Evony Subordinate City Protection and Ghosting Guide

To protect your subordinate cities and avoid losing your army in Evony, your immediate action must be to ghost your primary troops by sending them on long-duration marches whenever an enemy scout or rally targets your city.

In competitive PvP modes like Server vs. Server (SvS) events, losing your main army inside your city walls strips away your primary defense, leaving your subordinate cities fully exposed and risking massive troop losses that take weeks of resources to rebuild.

Why Main Army Protection Controls Subordinate City Safety

Subordinate cities provide valuable passive buffs and combat support, but their security relies on the state of your primary city defense.

• High-Tier Troop Risk: Leaving millions of high-tier troops idle inside your main city allows opponents to gain massive event points and wipe out your main force in a single rally.
• Buff Loss vs. Rebuilding Costs: While subordinate cities can lose durability or temporary buffs when hit, retraining a wiped main army costs significantly more time and resources than recovering a subordinate city's operational status.
• Defense Priority: Maintaining the safety of your main offensive and defensive troop stacks takes priority over attempting to defend static subordinate city structures against overwhelming enemy force.

How to Execute Troop Ghosting

Ghosting removes your forces from your main city layout while keeping them active on the map, preventing incoming attacks from wounding or killing them.

1. Watch Incoming Alerts: Keep track of scout reports and enemy rally notifications in your mail feed during hostile event windows.
2. Select Long-Distance Targets: Choose distant map targets—such as high-level monsters or far-off alliance rallies—that require extended march times.
3. Dispatch Main March Stacks: Send your highest-tier troops on these long marches so they remain in transit ("in the air") for the duration of the incoming threat.
4. Avoid Offline Exposure: Never leave primary troop stacks idle inside your city when logging off or when active monitoring is impossible.

Subordinate City Management and Defensive Trade-Offs

Minimizing losses requires accepting the structural trade-offs inherent to defensive mechanics in Evony:

• Mayor Preparation: Keep your subordinate city mayors leveled and outfitted with gear to preserve passive buffs, but do not rely on static stats to survive a concentrated player rally.
• Reinforcement Limitations: Troops committed to a ghosting march cannot assist alliance members or defend your own city walls if a surprise attack lands while your army is away.
• Active Oversight Requirement: Ghosting requires real-time monitoring. Players who remain inactive during war periods remain vulnerable to opponents scout-testing undefended main cities.