ikonic

Before we start:



Remember that you can only attack a town 6 times in a 24 hour period. If you exceed this amount, you are considered "Bashing" and likely to be punished by the Game Officers. Alliance Wars are exempt if properly announced on the Ikariam Forums.








Your village is on your feet, you have steady income and citizens to spare. It is time to go pillaging! If you are pillaging a town on your own island, it will take 1 hour. 20 min to arrive, pillage, and then return to your town. It will take longer if you are attacking another island. Remember that military units will cost double upkeep when they are on a mission.



Minimum Requirements:

• 6-10 Slingers.

• Cargo Ships (3 recommended).

Lowbie/Inactive Towns:

• Look for towns named "Polis". This is your default town name and the majority are unaware how to change it or they have ditched the game and not marked inactive (yet).

• Look for low level towns that are maxing their workers out on the saw mill for quick and easy lumber raids.

• Inactive towns (marked by the "(i)" next to their city) are RIPE targets. Inactive towns mean that they have unused resources and they are constantly refilling. Example: 3 Pillage runs with cargo ships on an inactive netted me 600x2 lumber pillage runs + a 24 lumber mop up.

Steps against a DEFENSELESS town:
1. Get 6 or 10 slingers
2. Go to your island view
3. Click the town
4. Click pillage
5. Set number of slingers to 3-5
6. Attack
7. Wait until they are on return
8. Send the second wave of 3-5 slingers
9. Continue until many waves are sent
10. Wait
11. ???
12. Profit: Get multiple wins equal to the amount you would have gotten if you sent all units at the same time
13. Operation can be repeated up to (and including) 6 times per 24hrs as per the rules; Stick to six and the mods will leave you alone...

(Note: Always have a deployment at your base if possible, for defense. Attacking forces may be adjusted accordingly.)


Also, no matter how low their defenses are, you are almost guaranteed to lose at least 1 slinger per attack.


Advanced Attacking:

Choosing a target:

Choose the island that contains the resource that you need most. Focus on a town that is a lower level than your own. Once you have chosen a target search the highscore and examine their points to make sure you are not attacking a colony. Attacking a colony can be bad news. Attacking an Alliance is even worse. Don't be a wreckless twit.

Preparing for Attack:

• Send a spy. Only send spies when the detection rate is low. Hideout upgrades and enemy towns with high population/levels mean lower detection rates.

• Once your spy has infiltrated begin to inspect the level/absence of the following buildings. This can be done by hovering your cursor over their buildings.
  
  
  • Port

  The higher level the port the more that will be looted, if the port is level one or non-existent, forget this town and go back to choosing another target. Your troops spend 20 (or longer) minutes loading up the ships. The total you can get in one is the amount that port can load per minute times 20 (or longer). Higher port levels mean more profit.

  • Wall

  If the wall is less than level three or is not built a ram is not needed. If the wall is greater then level three, one or MORE rams is a MUST.

  • Barracks

  The Barracks level can reflect the type of troops the enemy could have. Example: lvl 3 Swordsman, Lvl 4 Phalanx, Lvl 7 Archer...

  • Shipyard

  The Level of the Shipyard also reflects the type of the ships if the Level of the Shipyard is high it is more likely they have ships, this will determine whether or not you should send a blockade.

Useful Spy Missions:

• Check warehouse - Inspects what resources the target has to see if it's worth raiding.

• Check Garrison - Inspects the current troops and ships so you know what to send. If spies aren't working you can send a slinger to hero himself.Then check the battle report to see the defensive strength.

Cargo Ships and Enemy Trading Ports

Make sure to have at least 3 cargo ships ready for pillaged goods. Each ship holds 300 units. Here is a listing of how much you will pillage based on enemy Trading Port levels:

No Trade Port: 60
Level 1: 300 <--meaning you don't need an extra ship
Level 2: 600
Level 3: 1160
Level 4: 1840
Level 5: 2620 <--that means you'll need 9 available ships. The one you sent the army on, plus 8 more.

Additional Tactics:

Depending on the enemy town, there may or may not be a sizeable defense with walls. You will more than likely come across towns with level 1 or 2 walls. Defenseless towns can be taken down with 3 swordsmen without casualties. Once you know their defensive force, you can steamroll them. You don't want the battle to go on for multiple rounds. You'll lose more troops and money due to upkeep. If his port level is not high enough to steal everything in one go, send multiple waves.

• 1. Send the overwhelming force

• 2. Wait 25 minutes to account for the twenty minutes your troops spend loading the cargo ships. (This is if you are attacking on your island)

• 3. Send a small force. After the first wave, the victim will have no units on defense. Three swordsmen is good so that you don't have units dying on the walls. Keep in mind if you're attacking another island, you'll be sending this wave before the first gets there. If timed properly, the second wave will arrive 5 minutes after the first wave finishes loading the ships and starts heading back.

• 4. Repeat until he's broke.

Blockading:

• Remember that you hijack all inbound cargo ships on Blockaded Ports. You also clear the way for off-island pillages. Always send ships to blockade before a ground assault.

• Blockade recently opened colonies for 8 hour missions to intercept supply ships from their capital. Expect counter-attacks from the capital. Do not blockade an alliance member.

Defending from Pillagers and Enemy Blockades:

If you pillaged an active player or an inactive that returned, they are going to be pretty pissed that you stole hundreds (if not thousands) of resources and gold. You better have a defense force ready for these guys that want their stuff back and grind you into dust.

• Build a warehouse. Remember higher warehouse levels also increase your overall capacity and increase the amount that is unprotected.

  Level 1 protects 140 Lumber / 70 Luxury Goods
  Level 2 protects 190 Lumber / 90 Luxury Goods
  Level 3 protects 240 Lumber / 120 Luxury Goods
  Level 4 protects 310 Lumber / 150 Luxury Goods

• Build a wall, adds extra defense to your village. You get a ten percent bonus to defense for every wall level. The bonus is related to your town level. If the wall's level is lower than the town hall level, it's less effective. The enemy will need siege weapons if your wall is level 3 or higher.

• Having one boat on defense in your harbor is a MUST. If someone attacks you from another island and sends no warships it will fail, even if you only have one ram there or are lacking ground forces completely. They may decide not to attack you if it involves sending warships. Ballista Ships offer a 30% defense bonus.

• HIRE PHALANX. These walking tanks will gain a 30% defense bonus if attacked. That is 53 defense for one Phalanx. The next best unit are Riflemen, which is a long ways down the tech tree. Upgrade Phalanx units at the workshop. Large contingents of Phalanxes defending the town will require the enemy to invest in mass amount of strong units such as Archers.

• Have a Level 1 Trading Port! Who cares if it takes longer to load/unload cargo? It is better than having your port used against you if you are pillaged and losing thousands of goods. If you are going to be pillaged, you can destroy your Trading Port to minimize losses.

• Make sure to have ships at all your colonies and at your capital. This will allow you to respond to an enemy blockade at one of your towns and hopefully successfully break it; with luck, you may sink the main invasion force if they don't withdraw.

If you follow this guide, you WILL make $TACKS from pillaged goods and repel most attacks.

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World in Conflict:

Toy Poodle

very nice guide. This will be very helpful for all those who havent attacked yet or defended. We should eventually also put up a guide for diplomacy of how to get out of these attacking situations.

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There are no winners in war.

ikonic

Diplomacy = chain pillaging by TGA

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World in Conflict:

ednos

Hmm, on my island on Delta.org, an ally and I have been pillaging leeches on the saw mill (with warnings and everything) with swordsmen and slingers fairly successfully. Perhaps they don't know how to defend their cities.

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The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. ~ Bertrand Russell
I have a tendency to key out three or four things and then let them battle for supremacy while I key, so there's a lot of backspacing as potential statements are slaughtered and eaten by the victors. ~ Magna Centipede

ednos

Now THAT is a damn fun-sounding idea.

__________________

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. ~ Bertrand Russell
I have a tendency to key out three or four things and then let them battle for supremacy while I key, so there's a lot of backspacing as potential statements are slaughtered and eaten by the victors. ~ Magna Centipede

Kulmar

Also,


Taken directly from the raiding guide on the Ikariam forums. Just little errors! Nice guide though, looks like some tough work!

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ikonic

I have raided before with 3 slingers without casualty.

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World in Conflict:

Kulmar

I'm just saying what the makers or moderators of the game are saying.

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ikonic

So Undead, how did that battle involving 109 units attacking your colony go? LOL

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World in Conflict:

UnDeaD77

Heh, went like this..Colony has been up since 7pm, and I start getting attacked around 8-8:30pm.

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machowner

I can tell you how it went when some guy brung about 30 units to my port.

The first day: all ships turn around and head for home due to my ballista and ram ship
The second: 5 ships coming to block my port; 25 units coming to attack (WTH, i think this could have just bought the stuff)

Quickly mount up all of my 8 trade ships to the hilt, port master warned me the ships may be too full to sail the seas for many days. I told him not to be foolish, they will be back before sunset. I head to the yard and tell my two slingers to fight with all they have, not to give up the home land! I want to see some eyes shot out with them sling shots! They fight hard and defeat a few, but in the end they are taken down and laid to rest as heros. My port is blocked, my slingers gone, my resources vanished and my loyal population hundles in their houses. The advisery, rightfully upset at lack of bounty, blocks my port for another 3 hours (boy is this costly). Finally a ray of hope, the enemy fleet has left, I send a note by pigeon to my trade fleet. They have had a rough trip for sure, but still they were saved from the worst of it. At the end of the day, just before sunset, they return, with my resources in hand, minus some wine.

He got what I couldn't load, but hey, he didn't get much. He could have bought the stuff for what he spent taking it.

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ikonic

Thats the way to do it Mach!

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World in Conflict:

Lucky Shot

You left out Blockades in your description as well as the use of attack boats. If this is an attack from a different island and your sending just ground forces, expect them to turn around if the enemy has attack boats.

The right way to do it is to figure out the time for your cargo boats to arrive (40 minutes per island distance). Send in a couple of attack boats to precede the attack to figure out if they have boats in the harbor, but also to capture any trade en route. Watch the clock on the attack boats and time it so that they are in place 5 minutes before the ground forces land. That way you can recall the ground forces if you need to.

One guy who had a ground force that I couldn't compare to, failed to realize how badly his colony could starve without naval support and didn't have a good stock of sulfur once I did hit. 24 hours later, he gave in even though he had 50 more ground troops then I did.

Lucky Shot

ikonic

Oh, I forgot about that part in detail. I briefly touched on it in a few spots. Thanks!

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World in Conflict:

KillDaddy

I made my first successful pillage today. Pillaged an inactive town for 24 wood, w00t. Lost one slinger. Worth it? No. But it was good experience.

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|TG-13th|KDaddy ... aka "Emperor of Clays"
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