there are 2 types:

missions with crossed swords, they are harder and have guaranteed reward, both for offense and defense, they spawn every 5 levels  of normal positions u advance. I wouldn't hit them before I have troops upgraded to lvl 20 and have elixirs on etc, maximum power, u can save them for later

ordinary positions:

first of all you never win anything there.

you only transform low tier units like swords/javelins to higher tier units like agema horses etc.

my tip is to build these light units and keep sending on positions, after some time bigger payout will arrive with few higher tier units.

don't send high tier units at positions.

yes you send offense to red position, defense to green

if u want to read more:

http://wiki.plarium.com/index.php?title=Persian_Positions:SWOE

btw: don't feel obligated to do them all the time, they will not make you stronger really, simply take it as tool to exchange low tier units to higher tier, as you advance further levels, u can learn more about them, but this kind of stays true all the way.

I'm playing missions with free heroes... Takes months, but completely free ! :p

Thank you for the insight Rob may.

Just to make sure I understood the wiki correctly.
The level defines the number of troops spawned, and the bars underneath the the picture represents the remaining troops?
Does the position type have any significance? It's not mentioned in the wiki.

A couple of more questions have emerged.

1. Is there a way to see when the position list will be refreshed, when you still have uncompleted positions in the list?

2. You say missions appear every 5 levels you advance in the normal positions. How does this advancement occur? As far as I can tell, you advance one level every day. I'm sure I'm missing something here. If my assessment is correct, you would get nowhere fast.

3. What is the point to upgrading the Oracle? My oracle is level 4 and I haven't seen any colonies yet. There's not even a tab for them in the oracle. You don't get more positions per day, you are just able to see further, as i understand it. Please enlighten me.

Persian positions is a bottomless pit.  You "invest" a certain number of troops, they die, Plarium returns about 90% of your losses.  Sometimes in big chunks which makes you think that you gained ground but you do not.  Sometimes the game lets you "upgrade" from losing units you can build to "freed" units that you cannot yet build. It seems like early on (Levels up to 25) you gain a little more than you lose... like a slot machine with a 98% payback.

I hit a wall at positions around level 40. I am at level 61 and if I clean out the Persian Positions on a daily basis I cannot build enough units to raid for resources or compete in PVP events.  Of course Plarium wants me to buy the extra units so I can still "Do It All".  But I don't want to invest any more money in this game.

Actually, this is not quite true.

First of all, I'm producing troops 24/24, and infantry is exclusively used as Persians fodder, so I don't even count them as troops. It's just to make use of otherwise pointless production queues. Only my armory and stables are considered producing "real" troops.

So from my point of view, since all resources are gotten from raiding (which is free) and the fodder is built from these free resources, all my investment is free.

Then I'm using a spreadsheet where I calculate the investment vs payouts ratio so i know where I'm going, and once the full payout is gotten, the balance is always beneficial. Well, it was much more when the partial payouts were bigger (I could get 70 to 80% ratios just out of partial payouts in the levels 50-65 area, and from 120 to 250% per cycle after the full payout), but it still is in the end anyway.

I've only played a week, but i can see a definite benefit from using  positions to upgrade troops. I'm not sure about the troop value, point wise. but especially as a new player where no troops are unlocked, it's golden to be able to get higher tier troops that can bolster your raiding army.

@THATBLOKE

Very insightful post. Can you elaborate on the spreadsheet, either by a download link, or your headings and formula. Everyone talks about using a spreadsheet. but i haven't been able to get any useful details. It might be that i just don't understand what I'm being told, since I'm a total spreadsheet novice.

I still didn't get answers for my questions posted 10 April, 2016, 1:49 PM UTC. And haven't been able to find them my self. 

each troop cost certain amount of resources to build, so it is their resource cost, spreadsheet helps you calculate your total resources(troops) you sent to positions, you can as well do it with pen and paper but spreadsheet is much more useful:)

it will be too complicated for your specially if u at lvl under 20 its pointless to have one, but here you go:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spartatroopcalculator/

now this is very important my free advice to you, if u use it, you will get best value out of troops:

light and heavy units are best pvp units in game, they shred everything and lets take swords for example, they can have up to 4times more dmg than agemas, great for pvp. providing swords are upgraded 20/20 and agemas not, if u catch up on upgrades even then swords might do 1.5-2x more on pvp front, so I would just save light units for pvp, if u have left overs use them for positions, but don't feel like positions are mandatory, u don't have to do them at all.

only when u have troops u want to exchange to better troops.

Once u get decent amount of horses for your raiding of dead cities, i would save rest light for pvp.

@ROB MAY

thx for the link. i'm sure the spreadsheet will come in very handy, once i learn how to use it effectively. The amount of information is daunting, to say the least.

Someone has really put in a lot of effort into gathering the information needed, and fabricating the spreadsheet. 

-------

Just to answer the remaining questions I've put up in this post, in case anyone else comes by looking for the answers in the future.

1: 12 new positions are added at midnight UTC. You can have a maximum of 24 position + 2 missions visible at any given time.

2: I'm unsure of the explanation, so here's my observations. at some point when i had played a week, i was around position lvl 15 and city lvl 40 i didn't complete any positions that day except for the highest ones. from that day forward I'm able to advance more then one position lvl each day, and any completed position is immediately replaced by a new one. 

3: I'm pretty sure there's no point in upgrading the oracle except that you can see Emporia that are farther away. 

yes oracle only increase radius at which distance u see emporia, it think max upgrade double radius so it quadruples area

not confirmed but I think u can have all missions available at same time, I have at least 4, +24regular positions

every day u receive +12 positions, if u use them or not they are there waiting for you.

for example if u haven't played Persians in long time and have 24positions and u kill all 24, 12 will be replaced so u can kill another 12 if u like total of 36 per first day.

2nd day u start with zero + 12 new for day, total 12 u can do.

so 12 per day is always awarded, you might not see them directly as they might be waiting in que if u already have 24, that's was my point:)

this is not good way to do it, regarding payouts etc, specially on higher levels, but u can advance by 12levesl per day, if u wish so.

Just kill highest position only, 12 position of same type for example 12 offensive = 12 new levels

and again for first day u can double it with another 12, since these 12 killed will be replaced by 12, so for first day is possible to go 24levels up, then if u don't touch other type in my example u don't touch def only do off, then any additional day you will get 12 new positions, red ones so uc an advance another 12 levels per day.

But ofc that's not what you should do:)

99% of people don't play positions almost at all, only very rarely. just some small hits during tourneys, some players avoid them all together.

regarding of all changes about positions and that fact u read old info from 2015, that info still applies, but rather than getting positions to 1 bar and then cash out reward, which u can still do no problem, u can safely kill positions get small partial reward and u should know if  track resources when big payout come, more or less.

all in all not much changed, just if u killed position before and there wasn't big payout, there was nothing, this time u get some small troops, they eat out of your big  payout, but in the end same thing