Tech Research
The first tech that you will want to research is Lumbering, assuming that you are beginning with a Lumber Resource city. I usually get that to about LVL 5, sometimes alternating with Construction, which I bump up to 4 or so in order to be able to build my city reasonably quickly. If you are doing a Lumber city, you really dont need to focus on the other res techs (mining, farming, etc) because you really won't be using them much. Skip rasing these beyond what is required, until most other techs are completed.
Your next biggest priority in the tech area should be getting to the point where you can farm level 5 npc, and build the ballista to do it with. This means your next major focus should be metal casting 5 so that you can begin the slow process of Ballista production. The ability to farm a level 5 npc without loss requires the correct mix of tech stats, which begins at Archery 8 and Horseback Riding (HBR) 5. It has come to my attention that the further the difference in level between your arch and HBR, the longer it takes to level your HBR. So ideally, I do a couple levels on Arch and then do an HBR until I get to 8/5. 8/6 works also. DO NOT increase beyond 8/6 without reading the "making the farming leap" section below. I generally stop pursuing these techs once I hit 8/5 and move on to the next grouping.
Military Science, Military Tradition, Iron Working, Medicine, Compass, Informatics, engineering, machinery and construction should now be raised to decent levels. I tend to try to get Mil Sci and Informtics high ASAP, then raise the others evenly. Fluff generally goes evenly across these techs, and does not do the initial construction levelling prior to pursuing npc farming tech. The result is my city builds up a little faster than his, and he can farm slightly sooner than I can.
Making the farming leap
Once you have hit a respectable level on your other techs, it is time to consider raising your NPC farming techs. Metal casting can be raised at any time, but is much less critical than the Arch/HBR issue. It will simply allow you to build ballista faster, it does not affect how well you can farm, or if you take losses doing so. HOWEVER, if you do not have the right mix of techs on your Arch/HBR you will lose ballistas and transports when farming level fives.
As soon as I feel like I am ready to begin raising farming techs, I do HBR 6, which causes no issue to my farming. I will next make sure both of my cities are ready to focus strictly on NPC techs by not tying them up with long research times. I will then start Arch 9 on city 1. Arch 9 will take an eternity to finish, and you can still farm while the research is going on. Do NOT start a long tech on your second city while doing arch 9 unless it will finish well before your desired start time for hbr 7 does. To figure out your start time, check to see how long your HBR 7 will take to ugrade, and double that time (taking HBR 8 into account). However many hours that works out to, subtract that from the ending of your arch 9 to make them finish around the same time. This is when you will want to begin HBR 7 on city 2. As soon as you ACHIEVE HBR 7, you must stop farming level 5 NPC until your HBR reaches lvl 8 AND your Arch reaches 9, or you will lose troops. Once you leave 8/6, no combo works without loss until you hit 9/8.
If you do the timing on this correctly and plan ahead, it will give you the shortest possible time gap (I have had it as low as 4 hours) where you are unable to farm lvl 5 npc. If you do not plan ahead for making this leap, I have heard of people waiting 3 or 4 days to get their techs sorted out prior to being able to farm again. Unfortunately that can cause serious issues due to food shortage. If your second city will be sitting idle due to not being able to fit in any other techs due to time length, now is a good time to go back and run up agriculture or mining.
You will next want to get the following techs up to level ten in prep for level ten NPC farming:
Arch, HBR, Iron Working, Military Tech, Medicine, Mil Sci. People's opinions seem to vary on the Compass issue here, with some stating you should not level up your compass until you have a higher attack hero. Fluffy and I both level up our compass, and have a Compass ten formula that we use to farm our NPC. Just be advised that many NPC farming formulas you will hear of do not work the same with compass ten as they do with compass nine. If you pursue compass ten, make sure to use the compass ten farming formula.
Once you have completed raising your techs to the point where you can farm level tens, there is not a whole lot left to complete. It is now personal preference as to which ones you prefer to level and in what order. Now is the time to begin thinking about building that warehouse in one of your cities and doing stockpile research.
Your next biggest priority in the tech area should be getting to the point where you can farm level 5 npc, and build the ballista to do it with. This means your next major focus should be metal casting 5 so that you can begin the slow process of Ballista production. The ability to farm a level 5 npc without loss requires the correct mix of tech stats, which begins at Archery 8 and Horseback Riding (HBR) 5. It has come to my attention that the further the difference in level between your arch and HBR, the longer it takes to level your HBR. So ideally, I do a couple levels on Arch and then do an HBR until I get to 8/5. 8/6 works also. DO NOT increase beyond 8/6 without reading the "making the farming leap" section below. I generally stop pursuing these techs once I hit 8/5 and move on to the next grouping.
Military Science, Military Tradition, Iron Working, Medicine, Compass, Informatics, engineering, machinery and construction should now be raised to decent levels. I tend to try to get Mil Sci and Informtics high ASAP, then raise the others evenly. Fluff generally goes evenly across these techs, and does not do the initial construction levelling prior to pursuing npc farming tech. The result is my city builds up a little faster than his, and he can farm slightly sooner than I can.
Making the farming leap
Once you have hit a respectable level on your other techs, it is time to consider raising your NPC farming techs. Metal casting can be raised at any time, but is much less critical than the Arch/HBR issue. It will simply allow you to build ballista faster, it does not affect how well you can farm, or if you take losses doing so. HOWEVER, if you do not have the right mix of techs on your Arch/HBR you will lose ballistas and transports when farming level fives.
As soon as I feel like I am ready to begin raising farming techs, I do HBR 6, which causes no issue to my farming. I will next make sure both of my cities are ready to focus strictly on NPC techs by not tying them up with long research times. I will then start Arch 9 on city 1. Arch 9 will take an eternity to finish, and you can still farm while the research is going on. Do NOT start a long tech on your second city while doing arch 9 unless it will finish well before your desired start time for hbr 7 does. To figure out your start time, check to see how long your HBR 7 will take to ugrade, and double that time (taking HBR 8 into account). However many hours that works out to, subtract that from the ending of your arch 9 to make them finish around the same time. This is when you will want to begin HBR 7 on city 2. As soon as you ACHIEVE HBR 7, you must stop farming level 5 NPC until your HBR reaches lvl 8 AND your Arch reaches 9, or you will lose troops. Once you leave 8/6, no combo works without loss until you hit 9/8.
If you do the timing on this correctly and plan ahead, it will give you the shortest possible time gap (I have had it as low as 4 hours) where you are unable to farm lvl 5 npc. If you do not plan ahead for making this leap, I have heard of people waiting 3 or 4 days to get their techs sorted out prior to being able to farm again. Unfortunately that can cause serious issues due to food shortage. If your second city will be sitting idle due to not being able to fit in any other techs due to time length, now is a good time to go back and run up agriculture or mining.
You will next want to get the following techs up to level ten in prep for level ten NPC farming:
Arch, HBR, Iron Working, Military Tech, Medicine, Mil Sci. People's opinions seem to vary on the Compass issue here, with some stating you should not level up your compass until you have a higher attack hero. Fluffy and I both level up our compass, and have a Compass ten formula that we use to farm our NPC. Just be advised that many NPC farming formulas you will hear of do not work the same with compass ten as they do with compass nine. If you pursue compass ten, make sure to use the compass ten farming formula.
Once you have completed raising your techs to the point where you can farm level tens, there is not a whole lot left to complete. It is now personal preference as to which ones you prefer to level and in what order. Now is the time to begin thinking about building that warehouse in one of your cities and doing stockpile research.
ryanscott23
July 24, 2010 at 1:49 PM
http://www.theevonywiki.com/NPC this is a chart to show you what he talking about