DE Correction?

[prankster106]

Hey was hoping someone could give me a quick hand, just swapped across to a new war build I am trialing and have found that it isn't sustainable (negative income by around 3K neg food by around 400 per hour)

I know it's kinda slack but I thought someone might be able to identify the ideal change to make without me having to run through the math info below:

(I'm monarch with 65% draft 200% wage and in fortified)

Personality & Race: The Mystic, Dark Elf
Land: 1,731 Acres
Money: 1,268,804gc (21,515gc daily income)
Food: 582,207 bushels
Runes: 0 runes
Population: 45,668 citizens (26.31 per Acre)
Peasants: 8,693 (87% Building Efficiency)
Trade Balance: 260,207gc (0% tax rate)

Military Eff. with Stance: 100.99% off. / 122.7% def.
Soldiers: 0 (64.5% estimated draft rate)
Night Rangers: 10,989 (66,590 offense)
Druids: 0
Drow: 15,000 (75,746 offense / 110,433 defense)
War-Horses: 2 (up to 2 additional offense)
Prisoners: 0

Total Modified Offense: 142,338 (81.99 per Acre)
Practical (0% elites): 66,592 (38.36 per Acre)
Total Modified Defense: 110,433 (63.61 per Acre)
Practical (100% elites): 110,433 (63.61 per Acre)

Thieves: 3,452 (1.99 per Acre / 100% Stealth)
Wizards: 7,534 (4.34 per Acre / 75% Mana)

________________________________________________________________

1. Homes: 173 (10%) + 1 in progress (+0.1%)
2. Farms: 113 (6.5%)
3. Training Grounds: 188 (10.8%) + 118 in progress (+6.8%)
4. Military Barracks: 0 (0%) + 306 in progress (+17.6%)
5. Guard Stations: 357 (20.6%)
6. Hospitals: 5 (0.3%) + 301 in progress (+17.3%)
7. Guilds: 173 (10%) + 1 in progress (+0.1%)

Total Land: 1,736 Acres (58.1% built)
In Progress: 727 Acres (41.9%)

** Effects Summary (Including Future Buildings) **
1. +1,392 maximum population, +31.35% birth rate
3. +18.93% offense bonus
4. -18.93% attack time
6. 25.24% cure plague, -37.85% military losses
7. Training about 3.02 wizards per hour


Training grounds are about to finish and still have a couple of thousand night rangers training. Dont really want to drop below 60dpa (fine for most but if they target the monarch I will be an easy hit) I also want to try and solve this in a way that boosts BE. Ideally this strat would have ran at 68% draft with around 15K night rangers and 15k drow. Doubt thats achievable but hopefully someone can suggest something that allows me to keep around 70opa in night rangers (no elites out) and still maintain 60dpa and the hybrid mage role.

Thanks in advance

[Clampy]

For food just get more farms/sci, as for cash if TOG isn't enough for you just get some banks. I'll assume the rest of your kd is running 20% GS so we can't take from there, in which case I'd take them fairly evenly from the rest of your builds. If the kd isn't running 20% GS, then lower that instead.

Another comment, you seem very def heavy for an a/m, typically 20% GS builds are quite low on def (30-40 dpa) and high on opa, you're the other way around.

[prankster106]

I'm trying to keep a hybrid role, with no banks TOG wont be enough without casting it every 2-3 hours. I was thinking the same for taking from the rest of the build, only thing is I am wondering if I would do better to use it to up my homes to 10% instead, it should be close to fixing the food, CG problem and improve BE, perhaps give me a few extra troops to get close to that target.

Trying to keep the def a little on the high side, I'm expecting to take hits but I dont want to take too much attention and get chained (monarchs always make tempting targets if the war goes badly)

[Clampy]

High def is fine, but it doesn't go well with high GS, you normally go one or the other. If you wanted high def I'd recommend switching the GS to forts and going for unbreakable, however, that's not practical for your province as you don't have enough offense, so you'd essentially be a t/m without the t.

[prankster106]

Yeah definitely want to avoid that, I'm trying for something in the middle, reasonable opa with no elites out maybe 60opa, then elites available for suicide runs. Still means I should be able to crack most attackers my size but not necessarily be cracked in return. With all elites out I should be able to get an opening hit on any poorly defended T/M as well.

[_greenie]

drop 2-3% from GS and hospitals for 5% banks/arms and 1% farms

that'll solve your income/food issues

also, im guessing your pop sci is pretty bad.... like <5% =)

and if you want to focus more on being an attacker, i would consider dropping 1 wpa for 1 offspec/acre... and possibly phase out a few rax for more homes...

[nooblet]

70/60 is unlikely if you want to have that kind of mage power at hand, unless you're willing to use Drow on offense (not a wise move generally speaking). You'll need science, and plenty of it.

Given that you have about 5ppa, there's little room for drafting more troops. What you have available to you isn't going to improve.

70/60 can work for a province that's primarily an attacker, but for a hybrid you'll have to sacrifice something. 60/60, you might be able to operate with that and still be a hybrid, but with 6+ combined tpa/wpa it's difficult. Having reasonable offense is more useful than having 60 dpa and like 45 opa. You could probably have between 50-55dpa (higher than most) and keep a reasonable offense for your size, which is as happy a medium as you can get. That way, while you're not unbreakable, enemy provinces will have to send out considerably more offense to do so, and you and your kingdom can capitalize on that. For what it's worth, 60 dpa is nothing to most heavy attackers.

[prankster106]

Nah pop sci is 5.2, could be better but not terrible, I really want to keep the wpa high, it's currently sitting at 9.5 with science, going to be extremely effective, especially if I loose land. Don't mind the idea about dropping rax for homes tho, the aim was for a 20% lower attack time but with BE so low it might almost be worth the trade off, and the benifits for mod off, -losses and -land lost sweeten the deal.

I jsut dropped 5k elites to lower draft to 62% and train up to 16k elites. With 11k trained so far and tg finally through I'm currently on 155k mod off (in fortified)

[Nobody]

increase to about 7% farms, decrease rax to say 12-15%
decrease defense. I know you want to run high dpa.... but its not exactly an easy thing to do without running forts to boost your defense. You could trade out dome defensive elites and the GSs for more offense and some forts. but it depends on your kingdom strategy.
Usually running GS, you run average or slightly below average defense.

If your training up to 16k elites, whats the point in dropping them ??? confused.

too bad your mod offense isn't practical, considering that some of it comes from your elites.

[pmyraje]

Just drop your wages down to 100% or 150% and that will solve your money troubles. Doesn't seem overly worthwhile to me to be paying twice as much in wages (depending on what your wages actually are) just for a 7% offensive bonus, esp. when your training grounds are already giving you ~19%

Edit: I forgot it also effects defensive military efficiency, but still, 7% isn't much for that expense and if you don't have money and expect to be attacking regularly with Barracks it doesn't matter how good your military efficiency is, you won't be able to build your land or retrain lost troops.

[Bishop]

7% boost is huge. the only time you dont run 200% wages is when you are chained, or you are in eow cf/.fw

[pmyraje]

Huge for what though?

Admitedly it is always nice to have the best bonuses you can get when in war, but for twice your wages it is expensive. If you can get the money some other way then fair enough, if not what is the use of that "huge" 7% bonus (as oppose to attacking someone with 7% less defence)?

I've been running 50% wages since I started, but then I'm not in war and only started a week before Christmas and was in vacation mode for 2 weeks so most provinces around my size are fairly clueless and easy to attck!

[Bishop]

If my army is 7% better at attacking and defending than yours, i'm going to win. 50% wages is even worse, compared to a prov running 200% wages you are about 20% weaker.

[pmyraje]

If your army is 7% better than mine, but you can't afford to train them or build the acres you gain or anything else then it won't be 7% better than mine for long. Sure hospitals keep losses down, but a few attacks by you and you soon lose equivalent of 7% of your offence. So if you can afford to retrain them fair enough, if you are losing money each hour what do you do for the rest of the war, even assuming nobody is fireballing you into even more problems?

I wouldn't run 50% wages in war, but I have yet to be attacked this age so why bother paying my military more when nobody knows what I am paying them (without an SoM) for a random hit so they can't assume 50%

Btw, this isn't criticism of your approach, just a strategy discussion - I used to play 5+ years ago and have only just returned to the game so whilst I have a brain for the strategy aspect my experience of the game as it is now is limited. First thing that came into my head when I saw wage rate was "Oh, that's nice, out of war who is to know if I am a scrooge and half my wage costs if my dpa from a CB is decent enough to discourage most random hits?"

[Bishop]

affording 200% wages is easy, just cast IA. If i have to send 7% less elites to break you, you have to send more offense (and elites) to break me back