Lord of Ultima Quick Start Guide

This Lord of Ultima quick start guide will help you get your empire moving in the right direction fast. Covers needed build speed, resource production, when to build trinsic temple and moonglow and how many markets are optimal to produce your second city.

1. First Week

THE MISSION

Earl in 48 hours

REQUIREMENTS

The requirements for Earl are as follows:
Town Hall level 7
Lvl 10 MG tower
50k each of wood, stone, iron, and food
40k gold

STEP ONE:

Do the Tutorial!

HELPFUL HINTS:
*1* After making City Guard house and later the training grounds and recruiting the 3 city guard or 5 berzerkers you can cancel them right away to get those resources back once you have collected the reward.
*2* You can demolish Hideout, City Guard House & Trainings Grounds if you’re not going to use them.

STEP TWO:

Here is what is necessary to generate the right number of resources to speed up advancement without wasting any on building levels that cannot be recovered fast enough to make the cost worth the return (remember to only use 70 total buildings for this first layout as we’ll only have TH 7 and try not to have any time pass without building something, 48 hours is short and we do not have time to destroy res nodes. Use “Lock Resources” in the planner):

1. W&S 3500 per hour of each (approx 20k in the fcp2)
2. Iron 700-1k/hr (approx 10k in fcp2 and replace foundry’s with cottages)
3. Food 1k/hr (5k/hr in fcp2). This takes 1 or 2 level 7’s and 1 or 2 level 6’s.
4. Approx 350% cs cottages to lv3/4(1200% give or take in fcp2) until you start building MG tower and higher level farms then put cottages at lv4/5 or around 500% and this is a good time to use shovel.

Note:

For your first 5 levels of town hall concentrate solely on wood and stone until they are all placed. TH level 6 and 7 place your refineries and any additional iron and farms (that are not in the tutorial). Do not put your refineries above level 2 as the return on investment will not happen in the 48 hours. There will not be any foundry’s or mills as our TH will not be high enough.

GOLD!!!

Raid with whatever you’ve got excess. IF you’ve got iron recruit zerks, excess wood recruit rangers (in order for excess wood your layout should be 30k for the 70 buildings). Keep in mind your ultimate goal of 50k of each resource.

If you’ve got a mountain dungeon next door can go to 30 troops/raid as it will quickly advance raiding every 2h40m’s. If you’ve got only a level 1 hill or forest only take your barracks to level 3 right away as 5 raids of 12 is enough to bring home all loot in the first 10%.

Don't be afraid to kill a level 1 boss. 55 rangers/zerks should handle any type of level 1 and bring home all loot. If you have mountain dungeon close 5 raids of 20 zerks/rng to bring home all the loot.

FINAL STEP:

Build the moonglow and start leveling it up as well as farms to level 6 or 7 as you are short one res or the other. Once the moonglow reaches level 10, start to purify what is not needed. (Don't purify all the food).

PRO TIP:

If you are short gold or iron for researching earl, you can build and destroy a market, trinsic and/or stable for extra quest rewards.

Ajcatt's notes

Notes on 48 hours to Earl:

Well, from my experience from this first time around, these are the tips that I came up with:

a) Build only stone and wood to start with, and upgrade these as soon as possible.

b) If you only have level 1 dungeons around you, only recruit around 60 zerks/rangers for 5 groups of 12. As the % on the dungeon increases, you can recruit some more to make sure you are carrying back all the loot. Doesn't make sense to recruit excess if there is nothing to carry.

c) Try to get to Baron earlier than later. Some of us focused a bit more upping our res to start, but you get double the res from artifacts for Baron. Aim for about 12 hours.

d) Use the cottages in place of the refiners until you get to TH lvls 6 and 7. Then use the move building function to move them around.

e) Build cottages 1 lvl lower than the res to start. Then, just before going for the moonglow, build up the CS to about 500%. If you have the mana/funds for a shovel, this is where you really want it.

f) Aim to get most buildings to lvl 4 before the moonglow. The only exception I have to this is the cottages, which got pushed to lvl 5 just before putting up the moonglow.

g) Build up your food in between moonglow advances as the wood comes available.

Specifically I would say work cottages to about 350% until you're ready for farms 6/7's and MG tower.

Time to build MG tower with the following CS:

@ 500 CS % - 31 HOURS
@ 552 CS % - 27.5 HOURS
@ 603 CS % - 25 HOURS

More detailed info can be found:
[url]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asf7MWJ5CUhhdERFRS1YaFBFWWxOZWp6TEZjN3F5Z3c[/url]

THE MISSION

1st baron out in 72 hours

REQUIREMENTS

The requirements to get your baron out are as follows:

Town Hall level 8
level 10 Trinsic Temple
75k iron
100k wood, stone & gold
25k food

STEP ONE:

Earl in 48 hours (some will make the TH 8 during earl in 48 some will wait til they need the TT to go to

STEP TWO:

Build your TT to 10 (approx 20 hours)

STEP THREE:

Tear down 5 resource buildings to put in 5 markets of level 6 (This will save both resources and time see the little big and Gators post on why)

STEP FOUR:

Send Baron

Gators Notes on Markets:

There are several ways to get to 250 carts to settle the 2nd city. I'll go through the methods and explain which is better but for those that don't care why the short version is build 5 markets all to lvl 6.

Method 1: 2 Markets, 1 lvl 9 and 1 lvl 8 = 250 carts. Cost: 54,960 wood, 46,200 stone. Base time: 7075 minutes

Method 2: 3 markets, 2 lvl 8's and 1 lvl 6 = 260 carts. Cost: 44,440 wood, 40,940 stone. Base time: 5989 minutes

Method 3: 5 markets, 5 lvl 6's = 250 carts. Cost: 23,400 wood, 11,700 stone. Base time: 4254 minutes

It's much faster and cheaper to use 3 more building slots for markets. Unless your 3 lowest producing res buildings are able to produce 30k wood and stone in 4-6 hours there is no situation when 5 markets isn't the best option.

The other question is when to build them? Wait until after your TT is up to lvl 10 and build the markets while recruiting baron. Until that time add in 5 extra res building to make a little extra res (up to lvl 3) then remove them when TT is done and add the markets while recruiting baron.


THE MISSION

Marquess by day 7

REQUIREMENTS

The Requirements to hit Marquess by day 7 are as follows:

400k Wood, Stone, Iron, Food
320k Gold

Castle

STEP ONE:

Follow Earl in 48 hours guide & First City guide

STEP TWO:

Follow 1st baron out in 72 hours

STEP THREE:

Read 7 city cluster guide specifically city 2 (conversion castle) and build it as a conversion castle and be ready to have it as a castle prior to researching city 3

STEP FOUR:

Beg borrow steal gold if necessary

STEP FIVE:

Castle City 2 (some people castle 1 as paladins as you already have the TT10)

STEP SIX:

Research Earl 2 and Marquess 1

Lord of Ultima fundamentals

Link to a good new guide:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxxXH8vtAYBztshSUvugUhy0mXpXNZ_kJXMSJZI34es/edit?pli=1

Credit: Awydd

User guide

Just a note to say that I posted these as notes to myself basically. I will add to them as I come across more in various alliance forums.

Probably won't take the time to hyperlink all the notes. You can copy and paste the text to go to the link of your choice.

All scritps guide for Lord Of Ultima

Scripts

These tools and extensions greatly improve game play.  BOS Tools, LoU Tweak, and Defiant Extension are required
Extensions:

[b]LoU Cheat Sheet (Spreadsheets & Links)[/b]
[url]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AqqAuwe3JivndHdhVUotT3pjMjRmdlRyMWxKeU1tcFE&f=true&noheader=true&gid=3[/url]

[b]Greasemonkey[/b]
If you're using [u]Firefox[/u], you must install this first to use/manage any of the add-ons below.
[url]https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/[/url]

[b]Tampermonkey[/b]
If you're using [u]Chrome[/u], you now must install this first to use/manage any of the add-ons below.
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/84343.user.js[/url]

[b]LOU Tweak[/b]
Import your city layout designs (from louopt.com), a must have!
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/80532[/url]

[b]BOS Tools[/b]
Summaries, auto-purify, and various must-have tools, including, "Fill with Resources."
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/84343[/url]

[b]Defiant Extension[/b]
Adds one-click building, trade routes, and various other features.
[url]http://senocular.com/chrome/extensions/lou/LoUDefiant_about.html[/url]

[b]City Sort[/b]
Sorts your cities based on reference instead of city name - how handy!
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105513[/url]
[b]Can only sort them temporarily by clicking the S button since last update[/b]

[b]Mail App:[/b]
It's not perfect but allows you to do stuff without losing your mail.
[url]http://mirror.cactiusers.org/loumailapp/mailapp.user.js[/url]

[b]Baron Bar[/b]
It's a bar with info about your barons.
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/104836[/url]

[b]LoU Dungeon Riding[/b]
Adds dungeon raiding info to region view, no thinking or clicking required!
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/132554[/url]

[b]LoU Suite 76s Edit[/b]
Fewer clicks to raid bosses and dungeons... sounds good to me!
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/141857[/url]

[b]LoU Pak Tools[/b]
More raiding features I have not used... try skragglescripts
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/125367[/url]'

[b]LoU Attack[/b]
Let this tool schedule your attacks ("Kill") and send multiple raids ("Raidzorz")
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138429[/url]

[b]Nessus River Guardian[/b]
Define your own raid #s and click AutoRaid to send to random dungeons based on the #s. Works great with high idle TS.  Also schedules attacks.
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/149692[/url]
[hr]
Websites and Tools:

[b]Combat Calculators[/b]
Under the combat calculator banner there is a link to download an excel file - it is the best calculator out there!  Below this are the game combat values and rules referred to above.
[url]http://www.lordofultima.com/en/forum/showthread.php?tid=50339[/url]

If it's not available, download an older version from the link below.
[url]https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3Wo_xlUBQ_vWDFBbTJfdTBSeUE[/url]

Also, here’s an interesting online calculator for food and combat.
[url]http://www.slechtemuziek.nl/ultima/[/url]

A nice calculator provided by and created in part by [player]WhiteRabbi69[/player]
[url]https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bw6EjkcgITGBODJjYjdkZjctZWVjYS00N2ZkLTk5YWEtNTdjMGM4NjE1Y2Ri[/url]

[b]Raid Calculators and Spreadsheets[/b]
A google docs spreadsheet.
[url]https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aq8bl0ZmBmPjdFpyODlwd3UzWmxIU2g0TTZDWWRYN1E&hl=en#gid=0[/url]

Another google docs spreadsheet!
[url]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsjfJNl7g26HdGRvdTVrNDVpWVpUb0ZkTW9GZEtLZVE#gid=1[/url]

A tool by Fantasizer.
[url]http://lord-of-ultima-tools.googlecode.com/[/url]

Want to work backwords and raid based on the # of enemies to kill!  Try this one.
[url]http://lou-raid.appspot.com/[/url]

A loot calculator provided by [url]anarchy1[/url]
[url]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag3rFFJFmOCNdDZYTjBYWk04S2xYcTJ5ZEF0N2RoUlE#gid=0[/url]

[b]Frigate Calculator[/b]
[url]http://olaim.info:8888/frigs.html[/url]
[b]
Unit Speed Calculator[/b]
[url]http://olaim.info:8888/[/url]

[b]Wiki Site[/b]
Partially out-of-date, but still the best website to learn about all things LoU.
[url]http://www.lordofultima.com/en/wiki[/url]

[b]City Planners & Optimizers[/b]
The best city planner and optimizer out there (that I know of), especially for military cities.
[url]http://louopt.com/[/url]
The original city planner, which is still very good.
[url]http://www.lou-fcp.co.uk/map.php[/url]
An excellent optimizer for resource cities that works with the original city planner.
[url]http://2.latest.loof78.appspot.com/lou_city[/url]

[b]World Map Tool[/b]
Let's you see enlight. areas, track stats, and export maps; but it's out of date.
[url]http://lou-tools.appspot.com/#[/url]

[b]Combat Calculator, Raiding Guides, & City Layouts[/b]
Just might be better than the wiki site.
[url]http://louaid.com[/url]
[hr]
[b]PA Tools[/b]
Makes combat as smooth as silk and adds other various functions.
You must have LoU BOS Tools installed for it to work.
[url]http://www.elaba.net/downloads/paTweak.user.js[/url]
[i]Tool and link provided by [player]Magdelyn[/player]; thank you![/i]

[b]Misc.[/b]

"+" button fills your build que based on your building minister settings
"#" convert the res needed to build
"Cancel Raids" cancels all raids in the current city.  This is a very effective way to recall troops to send on attacks.
"Cancel All" cancels all possible attacks.  The war and defense overviews are more efficient at this.

[b]Combat[/b]

An attack plan in the proper format must be imported to use this feature.  Below is an example plan.  Copy the format.  Replace the date, attack times (if you want), target coordinates, and attack type, either Demo/Fake/Capture followed by Siege/Assault/Plunder.

World 75
Magic 2012/07/04 10:00:00
Cavalry 2012/07/04 10:00:02
Infantry 2012/07/04 10:00:02
Siege 2012/07/04 10:00:04
122:427 Fake Siege
126:427 Demo Siege
135:467 Fake Siege
139:453 Demo Siege

Click the Combat button on the left bar.  Select Import/Export.  Paste your attack plan and click Import!

Once imported, you should see your list of attack targets.  Click the arrow to the left of the coordinates to change the attack type, though the attack plan should define this.  Click the box to the right to switch between Plunder, Siege, and Assault.  Check any options.  Click the button to the left of the coordinates to schedule the attack on the target.

Navigate through your military cities and repeat the above steps.  [b]Warning: you must set Fakes first. [/b] The tool calculates the minimum TS for fakes.  It also calculates the maximum amount of troops that should be available for other types of attacks.  If you set Fakes first, it will subtract that amount from the real attack.  If you set Fakes second, it will not, leaving insufficient troops for one of them.

[b]Scheduling Attacks[/b]

1. Create an attack plan and post it in the war forum at least one day in advance (or use mail).
2. Import the plan into PA Tools's Combat Tool.
3. Switch to the City Group you have for offense.
4. Go to your first offensive castle.
5. Click Cancel Raids, if there are any.
6. Add attacks, fakes first, as per above.
7. Cycle through your castles and repeat 5. and 6.
[hr]
[b]Skragglescripts[/b]
Boss raiding that will blow your mind plus dungeon raiding and other features.
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/142304[/url] Updated: 9/26/2012

[b]Enabling Raidreporter[/b] Optional

Once the addon is installed, restart LoU and open the options pages. (the standard one, not the buttons that LoUTweak and TDK add) There should be a tab titled sksTweak. Open that tab and turn on the RaidReporter checkbox, and voila, this information will be added to all of your raid, plunder, and assault reports:

[url]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6311/raidreporteroverkill.png[/url]

[b]SKSRaid Usage[/b]

To open the raiding interface, click the SkS button at the bottom of your window, and then click the SkSRaid button in the window that comes up.

[b]Dungeon Raiding[/b]

An image explaining the various parts of the interface:

[url]http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/508/sksraid.png[/url]

To add a dungeon to the target list, just click on it in the region view with the interface open. The max and average numbers will be filled in based on data that I've collected.

Once a dungeon has been added to the target list, add a raid by clicking the Add button. Once you've configured all the raids for a city, click the GO button, and it should send out raids.

[b]Boss Raiding[/b]

To use the boss raiding tab, select the city you want to send raids from, click the "World Map" button, which will open the world map centered on the continent that city is on, and once all the black areas of the map are filled in, hit the "Scan" button. It will create a list of bosses on that continent that are high enough level for you to get artifacts from. Clicking the coordinates link for a boss will open the standard attack interface, with that boss targeted, and the minimum number of units required for a guaranteed kill filled in, so all you have to do is click the Raid button.

Only the following types of units will be used for bossraids: Berserkers, Mages, Paladins, Knights, and Warlocks. Defensive units really aren't good for boss raiding, and the only reason I included paladins is because I know a lot of people like to use them to kill bosses because of their speed. Personally, I only bossraid with mages and warlocks.

[b]Incoming Attacks[/b]

Click the SkS button, and just above SkSRaid, click Incoming Attacks.  Ignore everything else on this list.  It will display information for all incoming attacks, like the standard overview.  In addition to this, it will tell you what types of attacks are incoming based on their travel times!!!
[hr]
[b]City Zoom BOS Tools bug fix for Firefox[/b]
[i]by Zenish[/i]
If you are in Firefox, click on Greasemonkey, and right click on the LoU BOS script. If it asks to open an editor, any regular text editor will do, like Notepad.  Find the code below and replace it with the fix.

change line 2608 from:
if (qx.bom.client.Engine.GECKO) {

to
if (qx.core.Environment.get("engine.name") === "gecko") {
[hr]
[url]https://bitbucket.org/tomince/toms-pa-tools[/url]

PA Tools that can be used without BOS. Thank you Edahlbeck and Eatom!
[hr]
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/150349[/url] MERC tools combines pa combat tool and sks with a few extra things
[hr]
[url]http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/152303[/url] MERC tools 3.0
Script has been updated so that SkS works when you click Go, along with some other minor changes.

You must uninstall SkS and PA Tools and you must have LOU Tweak and LOU BOS installed.  This script is highly recommended.  Here are some improvements:

Combat (formerly PA Tools):  Added an option to exclude defense in attacks.  Added an option to always use 3000 TS as the minimum.  Added a Rtn button below Cancel Raids to have all raids return by xx:xx:xx.

Raiding (formerly SkS): Changed raid options max, max+, avg, etc. to max+15%, +30%, +60%, +90%.  Lists ships in Idle Units menu.  Click the city name to go to the city; click the coords to zoom to it.  Added filters for idle units, like Min TS.

i: Incoming attacks info; Mail Lists: premade mail lists for each continent; and other stuff.

Mother of all City Layout threads

City Layouts

[b]Hubs[/b]
[i]WS & IF separate to avoid starvation when filling palaces[/i]
hub: 20m ws; 4m if; 10k carts [url]http://louopt.com/Jyfu[/url]
mili hub: 27m if; 5m ws; 8k carts [url]http://louopt.com/2Ffu[/url]
small mili hub: 18m if; 4m ws; 6.6k carts [url]http://louopt.com/1Ffu[/url]
pala hub: 13.7m ws; 13k carts [url]http://louopt.com/IdNx[/url]
general hub: 15m ws; 14m if; 9k carts [url]http://louopt.com/pdNx[/url]

[b]Navy[/b] (Troop to frigate #s in parentheses)
340k wg [u]or[/u] sloop [url]http://louopt.com/aXhu[/url]
248k magefrig (190k/580) [url]http://louopt.com/K9ev[/url]
232k magefrig (174k/2.5k/530) [url]http://louopt.com/p9ev[/url]
208k magefrig (156k/2.5k/470) [url]http://louopt.com/f9ev[/url]
256k zerkfrig (206k/500) [url]http://louopt.com/MlPv[/url]
228k knightfrig (86k/5k/460) [url]http://louopt.com/9jPv[/url]
236k tempfrig (194k/420) [url]http://louopt.com/2jPv[/url]
228k pallyfrig (94k/400) [url]http://louopt.com/1WPw[/url]
240k rgfrig (120k/78k/420) [url]http://louopt.com/mVPw[/url]
244k rfrig (200k/440) [url]http://louopt.com/fVPw[/url]
220k scoutfrig (90k/400) [url]http://louopt.com/wEPy[/url]
208k xbowfrig (76k/10k/360) [url]http://louopt.com/qEPy[/url]

[b]Land Offense[/b]
284k zerk+guardian (200k/88k) [url]http://louopt.com/epPv[/url]
252k zerk; zerk+guardian (200k/56k) [url]http://louopt.com/6oPv[/url]
244k knight [url]http://louopt.com/snPv[/url]
224k mage [url]http://louopt.com/roPv[/url]
260k cataram (20k/6k) [url]http://louopt.com/TShu[/url]
240k cataram (18k/6k) [url]http://louopt.com/gJ8u[/url]
224k cataram (18k/4.4k) [url]http://louopt.com/SJ8u[/url]

[b]Land Defense[/b]
232k ranger+guardian (152k/80k) [url]http://louopt.com/qpPv[/url]
280k ranger+guardian (180k/100k) [url]http://louopt.com/vzfu[/url]
268k paladin [url]http://louopt.com/QpPv[/url]
244k xbow [url]http://louopt.com/2pPv[/url]
280k ballista [url]http://louopt.com/oqPv[/url]

[b]Invasion / Castle Hubs[/b]
[i]Add carts (maybe TS) if landlocked[/i]
240k sbzerks+navy hub [url]http://louopt.com/gtPv[/url]
192k mage hub [url]http://louopt.com/EtPv[/url]
[hr]
[b]How to Build[/b]
Build 50+ cottages and 2 warehouses (and a hideout and MT if you fear plundering) [url]http://louopt.com/PDfu[/url].  Upgrade the cottages to level 8 or so.  Then build and upgrade all other buildings - recruitment buildings first and barracks last.  Demolish resource nodes in the center (and other areas per design) when you run low on resources, or when it is convenient.  Demolish 8 cottages and replace them with 8 buildings until it is complete.  

[b]Food for Thought[/b]
You should not have farms (in offensive castles)
You should not have sawmills or foundries
You should not have scouts or barons in cataram/wg castles
You should add one hideout if you may want to dodge attacks (on contested continents) without troops starving; otherwise, you must defend all attacks and store lots of each resource to protect food

You should have max shipyards in navy castles
You should have 2-4 lookout towers for max (or enough) warning
You should have 4 camo traps in defense castles to prevent fakes from siegelocking

You may have more food storage and/or carts/harbors
You may leave a spot open for a palace
For raiding, you may mix rangers+guardians and zerks+guardians
For PvP, you may add scouts/barons to all offense except catarams/wg, catarams to zerks/mages, and warlocks to mages (for fast siegelocking)
For Navy, you should have extra frigates: mages+/-55%, zerks/knights+/-35%, defense+/-25%
Recruitment speed rounds down at .49 and up at .50 seconds
For large incoming attacks, you should schedule food shipments to arrive at the castle after the first wave,
You should also set the building minister to upgrade warehouses only and the defense minister to upgrade walls and towers/traps and use a medallion before the first wave

[b]Towers and Traps[/b]
[b]Navy[/b]
3 Lookout Towers + 3 Camo Traps +
12 ballista and 6 templar, or based on nearby defense troops
[b]Land[/b]
3 Lookout Towers + 3 Camo Traps +
6 ranger, 6 guardian, and 6 based on nearby defense troops, with preference to ballista
Traps are only viable inland if you are being or expect to be plundered.
[hr]
I've gotten a lot of questions as to why I'd use camo traps.  Here's how it works:

A fake attack with a WG castle is 8 WGs on siege (since that's minimum TS). As you know fakes are very common, especially for navy attacks. If you have 4 camo traps, you will kill all 8 WGs if you have some defense in the castle. (Purple report; no info). If you do not have the camo traps, 2-4 WGs will survive on siege (red report showing your D #s, castle is siegelocked - i.e. you cannot send resources, support, or raids while sieged - which is important as you will want to redirect support to the real attack, and supporting troops eat your food meaning you have to be careful not to starve them).

All in all, I tested it out a lot and found it to be very useful. 4 bally or temp towers will help your + / - a little more on the real attack though, and you will kill all 8 WGs in 2 waves easilly. Also, you will not need to send support from offensive castles. For defensive castles:
red report showing your D #s and can't send D for an hour in all faked castles versus purple report and able to respond for next wave... you decide.

UPDATED:

Here is another list of builds.


Non castle DEF (i.e. build 5 of these before you build your first castle)
3 sec Rangers (70k ts) = http://bit.ly/gVAxlJ
3 sec Gaurdns (67k ts) = http://bit.ly/hyVCKg
4 sec Gaurdns (73k ts) = http://bit.ly/eFVJDM
4 sec Temps (69k ts) = http://bit.ly/f4F8gb
5 sec Temps (74k ts) = http://bit.ly/dJWLjA
7 sec Pallys (63k ts) = http://bit.ly/gUmtjT
6 sec x-bows (64k ts)= http://bit.ly/igo0Or
35 sec Balst (61k ts) = http://bit.ly/fRZX4y


DEF castles
3 sec Rangers (272k ts) = http://bit.ly/h5kqL1
3 sec Gaurdns (260k ts) = http://bit.ly/htmzNr
4 sec Gaurdns(284k ts) = http://bit.ly/gkomTT
3 sec Temps (236k ts) = http://bit.ly/f2hKZ9
4 sec Temps (268k ts) = http://bit.ly/gI4vnV
5 sec Temps (288k ts) = http://bit.ly/dMg6Sb
7 sec Pallys (244k ts) = http://bit.ly/gUmtjT
6 sec x-bows (248k ts) = http://bit.ly/gyUJjP
35 sec Balst (236k ts) = http://bit.ly/hTOUuD

OFF castles high ts
2 sec Zerks (264k ts) = http://bit.ly/e5kvYp
3 sec Zerks (292k ts) = http://bit.ly/e7ZxYx
45 sec Cats (256k ts) = http://bit.ly/hlwKqI
4 sec knight (212k ts) = http://bit.ly/gQMvEu
5 sec Knight (244k ts) = http://bit.ly/hGAI3l
6 sec Knight (264k ts) = http://bit.ly/eBsigb
6 sec mages (248k ts) = http://bit.ly/fPugpi
7 sec mages (268k ts) = http://bit.ly/ifvUXX

Self Fed Castles
3 sec zerks (180k ts) http://bit.ly/grsOzs
7 sec mage (176k ts) http://bit.ly/i0dIil
55 sec cats (184k ts) http://bit.ly/fICQkP


Navy
1hr10min WarGs (336k ts) http://bit.ly/mjFQTt
3 sec Zerk (252k) + sloops http://bit.ly/kwu35F
35min Frigs_10sec Mages (268k ts) http://bit.ly/my6bfL
35min Frigs_9sec Knights (268k ts) http://bit.ly/m5uBmP
Sloop Defense CIty http://bit.ly/qhGrK7
Templar and Frigate Defense City: http://bit.ly/eVXtXQ

Palaces
6,900% CS, 1s CG: http://bit.ly/qE4S1g
6,900% CS, 2s CG: http://bit.ly/olKwLo
5,900% CS, 2s CG, 19K/hr food: http://bit.ly/nAoK3M

Cs is the construction speed. You will need a very high construction speed for palaces.

Various
Gold water city: http://bit.ly/imfIGW
Warehouse/Shipping hub: http://bit.ly/nun8Tk
[hr]
thanks that helps for new people :)

LoU Tweak & City Planners

Credits to Stonehammer

Every city you build should have a specific purpose and an efficient design.  There are several tools available to help you.

The most important thing you can do is ask questions!  Ask me, ask the leaders or ask any officers.  We are here to help.

You need to install LOU Tweak.  I can't stress this enough. It gives you access to the city optimizer and your share string.  Go to the scripts forum and install that puppy.

Once installed and you refresh, make sure you are in the city window.  Under the Building Queue there is a little P and a little L button.  The L is for lay out.  Click that and you have 3 sharestring options, you can also open your current city in either city planner 1 or city planner 2.

Click the Open in Flash City Planner 2 and you will see what your city looks like in the flash city planner 2.  Here is were you will design your layout.

Once you have designed your layout, click the export button in the designer and copy the long url back into LOU.  On the City Layout box where you opened the city planner from, now click the overlay layout tab, past the long link, and click apply layout, and ok.

Now you will see icons where your buildings should go to match your design.

_________________________
To move your city into the planner without LOU Tweak, click the city notes, then click city planner, and confirm.  However you need tweak if you wish to overlay your design over your city map.

____________________________
To convert any sharestring from city planner 1 to city planner 2, or back, replace the following in the url address;


http://www.lou-fcp.co.uk/map.php?map= in city planner 1
http://city.louopt.com/?map= in city planner 2

Everything after the "="is the same.
[hr]
[b]Instructions and Tips[/b]

1. You should have LoU Tweak installed.  Go to your city and click the L button.  Select City Planner 2 to open your city in the planner at [url]http://louopt.com/[/url].  You may also copy the link or sharestring and paste it into the Import/Export box.

2. Click Lock all Resources if you do not want to demo resource nodes.  You can usually increase production by doing this, but it takes time in the game and can be a pain in the planner.

3. Input the number of buildings to add at once in the Add box.  You will have to add warehouses, marketplaces, etc. manually.  You can add 10 at a time or 90; it's up to you.

4. If you do not select Lock all Resources, add many buildings at once, and do not remove buildings and then add more, otherwise you'll lose resource nodes in the process.  Use the Undo button instead.

5. Adjust the weights based on which resources you wish to produce in the city and which resource nodes are available and can be used to produce the most.

5a. Townhouses do not produce much gold.  Many good players raid and attack for gold instead.  Set the weight for gold to 0 to raid and/or build gold cities separately.

5b. Farms produce twice as much food compared to other resource buildings.  A weight of 0.5 food, which is default, is equal to 1.0 for stone or wood.  Food should not be produced in offensive military castles, as a result, most players end up needing a lot more food as the game progresses to feed their troops.  Food is often built separately for this reason.  Set the weight to 0 to build food separately.

5c. Many good players build cities with all types of resources, exluding gold, including some extra food cities.  Other good players build cities with only one or two types of resources based on the nodes provided.  Over many cities, you will likely sacrifice a little production by producing only one type of resource in each city, but it can be easier to gauge your production and possibly to manage your empire.

5d. Small changes to the weights can have a big impact.  Start small and use Undo or Remove and Add buildings.

6. If you do lock resources, you can sometimes improve production by removing some buildings and then adding more.

7. Hold the shift key to see which buildings are producing the least and consider changing.

8. Replace resource buildings with cottages if they will produce as much or more.
[hr]
Resource Layout Guide:

[url]https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11PAhCWqY-kQWdOLpS3qCm_YR8gA0tH7BLx2fB6t2T3A/edit#slide=id.g21d69ec_0_78[/url]

Military Layout Guide:

[url]https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18oGlkm6XZL5ZS2bnvUOmnxqpNelQ0iS05zy9qu8VBA0/edit#slide=id.g2186eba_0_0[/url]

Thanks to Qwao. Some changes to note: mage tower = moonglow and the author clearly didn't mean to castle a hub. Other than that, the basic points to this are good.

Intelligence from continent rankings

By Ajcatt

It's important to know what your opponent has for offense and defense, but it's even more important to know how much offense and defense they don't have, and this can be very difficult to learn. If you scout a city and see it has 10,000 troops, how do you know there aren't 60,000 more hiding somewhere else? Troops that are moving (other than on the way to attack you or an ally) are totally hidden, so there is a limit to what you can learn with scouting.

In the rankings, you can look up the ranking of people on a specific continent by how much offensive or defensive troop strength they have. This will show you the exact ranking of you and all your alliance members along with their troop strengths. It will also show you the the troop strengths of all the other players, but not which player goes with which figure: the player will be shown as "anonymous." But don't let that fool you, this is not really as anonymous as it sounds. If you know you are about to kill a bunch of troops of a particular player, check out the rankings before and after your attack and you should be able to tell which player's troop strength dropped. This will tell you how much total offense or defense they have left on the continent.

Attempting the most powerful goals - capturing or crushing a castle - are costly. The attacks are so slow, the opponent will most likely have plenty of time to arrange defenses. But if you know their total defenses are limited by using this technique, you can plan exactly how much force you will need to throw at them to make the attack successful.

Of course, you can never be 100% certain whose troops you are killing when you attack, because players can support each other. However, you can be totally certain when you kill troops by defending. If you know your opponent likes to sometimes attack with defensive troops, you can use the opportunity to discover their personal defensive troop level with absolute certainty.