Wall defences

If you are a begginer player than start your walls off with traps. spend your spare resources on traps and rolling logs until you get your archery up to build archery towers. do this until you get your walls full of defences. dont worry too much about organisation and specific numbers of which, untill you have your level 9 walls and resources to spend.

then you would want to look at removing all your traps and setting up your walls to.
10k archery towers 5-600 rolling logs and abatis 2k defensive trebs

though this is just an idea you can get creative and find what is going to work best for you. but as research gets higher an the lower players will be less likely to attack you, meaning you will be more likely to be attacked by some one with their reaserch high enough, so traps will be less effective. so keep with the more effective defences.

Any value in setting up a phatom enemy to test optimal defenseive strategies?

no need just attack some one with such defences and lose half your army:P

Marcone does have a good idea though..

Everyone neeeeds to know what it is like to be attacked, at least once. The excited nervousness, controlled panic, (same thing) and what to do first.....

I strongly recommend we set up scenarios were we boot officers/members and attack them with single scouts to get used to the feelings mentioned above and react properly...

Moving to another post...

well thanks for the help on defences im using them as a guide to my cities' defences and i think Macrone and XM have a good idea going it'll help prepare for the real thing.

though knowing its some one who isnt attacking you to really attack you that its practice, you wont react the same was as if its some one who is really out to attack you, unless its kept anonomous and with out a warnining of an exact time or day