Stratagems and Strategy: The Empty City

You’ve been drilling the troops for days, training day and night, and you’ve amassed an army the likes of which Evony has never seen. Your supplies are plentiful, your numbers overwhelming, and all of your preparations are complete. Today, all of that work is going to pay off: you’re going to march across the map and finally, finally sack that enemy city that’s been in your sights since you started playing.
 

Just to be sure, of course, you take a moment to gather some last-minute intelligence on your foe, to make sure you’ve got enough troops to finish the job… but what’s this? The enemy’s numbers are lower than you expected… a little too low. So, here’s the million-prestige question… is this a bluff – or is it a double-bluff? The Stratagem of the Empty City has outfoxed military leaders for centuries, so what chance do you have against it?
 

 

Simply put, to employ an “Empty City” is to make your numbers appear deliberately smaller than they truly are. In Evony, this means your opponent sees your troop numbers appear 10%-20% below their actual levels for 24 hours. At its most basic, this can be used to trick the enemy into attacking when they believe they have superior numbers, only to be annihilated when they blunder into an army larger than they had expected. But what if your foe sees that trick coming? Historically, the most cunning generals have found the Empty City most effective as a method of reverse psychology!
 

Evony may take place in a medieval setting, but the game draws inspiration from many periods of historical warfare. In this case, we look to the Thirty-Six Stratagems of ancient Chinese warfare, the 32^nd of which is the Empty City. As in Evony, this ruse simply involved disguising a fort or town to understate its troop population, but the most famous example of its use was for defense rather than ambush. As the story goes, the military strategist Zhuge Liang was tasked with defending the city of Xicheng with only a few thousand troops, when he learned that his enemy, Sima Yi, was en route to attack with over 150,000 men.
 

 

Zhuge Liang ordered the city gates to be left open, and had his men disguise themselves as civilians, calmly sweeping the streets when the enemy army arrived. When Sima Yi saw the “Empty City,” he refused to believe the illusion, believing that the appearance of poor resistance surely meant a trap was awaiting him inside. Unwilling to take that chance, Sima Yi retreated – despite having actually having an army that outnumbered his foe by almost a hundred to one!
 

So, the next time you’re preparing for war, and you see an enemy city that’s just a little too unprepared for your attack, ask yourself… do you feel lucky?

Alliance of the Month #1: EQUINOX

 
For the month of December we decided to shake things up, venturing away from our monthly play profile and choosing instead to feature an Evony Alliance of the month. The competition was fierce with many great Alliances big and small entering to be picked. We would like to congratulate EQUINOX on being chosen as the first Evony Alliance of the month!
 

What is your Alliance’s name? Which Age(s) and Server(s) do you play on?
Official alliance name is EQUINOX. We play Evony Age II on server na16 – Gauntlet.
 

When was your alliance founded? How long has it been together, and did it come from any other alliances that may have merged?
EQUINOX was founded between July 20 and August 12, 2010 by CrZyRaNgEr (CR) and was formed by two main alliances: Unity and Marauder. Barr took over host-ship about 6 weeks after EQUINOX was founded and hosted until the summer of 2011. Prodigy and WarQuest merged in with EQUINOX in 2010, and Discord and BlackOps merged in late 2011. EQUINOX has been alive and kicking for over a year now thanks to its wonderful hosts.
 

 

How did your current host come into her position?
LA (meaning Lady Angel) is host of EQUINOX, chosen by alliance vote. LA joined EQUINOX in September of 2010, when Barr coaxed a merge with WarQuest, which was hosted by Lady Angel (now LA).
 

What is your current rank? What was your best rank of all time?
EQUINOX is ranked 1st on the server, this is our best rank. We take pride in our rank at number one and believe we are in the position because we refuse to bully the server or any individual on the server; everyone at one point was learning how to play Evony!
 

What is something cool/interesting about your Alliance that people may not know?
The average player is around 40 years of age in EQUINOX. We have few rules in game play, however our members are very respectable in alliance chat without rules. We have a few friendly alliances that we are very close to. So close that our members visit our friendly alliances often. LEGEND2 (another top alliance) set up a voting rotation on the server. When they invited EQUINOX to join the rotation, Repent (our largest enemy) was in the rotation. Both EQUINOX and Repent voted for each other during the others turn even though both alliances are long-time enemies.
 

 

Tell us about a particularly interesting battle or conquest you had as an Alliance!
When Prodigy merged with EQUINOX they were based in Bavaria alongside Repent (our enemy). Both EQUINOX and Repent wanted Athens (the Historic City lvl 16 in Bavaria), and the race to conquer the lvl 16 city was on. EQUINOX set up to group attack Athens for the first time earlier in the year 2011. We were becoming experts at conquering lvl 14 cities; however lvl 16 was a challenge. Our first attempt failed. About a month later, EQUINOX heard rumor that Repent had tried to conquer Athens and failed. We set up for another attempt to conquer Athens, yet again failed. About a week or so later Repent conquered Athens and the war begun. For a month, EQUINOX attacked Athens and Repent policed all of EQUINOX members that resided in Bavaria. Until one day, Repent decided to abandon Athens to NPC again. Sometime later EQUINOX conquered Athens and we are still happy owners of it today!
 

What has contributed most to your Alliance’s growth?
Besides constant communication between friendly alliances and the family atmosphere inside the alliance, being honest and fair is probably the number 1 reason members want to join EQUINOX. The hard-working hosts have kept members active, which also helps.
 

What is it about Evony that keeps your Alliance together?
The fact that Evony has a chat where up to 100 members may interact to build friendship and a sense of camaraderie is the biggest reason some play the game at all. Many in EQUINOX have become very close to each other; some members even visiting each other in real life.
 

What do you think makes a great Evony Alliance member?
Our best alliance members help other members in every way possible. The easiest way is to share an army or resources. However EQUINOX is all about TEAM players because together everyone achieves more. Team’s play on each other’s strengths, for example one member may be better at gathering resources, another member building huge army to reinforce other members, another a great leader, and yet another coach for defending. Each member will have strengths and a great alliance member will share his or her strengths with every member without question.
 

If you could use one adjective to describe your alliance, what would it be?
Encouraging.
 

When off the Evony battlefield, what do your members like to do in their free time? Do any of your players have any fun or interesting hobbies?
EQUINOX members like to figure skate, mud wrestle, ride dirt bikes, compete in WW2 rifle shooting competitions, camp, watch the History Channel, photograph, read, take nature walks, tattoo, create PowerPoint templates, club, participate in western martial arts, paint decks, ride Harley Davidson’s, and play live music. One of our coolest hobbies is scuba diving, and two of our members go on vacation scuba diving.
 

 

Is there anything else you would like to mention? Would you like to give a shout out to another alliance?
EQUINOX works with all the alliances on the server to make na16 a nice place to play. We captured Atlantis with the intention that Atlantis will not policy any city unless the city is attacking Atlantis. We put Barr as Atlantis owner because he is very respected on the server and believes no policy will keep the server alive. We have a “no burn” policy with our largest enemy Repent. Both Repent and EQUINOX believe we cannot play war with each other if we do not have food in our cities.
 

EQUINOX would like to give a big “thank you” shout out to our biggest enemy; Thank you Repent for being our enemy and making the game fun and exciting.
 

Thank you again to all of the Alliances who entered to be featured. Keep growing, battling, and having fun, and your Alliance may be featured as our next Evony Alliance of the month!

Winter Warfare

As we delve deeper into the holiday season, battles often become as fierce as winter storms and troop morale can wane. In honor of the winter season and the battles and wars you are currently engaged in, we wanted to share a special blog post with you on winter warfare.
 

We start off with the Winter War, a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland that raged from 1939-1940. The war began with a Soviet offensive against Finland, where the Soviet army seemingly had the upper hand with three times as many infantry soldiers, 30 times the aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks as the Finnish army. Despite these immense advantages, the Red Army had been recently weakened by Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937. The Great Purge lowered the Soviet army’s morale and efficiency, and saw as many as 30,000 Russian military officers thrown in jail. The Finnish army had higher levels of soldier commitment and morale, which allowed them to resist the Soviet invasion for much longer than expected.
 

The bleak expanses of Russia have also led to the term Russian Winter, which is used to explain the many military failures of enemies who try to invade Russia. The Russian winter is especially harsh, with average battle temperatures ranging from -20°C (-4°F) to -30°C (-22°F). Russian army victories aided by the cold Russian winter can be seen as far back as 1707, during the Great Northern War. Past Russian militaries also used a “scorched earth” strategy, which involved destroying anything in their own lands that the enemy might take advantage of as they fought deeper into Russia. These tactics, paired with the Russian Winter, made Russian armies a formidable military foe.
 

Thus concludes our foray into winter warfare. Best of luck in your Evony holiday and winter battles! Dress warmly, and try not to get caught in the snow.
 

Sources: Wikipedia

Player Profile #12: Tiffany, Aspiring Evony Novelist

 
For our November player profile, Team Evony talked to Tiffany, an aspiring novelist and player on NW02. Tiffany began playing Evony at the recommendation of her son, and the rest is written in the books of battle history.
 

How long have you been playing, and which Age(s)?  
I’ve been playing Age 2 NA35 for about 5 months now. It seems like forever since I spend so much time on it.
 

What do you do for a living?  
I am a Real Estate agent and property manager. I’m also a single mother of the best three boys ever.
 

What’s something cool/interesting about you that most people don’t know?  
I am pretty open, I don’t hide much. I guess it’s that I love to write and I am working on a novel that I’ve been working on it for years. When I am not working and playing Evony I am writing. I love to read everything. I also have a love for cooking. Not many people know but I can cook really well and thought about going to school for it.
 

 

Besides Evony, what else do you do for entertainment?  
I love to read and write, as well as spend time with my kids. I also love to watch movies.
 

How’d you first hear about Evony? 
My 12 year-old son plays Evony, and he said I should try it. The rest is history.
 

What was it about Evony that kept you coming back? What do you like about the game? 
I found it thrilling it wake up every morning to check my war report and see if someone attacked me. There was a rush when I sent my troops out to war, and it was nerve racking to wait to see if I won. I came back every day to build and try to become better than the next player.
 

Do you consider any players you’ve met friends? 
Yes. There are a few players here that I have become great friends with. My alliance is like a family to me. I feel like the mother hen watching and teaching her chicks.
 

What’s been a moment in your time playing Evony that’s been particularly cool or interesting?  
In one of my first wars someone sent their troops to attack me. I prepared and put all my troops in my one city, and just seconds before he attacked, he recalled his troops. He then mailed me and said “well played my lady”. I will never forget that moment.
 

 

Has there ever been a particular battle you’ve been where you experienced something crazy or didn’t think you were going to win but then actually did? 
One time a player’s troops out numbered me two to one, but had a fellow alliance member reinforced me at the last second and we won the battle and went on to capture my very first hero.
 

Anything else you feel like mentioning? Want to shout out to your alliance or another player?  
I would like to give a shout out to all of NWO2. I would like to thank Andrew for the nomination and Kenjo for teaching and helping me with everything. Also, thanks to Beer Baron for giving me a chance to help others.
 

History of the Excalibur

 

 
Just a few weeks ago, we asked Evony players what their favorite and most tactical battle item is in the game, and many of you banded together, shouting battle cries of, “Excalibur!” In the game, it may be a week-long 25% attack buff for Heroes, but do you know which actual Historical Hero was the arm behind the true Excalibur?
 
Excalibur is the sword of legends, wielded by none other than King Arthur himself—or so the legends say. There are many different origin stories of the sword. You all may be familiar with a little story called the Sword in the Stone? In this version of Excalibur’s origins, only “the true king” would be able to yoink this heavy weapon from its stony holdings, which is when Arthur obtained Excalibur and becomes the king. Can you believe that Excalibur actually breaks in the brutal battle between Arthur and Lancelot? Luckily, the Lady of the Lake is said to have repaired it for him.
 
Other stories say the Lady of the Lake is the one who gave Arthur the Excalibur sword. Merlin brings Arthur to a lake where he meets the Lady of the Meet. A hand then surfaces from the middle of the lake holding the legendary sword. She offers it to Arthur in exchange for a gift. However, the mystery of what that gift was, isn’t written so clearly in the books…
 
What tale of Excalibur have you heard? Magic and sorcery exist in our books, which story you do you believe is the true history of King Arthur’s sword?

The Evony Wiki

The Evony Wiki is an invaluable resource for all Evony players with detailed information covering all aspects of the game! New players will find a wealth of information on getting started and prospering in the game while dedicatedplayers will easily pull ahead of their competition when they tap into the wiki’s complete knowledge base.
 
The Evony Wiki has so much to offer it would be impossible to name all of its features! However, if you’re new to the wiki here are the articles you should definitely check out:
 
• Routine Quests: These quests guide your progress through the game: http://www.theevonywiki.com/Routine_Quest
• Medals: Everything a player needs to know about medals: http://www.theevonywiki.com/Medals
• Prestige: All the information you need about gaining prestige: http://www.theevonywiki.com/Prestige
• NPCs: NPC and NPC farming information: http://www.theevonywiki.com/NPC
 
In order to keep the Evony Wiki up-to-date, we need dedicated fans to frequent the site and add the information they know! Be sure to get involved and contribute to the community by creating an account and filling in any gaps of information you come across.
 
Hope to see you at TheEvonyWiki.com soon!
 
The Evony Wiki is a fansite and is not affiliated with Evony. Evony is not responsible for the content on this site.
 

Facebook Fan Round-up: “You Know You Love Evony When…”

 
Welcome to the latest community round-up, a series of posts in which we shine a spotlight on some of our favorite player comments from the Evony Official Facebook. This time we asked players what was their best “You know you love Evony” moment they had experienced in their everyday lives. For example, “You know you love Evony because you try to pay for everything with cents!” or “You know you love Evony when you friends ask for your address, you give them your coordinates!”
 
Here are a few great responses you shared with us on our Facebook wall!
 
Willyum Lamar – “You know you love Evony when you wake up in the middle of the night telling everyone you just capped Atlantis solo…. Then you realize you were asleep…”
 

 
Liam Smith – “Every time you pass by a forest, you wonder how many archers are in there.”
 
Christine Shaw – “I love Evony – for one reason – giving me friends I wouldn’t have without it.”
 
ReBecca Dunn – “You know someone loves Evony when you give someone your phone number and tell them to text you if you need any resources. Lol.”
 
Charles Wilson – “You know you love Evony when you fall asleep and start sleep talking saying “I’ve got to upgrade my homes.”
 
Angel Essman – “You know you love Evony when you’re watching TV and you compare troop counts to the ones on TV. Oh man my archers are better than his………..”
 
Frederick Burkert – “You know you love Evony when you drive by buildings and wonder what level they are.”
 
Travis Roe – “You know you love Evony when you think of using a Thunder Raid to make the bus go faster.”
 
Chamuco Evony – “You know you love Evony that when instead of house hunting for a new home, you call it “scouting”.”
 
We received so many hilarious comments, it’s just impossible to highlight them all! The only way to get featured here though is to just chat with us regularly on our Facebook posts! If you don’t see your name today, you might be up here next time!
 
Evony is a fun game to spend time playing, and it’s always interesting to see how time away still ties back into the world of Evony. To our players out there who have fun playing and take the time to laugh at the similarities they see, thank you! Just remember, coordinates are not a valid replacement for your address when you order a pizza.
 
Happy Battling!

Player Profile #11: Kenjo, Evony Private Eye

Meet Kenjo, private eye, both off the field and on the field in Evony! Kenjo was recommended highly by another player, Andrew, for his honorable contributions to new players and the entire community on his server (NA 22). Maybe you know him! He’s been around.

Kenjo, how long have you been playing Evony? What initially attracted you to the game?

I’ve been playing Age II since the advent of server NA 22.

You came highly recommended from another cool, active player in the community. You’re known to help the newbies and those trying to complete difficult quests. What drives you to help others so often in-game?

I think people forget this is a game and forget what it was like when they first started. People develop an ego, and forget what it was like for someone to teach them the game.

Outside of playing Evony, we heard you are passionate about racing! Do you take the track yourself or do you just like to watch from the sidelines?

Yes, I race both Motorcycles and Karts.

If you could own any exotic (read: shiny and expensive!) car, what would it be and why?

An Aston Martin DB9, because it’s not a red one with a horse on it.

With the game being real-time, sometimes a battle on the battlefield can go down in mere minutes flashing before your eyes! Do you ever feel like watching a race is at all like fighting an exciting battle in Evony?

Yes, haha. When someone ports in with ill intentions and things start flashing, my heart rate goes up a bit.

Being from Australia, do you find you have a different experience playing Evony than some of your friends from other countries because of time difference?

No, most people who play Evony either work odd hours or just play pretty often, and often late at night.

As an investigator, your job is an interesting one. Can you tell us what a typical day on the job is like for you?

Well, I can say that you get abused just about every day and everything is your fault. It’s not easy!

Have you found that your investigation skills from work have helped you succeed in Evony? Have a secret reputation for investigating and weeding out the spies we should know about?

Yes, I seem to find out most things that are happening before other people, but I don’t know why…

Would you like to give a shout out to your alliance or any of your in-game friends?

Yes, to Andrew (Warbound), LilB, DirtyAussie and all the crews from NWO and NWO2. And if I could suggest anything for the game, I’d love to see more ways to obtain Silver Keys!

Evony Community Playlist #6: A Soundtrack for Your Conquests!

We took player suggestions from the official Evony Facebook and Twitter pages to create for you the latest community playlist! Our players answered with their favorite song to listen to while hacking away mercilessly at their enemy’s city, and we created a playlist of ten songs using suggestions from our players and fans! This time around there were a lot of great recommendations from our community! You’ll find some stolen stuff, a dubstep lady, some european hardrock/techno, a pool full of bodies, and some guys declaring war.


Did your song make it into the playlist this time? Check out the full list of songs that made it onto the playlist below, and listen live and loud here to the playlist we’ve created for you all:

http://www.playlist.com/playlist/22618991115

**Music online as usual has some streaming restrictions in certain territories, so if this playlist feature doesn’t play for you, don’t worry, here are the ten songs we put together this time around:

1. Freelancer – Sonic Syndicate
2. BOYB – System Of A Down
3. Drive It Like You Stole It – The Glitch mob
4. Cowboys From Hell – Pantera
5. Bodies – Drowning pool
6. Vi Sitter I Ventrilo Och Spelar Dota – Basshunter
7. Du Hast – Rammstein
8. Hey Sexy Lady (Skrillex Remix) – iSquare
9. The Trooper – Iron Maiden
10. This is War – 30 Seconds to Mars

Community Round-up

 
Hey Evonians! Welcome to a new series of posts in which we’ll look at some of our favorite fan comments from Facebook for the month. It’s impossible to recognize all the great players who chat with us and each other, so don’t be bummed if you don’t see your name here this time!
 
This month we asked players about their in-game mentor or mentors and got a lot of great responses. Here are some of our favorite answers:
 
Billy Horton – “I want to thank all of the members of United on na32. We lost one of our own Jacob, aka MRDEAD2. He was KiA last week overseas defending our nation and our freedom. He was not only our teammate, and our friend, but he was part of our family! He will be missed dearly. R.I.P Jacob. Thank you for your service and the sacrifice you made, in order to ensure our freedom, and our way of life. You may be gone from our lives, but never our hearts, and minds. We will miss you brother.”
Melissa Satterwhite –“ Wow…tough one, cause I’ve had some great mentors. I can’t possibly limit this list to one person. Top of my list is whattheh for teaching me about colonizing, Jay2 for teaching me game strategy and talking me off the ledge a few times when I thought I would lose it, PUNISHER for his great leadership, OneBigBird for reinforcing the basics, and DarkLegion for teaching me about troops and ratios.”
Hazoot Benwar – “Don’t know his/her real name but they went by Chaoslord on NA29. Very aggressive player that encouraged me to be an aggressive player as well. Could rally folks behind him to take HC’s , destroy our enemies and take their HH’s ”
Christine Aslani – “‎Rob Lovett aka SleepyBob was(is) my mentor in Evony. He is forever testing out new scenarios in the game and using me as a guinea pig, lol! I have come very far in the game with his inspiration and the knowledge we’ve both gained over the past year+ that we’ve played together. Thanks Rob. ”
Marcus Douglas – “A lot of you have come a long way, and I could learn from the players today, espically Nnami, I may have been his mentor, but now he is mine. If I have any questions today, I go to him. He is the best.”
 
Ruthless leaders who teach war tactics, great teachers who kindly and effectively help those who are lost and players growing together to share a family-like bond: mentors make Evony a better place! To all the mentors out there, thank you! And to anyone who is looking to become a better player, remember where you started. Next time someone new asks for help or explanations think about your mentors and how you could become one for them!