Game of War: Fire Age – To Hive, Or Not To Hive, Hives are a defense tactic that has been used since the early inception of Game of War: Fire Age. Throughout my time in playing the game, I’ve gone back and forth on whether I favored them or not. Sometimes I liked them and participated in being part of one while other times I felt the need to go my own way and risk doing my own thing. There are a lot of pros and cons to hives that you have to think about, so I’d like to go over some of them.
The Positives of Being in a Hive
• Close to other alliance members for trading resources
• Strength in numbers when defending against attacks
• Members in the center of the hive are buffered from attacks
• Usually protects you from low or moderate level players
The Negatives of Being in a Hive
• Many cities in a small area fighting for resources
• Makes it easier to launch an assault on your entire alliance
• Usually makes you a target for high level players
My personal tendency when I’m growing an account (which is pretty much any account that isn’t Level 21 with Tier 4 troops) is that I stay away from being in a hive. I just seem to have a lot more success being on my own in the wilderness and being left alone. The times I’ve been really, really hammered and lost tons of resources and my hero were usually when I was part of a hive.
If you can scout out a fairly open spot with a good supply of resource nodes and low competition, you typically will do fine. You’ll have the occasional beef with people in your area going for the same resources. You may even have to move if too many people move into the area or the resources there become insufficient for your needs. But in general if you’re trying to grow and find a good area you’ll do fine.
Loose Hives or Clustering
I actually am a huge fan of loose hives or clustering. This is where your alliance finds a general area, usually a decent size body of water or a specific waypoint, and they loosely gather around that. The alliance members have a solid presence in a general area, but they are not tightly packed right next to each other. There are typically a few spaces in between each member, keeping them close to each other but not too close.
With these loose hives or clustering in an area, you get the bonus of being close to your alliance for trading and strength in numbers when defending. This will still usually protect you from low or moderate level players and it usually makes your alliance a less appealing target for high players than a tightly packed hive. The cities also cover a wider area which makes competition for resources less fierce.
Much of what I’m saying though is the Gatherer/Builder in me speaking, not the Warrior speaking. If you love to fight other cities and alliances and that is a big part of your gameplay, then hives may be the thing for you. I did the majority of my warring while being in a hive.
Also, if you’re part of an alliance that is strong enough to actually compete at the highest level on your server, then a hive is probably a good bet for you as well. My experience is that the majority of players are not high level players with high tier troops in high ranking alliances. Most players, including anyone just starting the game, are not going to be able to truly defend themselves against a high level threat. So a great defense against a high level player is just be in a place that they’re not going to look for you. They’re not going to waste a teleport to come over and attack just you if you’re a low level target.
But there are a lot of other factors to think about too. What is the age of your server (is it an old server or fairly new)? How densely populated is your server? How active is your server? Are there a lot of dead accounts on your server?
The first server I played on was extremely active the first year I played. It was also very densely populated. There were no places you could really hide and there were wars everywhere all the time. Eventually, all the resources basically dried up and once you reached the higher levels the only way to really advance was to fight and take resources from other people who had them.
The current server I play on is much newer and much less densely populated. In addition to that, the growth of the game has changed drastically. It is much, much easier to get resources and grow your city now. In fact, I’m almost in awe of how easy it now compared to what it used to be. But I think that it is good because it is making access to the highest levels of the game available to more players.
So what do you think about hives? Does your alliance have a hive? Do you prefer being part of the hive or braving it alone by yourself? And, what do you think about loose hives or clustering in an area?
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