Grepolis What to do when Under Attack

Grepolis What to do when Under Attack by Cai Tzu

Hopefully at some point you will be attacked by another player if you are then here’s a guide on how to deal with the attack.

First thing you need to do is determine what type of attack it is. If it is just a farming/clearing attack then you should dodge the attack, move your resources out of your city and call up the militia. If however it’s a conquest attack then you need to defeat the attack or you’ll lose the city. First I’ll show you how to work out what type of attack it is.

When you are being attacked the name of the city that is attacking you will appear in the target cities overview:

This tells you how long it will be until the attack hits. Click on the city name to make a new window pop up:

‘A’ tells you how long it is until the attack hits, ‘B’ tells you the exact time that the attack hits [this is the figure that you should tell others when requesting help, not the amount of time remaining. ‘B’ not ‘A’!! Also make sure your system is set to GMT+0 like the rest of the alliance or you’ll tell them the wrong time. If you dont know how to do this then ask!]

There are two ways of working out what type of attack is coming at you. The first one is to use a divine power. Click the tab marked ‘C’.

This will bring up this window:

To see what the incoming attack is click on the ‘Wisdom’ button, marked ‘A’. Then click the ‘Cast’ button, marked ‘B’. If it works it will show you exactly what troops/ships the incoming attack consists of. If it says ‘divine power already enacted’ then the other player has cast a divine power on the attack. Only one divine power can be cast in any two hour period. So if you have time just wait two hours and try again until successful.

The other method of determining the type of attack is to use the map screen. To get to the attacking city:

Click the attacking city name (A), then click ‘To the map’ (B). You will now be show the map screen, centred on the attacking city.

To work out what type of attack:

Click on the little arrow (A), then click on the ‘colony ship’ (B), then hover over the attacking city (C), then see how long it would take a colony ship to travel this distance. If it is similar to the amount of time the attack will take then you know that it is a conquest attack. Bear in mind that this will only tell you what the slowest ship is in the attack, not what else is in the attack. Only wisdom can do that.

If it is a normal attack (non-conquest) then make sure your troops/ships are out of the city when the attack hits, move any resources you can out of the city, and call up your militia to fight them (do this in the farm).

If it is a conquest attack then it needs to be dealt with differently. You cant just dodge it and let them conquer the city.

Most likely (but not always) the conquest attack will be the first one to be launched. And again it is most likely (but again not always) the last attack to arrive. Depending on the size of the player attacking and if they have their alliance to support them there will nearly always be other attacks (and most importantly support, which they wont send unless its a real attempt), if there isnt any other attacks then it may be a fake conquest (more on that elsewhere).

The best thing you can do (especially against larger players and alliances) is to dodge all the other attacks (which will hit before the conquest) and then return your defensive troops to your city just seconds before the conquest. And return you attacking units just seconds after the conquest hits.

When sending units on a journey the travel time that is displayed is only an approximation of how long it will take for them to get there. ~2:40:20 means approximately 2hrs 40min and 20sec. There is an element of chance in the timings that is similar to luck in battles. The time it takes to travel can be anywhere from -30sec to +30sec different from the displayed time. This means that to ensure you don’t mess up the timings you need to launch your defence troops to arrive 30sec before the conquest and your attacks to arrive 30 after the conquest. When you are up against a good player who’s timings are close together you can see how it may be difficult.

If you avoid all the other attacks and return your defence troops just in time to fight the conquest your troops will be at full strength and as a conquest can only come from one city they are at a disadvantage. The reason you attack your own city just after the conquest is so that in case the conquest successfully lands you can kill off the conquest as they will have been weakened by your defences. It is important to do this before any more of their support arrives. If the conquest was defeated by your defenders then your own troops cannot attack your own city so no damage will be done.

Defensive units are:
Swordmen
Archers
Hoplites
Bireme

Attack troops are:
Horsemen
Slingers
Chariots
Light Ships

This list is just an example and is not conclusive or complete, other players use troops in different ways than me.

If done correctly (and with a little luck) a player with 2-4 cities (or even one) can defeat a conquest attempt by another player no matter how many cities they have. If played with skill and finesse you can defeat almost all enemy conquest attempts.

Stormcock 30.08.2010 22:13

very nice post cai, using this you would be able to stop even hamed or i taking your city.

as an example of attack timings, here is one i am doing at the moment and you can see while it’s not the closest I have done, i don’t think it’s a bad example of how close i get with attacks and support.

You would need to recall your defence troops to land back in your city within the 54 seconds inbetween the last attack and the conquest.

Your attack troops need to land in the 20 second window between the conquest and support:

Cai Tzu 30.08.2010 22:50

Thanks for the example Storm.

In this example I would send my bireme to land 31sec before the conquest. This would guarantee it would land before the conquest but of course there would be a risk of it landing before the last two attacks (there’s a 5 second overlap with the attack from Pink so its only a slight risk for the second attack). With the attack from The Erebus of Hades there is a big chance of landing before it but as its onlt 8 light ships its a risk worth taking. And if it was to land before the attack from Pink it would not be the end of the world as its not a light ship attack so the biremes would only have to fight 23 light ships.

For land defence troops it is more important to land after the attack from Pink so that it is at full strength to fight off the remnants of the conquest that get past the biremes. In this case I would aim to land them 28 seconds before the conquest. This is a tricky one because if they land at either end of the extreme time differences then they are either going to have to fight a land nuke or you’ll have defence troops attacking a city (neither being good). But there would only be a few seconds overlap at each end which is a risk worth taking.

With the attacks landing after the conquest it is a lot more difficult, and this is where luck will play a big part, so make sure the defence gets in place at the right time cos you dont want to rely on the attacks. In this case I would split my troops in to three or four attacks, set up the attacks to launch in separate tabs on the browser and then launch at the same time, recalling the ones that dont land at the correct time. If you have enough attack troops in enough cities your bound to score a few in the correct time zone.

If you did everything right (and with a bit of luck) you should be able to fight off a conquest from a larger player with only minimal losses.

The key to fighting larger enemies (single players or alliances) is to keep your losses to a minimum, whilst inflicting heavy losses on the other player. The biggest weakness of large players is that they begin to get sloppy and lazy when attacking smaller players.

ladihawk 30.08.2010 22:53

But you can not recall an attack after i think 10 minutes right?

Cai Tzu 30.08.2010 23:43

True but you’d be checking after about 5 sec and then you should know if it will land at the right time.

In fact if your quick enough you can recall an attack/support and relaunch it. Sometimes you might get lucky and it’s timings improve

ladihawk 30.08.2010 23:49

So you would not send troops/navy away until the attack incoming is within 10 minutes. Am i right?

Cai Tzu 30.08.2010 23:58

Ahh I see what you mean. Most of my support/attacks would come from other cities but you mean from the city that is being attacked.

When its the city thats being attacked you can be a lot more exact. This method is very time consuming, but if you want to be the best…

Every time an attack is coming send the troops away about 5 sec before it hits, then recall it after 5 sec (or 3 sec if your good). The attacks will then miss you. When it comes to the last attack you do the same, and hey presto, your troops dodge all the attacks and make it back to the city easily in time to defend. No matter how good a persons timings are there is no way they can get the attacks close enough together to prevent you doing this. Then for your attack troops. Send them away 5 sec before the conquest hits, then recall them after 5 sec. You will then attack the conquest if it is successful.

Stormcock 31.08.2010 00:24

This is why cai and I don’t fight each other :-)

Again Cai, has it spot on with his tactics on defeating this attack and I would say nearly all the others I have seen. His advice should be etched into you brain for instant recall when needed.

The attacks I put up are a bit sloppy from me as I would have sent a few more land attacks to combat the dodging and the attacks would all be within 70 to 80 seconds of the conquest.

What you don’t see is the rest of the attacks/support. I always have 1 last ls nuke land just before the conquest and after the last troop attack to ensure the conquest gets through :-) It’s from ‘A Pink Fluffy Bunny’ and with a little luck it just scrapes into the 30 second window before the c/s lands to try and prevent what Cai does, sending in biremes to land just before the c/s :-)

Cai Tzu 31.08.2010 01:30

As I said, when players get bigger they get sloppy

If you use these defensive tactics you’ll never get conquered (unless your very unlucky) no matter how big the other player is. Its amazing how few players use these tactics effectively. I’ve only ever had it used against me once and that was the one and only time I have not been successful in a conquest attempt. So make sure you use it.

There are of course various methods for countering these defences, but I’ll go into that in another guide about attacking.

ladihawk 31.08.2010 01:53

Thanks.