Construction Speed

This is is very, very, very, very, very important. The higher your construction speed the faster you build your buildings. The 1st city there is nothing you can do but have a slow construction speeds. After the 1st city you can use a cottage build method. I am going under the premise that you have followed earlier advice and installed the city planner. It also uses the presumption that you will be building quarry and woodcutter huts along with the cottages to ensure you have resources.

The method goes like this:

Level 1 Town Hall (TH): 5 cottages built to level 2; Build TH to level 2.

Level 2 TH: 5 new cottages built to level 2, increase 1st 5 cottages to level 3; Increase TH to level 3.

Level 3 TH: 5 new cottages, All cottages to level 3; Increase TH to level 4.

Level 4 TH: 5 new cottages, All to level 3; Increase TH to level 5.

Level 5 TH: 5 new cottages, All to level 4; Increase TH to level 6.

Level 6 TH: 5 new cottages, make all to level 7; by this point you have 30 cottages! Build TH to level 7.

Level 7 TH: 5 new cottages to level 4, increase the others to level 8; Build TH to level 8.

Level 8 TH: 5 new cottages to level 4, build TH to level 9.

Level 9 TH: 5 new cottages to level 4, increase level 8 cottages to level 10; build level 10 TH.

Level 10 TH: no new cottages, increase 15 cottages to level 6.

Build all other buildings to level 10 under the speed of 4000%+. Once your buildings are all to level 10, begin destroying cottages, to replace them with resource buildings. You want to only destroy 2 cottages at a time to build just as quick the replacement buildings.

You modify this a little for castle builds. you change the number of cottages to 6 instead of 5, and build your recruitment buildings 1st since they take longer than barracks.

This should help speed up your constructions; once perfected you can build a castle in 36 hours! I have made several this way in that time frame.

Happy building!

City Clusters

Very important concept of the game when you first start out. The city cluster is a good mechanism to aid in your rapid growth. Let's face it the game starts very slow. The best way to maximize your ability to grow quickly is by placing your new cities as close as possible to the old ones. This is building a "City Cluster."

The benefits for building a cluster early on is great.

1. Resource transfers from 1 city to the next takes shorter time.
2. Troops can respond to attacks quicker, thus leaving your enemies to actually wonder what is going to be there in an attack. (Easier Defense)
3. Prevents opponents from being able to disrupt your strategies. You are not sending resources 2 hours away, nor are troops 2 hours away in the event of an attack.
4. Centralization of your empire makes it easier to moderate.

The detractors are minimal.

1. Limited space for growth.
2. Lack of alliance members around you make you an easy target. (only in small or weak alliances)
3. Your troops are all competing for the same resources from bosses.

I like small city clusters of about 10 to 15 cities in an area. In the beginning they will be larger clusters, due to the fact that you will have a need for resource cities. As time progresses throughout the game you will find that your city clusters will become smaller (ideally 8 to 10 cities).  The smaller clusters tend to be military in nature, large amounts of troops to raid, plunder and siege your opponents.

Your clusters become self sufficient and will eventually only need you to tend to them for resource purification, or to start/adjust raids. You may even use them as an attack force, or staging ground. A cluster can hide troop types when you to send troops to attack another player.

See all the flags in the picture, that's one players cities and castles.. This cluster was coordinated within an alliance, so multiple players took part in its planning. The red dots next to the cities indicate enemies; notice how few of them there are. With a coordinated effort this alliance was able to build 21 cities total, a palace, 7 castles, and resources were never disrupted.

This also helps speed up your construction time since you will not be waiting on resources to be produced. You can just ship them in from another city!

Castles

Castles!
  This may be the most difficult part of the game. Every player wants to castle every city they have built. DON'T! The first mistake I made with my 1st castle was building from a resource city. Never build a castle from a resource city. You will lose it, or end up abandoning the city.


   As a general rule you need 3-4 resource cities, 1 hub, 4-5 military support cities, 1 gold city,  before you castle a military city. This is a general rule. As you start out it is a very good rule. But as a whole...It is actually quite weak.


I say this because there are 2 thoughts on when to castle a city. 


FIRST THOUGHT:
       When you have met the criteria listed in the general rule, then you may castle a military city. Expect to become a target many times over. Do this for 5-6 castles, then you can start focusing on castled cities, sieges, raids, plunders, and assaults. The castles should be 2-5 mix of offense/defense troops types. For every 2 Offensive castle you want to build 3-5 Defensive Castles.
 I don't care for this line of thought. But, I put it in to give you an opposing view.


SECOND THOUGHT:
      When you max out troop count in an all military city 50-60K troops, castle that city and begin raiding dungeons for resources. Build up troop count to 230-270K (ships and siege castles recruit far less) of a specific troop (1 type only per castle). If you build a castle on water, make it a ship castle with supporting magic troops. It will be attacked from the water as well as from land. 


Build hubs to send resources from 1 city to the next close by. Also, build Castles close by the others. Try not to have them spread out for the fact that it will take longer for reinforcements to arrive. There was a player on the opposing alliance who built 10 castles all besides each other. He tried to spy on us once, found out that he built his castles right next to each other solely for intimidation. 


     Since he had them clustered together, the only way to capture them was to have the entire alliance attack at one time with 4-5 sieges on each castle. and then we needed to search out his hub, to choke off his resources.We were finally able to defeat him by capturing 4 of his castles, and then reducing 2 of his other castles to level 1 TH and level 1 Castle (7pting a Castle). 

Resources & Warehouse Cities

Resource City

First, install Lord of Ultima Tweaks:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/80532

I can't imagine ever playing this game without it. It helps with so many different aspects of the game and ensures efficiency in nearly every aspect of the game.

Then, when you've familiarized yourself with the added functionality, whenever you found a new city or just want to see if you could have made better economy building placement, click on the "L" green box in your city Build Queue to access layout functionality. Copy the Sharestring, it looks like this:

[ShareString.1.3];########################-.-----#-;--C:-#####------.-#-----:--###----::---#-;---:--,##-,,--:--.#--------,##------#######-----,##-----##UUUUU##-----##:--;##UUPUPUU##-;--##:---#UPUUUUUPU#----##---:#UUUPUPUUU#-.--#######UPUUTUUPU#######----#UUUPUPUUU#----##----#UPUUUUUPU#UUU-##---;##UUPUPUU##UPUU##:----##UUUUU##UUUUP##:-.---#######UURRUU##--..-----#---UR##RU##-..------#--PUR###R###-.-----:#---UUR#######--,---:#----UUR########################[/ShareString]

and paste it into the Loof placement calculator here:

http://2.latest.loof78.appspot.com/lou_city/calc

with the following parameters (just hit enter after the sharestring for a new line) to create a Wood, Stone, Iron resource city (see the WSI down there?):

use_slots=82
num_cottages=19
keep_extra_res_nodes=1
placement_schedule=WSI
clear_buildings=1

Then open the output link in a new window and flesh out the rest of your city in the Flash City Planner:

http://www.lou-fcp.co.uk/map.php?

I recommend at least two warehouses, 19 or 20 cottages, 4 marketplaces (if producing resources) go for max production/efficiency.

When you're satisfied with a layout in the Flash City Planner, click "copy URL" and switch back to Lord of Ultima and paste in the URL into the second tab of the "L" layout tool of LoU Tweaks and click "apply layout"

Build away! MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY!!!!

Warehouse City

Follow the standard of building up 20-30 cottages as well as supplemental resources to keep you building. Building a Warehouse/Hub City  is essential to maximize building and recruitment efficiency. A warehouse/hub can transfer and receive resources in large quantities, quickly! Hubs can also hold millions of resources at a time. This can come in handy when building Palaces (we will discuss later), purifying resources, and level advancements.

You will understand why you need a warehouse city for each cluster of 6-10 cities you have, later. But for a minimum of every 10 cities you want a dedicated HUB! This is for your benefit and protection.

I have two hubs that I am currently working on. The first is a hub on water with larger amounts of transport capabilities. I use this to send and receive resources across the sea/water spaces. So, with a larger shipping and receiving demand there is less need for storage space. Any oversupply is sent to the landlocked warehouse hub via carts from the market.

I also have a land locked version that supports itself with resource production. So if arrivals of resources take a while, I won't run out of them. 

If you notice there is less markets in this city. Once the resources arrive at this city, they are dispersed from it to other cities ass needed from my Trade Minister*.  In this city you will need large amounts of city guards and a MGT. In the event that you are attacked in this city. Also never ever disclose the location of this city to other players. Enemies can disrupt your ability to build and recruit if they find out where this city is located.

*Note Trade Ministers are not required for you to have,since they do cost Diamonds. I keep them so they can do the work I cannot do while taking care of real life (RL).

Up NEXT: Castles

City Layout: GOLD & FOOD

As I promised in my last post, I am posting city layouts. I have layout for food and gold since they have similar needs within the game. You will need a lot of both resources, and not have enough cities producing them. So, why not make the best layout for the most production of these resources.

Gold City You want to put your gold city on water because harbors actually give a better increase percentage on taxes from town homes. Your layout my be slightly different due to node placements.

I start all my cities by building 20-30 cottages first (after you have more than 2-3 cities this becomes easier). If you are building your first city, build up your resources first. Then a city like the gold or food city can be very easy.

Food City Layout A food city needs to have a Moonglow Tower (MGT), and markets. I use 3 because at 120,000hr production rate, you will need a lot of carts to transport the food to other cities. You will also need  the MGT to purify any resources if you are attacked by an opponent.

All cities need to have a MGT as a defensive measures anyways. If you fail to have a MGT and/or markets in your city. You will be opening up your city to be plundered many times. I will go over the different types of attacks at a later date (including plunder).

You can use these layouts if you like of you can open the City Flash Planner and tweak the layouts. I have several cities that produces 120,000 food per hour. As you progress in the game, you will use large amounts of food to feed your armies.

UP NEXT:
RESOURCE  LAYOUTS
and
RESOURCE HUBS

Leveling Up

To do what is called "leveling up;" you will need to advance in titles. All players begin as "sirs." During the tutorial you will be awarded the title of "Knight" and eventually as a "Baron." The first 2 title advancements, you get awarded access to artifacts. From the 3rd title advancement and on you get to begin producing barons. I capitalized the title "Baron," to differentiate from barons, the troop type. When you reach the level of "Baron 1" from that point on, each level you gain gives you the ability to recruit a baron. 

The baron allows you to create new cities. Here is how to start earning barons.

You will need to have a Moonglow Tower (MGT) advanced to level 10 to purify your resources.

You will purify X amount of resources to do "Research" (Green Button at top center). 

You will need to produce X amount of gold as part of the research.

You will need a Trinsic Temple (TT) advanced to level 10 to recruit your baron.

A baron cost resources to recruit. 50,000 iron and 100,000 gold. Don't worry about cost, you should be able to produce that much by the time you get to level 10 MGT and TT.

Once you have your baron, you can launch a settlement caravan, when you have enough resources to start a city. Cost: 100,000 wood and stone each, 25,000 iron and food each. 

You will need either 2 Markets, with a total of 250 carts, or a Harbor with 25 merchant ships. This is to transport your goods for the new city along with the baron.

Sounds harder than it actually is. By your 6th or 7th city, you should begin to be able to create a city a week. About the 20th city you should have the capabilities to create a city a day. And anything above 40 cities, you should be able to create a city when you want to or need to. 

Sounds like a lot, but consider the average Alliance that has won the game. Their alliance members averaged about 200 cities each (alliance has up to 99 members).  

City Planners/Optimizers

  These can be found when you open up the city notes. City planner 1 is just that a planner. City planner 2 (CP2) is a planner/optimizer. CP2 can only be found using scripts to enhance the game features found at userscripts.org. You must be using Firefox, with GreaseMonkey Add-on or Google Chrome for the scripts to work. There is a third city planner that is useful, but difficult to use City Planner 3 (CP3). I don't like it cause it causes extra work that was eliminated when EA added the button for CP1. So i won't discuss it any further. Just know it results into the 1st one if you find it and use it.

CP1 is an in game planner found in your city note pad, click the button that is marked "city planner."  This will take you to a manual planner that you can use to optimize your layout and improve resource/troop production. You will want to save your layout when you are done. Copy and paste is all that is needed, follow instructions below:

There is a button that says short URL on the bottom right of the map (CP1). Click it!
Highlight short URL then copy it.
Return to LOU, click on notepad anywhere in box.
Then paste link to note pad.
Then hit red X. Your done.

If you type something into your city notes, it stays there until you delete it!
You can Check it if you like! It will be there.

To get to CP2 you need to click on the L button to the right of your construction speed after installing the scripts. Click on Open Flash City Planner 2 (CP2). Flash planner 1 is CP1 as listed above (like I said, it was added into the game by EA). CP2 actually gives you a grid to work with, as well as an optimizer.

Instruction can get very detailed with this CP, so I recommend you play with it for a while, at least until you see a layout you like.

To copy the short URL, you will need to click on the Import/Export button at the top of the planner.
Highlight the short link, Copy it. Then paste the link on your city notepad. Just as before it will stay there until you delete it!

I will eventually offer example layouts that you can use at any time during your playing of the game. I will post them as a Short URL in CP1. As I am still trying to tweak my game play layouts.

Communication is all about listening

As you begin to play the game, you will have tons of questions. Very simply put ask all your questions, one at a time. Then listen to the answers, all of them. You will get a lot of answers; all pretty much the same responses. Then act on those answers as you would in any normal situation. As being advised by coworkers or supervisors.

This game is a team competition, so join a team or create a team. Then rely on your team to give you the answers you need. Will I tell you that all the answers you receive will be the right ones. No! There are people who are self serving and will take advantage of you from day one. This is why I say listen to the answers. Those who are self serving will stand out very quickly.  Yet, there will be those that are genuine in their desire to help you. So LISTEN!

I will go ahead and tell you a piece of advice. Start off by following the tutorial. It is time consuming but will give you basic instructions in the game. Then begin by building your first city for wood and stone resources. These will be the resources most used early on in your game. By the time you get to the sixth, seventh, or eighth city; you will begin looking into specializing your cities.  

Second piece of advice, build your castle after you have 20 to 30 cities in your empire. So listen to those that tell you this. When you get to this point you will be able to handle the tasks required to build, defend and advance an Empire with a Castle.

Welcome LOU NEWBs!

      I find that playing a browser based games require large amounts of patients and even larger amounts of organization. Neither of which I have. This is my attempt to learn about the browser based game Lord of Ultima and share with others the many pitfalls to playing the game. I hope that my short writings, tips, good and bad advice (more bad than good), will entertain you and maybe aid you. Especially if you want to become a regular player of Lord of Ultima.
     I have been playing the game myself for all of two months as of July 4th. So, as I am also a NEWB this should be interesting. So welcome to other NEWBs and veterans alike. Feel free to share your advice, questions, strategies, thoughts and comments with me and others. Please, keep the comments family friendly since my children play the game and read this blog as well.

Defining NEWBs:   A person who is new to a game, doesn't know much about what they have gotten themselves into, and in one quick strike become the victims of veterans.

That would be me!!!  My first castle was constantly attacked by veterans for a week straight, and is now conquered and controlled by one of the attackers.

Live and learn, and thanks TMTrk for the quick education in LOU!