I keep hearing frustration from newer players about the limitations in the development of armies imposed by the game in the introductory phase. I therefore decided to whisper a couple of secrets that I wish someone had whispered to me when I started in the game. I hope some of you will find this useful in your efforts to get the most out of your game. 

THE GOLDEN SECRET IN SPARTA: This game builds on anxiety, but the anxiety is imaginary and your performance, despite what it might look like, is ALWAYS positive. BE AFRAID OF NOTHING AND LAUGH IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY, because nobody in this game can do anything to you that can prevent you from having a good time. The way Sparta manages to keep people interested is by creating myths, withholding information and focusing your attention into dead-ends that make the game seem “difficult”. At the centre of the design strategy is the perpetuation of a number of secrets.

Sparta Secret #1: Your troops do not die when your grain production goes negative!

Negative grain production is a device intended to slow down the game and keep you vulnerable for as long as possible so higher-level players have somebody to prey upon. The worse that can happen when you have negative grain production is that you will constantly be short on grain for upgrading buildings and training units. However, there is a way around this. Stop worrying about keeping your grain production positive. This will come in due time and fall naturally into place when you start to have some real use for it. In the meantime, shift you attention to troops.

In order to make up for the drain in grain production, upgrade the Harbour and Port, and hide you grain in the ships by setting it up for sale at an unprofitable price for the buyer. If you upgrade the Harbour and Port to lvl 20, you will have 20 ships capable of carrying 24.000 grain – enough for most upgrades at low level – and, while in the ships, the grain will be out of reach of the troops. And if somebody should happen to buy it in spite of the price, so what? You just happened to make a really good deal in bronze or timber.

Sparta Secret #2: The farms are not your most important resource building. The Temple of Demeter is.

Farms, mines and lumberyards upgrade at an extremely slow pace. This is a limitation intended to slow down the game and keep your attention focused on the home front, thereby allowing more experienced players to roam free and play havoc on your towns. Shift your focus away from resource buildings to buildings that really make a difference. Whatever you do, don’t follow the advice of the quest adviser – it is rigged to keep you on a slow-progress lane.

Make the Temple of Demeter your top priority and upgrade it as far as you can. At level 20, the Temple of Demeter reduces grain consumption by 89%. That means that a cavalry unit, which normally consumes 4 grain/hour, will only consume 0.04%, allowing you to feed 100 Macedonian Horsemen for the price of 1. This is the best boost you can give your consumption rate. So, from the very start, and as often as possible keep checking at the port if someone is looking to trade an Eleusis article for those articles you have stored in the Euphorate. Keep doing it regardless of how urgently you want to complete other agreements. Eleusis articles are rare and come late in the game. So there will be plenty of chances to complete other agreements while you wait for that coveted Temple of Demeter.

Sparta Secret #3: Your buildings are not your most important asset. Your troops are.

You should be focusing on troops instead of buildings. Staying at home is the slowest way to grow. Build as big an army as possible as early as possible and go to war from the very start. Prioritize upgrading to the top all those agreements that increase the strength of the units you can train and are planning to use and wait on the others till they become useful to you. Carefully consider all the tournaments, challenges and other events that are regularly offered by the game and participate in as many of those as possible. Never mind the losses. In Sparta, the way you advance is by losing troops: the more troops you lose the more you win – experience points, tournament points, new units, coins, glory points, dominion points, scrolls, upgrade sketches, boosts, troop upgrades, etc. Remember – IT ALWAYS PAYS OFF, no matter what it might look like. So, in order to make the most of your activity, let the Event Advisor be your guide: whenever possible invest in activities that are part of an ongoing event. Spend the time you have to wait for an event to open in preparation for it. The EVENT ADVISOR IS YOUR BEST ALLY IN THE GAME.

Sparta Secret #4: Your best protection against attacks by other players is not troops – it’s secrecy and lack of profit. Whenever possible, prevent other players from having a look inside your town. And if they do and decide to attack you, make sure that they get zip for their effort.

The way you keep your secrets is by posting as many scouts on the lookout inside your town. Your scouts don’t die when fighting other scouts at home (unless those scouts are Venators, which is rare). They only die during raids. Keep as many as 100 scouts (maybe supported by a couple Amazon Warriors, if you have the coins to buy them) on the lookout. Scouts are expensive units for the beginner so, if you have to, hide them in the Acropolis when you’re not online. Protecting your city with scouts gets rid of 50 % of attackers.

THE ACROPOLIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BUILDING IN THE GAME. At top level, it constantly hides up to 50.000 units of each resource type, and at over the top 4 levels it automatically sends every unit into hiding immediately after training, meaning that you can train troops overnight without being afraid of raids while offline. Have you ever jumped in expectation when spotting an undefended city with 30.000 resources of each type in its storage buildings only to raid it and come home empty handed? Well, that was because most of it was hidden in the Acropolis. Upgrade the Acropolis as far as you can – all the way to the limit.

I can’t stress enough the importance of giving NOTHING to an attacker. That is the most important factor in making them lose their interest in you. A lot of people think that the Acropolis does all the hiding work and forget that each mine and lumberyard can hold over 1000 raw materials, waiting for you to send them into storage. Devoid your attackers of that too – remember to empty mines and lumberyards often.

Sparta secret #5: Sieges are a poor man’s game but they are addictive and contagious.

A lot of players base most of their game on laying siege to their neighbours. I don’t really understand why anybody does that since, in the space of 15 minutes, you can send a wave of 10 raids that will bring home as much as your yield would be for a whole week of sieging. Sieges are not a big nuisance since, apart from yielding very little profit, they do not prevent the sieged player in any way from doing what he normally would do in the game. But sieges look awful on the map, increase the anxiety level of the sieged player and – worst of all – work as a BIG signpost saying: this player is easy meat, this coalition doesn't protect its warriors. Everybody sees them and everybody takes notes. So NEVER TOLERATE SIEGES. If you get a siege go to chat and shout as loud as you can for help or liberate yourself immediately – immediately meaning in a matter of minutes rather than hours. You just DON’T want that signpost hanging over your town.

There are a lot more secrets in Sparta. But if you start off with these, your game will be much more profitable and enjoyable,your town will develop faster, you goals will become more interesting and you will soon inspire respect and caution among the players in your neighborhood. Have a good war.