BALLISTA NPC FARMING

Subject: BALLISTA NPC FARMING Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:33 am

Ballista

CONTENTS

1. General Information
2. Level 1
3. Barbarian/NPC Farming Attacks
4. History

General Information

Ballistas have a long shooting range and are effective against other siege weapons.

They are very effective against fortifications as they out-range Archer Towers. Currently, they can capture Cities on their own without any supporting troops. Balanced against this is the amount of resources required to build them and their very slow rate of training.

LEVEL 1

Prerequisite	Required
Construction	Lvl 9 Barracks
Technology	Lvl 5 Metal Casting
Technology	Lvl 6 Archery
Food	2500
Lumber	3000
Iron	1800
Construction Time: 50m 00s

Life:	320
Population:	5
Attack:	450
Defence:	160
Load:	35
Food:	50
Speed:	100
Range:	1400

Barbarian/NPC Farming Attacks

This is a Ballista / NPC farming table. All figures are conservative due to the high impact of losing! The lower level NPC's can supply all the resources a huge army or growing city requires without any expenditure other than time. Number of carts to carry off the booty will vary with Logisitics Research level. The Hero's Attack Stat is important as losses can be sustained even at low NPC levels with a poor leader. The NPC will take about 8 hours to regenerate resources, (NB: defences are much faster) so try for two attacks a day.

At lower levels, do not send any troops other than Ballista and Carts - they are sacrificed for no gain. At L6 and above the NPC's have Defensive Trebuchets, and greater range from higher walls to carry out counter-battery fire against an attacker, so sacrificial "cannon fodder" should be included in the attack to soak up the defences while the Ballistas do their work.

Horse Riding level also has an impact, the higher the quicker the Ballistas close up and the fewer the losses.

Level	Ballistas	Lost	Troops Shield / Loss	Hero Experience	Result	Archery Level	HorseRiding Level
1	18	0	0	1k	win	10	9
2	36	0	0	1k	win	10	9
3	150	0	0	40k	win	10	9
4	250	0	0	43k	win	10	9
5	450	0	0	90k	win	10	9
	500	500	0	12k	loss	6	3
	665	665	4kW/4kW 5kA/5kA	75k	loss	7	6
* Casualties, Unavoidable from this level. Max out Research to minimise *
6	1.6k	217	20 kW / 20 kW	300k	win	10	9
7	2k	2k	0	120k	loss	10	9
7	4k	368	50 kW/7.7 kW 10kA/4kA	440k	win	10	9
8	5k	0	40 kW/4.9 kW 30kA/9.2kA	679k	win	10	9
8	5k	403	50 kW/7 kW 22kA/9.9kA	666k	win	10	9
9	5k	0	50 kW/37.5 kW 30kA/9.6kA	1072k	win	10	9
9	4.5k	0	40 kW/29.6 kW 40kA/9.2kA	1074k	win	10	9
10	5k	5k	34 kW/34 kW 38kA/38kA 750C/750C	552k	loss	10	9
	18k	0	80kA/14kA	1.8M	win	10	9
	18k	150	80kA/15kA	1.8M	win	10	9
10	16K	0	81kArchers/11k Lost, 1 each other soldiers. 100+ Attack hero.	1.8M	win

Key:	W	A	S	P	Cv	Ct	C
Key:	Warrior	Archer	Swordsman	Pikeman	Cavalry	Cataphracts	Catapults

Entries on this table can only be gathered at some expense, but will be updated as and when new data becomes available. Please feel free to add your own.

Notes:

NB: Where Ballistas numbers are shown above, the attacking side has

>100 Attack stat Hero (>130 for L10's)
>1W/1S/1P/1Cv Archery Tower fodder

Results will almost certainly be worse with lower stats and levels.

Single 'stuffing' units to fiddle the archery combat system are not shown.

Bear in mind that an experience return of, say 679k, for a successful Lv8 attack is a quick way to build up a Hero. It also assists with Medal Farming.

Be careful in your force mix. If you include just one Catapult with a Ballista Attack, this catapult determines the start range of the attack - the Archer Towers will hammer your Ballistas as they roll on into range without answering. The Archer Towers seem to prefer attacking advancing troops to the exclusion of the stationary ones. eg an Archer/Ballista Attack the Archers suffer casualties only.

An L10 is susceptible to a one-off combined forces attack wave, but you need an L10 Rally Spot 100K limit. You don't need a sacrificial Warrior attack to clean out the Traps.

Rolling Logs still soak up damage although they can't come into play during a ranged attack from Archers and Ballistas.

Unhappy Results (for those who did not read everything above!):

I lost 650 ballistas against a level 5 NPC. 750 Rolling Logs are added at level 5 NPC.

Lv6 NPC Lv9 archery Lv8 horseback riding. I tried 2440 ballista 20k Warriors 1s 1p and lost

I attacked a Lv 4 NPC with 450 balistae and lost because I had Lv 6 archery and Lv 5 horse back riding.

Don't do like me and attack with low level archery or horse back riding or you will lose

Attacked Lv5 NPC, 512 balistae, 183 transporters, Lv8 archery, Lv9 horse back riding: lost

I find attacking a Lv5 NPC with 480 Ballistas and 410 Transports, L10 Horseback Riding, Logistics, Archery and a 300K+ experience Hero proves to be the best with no losses. Sending any Hero under 200K experience could result in losses.

Lv4 NPCs = Ballistas 400 Transports 350 and the same stats as above.

The Lv5 NPCs will provide all the Food necessary for your Large Army (Troops) The more you have around your cities the more food you can obtain.

History

During the days of the Empire conquests, the ballista proved its value in sieges and battles, on ships, and on land. It was even used to quell riots. Many archaeological finds of ballistas date from the time of the Roman Empire; ancient technical manuals and journal accounts have been used to reconstruct these weapons in modern times.