For me, use a shield in level 9 is waste of gold. Level 12 is somewhere that I start keep shield.

Clan is important, by join a correct clan, you can get gold regularly, not that much, but enough for shield.

After level 12, each time I get gold, the first thing is shield, always keep 3 or 4 of 3-day-shield ready before use gold for other purpose.

Before level 12, I don't have much army (it is still same for me now, I am in level 15 palace), any troops are useless when meet high level troops, and army cost food. I have 4 infirmary, always keep top level, use resource as soon and as much as possible by use boost get from clan awards.

With a not bad clan, from level 9 to level 12 takes just several days, it is very fast if you know how to play.

With a good clan, others can help you with resources you need, and you can get lots of boosts when clan finish events.

The bad thing is good clan likes active player, I was kicked out from a clan when I was not active for a few days.

daenerystargaryen said:

The bad thing is good clan likes active player, I was kicked out from a clan when I was not active for a few days.

our clan is small ( 17 members ) but we are in the top 10 clan from our kingdom

usually, new small cities join us and stay some time for grow... but once lvl 21 or above, they leave us because the helpclansman is not effectieve for big city due to small amount of members... somehow, we are a nursery

being inactif for a time is not a issue if you inform a elder or chief about it... some people have a real live and cannot be always online

but we are unforgiven to those in clan who loose shield... enough gold from clan event for be always shielded

The most important in our nursery clan is our 4 hyperfarm lvl 25... they feed the little one and help them to grow

At kingdom level, we have a special clan too... a dead one who is open to everybody... plenty make a visit to it because all the stronghold gear is researched in these clan... it is somehow our marketplace for stronghold armor... people visit and remain a few hours only to craft armor...

What is really intended with this game is to be in a clan... big one and small one help each other... big one feed small one with rss, make pts in event, teach them how to play... small one help the big one with the helpclansman and use reward from event for grow...

A city below lvl 21 cannot do a lot... lvl 21 is important because upgrade from 20 to 21 double rss production... and there is important function in a clan who don't ask a big army... like being a bank... same a tile hitter don't need a nig army... enough for a single march who attack non stop tile...

It's not a game if I can't fight back.

i am a lvl 26, +1 bil influence but i attack rarely... i am a spy specialist and it is my duty in the clan to spy and give information to the big warrior ... my secondary speciality is archer but only strong in defense, used for make trap... i trap our dead city or tile...

i have 4 other lvl 25 cities who have only 1 horseman... each is specialized in 1 type of rss and produce around 20 mil of these rss each hours... they are hyperfarm and never fight... but they feed the clan bank and the stronghold...

In real life, a army is nothing without intelligence... or without kitchen... in this game, in my clan, it is my function

It is what i like in this game... at clan level, it is more about strategy that only about fight... if i want to only fight, i have other game like first persoon shooter... mechanic in viking is complex and allow a lot of usefull speciality

It's cos you happened to start the game at the worst time possible for New players. Plarium had a breech in their security so in roughly two days dozens of new kingdoms were spawned. By the time plarium fixed it it was too late. Then they decided to just remove spam bot accounts and fill the kingdoms slowly.

Well that would be a good idea too, if it wasn't just a half baked sweeping problem under the rug. Cos like you said you started now in one of those new/dead kingdoms idk what to call them. Problem is there are players a few of them who started a month or two ago when that KD was created by the bot attack and they have a huge advantage. 

The main idea is a new KD opens and gets filled  in a day or two, everyone starts roughly in that one day or two and no one has a starting advantage. A new KD hasn't opened in months now still filling out the old ones that were made in the incident, and it's going slower than ever before. 

Idk how they even keep their sales up and new players with this colossal failure. A bloke like you who doesn't pay already has a hard time against ppl who pay, but with this it's even worse. You know how ppl starting in kingdoms more than a month old where kvk and cvc already began, left to the mercy of ppl who already learned mechanics and have some experience. Hopefully in a month more all the defective kingdoms get filled and they start opening new ones like before. Even then all the kingdoms opened in the bot attack will forever be crippled.

Funny thing is they never even officially acknowledged this, that how much money they make they couldn't install a system that simply prevents a bot to spam create new accounts.