Anno 2070: Eco housing layouts

Step 1: where do I build that thing?

For this layout, we will need an empty box of about 73x73 tiles. So your first priority is to search for an island that holds such a large area.
You can 'measure' the amount of free space with roads. An example: if I place a road across some free space, it will show you the amount of credits spent on this road. Lets say the road has cost you 145 credits. A single piece of road costs 5 credits. This means that the road of 145 credits is actually 29 tiles long (145 / 5 = 29).
By using this technique, you can measure the amount of space you have and decide if you have enough space to build this layout.

Step 2: new arrivals!

After you have found the right spot to build your megacity, start off by building your first Eco city centre and Eco residences.

In this step you will build:
- 56 Eco worker barracks.
- 1 Eco city centre.

Required building materials:
- 117 ton building modules.
- 3 ton tools.
- 600 credits (ex. roads).

Green: residences
Yellow: city centre

The build:
Start off by building the rectangular in the centre of the layout: this should leave you a 12x16 box which will be used for the Leisure centre later on. For now, just build a City centre in this free lot and connect it with the rectangular road. After you've done that, start building the Eco worker barracks as shown on the image.

When you have finished building this layout, move to step three.

Step 3: music to my ears

After completing step two, we move on to step three: expanding the number of residences and building some Concert halls to satisfy the need for activity for your inhabitants.

In this step you will build:
- 40 Eco worker barracks.
- 4 Concert halls.

Required building materials:
- 96 ton building modules.
- 12 ton tools.
- 2400 credits (ex. roads).

Green: residences
Yellow: city centre
Orange: concert hall

The build:
Extent your layout horizontally with a row of 20 residences on each side. After that, build 4 Concert halls on each of the four corners. Make sure you place the roads around the Concert halls precisely as shown on the image, otherwise you won't have enough room for the other buildings that we will build later on.

When you have finished building this layout, move to step four.

Step 4: it's starting to get complicated...

After completing step three, we move on to step four: building more City centers to expand the building area, building more residences and reserving space for utility buildings and futher additional buildings.

In this step you will build:
- 40 Eco worker barracks.
- 4 Eco city centers.

Required building materials:
- 100 ton building modules.
- 12 ton tools.
- 2400 credits (ex. roads).
- additional tools for upgrading your worker barracks to employee houses (1 ton tools per barracks)

Green: residences
Yellow: city centre
Orange: concert hall

The build:
Start off by building the four City centers next to the Concert halls. After adding the roads to connect them, start building the other roads and residences. This is a bit tricky, so take a very good look at the image and copy the layout precisely. The open spaces left in this layout will be filled in the next steps.

When you have finished building this layout, move to step five.

Step 5: ...and even more complicated

After completing step four, we move on to step five: building additional residences, Fire stations, Hospitals and Education network buildings to ensure city safety and advancement to Eco engineers.

In this step you will build:
- 46 Eco worker barracks.
- 4 Fire stations.
- 4 Hospitals.
- 4 Education network.

Required building materials:
- 188 ton building modules.
- 104 ton tools.
- 40 ton wood.
- 6400 credits (ex. roads).
- additional tools for upgrading your Eco worker barracks to Eco employee houses (1 ton tools per barracks).
- additional tools, building modules and wood for upgrading your Eco employee houses to Eco engineer apartments (2 ton tools, 2 ton building modules and 3 ton wood per house).

Green: residences
Yellow: city centre
Orange: concert hall
Blue: hospital
Red: fire station
Purple: education network

The build:
Expand the layout with more residences. When you have build those, you probably have enough inhabitants to build the Fire stations, the Hospitals and the Education networks. Once you have build the Education networks, Eco engineers will start populating your city.

When you have finished building this layout, move to step six.

Step 6: Leisure center prepping

After completing step five, we move on to step six: In this step we will get our city ready for the build of the Leicuse center. Besides this building, we will build the last residences, some Police stations and two Congress centers.

In this step you will build:
- 118 Eco worker barracks.
- 4 Police stations.
- 2 Congress centers.
- The Leisure center.

Required building materials (residences, Police stations and Congress centers):
- 294 ton building modules.
- 64 ton tools.
- 30 ton wood.
- 50 ton glass.
- 6400 credits (ex. roads).
- additional tools for upgrading your Eco worker barracks to Eco employee houses (1 ton tools per barracks).
- additional tools, building modules and wood for upgrading your Eco employee houses to Eco engineer apartments (2 ton tools, 2 ton building modules and 3 ton wood per house).
- additional tools, building modules, wood and glass for upgrading your Eco engineer apartments to Eco executive mansions (1 ton tools, 3 ton building modules, 3 ton wood and 4 ton glass per apartment).

Required building materials (Leisure center):
- 240 ton building modules.
- 950 ton tools.
- 184 ton wood.
- 196 ton glass.
- 50.000 credits.

Green: residences
Yellow: city centre
Orange: concert hall
Blue: hospital
Red: fire station
Purple: education network
Lime green: congress center
Brown: police station

The build:
Expand the layout with the last residences and add the Police stations. Eco executives should have moved to your city now. Once you reach 1200 Eco executives, you can start building the Leisure center: simply remove the City center and the roads in the middle of the layout and start building the Leisure center. To build the Leisure center, goods need to be transported from a Warehouse to the building site, therefore you need to build a Warehouse on the edge of the layout.

When you have finished building the Leisure center, move to the final step: step seven.

Step 7: removing excess weight

After completing step six, we move on to the final step: removing buildings which are no longer needed and adding some more residences. Now that the Leisure center has been fully build, we can remove the City centers, the Concert halls, the Congress centers and (optionally) the Education network buildings.

In this step you will build:
- 54 Eco worker barracks.

Required building materials:
- 108 ton building modules.
- additional tools for upgrading your Eco worker barracks to Eco employee houses (1 ton tools per barracks).
- additional tools, building modules and wood for upgrading your Eco employee houses to Eco engineer apartments (2 ton tools, 2 ton building modules and 3 ton wood per house).
- additional tools, building modules, wood and glass for upgrading your Eco engineer apartments to Eco executive mansions (1 ton tools, 3 ton building modules, 3 ton wood and 4 ton glass per apartment).

Green: residences
Blue: hospital
Red: fire station
Purple: education network
Brown: police station
Olive green: Leisure center

The build:
Remove the City centers, the Concert halls, the Congress centers and (optionally) the Education network buildings. After you have do that, (re)build the empty spaces with additional residences just like the image.

Congratulations! You have build your very own Eco megacity :)

What have we been building?

By following the seven steps to build your own Eco megacity, you now have:

- A large city, built to impress friends and enemies.
- At least 354 residences for your inhabitants.
- At least 7508 inhabitants, divided into: 568 Eco workers, 1710 Eco employees, 2550 Eco engineers and 2680 Eco executives.
- Service coverage (Fire station, Hospital, Police station) over 90%.

At the end, your city will look something like this:

The total costs

To build this Eco megacity, you will have to meet these requirements:

Building materials (ex. building materials for upgrades and roads):
- 1143 ton building modules.
- 1045 ton tools.
- 254 ton wood.
- 244 ton glass.
- 68200 credits.

Total maintenance costs (default settings): 1620
Total energy usage (default settings): 424
Total negative influence on ecobalance (default settings): -108

Besides these requirements, you will also need to build almost all the other buildings that will be unlocked during your game. Futhermore, patience is required aswell :P.

How to keep things running

To keep all your inhabitants happy, you will need some production plants to produce various goods like tea, health food, communicators, etc. With a little help from a calculator, I calculated how much factories/farms you will need to keep this city running. All plants are calculated on default (=100%) productivity.

The following buildings are needed:

• 15 Fisheries
• 15 Tea plantations
• 9 Health food factories, which need:
  - 17 Farmhouses (vegetables)
  - 9 Rice farms
• 9 Electronics factories, which need:
  - 9 Chip factories
  - 5 Copper mines
  - 3 Sand extractors
• 6 Bio drinks factories, which need:
  - 6 Dairy farms
  - 11 Fruit plantations
• 7 Pasta dishes factories, which need:
  - 7 Farmhouses (vegetables)
  - 11 Grain farms
  - 4 Flour mills
• 4 Projector plants, which need:
  - 3 Diamond harvesting stations
  - 5 Rare-earth borers
  - 3 Manganese excavation robots
• 5 Service bots factories, which need:
  - 2 Chip factories, which need:
  • 1 Copper mine
  • 1 Sand extractor
  - 5 Biopolymer factories, which need:
  • 5 Aquafarms
  • 9 Corn farms

FAQ's

'Can I add even more houses to this layout?'
Yes, you can, but only when you have build your city according to the seven-step program. As you might have noticed, when selecting your Leisure center, you will see there's even more area available to build more residences (outside the outer skirts of the city). I'm guessing there can be build around 35 to 40 more residences there.

'Why haven't you removed the Education network buildings?'
Personally, I prefer to keep those buildings to broadcast the different shows to influence the inhabitants (for example: more tax incomes, more inhabitants or less consumption of goods). If you think you don't need them, just remove them and fill the empty areas with four houses.

'How do I produce all those huge amounts of goods needed for the build of this city?'
That's pretty simple: just build enough factories/farms so you always will have enough goods. When you have little space for all your buildings and therefore you are looking to build your buildings as space-efficient as possible, you might want to take a look at my other guides for all sorts of production layouts (yes, this is shameless self-promotion).

'Do you like My Little Pony?'
No, I don't.

'Those 1000+ tons of building modules and tools... you made a typo there right?'
Sorry, I didn't. You really need that much goods.

Anno 2070: Starter Guide

Anno 2070 - Starting Guide
______________________________

Overview

After this guide you will be able to build a Tool Workshop, Building Materials, Timber and the necessary goods to grow your city from workers to employees and still have a posstive income.

When you reached this your balance will only become more possitive.

In this guide I play with the Eco faction 

To reach employees you will need the following goods:

 Fish 
 Tea
 Concert Hall 

For those who don't want to read this guide there is a video if you scroll down.

Part I - First things first

Search for a suitable island and place your Warehouse.

Place your City Center  and create a grid like in this picture:



Then place 12 houses:



After building these houses you will be able to build fisheries, build 2 near your Warehouse:



When you get low on Building Modules buy them from your Ark. E.V.E.  will deliver 40t of Building Modules  for only  2000 credits.







Part II - Getting things running

Now that we have new Building Modules  we should focus on creating our own Modules.

There are building layouts for these productions but I don't put to much attention to these since it's just a start.



I've build 2 Basalt Extractions and 2 Smelters to create Building Modules .

If you have a Basalt Extractor running at 100% it will be able to provide 1 Smelter.
This is a 1on1 building chain.

The next step is creating some Tea farms. 
Tea  is needed for the inhabitans to advance to the next level.

For the farm I use a layout:



In the beginning i's not necessary to build more than 2 farms. After you reach more inhabitants you should consider getting 4 - 6 farms.

Now the last item we'll need is the Concert Hall 


Build some more houses and you'll soon have a positive income and advanced to the next population stage.

Optifine Settings

Default Options:

• Graphics - Fast
• Render Distance - Tiny to Small
• Smooth Lighting - Off
• Performance - Max FPS
• 3D Anaglyph - Off
• View Bobbing - Off
• GUI Scale - Normal

OptiFine Settings:

Default Menu:

• Advanced OpenGL - Fast (without OptiFine, you would only be able to set this to 'On' or 'Off')
• Chunk Loading - Smooth
• Fog - Fast
• Fog Start - 0.8

Details Menu:

• Clouds, Trees, Water, Grass, Rain and Snow options - All set to 'Fast'
• Sky, Sun and Moon, Depth Fog options - All set to 'On'
• Cloud Height - 100%
• Stars, Show Capes options - Both set to 'Off'

Quality Menu:

• Mipmap Level - Max
• Mipmap Type - Linear
• Anisotropic Filtering - Off
• Antialiasing - 2
• Clear Water, Random Mobs, Better Snow, Custom Fonts, Custom Colors, Swamp Colors, Smooth Biomes, Natural Textures options - All set to 'On'
• Better Grass, Connected Textures - Both set to 'Fast'

Animations Menu:

• IF USING A TEXTURE PACK - Click 'All On' button at lower left-hand corner 
• IF USING DEFAULT TEXTURE PACK - Click 'All On' button, but change Lava and Water options to 'Dynamic'

Performance Menu:

• Smooth FPS - On
• Smooth World - On
• Load Far - Off
• Preloaded Chunks - Off
• Chunk Updates per Frame - 3
• Dynamic Updates - On

Other Menu:

• Lagometer - Off
• Debug Profiler - Off
• Weather - On
• Fullscreen - Off
• Fullscreen Mode - 1366x768
• Server Textures - On
• Autosave - 20s

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO FACTIONS

What is Factions? Factions is one of the greatest PVP Bukkit plugin. It helps make a better way to fight in PVP wars. Type /f help to see if your server has the Factions plugin.

Note that most information below uses the default settings in the config.yml. Your server may have different settings, e.g allowing opening wooden doors anywhere. Check outhttp://massivecraft....factions/config. I am currently assuming you are using default Factions configurations..

Basics

Power/Land claiming

To claim a chunk of land, type /f claim and it will claim the current chunk you are standing on for your faction. As you should know, neutrals and faction-less people cannot hurt you on your own land, nor can anyone not in your faction build, use or open things on your claimed land. A claimed land is a chunk, or a 16x16 extending from bedrock to the sky.
First, power = land. One piece of land/chunk = 1 power. When you claim a chunk of land, it uses up one power. Every person will usually start with 10 power, so the maximum chunks a 1 person faction can claim will be 10. For every new person in your faction, their power will add up. So for example, a 4 person faction will have 40 power, from the 10 power of each 4 people, and can claim a maximum of 40 chunks.
Power can be lost on death. If you lose power, your faction's total power gets affected too. It is also possible to go into negative power, hindering your faction even more. For example, if Person A has 10 power, and Person B from the same faction also has 10 power, but A dies once, his power may drop down to 7. Before the death, the faction's power is 20, from person A's 10 and B's 10, but with the death, the power is now 17/20, from the 3 power lost on the death of person A., who now have 7 instead of 10 power. Remember, power is the amount of land you can hold. If the faction has 17 power, they can only hold 17 chunks of land. If they have 10 power, they can only hold 10 chunks of land. If, the power of the faction drops lower then the amount of chunks claimed by the faction, then your lands are vulnerable to being claimed and stolen by neutral and enemy factions. Power does regenerate though, at a constant but slow rate.

Lets say Faction A has 2 members, B and C. They have claimed 15 pieces of land. On their /f list it should say 15/20/20, the first number being the lands claimed, 2nd number is the current power, and the 3rd number being the maximum power of the faction. If, A gets killed once, and has his power dropped down to 7, the faction's power would be 17. Because the power is greater then the amount of lands claimed, Faction A is still safe. Lets say Person B also dies once. Now his power is also 7. With 6 powers less then before, Faction A now has 14 power. Because now Faction A has 1 less power then the amount of lands claimed, the faction is vulnerable to having his lands being claimed. If Faction D comes and tries to claim and steal land, they can only take 1 piece of land.
This is why when you raid and steal from a faction, the first thing you must to is to kill the members of the enemy, so they can lose power, and so you can take the lands. The lowest power a person can have is -10, meaning its enough to take another person's power down too. Watch your power at all times.

Relationships

So, there are going to be more then one faction, and you are going to sooner or later meet them, whether in a war or in an alliance. First, as you should know, /f ally, /f neutral and /f enemy can set a relationship. When one faction asks for an alliance, the other faction has to accept the request. Once allies, any faction can break the alliance with /f neutral. When allies, both factions cannot harm the other and attempt to claim land from one another. However allies still cannot use things such as doors and chests, and build or break blocks on claimed land. Allies will be displayed in purple.
When one faction declares another as an enemy, both will be set as enemies. If only one faction declares war, that faction can turn neutral again if they want to, without the consent of the other faction. However, if one faction declares war, and the other faction also types /f enemy, both faction has to accept and agree on an /f neutral request.
Once enemies, both factions can harm the other on even the enemy's claimed lands, but with a reduced damage. You still, however, cannot build or destroy blocks, or use doors and chests etc. on the enemy's claimed lands. /f enemy is usually the only way you can raid or steal from a faction. Enemy factions are displayed in red.

Creating a faction

To create a faction, type /f create <faction's name>. Sometimes, a server may also require you to have money to create a faction. Once you created a faction, you may change the description of your faction with /f desc <description here>. You may open or close your faction with /f open, which will toggle your faction open and close. If your faction is open, anyone can join your faction if they wish to. If your faction is closed, they may only join if you or a faction mod gives them an invitation with /f invite <player's name>.

The Base

Now that you have a faction, you must now set a good spot for your base. While it is better to build further away from the server's spawn, it may be harder to get to if your faction's home is ever to be claimed by an enemy. Always claim, then build. You can save a lot of power this way. When building, think more about the defenses, then how it would look. How can an enemy faction get into your base? For starters, while they cannot just go in and destroy your blocks, they can use many other tools, such as a flint and steel which can burn down wooden bases, a TNT cannon which can blow up your base from far away, or even Endermen who can tear holes in your base. Unless your server disabled them, those are the first things to watch for. Second, people can use Enderpearls, teleporting over the highest walls or the most dangerous traps, safely transporting themselves into your base. Finally, they can even use nether portals, whether from those you have built inside your base, or one created through traveling in the Nether.
So, first we need a place to build our base. In the middle of an ocean is one of the best spots to build, as swimming is slow, TNT Cannons are hard to build, and not many people actually would really go search for factions in the middle of a wide, blank ocean. There is also the Nether and the End. The Nether is treacherous, but can actually be a safe spot for a faction, as not many people would actually go search there. However, they CAN use Ghasts to blow up holes into your base, and there are many, many things that you can only do/have in the Overworld, such as water. The End is actually the most safest spot. Once you kill the Enderdragon, you are safe. Just claim the obsidian platform you spawn in from the portal, lock it in, set a faction home, and no-one can actually get you. But again, like the Nether, there are many restrictions.
If you are going to build underground, avoid big caverns, and try to build as deep as you can. This way, faction hunters cannot see the name tags as you are too far underground, although there is the annoying void fog to watch out for. Another good place to build is building a base floating in the sky. The only way someone can get to it is through an Enderpearl, or pillaring. Where ever you choose, remember, think about how an enemy can infiltrate.
Now that you found a nice spot, it is time to build. The first thing, as I said before, is claiming. When you claim, you need to watch for your power. Try to use as low power as you can. Remember, while every person in the faction adds 10 power, every person can also take away 20 from the faction, from the 10 they add to, and the -10 power minimum. This you need to keep in mind. 2nd, look at your faction members, and the amount of land you are claiming. Can your faction support your land? Are you totally relying on your members, and betting that they won't leave, betray, or die multiple times? For me, members are not to have extra lands for your base. For me, more members are to make it harder to raid my faction, to making the enemy have to kill more before they can lower my power enough. If your faction has 5 members, and you claim 40 lands, all it takes is for 1 member to leave, or about 3-4 deaths before your lands can be claimed. So, bear this in mind before you start building big cities. The less lands claimed, the better. Now, why do you have to claim lands first, then build? This is to make your base "Chunk-aligned". When a base is chunk aligned, it will fully utilize your land to the 100%. If, you are to build a base first, then claim, you may find that you are actually using up more claims to claim something that may only require one claim. Chunks are to coordinates. You do not set the boundaries yourself. If you claim first, you know where your land's boundaries are, and where you can build, and how big your base can be. Set up the boundaries of your claimed chunks with some blocks, and then build. To find the boundaries, type /f map, and just walk until the map says "Wilderness". This is your boundary. Find all 4 sides of a piece of land, and it should be 16 blocks on each side. Finally, the last thing to remember: The shape of your base. Since enemies have to start from the edge to claim, as they cannot claim chunks surrounded by other claimed chunks, it is better to put your land in a diamond shape, with the most important chunk (the faction home/storage) in the middle. Do NOT put your chunks in a straight line or anything where all the chunks are touching wilderness, or the enemy can claim any chunk they wish.

Now that you have found your boundaries, you have to build a wall. One very common mistake to avoid, is to build on CLAIMED LAND. Many factions I have raided, has carelessly built their walls on the wilderness, where it can be easily destroyed and broken into. Check with your faction map, or see your chat to see what land you are currently on. If building underground, dig until you reach wilderness. When placing the walls of your underground base, remember to put on the sides of your claimed chunk, on CLAIMED LAND. So, you are really actually using a 14x14 chunk instead of the full 16x16, as part of it will be your walls.
Even before building your walls, you should set a faction home with /f sethome, so you can teleport back to it, if you were to die or get lost.
Lastly, even if you are not building underground, have a roof. It may not look good if you want a city, but trust me. A roof is the only way to hold back an Enderpearl, or someone pillaring.
Now that you have gotten your base set up, it is time to build on the inside. First, is your faction home. What I recommend, is that it is a one way access. Build it on a high platform with a pool on the bottom, build it with a one way Iron door, whatever so that no-one can go back to the faction home without typing /f home. The only opening in the room is an Exit, no Entrance. This way, if your base is under attack, they can't get to your faction home and spawnkill you over and over again. Another thing to have in your faction home room is some sort of chest, stocked up with food and weapons. Room, not chunk. A chest where you can easily open before going out to your other chunks. This way, you can kill the attackers in your base. The faction home may even be your storage.
Remember, less chunks are better. So it is recommended to actually build rooms on the faction home chunk, instead of on new claimed chunks. These rooms are generally required: A storeroom, a food farm, and  a water and lava source. Those are basically it. I do not recommend putting a mine near your base, or on your base. Mines may be big, and may connect to caverns. Someone can easily go into the wilderness parts of your mines and infiltrate your base.
The last thing I recommend about your base, is doors and trapdoors. Try to put them everywhere. This can make it hard for the attacker to move around, as they cannot open them. Put them in anywhere you can. For doors going out your base and going out of your faction home room, put pressure plates so you and your faction members don't have to worry about closing them, as they will close on their own.
Remember, to defend your faction, think about how they can infiltrate. Remember, that they cannot break or place blocks inside claimed land, nor use chests, doors and containers. They can, however use pressure plates, levers and buttons.

Expanding your faction

Now that you got a base, you are ready to start recruiting. I never recommend you to leave the faction to open, as anyone can join, spy on your coordinates, and betray you. Instead, look and see which people you think you might trust, and may fit your faction's style. People generally join the biggest faction or the most powerful, so a reputation may help.
There will be a time when you, the faction's admin cannot be there to lead the faction. This is when you need to appoint faction moderators. Here are a few things Moderators (And admins too) can do:
Set the faction home
Claim and unclaim land
Kick normal members
Set Faction's relationships with other Factions
Change Tag/Name
Change Description
Appoint titles
These are  the things only the Admin can do:
Promote/demote Mods
Hand over Adminship
Set ownership of claimed lands
Kick Mods
Disband the faction
Be careful with moderators, even one untrustworthy moderators can destroy your faction, with unclaiming and inviting enemies. Also, remember your power. While one new member adds another 10 power, one new member can take 20 away too.

Raiding

Now, you are feeling confident with your faction. First, what is your reason for raiding? Do you wish for some more resources, perhaps getting some more diamonds? Did the faction or their people anger you in some way? Did they attack or declare war on you? Or are you just wishing to have bloodshed? Most Faction battles follow these steps:
They attack each other, try to infiltrate the other's base, kill each other, claim land,  and steal. However, your reason may determine how the war will end and how you will win. If you are just raiding for more goods, your goal is to just get that chest, steal, and leave, perhaps returning their land and tools to them, so you can re-farm them again later. If you are waging a total war, you may end up griefing, keeping land, or even utterly destroying the enemy faction.
First, a war starts with a target. If you are raiding for resources, obviously you should go search for a faction that is rich, and easy to attack. /f list is a most useful tool for all attackers. If an enemy has a lot of people, but less land, obviously they will be an extremely hard faction to kill. You even need a majority of their members to be on, just so you can kill enough people to lower enough power. What you should search for, is a faction with reputation, and with a lot of lands claimed. One thing I extremely recommend, is stalk other faction's information. Use /f list and /f show regularly on factions, especially potential raiding targets. Not only does it show their claimed lands and their power, it can also allow you to see when a faction is vulnerable to claiming. Use /f show all the time. Use it before raiding, and during raiding to see when you have killed enough people so you can start stealing land.
There are 3 numbers in /f list. Like I shown before, it would be something like 4/10/10. When the 2nd digit is lower then the 1st digit, they are vulnerable to claiming. You might even just win a raid without killing their people, by just checking the /f list and seeing their power drops. Not many people realize that they are dying multiple times and that their power is actually getting low.
Now that you have a target, you have to find their base to attack. The best thing to do is just wander around, with /f map on, until you find some claimed land on the map, or try to deceive them or someone else into giving you the coordinates. Once you got the coordinates, remember them, write them down somewhere. The 2nd step is to get into the base and start your kills. The one thing I do not recommend, is to declare your faction as an enemy until right before you jump down and start your kill. Keep your faction neutral, so you do not provoke your enemy and alert them. Like I said before, there are many ways to get in a base. All bases have flaws, no matter how defensive it is or how impenetrable they claim. Leap over walls with an Enderpearl. If their walls are near the wilderness, pillar up and jump over them. If TNT and Fire is enabled, blast open a hole or burn them down by placing nearby wood. Alternatively, you can look down at the ground and see if you can find any name tags walking around. It could probably be their mines, which you can break into from the wilderness and sneak up into their base. The main thing, is remember to sneak and press shift at ALL TIMES. Last thing, however you break in, remember to try not to let the enemy know. This way, they won't seal it up. And if you find multiple flaws, alternate between them. Flee/exit with teleportation (/f home, /spawn, etc.), not back through your hole if you can. Just dig around the wilderness around their base, and you may eventually find a tunnel or a careless mistake. Lastly, if they got a Nether portal, it's bound to be the one first created near their area. Just create another Nether portal, go into the Nether, go back through the portal, and (hopefully) you are in their base.
Now that you find your flaw, it is time to attack. Remember, the only way to capture land is to kill. It is always good to attack at a time when the enemy is least prepared, such as when they are mining, and when a lot of their members are on. Remember, sneak before attacking. Also, remember, remain in a neutral relationship. Once you are ready to leap down and attack, quickly switch to /f enemy. Make sure you faction is an enemy, or you won't be able to damage them, and you may lose your element of surprise. For more tips on PVPing, go here.
Now, the main goal when attacking is to kill your enemy. But also remember, you cannot open doors, containers, or build and destroy blocks, and your damage is reduced by 30%.

Tips

1. Deceive your enemies with tricks. Maybe offer an alliance and then offer to go to their base.
2. If being attacked, and only you declared war with /f enemy, you can quickly /f neutral the attacker so that they can't damage you, allowing you to get an easy kill.
3. Remember to stalk other factions. Type /f list and /f show routinely, so you can see if an opportunity arrises.
4. One of the best time to attack, is if your enemy has already died multiple times. This way, you will only have to kill less.
5. Remember, if you or your faction is low on power, avoid dying, so avoid doing dangerous activities until your power regenerates. Also, typing /spawn and /f home can help you escape getting killed. You cannot type /f home if you are on enemy territory and if their is an enemy nearby.
6. Take notice of your surroundings. Do you see any players or name tags moving? Use the enemy base's environment to your advantage. You can easily snipe enemies from high city walls.
7. Remember, you cannot open enemy doors. Many times careless factions may leave their doors open, allowing you to walk in.
8. Likewise, remember to close doors and trapdoors in your own base. Add pressure plates for automatic closing on one way exits.
9. To make it extra hard for an enemy to navigate around, put as many one way exits as you can, such as dropping into a pool of water instead of ladders.
10. Put doors around your Nether portal so enemies cannot use it to get into your base.
11. When stealing land from enemies, you cannot claim chunks that have 4 other chunks surrounding it. The border chunks must be claimed first. 

Minecraft Essentials

USER[white names in game] and above:
/help - displays the help menu for commands in game (this actually works now)
/me [message] - displays a message as an emote
/spawn - Teleports you to spawn
/mail [read|clear|send] [to] [message] - read your in game mail, clear your inbox, send an in-game mail to a player
/motd - displays the logon message
/afk - sets you into afk mode
/kill - kill yourself
/msg || /tell || /m [player] [message] - sends a private message to another logged-on player
/rules - display the basic server rules
/ping - PONG!
/compass - displays your current bearing
/depth - in game altimeter
/getpos - display your exact position on the map
/realname - if you have been assigned a nickname, it will display your real logon name
/helpop - sends a query to all online ops (I wouldn't recommend using this, you'll get a faster response via any other medium)
--teleportation--
/tp [Player] - Teleports to player
/tptoggle - enables/disables other players from teleporting to you (can be overridden by admins)
/tpa - request a teleport to a player
/tpaccept - accept a pending teleport request
/tpdeny - deny a pending teleport request
/list || /who || /L - lists all connected players
--home commands--
/home - Teleports you home
/home set - Sets your home to your current position
/home delete - become homeless
/home [playername] - teleports you to said player's home (if you are invited)
/home list - show all homes you are allowed to go to
/home ilist - show all players invited to your home
/home invite [player] - invite [player] to your home
/home uninvite [player] - and STAY out!
/home public - invite everyone to your home
/home private - get some privacy
/home point - displays the direction to home (broken atm)
--block protection--
(works on: Chests, Dispensers, Furnaces, Doors, Signs)
This part can get really complicated, so I'll just leave this here.
However, the most common uses are:
/cprivate - make the next block you click private
/cpublic - make the next block you click public
/cpassword <password> - creates a passworded block
/cunlock <Password> - unlock a block with the correct password
--Economy--
(Keep in mind that names are case-sensitive for the economy commands)
/money - shows you how much money you currently have
/money rank (player) - Show the economic ranking of yourself (or other player)
/money top (amount) - who has the most minecash?
/money pay <player> <amount> - give money to another player
/gsworth || /gsprice - display the current selling price for gold

DEPUTY(3) and above:
/kick [player] <reason> - kick said player, with a reason if desired
/nick <target> [nickname] - set nickname for said player
/tphere <player name> - teleport said player to your location
/whois [player] - display detailed information about a player
/burn <player> <duration> - ignites the specified player for x seconds
/ext <player> - extinguish flames on said player
/kill <player> - slay the specified player
/togglejail || /tjail [player] [jailname] - sends or removes said player from the specified jail point

ADMIN(4) and above:
/clearinventory <player> - clears your inventory or the inventory of the specified player
/banip [Player] - Bans the player's IP
/unbanip [IP] - Unbans the IP
/ban [Player] <Reason> - Bans the player
/unban [Player] - Unbans the player
/time [Time|day|night] - Changes time
/plugin <list> [enable|disable|reload] <plugin name> - actions for plugin states
/essentials - reloads essentials configuration
/reloadall || /rel - reloads all plugins
/spawnmob [mobname] <amount> - works for hostile and peaceful creatures, also, creature names are case sensitive (e.g. Creeper)
/whitelist [operation (add or remove)/toggle] [player]
/tpo <player> - force teleport to player (ignores tp status)
/tpohere <player> - force player to tp to your location (ignores tp status)
/tppos <x> <y> <x> - teleport to a specific location
/broadcast <message> - broadcast a message to all online players
--Economy--
/money grant <player> <amount> - Give said player some minecash (use negative amount to take away funds)
/money set <player> <amount> - Forcefully sets a player's account balance to the specified value
/money hide <player> <true/false> - Toggle the visibility of an account
/money create <player> - Create a player's account
/money remove <player> - Delete a player's account
/money reset <player> - Resets a player's account
/money stats - shows a general overview of economic statistics
/gsreset || /gsclear - resets the worth of gold to it's base value (does nothing on our server, which has static pricing)
--griefer control--
(again, this part is a little complicated, so i'll link you to the command guide)
some basic examples:
/bb here <username> <range>- show recent activity within your current area, [range] can increase the default radius, you can also filter out only changes made by a particular player
/bb rollback <player> - undo all modifications said player has done to the envirionment

ROOT(5) commands:
(EVERY command is available to root/ops, I can't remember them all but here are some root only commands)
/item [ID] [Amount] <Player> - Gives items to you or others
/give [player] [item|item:damage value] <amount> - give a player an item
/setspawn - Sets the spawn point to your position.
/setjail [jailname] - creates a jail at your current location
/gc - display chunk, memory, and world info
/antioch - blow up that thing you're pointing at
/god - toggle god mode
/heal <player >- heal yourself or other player
/jump - teleport to your crosshair's location