What to Play, Conquest or Revolt World?

Grepolis offers two kinds of worlds to play in. One type is the revolt world, the other is the conquest (or siege) world type. The difference between these worlds lies in the different ways of how players can conquer a city. This difference has an influence on both the strategy and the tactics in the game.

Grepolis knows of two ways of conquering a city in it's worlds, the siege in conquest worlds, and the revolution in revolt worlds. I have listed the differences below and added some strategical and tactical thoughts for both kinds of world and Hyperborea.

The Main Difference

This is relevant when taking on a city that has an owner. For ghost cities (cities whose owner have stopped playing), see further down.

Conquest:

• The siege (and with it the process of conquest) begins when your Colony Ship (CS) lands. 
• To land your CS, you must clear all land and sea units from the city at the latest with your CS attack.
• A siege timer tells you how long you have to defend the city against attacks to make it your own.
• Your CS can be killed if you loose either all your land units or all your sea units in an attack.
• If one of your own attacks lands after your CS has landed, then your attacking units will return home after a beer and a sandwich. 
• The same mistake by a member of your alliance counts as a full attack, though, and just might kill your CS.
• When the siege timer has run its course and your CS is still alive, then the city is yours.

Revolt:

• The revolt (and with it the process of conquest) begins when you land your revolt attack (without a CS). The revolt attack has to specifically chosen in the attack pop up window.
• To start the revolt, you must clear all land and sea units from the city at the latest with your revolt attack.
• A revolt timer will tell you how long you have to wait until you are allowed to land your CS (Blue Revolt).
• Once the blue revolt timer has run its course, a second revolt timer (Red Revolt / RR) will show you how long you have time to land your CS.
• To land your CS, you must clear all land and sea units from the city at the latest with your CS attack.
• Once your CS has safely landed, the city is yours.

Hyperborea:

• Hyperborea is the peace world. You can't conquer a city as long as it has an owner.

Ghost City

Ghost cities function slightly differently from cities with owners. The differences are:

Conquest:

• If one of your own attacks lands after your CS has landed, then that counts as a full attack.

Revolt:

• No revolt is necessary, you go for it directly with a CS attack.

Hyperborea:

• Works like Conquest above.

Sniping

Sniping is the art of landing your units at the most inconvenient time for your enemy. For starters, it is important to know that two attacks landing at the same time (same second, please) attack the city but not each other. The order of attack is determined by the time they left their home city, the earlier landing first. Attack units landing at the same time with defense units are also determined by the time who left first from home.

Conquest:

• Back sniping means attacking your own city with the units from that city immediately after an enemy CS has landed. You can do it by sending your units out of the city immediately before the enemy CS lands in your city. You then recall them within the 10 minute time window you have for recalls (careful, the hero will jump back directly). Or you send them as support to another city and then recall them from there through the Agora.
• You can also snipe an attack from any other of your cities to arrive immediately after a CS has landed but before the enemy's support has time to land. 
• You snipe defensive units to arrive immediately before a CS will land in your city, but after the last clearing attack is over.

Revolt:

• You snipe defense to arrive immediately before a CS will land in your city, but after the last clearing attack is over.
• You don't snipe revolt attacks. For one, you don't know which attacks are revolt attacks, and for another, every attack should be a revolt attack.

Hyperborea:

• There is no need for sniping as it is the peace world.

The Wall Discussion

Conquest:

• In principle, no walls are better than high walls. The walls that hinder the enemy from entering your city will do the same to you when (back) sniping his CS.
• If you have a city that is mainly or totally given over to recruiting offensive land units (OLU), you definitely don't want walls.
• If you have a city that is mainly or totally given over to recruiting defensive land units (DLU), you might consider some walls.
• If you have a city that is mainly or totally given over to recruiting sea units, you definitely don't want walls.
• Turtling up: If you have a city that is out of the core area and away from the direction the alliance is moving, you can build a turtle. A turtle consists of wall level 25, a tower, and as many of the most vicious defenders as you can recruit. Dispense with sea units and use your DLU as a battle point (BP) factory.

Revolt:

• As you want to do as much damage to enemy land units as you can, wall level 25 and a tower are mandatory.

Hyperborea:

• You can't be conquered, but you can be farmed by unfriendly neighbors. Building walls to level 25 and a tower will make it too expensive for other players to come farming you.