Farming Villages in Hyperborea

Grepolis's eternal world of Hyperborea has islands with farming villages as well as those without. When Grepolis places your first city, you will always land on one with farming villages because they help you gain resources and in consequence grow much faster than you would without. This is a little guide on what farming villages do for you, how you get them, control them, and some special tricks you might want to know about when dealing with them.

There is usually some confusion about farms in Grepolis. Let's get that out of the way first. Farm is the term used by Grepolis for the farms you build in a city to increase your population. Farming is used by Grepolis players when they attack smaller cities to get resources and battle points; the term farm is used by them to mean cities they farm regularly. And finally, Grepolis uses the term farming villages for the inland villages found on every large islands that contain a native population you can dominate. This article is about these farming villages.

When your first city is placed by Grepolis, it will be on an island with farming villages. The farming villages are shown with red icons on the large islands marked in the picture below.

Rocky islands without farming villages look like the picture below. You can build cities on them, but there is no help to get resources from the locals.

To get resources from farming villages on your city's island, you have to conquer these villages. This process is the same for every large island you are getting a city on. It will get repetitive over time.

There are 8 farming villages on each large island. While the first village you attack is empty of any defense, with every village you take you will find more units defending the village. With every village, the requirements as to how many population you have invested in units will grow too. [The requirements are shown below inside square brackets.] To conquer them, the following list will give you the easiest or cheapest way to get that done. You can attack with less units than shown below and get the rest with a later attack. The defenders don't reset or increase while you wait to do that.

First village (no defense) 
[you must have 1 population used for units land or sea]: 
attack with 1 land unit (any will do).
Second village (defense 1 Slinger) 
[you must have 6 population used for units land or sea]: 
attack with 5 Slingers, or 1 Horse, or 1 Chariot (no losses for any of these).
Third village (defense 3 Archers) 
[you must have 10 population used for units land or sea]: 
attack with 5 Slingers (loose 2) or 2 Chariots (loose 1).
Fourth village (defense 60 Slingers) 
[you must have 40 population used for units land or sea]: 
attack with 7 Slingers (loose 5).
Fifth village (defense 60 Swords) 
[you must have 100 population used for units land or sea]:
attack with 35 Hoplites (loose 30).
Sixth village (defense 100 Archers) 
[you must have 300 population used for units land or sea]:
attack with 13 Horse (loose 11).
Seventh village (defense 300 Slingers, 80 Hoplites, 80 Horse) 
[you must have 600 population used for units land or sea]:
attack with 140 Slingers (loose 133).
Eighth village (defense 150 Swords, 150 Archers, 75 Hoplites and a wall at level 20) 
[you must have 1000 population used for units land or sea]:
attack with 175 Horse (loose 166).

Click on the picture below to get to see the various farming village icons in use and what they tell you about your villages. Icons are shown on the left, descriptions are shown on the right.

Once you have conquered a village, you can demand resources from it, you can loot resources and units from it, you can trade with it, and you can send resources to it to build it up. Building a village up means that you will receive more resources back in future.

You can do all these things by clicking on the village icon on your island. It will open the short cuts as seen on the picture below.

1. Will allow you to send resources to the village.
2. Opens the trade window.
3. Will allow you to demand land units from the village.
4. Will allow you to loot the village for resources.
5. Will allow you to demand resources from the village.

The most important points you need to know about dealing with your villages in short are:

Getting more resources from farming villages

• Building up your villages by sending them resources will push up the amount of resources coming your way every time you demand or loot the village. It will not change the amount you can trade or the number of units you can get. It does not affect your market and travelling merchants, it's an instant transaction. Sending in resources is done through icon 1.
• You can send resources to the village anytime and as often as you want. You don't need a market to do it.
• This is a long term investment. The farming village will be at the higher level for as long as the world lasts.

Trading with farming villages

• Trading with one village is limited to a maximum of 2,000 resources per transaction. The village only offers one resource and accepts only one in return. Different villages deal in different resources, though. This is done through icon 2.
• Villages trade at a factor 1.25 for your first trade; the factor goes down with every trade you make. Time will make it go up again.
• For trading, you need a market; the size of your market defines how much you are able to trade with your village. You can only trade if the villagers are happy (enough) with you. Mood in the village has to be over 40% to allow trade. You can see the mood level when hovering over the village icon.

Getting land units from your farming village

• Looting land units reduces the good mood in the village.
• A timer will start with your looting action; while this timer ticks, you can't loot or demand anything from the village. The time for the timer run is shown beside the units on offer.

Looting resources from your farming village

• Looting resources reduces the good mood in the village.
• Looting resources doubles the amount of resources you receive per loot over what you would get from simply demanding resources. 
• A timer will start with your looting action; while this timer ticks, you can't loot or demand anything from the village. You can choose the waiting time and amount of resources.

Demanding resources from your farming village

• Demanding resources doesn't affect the mood in the farming village.
• A timer will start with your demanding resources; while this timer ticks, you can't loot or demand anything from the village. You can choose the waiting time and amount of resources.

Important things to know

• Farming villages belong to the player, not the city. If you have two cities on the same island, you still can demand or loot only once with one or the other city.
• Trade rates and good mood go up with passing time.
• Researching Diplomacy in the Academy raises demands and loot by 15%. The research affects only the city it was done in.
• Researching Booty in the Academy gives you four additional time/amount options to choose from when demanding or looting resources. The research affects only the city it was done in.

More reading for beginners:
Starter guide
Building your first city