How payouts work:

When you do Persian Positions, every unit you lose ads its resource cost to your loss total until your next payout. So, the higher the total cost of all your dead units the higher payout you stand to gain.Which means that the game calculates this by the “resource value”, as the total cost of resources required to make each unit. For instance, a Swordsman type of unit has a resource value of 300. That’s because to make one swordsman requires 90 timber, 150 bronze and 60 grain (90 + 150 + 60 = 300). So if you’ve had 100 swordsmen die at positions since your last pay out, your running resource total will be 30,000 (100 swordsmen with a res value of 300 each).So, the trick is to bank the system with low value troops, and get rewarded with high-level troops. “Banking” essentially means sacrificing your units at positions without actually defeating any positions, so your running total of resource value accumulates. You do this by sending units in small groups to positions until it hits the final yellow indicator bar (under the position image), then leave it and move on to another position. You must keep track of how many units you’ve killed since your last pay out so you know you’re running resource value total.Remember that, Persian Positions is 90% investment and 10% gamble. If you follow the strategies on this article, you have a solid chance of seeing a return on your investment but it should be noted that there are no guarantees since you will get faster payment if you throw more expensive units into the greedy Persians!

How to maximize your losses:

It is best to only use units you can produce yourself for this. Usually large amounts of light and heavy infantry.
When you look at the Persian Positions on the Oracle screen, you can see 5 orangy-red bars under each positions picture. The bars represent the total number of enemy units in the position. Your goal is to send just enough units to get a position down to one bar without conquering it, then move onto another.

How to maximize your winnings:

After you are satisfied with the amount of troops you have lost its time to conquer a position.
You want to win on the highest lvl positions you have available until you get your payout. Lower level positions give you lesser quality troops and lesser amounts. Always try to get payouts on the highest level positions.
Try to go back and forth between your quest lvl offense and defense positions until you get your payout. This can work better if you want to focus on def or off. IF you want def units, hit low level off positions and then after 2 or 3 if you haven’t get your full payout hit a def one to receive the max payout!

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND! *IMPORTANT*

Only play Persian Positions when there is a tournament on -otherwise resources lost go into a general pool.
The important thing to know is each level position has a maximum resource value it will pay out.
Always be full of resources when you do PP so you won’t get payed in resources!
Waste your lights/heavy units
Agreements must be on level 20 to the type of units you sacrifice
Activate Elixirs and these must be on the type of units you use
Dominion should be enabled!
The one bar strategy also works well.

Position guide by Pathos of EQ

Persian Position Guide