Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.8

Rankings look healthy, enough said. :)

My plan this week was to reach the 5k scenario point reward, and I made it quite early in the week, blowing past it. I already had a "Replica of Frey's Ship" which I bought off the auction house last week though, so would have preferred a "Replica of Thor's Hammer". Anyhow, better then nothing.

My next plan is to reach the 10k scenario reward. I estimate that will take 3-4 weeks. It is definitely achievable with the long game rounds now, due to the Mother Dragon changes.

If you wondered if there were any risk to fishing, well here it is. My fishing hero died and had to be rehired. :(

We went to war again. As per custom, here are the the words of Ramdas, our leader:

"Foolish Mortals do you think with your holy powers you can defy and hold back Ragnarök! No one can hold back the force that will destroy the world! You ban together and with your holy alliance you believe you can overcome destiny. 

Order of the Temple we declare war on you. The alliance controlling the North has now challenged the Alliance controlling the South.

North and South collide! Ragnarök Vs. Order of the Temple!  

We declare that anyone who dares approach the Mother Dragon and so we declare war on Order of the Temple since you are the next closes to fighting the Mother Dragon!"

With that, we attacked Robertus' Molten Ashlands village. Here is an action picture that Ramdas took:

We killed Robertus' army and were in the middle of destroying the village, when Robertus promptly quit. It is a shame when people quit, but it is a war game and there has to be winners and losers.

Have you been looking around Molten Ashlands and seen those Iron Dragons? Well, this is how combat against them goes, and what they drop.

That achievement is only the 4 piece one. I still lack the chest dropped by Emerald Dragons in Misty Marshes. I have had the worse luck in that respect. WTB a drop!

 Thus, big congratulations to Draak!

The text does need to be fixed though. The mother dragon set only gives 10% per piece now.

So, given I still need a chest from the Emerald Dragons in Misty Marshes, and attacks on my village are far and between, I have now sent out my defending army to hunt them. Wish me luck please. Here is a tip. It is quicker to sail your bear riders around, then to march them on land. The other day, I spent 8+ hours chasing an Emerald Dragon army (on land) only to have it despawn on me when I got close!

So, with the new and improved Mother Dragon, Draak and I decided to do a little test. Here is the action picture:

At this stage of the game, I will not release the battle report as it is rather pertinent information. I can say this though, "LOL". It will be some time before the Mother Dragon is killed.

• 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"

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.7

Farming scenario points at a rapid rate now with multiple armies. Sleipnir horses are being pumped out and there is even a non-hero army farming. I should be able to get the 5k scenario point achievement this upcoming week. This is a testament to the strategy of having a strong civilization build first.

Do not have lockpicking? Here is an example of what you can get. It seems to be a very nice item. The one you can buy from the Molten Ashlands item shop is only 2%.

Fishing continues, here is the best catch for the week:

Ragnarök's campaign against Bosotter continued. There have been two significant actions this week:

• We moved to destroy his Tropical Islands village. Here is an action shot of the attack:

• Bosotter ported his remaining 8 fenrir wolves to defend his village and they were killed by Draak's armies.

Bosotter then decided to call it a day for Midgard, and quit the server. Cheers for being a good sport about the pvp.

Patch 1.003 arrived this week. In case you missed it, here is a link to the patch notes:

http://www.aloriah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=2604

The crux of patch 1.003 is that it is not possible to one shot the Mother Dragon anymore. Well, it may be possible but you will need a ton more troops. The developers actually have a challenge (read about it at http://www.aloriah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=2608):

"First one to slay the Mother Dragon from 100% life to 0 % life in one combat I will personally announce to be the true Champion and Lightbringer of all possible dimensions of Aloriah for all Eternity"

Ragnarök is actually close to killing the Mother Dragon in its old form in 1-2 weeks, so the patch extends the game round by several weeks. In spite of this, I am very happy with the change. You might remember my sum up for Migard round one saying it was too brief. When/if we win this round two, it will feel more satisfying. Not to belittle past winners, but winning in this new form, will truly be more epic!

• 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 Military City Layouts

I have two knight military city variants.

The first variant is a full attack configuration for a contested continent. Here is the Attack Knight Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner.

Max Units: 142,000 knights

Recruitment Speed: 7s

Storage: 575,000 wood/stone and 2,175,000 iron/food

Food Deficit: 147,917 per hour (need to restock every 14.7 hours)

As you can see, it is designed for maximum troop strength and reasonable recruiting speed. On a contested continent, you need to minimize castling and get the most out of the few castles you have.

Thus, there is no food production, ship it in via the trade minister.

I have kept the design simple, without deviation from the conventional military city layout in the middle. This allows for easy conversion to the farming configuration once the continent is conquered.

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 as the most risk is someone catapulting your city.

The second variant is a farming configuration for a controlled continent. Here is the Farm Knight Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner.

Max Units: 92,000 knights

Recruitment Speed: 7s

Storage: 2,975,000 wood/stone/iron/food

Food Deficit: 95,833 per hour (need to restock every 31.0 hours)

Shipping Capacity: 4000 carts

There is no food production needed as you will have surplus food from dungeon raids. If there are no dungeon raids for whatever reason, ship in food via the trade minister.

There is a good amount of storage but not too much, as you will be shipping out the surplus with the trade minister anyhow.

There are a lot of marketplaces as shipping capacity is key:

• You will be farming resources at a high rate, and need to be able to ship it to your warehouses/new cities.
• Rapid shipping to palaces will be needed once palace building gets to higher levels.

The moonstone tower is there if you need some resource purification.

For towers, I still would use:

• Lookout Tower x2 to give 21 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/11 hours is not enough.
• Ballista Tower x22 as the most risk is someone catapulting your city.

• 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 #2.6

Things are going well, rankings are healthy:

I have my sleipnir horses with my new Thief (Claredy) for leveling. Thieves seem best to lead black dragon farming armies due to the fastfooted skill.

I got tired of farming ancient ruins when my treasure hunter (Guzzer) ran into a few mobs yet again and lost most of his wolves. You have to give it a lot of attention. Thus, I reset his skills and am trying my hand at fishing now! Fishing takes less overhead as you set the orders and let it go for days.  Mobs rarely run into you (non have yet). I wonder which is better, ruins or fishing. Readers, please comment with tales of your fishing adventures. Anyhow, here is some good stuff I have fished up so far (in Molten Ashlands):

Finally got my first epic, bought off the auction house for 30,000 gold:

In Misty Marshes this week, a few emerald dragon armies actually completed their attacks, as opposed to just poof'ing. They were dispatched with ease as usual. However, I still have not gotten the chest for the mother dragon set, which is a bit frustrating. I would like to make mention I had a Tropical Islands scouting army stumble across a sapphire dragon, so finally got a blue dragon head. Like I have mentioned before, if your defense is decent, you really do not need a blue dragon head.

The big event of the week is that my alliance, Ragnarök, went to war. Here is the declaration from our leader, Ramdas:

"The Mighty Ragnarök Alliance would like to make the first Alliance VS. Alliance war declaration against a tribe formed of chaos. The God’s accepted Loki as one of their own but Loki is a natural trickster a thief his children follow closely in his footstep.

So as punishment to his children we have decided to back them up onto a rock and burn their villages so that we may drop the venom of war upon them though we are no serpent. We are Ragnarök the destroyers of villages and the world. To make this game more interesting we declare war on you also we have had many run ins on this alliance as they are in are area to reduce competition we shall cleanse Loki and his children from Midgard.

We Ragnarök for the first time on the Midgard Server declare the first Alliance Vs. Alliance war on the Children of Loki. Tremble in Terror for we have come to burn your villages. Ragnarök Vs. Children of Loki! Let the war begin!"

Thus, the campaign against Bosotter began. Bosotter is a big threat to our dominance so please regard our campaign as a compliment to him. There have been three significant actions so far:

• Superbear0418 and I started the campaign by killing 3 of Bosotter's fenrir wolves.
• Bosotter caught and killed 4 of my sleipnir horses by bolstering his forces with 4 more fenrir wolves. Omg, did not know he had so many. Having 1 sleipnir horse per slot is good when farming black dragons but if you get killed, none resurrect as it rounds it down. Your army also disbands and you have to rehire your hero. Not a good start! 
• Our whole alliance then rallied and we destroyed Bosotter's Dry Steppes village in one big offensive, basically in just a few hours! Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is the first successful village demolish in Aloriah. We did not manage to steal any items as he must have transferred them all out in preparation of the loss. Here is an action shot of the attack:

I think the next few weeks shall be very interesting. Valhallans, we do not stand off at the mother dragon, we will show you how to pvp! :P

My final catch cry for the week is as per Guzzer "Make love not war!". :)

• 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: War Galleon Naval Military City Layout

I have not bothered to do a War Galleon Naval Military City layout previously as it is pretty straightforward. However, I figured I might as well do one now for completeness, and it may not be that straightforward for new players. 

Thus, this is my War Galleon Naval Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner. 

Maximum Units: 840 war galleons

Recruitment Speed: 70m:11s (before research/virtue adjustments)

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

Food Consumption: 87,500 per hour (need to restock every 1.51 days)

It is a pretty simple design, just shipyards and barracks. I have left out any cottages to allow for maximum troop strength (TS). It relies on construction speed research/artifacts for any repairs, if it does get attacked and damaged.

As per my Food Management strategy V2, there is no food production in military cities. Just ship it in via the trade minister!

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 #2.5

It has been a good week, and things are still going well, which is reflected by the rankings. There were several successes this week.

My scenario point farming machine is doing so well that I have hit the 2,000 scenario point reward already. To 5,000 I go! I am now using sleipnir horses which take no losses, so dragon farming is extremely efficient.

I have become veteran, and now must become elite. It gets harder though, as the remaining achievements are more demanding/tricky.

As you may have read in my last update, my treasure hunter Guzzer (magician) has been farming ancient ruins in Molten Ashlands. Above is the best haul for the week.

Then, disaster struck. He ran into some mobs when I was not watching and lost the bulk of his wolves, whittling his army down to 221 wolves. I then thought, are 221 wolves enough for an ancient ruins? Well, it was not. :) All the wolves died, the army disbanded and Guzzer had to be rehired. :(

However, I saw this as an opportunity. Guzzer was only level 14 as I spent most of his time farming ruins, not leveling. I gave him 4 sleipnir horses and he spent the rest of the week running around Dry Steppes, easily killing any mobs he ran across, including black dragons. He is up to level 29 already!

Voila! I achieved my goal of getting to Molten Ashlands within this update. It turned out to be quite easy as I was further along then I thought, and did it with a few days to spare. Being the first there was a great feeling!

For those settling in Molten Ashlands soon, here is a tip. If you have a pouch of diamond, remember to transfer it there, as the mines will magnify your income.

Things are pretty boring in my Misty Marshes. I would like more emerald dragons to attack for scenario points/items as my defense there is pretty well established. However, I have seen many an emerald dragon army prepare to attack then just vanish into thin air before the attack is completed.

This was not me but it was a big moment so I would like to make mention and offer my congratulations. The first epic sold went to Bosotter, who paid 35,619 gold for it!

• 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"