Posted on 28 March 2008 by Mike
Ikariam Guides
Introduction
Having defense in your town is the one thing stopping other players marching in and emptying your warehouse while your away. It may seem rather simple to some people but there are a lot active players with no defense.
The Best Defense
Ikariam contains eight unique troops. Although I could complain about the variations and specialty of them there is of course one clear winner when it comes to defense. This troop should be a well know type beyond that of Ikariam and its defensive powerless should also be as well know.
The Phalanx is the key to defense!
It is easily the best value for money, in terms of resources needed to train one and the upkeep to keep one. They are of course out done by the attack value of higher up troops but the answer is simply to have.
Why The Phalanx
The Phalanx and the defensive powers that it has is one reason I like Ikariam so much. It may not be realistic on many fronts, but the Phalanx being the key to defense is one area that it is true to reality.
The Phalanx has a base defense of 40. Along with a specialty bonus of Resistance, giving a further 30%. That is a minimum of 52. (That is higher the the maximum defense of any troop lower, Slinger, Swordsman and the Phalanx itself)
The upgrades for a Phalanx increase its defense by 10; assuming the 30% bonus adds on top of that, the maximum defense value of a Phalanx is an impressive - 91!!!
That is, again more then everything below and now includes the Archer.
What About Better Defense
Those of you that have looked into the defense values of units will know that the Gunman has a higher maximum defense, along with any unit above it. While this is true, take into account the upkeep cost and resource cost of a Gunman compared to a Phalanx and you will see the Phalanx is still better.
One fully upgraded Gunman provides 106 Defense, costing 58 Gold per hour and 691 Resources.
Two fully upgraded Phalanx provides 182 Defense, costing 48 Gold per hour and 496 Resources.
The only negative difference is the extra citizen that is used, even taking that as a further 4 Gold for 2 hours (at a really low population growth rate) still means the two Phalanx are better value.
So How Many
It’s not easy to define a total amount of Phalanx you should use in defense of your towns. However I can recommend some numbers based on what I have at this time.
- Have a minimum of 5; no matter the size of the town.
- Have 1 Phalanx per Town Level
- Have 50% more in your capital
Remember, if someone is attacking the chances of them attacking your capital is significantly more then that of any other of your towns. Always have more defense there.
Town Wall
Remember, a 100% or more defense bonus should not be overlooked!
Beyond The Phalanx
It is true that the Phalanx although very good for defense does become obsolete eventually. The Steamgients do provide better value for money in defensive values. That said, even with high level Academies the time it would take to get from Phalanx to Steamgients is near on two months of research. Waiting would take forever!
Resource cost are calculated as 1 * wood value plus 2 * luxury value. This is the same way as the Generals score is calculated.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:08 am
dide u suck
phalanx are crap, their good early on, u need archers, or stream giants, u might defend for every, but this game is not normal, when ur defending u sitll need to ‘attack’ the unit, phalanx dont do that, they will die
June 4th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Yeah!
Nice answer!
100% Right!
______
gg all
June 19th, 2008 at 10:22 am
dude u guys are dumb….its called a defense guise not an all round guide….some ppl dont play offensively
August 26th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Hi guys..You are dump. The offensive value of the unit is irrelevant when the unit is defending.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 am
Thanx for Guide.
All others brainless posters here, they should post something more than just critics.
But it is to hard for them to wrote something use full.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:39 am
How do i woin points?
October 1st, 2008 at 7:34 am
Best defence is spies spies spies and spies
Of course you need to have a millitary big enough to make others wonder what you got. ppl that raid alot use the score tool activly
The point is when they have problem spying your towns they dont know what you got and what level your ports are.
The 2nd worst thing i know is to spend a sick amount of spies just to find out its a port 1 town, and with a 95% failure to spy the garrison
Worst is to gamble its a town with litle or no defence and then run into the main army/navy
In one of my islands there was this dude leeching the donation thing and i told him he better start donating. He tried to be cool and attack my city after failing to spy me. Well… i had just 10-20 phlanks in the other towns (used for plundering inactives)
The town he attacked was were my main army was. He got whipped and i sent my army at him wiping his weak defence to kingdom come…
I then moved my army to another town and launched an attack on the other towns of him, he must be wondering if i got a big army there to
I’ve been plundering all his towns regulary with suitable raiding parties from all my towns…
I try to use town sized amounts of spies in defence up to lvl 10-15…
December 27th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
The bit about spies is not clear to me. Do you mean that having spies in your own city will increase the detection rate of foreign spies?
December 30th, 2008 at 3:46 am
First of all sorry for my bad english.I think the most powerfull land unit in ikariam world is Slinger!Don?t smile because maybe this rubbish unit is nothing alone (or in small nubers) but when you can pay more than 600 units of them (the money {per hour always} you have to pay for 600 units of slingers is the exactly same money for 200 phalanx) are the most powerfull!Here is a site you can do your fight tests:ikariamlibrary.com/?content=ikafight.It?s a battle sim.Maybe few days ago sim was missing spesial ability?s of almost all units,but now it?s correct and it is the most helpfull tool for saving ikariam asses.All you have to do is to click on CLEAR DATA (in the site) FIRST and then do your tests.Most people think giant is the best unit.So,8 units of slinger cost the same money whith 1 unit of giants.In the sim 800 attack slingers can win 100 defent giants for fun.I do it in real fight and they can win again! (not for fun but they win) Also to built again a slinger is nothing at all!To built again a giant???Now isay that for a new player:DO NOT built slingers!In the begining you have to built phalanx and walls!!!Slingers in small nubers are a very big nothing!!!They start to get power ONLY when they add their TOTAL endurance in great nubers!To do that you have to built MANY of them!As i said over 600 units!When you can pay that fire your phalanx and built slingers.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:04 am
hey dudes!
it’s true that phalnx got the best defense, but in defending your town, you will not only consider the your defense rating, sure your phalanx have high ressistance rating but in order to defeat the invading forces, you have also to damage them, that’s where the phalanx sux! it’s best to accompany them with some swordies or archers, gunmen etc. (with high attack rating) to make a defense successfull..
March 16th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Incomplete guide, as the guy mentioned upper, its useless to do defence with only units like “Phalanx” if you dont have offensive units to suport them, like archers in the early stages and gunners or whatever u want later … all common known as ofence/defence units.
For example you are less likely to fail defence of a town with 20 Phalanx, 20 Archers and 10 Rock Throwers instead of just have 100 Phalanx, and that because altough Phalanx have big defensive points they have weak atack poins and soon after 2 rounds breaks in the wall will occur giving your atacker ATACKING BONUS , which will eventualy raise more and more, depending on your wall lvl.
In the end he will have alot more atack points and could match your defence points generated by your Phalanx, the diference will be he will still atack round, after round, and you wont, while Phalanx arent quite ofensive units. You might be surprised without atack points ur defence is just a mater of time untill u get busted
Best defence is combined one. In the early stages I would go for a defence like “Phalanx alot, Archers quite fair and a few Rams”
Regards, Doggie
May 24th, 2009 at 4:01 am
So, what’s the verdict? Does defense need to “damage” the opposing side with its attack power? Or is attack power irrelevant for all defending units? On ikariam’s FAQ help, “art of war” section, it seems to imply that even defending units still need to “attack,” and that defensive power just counts as “armor protection,” not power. Does anyone know the answer to this?
June 5th, 2009 at 5:57 am
hey,
i think all of the units are significant, it’s just up to the player on how they will mix the number of units. It’s like making a punch harhar!