• Goodbye 8th Year Event Goals Fix
    A fix is now live. An additional goal, Earn 5 Stars, has been added. Completing this will grant the additional 500 RP to complete the reward track.

The Greek Nation; A Greek players resource

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
WARNING!!!! This is long and I offer no TL;DR version. Go find yourself an attention span or take your ritalin before you continue on. Hello to all my fellow Dominators. I am brand new to this game but nearly everyone is, so I decided to see if there are other Greek players who would like to share notes on how to play our chosen nation. I will personally include what I have discovered and believe are successes as well as failures in using them. I don't think of myself as an expert in this game. None of us are. There are others here who are more mechanically savy then I am. I hope some of them will come forward and share mechanics of the game that they have noticed. Everyone should feel free to disagree. I would encourage an amount of humility when presenting opinions. Everyone is right in their own eyes. Lastly, before I get into this, I believe it would be enriching for this gaming community if someone did a thread like this for every nation. Greek Pros: - Buildings are faster and cheaper - Unique unit; Companion. High life; is an upgrade to the same cavalry troop the other nations have Greek Con's: - No defensive bonus combined with economic benefits = attractive target. - To maximize building advantage, must well planned. The pros and cons of the Greeks are summarized off the strat forum page for nations. I chose the Greeks because I believed their nation ability would be at its best over a large amount of time. When you first start playing them, the gold and time you save is really not noticeable except that it flashed on your screen when it takes effect. But as you progress, buildings will become more and more expensive and take longer and longer. Its then that the Greek benefit will become more noticeable. It will allow you to maximize the time and resources you put into buildings. I am not that far along in the game, though, so I will have to wait and see just how dramatic a difference it will make. The Companion Unique unit has been an incredible troop. At first use, you can frequently use it by itself to defeat your targets. However, because of how many spaces they take up, I wouldn't recommend this. You won't be able to attack with many at a time and so will not be able to take much resources from your target. As these troops hit defenses first, you may have most if not all of your companions survive but have little to show for it and in the end only offer your target the opportunity to take from you far more than you got. They become available in the iron age. I recommend you combine them with bowman or archers if you get them quickly. This is effective because garrisons are very common by iron age and unless the defense troops are hitting the Companions, the Companions won't attack them. Often, I would see one or more defense troops slugging it out with a companion when what I would prefer is for my companion to take down another garrison or tower with the rest of them. Bowman and Archers specifically target defense troops and so free's up your Companion to do what it does best. By classical age, you start discovering things that can put a hefty dent into a force of companions. Catapults are common and you have to attack them first. You let them go to long and they'll really soften up your high priced Companions. Target these first, preferably without using a rally command. Destroy the catapult then deploy your archers and choose a defensive target to destroy for your first rally command. Do not deploy archers near catapults. They will be whipped out within a few rounds. I found out the hard way. If the Companions charge straight in at them, the catapults won't last long and wont deal much damage to your Companions I am currently in the middle of the classical age. I had read that ballista's are effective against high life targets and decided to see just how effective they are. I watched as one killed three of my four companions before the building finally went down. High cost considering how much three companions count against my attack force. Future considerations in attacking targets: stables. At this point they are very uncommon so I am staying with a companion/archer attack group still. However, as stables become more common, I will probably have to work in phalanx. Wonders to build: Good question. My first was the Acropolis but I am not sure that was a good initial choice. To get full benefit, you need to place your garrisons within the Acrop's influence. This can have a dramatic effect on how to build your accounts layout and its causing me know end of fits. I constantly tinker and change the layout to take advantage of the maximum number of benefits all my buildings give. A small annoyance: The Japanese town center. If you hit a Japanese town center, don't forget that it defends itself. On a mechanical level, the Japanese TC doesn't count as a defensive building, so your Companions will ignore it and keep taking hits from it until every other defensive building is destroyed. You may consider using a rally command to take it down. That's it for me guys. I look forward to contributions from others.
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
EDITORIAL NOTE: Developers have not enabled paragraphs. Wall of text is not my fault. I did try to add paragraph divisions
 

Wolfgang

Approved user
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Messages
10
I rarely use the companions. As you've said, they take up a lot of space (six troop space). Currently, I'm using all archers for looting as it takes down the defenders (horsemen&pikemen) easily. However you have the catapults to worry, I don't. I just request from my Japanese ally their bushi (highest troop dmg in the game rn) and they take care of the catapults with ease. Good topic here my friend. Go Greeks!
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
I just tried to add paragraphs again. If you know how, please feel free to share
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
The companions have the highest hit points in the game and deal extra damage to targets. Also, they always go after defensive buildings such as towers which you do have to worry about. At your level, I rarely lost a companion. You might reconsider
 

Teofrostus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
7
Look, I can add paragraphs.

I have another line here.

And yet another line.

All I'm doing is hitting "enter" twice on the keyboard.
 

hearthpad

Approved user
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
79
could be the device you are using, not allowing paragraphs

but im not reading that
 

sjb

Approved user
Joined
Feb 23, 2015
Messages
178
I have given up on the companions altogether. I get better results with a stack of the cavalry raiders and boost the rest the crossbowmen and little foot soldiers (pikemen I think) and a wall miner just in case.

That gets me in and I support them with tactics. I don't always win the battle of course but I loot most or all that's available. If I think that there is more loot to get and I'm getting pummelled I'll use my general, Gladiator strength from the Coliseum or deploy the mercenary army. This is usually a mix of Hun Warriors and Greek Javelineers and Steppe Horse Raiders, but I find getting the right trade goods is getting more and more difficult.

What do you use for your Gunpowder Age wonder? I haven't decided yet.
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
I'm at classical age right now. I finally found a build that uses the Acropolis and utilizes all three of my garrisons. I had to use the Acropolis as my center point and not my TC but that's okay. I was intending to farm for peace treaties anyway.
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
Hey genius. I know how to hit enter. Its not ALLOWING space's between lines
 

King Ila

Approved user
Joined
Apr 14, 2015
Messages
6
I'm a Greek in the Classical Age, and I've also found that companions are not as useful as I would like. With army size 65, I alternate between 55 phalanx, 10 archers and 43 phalanx, 10 archers, 2 royal companions. Maybe neither of these combinations is ideal, but I've found that the first one (no companions) is almost always more successful. A lone companion seems too likely to wander into a heavily defended area without support, and using two or three companions really cuts back on the killing power of my phalanx. I think when I reach medieval age (you get 15 more troop space from upgrades, right?) I might end up trying 4 heavy royal companions, 10 crossbowmen, and 58 pikemen. Anyone have suggestions for a better mix of troops in the classical age?

Regarding the Greeks' economic powers, I'm finding that the resource refund is getting more useful as I'm upgrading more expensive buildings and walls. I think you get 5% back, which is nothing terribly impressive, but that by itself is comparable to the British loot bonus. The best way I've found to use the fast build times is to build as many buildings as I can when entering a new age before upgrading my pre-existing buildings (although I make an exception for the blacksmith and library so I can get new research going). However, the faster build times seem to become irrelevant pretty quickly.. 20 minutes isn't much in the classical age when upgrading towers and garrisons take 24 hours. It's basically only useful for upgrading some buildings through levels 2-3. I'd definitely appreciate a patch that makes that scale better with the ages—maybe 30-60 minutes for Classical, 60-120 minutes for Medieval. Just more than 5 minutes. Has anyone else found a way to better take advantage of the economic powers?

I went with Stonehenge for Bronze Age and Colosseum (under construction) for Classical Age. Sometimes I wonder if I might have preferred Acropolis, but I enjoy the increased freedom to place my garrisons, stable, and wonder where I want, as long as Stonehenge is connected to the road network. And I'm not sure about the exact numbers, but I think I gain more gold from Stonehenge than I lose from being raided because I don't have the Acropolis.
 

Macku

Approved user
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Messages
12
When hitting the Classical age I saw the "free" time for buildings get bumped up to under 20 minutes. I'd like to maybe see it grow a little more, but it's cool to see that the civ power is going to scale to help address the insanely large build times of later game content.

I had a realization today — the Greek power is the only power that you could "buy" as another Civ. Faster build times and "refunded" gold are both things you get out of investing in crowns, which means any Civ willing to invest money is going to get most of the benefit while also having their own unique stuff. I can't buy a Town Center that protects itself with crowns, nor can I have a 10% bigger army because of crowns. I also worry about the oft mentioned problem with "end game" when there's nothing left to build. At that point the Greek power seems useless, and I hope the developers do something to address this.
 
Last edited:

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
When using Companions, try scaling up in them MUCH more. Try out 8-10 comps with 12 bows or so and whatever you have left for phalanx. If comps become your main strike and use bows and phalanx to support them, such as killing defending troops, you will find them much more useful
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
So Comps take down defensive buildings which is what they are supposed to do and bows and phalanx take out defending troops. One or two comps won't mean much but 7-10 will shreds an enemy bases defenses. Make sure to take out catipolts first and use some common since in which base you hit. You see a base with multiple catapults AND ballista's with walls boxing them in, move on. There are much easier targets.
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
Don't be afraid to lose comps because of their cost. In large groups they will survive long and take down buildings fast. Use them they way you are supposes to. Kill your enemies defenses!!!
 

unforgiven91

Approved user
Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
35
When I was classical I heavily relied on companions. I have used around 7-8 companions, 4-5 raider and 3-5 phalnax/archer. My strategy was release the companions first to take care of the defensive building. when most o the ones near resources are down i released the raiders to take care of the resources. Worked very well for me throughout classical.
 

Pancake

Approved user
Joined
May 8, 2015
Messages
3
this seems like a solid strategy. i might have to try it. i'm in classical right now and i use 25 phalanx and 40 archers. it's a decent army for farming: cheap, quick to build, and gets the job done. but i'd like to go for heavier armed bases for more loot & i feel like being able to properly use the companions would be able to help with that.
 

Damascus

Approved user
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
114
Here is a break down of how to use Companions correctly

Right now, I use a raiding party of 10 Comps, 13 bows and 7 spears. The comps are my main show. Everything is in support of them. My raiding group is expensive but very effective. Comps go after defensive buildings so use them the way they are designed. Kill the defenses first.

Three or four comps won't do much but 10 does. They will make short work of buildngs, but they do need support. Drop the comps first. Let the defensive troops spawn and come out. Then drop bows and spears behind your comps. The bows and spears will target defensive troops while the comps take down defensive buildings. Attack priorities should be; 1. Catapult 2. Garrisons 3. Balista's 4. Towers.

Sometimes balista's come second but with their short range they aren't all that threatening though I do almost always use a rally command to kill them. They can hurt comps so when you take it down, it has to happen hard and fast.

Tactics for comp raiding parties that work best is first aid and protect. These tactics are used best with high HP units and nothing is higher HP than comps.
 

Atownplayer

Approved user
Joined
May 10, 2015
Messages
15
I recently advanced to gunpowder age, and I continue to use my current army setup as it gives me the best res/hour ratio.

80 spaces = 5 companions, 10 raiders and 20 archers

plopping in the comps first to take on defenses and hits from troops, archers to take out the troops once they spawn, and raiders to finish the job fast. this is ONLY if i go for a full domination victory,

the main reason for this setup is; I do not care for medals, only resources, so normally i send in a few raiders to take on stacked farms/caravans or undefended mills/markets.
this gives me an average 20k res. pr. min.

If i find a domination worthy victim, of course i go all in, but usually with only a few archers lost, and an occasional comp too, which in any case, means 0 waiting time for training.

The Ballistas are a pain when only packing 5 comps, so if you're going full blown every time, this might not be the setup for you, unless you are willing to either burn a sabotage, or rally towards it.
but if you are going for resources mainly, this setup works.

I started chasing undefended storages too, for the merc. advantage, and since i get 1-2 trade goods per raider (only sending the one for the storage), i can easily place all the blessings i want, plus train a full merc. army with little to no effort.

Wonders:

started off with the Acropolis wonder, and if you can live with the limits to the range, it works out perfect to take attackers by surprise, as they are easily overwhelmed by defending troops.
accompanied by the Colluseum placed where the garrisons/stables are scarce, i'd say the two go very well together, although acropolis has no effect on colluseum.

Now the hard part is getting the resources for the 1,5-3 mil. upgrades, and might consider changing my setup if the right one shows, but so far, i can't find any way to make 1.2 mil. avg. an hour faster.

quick breakdown: total training time: 15 mins. = 4 attacks an hour = an absolute max. of 2 mil. per. hour IF you manage to find and take down a target with 250k of each resource, which is next to impossible, and thats not even counting search times for the right target. So im quite happy with a guaranteed 1.2 per hour with no effort and basically no risk.

hope this all helps. Peace.
 
Top