The goal of storm islands is to feed your alliance aqua which can be obtained in one of 4 ways.
The first of which is through building quests. There are several building quests which give enough aqua to leisurely stroll along enabling very few boats to be produced each month. Not very effective by itself, but will allow low level members to add a few points to the alliance totals.
The second of these options is assaulting other players. This should be avoided if possible as SI assaults are really looked down upon. However if someone chooses to go this route it can provide a moderate amount of aqua.
Storm forts are another nice option for aqua acquisition. Low level forts require very small troop counts, no skill, and result in few casualties. They reward both aqua for boats, and resources allowing for a bit of castle improvement. Each level of storm fort provides a little more challenges. Level 70 forts being the cream of the crop giving great rewards for the large investment.
The final, and most effective aqua acquisition is via capturing aqua islands. Each small island rewards 11500 aqua after a 6 hour holding period.
Building Priority
Your keep should be your first upgrade in SI. Each upgrade reduces building times up to level 5 which drops times to half. This should be done first due to the longer you wait the less beneficial upgrading is.
Next should be your storage. Where you stop is up to you and your play style. I suggest a level 3 storage. This allows you to hold 13.5k food for your troops giving you several hrs to send captures before retreating to another land.
Once you are happy with your keep, and storage you should begin building boats. Each level of boat of course takes longer, and provides a range of aqua. Level 1 boats are the most efficient at providing points when time/aqua are considered.
You should extend castle walls as you can. This will allow you more room to add boats.
It is suggested that you remove all buildings except for farms which take more time to remove than the space they provide for new boats. You might consider keeping either a siege workshop, or defense workshop to allow the continuous production of tools.
I suggest sending a minimum of 400 troops to storm island at a time along with plenty of rams, ladders, and mantlets. 400 troops should allow you to assault 2 aqua islands, or 5 resource islands while waiting on reinforcements.
Assault Basics
Each assault on any Storm island will be different. This is due to each island having a different defense setup. When assaulting ANY NPC with melee troops you should make sure to mitigate wall/gate defenses prior to using mantlets. Mantlets aid against only ranged defenders, however wall/gate tools will aid against all defenders.
Each island should be spied upon to see where it will be most effective for us to assault. What you should be looking for is overall troop counts as well as ranged vs. melee counts. The optimal positions to assault would have fewer overall counts as well as being majorly ranged defenders. This however doesn’t usually happen on more than one position. With the remaining positions resembling close to the same counts with minor differences in the melee/ranged ratio. ALWAYS aim for the position with the fewest melee defenders, and most ranged defenders. This theory is due to the heavy use of mantlets. The more ranged defenders we can kill on the wall with reduced defenses the more troops we will save in the courtyard battle.
Aqua Island Assaults
Each small resource island provides 20k of the corresponding resource after a 4 hour holding period. Tools are only stacked 3 waves deep, so you should send 3 waves of martyrs followed up with your final wave being fully ranged. Using all ranged you will want to take the gate, and one flank. The flank chosen should have the most ranged defenders with the least melee defenders. On the last wave you should send 20 mantlets, 10 ladders minus your commander wall reduction, 8 rams minus commander gate reduction. Loss’s should range from 15-50 depending on your commander, and how many ranged wind up in the courtyard. Assaults on both flanks, and the gate resulted in higher casualties with more tools required. Setup provided below.
flank gate flank
wave 1 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 2 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 3 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 4 full assault full assault 0
Large resource islands provide 40k of the corresponding resources after a 8 hour holding period. However the troop/tool investment when compared to the smaller islands is well above what it would cost to capture 2 smaller islands. I will not be covering these in this overview.
Each small aqua island provides 11.5k aqua after a 6 hour holding period. Tools are stacked to cover all 4 waves. Using all ranged in the first wave you should assault the gate, and one flank for best results. Tools should be 33 mantlets, 11 ladders minus your commander wall reduction, and 9 rams minus your commander gate reduction. The following waves you should mix match your available troops to correspond with what you anticipate to face in the courtyard. Loss’s should range between 100-200 per assault depending. Assaults on both flanks, and the gate resulted in more casualties at a higher troop cost. Setup provided below.
flank gate flank
wave 1 ranged assault ranged assault 0
wave 2 full assault full assault 0
wave 3 not necessary not necessary 0
wave 4 not necessary not necessary 0
The first of which is through building quests. There are several building quests which give enough aqua to leisurely stroll along enabling very few boats to be produced each month. Not very effective by itself, but will allow low level members to add a few points to the alliance totals.
The second of these options is assaulting other players. This should be avoided if possible as SI assaults are really looked down upon. However if someone chooses to go this route it can provide a moderate amount of aqua.
Storm forts are another nice option for aqua acquisition. Low level forts require very small troop counts, no skill, and result in few casualties. They reward both aqua for boats, and resources allowing for a bit of castle improvement. Each level of storm fort provides a little more challenges. Level 70 forts being the cream of the crop giving great rewards for the large investment.
The final, and most effective aqua acquisition is via capturing aqua islands. Each small island rewards 11500 aqua after a 6 hour holding period.
Building Priority
Your keep should be your first upgrade in SI. Each upgrade reduces building times up to level 5 which drops times to half. This should be done first due to the longer you wait the less beneficial upgrading is.
Next should be your storage. Where you stop is up to you and your play style. I suggest a level 3 storage. This allows you to hold 13.5k food for your troops giving you several hrs to send captures before retreating to another land.
Once you are happy with your keep, and storage you should begin building boats. Each level of boat of course takes longer, and provides a range of aqua. Level 1 boats are the most efficient at providing points when time/aqua are considered.
You should extend castle walls as you can. This will allow you more room to add boats.
It is suggested that you remove all buildings except for farms which take more time to remove than the space they provide for new boats. You might consider keeping either a siege workshop, or defense workshop to allow the continuous production of tools.
I suggest sending a minimum of 400 troops to storm island at a time along with plenty of rams, ladders, and mantlets. 400 troops should allow you to assault 2 aqua islands, or 5 resource islands while waiting on reinforcements.
Assault Basics
Each assault on any Storm island will be different. This is due to each island having a different defense setup. When assaulting ANY NPC with melee troops you should make sure to mitigate wall/gate defenses prior to using mantlets. Mantlets aid against only ranged defenders, however wall/gate tools will aid against all defenders.
Each island should be spied upon to see where it will be most effective for us to assault. What you should be looking for is overall troop counts as well as ranged vs. melee counts. The optimal positions to assault would have fewer overall counts as well as being majorly ranged defenders. This however doesn’t usually happen on more than one position. With the remaining positions resembling close to the same counts with minor differences in the melee/ranged ratio. ALWAYS aim for the position with the fewest melee defenders, and most ranged defenders. This theory is due to the heavy use of mantlets. The more ranged defenders we can kill on the wall with reduced defenses the more troops we will save in the courtyard battle.
Aqua Island Assaults
Each small resource island provides 20k of the corresponding resource after a 4 hour holding period. Tools are only stacked 3 waves deep, so you should send 3 waves of martyrs followed up with your final wave being fully ranged. Using all ranged you will want to take the gate, and one flank. The flank chosen should have the most ranged defenders with the least melee defenders. On the last wave you should send 20 mantlets, 10 ladders minus your commander wall reduction, 8 rams minus commander gate reduction. Loss’s should range from 15-50 depending on your commander, and how many ranged wind up in the courtyard. Assaults on both flanks, and the gate resulted in higher casualties with more tools required. Setup provided below.
flank gate flank
wave 1 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 2 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 3 1 martyr 1 martyr 0
wave 4 full assault full assault 0
Large resource islands provide 40k of the corresponding resources after a 8 hour holding period. However the troop/tool investment when compared to the smaller islands is well above what it would cost to capture 2 smaller islands. I will not be covering these in this overview.
Each small aqua island provides 11.5k aqua after a 6 hour holding period. Tools are stacked to cover all 4 waves. Using all ranged in the first wave you should assault the gate, and one flank for best results. Tools should be 33 mantlets, 11 ladders minus your commander wall reduction, and 9 rams minus your commander gate reduction. The following waves you should mix match your available troops to correspond with what you anticipate to face in the courtyard. Loss’s should range between 100-200 per assault depending. Assaults on both flanks, and the gate resulted in more casualties at a higher troop cost. Setup provided below.
flank gate flank
wave 1 ranged assault ranged assault 0
wave 2 full assault full assault 0
wave 3 not necessary not necessary 0
wave 4 not necessary not necessary 0