Even the most fanatic workaholic needs a few good reasons to waste time now and then and I am definitely no exception. The latest in my absolutely nonproductive pursuits is a free online game of conquest and world building sort of like a cross between Civilization® and Sim City® meets Age of Empires®. It’s a combination that could have fallen flat, but in this case it worked, and I’m hooked.
Evony has all the hallmarks of greatness. If you’re a strategy game freak like myself, you’ll have a hard time walking away from it once you get started. There are a lot of things to think about as you go along, with the added worry that you’ll get wiped right off the face of the map if you don’t get it done fast enough.
Game play is pretty basic. Sign up for a free Evony account, pick a server and start following along with the quests to get your city up and running. (If you’re gunning for me, go for server 67, you’ll find me there as Lord Galen. My wife is on the same server though, so if you’re feeling like getting frisky I have the most dedicated backup there is!) After a few minutes you should be rolling along pretty well on your way to getting a few awards and free gifts.
Like most massive multi-player games, the world of Evony is packed with players who are far more experienced than you will be when you’re starting out. If you’re a first time player, you’re in luck. You have a one week period of safety in which to get your city in shape before the hordes of the world at large are allowed to pummel you into the ground. Be prepared to spend a lot of time with Evony on the first day. You’ll need to get a population going and then get them to work. Just watch the task window closely and follow along for the first day or two while you get your resources built up. You’ll need them, trust me. Don’t worry about trying things on your own at this point unless you’ve played Evony before, jut follow the quests related to resources, wealth and the ability to get more of each.
For the first few days your attention should be on getting your resources as high as possible and your population levels as high as you can manage, but at about day four it’s time to start worrying about your military. Don’t forget that on day seven (or when you’ve upgraded your town hall to level 5), you’re at the mercy of other players. You’d better make sure you’ve go a defensive force that will make them think twice about coming after you before they go after someone else or you may just find yourself in a very bad situation quickly.
I would suggest that you save any speed-ups that you get for later in this process when upgrades can take 5 hours or longer to complete. (This is experience talking, people. I’m currently waiting for an upgrade that won’t be done until late this afternoon and I used up everything I had earlier in the game.) The plus to this is that the time-wasting factor of the game becomes less excessive as the days go on. Things take longer to upgrade so you can get a few things rolling and then get back to more pressing tasks while you wait for projects to be completed.
So you build up, you prepare, you stockpile and your army is ready. What happens when your 7 days of safety are gone? Do you get owned or do you stand tall as the master of your domain? Only you can answer that question. In the end your strategies and alliances will determine whether you stand or fall. That’s the beauty of a game like this.
Go sign up for an Evony account and see if you’ve got what it takes to be a king in the realms of Evony. While you’re at it, send me a “hello”. I’d love to see you there.
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Evony is the biggest waste of time ever, you spend a lot of time building things up and all it takes is one hostile bully with high prestige and lots of armies to wipe you out in a few hours and thus you loose it all in a flash.
So if you want to waste hours and days only to find yourself with nothing, then go ahead and play it.
This is quite possibly true. I gave up on it about a week after writing this post
i played the original SimCity in the 90′s and until now i still play the latest version of SimCity;~;