Several Evony players are now training T1 troops to defend their keeps, however, it is not a bulletproof solution.
As you advance in Evony: The King’s Return, you will be able to train higher tier troops, which are essentially stronger than lower tier troops.
However, several players have noticed that other Monarchs are only training Tier 1 troops, even if they are able to train higher tier troops.
It is worth noting that training troops requires a specific amount of resources and the higher the tier that you want to train, the more resources are required. If you train only T1 troops, you will not use as many resources as when training T13 troops.
Although the T1 troops have less powerful statistics, they are considered perfect for defending your keep, especially if you train high quantities of them. Allegedly, the best troop that you can use to defend your keep is ranged troops.
When another player attacks your keep, they will first defeat mounted troops and then archers with ground troops.
This means that as long as a cavalry of any tier remains inside the defending castle, archer troops will not be targeted. The archers will then attack the other players’ troops, while they are attacking the cavalry units.
The idea is that your T1 archers defeat the attacking player before the troops get a chance to attack the archers. You can therefore train high quantities of T1 archers to defend your keep, as they will not be attacked first.
Should you train more than 1 troop type?
Since you have limited refines on your wall General, you should only focus on a single T1 troop type to maximize the potential that flat refines have on a single troop type.
Players should note that a T1 troop wall still has an impact without a large amount of flat refines, but flat refines on a troop type will affect the impact of that troop greatly.
For instance, if your T1 mounted troops have a base HP of 400 and you use equipment that increases HP by 6948, it will result in an equivalent 1700% mounted HP with a single armor piece.
Do you always have to train the same T1 troops?
Since T1 defenses are becoming popular, several Monarchs have wondered whether they should train other T1 troops or not. Before training other troop types, you should consider the following table:
| Rally type | T1 Ground | T1 Cavalry | T1 Siege | T1 Archer |
| Ground | Strong | Very Strong | Medium | Medium |
| Cavalry | String | Medium | Medium | Very Strong |
| Archer | Medium | Strong | Very Strong | Strong |
| Siege | Weak | Weak | Extremely Weak | Weak |
Is the T1 Defense strategy foolproof?
It is worth noting that building huge quantities of T1 troops is a good strategy for a trap keep or very large players, but it is not a bulletproof solution.
There is a possibility that the attacking Evony player will still be able to vanquish your army when attacking your keep.
That being said, it is an effective way to keep enemies from using their most common and often strongest march against you.