The Farmer Strategy

Overview

The farmer builds thousands of farms, grows food, and then sells them to the Public Market for money. The money is then used to fund the cost of spending turns and to buy military units from the Public Market.

1. Wait for 360 turns.
2. Attack for land.
3. Build farms.
4. Repeat step #2 and #3 until it's no longer possible to send any more attacks.
5. Then spend your remaining turns farming.
6. Sell all of your food to the Public Market for a fair price.
7. Spend some of the money earned to purchase military units from the Public Market.

Farmer Races: Gremlin, Tengu

Farmer Buildings: Farms

Farmer Production Tab: "Farm"

Farmer Era: Present, sometimes Past

Choosing one of these races, building markets, and using the 'Farm' production tab forms the core flow of the Farmer strategy

Races

Gremlin

Pros: High offense, strong combo of agriculture and consumption bonuses, ability to utilize market bonus.

Cons: Difficult to utilize other strategy options

Bonuses: Offense (+10%), Market (+8%), Consumption (+14%), Agriculture (+18%).

Weaknesses: Defense (-6%), Magic (-10%), Industry (-14%), and Economy (-20%)

Tengu

Pros: Defense and Exploration bonus makes Tengu a better passive empire option, and Magic bonus allows for a hybrid mage built.

Cons: Low mana gains hamper mage flexibility, and low offense can make gaining land more difficult. Missing a consumption bonus to enhance the agriculture bonus.

Bonuses: Defense (+12%), Magic (+10%), Exploration (+10%), and Agriculture (+18%)

Weaknesses: Building (-10%), Industry (-14%), Economy (-18%), Consumption (-2%), and Energy (-6%)

Maximizing Production

The farming strategy is often seen as one of the easier strategies to get a hang of, and is often recommended to new players. You can find an example of this in the Game Guide intended for newer players.

That said, farming does not come without its own nuances and depth. As with all strategies, production - and the maximization of it - can come from a variety of methods. Let's go over some of the most important ones.

Gaining Land

The production of a farmer is linked most closely to the land that they are on while producing. While this is true to some extent for nearly all strategies, nowhere is it more obvious than on a farmer.

Unlike casher, for example, farmers do not have a tax rate that they can adjust for optimization. They also cannot decide on specific types of production, as an indy can do with their troop allocation or a mage can choose between spell options.

With this in mind, it is imperative that any aspiring farmer (that is not playing a strictly passive empire) focus on acquiring as much land as possible in their runs.

Thankfully, the farmer races are well suited to this.

Tengu, for example, comes with an exploration bonus. You can utilize turns between your attacks to regain health with the explore option. Over time, this will result in more land acres. Gremlin, on the other hand, has a large offensive bonus. This makes gremlin suitable for taking land gains from larger empires. Being able to break through higher defenses means that you have access to more land. As always, try to focus on targets with higher land and lower DR in order to maximize land gain.

Troop and Era Benefits

Aside from racial modifiers, farmers have an additional strength that cannot be underestimated.

Since they are often in the Present era, where agriculture gets the highest bonus, farmers also have access to naval units with the highest offense points!

Battleships in the Present era have the most offense in the game at 9 offense points. The defense is not slacking either, with 6 points of defense each.

This means that farmers have a unique position of being able to break through the defenses of nearly anyone in the game using a large amount of naval units!

Keep in mind, however, that wielding a large 'monostack' of units will make you vulnerable to offensive mage spells. It is almost always worthwhile to keep a stack of wizards around in order to defend against these threats.

With a large enough navy at your disposal, gaining land from even the top empires should be no effort at all.

Clanned Farmer Strategy

Nearly every clan will need a farmer of their own. Think of the farmer as a drummer in a band. Everyone wants to play guitar (indy) or be a lead singer (mage), but the band can't function without a strong back-beat.

Your clan mates need food to keep their empires going, and you need troops and cash to keep yours steady as well. Making the most food for your clan ensures that they will never have to worry about making or buying food of their own, and can instead focus on their empires' strengths. Mages in particular tend to eat a lot of food, but keeping them well-stocked means that they can generate even more income for the team.

With this in mind, you can see that the farmer role is essential in any clan, and playing to your best abilities directly results in a more optimal playing environment for both you and your clan mates.

Clanned Farmer Workflow

Beginning Turns

Once you have found a clan to join, it is time to run your turns. In general, as a clanned farmer, you will be looking for areas of opportunity to 'scrape' the most land. This means that you will want to identify targets with high land and low DR that are within your range. Often you will ask your mage player, or another teammate, for a crystal ball of potential targets that will show you their troop layouts.

Farmers are also well-suited to making wizards of their own, since they will have no trouble feeding large amounts of them.

Once you have found your targets, you can go on an attack as much as possible. I find that in between attacks it is best to first build farms as a method of regaining health, then explore, and then use the 'Farm' tab. There is no one right answer to this, it is up to you to decide.

That said, once you are on a higher land total you will want to make sure to use the 'Farm' tab, as it will provide an extra 25% per turn to your production. While 25% may not seem like a lot at the outset, it adds up quickly. Even more if you manage to gain a large amount of land.

Aid and Market

Once your run is over, you should now have a large stockpile of grains. At this point, check your clan mate's stats or ask them directly if they need grains. Over time, you will get an understanding for who needs grains, how much they need, and when they need them.

You can send grains directly to your clan mates through the Foreign Aid tab. Sending aid does come with restrictions, and you will not be able to distribute all of your grains at once using this method. You will be able to send a majority of them out, though, so go ahead and distribute your grains to who needs them most.

This often means sending them to the player in your clan that is expected to run next, has the most turns, or plans on using turns the soonest.

Once you have finished aiding grains and ran out of aid credits, you can also arrange sales on the Private Market.

With your remaining grains, you can sell them on the market, either with the intention to have a clan mate pick them up, or to sell to those outside of your clan that may need them. This is a great way to get money onto a farmer, but be wary of selling grains at too low a price to your team publicly, as these grains will be available to all players within 6 hours of selling.

Other Considerations

As a clanned farmer, you have a bit more flexibility with your turns than most. Since your goal is primarily to gain land, you may find yourself being positioned more offensively than your teammates. You may also find yourself expected to do more with less resources. Both can be fun and interesting challenges.

Offensive Options

Farmers shine even more brightly when at war with another clan. Since they do not have to worry about many details aside from gaining land and distributing food, they are great at using their runs to do massive damage to enemies. This is further enhanced by their proclivity towards naval units, which can break down even the strongest empire's defenses.

Clanned farmers in a wartime environment are often expected to do more damage so that their teammates can still focus on production efforts. Farmers still gain plenty of grains passively, so using their entire runs to attack their enemies is no problem.

One downside, however, is that farmers are vulnerable to kill runs and offensive counterattacks. Everyone knows that farmers are vital to a clan's success, so those you are at war with will always see you as a prime target. Killing a clan's farmer deprives them of all of their food, and can completely grind a clan's progress to a halt.

Because of this, I recommend that farmers pay attention to era's and troop lines when at war even more carefully than usual. Switching to Past era, for example, makes your massive boat stack with 9 offense into a massive defensive stack with 9 defense. This can ward off potential standard attacks. You should also pay attention to which lines of troops your opponents are generating, and make sure to have a solid defense of your own. Finally, keep a Time Gate up at all times so that you can benefit from increased defenses from your allies.

Resources and Options

Unfortunate as it may be, farmers often have to make do with less resources than their counterparts. Nobody knows why this is, but most would blame mage players.

Don't let this hold you back, though! Think of it as an opportunity to show off your resourcefulness.

It is important to ask your clan for any resource you may need. If you need troops, then it is their job to supply them. If you need cash, then it is their job to send it to you.

You may find yourself able to generate additional income through market sales throughout the set. This can be helpful in making income of your own, but be sure to check that your team is fully stocked in grains.

You may also find a good opportunity at the final day of the set, when grains can no longer be distributed due to aid and market restrictions, to make some unique moves. I personally like to rebuild my Gremlin farmers with Keeps on the final day so that I can use any remaining cash to buy cheap troops with my Market bonus. This is even better if you are stocked with cash from teammates beforehand, and can come as a surprise to other players who do not expect it.

Tengu players can also take advantage of their Magic bonus throughout the set to be an additional gatherer of crystal balls. They may also want to generate mana passively throughout the month so that they can use the Tree of Gold spell to generate their own income, and let their teammate use cash in other ways, such as buying troops.

Solo Farmer Strategy

Much of what applies to clanned farmers will also apply to solo farmers. The key difference is that you must now interact with the Public Market rather than your own clan economy.

Playing as a solo farmer is a great way to test your flexibility as a player. This strategy allows you to better understand market mechanics, as well as land optimization. There are also many opportunities available for complete strategy changes, such as using magic spells as a Tengu or market bonuses as a Gremlin.

Solo Farmer Workflow

Beginning Turns

This section is exactly the same as the one for clanned farmers. Gain as much land as possible, make as many grains as possible. The only difference is that you will not be provided with troops, crystal balls, or cash. These will all have to be created on your own.

Crystal balls can be acquired by generating enough wizards of your own to spy on other empires. You can also rely on a large naval stack of units to be confident in breaking through any empire without looking to see how much defense they have. Before doing so, be sure to check News Center to see if the opposing empire has their own large naval stack.

Public Market

Cash for solo farmers is supplied via sales of grains on the Public market. You will need cash to keep your empire afloat, as holding troops results in upkeep.

Selling on the Public Market is a skill of its own, and there is no solid way of predetermining how it should be done. The Public Market economy is a social economy, and changes month-to-month. Some months, you may be the only farmer selling on market. In these cases, you can sell for large amounts, up to $33 or more.

In other cases, there may be multiple farmers competing with each other. You can try to undercut the prices of these farmers so that your grains sell first, but this will result in less profits for everyone. Learning how to make sure your grains sell, while also keeping their value high, is a tricky and challenging skill to learn.

Solo Farmer Tips

Market Tips

I find that as a solo player, contacting other empires is crucial to selling your grains. Why compete blindly on the Public Market when you can arrange sales ahead of time to willing buyers in need of food?

This allows you to bypass the seemingly random Public Market sales, and add a bit of objectivity to your game. It also forges strong bonds with other players who can find themselves relying on your grains to get by. Once you get them hooked, you gain an additional power of suddenly shutting off the supply. This puts you in a position of power that most solo players are desparately in need of to keep up with clans.

Of course, you don't have to use your powers for evil. Mutual benefit is the key to winning as a solo player, so these bonds created through private sales on the Public Market can also provide other benefits. For example, a player that you have been in a business relationship with all month may be reluctant to fireball you at the end of the set, or may be willing to sell you their own production at a discounted rate. There are all kinds of benefits that depend on the context you are in, so always be on the lookout for ways that you can enhance your own position!

One tactic I like to use as a solo farmer is to reach out to other solo players and establish a business relationship. I will find an indy player, and ask that they sell me cheap troops in exchange for cheap grains. I will also reach out to mage and casher players and offer my grains at a discounted price, provided they guarantee to buy them on time. This allows me to take control of my game in a way that benefits both me, and my allies. If I find myself in trouble later, then these allies will have a stake in my success as well.

Other Advice

I've gone through some of these before, but let's recap a bit

• Solo Tengu players have the option of going full-mage, or hybrid mage, at any point in the game. I once won a set by stockpiling grains and mana as a Tengu for the first three weeks, then fully transitioning into a Mage so that I can utilize the Tengu magic bonus to cast Tree of Gold for the final week.
• I was also able to win as a Solo Gremlin farmer by utilizing the market bonus they have innately. Rather than buying troops from the Public Market and benefitting Gnome resellers, I built my own keeps every other run in order to use all of my cash on my own economy. This ensured that only I was able to benefit. While my grain production was not as optimal as it could have been, I was able to use all of my profits for my own benefit. This was made easier by leaving a hole in my siege or air units, allowing me to rebuild with keeps more efficiently.
• Forge bonds with other players as soon as possible. Solo players are vulnerable only when they are truly alone. If you find a clan that seems to never have enough grains, reach out to them. Offer your grains in return for some benefit such as protection or cheap resources. You can even ask for troop holes so that your own runs are more efficient. I find that even the hardest of players are open to a deal if they think it will benefit them.
• Likewise, take advantage of the bond that all solos share! Solos have trouble doing everything at once, so making your excess grains available to them will make their lives all the more simplified. In return, they can offer you what you need and both players can benefit.
• Utilize your innate benefits. Build boats for offense and tanks for defense. Use your excess grains to form a giant wizard stack. Switch to Past and instantly benefit from 9 defense boat units.