Free-to-Play Strategy

It's undeniable that Game of Thrones: Conquest give an edge to those who are willing to open their wallets and drop some money on the game, but it can still be an enjoyable experience for Free-to-Play (F2P) players. This page will be used to document strategies to compete as a F2P. You don't have to follow the strategy exactly, but it will certainly put you in the right direction if you want to conquer some seats-of-power for yourself.

Keep level 1-6
In this game you start with a shield. For a new person, that shield is 5 days long. We need to take advantage of these days where no one can attack and level up quickly.

Now there are lots of ways to "level up". You have your character level, the strength level of your account, and the strength level of your army. But you need to focus on Keep level above all of that. It's a common strategy to focus on getting your keep to level 16 before worrying about anything else. If you follow this strategy right, you should get to lvl 10 before your bubble runs out.

Builders
First, after finishing the tutorial, build anything that has a build time of less than 10 minutes. You can hit the "free" button to finish these builds instantly. Importantly max out the number of farms and mills that you can make in the plots of land outside your castle.

Once that's finished, use any booster you have for a 2nd builder and only build what is needed to level up the Keep. Consult the Keep page to learn what the requirements are for each level. While one builder is upgrading the Keep, use the other builder to get a head start on the requirements for the next level.

If you have to set the game down and go somewhere, start a building project that will take longer than whatever you will do. That way, you won't waste time where a builder is just sitting around.

Maesters
Once your builders are both occupied and you are bored, start researching things at the Maesters tower. For now focus on researching Logistics > Bureaucracy. This will decrease the building time, allowing you to level up faster. You can also train Economy > Storage, and Economy > Farming and Economy > Milling, as those will provide you with resources to build as fast as possible. Finally, try to get to research Military > Stewardship, because that will give you a 2nd march. Good for hunting monsters while also resource gathering.

Same as for the builders here, try to minimize down time. Research something short if you are sticking around and something long if you are going to step away.

Troops
Once both your builders and maesters are occupied. Build some Tier 1 troops. You don't need anything higher level yet because you will mainly be using them for resource gathering. Try to keep troops moving around and gathering resources at all times. If you are on your phone and present, have them attack nearby monsters for items. Make sure to attack monsters that are part of an event because they drop rare items that you will wish you had sometime in the future. If you are going to step away, search for a higher level farm or mill far away so the troops will remain occupied and doing things for you.

Smithing
Equipment is not so important right now, but if you have time to kill you can equip yourself with all the basic items. But don't make anything at "grey" quality! At least green quality only.

Dragon
Ignore this for now. Dragons are good for attacking in the future but take too many resources.

Miscellaneous
Don't uncrate resources. Leave them boxed up. F2P players will get attacked and zeroed easily, so expect that to happen to you. The best way to avoid it is to keep resources below 1 million so you aren't enticing to attack, and keep your resources boxed up so they won't be able to be stolen by someone attacking you.

In the same vein, don't accept quest items from Tyrion unless you need them. These are also not stolen if you are attacked.

Keep level 6-10
If you are playing the game efficiently, you should be able to finish these levels before your initial 5 day shield runs out.

Find an Alliance
At this point the leading allegiances should be relatively clear looking at the kingdom chat and the allegiance rankings. As a F2P player, you will not be competitive in this world unless you are in an allegiance. You should look for a F2P friendly allegiance (not one that requires its members to be big spenders) and try sending some messages to the tier 2 and 3 members of that allegiance. Get in where you can, and tier 4 gets just as many shared awards of being part of an allegiance as tier 2 or 3 does. If you really want to be a higher tier you will likely have to find F2P players to be beneath you, because otherwise your banner men will likely pass you up. Remember, it's more important to stay in the allegiance than to lead it.

Attacking other players
At this point you will likely have lost your initial shield, however it's okay because you leveled up fast and are stronger than most your neighbors. It's time to use that strength to your advantage and start gathering resources from other players.