X-Kings, Free Online Game

[hukarez]

Hmm. Good info, thanks everybody.

Right now, I've only 3 techs I can research from with Saddle & Stirrups, Trades, and Diplomacy. I'll keep that in mind in terms of the # of attacks, and the # of soldiers that I have. My power score right now is 60 (in all honesty, not sure how it got to be as such), and I've been rather unlucky in expending my attacks.

I wish I could tell out of how many units are soldiers on a potential enemy; unfortunate I didn't get espionage at the stage I'm in already. For the most part, I pretty much look for single digit people with over $1k on hand. Sadly, I lost about 3 soldiers about an hour ago on failed attack attempts. I think I'll re-stock my attack turns, and try a different approach when I'm ready.

[BrianD]

How does espionage and attacking turns work? I tried doing some 1 turn attacks on guys with 2 military units using my 13 knights. Every time I ended up getting zero gold. Is there a rule of thumb for using different numbers of attack turns?

[BrianD]

One other note for those looking at using espionage to identify zero unit defenders...watch up for people with zero defenders but a whole bunch of units. If they have zero defenders and over 50 units, they have probably been playing long enough to have defensive technology we haven't seen yet. I tried this a few times and lost a number of units each time.

[Travis]

So far if I attack people with 0 army units, I can get away with attacking with 1 turn, and usually get either nearly all their gold, or about 1/3.

If I'm attacking people with 1 or 2 defenders, I bump my attack turns up to 3 and usually get a pretty good haul. I tend to shy away from attacking people with more than 2 units defending as you really start running a good chance of getting nothing or some of your own guys killed. There are enough people out there with 2 or less army units though and 800+ gold that you can use your turns up with ease.

[BrianD]

Good advice, thank you.

[KevinNU7]

BrianD, for people at or level I tend to go to page 350 and then make my way down looking for targets. You don't want to go to low or else the game will restrict how much money you can take from someone because you are much bigger then them

[BrianD]

You would go as low as page 350? People there have 60 point compared to my 216. I thought anything less than half gave the penalty.

[KevinNU7]

Yes, but in some instances the penalty isn't that bad. I've attack guys with 2 soliders and $2k in gold and the penalty says the max I could steal in one attack is $800 gold.

That's fine by me

[BrianD]

800 is always worthwhile.

I guess I just haven't found too many of that kind yet.

[BrianD]

This is kind of fun, I just used 30 attack points to game about 15,000 gold. All of this was from guys my own size but zero units. Espionage is a must-have.

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by BrianD

This is kind of fun, I just used 30 attack points to game about 15,000 gold. All of this was from guys my own size but zero units. Espionage is a must-have.

Espionage. Well, I suppose I can only hope to get that after I manage to get Trades. Man, I wish I can stockpile attack turns at a higher rate.

[BrianD]

From earlier in the thread, I think Horseshoes -> Saddles and Stirrups -> Espionage is the way to go. I created a total of three accounts and had a hard time finding Espionage in any of them. As I believe Travis or Kevin suggested, get Espionage on one of the accounts and you can use that account to scout for the others.

Espionage really does give almost free money at 1 attack turn per shot.

[KevinNU7]

I can't wait to go nuts on my secondary accounts in a few days. Both are closing in on 200 attack turns.

FYI my secondary accounts got attacked last night after 48 hours, even though I never attacked anyone.

[daedalus]

Is 200 the maximum number of turns?

Updating Tech progression that I've seen:

Upgrade: Farming:
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower, Trade

Upgrade: Crop Rotation;
Choices: Trade, Watchtower, Horse Shoes

Upgrade: Horse Shoes;
Choices: Trade, Watchtower, Water Mill, Saddles and Stirrups

Upgrade: Trade;
Choices: Watchtower, Writing, Water mill, Saddles and Stirrups

Upgrade: Writing;
Choices: Watchtower, Water Mill, Saddles and Stirrups

Upgrade: Saddles and Stirrups;
Choices: Watchtower, Water Mill, Espionage

Upgrade: Water Mill;
Choices: Watchtower, Water Clock, Mysticism, Espionage

Upgrade: Espionage;
Choices: Watchtower, Water Clock, Mysticism, Ballistas

-----

Upgrade: Farming;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower, Trade

Upgrade: Trade;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower, Writing

Upgrade: Writing;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower

Upgrade: Watchtower;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Chain Mail

Upgrade: Chain Mail
Choices: Crop Rotation

Upgrade: Crop Rotation
Choices: Horse Shoes

-----

Upgrade: Farming;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower, Trade

Upgrade: Trade;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower, Writing

Upgrade: Writing;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watchtower

-----

Upgrade: Farming;
Choices: Crop Rotation, Watch Tower, Trade

Upgrade: Crop Rotation
Choices: Trade, Watch Tower, Horse Shoes

Upgrade: Horse Shoes;
Choices: Trade, Watchtower, Water Mill, Saddles and Stirrups

Upgrade: Water Mill;
Choices: Trade, Watchtower, Saddles and Stirrups, Mysticism

Upgrade: Mysticism;
Choices: Trade, Watchtower, Saddles and Stirrups, Diplomacy

[tucker342]

Just signed up.


I sent support points to KevinNU7, RendeR and Travis

[Travis]

200 is the max number of turns you can save up at any given time.

Anybody know what happened to RendeR? Did he get nailed by somebody or delete his account?

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by Travis

200 is the max number of turns you can save up at any given time.

Anybody know what happened to RendeR? Did he get nailed by somebody or delete his account?

Been wondering about that myself. I've been sending him support points and what not.

[Travis]

Oh, and a minor tech tree update. I unlocked catapaults (haven't bought the actual technology yet), and they are the same as ballista in the sense that you can only use them to attack, they have no defensive value (though their offensive strength is 4 times that of ballista, while ballistas seem to have the same offensive value as a knights defense). So attacking with ballista's is definitely the way to go, as that x4 value would offset them having walls and the watch tower (both doubling their D), then it would just come down to who has more units, and whether or not you attack the general's side.

I think (re: have read on the x-kings board) that there may be a later upgrade to knights that may increase their values (something akin to making them honorable knights). Anybody else read/heard anything like that? The tech tree is pretty taboo on that board, so it's hard to tell for sure what is being referenced all the time.

[SplitPersonality1]

Haven't heard about the upgrade to knights, but I just purchased Intelligence today which allows for spying on the enemy. For 100 gold you find out thing like where the opponents general is located, what type of units the opponent has etc.. Pretty nifty tech.

[daedalus]

From what I saw on their message board, intelligence is suppose to be fairly random with regards to effectiveness. For what that's worth.

[SunDevil]

Is anyone able to gain kills when attacking with knights? I know that no one can lose their last defender, so I have been attacking some people with 12 knights (chainmail) against their 2 or 3 soliders and have not had any kills yet. I also have been setting the attack toward 8 turns and still no luck. Do I need to attack with ballistas in order to get some kills? Thanks

[Travis]

I've only killed 1 knight while attacking (just did it actually), and I had 4 ballistas in the mix, first time with that account that I've attacked with ballistas. It was a 4 turn attack, but my army (42 knights, 4 ballistas) really outnumbered my opponent (8 knights defending).

That said, of all the attacks I've done, I've outpowered guys by that much numerous times and not gotten kills, so I think it may have been the ballista's this time through.

[BrianD]

I have killed a few guys with just knights. I did this before I had espionage, so I really don't know what the circumstances were. I also lost a few units while trying to get some kills.

Interesting note, I was gone the last day and a half for Easter, and came back to find myself jumped from 19 experience points all the way up to 45. Apparently lots of people tried to steal my gold and failed. If you have a decent defense, just hold on to a bunch of gold and watch the experience jump.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I have killed a few guys with just knights. I did this before I had espionage, so I really don't know what the circumstances were. I also lost a few units while trying to get some kills.

Interesting note, I was gone the last day and a half for Easter, and came back to find myself jumped from 19 experience points all the way up to 45. Apparently lots of people tried to steal my gold and failed. If you have a decent defense, just hold on to a bunch of gold and watch the experience jump.

Heh, careful what you wish for. I did this for a while, and went from 10 to 40 in the span of two days, then tried it again and lost 8 knights in 4 attacks (lost 2 knights each attack), while not getting any kills in return, so just a straight up loss of 8 knights and in total around 3,000 gold. It's a risky way to go, and can be great or really crappy.

[BrianD]

It is risky as I have also lost a couple of knights. It was a decent surprise considering I hadn't planned on using this strategy.

[KevinNU7]

Man I was gone for teh long weekend and lost 4 knights in the process. My main account actually did pretty well defending the gold while I was gone. They stopped 10 straight attacks before a big dog came in and stole $10k in gold. Nice work

Uprade 4 technoligies in the last 10 hours with all the turns I had accrued.

My secondary accounts took a big hit and I may scrap them all together as they are not producing much.

Question Anyone know what you need to get the second type of Birth Rate stuff, the first one is called mysticism, I already have that one.

[Travis]

I think you need to get seige defense strategy (that's the one that unlocked it for me). Not sure what all else it depends on.

That said, it costs in the neigborhood of 35,000 gold to build the structure after the tech purchase. I'm going to have to save a while for that one.

[KevinNU7]

Travis, what are you workers at? Mine at +6, with the option for +7

[Travis]

on my main account right now, I'm still at +4 while my other 2 accounts are at +5.

Been holding off on upping that as I'm getting attacked 8-10 times a night because of the gold my workers make while I'm sleeping. That and I really want catapaults

Anybody found a 3rd level of birthrate or a level above Espionage/Intelligence?

[tucker342]

Gave a support point to nevstar, splitpersonality and to Travis

[Travis]

Ohhhhhhhh, advanced espionage looks cool. Which is good, as it's starting to get really hard to attack people for gold.

(For those curious, advanced espionage is as follows: This technology allows you to view the castle and wall that each of the other players have. With this technology, whenever you select a player, you can see icons showing the castle and wall that they have; it can be very useful to decide which players to attack. A wall icon is only shown when the player has completed that type of wall on all sides.)

I think I'll be taking that next. Now just to save up enough gold.

[Blade]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Is anyone able to gain kills when attacking with knights? I know that no one can lose their last defender, so I have been attacking some people with 12 knights (chainmail) against their 2 or 3 soliders and have not had any kills yet. I also have been setting the attack toward 8 turns and still no luck. Do I need to attack with ballistas in order to get some kills? Thanks

I read on the X-Kings board that if someone defends with only 2 units, they cannot lose anyone...it is based on the formula that they are using for determining kills...you should have a chance to get a kill against 3 soldiers, but it may not be likely.

[RendeR]

Sorry fellas, I was getting completely mauled, dunno if it was bad tech choices or just bad luck but I killed off my account. Just wasn't that entertaining.

[Whar]

I run Okie99 as one of my secondary accounts. Other than feeding a couple of support points to my main account Whar I use Okie99 to buy other techs that Whar passed on. Today I logged in Okie99 to do my support points and clear my gold account.

As I log in I notice I have new history so I click on it to see how much gold I have lost over the night. Stormwind nab 869 about 4 hours ago ... KrushaK nab 126 3 minutes ago. Hmmm 3 minutes maybe he is still gathering gold. I click on Krushak name to bring up the attack page. Krushak is sitting on 17,345 gold. A great huzzah arose from Okie99 knights as I commited them to close action. After 4 turns of battle 6,393 gold lay within my coffers and Krushak coffers were empty.

I quickly purchased 2 bolts of cloth as Krushak counter attack taking 764 gold. An uneasy stalemate now ensued. I had ~800 gold and Krushak ~2000. If I attacked I would not gather enough gold to buy a resource and any gain would be taken by Krushak. I quickly search the player list and found a 1000+ player with 2 army defenders. Attacking I gathered 537 gold. I quickly launched at Krushak and won 1,673 of his remaining gold. A quick purchase from the screen left me with a few hundred gold as Krushak launched his attack. Krushak recovered 136 gold. He then launched 2 more attacks, I assume to try and kill some of my troops, gaining 45 and 25 gold respectively.

In all I spent 8 attack turns gaining 8,606 gold. Krushak spent 10 attack turns winning 1,123. Okie the Great rides on!

[Travis]

That's awesome! I had a similar type of thing yesterday, but used up more turns and time to get just over 6,000 gold, but it was pretty satisfying.

Though now that I have a decent number of catapaults, let me know if you guys need anyone put in line. I should have decent power to deal with guys at 400 points or less now. Unless they have a triple digit army count, then I'll need a few more days to get prepared

[Blade]

Originally Posted by Travis

Though now that I have a decent number of catapaults, let me know if you guys need anyone put in line. I should have decent power to deal with guys at 400 points or less now. Unless they have a triple digit army count, then I'll need a few more days to get prepared

If you want someone to target, feel free to take on Angelmom who killed three of my knights while I was sleeping!

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Whar

I run Okie99 as one of my secondary accounts. Other than feeding a couple of support points to my main account Whar I use Okie99 to buy other techs that Whar passed on. Today I logged in Okie99 to do my support points and clear my gold account.

As I log in I notice I have new history so I click on it to see how much gold I have lost over the night. Stormwind nab 869 about 4 hours ago ... KrushaK nab 126 3 minutes ago. Hmmm 3 minutes maybe he is still gathering gold. I click on Krushak name to bring up the attack page. Krushak is sitting on 17,345 gold. A great huzzah arose from Okie99 knights as I commited them to close action. After 4 turns of battle 6,393 gold lay within my coffers and Krushak coffers were empty.

I quickly purchased 2 bolts of cloth as Krushak counter attack taking 764 gold. An uneasy stalemate now ensued. I had ~800 gold and Krushak ~2000. If I attacked I would not gather enough gold to buy a resource and any gain would be taken by Krushak. I quickly search the player list and found a 1000+ player with 2 army defenders. Attacking I gathered 537 gold. I quickly launched at Krushak and won 1,673 of his remaining gold. A quick purchase from the screen left me with a few hundred gold as Krushak launched his attack. Krushak recovered 136 gold. He then launched 2 more attacks, I assume to try and kill some of my troops, gaining 45 and 25 gold respectively.

In all I spent 8 attack turns gaining 8,606 gold. Krushak spent 10 attack turns winning 1,123. Okie the Great rides on!

I don't exactly remember the rules, bout couldn't you have given the guy a support point and then not worried about the counter attacks? I seem to remember that you can't attack a guy that gave you a support point, but you can attack a guy that you have given a support point to. Couldn't you use this to make sure you can't lose your gold to a guy you just stole big from?

[KevinNU7]

Damn! I jsut clicked on the wrong Tech and spent $28k to have 6 supporter points given out in a day. Ugh

[Whar]

Poor Okie had already passed his support to my other officers and guildmates early in the day but I think you are right support gets you protection for a day.

[Blade]

Originally Posted by Whar

Poor Okie had already passed his support to my other officers and guildmates early in the day but I think you are right support gets you protection for a day.

Yep, if you give a support point, it protects you from that guy until the end of the game day...

[KevinNU7]

Just a little Tech update for anyone lower then me

Technologies you can research

Wind Mill
Increases production by 1 per worker

Theology
Allows building a stone chapel

Plate Mail
Increases the attack and defense power of your units by 50%

Intelligence
Allows you to run intelligence operations

Tower
Allows building a tower

Navigation
Allows you to trade wool and oil

Commune
Allows you to change your commander every week

Known Technologies
Farming
Crop Rotation
Trade
Watchtower
Horse Shoes
Writing
Water Mill
Chain Mail
Saddle and Stirrups
Water Clock
Mysticism
Espionage
Fence
Mechanical Clock
Diplomacy
Ancient Writing
Ballista
Siege Defense Strategy

I think I'm going with Plate Mail next. Hopefully that releases some other great attack option. If not I will then be going after Tower, which should push my defense ratings close to 100k. That will probably unlocked a new wall upgrade to replace the wooden ones I have now.

I'm decided against Mysticism for the time being. Buying the Tech plus $37k for the buidling doesn't seem to be worth the 1 extra worker per day.

[BrianD]

How is everyone handling their gold now? I'm getting over 60 gold each half-hour, so I'm getting hit often. I've got the siege defense turned on so I don't lose any units, but it seems like an awful waste of money to just keep handing it out to attackers. Is anybody doing anything different?

[KevinNU7]

Your attacks

Date Name Turns Side Gold Lost Killed Exp 1 minute ago Mirakulix 3 East 10,840 0 0 0

[KevinNU7]

Originally Posted by BrianD

How is everyone handling their gold now? I'm getting over 60 gold each half-hour, so I'm getting hit often. I've got the siege defense turned on so I don't lose any units, but it seems like an awful waste of money to just keep handing it out to attackers. Is anybody doing anything different?

I get about $100 a turn. When my cash gets to $1k to $1.5k I attack to get to a trade and then trade it in. So every 5 or so hours I login to do this.

This usually causes my attack turns to build up. After a day or so I will go on an attacking binge.

[BrianD]

Nice hit.

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

I get about $100 a turn. When my cash gets to $1k to $1.5k I attack to get to a trade and then trade it in. So every 5 or so hours I login to do this.

This usually causes my attack turns to build up. After a day or so I will go on an attacking binge.

No way to handle this other than log in every 5 hours, or deal with losing the money? Bummer, though it isn't a big deal since I don't lose any units.

[KevinNU7]

Brian, if you don't set your defense to protect your gold is it safe to assume that you don't have any defensive units? If you do I'd consider them a big waste.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

Brian, if you don't set your defense to protect your gold is it safe to assume that you don't have any defensive units? If you do I'd consider them a big waste.

That is only safe to assume if you can also assume that I'm not an idiot. Unfortunately in this case, you shouldn't assume either.

I hadn't actually thought about the uselessness of defense if I am not defending the gold. I could make a claim that having the units might scare away attackers, but that may not be true. So now this makes me question whether it is better to defend the gold, get some kills and some losses, or don't defend the gold and keep only offensive units. Sadly, my main account doesn't have offense-only units yet.

[KevinNU7]

What?! You are ahead of my in points and you don't have Ballistas yet??? I have had them for almost a week now. I ahve a good mix, 30 Kinights and right now 24 Ballistas. Combine that with my walls and Plate Mail and I my attack is 30k and my defenses are 40k right now.

I've toyed with the idea of going with all Ballistas instead, but I like the fact that overnight my guys do a good job defending my gold. OVer the last 3 days I have lost 5 Knights but I have killed 8 and only lost $3k in gold.

[Travis]

I think as you get higher in points, the idea of protecting your gold gets more and more useless. Barring a few techs (which I would assume are out there, and I just haven't found them yet), offense will win the day. I've gone almost fully over to catapaults now and have an offensive power of over 250,000. Each catapault is worth 4 knights worth of defense (at your own military experience level), so to try to have 4 knights for every catapault attacking you gets ridiculous once you have 50 or so catapaults attacking you.

That said, I'm hoping there is an upgrade somewhere along the way that evens things out, but I got sick of losing units (which I consider much more valuable than gold), so losing 3,000 worth of gold overnight isn't too bothering as going completely offensive makes it easier to make that money back than to try to split your force up to be good offensively and defensively.

That said, I didn't start doing this until I got catapaults, and had my defense up to just over 100,000 and was still getting just taken overnight, usually losing over 1,000 gold and 2 or 4 knights by the time I logged on in the morning.

[KevinNU7]

Travis,

Can you tell me the pattern you took to get catapaults? I haven't unlocked that yet