Now I go on with the carpenter, forester’s house and academy. I want to get about 10 levels on the carpenter and 4-5 levels of the other buildings before I go on reducing corruption more. I also always increase town hall as population is getting close to max. If you’re in a dangerous area, increase the hideout and wall level also at this point. I now alternate between reducing corruption and increasing the other buildings levels. When corruption is only 20% or less I fill up the rest of the city with useful buildings.

For your whole empire you only need one workshop. You want this to be in a city on a crystal island and you also want to build an optician in this city. You will use this city for both unit upgrades and buying research. I like to have 2 barracks and 2 trading posts in my whole empire, maybe 3 if you’re really spread out and have many villages. The rest of your villages should have these buildings in order of importance:

• Town hall.
• Palace/residence.
• City wall.
• Tavern.
• Hideout.
• Academy.
• Trading port.
• Carpenter.
• Forrester’s house.
• Wine press.
• Museum.
• Alchemist’s tower/glassblower/stonemason/winery.
• Shipyard.
• Architect’s office.
• Extra warehouse.

Total Score = Citizen + (Value of cargo ships)/300 + Master builder + Generals + Scientists

Citizen: 1 point for each citizen you have.
Value of cargo ships: The total amount of gold you have spent on cargo ships.
Master builder: 0.01 points for each resource you spend building, so a building costing say 700 wood and 300 stone would give you 10 points.
Generals: Your military score, 0.02 points for each resource you spend building troops. When troops die you loose points here.
Scientists: 0.02 points for each normal research point you spend, this increases if you research future researches.

The score system is fairly balanced, troops give more points for resources spent, but they die frequently. Research gives more than building buildings, if you compare the costs, but the buildings will enable you to grow quicker overall. Buying ships also gives you a lot of points, and the more ships you have, the more you can raid. My advice is to try and balance it all, and exactly how you do it depends a lot on the players around you. In general though, you want to focus heavily in research the first few months till you get the important researches done, steam giants will help you a lot if you get them before most other players.

When it comes to military, unless you’re in a war, don’t build more military than you need to pillage and defend yourself with. That can mean a lot of troops or hardly any at all. If you’re in a very quiet neighborhood you don’t need much defense at all, only enough troops to raid with. You need to pay upkeep for your troops every hour, that hurts your growth, so that’s why you don’t want too many of them.

To grow fast you need to get a lot of resource income from pillaging other players. In general it’s not a good idea to pillage other players on your island, as they will hopefully help you in the future by donating to the mill and luxury resource at your island. If they don’t want to donate however, pillage them as much as possible. Have high level hideouts, both for defense and also to be able to spy on potential pillaging targets efficiently. Don’t make attacks where losses will be high, you need to both pay resources to rebuild your lost troops as well as loosing some population for a while. In general with troop building, don’t build a bunch at a time, you want to have close to max population all the time to get maximum income.

One more thing, always have your mills and luxury resources at full production. An idle citizen will only give you 3 gold per hour while a citizen working in a mill will give you at least one building material per hour. You can sell resources for 7 or more gold easily, so it’s definitely the best place to put your citizens.

Risk on a spying mission can never be lower than 5% and never higher than 95%. The formula is:

Risk % = MBR + CR + SOD * 5 + THL *2 – TTL * 2 – AHL * 2

MBR: Mission base risk.
CR: Current risk.
SOD: Spies on defense.
THL: Target hideout level.
TTL: Target town hall level.
AHL: Agressor hideout level.

Mission base risk for some common missions.
Infiltrate Town: 5%
Spy Tresure Chamber: 24%
Inspect Warehouse: 30%
Recall spy: 30%
Spy on research: 40%
Spy online status : 50%
Spy on garrison: 70%

If you play around with this formula for a bit you’ll really see how important it is to have high level hideouts. Most players won’t bother attacking you if they have to waste tons of spies checking out your warehouse and army. Intelligence is really important in Ikariam for sure.

A easy way to check out how much troops he has at home when he’s attacking you use to look at the number of units he’s attacking you with and his military score. Military score is the number of resources you’ve spend building your army times 0.02. A hoplite takes 70 resources to build so it’s 1.4 points, archer takes 55 resources so it’s 1.1 points, etc. If you’re attacked by say 100 hoplites and 50 archers, that would be 140 + 55 points which equals 195 points. If his total military score is say 220 points, he can only have 220 – 195 = 25 points worth of defense left at home. He can of course have reinforcements from other players, but most often people don’t have that.

I’ve heard several times players claiming that you don’t really need war ships in Ikariam anymore once you get the occupation technology. Then you can occupy other players cities and use these as a base to launch attacks after all. I agree that it’s really usefull to be able to avoid other players fleets now and then, but you can’t depend on this strategy for 100% of your plundering.

For one, on some islands everyone has a tiny navy in their cities and then you are not able to occupy a city there without using war ships. More frequently however, there will be 3-4 small cities on the island you can occupy. Using a small city as a base to attack from is not optimal though, they often have tiny trade ports and few action points. If you have to use a long time to load resources and troops you will give the enemy more time to block your city with his fleet, and then the resources will be lost.

Even if you manage to occupy great cities to plunder from frequently not having a fleet of your own still makes you very vulnerable to harbor blockades in general. It’s really easy for your enemy then to just put a few war ships in front of each of your cities, and stop you from both moving troops and resources around. With no fleet of your own it might take you a long time to get help from allies to lift these blockades, and you may end up loosing lots of both troops and resources over this time. My general advice is to have at least 3 war ships for every city that you have for the first few months of the game, and just keep increasing it as your neighbours do so.

Being an active pillager is definitely the fastest way to grow, especially in the beginning. You’ll notice many accounts going inactive, and keep attacking them as often as possible, not more than 6 times every 24 hours though, in case they suddenly log on and report you for bashing.

Usually pillaging active player on your own island is not a good idea, it’s better for you that they grow as long as they donate frequently. An exeption to this would be players who don’t defend themselves and get looted by people from other islands frequently, it’s better that you get the resources than someone on another island does.
It’s important to have high level hideouts so that you can spy many possible targets at the same time, I usually just send one to each target and spy on their resources. If they have a lot I then spy on their military. It’s important to remember to blokade their harbour if they have war ships. Early on I usually don’t bother pillaging people with war ships, later on pretty much everyone does though. In the starting weeks of a new server you can usually just check out their military score and don’t waste spies spying on their military.

I suggest checking your island and your neighbor islands frequently so that you are the first one to notice when someones godly protection has run out. Trust me, your active neighbors will be looking for this as well, so don’t be lazy when it comes to this. It will really help you speed up things early on if you manage to plunder a few of these inactives that come out of protection.

Anyways, when it comes to the actual miracles I only find the one the colossus gives worth the costs. The colossus miracle sends back between 10% and 100% of enemy troops attacking your cities, depending on the level of the miracle. This is definitely useful in times of war, and I wonder how much this will effect combat strategy from now on.

Demeter’s gardens would be the wonder giving the second best miracle in my opinion. Once activated it increases population growth with as much as 400% for 4 hours. This can be really useful if you need to train a lot of troops at the same time to get the population back quickly and thus your income. Anyways, here is a list of the miracles and their effects.

Hephaistos` Forge

Hephaestus, God of blacksmiths, can bless the work of his blacksmiths. Their armour becomes really strong and their swords becomes incredibly sharp for a few hours, so that it is almost as if they have been personally forged by a God.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 All combat units receive +1 armour and +5% damage on their close combat weapons. 2h 20h

2 All combat units receive +1 armour and +10% damage on their close combat weapons. 2h 20h

3 All combat units receive +1 armour and +15% damage on their close combat weapons. 2h 20h

4 All combat units receive +1 armour and +20% damage on their close combat weapons. 2h 20h

5 All combat units receive +1 armour and +30% damage on their close combat weapons. 2h 20h

Hades` Holy Grove

The mighty Hades, ruler of the underworld, can send out terrible Gorgons, who can turn advancing enemies into stone with their stares. However, this does have the pleasant side effect that we always have enough stone at the end of a battle to rebuild our town wall.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 5% of the resource costs for all units that die during fights in their own cities are credited back as marble units. 2h 20h

2 10% of the resource costs for all units that die during fights in their own cities are credited back as marble units. 2h 20h

3 20% of the resource costs for all units that die during fights in their own cities are credited back as marble units. 2h 20h

4 30% of the resource costs for all units that die during fights in their own cities are credited back as marble units. 2h 20h

5 40% of the resource costs for all units that die during fights in their own cities are credited back as marble units. 2h 20h

Demeter`s gardens

Demeter, Goddess of earth and crop can bless your people with a fertile ground and a fantastic harvest. Your population will also increase a lot faster – but only if there is enough housing space and the satisfaction rate is high enough.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 The growth of the population in your cities increases by 50%. 4h 2D 20h

2 The growth of the population in your cities increases by 100%. 4h 2D 20h

3 The growth of the population in your cities increases by 200%. 4h 2D 20h

4 The growth of the population in your cities increases by 300%. 4h 2D 20h

5 The growth of the population in your cities increases by 400%. 4h 2D 20h

Temple of Athene

Athena, the tireless, the invincible, the protector. As protection goddess of your cities and of the craftsmen, she can reinforce your warehouses` walls to hide more resources from pillaging enemies.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 +100% secure resources in all warehouses 4h 20h

2 +200% secure resources in all warehouses 4h 20h

3 +400% secure resources in all warehouses 4h 20h

4 +600% secure resources in all warehouses 4h 20h

5 +1000% secure resources in all warehouses 4h 20h

Temple of Hermes

Hermes, God of travelling salesmen and of transport, cannot stand the sight of stationary ships and unused goods. He fulfils your salesmen`s wishes to get to places faster by giving dockworkers superhuman powers. This means that every ship only has to spend a fraction of the normal time loading its cargo at the harbour.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 The time for loading your transporters is reduced by 20%. 30m 20h

2 The time for loading your transporters is reduced by 40%. 30m 20h

3 The time for loading your transporters is reduced by 60%. 30m 20h

4 The time for loading your transporters is reduced by 80%. 30m 20h

5 The time for loading your transporters is reduced by 100%. 30m 20h

Ares` stronghold

Ares, the detested God of savage warfare, blood-lust and of massacre, fills the hearts of all warriors in the vicinity of your cities with pure hate. These warriors will then charge into bloody combat without a second thought to their own healths, until no man is left standing.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 +50 morale per round for all armies stationed at your cities – even for enemy troops! 1h 20h

2 +100 morale per round for all armies stationed at your cities – even for enemy troops! 1h 20h

3 +200 morale per round for all armies stationed at your cities – even for enemy troops! 1h 20h

4 +300 morale per round for all armies stationed at your cities – even for enemy troops! 1h 20h

5 +1000 morale per round for all armies stationed at your cities – even for enemy troops! 1h 20h

Temple of Poseidon

Poseidon, God of the seas, has sent many a disrespectful sailor on ludicrous odysseys. But those who render homage to him, can expect that their ship will sail over calm waters and will be lead through perfect winds and onto their destination harbour.

Level Effect Duration Cooldown

1 Travel time shortened by 5% for all ships. 2h 20h

2 Travel time shortened by 10% for all ships. 2h 20h

3 Travel time shortened by 20% for all ships. 2h 20h

4 Travel time shortened by 30% for all ships. 2h 20h

5 Travel time shortened by 40% for all ships. 2h 20h

Colossus

The Colossus is a statue of the sun god Helios. He can let the sun shine out Colossus` torch. The glaring, blazing light, which can be seen throughout Greece, symbolises a threat from the mighty God and ensures chaotic escape and confusion amongst your opponents.

Level Effect Cooldown

1 10% of all enemy troops and ships at your cities are driven away. 20h

2 20% of all enemy troops and ships at your cities are driven away. 20h

3 30% of all enemy troops and ships at your cities are driven away. 20h

4 60% of all enemy troops and ships at your cities are driven away. 20h

5 100% of all enemy troops and ships at your cities are driven away. 20h

The barbarian city grows each time you attack it, so you can only attack it once with your 3 spearmen. The next time you need 13-15 spearmen to do the job. On the next attack you will get both 500 wood and 500 sulphur however, which can be very usefull if you can manage to trade the sulphur for something else, either with other players or using ambrosia. If you’re ready to use ambrosia I suggest you do this, use the 500 wood from the first attack to train 12 spearmen more. Remember though, always send enough cargo ships, for the 2. attack you’ll need 2! In the third attack 40+ spearmen will work, the more you send the less losses you have, and you’ll also need an extra trade ship now, 3 total.

The barbarian population grows as n^3, where n is the number of times that you have attacked it. The resources in the village also increases, but not nearly as quickly. I usually don’t bother attacking it more than 3 times, since after that it will have a city wall and you need rams to break it. On the third attack you will get 500 wood, 500 sulphur and 500 crystal and you’ll need close to 100 spearmen.

You can only attack the barbarian village ten times, and when it reaches level 10 it will have 1000 barbarians in it, if you really want to waste your troops getting it this high. Even with 1000 barbarians in it you will only get 1000 of each resource, not worth it at all. Anyways, hope you found this post useful, feel free to leave comments or questions. Happy plundering!

Anyways, your setup is basically a capital with a huge city wall, trading post, trading port and warehouse. This city doesn’t have to be a wine city, all your other cities however should be built on islands with wine, close together is better for quick resource moving and defense. In your capital you can produce whatever you want, you’ll always have your army here when you go offline, and this will be where you store all the resources when you go offline too.

In your other cities you only produce wine when you’re offline, and only enough wine to keep your tavern at full speed. The reason is to stop people from getting anything when they attack you back when you’re offline. When you’re online you can produce stuff in all your cities if you want, and extra resources needed for building will be sent from your capital.

The reason you only want wine cities is explained pretty well in the wine article here. Basically it’s so that you can recover quickly, always be at full population and not loose anything when being attacked. You will probably get a lot of enemies using this strategy, but it’s not really that much they can do to you unless a bunch of them band together, but hopefully you yourself will be in a good alliance by that point. The only city you will have resources in when offline is your capital, and here you will have your whole army and a huge city wall.

You need to be pretty active to pull this off, but to be successful in Ikariam you really need to be active period. This strategy is obviously not for all, some people just like playing the game like sim city and that’s fine by me. I’ll write more on plunder in general, what too look for and so on in another article. Feel free to leave comments or questions.