thanks! As for sketches, haven't used any yet (don't have enough), but planning on using them on my acropolis first, so I can get my new units to go automatically to the acropolis. Does that make sense?

Ike said:

thanks! As for sketches, haven't used any yet (don't have enough), but planning on using them on my acropolis first, so I can get my new units to go automatically to the acropolis. Does that make sense?

Yes Ike that's a very good idea! 

Ike said:

thanks! As for sketches, haven't used any yet (don't have enough), but planning on using them on my acropolis first, so I can get my new units to go automatically to the acropolis. Does that make sense?

IMHO both above comments make sense in the right context:

• If you logon twice daily for an hour or two, once mornings, once evenings as many do, securing your builds by upgrading your Acropolis to sketch-level can be very sensible, especially when you don't appreciate your offensive units being slaughtered as soon as they step out of their training buildings (the defensive ones also die of course, but they do put up a fight :-). 
  
  
• I, on the other hand, also play only a couple of hours per day but have the advantage of staying logged on all through the day, including work, and there's always time every hour or two to send my troops to the Acropolis, so the Acropolis upgrades are of no great concern to me.
  
  

1. You should also consider the cost of these Acropolis upgrades. AFAIK the first two are 600 and 1200 sketches, so the last two are (I'm assuming) 1.800 and 2.400 sketches. That's 6.000 sketches (but someone correct me if I'm wrong), so especially considering how many forges, farms and what-not could be upgraded with less, that's a lot of sketches (at least 60k+ Dr. to buy).
   
   
2. Personally, I didn't begin buying sketches until late in the game at a point when most of my buildings could not be upgraded further without these; until then my Drachmas went to buying artisans later fortifications and decor, and the only sketches I had were the few one picks up in the odd tournament.
   
   
3. Also, if you raid and are raided daily, then such an investment will make much more sense than if you reached some understanding with your neighbours and are not in constant peril of enduring their daily unannounced visits. Being raided once or twice a week and losing a few hours worth of builds might not be worth spending that amount of money so early in the game.

So again, if you're looking for simple answers, do not read on :-)

Cheers
P.

Ike said:

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions. Lots to evaluate!

I found an old cheat-sheet I did for new members of a previous coalition, perhaps it contains something that might prove useful. Click here to open a full-screen zoomable version of the graphic below.

Cheers
P.