The Eta Chronicle (Issue1)

[DeletedUser2039]

Bringing you the news of Eta, straight to the externals! You get everything from what's going on, top 12's, a featured player and his alliance, alliance leader interviews that everyone loves, a featured model for all you men of Grepolis, a crossword for the interactive folks, tips for newbs, on this day in history, and finally some current U.S. events. If this doesn't satisfy everyone's needs then you are out of luck!

Note: If you are wondering why such long length, it is because of the length between issues. Just a way I can stay on top of keeping it running a little easier without killing my own life.

Enjoy​

Eta Events/Wars​

The first colonization has been made! Yes you heard me right folks, rockheadbrian has claimed first place in Eta as well as being the first to colonize! Is this a bold attempt for control? Will he be able to hold this position with his slim 130 ABP? We will have to see whether his army matches up to his points!

In other news, the King-of-Kings continues to fly solo as he holds the second spot for points. Will he thrive without an alliance holding him back or will he be taken to a quick demise without the support many others have?

Also headlining in the Eta Chronicle, biremes! Across Eta biremes are filling ports and protecting cities. This is a killer for any mass of troops looking to get in because many still lack large fleets of lightships. Reports are coming in constantly about sunken transports full of troops that didn't even reach the shore. Some are even loosing biremes in attacks that were meant to kill off their enemies' undefended transports. Not with biremes defending now! My advice, be careful people, sending unsupported navel attacks can bring about a lot of funerals and not even one for your enemy...

Sadly, there are no wars to speak of. Tune in next issue for the latest news and full coverage of the wars of Eta!

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Eta's Top 12's​

Top 12 Alliances (Points):
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Top 12 Aliiances (ABP):
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1. The Silence - Sitting at number 1 in our first edition of the top 12, The Silence has a full roster of 50 players who average 2,138 points, the highest average among the top 12. "The voices you hear in the darkness" hail primarily from ocean 54, and they take no prisoners, leading our world in ABP with a whopping 12,263. The Silence is a well-organized killing machine that looks to continue its dominance into the future.

2. The Union - Registering as a close second to the Silence, Tyler Boyd's "Union" is mostly comprised of experienced players from Hyperboria. This group already knows each other, so they have hit the ground running in Eta. Ranked third in ABP, they are part of the well-defined 'top 3' plateau in the rankings. It is interesting to note that The Union is also 5th in DBP, so someone they're farming must not be too happy.

3. Eclipse - Purple Hornet has organized a powerful group of 48 members, scattered homogeneously throughout ocean 55. This week they find themselves trailing The Silence for ABP in the number 2 spot.

4. ALL IN - Located in the southeast of ocean 44, and the northeast of ocean 45, this crew has pushed all of their chips into the pot. Joseph Nieves seems to be a one-man wrecking crew as he handles ALL IN's recruiting, pacts, and mergers. Solid leadership and a strong membership usually leads to good things.

5. Rising Shadows - Boasting their locality in ocean 64, this alliance rounds out our top 5 with the lowest average points of the group (1,626). Despite their average points being on the lower end of the spectrum, they were able to squeak into the top 10 in ABP this week.

6. Wolfknives - With the fourth highest average points, and 6 more membership slots to fill, this could be a sneaky alliance down the road. They are approximately tied with ALL IN, and substantially trail The Union in ABP.

7. Spartacus - They have taken a rather peaceful route to start Eta in ocean 65 and rank #11 in ABP. Their start was good, so we'll have to see if they can keep things going well.

8. Island Powers - Possessing a fraternal alliance with which they closely associate with, their membership appears to be extremely spread out across the oceans. They will have to take advantage of their geographic diversity to break into the top 5 in coming weeks.

9. TheFlyingV - Ruling over ocean 44, their membership includes the number 1 player in World 8 (rockheadbrian, 5,244 pts.)

10. The Republic of Rome - Evenly spread out in the middle of our map, they have signed one notable pact with The Beehive. However, their #9 ABP speaks louder than their diplomacy.

11. Oceanus - They are located in the southernmost tip of the colonized world, and look to become established in the next few weeks.

12. New World - Rounding out the top 12, they only have 38 members. Interestingly for such a small membership, they are positioned squarely in the top 10 ABP at #7. If they can add a few members, they have a chance to break into the top 10 of our next edition of the Top 12.

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Featured Player: Bull3377 of The Silence​

In this section I have asked a player of obvious competitiveness (1st in ABP) to tell a little about himself, why he feels his alliance is the best, some things to note about ABP and why he takes it as a priority, and some advice he has for newer players. I hope this gives you a new perspective on one of the top players of Eta and some of the things he values the most.

Bio: My background includes four years as a military intelligence analyst, after which, I transitioned out of the military and began law school two years ago.
Alliance: The reason I feel my alliance is currently on top in Eta, is also what I feel others should emulate if they want to challenge us. The vast majority of people have an innate desire to be led, but at the same time, do not want to feel as if they are being led. The leadership of The Silence does a good job of utilizing this human instinct. They often insert polls into our forum so that members can vote on issues and give feedback as to their progress. This allows the members to feel as if they are influencing the decisions of our alliance. However, after a period of time the leadership ultimately uses its power to make the decision and guide our alliance based on what they themselves feel is the best course. This blend of democracy and dictatorial control allows our members to feel encouraged and engaged so that they will continue the game and not abandon their city and at the same time, allows the leadership to maintain unilateral control and keep our alliance progressing on a set course with a singular focus.
ABP: To be competitive in ABP, the number one focus of every player should be target development. You do not get any points for killing militia, so you should obviously be attempting to exploit your enemy’s downtime. There are many ways to do this, but the most overlooked is messaging. Messaging provides you with a number of advantages. If you remain positive, you can still maintain a solid relationship with a player while attacking him, and perhaps one day form a personal alliance with him should he prove a worthy foe or you get in over your head and need a truce. Also, by remaining positive, you increase the chances the player will continue corresponding with you. Continued correspondence is critical to the discussion here. By exchanging a high volume of messages with a player, you develop a large pool of potential data. This is best exploited by tracking when the player opens his mail. Through this, you can gauge his peak activity times. Not only does this tell you when you absolutely should not be attacking this player, it shows you when he is likely to be away and provides you with strike windows that have the best chance of resulting in a successful attack.
Advice For New Players: Really this is applicable for many of the vets as well. My biggest complaint with the Grepolis set-up is that when you open rankings, the first category is based on city points. This lures many players into a flawed gaming strategy, where they think success comes from building up their city. It has been said many times before and will be said here again, this is a war game not Sims. While it is true, you must build your city in order to unlock new units and techs, your primary focus should be on your military. By having a military first strategy, you gain several advantages. First, by growing your military as quickly as possible in the early stages you can use this to gain and keep a substantial advantage over your neighbor throughout the game. By striking first and wiping him out, you can maintain a numbers advantage, which you can use to farm your adversary. This provides extra resources to hasten your growth and denies him resources so that his growth is slowed. Over time, this leads to a sizeable disparity in growth rate. Second, the biggest impediment to growth in later stages of the game, is obtaining enough culture points to unlock additional city slots. By focusing on ABP early and often, you negate this impediment and in the long-run, you have a vastly superior rate of growth as compared to the player who just puts all his resources into buildings during the early stages. Third, by keeping your nearby enemies out of units, you make it impossible for them to build an attacking force capable of conquering your city. To again use a common expression, the best defense is a good offense. Finally, focusing on a military first strategy is simply more entertaining than city building. By focusing on war you will increase the enjoyment you get out of this game and stick around longer. Remember, you can’t win if you quit.

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Alliance Leader Interviews​

Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: Location, power, how well there members seem to work together, Most importantly how there leader acts.
Q: What do you think the first big wars of Eta will be between? How long do you predict they will last?
A: Hard to say. I think It might be Spartacus and the Union. Not long I think The Union has a higher chance of winning.

Q: What alliance's performance has surprised you the most?
A: Id say ALL IN are doing better then id thought good on them
Q: What in your opinion makes a sound alliance?
A: In my eye's to make a successfull alliance you need trust,honour,good leaderhip and a sense of hummour a long with you need to be understanding and patient.
Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: IN my eye's pacts and naps are a waste of time and can be seen as a weakness and id you feel you need them them it shows you have a lack of faith in you alliance as in the long run only one alliance can be number one and the reason anyoen starts an alliance is to be number 1 not to help someone els get there
Q: What do you think the first big wars of Eta will be between? How long do you predict they will last?
A: I think the first big war of Eta will be between what ever alliance has the balls to start it of with us and it wont last verry long

Q: What alliance's performance has surprised you the most?
A: Probably Gods of Havoc, small alliance but they have a fair amount of ABP.
Q: What in your opinion makes a sound alliance?
A: Good leadership. You could have a alliance with all new players, but if they have a good leader then they can be the strongest alliance.
Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: Strong avg. points, and a good leader.
Q: What do you think the first big wars of Eta will be between? How long do you predict they will last?
A: No comment.

Q: What alliance's performance has surprised you the most?
A: Honestly, I havent been watching alliances out of Ocean 64 so I may be a little bias in this answer. I'm Gonna say Rising Shadows. To have start the server a week behind the big dogs and to go from a collection of small alliances to one big alliance in a manner of days. Then, who now has organization and controls its ocean by far. Additionally, has push up overall with the top alliances.
Q: What in your opinion makes a sound alliance?
A: Active Players that communicate. Teamwork for a single goal at a time. Where the actions of one player never really stands out because of all the team effort.
Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: The first factor is what size the alliance is. If its is not at least 30 players I decline on the spot. The second biggest factor is what ocean it is in. We don't need help in ocean 64 what we need is Pacts on the oceans surround us for when we take the offensive outside of Ocean 64. Finally, how do you approach a pact? Did you message me and ask and inform me of your reasons or did you just sent out an invite.
Q: What do you think the first big wars of Eta will be between? How long do you predict they will last?
A: I think New World and New World II from what I see they are split over two oceans, have poor organization and no control of their members. I'm not sure who there opponent will be first but I don't see the war lasting more than a few days. Provided the attacking alliances isn't as disorganized as NW and NWII

Q: What alliance's performance has surprised you the most?
A: Gods of Havoc, they are 5th in attackers are low on members and have nice activity. Did not expect them to do much.
Q: What in your opinion makes a sound alliance?
A: One that has a group of active players who support one another and are not concerned about personal success.
Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: Well I consider what ocean they are in. Then I look to see if the leaders/alliance have prior experience, and find out how well or bad they did in previous worlds. Next I look to see if they have good leadership, and then I look at there activity.
Q: What do you think the first big wars of Eta will be between? How long do you predict they will last?
A: Well not to sure but I think The Silence and Wolfknives could possibly end up fighting since they both are working toward having control of 54. I think that a war between them would last no longer then 3 weeks, and I see The Silence ending up winning the war with few losses.

Q: What in your opinion makes a sound alliance?
A: Activity & Teamwork - no doubts
Q: When considering pacts with other Alliances, what factors weigh in most before you consider them?
A: Location, Size, Avg pts...Communication with the founder - if he sounds like an a-hole (or an idiot), his members will see that eventually and it will fail
Q: What kind of leadership do you feel is the most effective when trying to build a solid alliance?
A: Involved, helpful & leading by example
Q: Who do you predict the first wars of conflict will be between?
A: Toughest question you've asked... I think The Union and Eclipse will take out New World, Spartacus and The Silence will go at it, All In will try to stay neutral but will get hits from the big three and mid-levels like Rising Shadows and Island Powers

Thank you for asking me to be a part of this, I cant wait to see the first edition!

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Featured Model Of The Issue: Lily Aldridge​

Bio: Born in Santa Monica, California, Lily is currently 28 years old. Some of her major work has been done with: Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Victoria's Secret. She was placed in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2009. A short year later she became a Victoria's Secret Angel. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Photos: (100% covered(;!)
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[DeletedUser2039]

Cross Word​

Theme of the issue: alliances!

Clues:​

Across:
1. This alliance uses the phrase "'Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.' - Euripides" to lead off their bio and describe the mentality of their alliance.
2. This alliance does not believe in order in the universe. They find chaos is the driving force and put value of those who contain this wisdom.
3. This alliance has some hard hitters with good experience. They are known for the crescent moon shape on their banner that nicely represents their alliance picture.
4. Best alliance ever? Duh. Just kidding, bunch of players that can't tie their own shoes under the leadership of Tyler Boyd!
5. This alliance was the first, or the only one that still has one, with an academy in Eta. Interesting to see how that is working out.
6. This alliance, with leader Dragon88 seeming to pull them together well, has gained momentum taking 4th for ABP. Well done.
Down:
1. This alliance supports players that are "tired of being attacked" and feels that if they can support each other and "build back our numbers", they will "rule the seas!!" once again.
2. This alliance has about 39,000 points with 24 members. Such players as KineticHalo have traveled from the EN servers and joined this alliance.
3. This should be an easy one! This alliance has help top spot for ABP almost uncontested with the exception of being passed by Eclipse at one time.

Answers below:​

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[DeletedUser2039]

Tips For Newbs​

This is a section for newer players to get pointed in the right direction. While I won't go into specifics, I want all new players to recognize that these are keys to success in Grepolis and I would like all of you to research these topics further if you don't understand something. Enjoy!


1. Learn your offensive and defensive units! I have seen far too many players sending swordsmen on attacks or leaving their slingers to defend their city during an incoming attack. Learn the different troop stats and what role they are most suited for!

2. Be sure you are keeping up on your defense. You never know when a bigger player is going to come knocking on your door for resources. Be sure you can handle anything someone can throw at you. You'll be thankful for when you see that attack notification and you know you're prepared!

3. This goes off of #2 somewhat. You have to find an alliance you are both comfortable with as well as protected by. Look for: some solid leadership who is always there to help out, players that are not only active and concerned about their own growth but conscious of their teammates too, and lastly, find some experience and let them teach you. You are only going to get better if you apply yourself and are willing to absorb the advice of those around you. Don't be afraid to leave your alliance if they are not any of the things mentioned above. Yes, it may be somewhat on the "you're a traitor side", but if you can find a solid alliance your game experience will be that much better.

 

[DeletedUser2039]

On This Day In History​

On this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or "fireside chat," broadcast directly from the White House.

Roosevelt began that first address simply: "I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking." He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation's banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investors worried about possible bank failures. The banks would be reopening the next day, Roosevelt said, and he thanked the public for their "fortitude and good temper" during the "banking holiday."

At the time, the U.S. was at the lowest point of the Great Depression, with between 25 and 33 percent of the work force unemployed. The nation was worried, and Roosevelt's address was designed to ease fears and to inspire confidence in his leadership. Roosevelt went on to deliver 30 more of these broadcasts between March 1933 and June 1944. They reached an astonishing number of American households, 90 percent of which owned a radio at the time.


Why did I include this many of you ask? Well it is interesting of course! But I also included this to show that while an alliance may be going through a depression or rough times, only disbanding and giving up will truly kill it. Just as Roosevelt had to do with U.S. citizens and encouraging them to not withdraw savings from banks, players must not simply disband because it is a rough time for the alliance. With cooperation and teamwork comes a new strength and few alliances ever achieve this.

 

[DeletedUser2039]

U.S. Current Events​

NYC Ban On Large Sugary Drinks​

New York City's ban on large sugary drinks goes into effect this week and many businesses are not happy about it. Many are forced to spend 1000's of dollars to replace glassware because the new law not only bans the large amounts of soda being served, but the volume of the glassware must also be under the limit set. Some businesses are looking to avoid this altogether by serving several smaller containers of their sugary drinks at reduced prices. While the intent of this legislation is good, do you think limiting high fructose corn syrup will ultimately lead to any real decline in the obesity rates?

Mariano Rivera Announcing His Retirement​

Also on the east coast, news of Mariano Rivera's retirement hits the press just recently. His record 608 career saves will make him a possible first ballot hall-of-famer. He has told the media his 2013 season will be his last because he wants more time with his family and "his tanks are just empty". When asked "why now?", Rivera stated he did not want to leave this amazing industry on an injury that lasted most of last season. He says the ideal way for his career to go out with a bang would be to throw the last pitch in winning the world series of 2013. While this would be a storybook ending to a great man's career, the Yankees 3-10 record and injury list makes this just that much more surreal.
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Written by: Tyler Boyd
Additional credits to: Doth (writer of the top 12)
~+rep if you guys like it!~
This is a biweekly newspaper and the next planned issue is set to appear 3/26/13. I really hope everyone really liked it! I spent a lot of time on the first issue in to give everyone a good glimpse of the future, but I can't promise them all this long. Thanks for taking the time to read it and post your reactions below!

 

[DeletedUser]

This is pretty cool

 

[rjk82]

Great job, very detailed, really looking forward to the next one.

 

[DeletedUser]

Beautiful. Looking forward to many more, and may I mention that this paper is made much more effective by the quality grammar and spelling? Appreciated!

 

[DeletedUser]

:-o I liked it very much too. The thing i liked the most is the cross words, but all the rest is cool too. Keep it up.^^/

 

[DeletedUser]

An inspiring first issue that clearly has taken some thought and commitment to put together. May I thank Tyler, Doth, Bull and (cough) Lily for being the first to offer their time to help inspire the community members of Grepolis in The Eta Chronicle.

Cyrus

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Beautiful. Looking forward to many more, and may I mention that this paper is made much more effective by the quality grammar and spelling? Appreciated!

I took the time of myself and two other players to edit and revise structure, grammar, and spelling. Being it is a newspaper, those two things stand just below content in importance. And we are all on computers, so modern day technology does most of the work for us I must say though, any interviews with alliance leaders were not edited due to the chance they lost original intent.

:-o I liked it very much too. The thing i liked the most is the cross words, but all the rest is cool too. Keep it up.^^/

Since it's the first crossword I ever made, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Glad you liked it!

An inspiring first issue that clearly has taken some thought and commitment to put together. May I thank Tyler, Doth, Bull and (cough) Lily for being the first to offer their time to help inspire the community members of Grepolis in The Eta Chronicle.

Cyrus

Thank you! Inspiring the community is a priority!

 

[DeletedUser1048]

Great job man, loved how you had everything from interviews to crossword puzzles.

 

[DeletedUser]

Yeah, me too. Very unique newspaper.

 

[DeletedUser]

I give it a 10, a 10, a 10.

 

[DeletedUser]

Yeah, me too. Very unique newspaper.

Why dont you make one too?:-o We would then have many more things to read, and it would also be cool.
You were all happy with the idea a while back panther...go for it.^^

 

[DeletedUser2039]

Why dont you make one too?:-o We would then have many more things to read, and it would also be cool.
You were all happy with the idea a while back panther...go for it.^^

The only thing is how much work they take haha that's why I'll only do a biweekly one..

If we had a second though, well that'd be sweet haha