Poaching

We have had players poached from us by other alliances. If you are just here to get trained and move on later, please don't waste my time. 

If you are going to leave for the first offer you get, again, please leave now. 

As you get stronger there are a lot of dishonorable alliances that will try to poach you from us. They don't want you when you are young. It's us that welcomes you and makes you a force to be reckoned with. That takes a lot of my time and energy to do; but I do it so we will have a close, strong and loyal family. 

If you stay here, I want you to make the promise to both of us, that barring any internal conflicts, you will stay with us and be as loyal to us as we will be to you. Running two alliances, a small business and homeschooling my son are time consuming. I could choose to go out and steal other players instead of taking the considerable time to train you, but I am an honorable person who refuses to stoop to their level. Besides, can you really trust someone that deserts an alliance for yours? Those aren't the kind of people I want in our family.

Two paths lie ahead for each of you. Embrace your new family or leave to find that which will make you happy elsewhere. 

Leaving Alliance Due To No Time

In the future if anyone comes to the decision to leave this game because they just don't have the time to play it, I ask you to give your alliance a parting gift. Please donate your resources, tell me that you are leaving and give me your log on password so that someone else with no support can take over your castle and we don't lose the strength. I have a couple here and several in Dragons Nest with no support near them and while we are trying to get them some, a ready made castle in a supported area would be even better. 

Not that I want anyone to leave, but this game does take a lot of time and it can become a burden instead of fun when you no longer have that time. I understand that completely and I will always stand by your decision to leave the game. 

Giving us your password will not give access to anything but your castle. Not even your email address! No financial either as that is tied solely to your phone. 

I hope no one feels the need to leave, but if it happens, you would leave making your alliance happier and stronger for it. 

Already 2 of our members have been gracious enough to do this for us and I thank them dearly for it!

Thank You!

Funny but possibly true!

How to donate

In the alliance window, look for a green box with an arrow. Click on it then the box to the right of the listed resources and use the sliders to choose what to donate.

We don't expect you to do more than you can, but we do expect you to make an effort to donate something each week. Anyone not donating is not a team player and will be kicked. We need these resources to grow and to strengthen us as a family. 

Thanks!

Off Limit Alliances - No Hit List

Here is a list of alliances that are off limits. 

Any in yellow or white on the map we have pacts with. In addition some are verbal, but still off limits:

Affliction

Battle Brothers

Beowulf

Bravehearts

Castilians 

Game of Thrones

The Highlanders

Locker

Lords of Death

Mornas Pact

Nobles United

Nvsminds

Pyros

Reservoir Dogs

Shadow Co

Vault

Young Kingz

This list is subject to change so if in doubt check the blog for an updated list!

Everwinter Four Kingdoms

Someone just asked me about Everwinter and if they should go. Here is my answer:

Noooooo. Hold off until you are at least level.... Shoot I am 41 and still not gone yet. I am not going until my research tower is complete. I figure I will head over at about 45. It's brutal over there. Only a few resource valleys and people constantly fighting over them. Constantly under attack and your stuff getting captured. You need to be pumping a ton of resources before you go!

When you do go, go west in all of the kingdoms. 

Outposts

An outpost is a mini castle that you will be able to capture when you can build an Estate. Each estate level will let you get another outpost. Up to 3 at level 31. There are two types of outposts. Regular ones and sparkly ones. If possible, grab sparkly ones as they will give you 8 of the first resource shown at 100% production vs 6 in the regular. The second resource shown will allow you 2 bldgs at 100% production. So a sparkly food/stone will give you 8 farms and 2 stones at 100%. You can add more but production decreases. More than 4 extra is too many.

Best advice for which outposts to get? First a sparkly food. You will need a LOT of food later. Next get wood or stone. You want two food outposts. The lady one make it what you need most. Usually depends on what your second resource is in other 2 outposts. get sparkly if you can, but its better to get close to you than travel too far, as you will be making troops in outposts and want quick access to them in the event of an attack. Others argue different, but I am sticking to this philosophy. Now other kingdoms are a different story.

We do NOT steal other people's outposts unless we know they have deserted the game, then by all means take that outpost and save yourself some work!

Hope this helps and if you have more questions, let me know!

How to Graduate

So what do I want to see in my dragons to let them fly the nest? Several things. 

1. 700+ honor

2. Level 26 with level 5 barracks

3. Have read all training materials and your castle has passed inspection.

3. Do not bully or send revenge attacks. Gets our no bully policy

4. Properly defends and attacks. It's why I ask to see your battle reports. If I see you doing a defense or attack incorrectly, I will instruct you on how to do it right. Once I see a report or two showing me that you grasp what I am trying to teach you, then you are ready to fly. 

5. Are you on Touch? If not, you can't support us and we can't support you. It's necessary.

6. Your castles and outposts should have walls expanded to allowable max for your level and upgrading  walls, gate and towers is important. 

I will explain why this is so important. Once you move up to Dragon Bloods, you WILL be attacked. A lot. Every wall expansion gives you a tower and each upgrade gives you three more men in that tower to defend your castle or outpost with. Under level 3 towers are a large vulnerability that people will try to exploit. I may let you go up before towers are all upgraded, as these are time consuming, but I need to see they are being worked on.

7. At least 6 level one guardhouses in every bldg you got too. It can stop attacks before they happen!

8. A Watchtower. I hated to make this a requirement, but all my generals agreed that without one, you would be a dead meat target in Dragon Bloods. 

If you get to Dragon Bloods and drop under 500 honor for more than a week, you will need to come back to the nest to rebuild your honor. So keep this in mind up there!

So there it is. My Dragon Bloods checklist!

Battle Keep Bonus

During battle if you are attacked and you are defending you get a 30% bonus in the keep if you can defend 2 of 3 flanks. That 30% bonus is huge! This means if they are sending 0 men in somewhere, you need only place 1% of your defense there to win that wall. If they are coming in with 0 in the sides, set up your defense 50 / 0 / 50, (unless you can beat them easily in the front, then it would be 1/98/1, but that's another story). That is 50 left flank, 0 front and 50 right flank. This gives you those two flanks without a fight and when you battle, you will have a 30% bonus. Your men will go to the kept if they are needed. Always think numbers in your defense. How to win 2 flanks with the least conflict at the front.

When defending make sure every available wall slot is filled with defense tools inducluding at least one slot with flaming arrows and bulwarks once you hit that level. Keep at least 3 in each slot and during attacks up that to 10. So make sure you have plenty of tools. A caveat to that is, any wall you are not defending. Remove all tools from those walls as they are used up needlessly.

On attacks, you must get 3 of 3 to get the bonus. If you do not send troops in the front AND both flanks, you are doing two things. First giving up any chance you have of getting that keep bonus and lastly giving them one of the two flanks they need for the bonus without a fight! I always crush anyone that sends an attack in only one or two flanks. If you can't go in all three areas, then don't bother going. You are weak and will be very lucky or up against someone not very smart if you win. So I will repeat. Go all in or stay at home! Also load up on tools if you are hitting a 3rd level stone castle. And a word of advice attack with opposite of what they are defending with and defend with the same they are attacking with! Thats melee vs ranged. Spy first. Can't stress that enough!

Welcome! Read First!

Welcome to Dragons Nest, the training alliance for the Dragon Bloods! Our alliance really is different than most. First and foremost Dragon Bloods are family. We are a team. We work together, play together and fight together. We fight with honor and integrity. We do NOT bully, nor do we tolerate being bullied. 

So what do we consider bullying you might ask? Attacking or being attacked by the same person more than once a week. We do not whine when we are attacked and seek revenge. We usually take that opportunity to turn a potential enemy into a friend, because you dont go far in this game without friends. So if you get attacked, message your attacker after the fact and say good job on that one, or something to that effect. Be friendly. It really disarms people because they expect people to be ugly to them.

Be sure to read the Honor Attacks post for more of what we consider to be fair attacks.

If your only objective is to crush everyone, then our alliance won't be a good fit for you and you would be best finding another alliance that thinks that way. If you believe that working as a family unit to have fun and form friendships is your wish, then welcome home. This is not to say that skirmishes and wars wont happen. They will. While I strive for peace, I will not accept anything less than respect from our opponents and if they wont give it, we will crush them. If anyone is being bullied, always tell me first. My first step will be to speak to their leader and in most cases it stops there. Because if a leader tells me that one of you are bullying and you cannot defend that action, you are gone.

I am firm but supportive of my family. We are one. Our behavior reflects on all of us. All that aside, this alliance is also about teaching you. We will teach you to defend yourself, to pick the best outposts, to grow and become stronger and better faster. If you need something, we are all here for you. Here you will be learning to become Dragon Bloods. Some will pass, some wont. 

So what are our expectations of you? 

1. Donate resources each week. Doesnt have to be a lot, just what you can spare.

2. Play at least every other day. If your name goes red for more than two days, you are removed as spots are too expensive to be filled by a player who doesnt play.

3. Once you reach a certain level, we expect at least 2 honor and glory attacks a week, but we will let you know when you are ready for that.

4. Check alliance chat when you come on to see if there are any requests or needs from the family. If you need a resource or have a question, post it there.

5. Then check movements to see if anyone is being attacked. If you see someone being attacked post it in Touch, which we will cover in another post.

6. Have a Touch account. See Touch post for more info on this.

Read all blog posts. There are pages of them, so be sure to check the next page arrow at the bottom! 

Revenge/Counter Attacks

I wanted to state that we do NOT do revenge attacks, which are counter attacks to be clear to those who try to use that as a loophole! It usually ends up blowing up into a huge mess that I have to clean up.

People that send revenge/counter attacks look like sore losers and before you know it others in the alliance get involved and it goes crazy. I deal with the aftermath of revenge/counter attacks everyday. Whether it was started by us or another alliance. It always goes south and us leaders are left trying to prevent a war. So my policy is no revenge/counter attacks. Especially over single honor and glory attacks!

If you have a bullying issue always come to me first. Send reports if you have them and a note explaining exactly what happened so I can try to prevent things from spiraling out if control.

Anyone that takes it upon themselves to send a sabotage or revenge/counter attack on anyone, even if it is for someone else, will be given one warning then kicked. The only time these are allowed are during a war or if diplomacy with a leader was unsuccessful. 

Think about it. Two scenarios. Someone hits you and you hit them back and they tell their teammates what a sore loser you are and they decide to give you something to cry about. Seen it happen. 

Or you two start a back and forth that just escalates into war.

Or a guy bullies one of ours and one of you sends an attack in revenge and that bully says its on now and he has other alliance members jump in and it blows up and he is a happy guy and I am trying to stop a war that is getting everyone in my alliance bullied suddenly.

Now, say you came to me instead and I went to his leader who proceeded to chew his butt out and tell him to stop. He is shamed and his pride is stomped on. 

Which one works best and also protects your family best?

If you don't do counter or revenge attacks in the first place, we don't have problems. Alls good in our world! 

I hope now you begin to see why revenge/counter attacks are bad in here. Us leaders want to know if we have a bully or troublemaker. I give one warning for bullying too. Unless it's a bad case then no warning is given before being kicked. Most leaders recognize that bullies and troublemakers will bring us nothing but war and chaos and we deal with them harshly. If the leaders don't, THEN we crush them!

Lady Enigmaa

Top Helpful Tips

Tip 1.

Build 5-8 first level guardhouses. These are used to prevent spying. Your goal is a total of 30-40 guards at your early levels growing to 60-100 in later levels. There are 5 guards per guardhouse per level.

Tip 2. 

Throw down as many dwellings as you can hold in your castle and later outposts. No need for most to be higher than level 2. Cheaper that way, which is why I say that about guardhouses. More is many times cheaper than upgrades. The more dwellings, the more coin. And collect taxes every 10 minutes when you are on. 

Make sure you add public order to make up for your dwellings though or your production will suffer. Keep it over 100%. Later work it up even higher. I have my public order over 150%.

Tip 3.

Organize your castle! If you line up your dwellings together, your lumber together ect... It allows you to easily see at a glance what you have going on and what needs tended to. Plus it just pokes my very OCD nature! I will call you on a disorganized castle!

Tip 4.

You need 6 buildings of each resource. Three is not enough to keep up with your needs!

Tip 5.

Defense tools on your walls are very important. Under 25 level should have 5 tools in every slot. Over 25 make that 13. Tools can win or lose a battle for you. No tools, no defense! Ranged defense is very important too. At least one slot in each flank should contain ranged defense tools. This is flaming arrows or bulwarks. Before you graduate I will teach you a defense that is solid!

Touch

All new members must get the app Touch by enflick. It is available for iPhone and Android free. If you are on iPad then just search out the iPhone app. 

This app is for us to give and get notifications of incoming attacks or ruby sales. 

This is ALL we use this for. Do not post anything but notifications. If you want to say you can't make it or sending support go into the game alliance chat to say it. That ding needs to tell people that its urgent and someone need help. Nothing else. People that chat in there drive everyone else crazy as that is a loud notification, but that is what we want when used right. Anyone posting anything else to the group will be told to stop immediately. So save me from feeling bad for having to be mean to you ;)

Please only post incomings over 100 unless you have been wiped out and need help.

Sign up with your game name + Dragonblood - Then friend me: Enigmaa Dragonblood and I will add you to the alliance notification group. 

This is very important if you want to know you are being attacked while you are offline!

Honor Attacks

When it comes to attacking for honor, you can tell how much honor you will get when you click Attack. A window will show your castle name and your targets. Under that is a crown looking symbol. That is the honor you will win or lose. If its 0 or negative, dont attack. No use. I steer clear of any attacks under 20, as the smaller numbers usually arent worth it and they are quite a bit weaker than you, so it isnt terribly fair sport either. 

If you are level 26+, you should also steer clear if anyone under level 26, as they don't have access to soldiers that can defend against yours, not many men on towers and low level farms incapable of feeding as many soldiers as yours. For these reasons hitting an under 26 level at higher levels is like clubbing baby seals. Not very fair to the seal.

Espionage

There are 3 moving parts in the espionage window. Top bar lets you choose the type of espionage you want to send. Military, Resources or Sabotage. The last we only do in war or handling a bully that the leader wont stop. The left button lets you select how many spies to send. More spies, more chance of success. The bottom slider has two numbers. The left tells you how much information you will get if successful. The second tells your odds of success. I try to keep my odds under 8%. I may only get say 60% info, but that is plenty to get numbers and locations.