Empires & Allies
Encyclopedia
Empires & Allies is a social network game
that is Zynga
's first combat and strategy game
. The game, the first release by Zynga's Los Angeles studio, launched in twelve languages on June 1, 2011. G4TV.com writer Jake Gaskill called the release the "biggest launch of any Zynga title to date". The game is a freemium
game, meaning there is no cost to play but players have the option of purchasing premium content. As of November 2011, the game has over 19 million monthly active users.
Players get 15 empire points when starting the game and have to pay to get more.
Additional Empire Points can be purchased ingame, from Zynga's Website or via game cards from some local stores.
cartoon
world composed mostly of archipelagos
with each player beginning with one island, and being able to expand to up to four other islands. Each archipelago represents an "empire" or militarized island nation, with a "world alliance" that the player can optionally enter, but by doing so forfeits an ability to attack other sovereign nations. The player's task is to recover their island nation's glory and defeat the main villain, "The Raven," and his commanders, who each have covered a separate archipelago that the player must island hop until the end of the "chain" which is the island that "The Raven" resides on.
The game begins with a massive enemy attack which all but demolishes the player's nation, in a quest for revenge, the player is dragged into a war against the aggressors, uncovering their reasoning for the attack. It is later revealed that the player's island contains a valuable ore that the enemy requires for a super weapon, which the player is tasked to stop at all costs. The player meets several advisors: a civic advisor, a military advisor, a construction advisor, and a mission advisor.
Empires and Allies has the distinction of being Zynga's first graphics based (as opposed to Mafia Wars, which is browser based) game to portray violence and modern warfare. Although the game still retains the graphical style of previous Zynga games such as CityVille
and FarmVille
, neither of said games portrayed military hardware. Despite all this, Empires and Allies still maintains good humor with enemy commanders having often comedic portrayals and biographies, such as "The Raven" being named such for he couldn't catch an eagle and instead settled on a raven.
Within nine days, Empires and Allies had gained nearly 10 million users.
, cities in CityVille, and farms in FarmVille, operating as a main area for player customization, as well as the production of materials, money, and military units. A player can visit a friend's island, or they can optionally invade and pillage their island. An island, however, can be defended with placement of military units (who must be on the island in order to be considered "deployed") which defend a small to large square area around them.
Each island houses many buildings, with a population cap. Population caps are increased by building government buildings which must be filled by allies. Population determines the availability of certain units and buildings.
combat. Players can optionally attack other players who are above level 6 in order to gain resources, infamy points or prize tokens. A player who successfully invades another player can claim an "invasion zone" which they can loot every three hours for resources until the target player or an ally of the target repels their invasion, or upon the activation of the player's "world embassy". The buildings in the invaded area generate resources and infamy points for the invader, depending on the building. For instance, an oil well yields oil; housing, farms, and government buildings yield coins; lumber mills yield wood; and mines yield ore. All buildings, except government buildings; which yields 3 infamy points, gives 2 infamy points after a successful invasion. In addition, the target player of the invasion must spend extra energy to perform any maintenance on invaded territory. A player can become immune to attacks if he/she establishes a World Embassy. However they also may not attack another player (or risk the effect of the Embassy dissolving) and must surrender any and all invaded territory. When a player forfeits the effect of the World Embassy, they may not activate it for another six hours.
The "Battle Blitz" mode has the same effects as the invasions of neighboring empires. However, the player invades other players who are on the same level as them. A player who claims an invasion zone in Battle Blitz gets five prize tokens, which could be used to spin the wheel for prizes.
Combat begins with a 'deployment phase' in which a player can choose up to five (or less, depending on the situation) units to use in combat. After the deployment phase, units enter the combat phase. Every unit has three strengths which are marked with "great target," with higher chances of critical hits (which produce resource, experience, and energy bonuses, as well as extra damage,) if a unit attacks its specialty, this works in reverse effect, as a unit also has a weakness to any unit that shares its speciality. If a unit is of the same type as another, or is simply not directly related, they will have a "fair attack" in which they half an even chance of dealing normal damage as well as an even chance of a "glancing shot." If a unit attacks another unit which is strong towards it, it will be marked as a "poor target" which will usually produce a "glancing shot" with the chance of producing a standard attack. In addition, if a unit deals a critical blow to destroy another unit, it will be marked as a "critical kill" with additional rewards such as extra money, experience, or even energy.
A commander also has the option of calling on an ally (when available) which is typically another player who, although not directly involved in the combat, may provide a powerup
. A player can also use one of his stored attacks gained from previous levels and battles.
Players can also pause or forfeit battles, this may be due to low energy (every attack requires energy) or for cutting losses in an unwinnable match (such as having no specialities towards the enemies units.) All units are repaired after a battle, with optional ingame repairs requiring either a support power or a certain amount of "empire coins" (real currency.)
Many of the power ups can also be used to win battles much faster.
They are obtained by a power up factory.
There are three "theaters" of war, Land
, Navy
, and Air. There are no special bonuses to these theaters against each other, yet they may attack each other, and typically units will have one speciality in each theater, one weakness, and one neutral. These units are based on actual military units, such as Flying Fortress bombers, MIG-17 fighters, and Sherman tanks. When your units are destroyed in combat, they yield a small amount of coins plus one oil.
Tradeable resources can be produced from lumber factories, oil derricks or mines which the player can build. Depending on the level of advance resource selected each operates with a different production efficiency.
Infamy is produced by invading and looting other players, it's represented by a black heart and provides increasingly powerful offensive powers for use during combat when infamy is leveled up.
The Honor/Infamy system is based on the game Infamous's
karma system.
Social network game
A social network game is a type of online game that is played through social networks, and typically features multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser games, but can also be implemented on other platforms such as mobile devices...
that is Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
's first combat and strategy game
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
. The game, the first release by Zynga's Los Angeles studio, launched in twelve languages on June 1, 2011. G4TV.com writer Jake Gaskill called the release the "biggest launch of any Zynga title to date". The game is a freemium
Freemium
Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...
game, meaning there is no cost to play but players have the option of purchasing premium content. As of November 2011, the game has over 19 million monthly active users.
Empire Points
Empire Points are used to buy certain items.Players get 15 empire points when starting the game and have to pay to get more.
Additional Empire Points can be purchased ingame, from Zynga's Website or via game cards from some local stores.
Setting
Empires and Allies portrays a militaryMilitary
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
world composed mostly of archipelagos
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
with each player beginning with one island, and being able to expand to up to four other islands. Each archipelago represents an "empire" or militarized island nation, with a "world alliance" that the player can optionally enter, but by doing so forfeits an ability to attack other sovereign nations. The player's task is to recover their island nation's glory and defeat the main villain, "The Raven," and his commanders, who each have covered a separate archipelago that the player must island hop until the end of the "chain" which is the island that "The Raven" resides on.
The game begins with a massive enemy attack which all but demolishes the player's nation, in a quest for revenge, the player is dragged into a war against the aggressors, uncovering their reasoning for the attack. It is later revealed that the player's island contains a valuable ore that the enemy requires for a super weapon, which the player is tasked to stop at all costs. The player meets several advisors: a civic advisor, a military advisor, a construction advisor, and a mission advisor.
Empires and Allies has the distinction of being Zynga's first graphics based (as opposed to Mafia Wars, which is browser based) game to portray violence and modern warfare. Although the game still retains the graphical style of previous Zynga games such as CityVille
CityVille
CityVille is a casual social city-building simulation game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.The game is very similar to SimCity and Farmville,. The goal is to develop a city by farming, constructing buildings, and collecting rent...
and FarmVille
FarmVille
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...
, neither of said games portrayed military hardware. Despite all this, Empires and Allies still maintains good humor with enemy commanders having often comedic portrayals and biographies, such as "The Raven" being named such for he couldn't catch an eagle and instead settled on a raven.
Within nine days, Empires and Allies had gained nearly 10 million users.
Islands
Each player owns an archipelago of five islands (with only part of one in the beginning) that functions similar to homesteads in FrontierVilleFrontierVille
The Pioneer Trail, formerly known as FrontierVille is a simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. It is developed by Zynga and was launched on June 9, 2010...
, cities in CityVille, and farms in FarmVille, operating as a main area for player customization, as well as the production of materials, money, and military units. A player can visit a friend's island, or they can optionally invade and pillage their island. An island, however, can be defended with placement of military units (who must be on the island in order to be considered "deployed") which defend a small to large square area around them.
Each island houses many buildings, with a population cap. Population caps are increased by building government buildings which must be filled by allies. Population determines the availability of certain units and buildings.
Invading and Defending
Unique to Empires and Allies is the option of player versus playerPlayer versus player
Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between two or more live participants. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer controlled opponents, which is correspondingly referred to as player versus environment...
combat. Players can optionally attack other players who are above level 6 in order to gain resources, infamy points or prize tokens. A player who successfully invades another player can claim an "invasion zone" which they can loot every three hours for resources until the target player or an ally of the target repels their invasion, or upon the activation of the player's "world embassy". The buildings in the invaded area generate resources and infamy points for the invader, depending on the building. For instance, an oil well yields oil; housing, farms, and government buildings yield coins; lumber mills yield wood; and mines yield ore. All buildings, except government buildings; which yields 3 infamy points, gives 2 infamy points after a successful invasion. In addition, the target player of the invasion must spend extra energy to perform any maintenance on invaded territory. A player can become immune to attacks if he/she establishes a World Embassy. However they also may not attack another player (or risk the effect of the Embassy dissolving) and must surrender any and all invaded territory. When a player forfeits the effect of the World Embassy, they may not activate it for another six hours.
The "Battle Blitz" mode has the same effects as the invasions of neighboring empires. However, the player invades other players who are on the same level as them. A player who claims an invasion zone in Battle Blitz gets five prize tokens, which could be used to spin the wheel for prizes.
Units and Combat
Combat is initiated whenever a player either attacks an AI commander during a campaign, attacks another player's island, or is repelling an enemy player's invasion of his/her island. Combat is turn based, and is not live. Instead, an invading player will combat another player's (or enemy AI commander's) military forces controlled by an AI. The player will always go first.Combat begins with a 'deployment phase' in which a player can choose up to five (or less, depending on the situation) units to use in combat. After the deployment phase, units enter the combat phase. Every unit has three strengths which are marked with "great target," with higher chances of critical hits (which produce resource, experience, and energy bonuses, as well as extra damage,) if a unit attacks its specialty, this works in reverse effect, as a unit also has a weakness to any unit that shares its speciality. If a unit is of the same type as another, or is simply not directly related, they will have a "fair attack" in which they half an even chance of dealing normal damage as well as an even chance of a "glancing shot." If a unit attacks another unit which is strong towards it, it will be marked as a "poor target" which will usually produce a "glancing shot" with the chance of producing a standard attack. In addition, if a unit deals a critical blow to destroy another unit, it will be marked as a "critical kill" with additional rewards such as extra money, experience, or even energy.
A commander also has the option of calling on an ally (when available) which is typically another player who, although not directly involved in the combat, may provide a powerup
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
. A player can also use one of his stored attacks gained from previous levels and battles.
Players can also pause or forfeit battles, this may be due to low energy (every attack requires energy) or for cutting losses in an unwinnable match (such as having no specialities towards the enemies units.) All units are repaired after a battle, with optional ingame repairs requiring either a support power or a certain amount of "empire coins" (real currency.)
Many of the power ups can also be used to win battles much faster.
They are obtained by a power up factory.
Units
Players establish three tiers of production buildings, including shipyards, barracks, and hangars to create sea, land, and air units respectively. After being produced, the player can deploy them on his or her archipelago to defend their buildings from invasion. Each unit casts a radius of defense(one square radius for land and air units and three square radius for sea units) , so an invading player targeting a building within one or more of these radii, that invader must engage and destroy those defending units successfully to begin an occupation.There are three "theaters" of war, Land
Ground Forces
The Hungarian Ground Forces are one of the branches of the Hungarian armed forces. It is the army which handles Ground activities and troops including artillery, tanks, APC's, IFV's and ground support...
, Navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
, and Air. There are no special bonuses to these theaters against each other, yet they may attack each other, and typically units will have one speciality in each theater, one weakness, and one neutral. These units are based on actual military units, such as Flying Fortress bombers, MIG-17 fighters, and Sherman tanks. When your units are destroyed in combat, they yield a small amount of coins plus one oil.
Campaign
Like other "Ville" games such as FrontierVille and CityVille, Empires and Allies has a common narrative that directs the player through the game's "story." Although Empires and Allies is an open ended game, it has a mission progression system that leads the player through features in the game, introducing new units or otherwise encouraging certain tasks, with rewards provided for completion. The game also contains a wider story arc which is progressed mainly through defeating enemy commanders on the "campaign map" which the player can access at any time. Ultimately, the player's goal is to finish the campaign and defeat "The Raven." A second campaign was released, titled "Molten Terror."Resources
The player must additionally manage resources on their island. Resources come in six flavors: coins, wood, oil, ores, empire points, and energy. Coins are a general resource for purchasing most in-game buildings, and are gained through property values (much like CityVille) and certain industries such as farms (unlike other "Ville" games, food is not a resource. Farm output are directly converted into coins.) Wood is used for certain buildings and resources, and is harvested by clearing trees and building lumber mills and starting lumber contracts. Oil is used for building practically any mechanized unit, it is harvested by oil wells. Ores come in varying types, such as aluminum, copper, gold, iron, and uranium, each required for different speciality units and buildings. Ore is harvested through ore mines, trading, and defeating other units. Empire tokens are real-world currency used to speed up certain elements of the game and assist in others (such as providing an extra ally during an attack or purchasing a power-up,) they can also auto-complete missions and fill seats in government buildings. In addition, defeating AI players provides liberty bonds which are used for land-expansion, along with coins. There is also experience, which levels up the player.Tradeable resources can be produced from lumber factories, oil derricks or mines which the player can build. Depending on the level of advance resource selected each operates with a different production efficiency.
Honor and Infamy
Honor and infamy is one of Empires and Allies most defining features. Honor is produced by assisting other players, by visiting their empires or helping to defend, and is represented by a red heart. Honor improves rewards for helping players, as well as providing defensive power-ups when you level up in fame.Infamy is produced by invading and looting other players, it's represented by a black heart and provides increasingly powerful offensive powers for use during combat when infamy is leveled up.
The Honor/Infamy system is based on the game Infamous's
Infamous
Infamous may refer to:* Infamous , a 2006 film* Infamous Mobb, Queens rap group* The Infamous, a 1995 album by Mobb Deep* DJ Infamous, a record producer and former world champion DJ...
karma system.