Grepolis is a free browser-based online game in which players start with a small town and build it up into a metropolis, controlling villages in the surrounding area and eventually expanding into other parts of the region. This is accomplished by gathering resources like stone, wood, and silver and then using them to create and improve structures of various sorts and to raise armies composed of different sorts of troops. It is a pretty easy to learn game that starts off simple and gets increasingly complex but which is aided by quests that can help guide players in the right direction. It has a lot of moving parts, however, and so following are some tips gamers should bear in mind while playing it; newest ones are added to the top for benefit of people who have referred to this piece previously. 

* Choose your units carefully when launching naval raids! For land raids this is much less important, as the size of your force is not limited by the capacity of your transport vessels. Archers, with a Booty capacity of 24, make the very best naval raiders, and Swordsmen, with a capacity of 16, are a good second best (while Slingers and Hoplites, with capacities of just 8, are the worst). When I raid ghost towns using the 10 transport ships owned by my main city, however, my ideal is to send 200 archers with them. Many mythic units, however, even those with apparently high carrying capacity, are actually very poor naval raiders. Cyclops, for example, have an impressive carrying capacity of 320! One of these monsters will take up the space of 40 normal units in a vessel, however, which means it has a prorated carrying capacity of just 8 — same as a Slinger or Hoplite. Archers and Swordsmen are primarily defensive units, of course, so they will be less effective in situations where opposition is met and then mixed forces or those weighted toward units with high attack values, possibly reinforced with mythic units or a hero, may be called for. 

* Don't send mythical units like Centaurs or Medusae as support to other friendly cities where a different deity is worshipped! There are subtle warnings about this in the game but they can be easy to forget when rushing reinforcements to a city ahead of an attack. If this is done, however, the support force will set out as ordered but, when it reaches the other city, turn around in its entirety! This is rather stupid, as a support force without mythic units would not be returned and it would make perfect sense for the regular units to be accepted. Overlooking this game mechanic, however, is what very likely led to me suffering my greatest defeat and losing my most significant city. 

* Use your fastest units for raiding "ghost cities" and other communities so that they will not be absent from your city for too long! Horsemen are especially good for raiding cities on your home island — and Chariots, once you are able to obtain them, are even better, in that they are also fast and can carry substantially more loot. Likewise, Harpies and other flying mythological units are perfect for raiding cities on other islands, in that they are both fast and do not require ships to cross over bodies of water. 

* Before turning in for the night or being away from the computer for an extended period, use up as many resources as you can by placing construction orders for buildings and/or ordering the training of even a few troops. This will decrease the chance that you reach capacity in your warehouse before coming back on to spend resources, or that you look tempting for a neighbor looking for someone to attack and loot. 

* There are various "Improved Production" power-ups that boost gathering of Favor, Wood, Stone, or Silver Coins by 50% for a specific number of hours (e.g., 6).  Early on you should use these at times when you are able to keep an eye on the game so that you are able to use resources before reaching the full capacity of your Warehouse; later you will want to use them right away to keep from filling up your Inventory of power-ups, which is capped at five unless you unlock more slots with Gold (more about Gold in a separate post). Unless you are full up anyway, don't use them if you are going to bed or going to be away from the computer for awhile, as you could exceed what you are able to store and cause everything gathered after that to be wasted. 

* Be sure to play the "Forced Loyalty" power-up before looting farming villages! Using it afterward will not prevent morale loss and the power-up will have also been wasted. 

* When using a "Forced Loyalty" power-up, even if it only has a few minutes duration left on it you can still Loot a village for a full eight hours worth of resources without reducing its loyalty rating! This makes this a very powerful card. I generally use one with a five-hour duration first to Loot four hours worth of resources, then 40 minutes worth, and then before it expires eight hours worth of resources from my Level 1 and 2 villages and four troops from my Level 3 villages. in any event, do not Demand resources when one of these powerups is in effect, as this will not reduce loyalty anyway and will not be helped by the "Forced Loyalty." As you advance in the game, these will improve to six and then seven hours in duration, allowing you to eke a substantial amount of resources out of them. 

* If you have have more than one Improved Defense power-up, especially if your inventory is full and you need to free up space in it, you might as well use it sometime before stepping away from the computer for awhile. Odds are no one will attack in the following period anyway (which begins at four hours and improves to seven at the point I am at now), but you are most vulnerable to attack when not monitoring your city and it is better than just throwing it away to make room in your Inventory when something nicer needs storing. 

* In that I was not particularly interested in establishing colonies on other islands or in attacking cities actively run by other players, I initially decided to not devote resources to developing my Harbor, which allows creation of a fleet, or my Cave, which facilitates espionage against other cities, and left them both at minimal levels. This allowed me to use resources that might otherwise be devoted to them for improving other things instead (e.g., building a substantial City Wall). Apropos of this, even though I have researched out use of Biremes in my Academy, I have decided to devote future development to advancements that will enhance my land-based power. 

More to come! In the meantime, check out Grepolis for yourself by clicking the banner below.