When the World Zigs… Zag.

Often in Illyriad, you will be looking for the “most efficient” route to a goal. You choose your own goal (have a huge city, have a huge army, win a Tournament, etc.), and you work out the most efficient route to build your empire up to that point. Obvious.

However, that means that a lot of people are taking very similar routes. Think about that. Lots of people all making the same decisions. Hmmm. Maybe there’s an advantage – or at the least, lots of fun to be had – in doing the exact opposite to what everyone else is doing.

As some examples:

• When a Tournament starts, that means that all the big players and big alliances start throwing their troops into battles. They will have casualties – and they will need more equipment with which to equip their replacement troops. So, lots of people will start building, losing, and rebuilding their troops. That might be a great time to step back, stop building your own armies, and start selling all the equipment that you would have been using up – Chainmail, Swords, Horses, Saddles. For example, in the last tournament, the price of Horses was very high (although weirdly, the price of Saddles was steady – go figure!)
• My Capital city is in the middle of a swamp. Basically, I looked at the map and thought “that swamp is a really dumb place to put a city – but what a very apt place for Orcs!” – and I moved my capital there. I did it for roleplay reasons. But then when the last Tournament came around, and there was a prize for hunting more Alligators than anyone else, well, guess who was the only person dumb enough to be sat in the middle of a swamp full of Alligators? Yes, I won the Alligator Hunter prize. It seems likely that the developers will be doing more with the world’s geography, and I’m guessing that in future those of us with cities in weird places (on the edges of deserts or arctic ice fields, or in unusual jungles, for example) will find new advantages to our locations.

I’m guessing that there will be other opportunities for this kind of behavior. Illyriad is a simple enough game at first, but has massive depths – and those depths will contain all sorts of opportunities for deviousness. So, if you think of any more Zags to the world’s Zigs, do let me know! Comment below or Message me in-game.