Barbarian Raids

'''"An army marches on its stomach." - Napoleon Bonaparte'''

All armies need to eat so food is one of the most sought after resource in the game. To help collect food for your armies, Kabam created a Barbarian Raid feature in the game. This is the only guaranteed and risk-free way to farm for food in the game. You can get food from other sources such as transports from other alliance members or taking it from other players. But, getting food from your alliance won't provide all of the food you need and attacking other players for food isn't risk-free.

To start the barb raiding, you need to left click a barb camp on the map and select the option "Raid". Next, enter the type and number of troops and click the "Raid and Save" button. If you're victorious, then your raiding party walks away with food. The more barb raiding parties you setup, the more food you collect. The barb raiding is now good for the next 24 hours. The barb raid clock needs to be reset within 24 hours to keep the barb raiding going.

The amount of food you'll get from a barb camp is 100K times the barb camp level. So a level 2 barb camp will generate 200K of food while a level 5 barb camp will generate 500K of food. To get the most food from barb raiding, you need to attack a level 7 barb camps with archers. Some people would say that you need to attack level 8 or level 9 barb camps. However, I would disagree since a ballista eat more food than an archer and the amount of food you would bring in from a level 8 or 9 barb camp wouldn't offset the increase of food upkeep.

To prove my case, I'll show you the math. To defeat a level 7 barb camp, you'll need 38,500 archers with a 150 combat skill knight. The minimum round trip time for the barb raiding party is 6 min and 46 sec, which also include the cool off time with the barb raiding. In one hour, one wave of 38,500 archers will hit the level 7 barb camp 8 times (60 min / 6.75 min=8.8). That will generate 5.6 million food per hour (700K food per attack * 8 attacks per hour=5600K). It takes 346,500 food to feed 38,500 archers per hour (9 food per hour * 38500 archers=346.5K). In one hour, you will have a net total of 5.25 million food (5600K-346.5=5253.5K)

To defeat a level 8 barb camp, you'll need 26,500 ballistas with a 150 combat skill knight. The minimum round trip time for the ballistas is the same as the archers so that means the ballistas can only attack the level 8 barb camp 8 times per hour. That will generate 6.4 million food per hour. It take 1.325 million food to feed 26,500 ballistas each hour (50 food per ballista * 26500 ballistas=1325K). In one hour, you'll have a net total of 5.075 million food per hour (6400K-1325K=5075K).

I don't know how much troops it will take to defeat a level 9 barb camp, but I know it will take a lot more ballistas or may even require catapults. Just the food upkeep of such a barb raiding party will be a lot higher which will significantly reduce the net total of food per hour.

As you can see, attacking a level 7 barb camp will give you the highest net total of food per hour. Also, the archers can travel farther in the same amount of time which means you don't need to be right next door to a barb camp. Arguments can be made that certain Throne Room Items will help reduce the size of the barb raiding party, but I estimated that you will need a significant amount of Bonus to Barbarians Buffs that it will hinder your capability to train troops quickly.