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.

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

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.