Help?

[noobium]

1+2. Bounce waving sucks for the most part. You'd have to ask others for numbers, I hate doing it that way. I imagine bouncing works well because it can be done out of fort stance, so there's that.

3. Gold is really good and underrated. Just know that it's not merely a passive dragon, and two very key buildings affected by Gold are wt and td. Emerald is not so good if you're using it for passive effects, but fairly good for aggressor kingdoms - use it to inflict extra kills on your initial wave, and if you force a tank it's great to force enemies to chain into -15% gains early war. Many kingdoms will tank an Emerald though, and you don't want to fall into a trap of lining up your attackers to all be bloat hogs and useless too soon, so if you throw Emerald and can force enemy to tank, it helps to target t/m or strong defense provs, even if it looks like slower damage in the short-term. Sapphire is highly overrated, even against cow kingdoms, just because of how random ops are, but if none of the other drakes are relevant then it's okay - just don't rely on it as a defensive dragon, and Sapphire is best for kingdoms with a general wpa advantage already. Idk when ruby became less popular, since it's the easy default dragon... pretty hard to mess up -8% ME.

4. It can be marginally better than FB per-cast, but it's most useful for holding a tough FB target until someone else can finish balling. It also blocks the birth rates of any kidnapped/landgrabbed peasants, so pretty useful.

5. In war? Build homes if a chain is imminent, or you are one of the first chain targets and going to go down deep. Otherwise they're pretty crap, but sometimes it's better to keep some homes/peasants going into war than to remove all of them.

[Attero]

I see I see that was very insightful Noobium I appreciate that so let me ask these questions..

1. Does anyone know if the War Hero conversion is exactly the same as the Undead Elite Conversion from previous ages?
2. When making successful land grabs do the free credits you recieve increase if you (+) the hit for additional damage gains?
3. Is it true that sending additional generals on ambush has NO effect so always send just 1?
4. Good Wpa for attackers (1st Week of age)?
5. Does the meter on Bounce Waves increase in comparison to the % you send? e.g sending 50% targets def has a 50% chance to move the meter?

[Persain]

1...no clue not using WH
2. no, from what i remember the calculation is based on mod off/def and raw # of military sent....nothing else
3. correct no reason to send more than 1 general.
4. 0.25...it increases VERY quickly though...attackers SHOULD already be at 1 raw by this time in the age.
5. correct.

[Tadpole]

5. Tips for utilizing homes for a pure attacker. So many people say it is a waste and I am on the fence..thoughts please.

5. In war? Build homes if a chain is imminent, or you are one of the first chain targets and going to go down deep. Otherwise they're pretty crap, but sometimes it's better to keep some homes/peasants going into war than to remove all of them.

Why would you build homes if you think you're about to get chained?

1) The space gained by homes will be filled by peons quicker (homes BR bonus), so unless you time it perfectly on the tick, you'll have more peons and more severe overpop. And what overpop you do suffer will be harder to cure (intra FB/nappings only way to get rid of peons).
2) I'm guessing you'd build homes in order to hope for more pop space post chain? Problem is a) most of those homes will be destroyed during the chain leaving few post-chain (unless you're talking about one crappy chain), b) the few homes left won't make much of a dent in terms of lowering forced defections. Also, c) homes does nothing to help _during_ the chain. Some GS and less acres lost will increase post-chain pop space more than some homes, as will hospitals (and possibly forts) in most situations. One or a few less hits in chain has a lot larger impact in maintaining pop-space than some homes that'll get destroyed.

Homes are the last building I'd build anticipating being chained. A good chain and the homes won't improve your situation, but make it much worse.

Attero: Homes can be used in a wide range of scenarios, but is often less usable for pure hitters than any other role (outside of a pump situation). But they have their uses. It can be worth building homes on hitters in the exact opposite scenario that noobium is talking about - when you're relatively sure you won't get chained. Having a bunch of hitters with good WPA (FB protection) build homes on incoming acres in war (=use homes for BR bonus) for econ purposes has contributed in winning a few wars for me. You need to know what you're doing though, since filling hitters with peons has nasty effects if chained.

[Samsquanch]

I think what noobium means is, if you are getting chained, build homes, so 12 hours later when you're down on 200 acres, your homes come into effect and you have extra pop space and lose less units. Like he said tho, you have to time it right. Typically if you are getting ns'ed it's pretty safe to assume that when their armies come home next you're going to be eating dirt.

[noobium]

I think what noobium means is, if you are getting chained, build homes, so 12 hours later when you're down on 200 acres, your homes come into effect and you have extra pop space and lose less units. Like he said tho, you have to time it right. Typically if you are getting ns'ed it's pretty safe to assume that when their armies come home next you're going to be eating dirt.

Something like that. Don't build homes if you think there is a chance of a chain, build homes if you know for sure the chain is coming/already happening, so you'd have a buffer against overpop losses (but before you would have a bunch more peasants). It's not so much for the initial chain, but for dealing with later population losses as your province is sidetapped. Also it takes advantage of 0 jobs * 0 peasants = 100% BE (in practice there are peasants and a few jobs, but you're basically taking advantage of silly BE mechanics so that, when you do build %-based buildings, they function at full BE and will take time to drop, thus improving your long-term functionality as a small province). It mostly makes sense for those provinces targetted early in war.

That said, there is some value to entering a war with 3 peasants/acre instead of 0.1 peasants/acre, since ramping up peasant growth (and thus soldier generation) is useful for some strategies. Since you would want raw military though, if you have the option of 2.5 military/acre or 25% buildings as something other than homes.

Guardstations are pretty crappy. I'd only build them if I know I had to.

[Tadpole]

Something like that. Don't build homes if you think there is a chance of a chain, build homes if you know for sure the chain is coming/already happening, so you'd have a buffer against overpop losses (but before you would have a bunch more peasants). It's not so much for the initial chain, but for dealing with later population losses as your province is sidetapped. Also it takes advantage of 0 jobs * 0 peasants = 100% BE (in practice there are peasants and a few jobs, but you're basically taking advantage of silly BE mechanics so that, when you do build %-based buildings, they function at full BE and will take time to drop, thus improving your long-term functionality as a small province). It mostly makes sense for those provinces targetted early in war.

That said, there is some value to entering a war with 3 peasants/acre instead of 0.1 peasants/acre, since ramping up peasant growth (and thus soldier generation) is useful for some strategies. Since you would want raw military though, if you have the option of 2.5 military/acre or 25% buildings as something other than homes.

Guardstations are pretty crappy. I'd only build them if I know I had to.

mm, guess there could be a point to building homes to time them to arrive post-chain AND before army arrive time. Actually never used homes like that, but guess there's some merit to that idea. I'd probably opt for barracks myself, as a safer bet to deal both with a post-chain situation and cover for the eventuality of not being chained. Must be rather rare to know for sure you'll get chained, while still have time to build buildings to arrive post-chain but still before your own army arrival time. But oh wells. Guess you base it on speed building.

Oh, and GS can be a fantastic building utilized correctly. Its overused as crap. But can be amazing if you know how and when and on whom to run them :)

[2Utopian]

I support gs over barracks post chain on the idea that GS are working all the time when they are up and people are throwing spare hits at you. Rax work only at one specific time if they happen to still be standing. In my view both buildings function in a similar manner post chain with rax having a higher attached risk at a marginally bigger reward.