The Hobbit Kingdoms of Middle Earth 2nd City
I feel like I achieved some kind of milestone now that I can write about the Hobbit Kingdoms of Middle Earth 2nd city after acquiring the deed some weeks ago. I’ve been enjoying this game for some time as laid out in my review and at the time I didn’t have a 2nd city. Well now I do (and having a 3rd city is now possible.) After acquiring a 2nd city I wondered what would be the best way to maximize the benefits of having one. Due to microtransactions being a part of the game play and considering the time I’ve spent playing a lot of the research topics or key building upgrades take a lot of resources and days before an upgrade is finished. So it wouldn’t be optimal to just recreate the same thing I have in my first city when it could take a long time to just be equal to my 1st city. And knowing that one thing that could be very problematic is saving up to research a topic but being attacked prior to having enough resources and losing them because of insufficient might. So my idea was to use my 2nd city just for the sole purpose of building up my might and not being limited by the upkeep costs. Before I get to that it’s necessary to mention some changes to the game since my initial review.
- Support for 3rd city deeds and increase number of plains
- Support for Apple’s Game Center so it’s easier to find friends and achievements
- Events and new items notifications are now in-game
- Game play performance upgrades
The most important one is obviously the increase in the number of plains available. You see, in order to acquire a 2nd city you have collect 100 relics from attacking Goblin Camps and occupy a plains location on the map. (You can also acquire a 2nd city deed through the daily chance). Once you have both you can create your second city and since you’re starting from scratch you can build whatever you want. However all troops require a certain amount of food as upkeep and they directly affect your population numbers while you’re training troops.
So after building the simple buildings I would need in my 2nd city with the exception of farms and houses I moved all my troops from my 1st city there. And I saw an immediate impact in my productivity in my first city. The food upkeep is less and the number of troops I could train at one time increased tremendously so I was able to produce the stronger units at a high rate when it’s not possible to produce those troops in my 2nd city without all the building upgrades. And the only negative result in the 2nd city is I have to transport food or other resources there any time I want to build or upgrade any building but that literally takes seconds compared to days. It’s basically a ghost town slowly being built up while its true benefit is increasing my might without the restrictions placed on a functioning city. Why? Well sometimes raids on Goblin camps and other cities can be very rewarding and you can’t do that on a regular basis without your might eventually decreasing. This is a way to consistently increase your might without having to cut down on raids. Also when you try to defend your city without hiding your troops you can lose them all if you’re attacked by a much stronger foe. So it should go without saying that the troops in this 2nd city are kept hidden so they’re not destroyed.
And this is another benefit of using the 2nd city this way: You can use your resources to build up the defenses of your first city much faster and there won’t be much of anything to steal from your 2nd city. I was able to double my might in no time and now I can increase it as fast as I want after I move enough troops.
I don’t plan on keeping my 2nd city as a ghost town permanently as I’m transporting resources from time to time so I can keep upgrading essential buildings. But I’ve found that this strategy has allowed me to get the most out of having a 2nd city and the most out of the extra resources in my first city that aren’t given to others in the alliance or just waiting to be taken in an attack on my city. If you do get a 2nd city you might want to consider this strategy or let me know if you’ve had success with another one. I plan on continuing to use it to help me acquire a 3rd city as well.
UPDATE 11/2/13: My 2nd city is now a fully functioning city just like my 1st city. I’ve maxed out on all the research so now I’m focusing on getting the final relics for my 3rd city because I have a plan on how to mass produce tier 4 troops once I do.
17 comments
Chris - November 1, 2014 5:45 PM
Does having a negative food upkeep reduce your gold?
Kareem Ali - November 1, 2014 10:03 PM
No, the only thing that reduces your gold is being attacked and salaries when heroes are assigned for specific city tasks
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Stacey - July 26, 2014 7:10 PM
so if I move all my troops to my second city, does it matter if my food upkeep is in the negatives then? or do I have to keep up with my upkeep in the second city also? fill in the dets…?
Kareem Ali - July 26, 2014 7:47 PM
Your food upkeep will be in the negative but that only means you can’t construct or upgrade buildings or research topics if you don’t have the required amount of food. So for example, if your food upkeep is -100 per hour, and you have 2000 food in your city you will run out of food in 20 hours if you don’t build or research anything. However during that time you can construct or research whatever you want if less than 2000 food is required for that building or topic. And if you run out of food you can just attack a goblin camp and make sure a transport unit is accompanying your soldiers and you’ll get PLENTY of food that way. I touch on that part with my 3rd city guide http://hulkingreviewer.com/home/hobbit-kingdoms-middle-earth-3rd-city-guide/
Balrogs - January 31, 2014 8:26 PM
I did the same. Though in retrospect, moving all the troops to city 2 while the high level EXP heroes are in city 1, is this not incongruous? For optimal battle strategy, would you not want to have troop storage located in the same city as the EXP heroes? With the current set up it would mean taking the time consuming/extra step of reassigning troops to city 1 before each battle?
Kareem Ali - January 31, 2014 9:14 PM
Yes you’re right about having the best heroes in city 1 while the troops are in city 2 but there’s a trade-off that has to be made. This strategy is heavily dependent on your preferred method of playing, however if you don’t have a 2nd city I’m not sure that you would have the might on your own to attack many cities or the heroes will be at such a level that would result in a drastic difference when fighting. This strategy weighs the different trade-offs and allows both your cities to be very productive from jump, and you can still produce new troops in your first city and just use those troops with your best heroes. That strategy doesn’t change. And even if you want to transport troops back to city 1 before each battle, the marching time should be considerably less than building or research time, which can take hours at that level. Did you encounter any other problems when moving all your troops to your 2nd city? Thanks!
Balrogs - February 1, 2014 12:05 PM
Good points, I could also stage a basic number of troops in city 1 ready for battle anytime – reassign more support if needed. My second city is 2 minutes away (100 or so tiles) …I’ve recently created city two and have not encountered any issues. However, I discovered how huge my farming capacity is in city 1 which vastly outpaces my ability to produce troops. So at the moment I bank in the bank millions. I’m not going to pare this down but rather focus on building up the other equivalent balance RSS in city 2, and also enough to train tier 1 troops here as well, albeit a smaller amount. I’ve just started to double Research and Train. I want to get it all working on level, where I am just transporting the resources. Then I may eventually start thinking having more balance within each city when the third city comes into play.
Kareem Ali - February 1, 2014 8:32 PM
Yeah, even though your farming capacity is large now that’ll change once you start producing tier 2 and 3 troops, which require more maintenance. Double research is the best especially when you get to level 6 and above. It saves a lot of time. And keep in mind that you can conquer areas in the world map such as wilds, etc to increase your productivity too. And maybe this city resource guide will help too http://hulkingreviewer.com/home/hobbit-kingdoms-middle-earth-city-resource-guide/
Balrogs - February 2, 2014 12:59 PM
Thanks for the guide! One problem I am having is Wild flipping. I have 9 level 10 wilds for both cities. There is an alliance that is flipping these every so often. It’s unprovoked, as I am not farming or attacking for now as I am building, I only attack back in response – always. However, there is little that can be done because it appears they are supported by their alliance, the flippers themselves have no wilds I can flip back. They exist just to stifle everyone else, that’s how they play. Moving a wild further way is not a solution as they have access to all coordinate locations for everything. Any tips?
Kareem Ali - February 3, 2014 12:26 AM
That’s a tough situation. Do you belong to an alliance? If so then you should try to reach out to others in your alliance to see if they can help with this situation. You say that you attack back in response so it’s possible that they target you as a result of you doing that not because it makes sense but because it’s something “fun” for them to do and you remain on their radar whenever you attack. Despite them having access to all coordinate locations you can still use Gandalf or Radagast’s Gift to move your city and select the wilds around your new location. That did help me when I only had 2 cities and I felt like I was being targeted. Do you belong to an alliance now?
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hobbit kom fanboy313 - January 3, 2014 4:13 PM
very well written, I take my hat off to you
Kareem Ali - January 3, 2014 4:42 PM
Thank you! I appreciate that
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Mis.Hackelton - October 26, 2013 7:44 PM
I play KOME and I cant get a 2nd city and im unable to bye one with a card or myrtil on the game and I donte know how to get the 2nd city republic
Kareem Ali - October 26, 2013 10:01 PM
I won one through Gollum’s Riddle. If you wanted to buy one you would have to buy a Second City Deed in the Misc. tab in the shop