Grepolis Conquering Guide

BEFORE YOU ASK A QUESTION: THIS GUIDE IS 99% COMPREHENSIVE! I almost guarantee your question is already answered so read it. DO NOT ask a question if you haven’t read the guide completely. I may have missed something but it’s highly doubtful. I’m just sick of answering questions that are already in here so I will not be answering any questions that I’ve taken hours writing up in this guide. You can take 5 minutes to read it.This is a guide giving you the basics of how to establish a hostile takeover of an enemy city.
This act is known as Conquering. There is a difference between Conquering and Colonization. Colonizing is the act of establishing a new city at an empty plot. These are marked by a flag with an anchor on it. Cities that have turned gray(inactive) still require to be conquered.

Some random questions at the bottom:

So here’s a step by step guide on how conquering works.

Before you get started, please make sure you have the required Culture Level. You start off at Culture Level 2, and thus are able to take 1 extra city. After that, you need 3 Culture Points to get Culture Level 3, 9 Culture Points to get Culture Level 4, and so on. Your Culture level limits how many total cities you can own. As long as you have a high enough Culture Level you can take over as many Cities as you’d like.

1. Build a Warehouse and level it up to 11. This is needed for the next step.

2. Build an Academy and level it up to 28. This is required so that you can research Conquest.

3. Upgrade your Warehouse to 23. This is required since you need 16000 of one resource to research Conquest. Please note: You can also research Ceramics to gain an extra 2500 storage space. This will save you from having to upgrade the warehouse to 23.

4. Research Colony Ship and Conquest.

5. Build a Harbor and level it up to 20.

6. Build a Colony Ship. Please note: A population of 170 is required to build the Colony Ship. This population is refunded either once the Ship is destroyed or you complete the Conquest. A Colony Ship is required no matter who you’re conquering. Even if your target is the city right next to you.

Please Note: All researches and the Colony Ship must be from the same city.

7. Choose a target. It is advised that your target be cleared first. Send in a few military raids to clean out all his military. Please Note: While your target does not need to have a harbor, it is not advisable to attack someone with out it. Why waste a Conquer attempt on someone that isn’t too advanced. Also Note: Your Colony Ship can only travel for a maximum of 48 hours no target can be further than that.

8. Attack your target and add your Colony Ship as one of the attackers. This will automatically make it a City Takeover attack. Note: You are required to send both Transport Boats with land troops and combat naval units (Light Ships, Biremes, Triremes or Hydras) with the Colony Ship.

8. A Colony Ship has a speed of 3 so, this will take a while.

9. Once your forces make it to the enemy city the battle will take place in two phases; a naval battle first(your ships against theirs so make sure you have attack ships), if they have a navy, then a land battle, if they have any units left. If no units are present you automatically win that phase.

Losing the Naval phase will mean the destruction of your Colony Ship. If you destroyed all Combat ships (Light Ships, Biremes, Triremes or Hydras) but Fire ships then killed off your remaining combat ships you will have lost the Naval phase but luckily your Colony Ship will survive and head back home with any remaining Transports.
Losing the Land phase will mean your Colony Ship goes back home.

10. You now occupy the city. Occupation lasts for 24 hours(12 for Gamma and Epsilon); 26.4(13.2 for Gamma and Epsilon) if your target has researched Democracy. After the successful attack you can recall any troops you don’t want to keep during the Occupation. You may even recall your Colony Ship if you so choose to end the conquest. Please note that now that there’s an occupation the controller of the target city cannot build anything in the city. All he can do is get an update on troop movements and the amount of troops present in the city.

In order to view the status of your occupation you simply click on the Mission in your attack Sidebar.
A report will pop up with a breakdown. This image is similar to what both the attacker and defender would see:

11. During the occupation, any attack on the city is an attack on the occupying troops. Any support to the city is support to the occupying troops. So, if you don’t feel confident enough, send more units to support your forces or ask others to help you with support.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are trying to help an ally that is being conquered DO NOT support him after his city has become Occupied since you will now be supporting the occupying army. You have to attack the city. The opposite is also true. So, if you are helping an ally conquer an enemy city DO NOT attack said city after it has been occupied since you will be attacking your ally. You have to support the city then. Attacks and support can be sent before the Colony ship hits. Just make sure that you have your timing correct. If you’re helping an ally conquer and your troops will arrive after the Colony ship, send your troops as support.

ANOTHER NOTE: Once you occupy a city, you are the defender. That means if your units are attacked they will be defending. So, if you sent in nothing but offensive units they will be at a HUGE disadvantage. You will also gain the use of the city’s wall. After the initial battle, send in defensive troops to support your conquest. Better yet, clear before sending in your Colony Ship and that way you can send in a few chariots which work as both offense and great defense.

In order to see incoming troops to the city you occupy, you must click on the mission itself in your military activity side bar and then clicking on the second tab in the open report. Here you will see any incoming troops. (Please Note: This image is similar to the image the defender can see)

12. Finally, at the 24(12 for gamma) or 26.4(13.2 for gamma) hour mark, congratulations the city is now yours.

TO END A SIEGE:
If you want to end someone else’s siege there are two ways to go about this.

1. Destroy all the Naval units defending the Colony Ship and be the victor. This will destroy the Colony Ship.

2. Destroy all land units defending the city and be the victor. This will send all naval units back to their city except for the Colony Ship which gets destroyed.

Questions:

• What happens to the person who had the city before it was conquered? The city is lost. If that was the only city that the player had, he must now restart.
• What happens if you send 2 colony ships? It makes no difference how many colony ships you send. The second ship will simply land, then turn around and head back home You will receive a report about your troops having Tea.
• What happens if your troops were not in the City when the colony ship lands?
  If they return home in time they get into a battle.
  If they were supporting someone else and were not recalled they simply disappear when (and if) the city is lost.
  If they were supporting someone else and were recalled and in transit when the city was lost they arrive home but are now under the control of the owner of the city. (This may be a bug.)

Other Questions:

• Is the ‘Occupied’ player able to see exactly what forces are occupying so he/she knows what level of assistance is required and call for help accordingly? Yes he can see the troops and the troop movement occuring in his city. He cannot do a thing. (Thanks Serenity)
• To ‘relieve’ the occupied city, do you just have to kill the occupying troops, or do you have to destroy the conquering/colony ship? Or both? Technically both.
  The colony ship can only be destroyed after the forces defending it have been, basically operating like a Transport ship. 1 Swordsman is enough to stop it from being destroyed.
• My question relates to Gamma and Epsilon world. I have seen a reference to it being at double speed. Will our occupation times be 12 hours instead of 24? Since world Gamma is a x2 World that means that conquering is sped up as well. Instead of taking 24 hours, conquering on gamma world takes 12 hours.
• What happens if your troops were out farming when the colony ship lands? They get into a battle when they return home. After they return, they attack the invader’s occupying forces.
• What would happen if you wanted to ‘time’ sending in supporting troops for an ally who was about to conquer a city. So his colony ship hasn’t actually arrived yet but you want to send in troops to help. Would you send them as attack or support? Well this depends on how you’re trying to help. You can send your troops in earlier, as an attack, to help him clear. Or, you can time them to arrive after, as support, to help him hold the city for the required time. Please Note: Grepolis does not operate on definite times. When attacking and supporting player cities time is approximate. You can see that since there’s a ~ in front of the time. So, make sure you allow for that.
• What is the difference between Colonizing and Conquering? Colonizing is the act of establishing a new city at an empty plot. These are marked by a flag with an anchor on it. Conquering is the act of sending a hostile force to a player city and taking it over. Cities that have turned gray(inactive) still require to be conquered.
• Can you conquer a village anywhere? No. The maximum duration for Conquering is 48 hours.