Help with Human Merch Attacker

[housexxwins]

Reading through forums and hear houses aren't necessary anymore. My kd has been looking for a war but not sucessfully so i'm kinda half war build half not, but I mostly want a suggestion about the homes. Also, are arms necessary at this size or are banks more effeciant? This is my first age since 2002 and this prov is only about 3 weeks old. I also need to get my BE up. Any suggestions?

Personality & Race: The Merchant, Human
Land: 1,231 Acres
Money: 178gc (42,307gc daily income)
Food: 38,449 bushels
Runes: 16,843 runes
Population: 32,510 citizens (26.41 per Acre)
Peasants: 12,824 (89% Building Efficiency)
Trade Balance: -930,274gc (4% tax rate)

ME+Stance (no spells): 107.77% off. / 121.49% def.
Soldiers: 96 (57.7% estimated draft rate)
Swordsmen: 887 (4,780 offense)
Archers: 9,723 (70,874 defense)
Knights: 6,278 (40,595 offense / 30,508 defense)
War-Horses: 4,380 (up to 4,720 additional offense)
Prisoners: 0

Total Modified Offense: 50,198 (40.78 per Acre)
Practical (100% elites): 50,198 (40.78 per Acre)
Total Modified Defense: 101,499 (82.45 per Acre)
Practical (0% elites): 70,991 (57.67 per Acre)

1. Homes: 125 (10.2%) + 20 in progress (+1.6%)
2. Farms: 94 (7.6%) + 10 in progress (+0.8%)
3. Banks: 132 (10.7%) + 23 in progress (+1.9%)
4. Training Grounds: 199 (16.2%) + 20 in progress (+1.6%)
5. Barracks: 98 (8%)
6. Hospitals: 100 (8.1%)
7. Guilds: 225 (18.3%)
8. Towers: 55 (4.5%)
9. Stables: 73 (5.9%) + 32 in progress (+2.6%)
10. Dungeons: 0 (0%) + 25 in progress (+2%)

Total Land: 1,231 Acres (89.4% built)
In Progress: 130 Acres (10.6%)

** Effects Summary (Available Buildings Only) **
1. +1,000 maximum population, +24.47% birth rate
2. Produce 5,883 bushels (7,353 with FL)
3. 3,688gc, +15.38% income
4. +15.45% offense bonus
5. -11.3% attack time
6. 13.34% cure plague, -20.02% military losses
7. Training about 4.02 wizards per hour
8. Produce 492 runes per hour
9. Produce 65 horses/hour, hold 4,380 horses
10. 0 prisoners (0 offense, 0gc, 0 jobs)

** Effects Summary (Including Future Buildings) **
1. +1,160 maximum population, +27.87% birth rate
2. Produce 6,508 bushels (8,135 with FL)
3. 4,330gc, +17.68% income
4. +16.67% offense bonus
9. Produce 94 horses/hour, hold 6,300 horses
10. 500 prisoners (1,500 offense, 250gc, 250 jobs)

[_greenie]

ok

firstly, you are running too much defense =)
drop ~1500 defspecs (or 1.25/acre) for elites, this will give you 7/acre, which is heaps! and up your draft rate to 61-62%

imho, 10% homes is fine... anymore is a waste!, it doesnt do much to reduce overall building affects, and gives you a nice bonus to BR =)

for a human banks >>>>> arms, even moreso as a merch!

as for you BE, its currently sitting ~90%, i can assure you, that for a non-pumped humie, non-dwarf, thats pretty good!
get some more science, pop/BE/income and it should get up pretty quick

lastly, whats your TPA like, should run 2+ =)

[housexxwins]

WICKED, thanks for your help man. I have 200 acres on the way which is why the dpa is so high and i'm staring a leet pump right now. I'll build banks and keep rocking.

[housexxwins]

oh yea its around 2tpa, my wpa is low which is why guilds are so high.

[_greenie]

figured wpa would be low on a 3 week old prov =) but tpa should be at 2 by now...

and i wouldnt bother training any more def, do elites on incoming land...
and banks are better than arms cause human's +30% and merch's +15% income, combine to give almost 50% more income!
get 10% income science (easy), and that gives you +65% income...
put 10% banks @ 90% BE on top of that, and you are looking at ~+80% income... all of which, combined, is of far more benefit to net income than 10% reduction in draft/training costs will!

[storm]

I think your build is actually very good. Once you get your wpa up, drop guilds to 8-12% if you feel like. Also, shave a few % on towers. You will only make CB/CE anyway, most likely.

If you manage it, increase banks to 15%, but its no hurry to do so. Your build is good imo.

[Ishandra]

You need to drop some TGs for Forts, you'll gain more offence by being able to send out more Elites and you'll also have a higher Defence while they're sat at home.

[storm]

I agree with Ishandra on the forts part. They will save you more space than the tg's with your current army ratios.

However, there is also the economy issue. Running tg's means less troop losses means less replacement costs when you attack. It also means u can run fewer knights per acre, which saves gold and makes digesting new land easier.

Try a 2:1 tg:fort ratio, or 1.5:1. If you feel extreme, go 1:1 (will pack the most dpa,opa but you lose out on some cost effectiveness).

[iRnooB]

I'm curious about my Hummie Merch too. I started about the same time housexxwins did too. And currently my KD is looking for a war as well (on Gen though). My monarch says I'm not getting the full potential outta my province, though I thought I had been doing pretty good with it, and was hoping someone could gimme some insight on making my province more beefy? And before anyone says anything ;) - I've only got about 62% drafted outta 65% and the armouries will go towards Rax during war :) and yes...my sciences suck - working on those. And we're in Fortified stance currently >.< lame..

Ruler Name: The Wealthy Lord Artemis
Personality & Race: The Merchant, Human
Land: 2,133 Acres
Money: 719gc (80,844gc daily income)
Food: 156,772 bushels
Runes: 65,846 runes
Population: 54,776 citizens (25.68 per Acre)
Peasants: 19,604 (87% Building Efficiency)
Trade Balance: 0gc (0% tax rate)

ME+Stance (no spells): 127.76% off. / 138.73% def.
Soldiers: 65 (61.1% estimated draft rate)
Swordsmen: 0
Archers: 13,855 (115,328 defense)
Knights: 15,316 (117,402 offense / 84,993 defense)
War-Horses: 14,667 (up to 18,738 additional offense)
Prisoners: 0

Total Modified Offense: 136,223 (63.86 per Acre)
Practical (100% elites): 136,223 (63.86 per Acre)
Total Modified Defense: 200,411 (93.96 per Acre)
Practical (0% elites): 115,418 (54.11 per Acre)

Thieves: 4,242 (1.99 per Acre / 100% Stealth)
Wizards: 1,694 (0.79 per Acre / 98% Mana)

Crystal-Ball on your province will show:
Max. Possible Thieves/Wizards: 9,190 (4.31 / Acre)
Estimated Thieves Number: 3,676 (1.72 per Acre)
Estimated Wizards Number: 1,378 (0.65 per Acre)


Buildings: 1,299gc to build, 883gc to raze
Away bonus: 98,020gc (12h) / 294,060gc (20h)


Ruler Name: Lord Artemis
Personality: The Merchant
Race: Human
Building Efficiency: 86.5%
Kingdom Stance: Fortified

1. Farms: 213 (10%) + 1 in progress (+0%)
2. Banks: 319 (15%) + 1 in progress (+0%)
3. Training Grounds: 383 (18%) + 1 in progress (+0%)
4. Armouries: 213 (10%)
5. Forts: 213 (10%)
6. Hospitals: 213 (10%)
7. Guilds: 213 (10%)
8. Towers: 106 (5%) + 1 in progress (+0%)
9. Stables: 255 (12%) + 1 in progress (+0%)

Total Land: 2,133 Acres (99.8% built)
In Progress: 5 Acres (0.2%)

** Effects Summary (Available Buildings Only) **
1. Produce 16,121 bushels (20,152 with FL)
2. 8,623gc, +19.77% income
3. +19.11% offense bonus
4. -11.66% training & draft costs, -15.55% military wages
5. +11.66% defense bonus
6. 15.55% cure plague, -23.33% military losses
7. Training about 3.68 wizards per hour
8. Produce 1,146 runes per hour
9. Produce 221 horses/hour, hold 15,300 horses

** Effects Summary (Including Future Buildings) **
1. Produce 16,197 bushels (20,246 with FL)
2. 8,650gc, +19.82% income
3. +19.15% offense bonus
8. Produce 1,157 runes per hour
9. Produce 221 horses/hour, hold 15,360 horses



** Summary **
Non-Peasants: 66%
Efficiency (SoM): 150.3% off, 126.1% def, 107.6% raw
Net Offense at Home (from Utopia): 137,048
Net Defense at Home (from Utopia): 201,533
Modified Attack points (calculated): 161,216
Modified Defense points (calculated): 183,211

** Standing Army (At Home) **
Soldiers: 184 (277 offense / 232 defense)
Archers: 13,941 (105,478 defense)
Knights: 15,365 (138,562 offense / 77,501 defense)
War Horses: 14,889 (up to 22,378 additional offense)
Total Attack points: 161,216
Total Defense points: 183,211

** Troops in Training **
Archers: 1,134 (8,580 defense)
Next 12 hours: 88 87 87 87 86 86 87 86 87 86 33 35...
Knights: 963 (8,684 offense / 4,857 defense)
Next 12 hours: 53 53 54 53 53 54 53 53 53 53 53 53...
Thieves: 186
Next 14 hours: 19 19 18 18 20 19 18 18 19 18 0 0 0 0...


** Effects Summary (Known Science Only) **
8.6% Income (52,096 points)
9% Building Effectiveness (110,266 points)
5% Population Limits (82,199 points)
0% Food Production
6.5% Gains in Combat (37,252 points)
40.4% Thievery Effectiveness (61,909 points)
38.8% Magic Effectiveness & Rune Production (82,064 points)

** Science Points in Progress **
Alchemy: 1,053 points in progress
Crime: 6,540 points in progress
Channeling: 11,170 points in progress

[storm]

irnoob: i see nothing wrong with your proince,. it looks very solid. the build is good.

[Ishandra]

On the economy issue, its also even more complicated;

With less offensive units and more TG, your offence drops by more for every troop you lose to NS/MS or in attacks. Similarly it works the same for defensive units.

And I dont know about you guys but I tend to get hit a lot in Wars as I'm an active orc attacker so I lose a LOT more defensive units than I lose offensive units. Having forts and hospitals reduces the trolls I lose by quite a bit so it saves me more money than running more TG, which is why I run an even mix of TG/Forts/Rax/Hospitals :)

[Toadi]

I would not run Banks or Armouries on a Human Merchant. Your income is already massive. Human do not really need income buildings other than Hospitals. That is more room for Training Grounds if needed, or Thieves' Dens if the Human wishes to try an A/T role.

[_greenie]

2nd prov, its gen, you're a human/merch, your economy should be massive
and you are running 25% income buildings???
also, drop dpa down to 40 mod dpa, you'll leave elites @ home, so this is rarely if ever the case =)

[Realest]

forts are such a **** building why do people like to recommend them?

[Toadi]

There is a percentage of Training Grounds over which Forts become better than them because of DBE. Forts are not ****, they are weaker than Training Grounds because of the high offense strategies but still have their use if you want to dedicate loads of land to offensive buildings.