building branch cities.

this is my first guide so may need editing-

when you are able to build branch cities there are three different tactics i have seen.

1> build them close together in a clump. this is a good defensive option as it allows the quick dispatch of troops in order to defend a particuler city. however this limits your attacking range, due to the fact that the longer it takes for you to attack another player the more likely they are to hide there troops or reinforce them.

2> spread them out alot. this is good as it gives the range and variety to give you many options fo attack and increases the amount of prestige you are able to aquire. however it is poor defensively as reinforcement is not available to you. due to crop consumption in cities less active players may find it difficult to hold large armies in these branch cities and this also limits how many people you can attack as your army is split into parts over all your cities and you are unable to reconnect them for a large battle. another advantage of this method is that if you are being farmed you can move troops to a branch cities and oasises based at your branch city to feed you troops and they will have a hard time finding you.

3>place 5-10 minutes between all cities. this offers the best of both worlds but however does not offer it as effectrively as the other two options. it is a middle ground. you have the possibility to defend if your attacker is far enough away and also allows you to congregate troops for an attack however not as speedily as option 1. it also does not offer as larger scope for attack as option 2 but is quite a large area if your city placements are clever


p.s with option 2 and 3 try to place your branch cities near alot of crop oasises or forts

IMHO, this is a poor guide. Place your cities where the resources are. An ideal spot is one in isolation, near lots of forts.

this is not a specific loaction but a general guide to where to place them in terms of distance between them and thanks for the idea ill pencil it in at the bottom

It's worth while Nathan. I've noticed a bunch of older players just have their cities all close together.

One key thing about having cities spread is if you make someone mad and they're trying to starve you. If they can't find your alt cities, then you could just move your army, so you don't lose anything.

There's not a better strategy, they're just different. As you said, having all the cities around each other may be useful for troops and resource transport.

I have my cities spread out about an hour a piece, but they are connected by forts. When you click recall from a fort or oasis, the troops return to the city that took that fort or oasis, not the city that sent the troops unless they happen to be the same place.

So now I have this network set up. My main is completely surrounded by about 2-6 minutes, depending on whether you attack with cats or cavs, of forts, oasis's, and inactives. I have about 20 inactives/forts/noobs that are within 10 minutes of my main. My main has a fort that is really close to it that was taken by a city over an hour away. The city that is an hour away has about 8 forts and 4 inactives with several cities by it, but after that it is nothing but oasis's. Meaning difficult to find. There is a fort there that was taken by my main. This means freedom of movement back and forth over an hours distance. I will soon make another link of about an hours distance, but in another direction. You should call this option 4.