Games and More

Yesterdays I talked a bit about the game Ikariam.  Today I thought I would go into a little more detail and give a few tips.

You begin the game on an island with as many as 16 other villages.  Each island has two resources available:  wood and a luxury item (wine, marble, crystal glass, or sulfur).  All of the building cost wood to create and/or upgrade.  Every building but the academy will eventual cost marble as well.  The academy requires crystal glass to upgrade.

The palace and the governor’s residence require wood for the first level, marble to complete the second, then crystal glass and finally wine.  To establish a colony you must have a palace and you can only have as many colonies as your palace has levels.  Additionally you will need to build governor’s residences in your colonies with the same number of levels as colonies otherwise corruption will run rampant in your colony.

The town hall, academy, barracks, trading post and town wall can all be built immediately.  All other buildings require research in the academy to create.  The more levels your academy has the more scientists you can have researching producing faster results.

So as far as deciding which colonies to create in what order consider that all buildings (except the academy) eventually require marble to create and/or upgrade.  Crystal glass is needed to upgrade the academy and train spies.  Sulfur is needed to train soldiers.  Wine is for keeping your citizens happy.

I hope that helps you establish fruitful colonies and have great success at the game.

If you liked the idea of Travian but found the game play to involved or perhaps you are simply looking for another game in which to conquer try playing Ikariam.  The initial start up is easier.  Instead of balancing four resources in order to expand you only need to worry about lumber to begin.  Also, Ikariam uses gold so trade is easier to facilitate.

However, do be careful how you spend your initial luxury goods because the are necessary for later expansion and are not always available through trade.  Also, you can not settle new territory until you have created a palace (and you are only allowed one colony per palace level).  As each island only has one luxury good chose your colony placement with care.

Good luck.

Travian is a building and conquering online game.  You start with a small village and try to conquer the world.  I linked to it in a previous post, but now I thought I’d give a few tips.

In your starting village you only have 20 building sites (not including the rally point).  However, there are thirty-one building you can construct.  So choose your buildings with care.  Are you going to be a world conqueror?  Then stick with the military buildings.  Are you going to be a diplomat?  Then stick with the trade buildings.  Also bear in mind that your palace can only be built once and the stonemason can only be built in that town.

And before you get all gun hoe with thoughts of conquering remember your palace has to be a level 10 before you can conquer or found new villages.  I hope this helps you on your quest to take over the world.

Yesterday Peter gave us a link to another good Kenken site.  If you’d like to go directly to the online puzzles click here.  If you’d like to go directly to the printable puzzles click here.  Thanks again Peter.

Today’s game, Paint Buckets, requires a registration.  I keep an alternate email for these type of registrations so that my regular email is not flooded with junk mail.  The game can be played for free or you can choose to compete for cash.  (I recommend the free variety.)

If you have ever played with the Microsoft application Paint the play is similar.  You are attempting to turn a picture into a single color.  You have three paint buckets in each color pictured.  When you pour a paint bucket onto a square each adjacent square of the same color will also change color.

The game play is relatively simple.  But each new picture presents its own challenges.  Hope you enjoy.

Do you enjoy building up forces?  Seeking out enemies to conquer?  Maybe building up a trade network and harvesting supplies?  Travian has all this and more.

You choose a race - Romans are the most versatile, Guals the best at defense and Teutons are good for attack (but not recommended for new players).  Then you are given a town to run.  To the right of the screen will be a little man who will guide you through the first few steps of running your town.  After you’ve completed the tutorial he will disappear.  You may feel you don’t need help getting started, however, you get bonuses for completing the various tasks in the tutorial so I recommend walking through it.

A nice feature of this game is the 14 day beginner’s luck.  None of the other players can attack you for 14 days.  This gives you a little time to figure out how the game works and to create a few military units.  This also gives you a little time to discover some of the other players and join an alliance.

Give it a try.  You wont be disappointed.