For the beginning I want to notify it that he is translation from other language, so I apologise for the low quality of this text.

Ikariam is one of flag games of the German studio named Gameforge GmbH. In contrast with Tribes or Travian the Ikariam game is much more is developed as well as he provides to players with the greater abilities and possibilities than normal extending the village. Apart from very extending the city in Ikariam, the game offers possibilities to the bulk of researches, of structure of ships, of transport and other fleets. So I am inviting to the reading of the Ikariam description.

Beginning in Ikariam

The drawing of the Ikariam game is pleasing to the eye, whereas everything is held lightly in the cartoon and humorous style. At the beginning your village in Ikariam is looking like rather a little plain by the beach, on whom the town hall is standing. Soon we can change it. Your city in Ikariam is situated on an island whom a few other cities are also, menaged by other players. Generally the game in Ikariam and strategy is divided in islands, materials of different kind, those are needed for construction. From them at the beginning of the game in Ikariam, wood is most important (later it is marble), every material is readily available for an islanders – that is for you and other players being on the same island.

In Ikariam, thats player is deciding where what building will be made (it doesn’t concern walls), what every led city looks a little bit differently. If player build in Ikariam and click to the building „Academy”, than player can invent new inventions, to draw technologies up, whereas building the shipyard it is possible to construct warships starting from small shells for huge ships. In the Ikariam a lack of the possibility of taking over other people’s properties is a good solution of villages – village in Tribes is seized, to whom the month of playing was devoted was an unpleasant feeling enough. In Ikariam only the enemy can occupy your city through certain period of time, but isn’t able entirely to get it back from you, with defect whereas games the fact that much it is harder to get raw materials is a method of the attack on other.

The occupation in Ikariam doesn’t work!

In contrast with many other strategic games through the viewer in Ikariam one should care for its inhabitants, they can become dissatisfied with your governments what can even supply to the fact that your city won’t be able to recover from an illness from the fall. And what best way was in ancient world for satisfying inhabitants? Of course the culture and the wine (paradox, isn’t it?).
In order to provide to inhabitants in Ikariam with happiness won’t be enough for them only to give bottles to hands, with the help of the cooperation with other player on an island you can sign the cultural treaty, whom in the museum are shown exhibit items of different players. Whereas inhabitants and employees in Ikariam are raising the amount of gold in vault, for example per hour an free inhabitant is giving you 4 pieces of gold, the worker requires 4 coins per hour, whereas the payment for researchers amounts to 8 coins per hour. One thing You should remember, that almost everything costs – holding armies, war ships… One should be balansed – city in order simultaneously to support researches, to have funds for supporting units and can buy next one. It isn’t so simple how it seems so that the city in Ikariam thrives.

Researches in Ikariam

They are divided into four groups:

Seafaring – allows for construction of new ships, new technologies concerning warships and transport in Ikariam
Science – new types of units and buildings, but also improving the ones who so far exist
Military – military technologies, an army units and improvements in Ikariam
Economy – examinations concerning finances, buildings and ways of extracting raw materials

The speed of technologies drawn up in Ikariam, depends on the number of researchers who will be assigned in Ikariam to the Academy. Some of examinations are taking very much a lot of time, but it is worthwhile devoting its citizens on them, often after inventing some it is possible a lot to gain the technology.

Description of units and buildings in Ikariam

A lot of people are searching somewhere in Google about the description of buildings and units for the information … finding those descriptions is banally straight, but some people cannot simply search or the ability of searching for them is simply painful. It will be sufficient to log on or to register in Ikariam and to access the FAQ into the department, in it to find units or buildings. Inside everyone searching Ikariam for the description of buildings or units will have a flash of insight – there are statistics of units, requirements and costs there. And here you are – searching is painful, huh?

Fight and battles in Ikariam

Occupy doesn’t work
The fight in Ikariam is a little bit different than in Tribes. Here it is possible to attack the opponent in Ikariam to three ways – it is possible proverbially „to fall” to the city and to rake up everything what isn’t getting away up upon the tree, it is possible in Ikariam to occupy the city of the opponent (similarly how Rome did it in ancient times) or it is possible to blockade the port of the opponent. In case of pillage in Ikariam or the occupation at first of course it is necessary to defeat a defence of the city, whereas in case of a port blockade at first to defeat warships being stationed in it. When the opponent will be willing to occupy your city in Ikariam you will be forced to lend him part of one’s army – stronger is exploiting the underdogs for conquering next areas. An instruction of the game in Ikariam is announcing the good hint – during the robbery supply forces with merchant ships so that your armies must not lug goods on their own arms : -)

What’s interesting battles in Ikariam last not a moment (moment of recounting forces), and a dozen or so minutes or even a few hours, in the process of lasting battles everyone – you and the opponent – you can send the support for the contest, what all great battles in Ikariam are becoming much more interesting…
What’s interesting the number of units in Ikariam is really nice, whereas exploiting them still better! For example you cannot robbery the city of the opponent in Ikariam, because his walls are too large… That’s what problem to bomb them with the use of mortars or to throw bombs down with oil from the balloon soaring above the city? Cook who is supporting in Ikariam fighting with the wine and the food, doesn’t also stay blameless – he has the knife and he is able to use it in the fight! Additionally they also exist in Ikariam “ local ” doctors who in the course of the battle are helping the ones who were injured, what you never know, whether the smaller army than your is certainly weaker.

Precious goods in Ikariam

Apart from very wood at the beginning of the game, the player of Ikariam with time has more valuable commercial funds at his disposal. After drawing the „Prosperity” up at the Academy the player has available such raw materials like marble (for construction of bigger buildings), wine (for satisfying inhabitants), crystal (needed for examinations) whether sulphur (majority of war units and examinations). Those materials are accessible from deposits in Ikariam on islands whom not only islanders are using, but also and colonies of other cunning animals being on it. Thanks to that a community of players in Ikariam is increasing – he is often this way, that the person not paying donations to the development of the lumber mill, the quarry or the mine is being attacked by the rest of players on an island, as the potential parasite in Ikariam.

The prosperity and satisfying in Ikariam

Satisfying dwellers of your city in Ikariam is one of bases for development. Thanks to good satisfaction quickly you will be gaining the bulk of the population in Ikariam who is just dependent on satisfaction and the level of the town hall. One of methods of preserving the high-level joy of inhabitants in the Ikariam game, construction of the tavern and serving the wine in it are. Every level of this building in Ikariam is increasing the amount it is possible to serve which, bottles hourly are being knocked of resources of the city. In Ikariam cultural exchanges with other cities are the second way. When you draw the treaty of cultural achievements up and you have the museum in Ikariam, you will be able to change with other. With what the top stair of the expansion of the museum in your Ikariam’s for small town, all the more of exhibit items, and consequently greater satisfaction. Apart from it how you are stewarding the city also influences satisfaction – satisfying is falling for unfair acts in your cities in Ikariam.

Spying in Ikariam

Do you think that behind walls of your city you are certainly safe, when around he doesn’t have strong players? Not a truth, not a truth… In Ikariam world it doesn’t work like that. Every player who will build the appropriate building can commence the lease of spies. They are really unkind, when some other city or the group of cities feel like destroying heavily worked out in Ikariam, their homesteads. The spy can of course be noticed, immediately you will be notified by one of it advisers of it. If whereas the spy will make good his work…

- He can look into magazines in the city and see how many raw materials there are.
- To take the military information out – to learn what armies are stationed in a city.
- Watching movements in the city – where from and where ships are sailing away and so on, and so forth information.
- Checking the correspondence – the spy can see what messages were sent from the city (to whom and about title).
- Spying on examinations – what and when was researched.

Of course in Ikariam, you can counteract spies of enemies – you can rent own for exercising the function of „false cables” in the city, that is they will simply have checking whether somebody doesn’t go round the city for the task and he isn’t searching for the information. The level of your building (Hideout) in Ikariam responsible for spies is also having a positive effect on the chance of the success of the spy mission, whereas the size of your city negatively affects the success of detecting the spy in your small town in Ikariam. Similarly number of your spies in your cities in Ikariam. If nowhere you are sending your spies in Ikariam, they are starting acting as counterintelligence in Yours cities.

Wonders and statues of gods in Ikariam.

No, it isn’t about miracles which are taking place in the Ikariam game. A community of Ikariam players means buildings, called wonders they can raise which on its islands. Yes, yes – the communities of players, since all players are using that wonder on an island. One of described below miracles would come into existence players must pay the appropriate tribute back in gold, mainly that tribute isn’t small. Every island in Ikariam has its own statue showing the miracle, when an appropriate sum of gold is reached a divine grace is taking place. Below list of wonders in Ikariam.

Smithy of the Hephaestus (effect – getting sulphur + 10 %, blessing – doubling the number of get sulphur)

Statue (effect – doubling the defence of soldiers defending the city, blessing – for 1 day on an island it isn’t possible to attack cities)

Temple of the Gala (effect – extracting marble + 10 %, blessing – extracting marble doubled)

Garden of Dionysus (effect – wine production + 10 %, blessing – from one bottle are two… burp)

Temple of the Poseidon (effect – war ships are cheaper, blessing – bonus for the attack by ships on an island)

Fortress of Ares (effect – soldiers and machines are cheaper, blessing – bonus for the attack by soldiers on an island)

Temple of the Hermes (effect – merchant ships are cheaper, blessing – speed of merchant ships doubled)

Temple of the Athena (effect – getting crystal + 10 %, blessing – getting crystal doubled)

Generally looking at Ikariam I recommend everyone who likes entertainment of this type completely. The quality and the Ikariam performance on the high, good securities against swindlers and concentrated attacks on cities. Relatively so the game is new there are no huge empires still ruling the entire world and areas who from above are sentenced to getting. And what’s interesting in the game Ikariam doesn’t require the affluent range if they want approaches to something! In short I recommend Ikariam on the entire line.

Screens from Ikariam

My impressions after a few months of the game of Ikariam

Generally positive, they nicely played and times are remembered fondly when the entire neighbourhood shook in dowries, when it reached to some greater conflict in Ikariam with me in the role of the aggressor. However as every game, this way and Ikariam has some amount of defects who are making entertainment unpleasant. In Ikariam above all mistakes whom Ikariam programmers are committing are such a defect. Occupation in Ikariam with time recalled, being nice in Ikariam with addition, simply toed go dead. Next errors who destroyed the pleasant Ikariam climate appeared – for example some examinations in Ikariam didn’t want to invent correctly themselves.
Apart from it I could still attach the possibility of the fast escape to Ikariam defects. For example in Ikariam a war between alliances lasts, in those wars it is about in order to defeat the opponent as the most armies. Meanwhile let us assume the situation in Ikariam, that we are attacking the certain player who has the plenty of the army in the city and he is expecting nothing (there is a middle of the night), in 10 minutes has connections with the great battle. Meanwhile it turns out that the coward took away all e.g. 800 units, in the sequence of a few minutes to other city, right before our landing …