Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.4

The scoreboard is now looking rather healthy. You may note the surge of Ragnarök, the alliance I am in. It is well led by Ramdas, who uses a core set of members and cycles in the best players of the round. If you do well, you can be part of such a winning alliance in future rounds.

Want to level your hero really quickly? Settle in Misty Marshes and wait!

Not one, but two emerald dragon armies attacked at the same time. It was truly an epic battle with Moroose (Warrior) finally emerging victorious. At that stage, Moroose did not have max protective skill. He does now so my Misty Marshes village defense has been solidified. There were a single emerald dragon army attack the day after, and that was won with ease.

The war with Tweezer has intensified. There were four distinct actions this week:

• With my armies out, he plundered my Green Fields village and stole a Dragon Amulet.
• I then hunted down his army and destroyed it.
• Few days later, I found his Dry Steppes village and plundered it (twice). The first day, it took my army hours to get there, as he kept reseting my movement counter by attacking with 1 unit suicide armies. I am not sure if that is classed as a great tactic or exploitive move. Whilst my superior army was being delayed, he moved his units to safety. I have not got any catapults yet so I did not try a demolish.
• Again, with most of my armies out again (well, I underestimated the amount of units he had left), he launched a major offensive on my Dry Steppes village, consisting of one major attack and three minor attacks. It reported that he stole my Ornamental Dagger. That Thief is damn annoying! Afterwards, checking my inventory, I was missing my Training Dummy and Vial of Dragon Blood which he seems to have stolen also. Either his minor armies got extremely lucky (the Thief stole the Ornamental Dagger) or there are some bugs (especially when I did not get a report regarding those last two items). I have posted this event on the Aloriah forums, waiting for the developers to answer.

So, by this stage, I was suitably annoyed as you can imagine. I was readying my forces for a big counter-offensive but to my surprise, I received a peace request. Apparently, he is coming under pressure from other players too, and did not want to fight all at once. Seems like his offensive nature has gotten the better of him. I did agree to peace after I had him return all the three items he had just stolen from me.  I still have superior forces but this pvp is detracting from my pve expansion.

I will be converting my dragon farming army from berserkers to sleipnir horses which are more efficient. Despite the war with Tweezer, I have still managed to accumulate a decent amount of scenario points this week (as evidenced by the rankings up top), but sleipnir horses will improve on that.

In terms of treasure hunting, I was using berserkers for ruins, given it is my staple unit. However, the type of unit does not seem to matter so I have changed to wolves which are faster. I was also pondering, why do I have to wait until I get a Molten Ashlands village to send my treasure hunter there? Thus, Guzzer (Magician) has now ported to Molten Ashlands. Hopefully, he does not die often. I cannot wait to report on any good items Guzzer finds. Guzzer has been doing so many ruins that he has earnt:

There has been some success with the auction house, having bought the following item for 10k gold.

As this week ends, I am now starting to focus hard on getting ready for my Molten Ashlands expansion. I wonder if I can make it by next update.

• Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
  Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
  • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
  • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
  • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
  • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
  • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Lord of Ultima: Food Management Strategy V2

A while back, I wrote a post about Food Management in Lord of Ultima. Essentially, I advocated putting food production into most of your cities. Such a strategy did make your cities less effective on an individual basis, but it saved a lot of time as you would have to manually ship food otherwise.  However, the time you do save, made you more effective on the overall basis.

This browser based game has now changed due to the advent of the Trade Minister. The Trade Minister allows automatic shipment of food (and other resources) to your cities. Thus, there is no need any more to put food production in any cities bar your food resource cities. Just ship the food in. This means your other cities will now become more effective. For example, you can have bigger troop strengths in those castles.

Here is how I have my food supply chain set up now:
Food Resource Cities--->Warehouses-->Military Cities

If you have not bought the Trade Minister yet, I would suggest doing so. It is pretty much game changing.

• Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.
  
  
  Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.3

Up and up, I go on the scoreboard! As stated in my last update, my aim this week was to be ranked in the top 3, and I am very happy to have achieved that. I have earnt 463 scenario points this week, most of it through black dragon farming. As you can see, my scenario point farming has accelerated a lot now, so my strategy of building civilization first as a springboard, is validated.

Here is my week in summary:

• I got the requirements to settle my 4th village into Misty Marshes. As I am writing this update, my hero Moroose (warrior) with 1324 bear riders is only 6 hours from settling. Nothing can stop that now as it is in expedition mode. It is rather fast as I ported in close, used a potion of travelling to move in even closer. I then went to expedition mode for the last bit as it involves crossing over water which is slower, making it a slight chance to be caught by mobs. Expedition mode only added 2 more hours so it is better to be safe then sorry.
• Moroose only has 8 points in protective, instead of the full 12 so it will be interesting times when the first emerald dragon attacks come in. I hope I have enough bear riders. I have switched my bear rider damage type to fire and specialized in tough. By the time protection ends, I will have 1500+ bear riders ready. I have not bothered to get a blue dragon head as my aim is to just kill the emerald dragons that attack.
• I have had an element of luck. At 34 civilization points, I was considering how to get my last point. My options were to wait a few days for research or train a council hall to 9. However, my treasure hunter (Guzzer, magician) got a banzai tree for the last point! For Tweeze's benefit (small inside joke), I would like to declare I have gotten 4 banzai trees and 3 vial of dragon bloods so far from treasure hunting! I am not sure if I have just been extremely lucky, or the fact I have Guzzer treasure hunting constantly.
• On the pvp front, it has been pretty uneventful. The only action was when my dragon hunting army ran into two of Tweezer's scouting armies and they promptly died. He needs to leave my lookout towers alone. :)
• I have a scouting army in Molten Ashlands that has incredibly not died yet. It has hit a lot of research obelisks, boosting my research greatly. If you look at my achievements in game, you will find I am on 52 days researched which is leading by far.
• As mentioned earlier, I have farmed a lot of black dragons. In terms of black dragon farming, it is important to minimize your losses so as not to draw too many resources to replace your attrition. I have been able to farm black dragons pretty much non-stop and still maintain my civilization build. Here are 2 useful pointers:
• Potions of battles are your friend,
• Get the bandit tactics skill, and try and fight mostly in forest/mountain cells.

I might write a new player etiquette guide in future, which will comprise of ways to co-exist (if you wish) with other players, particularly the top ones. For now, I would like to make mention, please do not take my light houses/lookout towers randomly. If you do, I will consider it an offensive action and you might find a big army on your doorstep. That said, I do not need every light house/lookout tower I take, so if you just ask me/negotiate, I am at times happy to hand some over.

• Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
  Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
  • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
  • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
  • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
  • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
  • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Lord of Ultima: Palace City Layout

The endgame is upon us, with the recent 'Forge of Virtue' update. A lot of people are now building palaces, so here is my palace city layout design.

You can see this Palace City Layout in the LoU Flash City Planner. 

Storage: 2,975,000 wood/stone, 1,375,000 iron, 4,575,000 food

Food Production: 28,220 per hour (will vary depending on your lake placements)

Construction speed: 6,900%

The palace itself is not in this layout as the flash city planner has not been updated to include palaces yet. However, you can see the allocated 3x3 spot for the palace up the top, ringed by the market places, moonglow tower, city guard house and castle.

My design is based on the following logic:

• There needs to be a really high construction speed, so your palaces build fast (especially the higher level ones). Thus, there are tons of cottages.
• Given the high construction speed primary requirement, there really is no space for defense buildings so you need to rely on external defense. 
• There is a token city guard house as it only takes one slot, and you can build city guard slowly over time.
• There is some food production so if you do get sieged, it will help feed your supporting troops. Similarly, there is a lot of food storage for sieges.
• There is more wood/stone storage then iron storage as there is no need for iron here. You need wood to train the city guard and wood/stone to repair your city, if it gets damaged.
• The moonglow tower allows for purification, for example, if people still ship you resources after enlightenment ends. You can at least purify the excess.
• There were three building slots left over, so I put in three marketplaces, just in case you had a reason to ship resources elsewhere.

For towers, I use the standard:

• Lookout Tower x2 to give 21 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/11 hours is not enough.
• Ballista Tower x22 to protect against your enemies catapulting your palace.

• Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.
  
  
  Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.2

Soon after my last update, Tweezer attacked my Green Fields village. I had settlers recruiting for my Dry Steppes expansion and he had hoped to kill them. However, they had left by the time he attacked. Tweezer, too slow! I guess he wanted to slow down my expansion. The war did not go for two long. After the 2nd day, I had trained up a big enough army and destroyed one of his two armies, and he has not attacked my village since. He has now resorted to taking my dragon obelisks and lookout towers, which is annoying. I might have to send a large army to his home village to teach him a lesson!

Now for some role-play:

That was an incursion by the Evil Warlord Tweezer into the peaceful Kingdom of Guzzer. Unprovoked, his armies have disturbed the peaceful fields of joy, scaring the children. There was outrage at Tweezer's heinous crime and it shall be a long time, before this is forgotten! Make love, not war, that is our catch cry. Please send over your daughters, not your soldiers.

:)

Here is my week in summary:

• I have expanded to Dry Steppes, putting down my 3rd village. I am building hard and trying to get enough civilization points, settlers and bear riders to expand into Misty Marshes. I hope to be able to do that by next weeks update.
• My treasure hunter (Guzzer, Magician) has moved to Dry Steppes and is busy farming ruins/treasure chests near my village, providing good resource boosts.
• Most of my scouting armies are still going around Dry Steppes and Misty Marshes, focusing on research obelisks (and treasure chests).
• I have researched and built my blacksmith, and have changed the damage type of my berserkers to fire/raised them to level 2. I am now able to farm black dragons in Dry Steppes which will provide a lot of scenario points.

Looking at the rankings, I am still well placed. My civilization surpasses all bar Draak, and he is a top player, having won last the last Midgard round. Looking through achievements, I am still leading in research. Now that I am able to farm black dragons, my scenario points will catch up. My aim is to be ranked in the top three, by next week's update, so as to give some credibility to my strategy.

• Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
  Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
  • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
  • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
  • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
  • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
  • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Lord of Ultima: Knight/Frigate Naval Military City Layout

- This design is courtesy of Cfrs, a member of my alliance.

This is a Knight/Frigate Naval Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner. 

Max Units: 95,000 knights and 420 frigates

Recruitment Speed: 9s knights and 35m:5s frigates

Storage: 1,575,000 wood/iron, 775,000 stone, 3,175,000 food

Food Consumption: 97,943 per hour (need to restock every 1.41 days)

In the end game, you will need to build naval military cities for cross-continent attacks. There are simply too many continents for you to invade.

As per my Food Management strategy, there is no food production in this type of castle as you want to maximize your TS (troop strength). Give you have to build supporting defense for naval castles, you want the biggest bang for your buck, and have to rely on shipping food in.

You may notice there are 9 cottages remaining. This castle will get counterattacked by your enemies and will take damage at times, so you want to be able to repair it in a timely fashion. If you do have construction speed research, you could consider dropping some cottages for more barracks or some food production.

For towers, I use:

• Lookout Tower x2 to give 21 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/11 hours is not enough.
• Ballista Tower x22 definitely, to protect against naval counterattacks.

• Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.
  
  
  Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.1

The Midgard server was restarted on 30 November, and round #2 began! It felt good to be able to start with the server reset (last round I started late), and with a decent idea of the game (round #1 was my first time). I feel I will be a lot more competitive this round.

Here is a recap of lessons I learnt from round #1:

• "Focus should be on civilization build only with scenario points farming on the side. Once built up, you can catch up on scenario points quite easily.
• Expand as fast as you can, take the risk! You do not need to send an overwhelming force with your settlers as you can just dodge mobs on the way. Once you establish a new village, the hero protective skill, wall, moat and towers will aid your village defense greatly.
• It is a pve race to the Mother Dragon. Anything else slows you down.
• I chose the evil alignment this round but I think good has more suitable uber units, so I will try good in game round #2."

There is one change of note from the recent patch 1.002:

"Tweak: The Mother Dragon is now much stronger. She has now 40 Million HP when sleeping and 50 Million when awake (Before she had 16 mill/20 mill)."

I feel this is a very good change.  I had made mention in my last update that I felt the rounds were too quick. This will hopefully address that. There should be a lot more pvp during the end game this time as you cannot just rush to the Mother Dragon. Other players will be attacking to slow you down as you build for the end.

There was a slight issue whereby I was not able to choose my starting spot but the developers quickly moved me to my requested starting spot. It is very nice having prompt support response!

I started next to Dry Steppes. It had the following advantage and disadvantage:

• Meant I could get scouting armies into Dry Steppes fast.
• It would take longer to get to Tropical Islands which would make it harder to get the 'Tropical Rusher'  achievement. I wanted to compare my expansion rate with other players.

My approach thus far:

• Sent scouting armies into Dry Steppes, claiming research obelisks and treasure chests. The rewards are much better in Dry Steppes, no need to waste time in Green Fields. I did have to spend a lot of time maneuvering around mobs to ensure my small armies did not die. You cannot just order and forget, need to watch every move.
• Avoided experience obelisks and stone portals in general, as I wanted to focus on civilization build and time taken to claim those would slow me down. I will pick those up later.
• Dragon obelisks are not my focus for now, I can also pick them up later and it saves squabbing with other players for them. I was lucky in that I got dragon amulets off the first 2 dragon obelisks I did try.
• Most of my resources going into civilization build. I have not even recruited my 2nd hero yet. I will recruit heroes/units when I bring up my 3rd village (in Dry Steppes) which will be soon.

Ooh la la, some firsts:

Having a magician for my first hero with points in the scientist skill helped a lot.

I did waste about 4 hours as I had trouble killing off (could not find any nearby mobs) a scouting army to make room for a settling army. I was a little worried that I would lose this race but it seemed I made it quite easily. This was before patch 1.002 so I did not have the dissolve army option.

If you cannot beat them, join them! I have joined the Ragnarök alliance which was the winning alliance from round #1. I hope to be able to contribute to many a future victory. There was no talk of my alliance (Roman Empire) from round #1 reforming, and I wanted to partner with some top players.

So, here are the current rankings. I am pretty happy with how I am placed at present as I am #1 on civilization size, so it has gone according to plan thus far. In addition, from inspection of some top player achievements, I think I am still leading in research.

• Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
  Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
  • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
  • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
  • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
  • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
  • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Lord of Ultima: Berserker/Frigate Naval Military City Layout

- This design is courtesy of Cfrs, a member of my alliance.

This is a Berserker/Frigate Naval Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner. 

Max Units: 200,000 berserkers and 440 frigates

Recruitment Speed: 4s berserkers and 35m:5s frigates

Storage: 2,375,000 iron, 775,000 wood/stone, 3,175,000 food

Food Consumption: 59,167 per hour (need to restock every 2.24 days)

In the end game, you will need to build naval military cities for cross-continent attacks. There are simply too many continents for you to invade.

As per my Food Management strategy, there is no food production in this type of castle as you want to maximize your TS (troop strength). Give you have to build supporting defense for naval castles, you want the biggest bang for your buck, and have to rely on shipping food in.

You may notice there are 9 cottages remaining. This castle will get counterattacked by your enemies and will take damage at times, so you want to be able to repair it in a timely fashion. If you do have construction speed research, you could consider dropping some cottages for more barracks or some food production.

For towers, I use:

• Lookout Tower x2 to give 21 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/11 hours is not enough.
• Ballista Tower x22 definitely, to protect against naval counterattacks.

• Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
• If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
• As best described by the creators of the game:
  "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.
  
  
  Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."