ScumFlash: How to act like Scum in Fortress mode

So we all saw the Fortress finally hitting the game (only over 6 months later than they promised, but who is counting...). Most of you will probably have figured out most of the new features, but it never hurts to read up and see if you missed something.

The release had a couple of new things:

• New dungeon (you need to get the key by mining the gem mine in Fortress mode, PRO TIP: don't level your mine beyond level one until you found the key)
• video Lucky coins replacing foxes (wich replaced shrooms...) You can spend them at the Spinning wheel in the center of the village. Even if you don't get vids, you get one spin a day for free, so go visit it every day.
• Fortress mode,with a couple different kind of buildings: Basic/money (fortress, quarry, woodcutter's hut), Defense (wall, archery field, mage's tower), Attack (barracks), usefull inside Fortress mode (Smithy,  Laborers'Quarters)
• Fortress buildings useful outside Fortress mode (Gem Mine gives gems for enhancing gear, Acadamy gives free xp, Treeasury gives extra slots

Seeing the Fortress mode seems to be a completely different thing altogether, I asked Son of Dog, (togehter with Veriz probably the most active in this new mode and both always answering questions about it in guildchat) to give us some small guideline how to approach. And below my ramblings you can find jsut that.

if you have any questions or something to add, please dont hesitate to leave a comment. It might help us all.

Grtz.
Ghettoforce

The Dog's-eye View: Marking your Fortress's Territory

Woof! Simply speaking, you're either doing well already and looking for some tips, or you're hopelessly behind. This little article will focus on how to help people who are hopelessly behind ... so if you're doing well, you might pick up a tip or two, but don't expect too much.

So you slapped your name on a cabin in the woods! What's the game about? Basically, you have two key resources: Wood and Stone. Some things give you more Wood and Stone; these are your Income. They include Woodcutter levels, Quarry levels, and raiding nearby Fortresses. The new Wheel of Fortune in town can also give you bonus Stone and Wood. (If you don't know the Wheel, then click on your Dungeon button, click the shiny golden "Back" portal in the lower-left, and look for the Gypsy Wagon near the middle of town.)

The more you invest in your Income, the bigger your Income gets, and the faster you grow. Anything you invest in something besides your Income will slow down your growth. That sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people just think about how to fight better, or get distracted by the Gem mine. Invest in your Income first! This means using most of your Wood and Stone to level up your Fortress, Woodcutter and Quarry.

Your best Defense is collecting resources often. If someone raids you, the most they can get is 10% of what you have stored inside your Fortress. If you have 4000 saved up, then you'll still have 3600 after someone raids you ... so be patient, and keep your eye on the prize.

Every time someone raids you, it costs them resources to do it. Every Soldier sent on a Raid is lost; the Soldier is used up, and has to be rebuilt. Rebuilding soldiers takes time (25 minutes per Soldier) and resources (71 Stone for a level 50 Soldier). So, your best Defense is to be a "waste of time" to attack. If you only have 1500 Stone saved up, then the raider will only get 150 stone; he's going to spend 71 of that rebuilding a level 50 Soldier, and 25 minutes. Is 25 minutes of his time worth 80 stone of profit? Sometimes it is; but the higher level he is, the less likely it is to be worth his time.
Your Wall ("Fortifications") is almost useless. You will need one level in it to unlock some other things, but investing your Wood and Stone into a Wall is basically the same as losing it to someone else attacking you. Don't throw away stone and wood on a big Wall. Even a level 45 Wall is useless against someone with level 55 Soldiers. It might be useful after you've played for a month, but check back here before building more than one level.

The real defense is in Archers and Mages. 2 Archers can defend a single Soldier one rank (5 levels) above them. The problem is, your Archers are stuck at level 25, and The Other Guy is using level 50 Soldiers! This makes your Archers useless ... so how do you get level 45 Archers?

>>> DO NOT level your Archery field! <<<

The only way to make your units level up is to use the Smithy. You can't get a Smithy until you have a Mage Tower, and you can't get a Mage Tower until you have a level 7 Fortress ... so what's your first step? That's right: invest in your Income.

So, in summary:

1. Until you get a Smithy, the best defense you can have is collecting your resources often (once per hour is best, and waking up early to collect on the first few days is a good plan if you can do it).

2. Do not get distracted by the shiny buildings. Everything you invest in those will slow down your Income. You will probably find you have some "idle" time at Fortress level 3 or 4; you can use that to build 1 level of each building, maybe recruit a couple Archers, maybe look for some gems. You can even recruit a single level 25 Soldier to do some scouting.

3. The Worker's Quarters is a tricky call. The math is hard, so if you feel like you want to build up the Worker's Quarters, then do it; if you feel like you don't want to build it up until after you have a Defense, then that's also fine. I built mine up to level 4 and stopped, then built it to level 5 after I had a few levels in my Smithy.

4. When you hit level 7 Fortress, your next building should be the Mage Tower, and the one after that should be the Smithy. From there, build up your Archer levels to defend yourself. But REMEMBER: you are not trying to stop the other guy from winning. You can't do that. You are trying to make it cost him more Soldiers to attack you, so that the small amount of resources he can get from the raid is not enough to make it worth spending all those Soldiers on attacking you. Collecting resources often is still a big part of this.

5. If you want to build up Soldiers to get some extra Income, spend a day "scouting". As soon as you train a level 25 Soldiers (maybe at Fortress level 4) you can start using the "Attack on the Fortress" button (lower right side of your screen) to look at other players. The "Different Opponent" button is free after 5 minutes, so you can check a lot of people before you ever make a single attack. This will give you an idea how big your Soldiers have to be, and how many of them you need, and how much you can win from a successful raid. Think about the Soldiers you have to keep replacing, the profit from the raid, and how much you need to invest in levelling up your Soldiers through the Smithy. The decision is yours to make, because your own situation is unique.

Most of all: BE PATIENT. You'll have tons more fun if you take your time and build it right!

Son of Dog