Getting your ghetto out of the dumpster

[Palem]

There's a lot of kds trying to build up their kd and become successful but they just can't get their feet off the ground. So I figured I would start this to try and help. This is mostly for monarchs but if you're in a smaller kd and actively try and help I guess it can be for you as well lol



-Monarchy-
The monarch should be the monarch. You should be an example for your kd as far as prov management and activity. If there's no reason for a random person to follow your orders, they won't. There shouldn't be any doubt about following you and your decisions. If you can't fit into the monarchy shoes, don't put them on. You can still play a role in kd-leadership without wearing the crown.


-Diplomacy-
The best way of dealing with problems is not letting them spiral out of control. So often you hear the horror stories from ghetto monarchs about how they're getting bottomfed from 4 different kds and it's because the monarch didn't handle the situation before it got out of hand. Everyone who loves this game will tell you it's because of the community so get proactive and talk to the other monarchs who are showing an interest in your kd for whatever reason. Yea, you'll get your fair share of idiot monarchs who shouldn't be there in the first place, but you'll also run into some awesome people, maybe even get an ally/friend out of it.


-Inactives-
For the love of all that is good, stop trying to clear out your inactives. It's a waste of time, effort and resources. Odds are they're just going to be replaced by another inactive prov who you'll have to waste even more time and effort removing. If they're inactive long enough the monarch can just remove them with one click of a button and if they show up again, give them another shot. If they cause enough problems, say they'll shape up and they don't, then you can consider getting rid of them because they're actively hurting the kd.


-Explorers-
This one goes along with the inactives part. It's almost instinct for ghettos to see someone exploring and go into panic mode as far as trying to get rid of them. There's really no reason to do this. They're active. They aren't hurting the kd. They can help the kd if you just work with them. And again, by getting rid of them odds are you're just going to replace them with an inactive. Use the resources that you have, don't throw them to the curb because they don't quite fit with what you're trying to do. A good leader adapts to the situation, they don't try and change the situation to fit their plans.


-Moves/Invites-
I can understand that smaller kds don't exactly have the some connections as the bigger ones, but that's no excuse to waste your invites. These are the key to building yourself a respectable kd. If you waste your invites on a crappy player that's just going to ditch you, then you either get to wait 3 weeks or blow $10 to try and replace him. Get an idea who this guy/girl is before you use your invite on them. I'm not saying you need like a full interview process or something, just a few questions. If they aren't willing to talk a bit with you about the kd and such, do you really think they're going to stick it out with you while you're building the kd up?


-Leadership Style-
This is a bit tricky since it can be different from person to person, but however you choose to lead your kd, you need to stick by it and you can't be a doormat. Stick with your requirements. If you ask people for 2 hits a day in war and they aren't delivering then something needs to be done, whether you're a monarch that isn't interested in excuses, or if you want to work with them and try to get them to do better, you need to make it clear that it's not acceptable and obviously that goes with whatever rules there are for the kd. That leads to the last thing...


-The Monarch isn't always right-
Every now and then, the monarch will make the wrong call. The appropriate way to handle it: "Hey, I think you're absolutely wrong about this. Here's why: ...". The wrong way to handle it: *notices problem, ignores it, let's kd fail*, "OMFG, noob monarch! GTFO!" Leadership issues are unavoidable and it's up the kdmates that know better to help the leaders out. Monarchs need a good backbone in the kd. Not necessarily a "council" setup, but a trusted group of opinions.



Meh, hope some of this was helpful...

[DHaran]

tl:dr

Find a good top kd player who is retiring, invite him to play in your ghetto, and do everything he says.

:P

[marve]

this is a pretty solid post. the problem most people with kd issues dont come on here. send out a mass pm in game haha

[Palem]

If I can help 1 person/kd I've done a good thing lol

[marve]

If I can help 1 person/kd I've done a good thing lol

thats a fair perspective and one thats tough to argue with.

[nooblet]

-Inactives-
For the love of all that is good, stop trying to clear out your inactives. It's a waste of time, effort and resources. Odds are they're just going to be replaced by another inactive prov who you'll have to waste even more time and effort removing. If they're inactive long enough the monarch can just remove them with one click of a button and if they show up again, give them another shot. If they cause enough problems, say they'll shape up and they don't, then you can consider getting rid of them because they're actively hurting the kd.

I don't agree with this. Major inactives are a huge liability to have around. There are times when you have to choose to let some inactives slide, and not punish the guys who are attacking once a day. But total inactives with large amounts of gc on them need to be cleared out immediately.

-Explorers-
This one goes along with the inactives part. It's almost instinct for ghettos to see someone exploring and go into panic mode as far as trying to get rid of them. There's really no reason to do this. They're active. They aren't hurting the kd. They can help the kd if you just work with them. And again, by getting rid of them odds are you're just going to replace them with an inactive. Use the resources that you have, don't throw them to the curb because they don't quite fit with what you're trying to do. A good leader adapts to the situation, they don't try and change the situation to fit their plans.

The last province that did this to me was an out-and-out farm that wound up exploring and donating acres to Sanctuary. Kept posting disruptive messages in the forums as well and was a pretty blatant troll. Thank the Utopian Lords they smashed that province.
If an explorer isn't doing either of those things and being competent, then they're okay, for a while. Inevitably they get farmed out by top kingdoms and have a hard time getting big, but if someone wants to explore up to 2000 acres from the start of age it's an acceptable liability as long as they're not stupid about it.

[Landro]

The problem with explorers is that they don't offer anything to the kingdom. They're usually selfish players who just want to grow big. They have no useful tpa or wpa and they will certainly not have any offense. So what exactly will they offer to help your kingdom fight wars? Nothing! (Don't believe their faerie tales about funding dragons. Most of the time they have poor activity and serve as a farm for the enemy)

Attackers should grow by taking land. If an attacker uses mainly exploration to grow then he's doing it all wrong. If you can't take the acres by force then you don't deserve them!

[Palem]

I don't agree with this. Major inactives are a huge liability to have around. There are times when you have to choose to let some inactives slide, and not punish the guys who are attacking once a day. But total inactives with large amounts of gc on them need to be cleared out immediately.

If you're in a situation where a kd will directly benefit off them, then yea you might want to deal with the situation. But if you're just sitting around, out of relations with everyone, then no, just let them go and worry about yourselves. They're really not doing anything to hurt your kd other than being unproductive.

The problem with explorers is that they don't offer anything to the kingdom. They're usually selfish players who just want to grow big. They have no useful tpa or wpa and they will certainly not have any offense. So what exactly will they offer to help your kingdom fight wars? Nothing! (Don't believe their faerie tales about funding dragons. Most of the time they have poor activity and serve as a farm for the enemy)

Attackers should grow by taking land. If an attacker uses mainly exploration to grow then he's doing it all wrong. If you can't take the acres by force then you don't deserve them!

Right, explorers are definitely worse than killing them off and replacing them with an inactive who will feed the other kd millions of gc, free acres, no tpa/wpa to speak of and all the other bad things that the explorer would offer up lol


The explorer is either going to be good or bad. If they're bad, selfish players who just want to grow they're going to get farmed out, rage and quit. Sure the explore pool is going to take a bit of a hit, but oh well. Ghettos don't use their explorer pools much anyway. If the explorer knows what he's doing, he's prolly good at the game and can help the kd out. Either way, really not worth addressing.

[Ethan]

Building a (semi-getto) war kingdom, the "old fashioned" way:

My kingdom has broken into the top half recently, and looks to maybe go 2 for 2 in wars this age, though this second one is coming up on a week and isn't a sure thing in any direction. I started as one of the 3 kings of what is now my kingdom (I stopped as soon as someone with actual time for the job showed up). While invites have played an important role, most of the kingdom has come about the old fashioned way, via randoms and mergers. A short description how we got here:

Be a king (or find a king) that sets out clear goals and "morals/tone". Goals like "fight 5 or more wars this age" and "anyone smaller than 105%, we accept war". Also remember your posts and actions will be imitated - always give people the benefit of the doubt, and be as fair as you can. You'll feel like you are speaking into a vacuum... but you are being heard.

Lose wars. Lose lots of wars. Preferably long ones. I think I managed an age of 0/5, and I think we ran a 1/10 stretch. Losing wars will naturally clean up a few things - it will get your size to the right level, it will clean out inactives, and it will induce a defect in any "big" province that keeps getting smashed in war. If someone is big, they need to *prove* they can cope with it, otherwise they hurt everyone, and should just let the land go while oow.

Watch the weak links leave. Cause who in their right mind stays with a kingdom that goes 0/5 and finishes near the bottom 25%? Only people who will stay are those that like *fighting*, instead of just liking winning. Make sure everyone knows your goal, so the players who do have the grit know why they keep losing. And of course, keep trying to win, even if it nearly kills you - prove you are the most aggressive and toughest of the bunch - remember that role-modeling! When you get a thrill out of dropping to 30 dpa to pull that double tap... knowing full well you just painted a target on yourself as the biggest threat, and the lowest def... people remember that.

Pray for a good merge. You'll almost surely finish the age small enough to get merged into another kingdom, so see who your new friends are. Give the other king a try first (if he wants it) - maybe he really is better than you, and you can sit back a be a strong supporter instead of taking it all yourself. (In my case, as a 2x login king... ya, please, take the title! I, the semi-inactive king, beg you!) Be ready to speak up about anything violating your morals, and keep being a proponent of war. (Make clear you'd rather lose than not fight, so people don't think your targeting sucks.) If the new king/kingdom is bad... you'll run them out soon enough, and try it all again next age. (In fact, they'll normally run themselves out, lots of rage quits when they lose the second time and all that.) Even in a total train wreck of a kingdom, you'll probably pick up 1-2 new provs that can understand the difference in your kingdom, and will stick around.

Finally, you get an age where 2 kingdoms in much the same situation come together. Suddenly you've got 10-15 active attackers who all know how to fight hard, and you start smashing the other gettos. (Then you grow, and get the beat down put on you - no one said the losing was done! Think of it as a lesson + a land drop, all at once.) Now you can start using the invites to build in a more traditional manner, because people will see how you fight and want in on that. We've had good luck raiding the gettos that fell apart (lots of rage quits) for 1-2 players... be careful though, it might be a kingdom like you were last age, and not like losing all it's best players. (Or it might want to merge with you are age end, if it's player count is small enough.)

At last, you've hit the point where you win wars with some frequency. Now you can proudly call yourself a semi-getto, and may well find an age start where you're placing in the t100 for a while. From here... enjoy, IMO. I've yet to find out the next step after this - I'll tell you in an age or two.

[Kemia]

If I can help 1 person/kd I've done a good thing lol

thanks for the insights ;)

[DHaran]

I don't agree with this. Major inactives are a huge liability to have around. There are times when you have to choose to let some inactives slide, and not punish the guys who are attacking once a day. But total inactives with large amounts of gc on them need to be cleared out immediately

I let inactives sit in wars too, they aren't worth my time, ever. The more ops and hit spent on them is less spent on my active kdmates.

[nooblet]

Well obviously in war they needn't be a concern, but outside of a hostile/war wave there is plenty of time to get rid of inactives. It's worthwhile to get rid of small inactives with 0 thieves in war as well, if they leave no defense at home - otherwise it's too easy for any attacker to get close to free money by stealing or sending spare generals to plunder.

[DDodge]

however, some wars that inactive province will wind up funding a large chunk of the enemy's dragon, AND be a free kidnapping pool for attackers to replenish peasants with and grow into acres way faster than your own KD

[lastunicorn]

Killing inactives gave us a goal, and taught the new guys how to effectively attack. Other than that it was great post.

Personally, I let anyone (explorers, pure thieves etc.) do whatever they want (aside from attacking our own kd), although I will suggest ways to be more effective. If playing in the ghetto isn't about having fun and doing what you want, you should go somewhere else.

[nooblet]

Tip #1: Don't try to play above your kingdom's skill level. Don't expect people to turn into superstars overnight, and if they can't put in the activity, adjust your war strategies accordingly.