The game is basically a flash-based war game played in real time- the game continues whether you are there or not. You try and get up to 10 cities, build armies, and attack enemies. It starts off very simple, you have a tiny city that produces a tiny amount of resources. You are able to set one building to building and upgrading at a time, along with one research skill. The buildings allow you to produce troops, move them around faster, produce resources faster, ect. Research skills allow for faster troop movement, better attack, better defense, and most importantly- faster build time. Done right, one can advance rapidly. After you are happy with the set up of your current city, you can make or take over others, up to 10. Seems like its easy? Not at all! A decent amount of intelligence and math are required, though there are guides that will help you if you desire.
The big draw of this game is the social aspect- everybody can join alliances where strong friendships are formed. I would not be surprised to hear that people have met their partners in the game. There is a lot of chat in active alliances. This makes the game much more interesting than a normal flash based game.
The game is FREE. That's right. FREE. I've been playing for months now and haven't spent a dime. Of course, if you want some advantages you can pay for items to move your cities around, produce quicker, heal more troops, and so on. But it isn't necessary. A good player doesn't need to pay.
Here are some useful tips in no particular order:
1. Join an alliance right away! You will be safe from attack for 7 days, but after that anyone can attack you! Join a big alliance with a heavy presence where you are, and you should be safe.
2. Build defenses. I recommend at least 1 thousand abatis and 100 of everything else except Archer Towers- you should have around 16 thousand of those. They are very strong and can withstand large attacks when you have enough of them.
2. Maintain large armies. Try to have at least 50 thousand archers and pikemen in each city. That way, your archers are safe from "scout bombs" (someone attacking you with 100 thousand scouts) as they will hit the pikemen and not your valuble archers! This game is all about archers. Archers in large enough numbers can do serious damage to any city or defend from any attack.
3. Feed your troops! 2 or 3 times a day send out "farming runs" consisting of 600 balista and 400 transporters. Farming runs are attacks that wipe out Non Player Characters and steal their valuable food. Check the forums for more advice on this, as technology levels heavily influence how you farm for food.
If anybody wants to join my alliance I am in server 4 and my name is Adatan. Come and we can be addicted together :)
