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This provides basic advice and valuable tips for new players....useful for players in the first 3 months of playing.

 

1.First and most important lesson....do not use Drachmas to buy or revive units until you know what you’re doing.

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Don't waste your money on what look like great Plarium specials until you understand the game basics. Best deals are 70-80% off but only occur maybe once a week or fortnight!

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2. Make "friends" in the coalition as quickly as possible. This does not mean you are best friends for life. Friends in a coalition allow players to exchange resources and agreements 24x faster than if you are not friends. Friends can also repair towers if you are raided.

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3. Another benefit of friends is that you can summon them as "heroes". These are free troops, do not consume grain, and can be replaced every 24hrs if lost. The more friends, the more heroes you can summon (depending on your city's development status).

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4. It is also a good practice to send a jav to your friends (and they will usually reciprocate). Click on "send reinforcement" when you visit their city.

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A jav in some else's city allows the sending player to know what is going on in that city while the recipient player is offline.  Some players send one jav, others send a hero. It lets the sending player inform the coalition if an offline player and has been spied on or raided.

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5. During the first weeks, save any Drachmas, Denarii, upgrade sketches or GP’s (glory points) until you have a better grasp as to where to invest these.

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6. Follow the in-game tutorial (the quest button on left of screen) during the first few weeks.

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7. Grow your Acropolis along with your resource and storage buildings.

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8. Always hide your troops in the Acropolis when you log off, or if you see a raid coming (a red icon button bottom left of screen will show a raid incoming). Hide your troops in the Acropolis and let your coalition know there is a raid coming.

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It should become a reflex action to always hide your troops in the  Acropolis before you log off. Either leave no troops or just hero (see pt 3 above). A hero will "activate" city defences. I leave 4 scouts + a hero at level 61....enough to deter a random scout but also activate city defences if attacked.

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9. Don’t spend Drachmas on walls and towers until later in the game. City defences become important as you progress, but are not critical in the first few weeks.

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10. Don’t play all events; pick those which fit your needs and objectives. However, do participate in all coalition events. All coalition members are expected to participate in these events as the whole coalition benefits - and all members get access to prize packages - these can be found in the Market under the "misc" tab, then the "special tab". Check these everyday as you receive free resources and troops!

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11. Keep your troop strength at grain production levels. You will suffer shortages of resources initially as you build your city and troops. Don't be afraid to ask for resources help in the chat room. Plenty of experienced players sometimes have excess resources that they will happily give you.

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12. Check the Wheel of Fortune daily for deals one cannot refuse … but make sure you really need what is offered. Buying an item one doesn’t require at a discount is a waste of money. Look for deals that are 50% off or better. Try to get a deal with an artisan.

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13. Your very first investment of Drachmas should be a 2nd artisan

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14. Make sure your artisans are NEVER idle. If you are going to use the credit card, artisans are critical as they are needed to build things.

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15. Always scout your opponent before committing troops to a raid or siege. This is a good strategy early in the game. Remember scouts in a city do not die. This means if you scout a city that has 5 scouts out and you send 5 scouts, you will lose your scouts,  the player being scouted will not.

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16. Make sure you are CONSTANTLY updating agreements. Agreements allow you to improve resources and troop strength. Your priority should be to get Temple of Demeter (which reduces grain consumption). Agreements are made up from articles - you get one per day from Plarium. Coalition members often have extra/spare articles that they can send or trade with you.

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17. Trade double articles at the market; and don’t wait too long or you won’t find anyone willing to trade higher level against lower level ones. If you’re stuck with an article, consider donating it to a coalition member or send it to an officer for redistribution.

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18. Save your boosts, specials and dominion speed-up’s for when you really need them.

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19. If in doubt what to build or upgrade, check the quests. (Button on left of screen)

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20. Complete but do not cash in your Divine Quests whenever possible. (1) It’s a good place to stash resources securely and (2) they can be all cashed in when a coalition event involving quests comes along.

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21. Persian Positions (PP) - a never ending topic for discussion in forums and chat. Suffice to say for this brief intro - never use troops you have not built yourself. There is a reference at the end of these tips for info on PPs.

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22. DO NOT RAID or SEIGE coalition friends or allies.

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To determine whether a player is in a coalition that is a friend or ally of your coalition, go to the city in world map view and click in the symbol of the player at the end of their name - a pop up will show you that person's coalition and its status - look at the top right symbol - you will see either balance scales, a pair of olive branches or a dove. Balance scales mean that collation has no diplomatic status with the coalition , olive branches means the collation is at peace, and a dove means they are allies.

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23. You can also check the Embassy to view the diplomatic states with other Coalitions.

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24. If you raid/siege a member of a non-allied coalition expect to be attacked back. It's useful to check opponent’s coalition regarding size, influence and especially strong players in your immediate neighbourhood. A good rule of thumb - don't raid a player more than 5 levels higher than you.

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25. Sieges are the poor people’s raids, raids are most often the better tool. However, do besiege empty cities as they provide some resources.

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26. Early in the game, siege only inactive players and leave simply use one jav as the besieging unit.

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27. Never risk meaningful number of troops at Emporia, the returns are not commensurate unless you are looking to score tourney points. In fact, many experienced players never go near emporia, unless to lay a trap (i.e. filling an emporia with a huge defence force).

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Emporia are especially dangerous during tournaments , with players looking to gain tournament points.

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28. Use the “Contacts” lists to create and update dossiers on your foes.

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29. If sieged, don’t panic. You will still be able to raid, siege and engage in all other activities; the only downside is that the sieging player will leach some timber and bronze off your production (25%). You can easily break a siege or have another player help. Your coalition will usually come to your rescue in any case. Also see the wiki at the end of this article.

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30. When involved in a coalition challenge, check chat or rules of engagement and orders. The hegemon will usually give the coalition directions and advice when a challenge involves raiding other capitals or pantheons of other coalitions.

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Never raid a Pantheon or Capital without checking in chat whether it is ok to do so, as this could start a war.

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31. When studying scrolls at the Academy, take the courses down the middle axis and complete these only as far as is necessary to access the next course. This will later allow you to access other study branches more quickly.  Ideally, the best areas to study initially are scout speed and training speed, and swordsmen and jav training speed.

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32. Remember to complete the divine quests. The longer ones offer up to 30k of resources.

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Completed divine quests can be left unclaimed until needed, but remember that each quest category holds only 10 quests, therefore don’t leave more than 5 quests unclaimed (per category) so leaving room for new quests (unless you have dominion activated, in which case you will be getting 7 or more new quests and should only store 3 completed quests).

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33. Logon daily in order to increase your dominion status and cash in on the Sparta Allegiance prizes.

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34. Attempt to build small, local alliances, especially with a stronger players in your area, even if they are from non-allied coalitions. Most players are very accommodating if you send the a PM asking for a truce/friendship. It is also a good idea not to make enemies within a 5 mile radius of your city.

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35. Upgrade your Infirmary. At level 13, the Infirmary will heal 30% of your troops (but only those used in defence of your city). This is useful as you progress in the game and start using troop building queues that run for days. It means if you get raided, you can recover 30% of your lost troops for free.

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36. Don’t spend resources earned in events or elsewhere; leave them at the Market where they are safe and will soon add up to a nice nest egg for when times get rough. If you go to the Market, click on the "resources" tab - this will show you resources that you can access instantly. See point 7 above - and how to acquire free resources from coalition activities...these get stored in the market.

Don’t forget to claim your reward packs as they expire within 3 days (Market > MIsc. > Special)

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37. Remember to mix and upgrade your elixirs in the Temple of Asclepius and activate those which match your current game plan and troop types. Initially you will just want light infantry elixir.

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Do not upgrade elixirs above level IV until you have acquired a caduceus.

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38. Remember to upgrade the Agora, which will reduce building and upgrade times of your artisan.

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39. As a novice you will be nervous about leaving troops in building queues when you are not logged on. Some players do not build troops if they are offline ever. However, as you progress and learn the game, long building queues are the only way to amass large armies. Hence the need for the upgraded infirmary. Initially however, so you don't lose sleep wondering if you are being raided and losing troops, just build troops while you are online.

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Your chances of being raided are very low if you don't raid others - unprovoked raids are rare when you are a member of a large coalition. But do expect to be spied on occasionally.

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40. Keep an eye out for bot-cities, you will recognize these by their generic names such as “55kjd3ij”and the city name will be a number with a # before it, eg city#12345. These are undefended cities and offer good resource returns. Plarium provides these cities to help players increase resources. Best returns come from bot cities above level 60; however, there are bot cities at all lower levels.

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41. As you progress and level up in SWOE, your need for resources will increase exponentially. Once you reach level 55 or higher,  think about relocating close to a bot line (a line of cities that provide resources).

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Ideally, locate within 10 - 20 miles of the bot line. You can relocate using Pool of Fidelity. Pools of Fidelity are the other item worth thinking about to buy (see point 9 about in-game deals)

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42. If you need to stash excess resources, consider using ships. Create a disadvantageous trade offer and leave your ships waiting in harbour (but don’t be too surprised if someone desperate takes the deal anyway :-).

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43. Remember to pick up the daily offerings of resource in the carts outside the front gate and the small boats in the harbour.

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Check your progress in the Achievements lists, as there are many prizes to be had. This icon will light up green when there are prizes you have earned. This icon is next to the message box at the middle top of the screen.

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44. To move buildings, select “edit mode” (the “arrow” icon bottom right above zoom), then click a building. All structures except default buildings (Acropolis, Infantry Camp) and resource production buildings may be moved, walls, towers and most decor also deleted. Click “Save” (bottom right) when finished.

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45. Engage in chat often so that the coalition gets to know you. The COALITION members can provide advice, support, resources, articles on SWOE and as well as interesting chat on totally unrelated topics.

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Important - you don't need to chat every time you logon, just join in occasionally. Experienced players provide excellent advice -watch what they say in chat and take note.

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46. From my own experience, I've found it useful to keep a notebook close to hand whenever playing to jot down things (from chat ) that maybe be useful later, or so I remember them for reference - that's how I could write this.

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47. Join the SWOE forum -you'll find it under "Community" tab at the top of the screen. Loads of useful info and discussions on SWOE and various issues, strategies, game play.

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48. SWOE is a numbers game. This means how much offense or defence needed or used. Players refer to offensive and defensive strength.

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To work out your own troops' offensive and defensive capabilities, go to the Acropolis, click the recall button, and then select whatever troops you are interested in, and look at the bottom left of the screen. You will see the words: offense, defence and capacity. This will tell you the offensive capability/defence capability and carrying capacity (i.e. how much resources can be carried) by the selected troops.  Click the cancel button (i.e. the red cross at the top right of screen) to cancel doing anything with the selected troops.