Beginner?s guide.

[wolf bite]

Beginner?s guide.

I recently received mail from a person names Nuclear Raunch that when he started playing proms, was directed to my journal to give get himself going. Now that he knows the game, he wanted to aid people as he was aided. I think this is a great way of looking at life. I am happy to have been that catalyst. He did a great job and put a lot of work into it.

I reprint his guide. However, since it was made for a different server, had to change all the names of everything (good to have MS word that did a lot of it for me). Some of the math and other things may not be right for our server. Things about race I just deleted in my editing. I will make some notes that better apply to RWL in < >.

Anyone that wants to see the original, or make comments to him may do so at:
http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/promisance/43350-newbie-guide.html

Better to plagiarize (with permission) then write a beginner?s guide on my own.


Wolf Bite

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This guide is intended to help rookies become intermediate players. To become an advanced player you have to play it by ear so to speak. There is no one set way you can run every time to make you the best. As your needs/threats change an expert player needs to be able to tweak his strategy (strategy) a little bit one way or the other to compensate for what has been going on in the prom around him. For this reason I will not even attempt to post a guide to help players become the best. That comes from experience. Although running with a more experienced player definitely speeds the process up a lot.

I. Introduction

A: Prologue

Prom is a text based, turn based online strategy game in which your goal is to achieve the highest networth. Above all, it is a war game. If you get attacked, do not get mad about it. It's all part of the game. Diplomacy is often times key to success, do not neglect it.

B: Terms and Definitions <changed all this part>

Will add more as I think of them.

Mercenaries
Barracks:
Feast: Spell that produces Food.
Espionage:. Spell that gives you the stats for another empire. Very useful.
Demo: Demolish buildings.
Aid: Foreign Aid
Murder:. Spell that kills 3% of an enemies forces. Usually only done in times of war.
Towers: Guard Towers
Indy: Strategy that uses Mercenaries sells to fund itself.
Indy up: Term used to describe the process of making troops.
Huts:
Leader User Fight. Spell that attacks someone for land using Leaders only.
Net: Networth
PCI: Per Capita Income
Public Market:
Shield: Spell that lowers damage from enemy?s spells.
STD: Standard attack. Attack that uses all 4-troop types. Usually only done in times of war.
Open Raiders. Spell that allows you to attack every era.
Leader Loot: Spell that gives you cash.

II. Buildings

A: Tents

Tents allow you to have more peasants. These should only be used if you are running a casher strategy. (see strategy section)

B: Markets

Markets do 3 things, first they allow you to fit more cash in your bank, they give you a little money per turn, and they also raise your PCI (per capita income). The amount your PCI is raised depends on the percentage of your land in markets. I.E. 3,000 markets on 10,000 land will raise your PCI much more than 3,000 markets on 20,000 land. Markets should only <mainly> be used in a casher strategy.

C: Camps

Camps do 3 things also. They lower troop upkeep, lower price of Mercenaries and increase the rate at which the Mercenaries refills. (see Mercenaries section) Camps DO NOT affect Mercenaries refresh <which is about 250 times your land each time you get new turns>. Camps do not lower upkeep enough to make a noticeable difference. The real strength of keeps lies in their ability to lower Mercenaries prices. Camps will give you a maximum discount of 30% off Mercenaries price, and you get this max discount when at 30% of your land is in keeps. <Over 30% of your land in Camps is useless>

Camps are necessary if you are trying to run a reseller strategy (see strategy section) or they are also sometimes used when an empire decides to buy up. 50 turns building keeps can save you 30% more so if you are planning on buying a lot of troops you might want to consider building some keeps right before.

D: Foragers

Produce Food. Simple enough?

Used by all strategies except Leaders and resellers.

E: Huts

Huts (Leader?s housing) make both Leaders and Loyalty. They will produce Leaders until you have at least 100 Leaders per tower. If you ever have more than 175 Leaders per tower then a percentage of your Leaders will die every turn until you get back down to 175 per tower.

The less full your Huts are the faster you gain Leaders. If you have 40 Leaders per Hut you will gain Leaders much faster than you will when you have 80 Leaders per Hut.

All strategies need to have some Huts. Bare minimum is enough to make you sufficient Loyalty to cast spell shield and open raiders.

F: Barracks

Barracks produce troops.

Indys build tons of these, occasionally someone running a different strategy will build a few of these for a run.

G: Towers

A favorite of new players, Towers give you 500 defensive points each. It's not in the guide, but you need at least 100 footmen per Towers <Not in RWL> or they will not be calculated in the defense when someone attacks you. Personally I find they are all but useless. I almost never build any.

III. Strategies

This is probably the most helpful part of the guide for a new player.

A: Casher <also called market strategy>

One of the easiest strategies to play, cashers rely on their tax income to make money. All troops are bought off Public Market or Mercenaries. Some races have a nice market bonus so Mercenaries price isn't too terrible. It doesn't take long to run, and it's hard to screw up but it is not the most effective strategy out there.

What to do when running: Buy troops, grab land, build on it and spend the rest of your turns cashing. Simple enough.

Recommended Build
40% Tents
40% Markets
10% Foragers
10% Huts
Tax 40%

Tax I'm not sure what the best is for cashing on normal code. Try 40%, 50% and 60% to see what works best for you. For all other strategies your tax rate should be 11%. The reason for this is simple, anything above 12% will keep you from getting 100% health.

B: Farmer

This is about as easy to run as cashing, yet is more powerful than cashing. Farmer strategy is done the same as cashers, but instead of markets/huts you build Foragers. Money is made by selling your Food. Food are sold on the Public Market preferably, and the Mercenaries as a last resort. Leaders buy their Food so a farmer usually does best when there are lots of Leaders.

What to do when running:

Buy troops, grab land, build Foragers and spend the rest of your run farming. When done sell as many Food as you can on Public Market. If money is tight just sell Food on the Mercenaries.

Recommended Build:
90% Foragers
10% Huts

C: Indy

My favorite strategy, indy can be a tricky strategy to get down. Money issues can quickly wreck your empire if your not careful. Indys sell troops to fund their runs. Preferably on the Public Market, but the Mercenaries will work as well. When you are learning to indy do yourself a favor and do not bother trying to build all 4-troop types at once. That will wipe out your cash faster than anything.

Build 100% of 1 troop type and when your almost out of cash sell all you can of that type and switch to something else. Do this as many times as you need to finish your run.

Expect to run out of cash when your learning how to play. A good way to help you get used to it is to build extra Foragers and sell the Food on the Mercenaries for a little extra running cash. This is not the most efficient method but it does make it a hell of a lot easier to learn the strategy by doing it this way. Each run try to get a few more Barracks and less Foragers until your able to run by just keeping the Food in the green.

What to do when running:

Grab land until your at low health, then build up land. Repeat this process until your runs is over. If building does not raise your health up much then just farm or cast spell shields to get your health up.

Recommended Build:

For someone new to the strategy I'd go with
60% Barracks
5% Huts
35% Foragers

Experienced players:
90% Barracks
3% Huts
7% Foragers

D: Reseller

Resellers that build Camps to get the maximum Mercenaries discount and buy troops on the Mercenaries and sell them on Public Market for a profit. Resellers do best when they play in a Leader heavy prom. They tend to be underpowered in the beginning, but since they don't use turns they can eventually grow to be the most powerful strategy in the game. Not all proms can support a reseller though.

The hardest part of playing is getting yourself set up to start reselling. You cannot just come out of protection and start reselling and expect to do well. You need some capital to start. To do this, most people start with either cashing or Leadering and switch over to reselling after they have some good cash.

What to do when running:

After you have some good capital you want to make a Leader making run. Save some turns at the end of your run to demo some of your Huts and Camp instead. Remember that your Huts can hold up to 175 Leaders, so be careful when determining how much Huts to demo. The more keeps you have the better, because it will refill your Mercenaries faster and allow you to buy more at once. You must have 30% camps to get your maximum discount.

After you are set up you will no longer run turns, instead you will want to log on several times per day and buy troops on Mercenaries and sell them on Public Market.

Recommended Build: at least 38% camps, rest Huts

E: Leaders

A Leaders biggest strength is their cash making ability. A Leader's biggest weakness is Food. All Food must be bought off Public Market or cast Feast for them. Leaders can do well under almost any circumstance. I will probably add a whole section dedicated to Leader later but for now this is all you get 

What to do when running:

If you are making Loyalty and/or Leaders:

Espionage (Espionage, spell that scans your enemies stats) your enemies to find out what their weakness is, buy whatever troops you need and attack him. Attack to low health then build on land to get health back and attack some more. If building land does not raise your health enough cast spell shield or spend your turns cashing.

If you are making cash:

Cast Leader Loot (Tree of Gold) for your entire turn run. Pay close attention to your grain. If there is some cheap Food on Public Market buy them, if not cast Feast to get your Food.

Recommended Build:

100% Huts
If there are no cheap Public Market Food you may consider going 80% Huts 20% Foragers while your making Loyalty, but make sure your back at 100% Huts at the end of your run.

IV. Common mistakes

Will try to add more as I think of them.

A: Trying to stay in the green on your resources. Balanced strategies just don't work out too well, so just stick with whatever your races strength is.

B: People getting concerned over land. Land does absolutely nothing for you when you are not running, so don't get too worried over losing some.

C: Turn discipline. If it's a 500-turn server do not run with 350 turns. < or whatever the max turns are on your server> Wait until you have Max turns.

D: Low health. Never end your turns with low health. When attacking and defending health is used as a modifier so if you have 20% health, you only use 20% of your army for calculating your defense. What makes it even worse is you lose *A LOT* more troops when you are hit with low health than when you are at high health.

As a side note health is a modifier for resources gained from casting Leader Loot and Feast.

E: Towers. Towers are all but useless, don't bother building them. It's not the end of the world if someone takes your land, and for a few strategies you actually WANT to lose a little land. Further explanations in the upcoming Leader section. < many strategies on RWL use towers>

F: Shields. Never leave your empire without spell shields. Your first cast is 12 hours, after that each cast adds 3 hours to your spell shield. I usually have a minimum of 100 hours in advance. <If you are going to raise them for a long time, best to do it when at low land as the cost is less>

G: Not really a mistake, but many new people do not realize the strategies for each troop changes in different Counties. Look in the game guide under military units, then click on past, present, or future to see what they are in each era. <Does not apply to armies in RWL>

V. Counties

There are 3 different counties in prom. Leaders should be in the Southland for the Loyalty bonus, indy's should be in the Northlands for the indy bonus, and resellers should be in the Mossflower for the huge defensive advantage. This protects them from STD attacks.

A: Southland is where all empires start. It grants a 20% bonus to Loyalty but it gives a 5% penalty to industry. Industry is the number of troops your Barracks produce. Pay close attention to what counties your target is in, each era has its strengths and weaknesses so try to hit them in their weakest point. 

B: Mossflower gets no bonuses or penalties for being in Mossflower.

C:  Northlands grants you a 15% indy bonus.

VI. Leader Casting.

If the spell is listed under "General?s Hut" then it is considered a utility spell. If it is listed under "Warlord?s Hut" then it is considered an offensive spell. All spells take 2 turns to cast. Loyalty required is dependant upon 2 things, the land you have and the number of Huts you have. Land is by far the biggest factor. For this reason many people do most of their spell casting after someone has taken some of their land.

A: Utility Spells

To be able to cast a utility spell you need to have a Leader ratio high enough to be able to cast the spell. Leader ratio is your number of Leaders divided by your number of Huts. If your mage ratio is not high enough the spell will fizzle and you will lose Leaders, Loyalty, and 2 turns. If you have 1,000 Huts and 50,000 Leaders your mage ratio will be 50. You will be able to cast Spell shield, Feast, and Leader Loot. If you wanted to cast open raiders you would have to demolish some Huts to boost your ratio. Then you could cast the spell and build your Huts right back. It is important to remember that if you have 0 Mt you cannot cast any spells, regardless of how many Leaders you have.

1: Spell Shield

Ratio to cast: 15

Casting shield will prevent 2/3 of the damage from any offensive spell cast against you (except Leaders Fight and Espionage). If you do not have any shield up your first cast will give you 12 hours of shield. Each subsequent cast will add 3 hours to the total. This is a very important spell, I would strongly recommend having a shield up a minimum of 100 hours in advance.

2: Leader?s Loot

Ratio to cast: 30

Casting Leader Loot will create money for you. This is a Leaders best friend  The cash gained from Leader Loot is dependent on a few factors, your Leaders (obviously the more the merrier), your health (50% health only gets you 50% of the cash), the percentage of land in Huts (50% of your land in Huts gives you 50% of the cash), and your networth. Lower networths receive bonuses while higher networths receive penalties. The amount gained will drop off when you pass 100k net, 500k net, 1 mil net, 10 mil net, and 100 mil net. <also a penalty for having an oversized army>

3: Feast

Ratio to cast: 30

Casting corn will create Food for you. Food gained is dependant on the exact same factors as Leader Loot (see Leader Loot section above). Results from casting Feast is the exact same as if you had cast Leader Loot and bought Food with the money you gained. For example if you gain $30 mil cash from Leader Loot you could buy 1 million Food with that money. If you cast Feast you would gain 1 mil Food, so either way you end up with 1 mil Food. The advantage to casting Feast is that it costs slightly less Loyalty.

4: Open Raiders

Ratio to cast: 75

90% of the time people fizzle a spell it's casting raiders. Casting raiders will allow you to attack people in any county, be attacked from people in any county, Aid people in any county, and get Aided from people in any county. The first cast gives you 12 hours, subsequent casts add 3 hours to your raiders duration. I never cast this in advance.

5: Close Raiders

Ratio to cast: 80

This will end your open raiders spell, regardless of how much time is left on it.

6: Advance to next county.

Ratio to cast: 90 <much higher and unpredictable on RWL>

Casting this spell will take you from County to county. The effects are not <is> reversible.

B: Offensive spells

Offensive spells lower your health by 2% per cast. Success with offensive spells is dependent on the ratio of Leaders to land for you and your enemy. The actual formula is written in the game guide, but basically it is his ratio of Leaders to his land compared to your ratio of your Leaders over the average of both your lands.

If your opponent has 1,000,000 Leaders on 10,000 land his ratio is 100. If you have 1,000,000 Leaders on 6,000 land your ratio would be 125. (1,000,000 Leaders divided by the average land of the attacker and defender, since one has 6,000 land and the other has 10,000 land the average is 8,000 land)

Now that we have each ratio, we takes the attackers ratio over the defenders ratio, so: 125/100=1.25

A ratio of 1.25 will allow you to successfully cast Espionage, Murder, and Poison. Anything beyond that and the spell will fizzle. These formulas are difficult enough as it is, so I ignored racial bonuses for ease of understanding. Don't forget to add those in if you are doing any calculations on your own.

1: Espionage

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1

Espionage shows you an empires stats. The stats shown are the stats you see on the main screen. Empire status is not shown. This is a very important spell to cast. I scan all threats every run when I am Leadering. I usually message myself with the stats so I save them forever. Plus you get a nice time/date stamp from sending the message 

2: Murder

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1.15

Murder is another often used spell. Murder kills 3% of your enemy?s troops and Leaders. If you are trying to steal cash from a Leader but do not have enough Leaders to do so, try casting Murder to lower his Leaders enough to allow you to steal his cash.

3: Poison

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1.21

Great for wasting someone?s resources, Storm destroys 9.12% of your enemy's food and 12.65% of their cash.

4: Incite uprising:

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1.3

Destroys 3% of an enemies Loyalty. Personally I rarely use this. I would rather wait until my opponent has spent turns using the Loyalty then destroy whatever he made with it (usually cash).

5: Sabotage

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1.7

Completely worthless, this spell destroys 3% of all building types as long as someone has at least 15 of that type. This spell is a waste of turns and Loyalty.

6: Embezzlement

Ratio to beat opponent by: 1.75

What a wonderful, wonderful spell. This spell steals 10% - 15% of your enemy's cash and gives it to you. If you can cast this spell against a rival mage you can really change the balance of power in a game. Well, assuming he has been spending allot of time gaining cash.

7: Magic User Fight

Ratio to beat opponent by: 2.2

This attack takes land using Leaders. It can be useful, but beware, it does kill a lot of your Leaders.


VII. FAQ

Q: When I try to attack someone my generals refuse to attack. Why?

A: If your net is more than 10X your opponenents net, or less than 1/10th of your opponents net you will not be able to attack. If you are both in clans and your clan is set to war this number is increased to 25X.

Q: Every time I attack someone part of my army deserts me for attacking a weaker/stronger empire. Why?

A: If your net is more than 3X or less than 1/3rd of your opponents net you will suffer desertion with each attack. If it's an offensive spell only Leaders will desert and if it is a regular attack only your troops will desert.

Q: I tried to Aid a friend but it said he was out of my range. What is my Aid range?

A: Greater than 2.5X your net and you will be unable to Aid. There is no limit to how low of an empire you can Aid.

Q: I want to cast advance to present or future but I don't have the option. Why?

A: In order to cast advance to present you need to have used a minimum of 500 turns. To go to the future you must have used at least 1,000 turns.

Q: Is there any way to go back to an earlier era?

A: No. Some proms do have the option, some do not. Unless it is as costly as polymorph it will be too easily abused. <Yes you can on RWL>

Q: My health never gets to 100% no matter how many turns I spend farming/cashing etc... Why?

A: It sounds like your tax rate is set above 11%.


I'm tired of writing for now, will post more later.

Sections to add:
Mercenaries
Index
Leaders
Clan play
Put the names of what each building turns to when you change eras.
Add recommended eras for each strategy
FAQ
Reorganize sections in a more logical manner

If anyone has any questions, comments, or criticisms please feel free to post them.

[Gorak]

I've played with Raunch a fair bit, (usually against in war, lol) he is a good player to get advice from

[TorfangStormheart]

Wow this is great, thanks. I just joined today.

[The Lady Shael]

Welcome to RWL.  :-) If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, and we'll do our best to answer. Wolf Bite's Journal has a lot of helpful game information too, you can check out the link to that on the main page.

[Alazar is Back]

i learned alot from that journal, very useful!  :wink: