asch

I've got quite a few cities between 8-12 in size. I'm trying to figure out what size force I should have on defense, both land and naval. Any suggestions?

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Sarcoma

... and how many spies on defense?

Sarcoma

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Long Bow

I have no idea as I have yet to be attacked. From what I read from others though they suggest 2 phalanx per city level and I would suggest something similar for ballista ships in harbour. Of course more powerfull units may require less #'s. Also its a very good idea to keep your wall at the same level as your city.

As long as you have a decent deterent you should be safe(ish). All I know is if I check a players general score and its below 10,000 for one city, I'm paying him a visit.

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Sythos

I have 10 phalanxes at my main city

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Catman1975

Cat's a little paranoid, but I've never been attacked.

If you don't have many resources pilling up I would recommend 5 of your most upgraded ships in each port, 10 phalanx in each city and 1-2 spies on defense. This would be a min.

What I would recommend is that you build your warehouse up as high as possible. I don't keep more than 5,000 wood and 1500 of any luxury item in my colonies at any given time. I transfer everything to my capital. Then before the war build up I was keeping 20 phalanx on my main island and 20 archers and I kept 15 flame ships and 20 catapults at my capital. When I was saving for my Palace upgrade I made sure my wall was was 1-2 levels over my town hall. Typically I keep all nine of my spies on defense at my capital unless I'm going to raid someone, then I usually only send out one or two at a time.

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MDFubar

Well, Whatever is not deployed is on defense. Typically, mind you I have only been attacked three times, I have about 40 ships in each harbor. 10 to 20 Phalanx, Swordsmen, and Archers at the minimum. My navy is deployed for Blockades but usually I keep at least 30 in my harbors during wartime.

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Tarenth

The best answer to that question is: Enough
If your colony is small, you don't keep any surplus resources laying around, and you don't have much gold then you'll be a less tempting target than a level 19 town with 20k in wood sitting in the warehouse and 2 million in gold.

One of the best defenses around is to be well known locally. DONATE TO YOUR ISLAND NODE AND DONATE GENEROUSLY. People are a lot less willing to hit someone who will benefit them in the long run through donations than they would a leech dragging everyone else down.

The next best defense is to be unknown globally. Try to limit your attacks to people in small alliances or with no alliance and stick to people with extremely small defenses or inactives. If you're part of a large group of people making attacks or you're just farming off the inactives then you won't have to deal with 'retaliations' from your target or their friends.

Keep a good number of spies in your city on defense. If you're at the point where you need counter espionage then you've failed at keeping a low profile. Basically the more spies you have sitting at home the harder it is for others to infiltrate and report on your activities. On the flip side, the larger your city (town hall) the easier it is for certain operation to succeed. That means the larger you get the more spies you'll want to park at home.

Next, is to maintain appearances. Always try to have your wall = town hall in level to get the greatest bang for your buck. Having a high level hideout (see previous point) is always a good sign as is having a high level barracks and shipyard. Even if you don't intend to build or garrison any troops in your city, the presence of a high level production building will signal to people that you can produce high tech units such as phalanxes, archers, and even gunmen at need and do so quickly. Worse case scenario you'll be able to pump out some more defenses quickly with higher leveled production buildings.

If all those fail then your only recourse is to hold the line. For 99% of all attacks you'll receive (unless you've been an asshat or a leech on your island) you can repel them with a naval defense fleet. Even 1 single ram ship can turn away 300 ground troops if its sitting in your harbor. Not only will it keep away the idiots, but it'll buy you time to prepare your defenses since naval forces (which they have to send to blockade and counter your naval defenses) are significantly slower than land forces sent via cargo ship. For most people its just too much trouble, and not worth the gains, to send a blockading fleet and a land force.

Land units are your last line of defense and should consist of strong units coupled with a strong wall. Avoid using units like slingers or swordsmen on defense because their low defense attribute means you'll suffer high casualties and low benefit from their presence on the field. Phalanxes are probably the best endurance unit for defense with archers and gunmen coming close after them. Steam giants, far far in the future, are the best defensive unit period.

If you have a 'stonewall' defense with units focused on their defensive attribute (like phalanxes) then you should also think about having a cook or two stand by to keep their stamina up. High defense means low casualties, but high stamina drain as they take damage that won't cause casualties.

If you have a 'meat grinder' defense with units focused on their offensive attribute (like swordsmen and gunmen) then you should have doctors on the field. Low defense means higher casualties, but higher offense means you'll cause higher casualties in return. That means less of a stamina drain as your units are killed, and more of a 'body count' drain for your doctors to pick right back up and put back into action.

Of course, if you want to keep things balanced then having both cooks and doctors are a good way to accomplish that goal.

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El_Gringo_Grande

Tarenth good stuff.

But one thing. If the guy attacking you is on the same island, naval forces do not come into play at all. Obvious I know. But I got zapped by this on my .org account.

I had a great navy but the player after me created a colony on my island and attacked from there. My twenty ships simply did not matter.

I am not really sure why the guy is after me. But my 33 phalanx, 20 slingers, 2 cooks was beat by his army five times overnight and he got about 10,000 gold and a bunch of other stuff.

All this happened in about 13 hours. It was a shock when I woke up.

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geologist

My usual recommendation is:
2 phals per TH level
1 cook per 10 phals
1 doc per 20 phals
And I have recently learned that a strong navy is even more important than I thought, mostly due to the rebuild time. I'd have to go with one of whatever your best ship is per TH level, minimum.

And don't neglect that wall...
I honestly don't worry about spies too much. If they see what you have, and you have a decent defense, most people aren't going to bother coming after you when they see there is no profit.

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Tarenth

Given the fact that Geologist has his own REBELLION on the server he probably has the best idea of what's good for defense in a knock down straight up fight.

The point of spies isn't to keep out the dedicated attacker, but to deter those who just randomly pick targets. In your case you have probably 10 people gunning for you and sharing information so it doesn't matter how many spies you put up on defense someone is going to get the intel and that intel is going to get passed around. For your usual trawling aggressor if they can't get the intel to plan their attack they'll just move on to a target where they can.

Besides, its always nice when you catch a spy and that spy spills the beans on everything including the last three times his previous employer wet their bed. Two of those are almost always after seeing FARK and after seeing TGA tags.

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geologist

...and the third time is when they realize that Fark and TGA work together in causing bed wetting.

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