the nobling stage, we can plan it so that we all reach the academy at the same time, and help each other clearing and nobling (with co-trains and the likes), allowing us to noble better targets.
2. To play competitively I will have to stay very active. I will have to be efficient doing whatever I want to do, and stay focused on growing as fast as I can in all aspects.
A) I will need to consider what I plan to do, and play less on whim.
B) I will have to preserve my army and troops so that I will have a bigger farming income, and so that I will be able to clear my actual targets with less casualties.
C) I will have to keep tabs on my competition, and make sure I’m not under threat.
Short Term Goals:
1. Apart from the minimum defense I build for tribal support, I will focus on my offensive army.
2. I will have to be careful with what I attack.
A) I won’t clear villages for no reason.
B) I will preserve my troops.
C) If/when I manage to keep my queues running, I will increase my stables/barracks to increase my production rate.
3. I will have to be aware of my area, and adjust myself to it.
A) I will have to consider, as I play, the competition, and when to act against them. (If they are to be my first targets)
B) I will not play too aggressively, so that some villages may grow into potential targets.
C) I can work with my tribemates to take down large targets quickly. (More targets to consider)
Long Term Goals:
1. I should consider according to the situation the world is in whether I want my first villages to be close (for a more solid base) or whether I can afford to spread out, and thus start building outposts right from the start (decrease in farming overlap, and thus increase in income/overall growth). As I noble, my first targets could be over long distances (with the help of my tribe mates, or after I manage to get a full train).
1. Work as a tribe
2. Play competitively
Short Term goals:
1. Focus on offense
2. Reach nobling stage with as large of an army as possible.
3. Noble a large target
Long Term Goals:
1. Split into dense clusters. One inside the tribe lines, and one on each expected future war front.
Now that I have it all out on the table, I go over each one and work my way backwards to see how I can accomplish each one.
Priorities:
1. Keeping close contact with the tribe at all times. Working together to help each other. Meaning:
A) Once damage can be done to the villages (rams/cats coming out), I should build up a minimum defense, so that I will be able to support tribe mates under attack and be able to hold my own (and not leech off my tribe) when I’m under attack.
B) Get in touch with the nearby tribe mates to make sure we aren’t hurting each other with our growth, and let them know that I’m there to help if they need help.
C) Nearing the nobling stage, we can plan it so that we all reach the academy at the same time, and help each other clearing and nobling (with co-trains and the likes), allowing us to noble better targets.
2. To play competitively I will have to stay very active. I will have to be efficient doing whatever I want to do, and stay focused on growing as fast as I can in all aspects.
A) I will need to consider what I plan to do, and play less on whim.
B) I will have to preserve my army and troops so that I will have a bigger farming income, and so that I will be able to clear my actual targets with less casualties.
C) I will have to keep tabs on my competition, and make sure I’m not under threat.
Short Term Goals:
1. Apart from the minimum defense I build for tribal support, I will focus on my offensive army.
2. I will have to be careful with what I attack.
A) I won’t clear villages for no reason.
B) I will preserve my troops.
C) If/when I manage to keep my queues running, I will increase my stables/barracks to increase my production rate.
3. I will have to be aware of my area, and adjust myself to it.
A) I will have to consider, as I play, the competition, and when to act against them. (If they are to be my first targets)
B) I will not play too aggressively, so that some villages may grow into potential targets.
C) I can work with my tribemates to take down large targets quickly. (More targets to consider)
Long Term Goals:
1. I should consider according to the situation the world is in whether I want my first villages to be close (for a more solid base) or whether I can afford to spread out, and thus start building outposts right from the start (decrease in farming overlap, and thus increase in income/overall growth). As I noble, my first targets could be over long distances (with the help of my tribe mates, or after I manage to get a full train).
That was an example of one way you could do this. You don’t have to write it all out like I did, or set it up like that. You could go into more or less detail. It’s up to you. As long as you have a direction and overall game-plan ready for when you actually play, then you’re on the right track.
3. Considerations
Now, to get to the topic of this guide at last. I will start off by defining a very simple comparison.
You village, by all accounts, is an investment.
What does this mean?
It means that like all investments, the return you get from it is a direct response to how much and how wisely you put into it. There are several ways you could develop it, and possibly some are more appropriate for different goals than others. I will be coming back to this point later on in “Queues and Buildings”, but I just wanted you to start thinking in this direction right off the bat.
At each stage of the game, you have to consider what your limiting factor is. If your growth is dependent on when you get enough resources to queue something, then your growth is limited by your resources. If, on the other hand, you have enough resources to keep all your queues running without stop, then your limit is time. By recognizing what your limitations are, you can adjust yourself to be more efficient.
Let’s take a peek at the components of those two factors.
A) Resources
Resources are your currency in this game. They are the requirement for pretty much anything you decide to do or develop. There are two ways to obtain them.
1. Resource buildings (Timber camp, Clay pit and Iron mines. All 3 are labeled as “mines” for the sake of simplicity)
2. Farming
Resource mines are the simple, classic and stable sources of income. They provide X amount of resources per hour at a steady rate. As you raise their levels, the difference in the resource increase also rises, and so does their cost. It takes them a certain amount of time to cover their costs in resources (compared to their cost in the same resource, again, for the sake of simplicity), and after that it is all profit.
Farming, on the other hand, is a more aggressive approach to gaining resources. It involves a higher risk and effort; however it is –substantially- more beneficial. The idea behind farming is that instead of building your own mines, you build up your army, and take the resources from your neighbors (Instead of your village supplying you with a medium amount of resources consistently, you are collecting small pinches of resources consistently from many players. In terms of numbers, instead of developing you mines to, say, 1000 production of each resource, you can farm, say, 50 villages producing 100 resources of each type per hour. Ideally, that means 15k resources total instead of 3k total. As a rough point of comparison, some top players reach several hundred farms before nobling starts). Farming alone deserves a massive guide, so I will not be going into it the details, though I will get back to it in an upcoming section.
As long as you are limited by resources, your goal should be to increase your income (whether it be raising your resource levels or increasing your army, depending on what you’re going for).
**Important to note**
Resource mines are more or less consistent in the increase of income (proportionally), making them a pleasant little bonus as they add up.
On the other hand, the resources gained from farming are *exponential*
The costs as a whole are consistent (under the stable barracks and stable levels), yet the more troops you have, the more resources you bring in, the more troops you can recruit, which means a bigger army, and thus more resources that you can bring in, etc. It’s a never ending growing circle.
B) Time
If your limiting factor is time, then that implies that your concern isn’t resources, and that you are able to get enough to keep everything running smoothly without stop. Admittedly, it is a stage that is more difficult to reach for newer players, though it is possible. (And will become easier over time)
This limitation means that your account is a fully functioning machine, that is able to keep up with whatever you’re throwing at it (which in itself it quite an accomplishment, so well done), however, since the subject is efficiency, in terms of –potential-, you are wasting time, and you have to find a way to –increase- (speed up) your production.
This will be covered more intensively in the appropriate sections of the guide.
Now that the underlining limitations have been defined, we can go into the actual considerations you have to make while building your village.
You village, by all accounts, is an investment.
What does this mean?
It means that like all investments, the return you get from it is a direct response to how much and how wisely you put into it. There are several ways you could develop it, and possibly some are more appropriate for different goals than others. I will be coming back to this point later on in “Queues and Buildings”, but I just wanted you to start thinking in this direction right off the bat.
At each stage of the game, you have to consider what your limiting factor is. If your growth is dependent on when you get enough resources to queue something, then your growth is limited by your resources. If, on the other hand, you have enough resources to keep all your queues running without stop, then your limit is time. By recognizing what your limitations are, you can adjust yourself to be more efficient.
Let’s take a peek at the components of those two factors.
A) Resources
Resources are your currency in this game. They are the requirement for pretty much anything you decide to do or develop. There are two ways to obtain them.
1. Resource buildings (Timber camp, Clay pit and Iron mines. All 3 are labeled as “mines” for the sake of simplicity)
2. Farming
Resource mines are the simple, classic and stable sources of income. They provide X amount of resources per hour at a steady rate. As you raise their levels, the difference in the resource increase also rises, and so does their cost. It takes them a certain amount of time to cover their costs in resources (compared to their cost in the same resource, again, for the sake of simplicity), and after that it is all profit.
Farming, on the other hand, is a more aggressive approach to gaining resources. It involves a higher risk and effort; however it is –substantially- more beneficial. The idea behind farming is that instead of building your own mines, you build up your army, and take the resources from your neighbors (Instead of your village supplying you with a medium amount of resources consistently, you are collecting small pinches of resources consistently from many players. In terms of numbers, instead of developing you mines to, say, 1000 production of each resource, you can farm, say, 50 villages producing 100 resources of each type per hour. Ideally, that means 15k resources total instead of 3k total. As a rough point of comparison, some top players reach several hundred farms before nobling starts). Farming alone deserves a massive guide, so I will not be going into it the details, though I will get back to it in an upcoming section.
As long as you are limited by resources, your goal should be to increase your income (whether it be raising your resource levels or increasing your army, depending on what you’re going for).
**Important to note**
Resource mines are more or less consistent in the increase of income (proportionally), making them a pleasant little bonus as they add up.
On the other hand, the resources gained from farming are *exponential*
The costs as a whole are consistent (under the stable barracks and stable levels), yet the more troops you have, the more resources you bring in, the more troops you can recruit, which means a bigger army, and thus more resources that you can bring in, etc. It’s a never ending growing circle.
B) Time
If your limiting factor is time, then that implies that your concern isn’t resources, and that you are able to get enough to keep everything running smoothly without stop. Admittedly, it is a stage that is more difficult to reach for newer players, though it is possible. (And will become easier over time)
This limitation means that your account is a fully functioning machine, that is able to keep up with whatever you’re throwing at it (which in itself it quite an accomplishment, so well done), however, since the subject is efficiency, in terms of –potential-, you are wasting time, and you have to find a way to –increase- (speed up) your production.
This will be covered more intensively in the appropriate sections of the guide.
Now that the underlining limitations have been defined, we can go into the actual considerations you have to make while building your village.
If you are able to keep everything running easily, and are getting a higher (or equal) income than you are spending, you are limited by time. That will be explained in further detail later on.
Resources can be gained through two sources of incomes. A steady and consistent income from resource mines or the more active and demanding income of farming.
While mines provide a solid income, growth through farming is exponential, as the resource you invest always goes towards increasing your source of income.
You should recognize your limitation, and always work towards getting over it (or in the case of time, balancing and shortening it).
**NOTE**
I’m sorry, but for this I have to stray from not going into the different ways to play, but since the focus of this whole guide is efficiency, if you do not farm, you are not efficient. It doesn’t matter whether you go offensively or defensively, as an uncontested fact, you will never be efficient unless you farm. I imagine this was noticed by the comparative emphasis I put on it. Your resource mines are in no way capable of keeping all of your village queues sustained by them alone. That means, that you will always be limited by resources, and your queues left for large periods of time idling, and thus a massive waste of potential and a smaller army over time. You’ll be forced to consistenly have to decide as to whether you want to develop your village itself OR recruit more troops.
That having been said, you might not want to entirely neglect your resource mines, whether it be for emergency resources in case you lose your army/farming ability or cant allow yourself to keep up with a high activity level. That probably belongs in different guides, though.
**NOTE**
Urgency vs. Benefit vs. Cost
A) Immediately Urgent
What is the urgency of what you’re considering to do? Is it something that you need to do ASAP? Or can it be put aside until later? In other words, how far up does it scale on your Priority list?
For example: With a 5 day Beginner protection, would you consider building a wall on the first day? The logical answer is obviously no. You cannot be attacked at that stage, nor are you likely to be attacked as soon as it is over if you are active and show signs of activity. Attacks can be dodged, too. You have more urgent need of increasing your income, whether it is resource mines or troops (which are a matter of different guides, not this one).
On the other hand, if you are in the middle of a conflict, and you have incomings on your way and attacks/supports to send, and someone destroys your rally point with their catapults, would you build your rally point as soon as you can or would you decide it’s a good time to raise your warehouse?
How about if you find yourself with a full farm, and your other queues being close to their end? I believe it is fairly obvious, but necessary to state, that your building choice should be adjusted by the urgency of the matter.
B) Benefit
What will you gain from what you are trying to do? This, like the other two, weaves with the other two considerations. Your village is an investment. As an investment, everything you do should be considered in terms of benefit, according to both short and long term development and goals. To be honest, Urgency could fit in this section too, since your “urgent action” will be the most beneficial to you, though I decided to split them up since in emergencies you’ll have less time to properly consider all your options, and thus it’d be best if you think of it as an emergency ‘override’ that you should quickly scan for, first thing you do. Benefit is more for the common and usual decision making. For every decision you make, there are both benefits and costs. Simply consider the action you are planning to do in those terms. How will it benefit you? Will it help you overcome your limiting factor? Is it the -most beneficial- thing to do to overcome your limiting factor? How –much- will you gain from it, and how does it compare to your alternatives?
An (long) example to such would be if your troop queues are has a 2 day long (yes, that and worse have happened before). First, you check to see the cause of it. If it is because you are simply not distributing the resources, and your headquarters is idling, then that is a matter of inefficiency that will be covered in “Queues and Buildings”. If not, then start considering your options. Your queues are running smoothly, which means that your limiting factor is time, and not resources. Upgrading your resources should be low on your priority list. To lower your time limitation (queue length), you upgrade the building in question (Headquarters for buildings, barracks for infantry and stables for cavalry). Now that you have determined the direction that you need to work on, you have to consider which building you want to upgrade, and thus increase the production of. Consider which benefits you more. If you feel that you need to train your offensive clearing power faster, then you might want to upgrade your barracks. On the other hand, upgrading your stables means a higher cavalry production, and since they are likely your main resource income, by increasing your stable production you are increasing the farming power (resource income), which quite frankly never hurts.
(I won’t be going into the headquarters for this example)
C) Cost
After determining what you need the most, you have to make sure you can afford it (and that it is proportionate to the gain). The cost, whether it is time or resources, is the specifics of your limitations. You should try to keep your limitations balanced.
Going by the same example as the one used in Benefits, the apart from the physical cost of the building, you also have to consider that a higher production ability means more resources needed to keep that queue running..
If you decided to go for the stables, that means (likely) a higher iron drain, and might unbalance your resources. Might make you consider finding a way to balance your resources properly first (such as upgrading your iron mine, upgrading your market appropriately for trading the excess resources), or simply deciding to upgrade the barracks first.
-------
I was recently told a story (by the guy whose point of view I’ll be recounting it from) which was used as a lesson for another subject, though I realized it can be used here as well. I’ll call him Fred. I don’t know whether it’s 100% true, but it can be learned from nonetheless.
Fred was a commander of a ship in the army. One of his missions was to apprehend a few experts in a certain field, who were on their way by ship to an unfriendly enemy. Their mission was to deliver a commando unit to the ship in question, and capture/stop those experts. As they got close to the target, the unit pulled up close (operating in the darkness), while the ship stayed back as long distance cover if necessary. So Fred followed them with his scopes from behind.
He watched them board the deck, and watched the first near the door/entrance. Just as he got close, the door opened and a crew member armed with an assault rifle stood in the doorway. They both saw each other, and took aim. The commando pulled the trigger, but the gun was jammed. Immediately he threw down his assault rifle, pulled out his sidearm and shot the crew member.
Now how exactly does this relate to this section?
1. Urgency: He was forced to react immediately and change the plans due to an unexpected event (the crew member showing up). He improvised as necessary to adapt to the situation he was in.
2. Benefit. Despite The assault rifle being a better tool (better trained with it, better performance out of it), it didn’t benefit him at the instant of need, so he pulled out an alternative (no pun intended),.
3. Cost: Guns can be un-jammed. Given the circumstances at the time of his decision, it would have cost him more to spend the few moments to unjam it than it would have to go for the sidearm. Despite better ideal performances out of the rifle,the cost to use it was disproportional to the gain in comparison to the other options.
What is the urgency of what you’re considering to do? Is it something that you need to do ASAP? Or can it be put aside until later? In other words, how far up does it scale on your Priority list?
For example: With a 5 day Beginner protection, would you consider building a wall on the first day? The logical answer is obviously no. You cannot be attacked at that stage, nor are you likely to be attacked as soon as it is over if you are active and show signs of activity. Attacks can be dodged, too. You have more urgent need of increasing your income, whether it is resource mines or troops (which are a matter of different guides, not this one).
On the other hand, if you are in the middle of a conflict, and you have incomings on your way and attacks/supports to send, and someone destroys your rally point with their catapults, would you build your rally point as soon as you can or would you decide it’s a good time to raise your warehouse?
How about if you find yourself with a full farm, and your other queues being close to their end? I believe it is fairly obvious, but necessary to state, that your building choice should be adjusted by the urgency of the matter.
B) Benefit
What will you gain from what you are trying to do? This, like the other two, weaves with the other two considerations. Your village is an investment. As an investment, everything you do should be considered in terms of benefit, according to both short and long term development and goals. To be honest, Urgency could fit in this section too, since your “urgent action” will be the most beneficial to you, though I decided to split them up since in emergencies you’ll have less time to properly consider all your options, and thus it’d be best if you think of it as an emergency ‘override’ that you should quickly scan for, first thing you do. Benefit is more for the common and usual decision making. For every decision you make, there are both benefits and costs. Simply consider the action you are planning to do in those terms. How will it benefit you? Will it help you overcome your limiting factor? Is it the -most beneficial- thing to do to overcome your limiting factor? How –much- will you gain from it, and how does it compare to your alternatives?
An (long) example to such would be if your troop queues are has a 2 day long (yes, that and worse have happened before). First, you check to see the cause of it. If it is because you are simply not distributing the resources, and your headquarters is idling, then that is a matter of inefficiency that will be covered in “Queues and Buildings”. If not, then start considering your options. Your queues are running smoothly, which means that your limiting factor is time, and not resources. Upgrading your resources should be low on your priority list. To lower your time limitation (queue length), you upgrade the building in question (Headquarters for buildings, barracks for infantry and stables for cavalry). Now that you have determined the direction that you need to work on, you have to consider which building you want to upgrade, and thus increase the production of. Consider which benefits you more. If you feel that you need to train your offensive clearing power faster, then you might want to upgrade your barracks. On the other hand, upgrading your stables means a higher cavalry production, and since they are likely your main resource income, by increasing your stable production you are increasing the farming power (resource income), which quite frankly never hurts.
(I won’t be going into the headquarters for this example)
C) Cost
After determining what you need the most, you have to make sure you can afford it (and that it is proportionate to the gain). The cost, whether it is time or resources, is the specifics of your limitations. You should try to keep your limitations balanced.
Going by the same example as the one used in Benefits, the apart from the physical cost of the building, you also have to consider that a higher production ability means more resources needed to keep that queue running..
If you decided to go for the stables, that means (likely) a higher iron drain, and might unbalance your resources. Might make you consider finding a way to balance your resources properly first (such as upgrading your iron mine, upgrading your market appropriately for trading the excess resources), or simply deciding to upgrade the barracks first.
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I was recently told a story (by the guy whose point of view I’ll be recounting it from) which was used as a lesson for another subject, though I realized it can be used here as well. I’ll call him Fred. I don’t know whether it’s 100% true, but it can be learned from nonetheless.
Fred was a commander of a ship in the army. One of his missions was to apprehend a few experts in a certain field, who were on their way by ship to an unfriendly enemy. Their mission was to deliver a commando unit to the ship in question, and capture/stop those experts. As they got close to the target, the unit pulled up close (operating in the darkness), while the ship stayed back as long distance cover if necessary. So Fred followed them with his scopes from behind.
He watched them board the deck, and watched the first near the door/entrance. Just as he got close, the door opened and a crew member armed with an assault rifle stood in the doorway. They both saw each other, and took aim. The commando pulled the trigger, but the gun was jammed. Immediately he threw down his assault rifle, pulled out his sidearm and shot the crew member.
Now how exactly does this relate to this section?
1. Urgency: He was forced to react immediately and change the plans due to an unexpected event (the crew member showing up). He improvised as necessary to adapt to the situation he was in.
2. Benefit. Despite The assault rifle being a better tool (better trained with it, better performance out of it), it didn’t benefit him at the instant of need, so he pulled out an alternative (no pun intended),.
3. Cost: Guns can be un-jammed. Given the circumstances at the time of his decision, it would have cost him more to spend the few moments to unjam it than it would have to go for the sidearm. Despite better ideal performances out of the rifle,the cost to use it was disproportional to the gain in comparison to the other options.
To sum this all up, simply arrange a list of priorities, according to how urgent the need is, how much you will gain from it, and how much it will cost you.
I will be going into further specifics later on.
Organized in spoilers to lessen the "Wall of text" effect
*I'll try to synchronize changes that I make in the two threads.
Here it was split up do to being just above the character limit
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