RATING:Grepolis Review
You start of by creating a free account and selecting the world you want to play, at this point the most important factor is the speed of the World you want to play in - personally I'd go for Speed 2 - Speed 3 is just too fast and as you get further into the game you can easily get totally wiped out as you sleep - Conversely Speed 1 is just too slow for me, surprise attacks are harder and things such as building and getting established just take too long. Speed 2 offers a good balance. Also consider selecting a world which has a good number of players in and is still relatively new, otherwise you could find yourself as easy pickings.
When you start the game, there is a tutorial that will guild you through some actions you can perform, it is not that in-depth but the strategy in the initial stages is pretty basic - gather as much resources as you can. The purpose of this would be to eventually create armies before your immunity period finishes - this is different in each world but it's usually around 5 or 6 days.
Graphically, this is nowhere near as pretty as The Settlers Online, and in terms of things to do is far less complex, it's just a different kettle of fish as they say. Grepolis is much more of a war strategy game. In it you'll almost certainly eventually have to become part of a clan - so pick wisely - there are various sites out there that check the stats of individual players and clans (http://www.grepostats.com for example), and they are useful tools in finding out who to ally yourself with - You can of course start your own - but to be honest unless you have a lot of time to devote to the game and are experienced you are much better joining a group that is well established.
As you level up your farms, timber camps and quarries you'll soon be building a barracks and academy, these will allow you to build your armies to farm the computer controlled villages on your island - and if you desire - farm/attack other players on your island - There are usually 20 slots per island. There is also mythology in the game, this comes into play when you have created a temple (usually after a few days of gameplay) you can pick one of 5 Gods to worship which give you different types of benefits - for example improving your resource creation, making you stronger in battle or even destroying part of an enemy fleet heading your way!
The market system is pretty good, you can build one of these after you've reached a certain level and then trade resources with other players in your world or with villages on your island - or even as a haven for your resources if you are about to be attacked or farmed yourself by another player.
As with many of this type of game, it is free to play, but if you can stump up some cash and purchase some in-game gold things become a whole lot easier. For example 100 Gold will unlock the use of an 'Administrator' for two weeks, you get a better menu and the ability to queue 7 buidling items instead of 2 and overviews of your cities - this is great especially if you have conquered multiple cities in the game. There is also the option to use Sponsorpay, where you can take part in special offers in return for cash - personally I wouldn't go for the ones that require your mobile phone number, but there are usually a couple that only require an email address - And you can always unsubscribe at a later date if you don't want to receive the sponsor's message anymore. This is a great way round physically spending cold hard cash on the in game upgrades - You only really need to purchase the administrator and one purchase lasts two weeks - great stuff.
In summary Grepolis is well worth a look - I've played this one to an advanced level a while back (Got to No.1 in my ocean) and it can literally take over your life! So be warned. That being said feel free to comment in the article below if you need any advice with this game.
COMMENTS(