returning player - advice needed on Human/Merchant

[Xcellers]

Hi all

i played Utopia for a few years, some years ago - likely about 4-5 years ago ied guess.

anyways, i figured ied give it a shot once again, and i wanted to try out something new - i remember playing undead back in the day, but figured ied go for human/merchant - since yeah % income seems like a nifty lil bonus and +1 def on specs are quite nice too.

still, im rusty.. very very very rusty (as in omg look at the rust on that 13th century coat of plates)

still i have a few ideas on how things works, or at least used to work, downloaded angel as soon as i created my province, but the number game is a memory long gone from my mind.

so, basicly what im asking is for general pointers as to how i can play around with a Human/Merchant based province - any conceptual ideas or pure-bred strategies are very welcome and its entirely up to you guys if you wanna handle it via. pm´s or in this, the public thread

stuff that i know i lack info on is (but not exclusivly)

surgested DPA - (i figured 72 dpa, pure spec based DPA - ie. 12 def specs / A)

"imperial uberstretch" - ie. the dangers of province building without enough attention paid to maintaining the surgested DPA

Thieves - do i need them? is there any defencive used? is it a must have?

% building setup - im fairly certain i may have screwed up my current province here, as it all went on pure intuition (oh thats pretty sweet...)

and yeah, pretty much what ever advice you can come up with :)

cheers guys, and thank you for your time (and hopefully effort)

[Dolgil]

72 raw dpa? Explorer? No. Go attacker or attacker/thief. Yes. you need thieves if you don't want to be a "gold farm" for some random gnome or anybody else for that matter.

Why say you have played the game a long time ago when it is obvious you are new? No old time player would ask about thieves like that.

[insane33]

72 dpa with no thieves could work imo. Really it would, we need farms badly.



Actually i would suggest keeping 2thieves/acre (for defence mainly), about 60% draft and 1:1 def specs: elites ratio. Definetly build not only farms/banks/guilds/towers, but training grounds also.

[Ishandra]

You'll want around 6 def specs per acre at most, then elites and off specs. You'll want a minimum of 2 TPA, I'd go for 3 or 4 as a human since your wizzies will most likely be low.

People WILL try and use you as a gold farm as HU/Merch so you need to be protected from thieves and have an offence to hit back with.

[zhukaSS]

I really dont get people saying 2tpa is a must.
Why? If gnome rogue will want your gold, it wont really matter how much tpa you have.
I would rather go 1tpa and some watchtowers.

[Xcellers]

Dilgol - well i figured that high dpa and exploration would be a funny twist, while building up for a long term role as a attacker - but fair enough - your comment about me being new is also fair, however i did play Utopia when i went to boarding school and (after looking over my CV) i can see that its 8 years ago - so yeah i may as well be new to this, since 8 years is quite a long time. but fair enough.

Insane - yeah i bet you guys would like a farm, but i guess this post has allready paid off, since you guys are allready tossing valuable numbers at me, currently i run at a 45% draft and nothing near the elite/def ratio that you surgest, but i can focus more on getting my elite numbers up (and ofc. keep it in mind for the next age)
you talk a bit about buildings, is these the ones i should concentrate about or should i add small % of other buildings - i have found that my armouries was a stupid choise, since i seem to have a fair amount of cash at hand.

Ishandra - okay, so i have, whats pretty much double the defence i need, in raw DPA it seems, but yeah i guess ill need to opt my draft and get working on thieves, but yes a good point about me being a prime farm target - i was kinda planning to try to adjust my disposable income with science / book generation.

ZhukaSS - yeah Gnome/Rogues will likely take my stuff if they want to - so yeah watchtowers will likely have to be a must for me, but what about both, having a decent TPA and a fair % of watchtowers, since as noted above, i will be targeted as a cash farm?

[JungleQuiche]

I really dont get people saying 2tpa is a must.
Why? If gnome rogue will want your gold, it wont really matter how much tpa you have.
I would rather go 1tpa and some watchtowers.

You're not going to be able to defence against gnome rouges... its everyone else that you need to worry about. with about 1 tpa i'd suggest about 20% watchtowers, but whats even better than that is 2.5 tpa and 20% buildings into something like TG or rax

[Ishandra]

Exactly, its not the GN/Rogues you need to worry about, its the Orc/Elf A/Ts running 2.5-3 TPA and 15% TD who want your gold :P

[clarey]

imo at the start a hummie merch should play as a pure attacker, 6dspa and rest ospecs, before converting to an all elite off. i'd just do 1.5 raw tpa and 15% WTs.

As the age goes on start looking at getting 55 - 60 dpa spex only and a 3 raw tpa (some of my good kdmates with niceish sci pull off 4 raw np). In that case, switch your WTs to TDs in hostile/war situations.

Pretty self explanatory I don't think I need to show any calcs for that.

[Laguna]

OOW

Farms 10% (or less if you have high tools and food sci)
Training Grnds 15% (so you can pack a punch even OOW)
Armouries 19% (or Banks if you have a small army or below 1.5k acres)
Barracks 15% (ofcourse we need them to come back right away even OOW)
Forts 14% (buff up the buffed up defspecs some more)
Guilds 7% (just enough to be successful with crucial self spells and CBs)
Towers 5% (since you won't be doing that much magic)
Watchtowers 15% (reduce successful ops on you even with 2 TPA)

60% reservist draft
100% wage
7 Dspecs/acre gives around 55 DPA with 0% elites, 2 raw TPA, rest into elites

WAR

Farms 10%
Training Grnds 25%
Barracks 17%
Forts 15%
Guilds 7%
Towers 5%
Watchtowers 15%
Stables 6%

65% normal draft
200% wage
No research

you should be able to carry your size with that basic build

[fobazn]

With 7% guilds don't even bother trying to attempt self spells. For human merchants, you plan to run arms? GTFO.
I don't believe you should sacrifice economy, even in war.

OOW
28% Banks
10% farms
22% TGs
10% Rax
14% Guilds
4% Towers
11% Stables
1% Dungeon

Focus on getting 45 - 50% Thievery sci and 10% pop sci at least, science on active/focused.

WAR
10% Banks
8% Farms
24% TGs
15% Rax
11% Guilds
5% Towers
Stables -> let them phase out you shouldn't be building them in war
1% Dungeons
15% WTs (or TDs, depending on tpa and sci)

11% spare in building or w/e etc.

[Ishandra]

Human/Merch is pretty wasted if your not running banks, especially for the sake of armouries!?

If your logging out for any period over 12 hours I would suggest jacking sciene rate up to active at least as well cos stockpiling GC will make you a massive plunder target as your race/person draws CBs and your low wpa makes your money obvious.


The builds above look about right, adjust to taste ;)

[WestVenom]

63-65% drafted human
3.5 raw tpa
3 raw wpa

your knights = 10% stables worth of horses + 2k and the rest into archers.

you should be fine =)

[Ced]

3 raw wpa is over doing it. 1-1.5 wpa is enough. having a 3.5 tpa and 3 wpa RAW your military will be too weak ( esp when u draft at 63-65%, which tells me your science isnt that high anwyays) . You won't be able to defend yourself from every aspect and the most logical place to give up is wpa.

From personal experience, its really hard to keep self spells up even with 10% guild because im always asking for MV when i get a MS on me and other kingdom doing MV on me. ( + the human magic disadvantage)

So i usually keep my guild low and just forget casting self spells at war.

at around 1300-1600 acres.

WAR
10% Banks
8% Farms
24% TGs --- > i would build 12% and put the other 12% in forts to max the benefits.
15% Rax
11% hosiptal
5% Guilds
5% Towers
1% Dungeons
10% TD
10% lib ( depending on sci, for me anything above 500 bpa )

if you dont have alot of science, then put 5% more in hosiptal and 5% in stables.

[Ishandra]

I'd prolly take homes over libs, at least until Sci is pretty high.