Road Efficiency or Stronger Defense?

[firedancer]

I have so far designed my base for maximum road efficiency for farming the best income but my base always get destroyed 100% by raiders.

Therefore, I would like to know whether it is much better to sacrifice road efficiency for a more stronger defense design? I have found out that a stronger defense will reduce road efficiency and high road efficiency will lead to weaker base designs.

What is your current practice?

Thanks.

 

[dbukalski]

roads are useless. u need 3 or more million gold for one upgrade later in the game. u can only earn that by raiding. and others earn it by raiding u. so defense first and roads a distant distant afterthought

 

[xenon]

I agree with dbukalski. Roads are just like farms it can provide enough at the beginning of the game but you do get more from raids.

 

[Link5549]

I wouldn't connect buildings to roads at the cost of defense. Even then, it's not hard to connect all the non-defensive buildings to your roads.

 

[hearthpad]

the key is both, because in late game, if you have all your defense buildings together and next to the wall, you lose
pre-final age, you get raided by higher levels most of the time
might as well get some extra gold

 

[dbukalski]

hearthpad is right that enlightenment infantry shoot over walls so u need a gap between walls and defense. which is filled nicely by roads. but thats just a convenient afterthought bonus

 

[dbukalski]

my road tucked away in the corner not connected to any buildings lvl2 does 565 per hour. thats 13k a day minus raids. enlightenment adds 10 more roads. and some day when i got nothing better to do ill upgrade the roads. and ill use them to fill the wall defense gap and ill make like 30k a day minus raids. in the end thats absolutely worthless...ill still take the 25k or whatever is left after raids but in no way would i compromise my defense in anyway or waste worker time on the roads to close the 13k to 30k gap between worse managed road and best managed upgraded road

 

[dbukalski]

best part of putting roads in the wall defense gap isnt the $50 exra gold each day its having more caravans walking around behind some protection

 

[firedancer]

Which is more advisable for Medieval Age?

I was thinking maybe to surround my mills and market with double layer walls. There are so few walls available in this game and they are so expensive to upgrade.

 

[VN-ELITE]

use road design beautiful is for fun, gold coming is not so important because you can have gold by raiding other player!

 

[mwedwards]

my road tucked away in the corner not connected to any buildings lvl2 does 565 per hour. thats 13k a day minus raids. enlightenment adds 10 more roads. and some day when i got nothing better to do ill upgrade the roads. and ill use them to fill the wall defense gap and ill make like 30k a day minus raids. in the end thats absolutely worthless...ill still take the 25k or whatever is left after raids but in no way would i compromise my defense in anyway or waste worker time on the roads to close the 13k to 30k gap between worse managed road and best managed upgraded road

In late Classical, I have 34 out of 36 buildings connected, with one library upgrade bringing the total percentage boost to 350%. My road income is 1980 per hour or roughly 48k per day. I have a reasonable enough defense that I am not constantly raided but when I am and I lose, it's always to Medieval+, which as a Classical player I would not expect to win no matter what my base config. I would expect my road income after the next upgrade (Medieval) to be $59,400/day before I connect more buildings. Not sure what upgrades follow the next one but would not be surprised to see a maxed out Enlightenment-era road network bringing in over $100k per day, more with a connected Oracle. Sure it's less than raiding but that extra gold helps offset your losses when you are raided -- it allows me in Classical for example to sit on a pile of 200k gold and have the road network pay 50-100% of the gold costs for successful raids against me (provided I move the gold to my treasury).

So you're right it's not as good as raiding in terms of income potential, but at least for players in Classical and early Medieval reading this thread, unwise to completely ignore.

 

[dbukalski]

the gold u spend upgrading road network and worker time wasted is not worth the 30k extra u make per day. i make 13 u make 50 after upgrading roads + oracle + attaching buildings. my roads are in the corner of my map not connected to anything. roads are a waste of time for any age even when u have oracle