Expert's guide

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Where to go next 3 Approaches 3.1 War 3.2 Trade 3.3 Piracy 4 New buildings

[edit] Introduction

So you've been playing Ikariam for some time now. You've progressed nicely up until this point, but maybe finding the long build and expansion times a bit dull?

This guide introduces ideas to help you enjoy playing Ikariam as much as you did in those first weeks. There is always plenty to do.

[edit] Where to go next

• Expand your towns to level 20 for an extra action point..
• One use of action points is to raid inactives (most of which never revive and therefore should be raided so that their resources are not wasted). Huge returns from inactives sometimes: such as 30000 gold and hundreds of resources. Often all for two slingers and a ship and an action point.
• Then there's trading. What sizes are your trading posts? If they are big enough (such as level 15), you can see far enough to pick the bargains for resale at a profit.
• Start or join an alliance
• Build a 5th, or 6th town, make it a challenge to get there, along with all the associated corruption.
• Work on Ikariam Wiki ? :)
• A wiki page for members scores / League table of Active Wiki Editors...
• Build up your town buildings to the highest level feasible.
• What about forming an Alliance Island? Find an empty one and get members to populate it.
• Try to get in the top 500 on the high scores (I'm in the top 1500 at the moment Scaremonger 09:47, 21 June 2008 (UTC) )
• Set up a Wiki editors "Fair trade" Alliance..!
• Have fun buying up cheap stock, and being the only one selling at silly high prices.
• Get your floor of your town to all marble (upgrade your town hall).
• break soft caps (go to level 25 TH for that extra AP)

[edit] Approaches

There are currently two ways to play Ikariam: War, or Trade. (Later there may be Piracy).

[edit] War

Accomplishing progression through war is no simple task in Ikariam, mainly because distance from your target is the most primary concern. If your target is far away and active then he / she will have a number of options available to prevent your attack from being of any benefit to you. . . even if they hardly have a military to defend with!!! (i.e. destroy their port, abandon their cities, and purchase expensive lumber from an ally).

For this reason, if you choose the path of war to progress then you should stick to only attacking inactive or incompetent players. You should continue in this fashion until you have a sixth colony (3-6 months of work). Your sixth colony is a what is called a "mobile colony." You set it up on an island you want to attack, you leave it at level 1, you build a wall and port to level 5, and THEN you begin to attack. Send back the supplies you steal to home base. Destroy your mobile colony and set it up somewhere else when you see fit.

The game makers of Ikariam apparently discourage this style of play. This fact is evident in that you can only set up a colony a certain distance away. Ikariam has given the defender a large number of advantages out of fear that a dominating player (or group of players) would result in the exodus of inexperienced gamers. Nonetheless, one player with a sixth mobile colony can cause a LOT of havoc.

[edit] Trade

Influence your local market by selling the resource that is generally the cheapest for the highest possible price, not with the intention of selling it (although for 99 gold a piece it can't be a bad deal), but with the intention of raising the price of that resource on a long term.

For example: Your starter town has always been on a crystal island, and crystal has always been to cheap to sell so money has been a problem for you. Next to that you have one colony, on a resource of your liking (marble?). You want to start selling crystal for a normal price but there are always several players offering large amounts for low low prices (8 to 12 per piece for example) so you're looking for a way to make a profit. Put as much crystal on the market you possibly can for a high high price (99 for example), and keep it up there for as long as it takes (in my experience a week or two).

When the prices don't seem to rise, you do the unexpected thing: You upgrade your trade post and warehouse a couple of times and then offer double or triple the amount of the player selling the most in your area.

What will happen is this: The other players see your ridiculous price and start wondering if there would be anyone crazy enough to buy your crystal while theirs is so cheap. People start buying crystal, and soon most crystal is sold out leaving only the 99 a piece crystal, and amounts of crystal that will not even fill one cargo ship and are therefore never going to be bought until that player puts up more crystal.

When players then return to their trading post to do so, they will notice that the only reasonable amount of crystal being sold is at 99 a piece, therefore all prices are open to them! Greed takes over from hereon, and soon prices will be at a nice 30 to 40, up to 80 a piece.

Remember to have a higher warehouse in your town than other players, and make sure you can sell amounts of a resource that greatly exceed that of other players in your area, for example: most players sell 1200 of one resource in your area, then you upgrade your trading post (and warehouse so you can keep the resource on the trading post without worrying about room in your own stock) until you can sell 3 to 5 times as much, and actually put it up there. Don't be afraid to use a portion of the resource in your trading post, it will only fool the others into thinking people are actually paying you 99 a piece for small amounts, and as an added bonus you're able to use up some of it when needed, so you can put it back up when you've collected enough again.

This can also be done the other way, but no-one really likes selling cheaper than the rest, so it is rarely to be used the other way around.

_{For questions about this technique, I am on lambda server at ika.org under the name of Rookwiet.} Leo12 03:18, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Piracy

Planned expansion. When implemented you will have the opportunity to gather information on another player's transports, and plan out an attack on a transport of sufficient resources with a fleet of warships thereby pirating the resources.

In turn, you are able to send war fleets along with your trade ships, as to chaperon them to their final destination. When implemented it will be a lot more necessary to build war ships, seeing that every transport is open for attack when they are not accompanied by a defending fleet.

There are plans for a noob-protection system so that stronger players are not able to drain a player of resources until the player forfeits the game.

[edit] New buildings

A number of new buildings are planned for future expansion, when these are made available the game play could change significantly, either greatly improving or absolutely deflate economies in the later game...