As a returning player...

[tehboomer]

The game seems a bit broken. Undead and Orcs seem unbearable. No one has defense comparable to their potential offense. Additionally, even when running 20% forts, minor protection, a 45DPA, and 200% military wages, I'm still getting smashed by people. What is up with this nonsense?

Bit of a rant, I suppose, but now that that's out of the way...where can I find current strategies and information about the meta? It would help to see what others are doing, to know how I can properly defend myself against it.

[MyNameIsMatija]

Offense is the only defense.

[FATstrat]

Join a strong KD if you want protection, otherwise you will get pushed around all age.

[Palem]

The game seems a bit broken. Undead and Orcs seem unbearable. No one has defense comparable to their potential offense. Additionally, even when running 20% forts, minor protection, a 45DPA, and 200% military wages, I'm still getting smashed by people. What is up with this nonsense?

Bit of a rant, I suppose, but now that that's out of the way...where can I find current strategies and information about the meta? It would help to see what others are doing, to know how I can properly defend myself against it.

45 DPA doesn't protect you from me...and I'm a faery lol

Things will get a little better when you can actually pump defense, but the best way to staying safe is having people around you that can retal for you. There really aren't any "unbreakable" provinces any more, just relatively unbreakable/not worth hitting

[Swagger]

You become unbreakable through attrition and targeted ops now...which is how it's always been. This age there is just much more offense to atrophy and much more offense to target with ops.

TM's were overpowered for the last 5+ ages, now things are more in balance.

I just wish they didn't make dwarf and humans unplayable, THEY are the reason you see so many orc and undead

[StratOcastle]

It's a matter of swimming with the sharks. Even though I play a lot of t/m races I never aim for unbreakable. You'll knock off the rust and find your sweet spot.

Browse the Strategy Forum and ask questions. Strong kingdoms are relative to the danger they impose to likely enemies. I spend most ages in the ghetto(bad kingdoms by rule of meta) and I fire back against strong kingdoms as an almost exclusive practice. I don't get off on it, but I do enjoy the challenge.

There are small kingdoms that are incredibly formidable in their wheelhouse. I won't name the finer war kingdoms, but these guys have been around a long time and have relationships with other strong kingdoms. Most of their relationships are founded in clean warring and a loose understanding of honorable engagement.

The larger, well oiled kingdoms are tough customers but they hire regularly if you feel like moving up. The strats get tighter in some ways, but if you're reliable and choose to be a difference maker, life can be pretty good.

Have fun.

[neanderthal]

Unbreakable just means we haven't given you your turn yet, but we will. It's a word poeple throw around, but nothing holds up against teamwork. It's just if your worth it or not.

[handofthrawn]

It's simple two changes created the suicide offense you have today. Razes do not destroy land in war and nw based gains instead of land based gains. So now offense wins wars but defense has its place by creating unbreakables. Yes you can still create unbreakables just might take a few days in war to do so.

[tehboomer]

So what I'm gathering here is that it's pretty much useless to try and defend myself in a ghetto. Whereas it makes teamwork more effective, and more people breaking each other for more action...it seems like a bad design perspective for new and returning players [without organization]. It probably works for the upper tiers of KDs, but I have no evidence to support this; it's just an assumption.

I just wish they didn't make dwarf and humans unplayable, THEY are the reason you see so many orc and undead

There are two ways of looking at this. Are Undead and Orcs so overbearing that they make Dwarves and Humans unplayable, or are Humans and Dwarves so bad that you see a ton of Undead and Orcs? I'm assuming you know better than I do which the answer is...just a bit of philosophy for you. ;)

EDIT: Also I might be screwed as a Dwarf then. The bonuses looked good, didn't know the elites and such would be such a drawback at the time.

[The Author]

The game seems a bit broken. Undead and Orcs seem unbearable. No one has defense comparable to their potential offense. Additionally, even when running 20% forts, minor protection, a 45DPA, and 200% military wages, I'm still getting smashed by people. What is up with this nonsense?

Bit of a rant, I suppose, but now that that's out of the way...where can I find current strategies and information about the meta? It would help to see what others are doing, to know how I can properly defend myself against it.

You should be able to run 120opa and 45dpa easy enough, and that was last age. No idea what the numbers will be this age, but if you are hoping to be safe with 45dpa you are going to be disappointed. I already know that once I am pumped I'll have 170-180opa.

[tehboomer]

You should be able to run 120opa and 45dpa easy enough, and that was last age. No idea what the numbers will be this age, but if you are hoping to be safe with 45dpa you are going to be disappointed. I already know that once I am pumped I'll have 170-180opa.

45 DPA 1 day OOP + 20% forts + 200% military wages?

[CannaWhoopazz]

45 DPA 1 day OOP + 20% forts + 200% military wages?

I was ~75 opa at OOP, i'm hovering around the same now since I've grown, still around 80 opa. Like others have said though, offense is the best defense, especially during OOP. People are looking for safe targets, and somebody with mostly defense is a safe target because they can't retaliate as much.

If you're looking for a good kingdom to get back in with, check out #MythosPub. There might be some room for you, and it's a great group!

[yeng]

Hmmmmm.... http://forums.utopia-game.com/showth...Age-68-Changes

Good luck. With the OOWP shorten, i don't see anyone having a full elite pump after coming out from war. It is doable with fortified stance and etc. It will take time to recover for heavy hitters.

[noobium]

size is the best defense. bigga prov, bigga defense, and gains mechanics are very favorable to hitting down.

orcs and undeads are actually two of the most fragile races in war, and they have to be constantly active out of war to utilize their bonuses... they do what they're supposed to do, but they're also wide open due to an inability to turtle. avians get around that somewhat due to their bonuses, everyone else has decent to good turtle defense (bigger deal than many think, even in ghettos).

humans and dwarves are pretty bad though. it's mostly because of cows that they got nerfed to oblivion. human really needs to be 10/4 or 10/3 in order to be viable, dwarf idk what but their bonuses had to be redesigned around their new elites.

if you're in a ghetto, don't worry too much. at this stage of the game, the strong kingdoms are looking for acres wherever they can get them, but as the growth kingdoms expand out of range, you're under fewer pressures. other ghettos generally don't want acres, but they do want books, plunder, and honor. you'll get far fewer randoms later in the age generally speaking, unless you're in the lowest of the low kingdoms (and even then you'll get less attention - i almost never bother looking at the total ghettos unless i need to find plunder).

dunno what race you're playing. faeries are pretty tough - they're highly preferred for food and many kingdoms want to target faeries before war. in war, however, offense can diminish really fast - even if you pick undead, there are ways to get around undead's troop losses. meanwhile, faeries and defensive-type provinces tend to gain military advantages over time, making them very powerful after several days of conflict.
thus your best defense outside of war is to have the ability to punish kingdoms if they hit too much, or better be the kingdom that's beating down on people. these things can go hand-in-hand, but some setups are specifically designed to punish kingdoms for waving into them overconfidently, or force kingdoms to wave into strong defense.

[MyNameIsMatija]

He is playing dwarf he said it...