Establishing and Maintaining a Military Base, by Xinke A.H. Magnus

Throughout their history, militaries of all sizes have maintained bases all around Graal. Sometimes, these bases are small buildings, like SNC, Dozer's and the York Barracks. Other times, these bases are actually whole zones, like Delta Island, Caldera/Big City and Destiny. 

The purpose of this page is to help new and upcoming militaries choose the location of their first base with some additionnal perspective. Oftentimes, it is quite easy to want to take over a very large base with a small army, or to think that a certain zone makes for a good base when it does not. 

Principal Characteristics of a Base

All bases have pros and cons. However, sometimes it is difficult to evaluate what can even be considered a pro or a con. It is even more difficult to evaluate how important a certain characteristic is compared to others. Here are a list of characteristics as well as their importance: 

• A Central Location
  • This is largely unimportant due to warp gems, railroads and the speed of horses. The only times it matters is when the base is situated outside the main map (Caldera, Balamb) or when it is difficult to access (Snowtown). 
  • A more central location can be preferred in certain cases, especially when the military wants to have its presence known within the main city. However, this should not be the case for most militaries. 
• Size of the base
  • ​This is easily one of the most important characteristics. The size of the base needs to correspond to the size of the military occupying it. 
  • For example, Swamptown should only be occupied by militaries with, on average, more than 40 people online. In contrast, a small building such as Chris Kill Ems' can be occupied easily by somewhere between 8-20 people. 
  • Militaries should always aim for smaller bases, since they force interactions between members, are easy to supervise and they promote activity. 
  • In this case, size of the base refers to the size of the whole thing, not just the size of the most usable areas. 
• Usable area
  • ​The most important characteristic of a base. Essentially, it is the area in a base that is actually useful for varying purposes, like meeting rooms, war rooms, sparring rooms, barracks, hangouts, etc. 
  • The best bases have around 50% usability. 
  • Dozer's is a good example of a base with a lot of usability. It has a gigantic war room, a few hangouts, a meeting table at the entrance and barracks. 
  • Train Station is an example of a base with low usability. It has absolutely nothing good except railroad access, which many other places on the map also have. 
• Nearby objectives
  • ​This characteristic will vary a lot in importance from military to military. Some militaries are very tower centric, so having a tower nearby is a huge boon. Similarly, some militaries are heavier on roleplay, so attacking and defending a tower does not sound as attractive. 
  • In general, this should be rather important, since nearby objectives can be used as a way to determine who wins battles. For example, using tower hold time to determine who wins a battle is a great way to determine which military is objectively better. 
  • Makes locations such as Dozer's, Swamptown, Destiny and Onnet Town that much more attractive. 
• Isolation 
  • ​This characteristic is more important for smaller militaries who are not looking for conflict. In general, it is not too important. 
  • An isolated base is a base that is neither central nor very often visited. Delta Island and Caldera are two examples of isolated bases. 
  • This is very important for small militaries that start in a very competitive era. 
• PK Zones
  • ​PK zones within a base (like Swamptown, Yorktown, etc.) are important but they can get annoying. 
  • Bigger militaries can thrive in PK zones since they have the forces to defend pretty much anything. 
  • Not having a PK zone can be equally annoying, since it just allows other militaries to come and grief you at your base. 
  • It is important to have a balance of PK and non-PK zone within a base. The location of those PK zones also matter. PK zones at the entrance are usually the best, since they enable chokepoints in various bases.
• Prestige
  • ​This is the least important characteristic. 
  • Prestige essentially means the base is highly sought after or otherwise historical (like Castle, Delta Island, Caldera). 
  • Very large and well-known militaries will often look for prestigious locations as bragging rights of sorts. 

These are pretty much all the notable characteristics of a base. Now, knowing these characteristics and their importance, it is possible to make somewhat of a tier list of each possible base. 

The Base Tier List

There are five tiers: S, A, B, C, D. S essentially means that the base is perfect for any military. A means the base is very good, but will work better for some militaries than others. B essentially means the base is good, but clearly outclassed by A and S. C tier essentially means the base is not very good, except for a few select traits which it may bring to the table for select kinds of guilds. D tier is trash tier, meaning the base has no redeemable features beyond existing. 

S Tier

Dozer's

Dozer's is one of the best, if not the best, base in all of Graal. It has a gigantic war room, a meeting table, several hangouts, and barracks. It has perhaps the most usability out of any other bases. Not only that, it is right next to MoD Tower, and MoD Town, easily cementing whoever owns Dozer's as the owner of MoD Town. The base is also very central, being situated about 30 seconds away from Graal City and being very prone to traffic travelling to the Northern Wilderness, MoD Town or Onnet Town. Finally, it has enormous prestige, since it has been the place to go to for battles for many years. 

All that being said, Dozer's has two weaknesses that keep it from being the unchallenged champion of bases. Namely, it is poorly isolated and not very easy to defend. Even with people guarding the door, it is not hard to come into the building, and once inside, it is very hard to make someone leave. It is poorly isolated since every military will want to use Dozer's as a fighting place, and it IS in the middle of a 4-way crossroad, meaning other players will frequently enter and leave. 

Dozer's is best for a midsized guild going through rapid expansion. It's quick access to MoD Town allows for expansion into another good base, and Dozer's itself is small enough that nobody is going to get lost in it, but large enough that 20 soldiers can easily fit in there.

Sardon Tower

Sardon Tower is easily the most underrated base in the military community. Not only is it accessible to everyone now, but it is also the best tower to take in Graal. Sardon Tower is the hardest tower to take, sure, but it comes with the huge benefit that it is also very easy to defend. In fact, with 8 active people, it should not even be a struggle to keep control of it. All that being said, Sardon Tower still has huge benefits that are not frequently considered when trying to establish a base. For one, it has working spar rooms on the first floor. Apart from Master Li's spar rooms and the spar room in the 2k hours zone, these spar rooms are the only ones found outside Graal City. Moreover, they are almost never used, meaning finding an empty room is also very easy. Sardon also has barracks, a library, an officer meeting/dining room as well as the best assembly hall in the game. Thus, it is as usable as Dozer's. It is also quite possible to use the PK zone outside of Sardon to stop players from even entering the tower. While it is well isolated, it still receives traffic from various towering guilds and the like, ensuring the military's presence is well known. The base is not the biggest, but it is large enough to meet all needs, and the lobby can serve as a hangout spot as need be. 

Sardon has one weakness; it is a tad too uncentralized. Sure, it grants nearby access to Onnet Town and Snow Town, but there are no nearby railroads and no easy gem warp either. This means that getting to Sardon can be a bit annoying after a while, and it also means that the military occupying this base is not likely to encounter newer players (which are prime recruit material) since most people who do need to go there will be pro towering guilds. 

Sardon Tower is an excellent base for any guild, but it is at its absolute best when occupied by small, elite guilds. The spar rooms and direct access to a tower environment means that these elite soldiers can train in a meaningful way while still being in their base. The smaller size of the base also means it is optimal for about 10 members, and starts being a bit cramped around 18-20 members. Usually, 10 members is the optimal number of active people that an elite guild will see during the day, with a peak of around 15-18 members, meaning this is really ideal. Furthermore, Sardon Tower can be quite hard to take, so an elite guild would be better suited for the tight halls and spike traps compared to larger numbers found in bigger guilds, which will only serve to bodyblock people and hurt everyone in the process.

A Tier

Delta Island

Delta Island has long been recognized as one of the better bases in Graal, and for a good reason. First of all, it has multiple quick access points, yet it still remains isolated since most of them are located in the same corner of the map. The island is also mostly a PK zone, meaning getting rid of intruders is quite easy, yet the houses still allow for non-PK zones. The island also has good nearby objectives, like multiple guild spar arenas and the only boat to the Oasis. While not everything about it is usable, it is still surprisingly usable, especially for patrols. Delta Island also has the net benefit of being not quite large for a zone, yet large enough to have guilds of 20-30 active people patrol without being too cramped. If all that was not enough, Delta Island is also quite prestigious, seeing as it used to be one of the State's main bases. 

Then, with all these benefits, why is it not ranked S tier? Quite simply, it does not offer much in terms of utility. Sure, a lot of the island is usable, but there are no meeting rooms, no officer meeting room, no announcement halls, no barracks. In terms of utility, the bar is really the only thing, seeing as it serves as a hangout place. Also, Delta Island is quite bad for smaller militaries, seeing as it's prestige a lot of unwarranted attention as well as be a bit too hard to defend appropriately. 

Delta Island is a very good base for a large guild of 20-30 active people with a lot of enlisted soldiers. Since they will serve as patrol officers, they will all have a job to do, and it also serves as good training. It is also near the Castle, allowing expansion in the future to another highly prestigious location. However, small guilds may find themselves better served in other locations, seeing as the size of Delta, while not enormous, may just spread their forces a little bit too thin for comfort. 

Onnet Town

Onnet Town is more of a B+ and not a true A. For one, it has the enormous problem that it has just so many different access points. This makes defending Onnet from enemy attacks ridiculously difficult, even with experienced patrols. However, there is a good reason Onnet is at the very least a solid B+. First of all, it has a PK and a non-PK zone, meaning it is actually quite balanced in that respect. Onnet Town is also very central, and more than that, it is central to a roleplay community that hangs out in the school building. This grants whoever controls Onnet good access to new recruits. Also, while Onnet Town does have many access points, it is not so big and a lot of the town is actually quite usable. In fact, there is an archery range (the ONLY archery range), a bar with a good officer meeting table, multiple hangouts, houses for soldiers to inhabit and even a court room, which can be very useful for militaries with a well-maintained justice system. Onnet is also the only nearby access point to Sardon Tower, which is one of the best bases in general and a very good hangout for an elite branch of a guild. 

The reason Onnet is more of a B+ comes from the fact that it has really 3 weaknesses: too many access points, non-existant isolation and the nearby objectives are not really nearby. Too many access points means you will need about 10 patrols just for all the entrances, and then an additional 2-4 that does rounds around the village. This comes down to 12-14 patrolling soldiers, which is just insane. The lack of isolation further amplifies the previous problem by adding a need to add the abundant visitors in check. Also, Sardon Tower is right outside Onnet Town, which makes the trip between the two a sort of journey and not really going from point A to B in your base. 

Onnet Town is best for guilds with a high amount of patrol power, as well as the need for multiple hangouts. It is also very good for any military that has a strong justice system and a strong need to be in the center of Graal. Overall, Onnet is pretty much S rank for an expansionist military with a very social aspect to it. With all that being said, it is strong for any military, it just advantages some militaries much more than other. 

B Tier

Swamptown

Destiny 

Castle

D Tier

Train Station 

Yeah, I said it. Train Station is easily the worst base in Graal. It has only one advantage, and it is not even a good one. Namely, it grants access to all of Graal by draisine, which is not even that great since the draisine is very slow to get to nearby locations, like Onnet and MoD Town. Apart from this one advantage, Train Station is downright awful. Graal City, and by extension Train Station, is very laggy, which impairs even moving around the area. There are no usable features in and nearby Train Station. It is also very small, meaning you cannot even occupy the zone comfortably. There is no nearby PK zones, so you cannot even defend it. Train Station takes any and all advantages that Graal City grants and just eliminates them entirely. If your military hangs out at Train Station, it is probably by force of habit more than actual liking of the place. 

Deadwood

Deadwood is like a poor man's Swamptown. It is smaller, has less access and much less traffic than Swamptown. It also has no usable buildings, no prestige and it is way too isolated. The only positives that Deadwood has are its tower and the chokepoint. The chokepoint to enter Deadwood is not even that good, since people can just hang out in the water and harass your members freely with quick attacks. The tower is also quite bad, since it is essentially a downgraded Swamp Tower. It is harder to defend, has a really bad spawn point for defenders and the flag is a choke, meaning people will just have to stay active and rush back or else the tower is taken within 30 seconds. 

The only reason to take Deadwood as a base is if everything is conquered by massive guilds, or if it is the last place where you need to establish a base. However, as of now, in terms of bases, Deadwood ranks in the worst.