Continent map - cost of negotiation with goods and no chance of winning battles

[papashakes]

it seems that so many new players see other player's cities and think I want a city like that and try to rush through the eras.. I know I was one of them..

I've only been playing for 5 months now and joined a guild at about the 2 month mark.. the first and best piece of advise I was given was to stay in an era until you have everything necessary to move up an era researching all tech tree, replacing army, goods and production buildings in a DAY with plenty of coin and supplies to spare..

I was asked to stay in EMA for a year by guild to help with donations from that era.. in return I now have CdM, ARC, TRAZ and TA.. I already had SoZ and CoA.. I also have the goods and BPs for Kraken and AO all with guild help and trades to my advantage.. just not the room yet..lol

do the events.. the event building's full level can be achieved without spending diamonds just look up tutorials on youtube and wiki will tell you all the quests for the event so you can plan ahead.. usually there is an attack or defense bonus for attacking army.. with combinations of coins, goods, supplies and FPs.. but most importantly population and happiness.. i no longer have decorations or cultural buildings in my city and after another couple of events I wont need any residential buildings either..

so to repeat in stay in your age.. join a guild.. if the one your in isn't helping think about moving on.. in 3 months I have gone from chasing my tail to having heaps of everything.. remember Rome wasn't built in a day.. but most of all enjoy the game

 

[papashakes]

sorry I got sidetracked.. to your original thread post.. doing all that I did above has allowed me to increase A/D bonuses for army and the time to trade for future goods.. this has allowed me to both attack or negotiate provinces far ahead of my era on continent map.. as I said I am in EMA but have nearly finished CA sectors on map

 

[Erich Zahn]

I'm quite new to the game myself and I think the biggest tip for any 'newbies' is ... patience.
It's not the kind of game that favours 'rampaging' through the tech tree or adding every new building you get as soon as you can click. You need to balance resource creation with population. Always check how many 'workers' the resource building uses. If necessary, you can remove a few residential buildings and replace them with resources.
For myself, I enjoy using three or four different worlds, checking in with each once or twice a day. When I first started playing, I did everything I could to progress through the ages on the research tree until I was pulled up short by not meeting the requirements.

Now it's a waiting game ... like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow.

 

[Xeon of Camelot]

Have made 3 main cities, one being a diamond farm in the high middle ages which for some reason has lost the reaccuring quest so there has been quite a few dailies that I have been unable to complete as I still dont have a strong enough army to take current sectors of the campain map with the negotiations requiring goods way above my age.
There are quests that I can not complete because they require a technology in the next age to be completed which sit there forever if you decide to camp your age.
So I quite understand where the op is coming from with never enough fp's in the early ages to progress.
Recently the changes to the daily quest where you can change one task therein free of charge helps a lot, together with having a settlement to do easy quests when the daily asks for them.
The good news is that things get easier in the later ages and having a good guild that take your trades for higher level goods needed for negotiations and goods for building Gb's.
As others have mentioned combine FoE with real life and take your time, when you get there you will obtain a sence of accomplishment.

 

[romeo-rainy]

How can you win if your troops are way lower defence and attack?

build it up then, royal marble gateway, event buildings, BR, carosuel, WP

 

[DeJoker]

Hey QueenNicky it looks like you might have gotten a resolution to your issue but just as a side note. Keep in mind that this game was designed to be played slow and steady (per the designers own words) and while it can be played fast and furious there is a price to pay to do that which is usually Diamonds. So if you sit in a specific Age for a few months or so and build up your Goods for that Age along with everything else you might be able to acquire there before pushing on to the next age you will not be hurting. However, do keep in mind sometimes you have to just ignore the daily (like in the neighborhood of about 50% to 75% of the time) or it will push you to advance to quickly in the Continent Map and the rewards are often mere peanuts with the downside costing you Diamonds. Also focussing on Medals for expansion is much easier as well as more efficient over all.
.
As for what to focus on and such, that kind of depends on whether you want to be self-sufficient or not and whether you plan to play slow and steady or something faster than that. If you plan on being slow and steady I have a guide that outlines what to focus on as well as how to complete all 4 Tiers of GE every week without issue.

 

[RichinZhills]

Hey QN, I have 12 Worlds that share about 1k diamonds that I've picked up on GE, Quests, and benefits added by the Chateau. My first 8 worlds I rushed to LMA and hit my wall. I couldn't fight and couldn't trade so I joined a Guild. And as mentioned, the #1 bit of advice you'll get is to stay in Iron Age as long as you can, but if you're past that LMA is a good stopping point too. Past that you'll have to have a good idea of how combat works as units now can hide, heavy units are ranged, and different units gain advantages against other types.
I don't pillage, personally, I feel that's probably the #1 reason new players quit, they don't have any defense and all their work gets stolen, so the game really does suck and they quit. Granted, you can skip that research for a while, but then you can't partake in GE & GbG until you do research it.
So to your issues. I've found that negotiation can and does support you enough to do anything you need in the game. So you have to super produce. Through LMA I had 8 goods buildings for my current Age, more if they were ropes or silk as they're smaller buildings. A huge number of the smaller goods buildings like the alchemist, about 20 of those, and of course the Lighthouse of Alexandria which boosts your supplies. Then I kept 2 goods buildings for my previous Ages. This may seem like overkill, but one GE4 can zero you out if you don't produce enough goods. Also, try to get your friend Tavern maxed out, you'll need to use the Extra Turn a lot during GE, which saves you on spending your diamonds. Almost impossible to get through GE4 without the extra Turn.
So now you're a super Trader, you're getting 2 types of goods you need to trade for the other 3 at 1:1 which is Fair. But as you build up your current Age, you'll need to start trading 2:1 for that next higher Age good, still Fair trading. Eventually, you build up enough next Age goods to start trading for two Ages ahead. And you do this so you can keep negotiating out on the continent which will require those higher Aged goods.
You need to be part of a good guild though, one that's willing to help with goods to build those higher Aged GB's like the Arc, Blue Galaxy, Truce Tower, and others. And when you do trade for those higher Aged goods, round up by 5 or 10 goods if you can. Then after you build your GB, you'll use those goods to trade down. 5 Pearls (Oceanic Future) may not seem like much, but 5 OF will be 10 AF, 20F, 40T, 80C, 160PM, 320M, 640P, 1280I, 2560 Colonial, and over 5k of LMA goods. Along the way, trading down, you can leave a little in each Age.
But, if you really want to be a good player, you need to apply a little of your game time to research. This includes visiting wiki pages, watch youtube videos, and using the forum. You'll get a lot L33T's telling you you're a Karen, but ignore them. Some of the moderators think they know it all, but they're a player like all the rest of us. So if you haven't, start a second world and don't go past Iron. I'm in A, B, C, D, E, J, K, L, N, O, P, and S worlds. My Iron cities are in C, D, K if you want to join one of those and look me up. In a few months, you'd be rockin' the game and really enjoying it.