Let’s talk about Rogues

Rogues are a unique fighting unit. You can only train Rogue units if you have the coveted Rogue hideout (shown on the right), available only through Inno contest and special events.

The rogue is unique because on the first enemy hit it takes it turns (or transforms) into one of your existing live units. If you have no other units (other than rogues), then the rogue is destroyed/killed/obliterated on the first hit, even a hit from the lowest spearman.  WOW!  Remember this, we will discuss Rogue strategies in more detail in a short while.

For those of you who  are reading this and have no Rogue Hideouts, the first thing you are going to need to do is obtain some. Notice I said some. The more the better. You will need to participate in one of the special events where you can win prizes from InnoGames. Events like the Winter Event, the Summer Casino, the Easter Event, etc. Save all your special events points/spins etc. for the end of the event. That is when the Rogue hideout is offered. Diamonds spent on Rogue Hideouts are a worthwhile investment as well. You will also want to use diamonds to open up all 5 slots in the Rogue Hideout barracks.

Try to get as many hideouts as you can.  In one of the worlds I play/played on, I had 8 Rogue hideouts and an Alcatraz great building.  Needless to say, I had tons and tons of Rogues. The reason you want a horde of rogues is they take 24 hours to train. If you do not fight in the Guild vs. Guild wars, you can get away with fewer Rogues.

 

How can you use Rogues in your defending army?

Let’s start off with your defending army. Never… let me repeat that… NEVER use an all rogue defense.  Also do not use a defense of mostly Rogues. Rogues die off with a single hit if there are no other troop types left in your army. Placing all rogues in your defense army is asking for defeat each and every time. Every  player has their own technique for using rogues in their defending army. You will develop your own. Of this I am certain. My experience lead me to use one to three Rogues in my defending army for ages lower than the Modern Era. Experiment with different combinations of troops  with a few Rogues. There is no single solution for your city defense. It will depend on what Age/Era you are in, what troops you have unlocked as well as what other players are in your neighborhood.

 

How can you use Rogues in your attacking army?

 

Rogues in your attacking army is a whole different story. The Rogue packs a whopping 100 hit points (higher if you have attack boosts) if he strikes an enemy. The Inno AI/Auto defense program also has a build in “blind” spot you can take advantage of when using Rogues and attacking manually. That blind spot is this: In the Ages/Eras lower than the Modern Era, the AI/Auto defense will tend go after your Rogues when they get within striking distance. Since the Rogue can move 14 spaces at a time, simply hold back your other striking troops giving your rogues a chance to become a threat. When the Rogue gets hit, it transforms into one of the “other” troop types you have on the battlefield (at full strength) and it is much closer to the enemy!

Of course, selecting the appropriate “other” troops is extremely important. You cannot tell which of the other troops your rogues will transform into. Imagine you are fighting in the Iron Age. Your army consists of 2 archers, 2 legionnaires, 2 ballistas and 2 rogues.  You have done some damage to the enemy with your ballistas and your rogues are more than halfway down the battlefield. Now here is the thing. You cannot pre-determine if your rogues will transform into legionnaires or ballistas! Legionnaire over halfway down the battlefield would be great with their striking power and high defense value. Ballistas halfway down the battlefield would be… well not so great. They would get slaughtered.

Try this, 3 Legionnaires and 5 Rogues. During the first 2-3 rounds of battle, try to keep your Legionnaires out of harms way from Ballistas and Archers. In short, keep them alive. Move your Rogues as far as you can so they become a threat and the auto-defense has to attack them. Now you will have 8 Legionnaires with 2 or 3 of them on the enemies turf on the field of battle. Take out their long range troops first, move up your original Legionnaires and you should win this battle.

Another scenario is 3 Mercenaries and 5 Rogues. The difference here is that Mercenaries can move farther across the battlefield than rogues and they get a defense bonus for hiding in shrubs and trees. Keep your Mercs in shrubs and trees close to your your side of the battlefield while advancing your rogues. Again, this should be a fairly easy victory.

In more advanced Ages/Eras you can get troops such as the Ranger and Jaeger that are “stealth” in trees. You can use 2 or 3 of these with 5 Rogues and hide them in trees close to your side of the battlefield until your Rogues transform. In this case, advance as many Rogues as possible to positions that are in trees so once they transform, they are in stealth mode and not seen by the enemy.  Now some of you advanced players reading this are saying “yeah but a few units like the Howitzer ignore stealth mode.”  That is true, but the Howitzer has to get within a decent range to fire. In my opinion, that is its weakness and I would still use this rogue style attack.

Consolidate

Look at your roads to see if you can consolidate and create more land space

This section was planned to come much later, however a guildmate might benefit sooner rather than later so I have added this section.  Check back frequently as this section will start to grow between now and the end of April (I hope).

Here is a section of the original city

We are going to concentrate on the two roads highlighted in the image below.

By removing those roads and consolidating the buildings to a road is not needed between each row of houses, we can produce something like the city section shown below.

the additional land squares are displayed in yellow (sorry for the sloppy appearance, but this was done rather quickly). Notice that next to the pumpkin patch we have picked up a 2×2 area. We have gained an area large enough for an additional house or an archery camp if you are fighting in the GvG wars.

If you apply this thinking to your entire city you may be able to pick up 4×4, 4×5 and larger land areas, making room for larger troop camps, Great Buildings, etc.  You may have to sacrifice as few decorations, possibly a few dwellings. That is for you to decide if the end results more than makes up for those structures you need to delete.

By the way, when you obtain and place an expansion grid, that is a great time to perform this consolidation (before you build anything on the new grid). Use that new space to move structures to and optimize your land before building any new and desired structures on it.

Here are some links to a few other sites that might help you in being space efficient.

http://forgeofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Guide_to_maximising_space

http://www.forgestats.net/map/?lang=en

You don’t have to fight fast, rather fight smart

Know your troops and your enemies troops

Image 1

Know the fighting unit(s) you are using. Hover the mouse over the bar at the bottom of the battle screen,

the one that displays your troops and the enemy troops. When you do, you will see the stats for that fighter, shown here on the left. We will cover this stats display in detail. For the moment, take note of the Attack Bonuses section about halfway down the image. This fighter is a Ranger and gets an additional 10 attack units when he attacks a Fast Enemy Unit. You can determine the enemy’s unit type by hovering over an enemy troop on the troop bar and looking at the 2nd line from the top. Note that for this Ranger shows Light Unit on the unit type line. Look at Defense Bonus line. This fighting unit  gets an additional 7 defense points if he is in the bushes when he is attacked and an additional 10 if he is in the forrest. Also note that this unit Hides in Forest. Meaning he cannot be seen and targeted by any enemy that can attack from a distance say riflemen or cannons and the like (with 1 exception that I know about, but I digress here).

Also please notice the attack and defense bonuses in green towards the top of the stats window. This will tell you the military boost this unit has. As a matter of fact, this is the military boost for the entire army (attacking or defending).  It is a good idea, to check the stats for each of your enemies troops. See what their military boost is and where they get additional attack and/or defense help. I have heard FOE players say “Stick to the trees, you attack harder!”  That is the case with the Ranger we looked at earlier. However, the archer gains attack strength when he is on rocky ground. Many cannons gain attack strength when on hilly areas. A Progressive age soldier gains defense strength when he is in a trench for fox hole. So it is not the same for every type military unit.  Take a little time to know where the best places are for your soldiers on the battlefield, as well as those areas, you want to keep your enemy from.

Image 2

Hit the enemy first (if you can)

There will come a time in battle when you can strike your enemy and they can strike you. Sometimes this occurs almost at the onset of battle. Ballistas, rapid fire cannons, and some modern era mechanized vehicles can attack almost across the entire battle field. If you are within range of several of the enemies troops, it makes more sense to attack the one who can fire next as opposed to attacking the one closest (who just fired at you and is now the last one in the firing order).

How can you determine which of the enemies troops will fire next? That is easy. Again go to the bar at the bottom of the screen that displays all the troops.

Image 3

The round area to the very left, displays the current unit that will be firing. This will be yout unit, since we are trying to figure out who to attack.  The units to the right in the square bins, are the units (yours and the enemy) in the order that they will fire/attack. Neat huh? You are probably asking, how can I tell from the square at the bottom, which fighter it represents, which hexagon square on the battle field does it point to? The answer is easy. Hover your mouse over the square and that fighters hexagon will turn orange.

Image 4

So if you find the leftmost enemy, the one who will be firing next for the enemy, hit them first. Then when they attack you, they are doing so with a weakened unit and your unit will sustain less damage. Of course, you have to use this strategy with some common sense. If a closer unit is about to take out or damage a key unit you have, naturally deal with that unit first.

For those of you in the Guild vs. Guild wars, fighting in the iron age against ballistas, this approach works great for ballista against ballista. I personally, will sacrifice an archer or two if they can strike at a ballista. My ballistas then have the advantage as long as i keep weakening theirs before they can attack.

Stay Enthusiastic 

Keeping your city enthusiastic (instead of just happy), gets you extra points when you win a battle.

Image 5

See the happiness modifier in the graphic above? Those extra points can add up fast.

Fighting Against Rogues

I have seen a few different ways players use Rogues to defend. One is to have 1 or 2 of your powerful troops accompanied by 6-7 rogues. This is actually pretty easy to defeat, depending on the “powerful troops” they have deployed. Rogues will change into one of the other troop types when they are first struck. We all should know that. If you can easily defeat the “powerful troops” your enemy has placed with the rogues, then take the rogues out first, or close to first and fight on as you normally would. For example, and I will use an Iron Age example here, there are 6 ballistas and 2 rogues you are up against. You have checked your enemy’s defense boost and attack boost and determined that you have sufficient power to sustain some damage from ballistas – qty 8, and plenty of attack power to wipe out 8 ballistas. In this case take out the rogues when you can and before they can get close enough to strike you. Finish off all the remaining ballistas — piece of cake.

In this next example, the scenario is reversed. Your enemy has 7 rogues and 1 ballista. In my opinion this is a silly defense (except in the higher eras like Post Modern and Contemporary), but you run into it or some variation of it often.  The trick here is to avoid the rogues until you can take out the ballista. Once the single powerful unit is gone, the rogues disappear on the first hit. Keep an eye on the rogue locations. As with any troop, defending and attacking, you can see their area of movement on the map.

Image 7

Hover your mouse over one of their rogues (or any unit for that matter). You will see in a darker green or brown (depending on the ground your battlefield is on) the area that this unit can move to on their next move. Just keep your units at least 2 hexagons away from the rogue(s) and you can destroy the power unit(s) and then take out the rogue. You will most likely take some damage, but you will win the battle if you master this technique. If you must allow one of your units to take a hit from a rogue, try to make it one which will either die a a result of the rogue attack or one that does not strike back during close quarter attacks (like the Iron Age archer or the Colonial Age Musketeer).

Fighting With Rogues

Fighting with 1 or 2 rogues can be useful. The Forge Of Empires artificial intelligence (AI) defense program has one very noticeable flaw in it. It will direct defending troops to go after any rogues within range first. I often times use that to my advantage and place a rogue or two as “bait”, drawing out troops such as snipers, rapid fire cannons, musketeers etc. I can draw them closer and often times out of area where they get a defense boost. For example I can draw out a sniper from the trees, where he gets a maximum defense boost, into an unprotected area. How do you calculate the placement of a “bait” rogue?  In the image above (Image 7) we learned that the game will show us the areas within which, that particular unit can move. Notice Image 1 at the top of the page. The 6th line down is called Range. This is important information for you to know to “bait” the enemy into the range of your troops. Let’s say you had 3 archers or 3 musketeers and you wanted to bait an enemy cannon into a spot to clobber it. Check the movement zone the archer or musketeer can move within, from each of the outermost hexagons add the Range value by counting the hexagons  directly toward the enemy. If I can get the cannon or tank, or enemy ballista etc. within the range of 2 or 3 or more of my attacking armies units, I will place the rogue at that vital most hexagon. Hoping the defensive AI program will move the cannon there to take care of the rogue. Then I will hit it with every attacking unit I can.

It is difficult to do a graphic here, I hope at least some of you readers are getting what I am trying to communicate here. Feel free to leave a comment with your description of this strategy. By the way, this ploy works great when someone has a unit or two from the next age/era on the defending army and my army is at the same “earlier” age as the majority of their troops. Lure the more advanced units into a rogue bait trap — then pounce on that more advanced unit. If you don’t kill it, you would have seriously weakened it.

Dieing With Maximum Damage

If you have a unit that is about to die,  one with 1 or 2 health squares left, why not  make as big a hit  on the enemy as you possible can? I am going to use examples from the Iron Age and Progressive Era here. I am certain you can translate the logic here into troops in other ages.

Each age has long range units. The units that can strike at you from a great distance away. The ballistas in the Iron Age for example and the Rapid Fire Cannons in the Progressive Era are good examples. Each age also has good sturdy troops that can withstand some major damage and still travel, sometime, across the entire battlefield, although they may be very weak when they get there. The iron Age units I will use here is the Legionnaire and the Ballista. Replace Legionnaire with Conscript and Ballista with Rapid Fire Cannon for the Progressive Era equivalent scenario.

I have 3 Legionnaires and 5 Ballistas in battle against the enemies 4 Ballistas, 2 Archers and 2 Soldiers. I have used the technique described earlier of bombarding their ballistas with mine to lower their strength. By the way, I took out their archers first, so my ballistas have sustained some damage from theirs. My Legionnaire that lead off first is about 3/4th across the battle field with half health. He gets hit by a one of their Ballistas followed by a second hit by an enemy Soldier. My Legionnaire is down to 2 health units and he is within reach of one of their Ballistas. Do I take that Legionnaire and immediately strike the soldier back?  Me, myself, I do not. I advance the Legionnaire forward to the ballista within range and strike at it, taking 2-3 of it’s health as I do.  Why?  My Legionnaire is weakened. His hit to the soldier that struck him last will probably result in the soldier losing 1 health unit. Ballistas are extremely weak in close quarter fighting. I can reduce the enemy’s entire health more by striking the Ballista.  My Legionnaire will die the next time he is hit, but he would have made a maximum damaging impact on the state of the entire enemy. Often times, a tactic like this is the difference between winning or losing a battle.

Great Buildings Military Boost

Add military boost Great Building for awesome fighting power! Forge of Empires has these super buildings called Great Buildings that yield special bonuses / rewards such as extra forge points, increased gold coin and/or goods production, extra happiness and yes additional military strength. With the advent of GvG wars, I have noticed some players are confused about  the Great Buildings for military boost. Here is a quick synopsis as to which Great Buildings to go after and how they can assist you in your PvP efforts as well as benefit your guild in the GvG wars.

Statue of Zeus (Bronze Age)

Obtain blueprints by motivating/polishing bronze age structures.

Collect all 9 blueprints.

At level 10 (currently the maximum) you gain a 30% boost for your attacking army in both attack and defense. Put another way having your Zeus Statue at level 10 is like having 2-1/2 more fighting units when you attack a city in PvP. For those of you who play in the neighborhood PvP tournament battles or the GvG wars, this is like attacking a neighbor (or a sector) with 12-1/2 units with them having only 8 units to defend their city/sector. Zeus (at level 10) also allows you withstand more hits from the enemy. Think of it like this. You have Zeus (at any level, but I will give level 10 examples here), and you hit your enemy’s Great Sword Warrior with a Great Sword Warrior (GSW) of your own. Assume your enemy has no military defense Great Buildings for the purpose of this example. Your enemy’s GSW drops 5 health points. Now the enemy GSW strikes your GSW back and your GSW only dops 2 health points. For those of you reading this that are PvP players, who wouldn’t like those odds? For those PvP players who like to plunder, this means more players in your neighborhood become your personal plunder victims. For those of you who battle in the GvG wars, this translates into stronger Siege Armies when you are attacking a sector – who wouldn’t like that?

I have noticed that many players will make the effort to obtain a Zeus Statue, take it to a level 4 or 5 and then get another military boost Great Building. One of the other 2 listed below. Then build that one up to a level 4 or 5, and so on. The reason I am guessing, that people do this is because the lower levels take less Forge Points than the higher levels. So it seems like an easier path to take to increase your military boost. All of my military Great Buildings are at level 10, each and every one of them. I am here to tell you that I can battle enemies that are 1, 2 and sometimes 3 tech ages higher than my chosen army and win, depending on what military boost Great Building they have. If you fancy yourself a FOE warrior, take the time and the Forge Points to get this Zeus Statue and the other 4 Great Building I list below, to the maximum level, and you will become UNSTOPPABLE. Ask your guild and your friends for help. Help them in return.

For those of you who really don’t want to fight and are tired of getting plundered all the time, pay special attention to the Cathedral of St. Basil and the Castle Deal Great Buildings I mention below. They are your solution to you being plundered less, in many cases over 50% less.

If you are unclear as to how to obtain these Great Buildings, there are many online resources explaining how to accomplish this. Here are a few, I am certain you can search for others.

• http://forgeofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Great_Buildings
• http://forge-of-empires.browsergamez.com/tips-and-tricks/1959/1/forge-of-empires-collecting-blueprints-made-easy.html
• http://voices.yahoo.com/forge-empires-building-great-buildings-12155908.html

Aachen Cathedral (Early Middle Ages)

The Aachen Cathedral, also called the Imperial Cathedral, was commissioned by Charlemagne and marked Aachen as the center of his empire.

Obtain blueprints by motivating/polishing Early Middle Age items. The more you motivate/polish the better your chances of getting a blueprint piece. Be patient, don’t give up.

Collect all 9 blueprints.

At level 10 (currently the maximum) you gain a 30% boost for your attacking army in both attack and defense. Combine this with a Zeus Statue at level 10 and its  is like having 5 more fighting units when you attack. Think of it, you attacking with the equivalent of 13 units while your enemy only has 8.

How do you like dem apples — huh?

Are you starting to see why I stated earlier with the Zeus Statue description, that you should take the time and FPs to get all your military Great Buildings to level 10.  13 units to 5. Wait until you read below about Castel del Monte.

Be patient when collecting Blueprints for your Great Buildings. It is likely you will get duplicates at times. If you get 3 of the same blueprint tile, you may trade in 2 of them for another tile. You do not get to specify which new tile you get. It is a random selection and it is possible, your new tile will be a duplicate for one of the other tiles you already have.

Castel del Monte (Late Middle Ages)

Obtain blueprints by motivating/polishing Late Middle Age structures.

Collect all 9 blueprints.

At level 10 (currently the maximum) you gain a 30%

Castel del Monte (Castel of the Mount) was build by the Roman Emperor Frederick II of  Hoenstaufen in the 13th century,  in the southeast region of Italy.

The Castel del Monte gives both attack and defense bonus for attacking army and produces some forge points every 24 hours.

 

 

A photo of the real Castel del Monte.

 

 

All of the Great Buildings, their military boosts at different levels and the goods required to build them may be found at: http://forgeofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Great_Buildings

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More to come later

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