An honest discussion about the use of Homes

[Dragons Mate]

Hey guys, I've been playing on and off since Age 29, and I've never been one to use homes in my building strategy except when exploring. I always think it's more useful to use the acres some put into homes to build more rax, TG's, TD's, ect.

I'm not however completely ignorant of other people's playing style and I'm willing to listen to reason.


I don't want any completed building strats, merely examples of how homes can be used effectively and/or how they are a waste of space! Also, some examples of the percents of homes people use.


I DON'T WANT ANY "VINES-LIKE" STRATEGIES USING 70% HOMES OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT UNLESS YOU HAVE SOME SERIOUSLY GOOD REASONS WHY AND CAN SHOW ME THE FORMULAS YOU USED TO COME UP WITH THE IDEA! DON'T JUST SAY "IT'S GOOD BECAUSE IT WORKS!" OR "IF YOU'VE USED THIS BEFORE YOU KNOW IT WORKS WELL!" Substitute in misspelled words, bad grammar, and terrible math skills relating percents and decimals


Please keep trolling to a minimum if you can. I realize this is a hard request to follow at times, and me mentioning not trolling is the equivalent of a Summoning Horn to trolls everywhere.

[Dragons Mate]

Come on... I know people are looking at this! The forum says so. Even if all you post is "I don't use homes" or "I use 10% homes because it keeps BE up" that's fine!

I'm just looking for people's opinions on the matter...

[Palem]

Homes are a bit of a 'personal choice' building.

You can make great cases to use them and you can make great cases not to use them.

I usually don't use homes because they're a terrible war building, with all the land being swapped and such.

[Dragons Mate]

Yeah, my main beef with them was that they aren't good for a warring province. But I've seen people use them to boost BE and raise the number of troops they can recruit. A guy in my new kingdom says he runs a 40% homes strat! I find that really excessive, but perhaps it works, which is why I want to hear from a lot of people and see what more people think!

[timberlee]

I want to hear what ppl think too (and why!). Homes is something I have been experimenting with lately. I do use homes atm and I do play attacker. My thoughts are that I need to fill my land quicker (as I get more land and/or suffer fb rampages) and my understanding is that more homes will do that. More pessies faster means bigger army, drafted quicker and more gc. At the moment I am running 16% homes (+40% birthrate). When I didnt use homes I never had any BE because of the high draft level I use. Anyway, I am open to discussion and am keen to know more about why ppl do and dont use homes. I do feel that it does come down to a choice in the end.

anywho, keen to learn!

[nova1491]

I've seen several players use 20% homes and 20% banks in some lengthy wars.

Great for quick re-pop of new land, great BE. Fantastic gc production given new peasants don't get drafted that quickly.

so imagine 100% BE

its +75% birth rate + L&P + your high peasant to military ratio after 4 days of 24hrs war and it still continues.

Depending on your province, training of new troops n building up avail acres should be a problem.

Just expressing what i've seen.

[Freeway]

If I am to use Homes will be mainly for birth rates, the BE and a little room for higher draft is just a bonus.

[Major Player]

I have Homes because its one of the 3 Basic Needs...Food, Clothing and Shelter (Homes)...joke!!!

I never use Homes. I just cast L&P for Birthrates and pump Housing Sci to have more pop.

[Bijo]

Dragons Mate if you want the truth its depends really...

you need to use homes in the range of 5%-15% (20% max)
but its depends on a lot of stuff like:
you race persona kingdom combo
and if you are: A/t a/t a/T A/m a/m a/M t/m a/t/m t/m etc...
plus a few other factors

the general idea will be that if you are going to use homes at the end
it will most likely to be around 10%-15%

if you are not sure at all what to do and want to use a strat with homes go safe and make 12% homes

[Dragons Mate]

I'm just trying to get people's opinions on the subject and why they do or do not use homes!

Some people playing use similar strategies to vines, running crazy amounts of homes! Not only will this help established players learn some other strategies they can try, but it will also hopefully help new players learn than if they do use homes, keep it reasonable (whatever that may be, though I agree it should never be more than 20%)


I don't use homes because I can cast L&P to help with Birth rates, and put a little bit into science to get the population boost. therefore, I find homes to be useless!

But, some people don't find homes useless, and I would like to know why they think that way. I realize this is a very complicated question because there is no "right" answer, just like there is no "right" way to play the game! I'm merely looking to learn what other people do when it comes to homes, on a person-to-person basis!

[Bijo]

I'm just trying to get people's opinions on the subject and why they do or do not use homes!

Some people playing use similar strategies to vines, running crazy amounts of homes! Not only will this help established players learn some other strategies they can try, but it will also hopefully help new players learn than if they do use homes, keep it reasonable (whatever that may be, though I agree it should never be more than 20%)


I don't use homes because I can cast L&P to help with Birth rates, and put a little bit into science to get the population boost. therefore, I find homes to be useless!

But, some people don't find homes useless, and I would like to know why they think that way. I realize this is a very complicated question because there is no "right" answer, just like there is no "right" way to play the game! I'm merely looking to learn what other people do when it comes to homes, on a person-to-person basis!

well there are cases when its better to use homes and get more off unites
instead of using more TG like when you have nice sci (on Housing or tools) with nice BE and maybe a race population bonus

some cases its better to get TG

same goes for all the rest: if you want higher def or stronger A/T

or just want to go as a pure T/M

[Realest]

homes are a disgustingly horrible war building except in certain cases which doesnt apply to most people - that's all you need to know. Therefore, avoid homes in wars, and there is no reason to use them outside of war because they confer no real advantage.

[pint]

sheperds that run 5% homes for every honortitle above knight won't do bad imo.

for pumped sages (high BE) homes aren't as good.

[KemoZabee]

depends what race ofc..
But normally when i play a/t i use homes to BE up and use the extra pop to boost raw tpa and the birth rate is a bonus.

[Red]

I use 11% homes together with +10% pop sci minimum (so at start of the age I go with some banks and more TG).
The reason why i do it: I'm DE/Mystic and need extra pop if I want to have 4-5 wpa raw, 2.5 tpa raw and still have decent army (80 opa and 40 dpa all out), cause i prefer to have at least 7 pezzies/acre.
I experimented this age with banks vs Homes to ToG for dragon before declaring war and Homes were more usefull (income was higher so higher ToG).
Once in war I don't build extra homes, but the extra birth rate is welcome when you don't want to use mana on LaP (I usually only cast IA in war and the occasionally MP)