Tips for Conquering Valleys

Bored? One of the best investment of time and effort in Evony is to conquer valleys and fill up your valley slots (number of valley slots = town hall level).  Having the proper valleys for your Evony city will give your resource production a major boost. 

TIP #1  If your valley slots are full - consider upgrading (more resources for you in the long run). If your valley slots are full and already upgraded - you might consider attacking valleys for extra resources.  Remember that valley resources regenerate after 1 hour if attacked successfully but not conquered; Valley resources regenerate instantly if the valley was conquered then abandon immediately. 




TIP #2  Here's a tried-n-true formula for attacking of valleys: 
Valleys/Flats level 1 = 50 archers (no loss)  
Valleys/Flats level 2 = 100 archers (no loss)  
Valleys/Flats level 3 = 200 archers (no loss), or 30 scouts and 70 archers (no loss) 


Valley levels indicate the type of troops it can have - look at your barrack levels as a guide.  Since barracks at level 4 can now train archers, expect valley level 4 to have archers as a defensive troop possibility.  If you plan to conquer or attack a valley level 4, expect losses since defensive archers are ranged troops that can effectively kill at a distance. 




TIP #3  Upgrade directly to any valley level 10. I usually skip conquering valleys directly to level 10. Why? Because the quest will give you the credits and rewards of conquering valley 1 thru 9, once you get a valley level 10. 




TIP #4  What does it take to conquer a valley level 10? Patience, luck and the following troop composition: 30k archers, 1 worker, 1 warrior, 1 scout, 1 pikesmen, and 1 swordsmen (SIDE NOTE: sometimes you'll hear people call this a 30k archbow - a rainbow of troops with archers as majority) 


So if you dont have these troop numbers - that should now be your goal. 


You should conquer any valley level 10 ONLY if that valley contains melee-type troops to minimize troop loss. What are melee-type troops? These would be warriors, pikesmen and swordsmen. FIRST - you scout the level 10 valley to get the troop composition. If you find the valley to have any cavalry or archers - skip it for now. Scout your the next level 10 valley. 


If you find a valley level 10 with a melee-type troop composition - attack using the troop composition I gave earlier - and you will probably only lose 1 pikesmen, 1 warrior and/or 1 swordsmen. 




TIP #5  If you find any valley with only archers, you may attack them with same number of cavalry plus 1 scout, and you will probably lose 1 scout.


For example: Valley has 5k archers, send 5k cavalry and 1 scout, only your scout will die. 




TIP #6  If you find any valley with cavalry (other troop types, except archers, are also acceptable), send 1 ballista, 30k archers, 1 swordsman and 1 pikeman. The ballista will slow down the army long enough to kill while suffering small casualties. 




TIP #7  If you have 50k warriors to play with - you can use 50k warriors to attack any valley level 10 even without scouting. You will conquer the valley/flat level 10 but suffering casualties.

Capture a Historical City NPC Level 12 Using Only Regular Heroes

There's only hints (screenshots) I have seen on capturing a NPC 12 using regular heroes.  Most postings show the use of Historical Heroes leading the charge.  Well what about the rest of us who don't have historical heroes?  Here's my first attempt on capturing a 12 using regular heroes - I hope this helps you get yours too.

Summary:

Troops Used: 1M archers, 300K warriors, 8,750 pikemen and 8,750 swords
City Used: 4 Cities for Warrior Bombs, 1 City for Spearheads/Loyalty Waves
Heroes Used: 38 (29 for Warrior Bombs, 9 for Spearheads/Loyalty Waves)
Breakdown on 9 Heroes: 5 Level 100 (290 to 320 attack) and 4 Level 85+ (275 to 290 attack)
Technology: All at Level 10
Total Time: 32 min (First Wave Landed: 15:16:10, Last Wave Landed: 15:48:25)
Total Waves: 82 - 30 Warrior Bombs (no layers), 7 Suicide Spearheads, 45 Loyalty Waves

Troop Composition inside Historical City NPC 12:

Warrior / Pikemen / Cavalry / Archers / Battering Ram
- commonly referred to as pike-cav-ram combination
- changes after server maintenance (although I have researched that some say every 12 hours - I waited for days to get this composition), multiple scouting only switches King to Queen or vice versa
- Just FYI - I would also use the exact same attack troop composition  if I got a sword-cav-ram combination. All other troop combination in a 12 I would avoid, since I do not wish to use other troop types (more expensive and time-consuming to recruit) and I only have regular heroes.

Preparations:

Scout Report (Prior to hit @ 12:42:27 Server Time)

Scout Report (Prior to hit @ 12:42:27 server time)

- Got the 6-minute periods for October 1st using Tax Rate. (Please look at a "Preparation" section of Capturing an NPC Level 10... posting for complete explanation of how and why I did this.)

  xx:04, xx:10, xx:16, xx:22, xx:28, xx:34, xx:40, xx:46, xx:52, xx:58

- Loaded War Horn, Penicillin and Corselet

- Planned to use War Ensign (increasing troop dispatches to 125K) for all spearheads

- Reviewed my overall strategy:
     1. Clear the cavalry.
     2. Clear the pikemen.
     3. Clear the archers. Trade fire with defensive archers.
     4. Clear the warriors and battering rams.

Battle Reports with Commentary:

Waves 1 to 27:  15:16:10 to 15:17:00
3K Warrior Bombs (no layers) - Purpose is to carve out as much T/A/Ds (Traps / Abatis / Defensive Trebuchets) before the suicide spearheads land.

Wave 1 Battle Report Screenshot:  15:16:10
Expect to see these types of reports for ALL the warrior bombs

Waves 28, 29 and 30: 15:17:06, 15:17:12, 15:25:12
2-30K Warrior Bombs and 1-100K Warrior Bomb - See What Went Wrong section why I did this. In hindsight, maybe all warrior bombing efforts are probably unnecessary.  I will update this comment when I proven myself right or wrong.

Wave 28 Battle Report Screenshot:  15:17:06

Scout Report Screenshot:  15:22:33

I compared this with scout report at the start of the attack.  I wanted to see more T/A/Ds gone - so I sent another 100K warrior bomb.

Wave 30 Battle Report Screenshot: 15:25:12
Only indication that this is a much bigger wave was the amount of experience points gained.

Waves 31 to 37:  15:26:54 to 15:28:00
Main spearheads. Originally planned for 6 - all war ensigned; but archer tradefire did not happen.  So I sent another spearhead wave - 7th wave achieved it.  This is very crucial event in conquering a historical city - you must be able to take out all the defending archers.

Unlike conquering an NPC 8 or 10 where we have a cookie cutter 1-shot formula for conquering them, the new historical cities will require review (or overcompensate by sending more spearheads) before sending any loyalty waves.  Follow through with the planned strategy and make sure you achieve each goal before sending any loyalty waves.

Wave 31 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the cavalry.

Wave 32 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the pikemen.  I did another scout before this attack landed - so the King switched to a Queen.

Wave 33 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the warriors.  Battering rams were cleared once other troops got cleared.

Wave 34 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the warriors.  Battering rams were cleared once other troops got cleared.

Wave 35 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the warriors.  Battering rams were cleared once other troops got cleared.

Wave 36 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the warriors.  Battering rams were cleared once other troops got cleared.

Wave 37 Battle Report Screenshot: Clearing the archers by achieving tradefire between attacking archers and defending archers.

Waves 38 to 42:  15:30:46 to 15:31:11
1st to 5th Loyalty Waves. Using 40K archers with 40K warriors troops in clearing re-spawns.

Wave 38 Battle Report Screenshot: 1st Loyalty Wave

Wave 42 Battle Report Screenshot: 5th Loyalty Wave

Wave 43 to 82:  15:32:36 to 15:48:25
6th Loyalty Wave to 45th Capture Wave. Changed to a thinner troop layer since I was seeing ~10 rounds in the reports.  In hindsight - t'was a bad idea - I forgot about the 6-minute period uptick which gave me 3 wipeouts (See 3 screenshots below).

Wave 43 Battle Report Screenshot: 6th Loyalty Wave with thinner troop layers

Wave 47 Battle Report Screenshot:  15:35:39

First wipeout following the 6-minute period uptick xx:34 

Wave 65 Battle Report Screenshot:  15:43:54

Second wipeout following the 6-minute period uptick xx:40

Wave 74 Battle Report Screenshot:  15:47:52

Third wipeout following the 6-minute period uptick xx:46

Wave 82 Battle Report Screenshot: 15:48:25

Capture successful!

What Went Wrong:

MISTAKE #1:  I botched the camp-time of my warrior bombs.  I have 6 cities all in all - but for one reason or another, I forgot to ungear mount all heroes on 5th and main assault cities which resulted all 8 warrior bombs waves arriving right before the 6-minute period and worst, 6 spearheads arriving in the middle of the warrior bombing.  I had to manually abort all 14 waves, and let 27 waves to arrive, perfectly camp-timed but ineffective.  The needed time for return trip of my spearheads meant they can not come back within the original 6-minute period as planned.

So I decided to go to Plan B - brute force attack and do some guesstimate shortcuts 

Result: 81K warriors wasted (?), Wasted 6 war ensigns when I aborted the spearheads

The damage effect of the 27 waves could not be measured for certain due to the lapse time.  My objective was to make sure that the warrior bombs and suicide spearheads be as so close as possible time-wise. My shortcuts - I sent 2-30K warrior bombs, scouted to see their effect, then sent 1-100K warrior bomb, followed quickly by the 6 suicide spearheads. 

MISTAKE #2: Sending spearheads and loyalty waves from 1 city.  My original plan was to camp-time the loyalty waves across all cities; that idea went on the wayside being focused on the brute force attack.  Completely spaced out :)

Result: 52 waves (not counting the 30 warrior bombs).  I probably could've shaved off 5 to 10 waves if the loyalty waves went as originally planned.

MISTAKE #3: I should've stayed with the bigger ratio loyalty waves.  Keeping with the first ratio of 40K archers and 40K warriors would probably save me extra waves, and lessen the kill rate of my archers and warriors.

Result: Less loyalty waves, and avoided 3 wipeouts

Your thoughts?

Capturing an NPC Level 10 under 6 minutes with 40 attacks

Requirements:

a. 96K archers, 2K workers, 572K warriors (could be done with 472K warriors)
b. 40 heroes includes 1 with attack at least 150+ (fully geared) hero (Tried with a hero with 111 attack attribute - successful but losses are twice as much)
c. any NPC Level 10 up to 100 miles away
d. 1 city with a Rally Spot level 10 - just for the 3 100K spearheads
e. camp time knowhow and 15-30 min of prep time
f. title that allows you to have an additional city
g. techs (archery, military tradition, iron working, compass and medicine) in academy at level 10 (preferably) - since you are capturing an NPC 10 that has everything at level 10. No ballistas/transports - so no need for HBR and logistics to be at 10.

SIDE NOTE: The need for 40 heroes is merely for convenience of being able to send 40 attacks under the 6-minute period.  If you do not have these number of heroes but understand the concept of the 6-minute period, you can still conquer a 10, using less number of heroes but longer capture time and more troop loss.  You would simply send 20k warrior wave for each time you pass the 6-minute period to take care of the re-spawns.

SIDE NOTE: If you do not have the high hero level necessary for the spearhead.  You can probably send 94K archer/2K worker/2K warrior/2K ballistae for more firepower.  2K to 6K ballista should help strengthen the spearhead - but your HBR tech would be required preferably at 10.  Using ballista will also now limit your distance and the NPC 10 must be close by.

SIDE NOTE: If you do not have a Rally Spot 10, you can probably send 6 additional waves of 5K suicide warriors before sending a spearhead OR you can also use a War Ensign which will increase the number of troops you can send for that one time to 115K.  With 115K size limit, feel free to add 15k more archers to add firepower, or mix it up with ballista up to 6k, to the spearhead.

At the moment all 3 side notes I posted above are theoretical since I have not conquered a 10 with any of those limitations.

Options Used:

War horn (Ivory Horn) to help increase attack strength
Penicillin to help a little in healing troops (13% instead of normal 10%)

Preparation:

To avoid dealing with  the full re-spawning of 40K warriors found in an NPC level 10, we use Camp Time to send the 40 attacks within a 6 minute window.

NOTE: NPC 10 regenerates right after a hit - the 6-minute window is when NPC 10 would've have completed re-spawning all wall defenses and all troops (resources are completely regenerated after 8 hours).

Every server maintenance, the server gets a random point of when the 6-minute period begins and ends.  It does not start at 0:00 server time all the time.  There are many ways to find out when the 6-minute period starts but I use Tax Rate in Town Hall since its easiest.  All you need to do is set the tax rate of one of your city and wait to see when the loyalty drop/increase happen - that minute marks the start of a 6-minute period, wait for 6 minutes to confirm the end of the period and start of the next 6-minute period.

Now that you know the start of the 6-minute period, make note of each period for a whole hour so you know when re-spawning updates occur for all NPCs.

For example: I saw loyalty drop at 14:05 server time - so I have the following 6-minute period for September 6 -

xx:05  xx:11  xx:17  xx:23  xx:29  xx:35  xx:41  xx:47  xx:53  xx:59

where xx would be any hour for the day of September 6.

Here's the key technique:

When I send my first attacks, I send first from the farthest city - whether it is the loyalty waves or the spearheads - and I camp-time them to land:
a. a few seconds after the start of the 6-minute period for the spearheads 
b. or near the end of the 6-minute period for the loyalty waves

NOTE: Knowing the 6-minute period increment allows you to prepare and send a larger/stronger troop size to defeat the re-spawns in case you mess up with camp time and a wave of troops would land after a 6-minute mark. Given the proper number of troops and troop composition, a good understanding of this 6-minute period will help conquer any NPC easily.

Troop Composition - What to Send:

Wave 1: SPEARHEAD 1 - Using your highest attack hero - 96K archers, 2K workers, 2K warriors

Wave 2: SPEARHEAD 2 - 100K warriors

Wave 3: SPEARHEAD 3 - 100K warriors - this is really optional - you can send 10K warriors - I just like to overcompensate and make sure the ATs, traps, warriors are gone or near gone and that from wave 3 onwards, you are simply defeating the re-spawns.

NOTE: All spearheads must be sent a few seconds of each other for maximum effect. Make sure Wave 1 hits first or else you will have 100% loss on the 100k warriors (Use Camp Time for Waves 2 and 3 to make sure).

Wave 4 to 40: LOYALTY WAVES - 10k warriors

The trick of being able to conquer an NPC 10 within 40 waves is the close timings of the loyalty waves to each other after the spearheads do its jobs.  The barrage of attacks landing one after another brings public grievance up which in turn influences faster loyalty drops - so camp-time these loyalty waves as close to each other as possible.

Losses:

4K archers
2K workers
less than 50k warriors


Screenshots:

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Wave 39: Note: I used a new hero from the inn.  Also, my camp time was not perfect - the last 2 waves landed after the 6-minute period uptick.

Wave 40

Capturing a NPC Level 8 - Using Just Warriors

Requirements:

a. 250K warriors (more would be better)
b. 1 city with Rally Spot Level 9
c. 1 NPC Level 8  - preferably next door or 1 square away
d. 9 heroes to lead the warrior waves - 1 hero must have 150+ attack attribute
e. 30-50 minutes of your time
f. Your title that allows you to have a new city.
g. Good tech levels - Military Tradition, Iron Working, Compass, Medicine (good means 8 or above - since we are hitting an NPC 8)

Options Used:

War Horn, and/or Penicillin

Preparations:

1. Apply War Horn and/or Penicillin - these items help minimize troop loss
2. Un-appoint mayor hero - so you have 9 heroes you can send at a time.

Conquering:

1. 1 Spearhead of 90K warrior lead by your highest attack hero.
Expect 25K to 45K loss - depends on your tech and hero.

2. Send next 8 waves of 20K warrior lead by any hero (level or attack value of hero is not important).  Send each wave within 10 sec to 5 minute gaps.

3. As your waves return, medic camp to heal back a percentage of warriors.  Upgrade the heros if they receive enough experience points.

4. Send next 9 waves of 20K warrior lead by any hero.

If you are running out of warriors - do not add any other troop type.  They do not help bring down the loyalty of the city.  Instead use 10K warriors.  Whats important here is sending wave after wave to bring loyalty down to 0.

5. Repeat Step 3 and 4 until you get a window asking for you to rename your new city.

Expect to send a total of 40+ waves.  I conquered mine in 44 waves.

Good luck.