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Thread: Diary of a Dwarf Merchant Attacker

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    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    Post Diary of a Dwarf Merchant Attacker

    Just as an example of how to go about developing a Province in protection, I've decided to open up what I've been doing so that novices can have a general idea of what to do. Age-to-Age changes may well make the following information obsolete, and the following may not be the 'optimal' strategy, but it should still help illustrate Utopia's general workings.


    Race/Personality Selection
    Everyone has their own style of play - the game would be pretty damned boring if everyone did exactly the same thing - and the selection of Race and Personality should be appropriate to their goals. My selections were:

    Dwarves
    Bonuses:
    * + 20% Building Efficiency
    * Free Building Construction
    * Can use credits to raze buildings

    Penalty:
    * Accelerated Construction not available
    * - 25% thievery effectiveness
    * + 50% food consumption

    Other Information:
    * Offensive Specialist: Warriors (5/0)
    * Defensive Specialist: Axemen (0/5)
    * Elite Unit: Berserker (6/5, $700, 6 nw)
    * Bonus Spells: Vermin, Quick Feet

    The Merchant
    * +40% Income
    * -50% Money Losses on Plunder Attacks
    * Immunity to all Income Penalties (Riots, Plagues, etc.)

    Strengths:
    Dwarves aren't the strongest of Attackers but Berserkers (being balanced @ 6/5) are effective for both offense and defense, offering a degree of versatility only they and Halflings can take advantage of. While Quick Feet's 10% reduction to Attack Times isn't as strong as the 30% Avian bonus, it still offers faster military returns than Barracks alone.

    The +40% Income from Merchant provides the strongest single economic boost in the game, and the building/razing bonuses all but eliminate expenses involved in land management. This combination frees up a lot of funds to invest in Military and Sciences that would ordinarily be spent building up land gained from attacks. Also, because most effects are multiplicative, this makes investment in Alchemy Science far more effective - twice what Sage would offer.

    The +20% Building Efficiency is also a powerful boost as the benefits from most Buildings in the game are based upon them taking up a certain percentage of your lands and diminishing returns make higher percentages less effective. For a Dwarf, 29% of a given building offers the same benefits as 50% for any other Race - though this advantage diminishes as the percentages decrease (22.7% vs 30%, 15.8% vs 20%, etc), it still allows for greater performance for the land invested. As with the Income bonus above, this offers the same 20% effectiveness to Tools Science as Sage would.

    Weaknesses:
    The -25% Thievery Effectiveness can be compensated for by Crime Science and/or Thieves' Dens, or one could simply build Watchtowers and not worry about it. One could run a mixture of these to offset the penalty, though not much as Thievery isn't particularly crucial to an Attacker.

    Between the +20% effectiveness of Farms and a bit of Food Science, the extra food consumption is easy to to offset.

    And while there is no means of negating the lack of accelerated construction, there are numerous reasons why one wouldn't want to do so once Protection ends - so it's not as great a liability as it may seem at first. Builder's Boon will help later on once the Province has the Runes for it.


    Entry: Plan of Attack
    My general plan is to come out of Protection with around 615 acres of land, ready to attack and with reasonable defenses. As an Attacker there's no way to compete with dedicated Mages and Thieves, but I'll at least want enough for my own uses. My default build once things get underway will be along the lines of:
    • 5% Homes
    • 9% Farms
    • 25% Banks
    • 13% Training Grounds
    • 9% Barracks
    • 15% Guilds
    • 7% Towers
    • 7% Watchtowers
    • 10% Stables
    I won't look quite like this when Protection ends, but I'll be close. The percentages will conform to this build as new lands are obtained.

    The combination of +40% Income from Merchant and +20% BE from Dwarf makes Banks, by far, the most beneficial Building for me. Between the base gold production and income modifier, Merchant, and Alchemy Science, this will more than double my gross Income. This is key, as it more than offsets the lack of Armouries (and, as a Dwarf Attacker, I don't need Mills in the first place).

    These funds will also enable me to focus exclusively on 6/5 Berserkers for offense (as well as defense) while the Free Specialist credits (from attacking) will be used primarily to train defensive 0/5 Axemen.

    The Barracks and Quick Feet offer a 20% reduction in Attack times, enabling more activity, and the Training Grounds a 20% bonus to offense. Though 6/5 Berserkers are the weakest offensive Elite in the game, more troops for the same offense also means I can send more Mercenaries than most - which the surplus of Banks also enables me to afford.

    Between the late start, being an Attacker, and the -25% Thievery modifier, I decided that Watchtowers were my best option. If I can maintain my BE, they'll offer a 24% reduction in my losses and stop 16% of all hostile ops regardless of their TpA.

    Much remains to be seen in this coming Age, though I suspect that I may later convert some (or all) Homes into Prisons as the game progresses. - as much for slave labor as for potential free Mercenaries.

    Guilds, Towers, and Stables are a bit high but - because I intend to maintain a state of growth - they will be needed in order to maintain Wizards, Runes, and Horses while the new lands are under construction (without the option of acceleration) and my Zerks are out gaining more.

    With -25% Thievery - and Attackers not exactly renowned for such in the first place - there's no point in putting much effort towards Thieves. Watchtowers provide better defense than I could reasonably accomplish with Thieves, meaning I'll only need enough to gather intel on potential targets. 1 raw TpA is my goal for when I leave Protection.

    Once again - this probably isn't the optimal build. But I feel it has solid potential, my reasoning for such as stated above.

    As has often been said, "Even the best strategic plans are only valid until the first major incursion." This is liable to fluctuate throughout the Age, but one can't begin a journey without a destination in mind.


    Entry: Day One

    Building and Exploration
    Two buildings vital to any Province are Guilds and Towers. Guilds train a very modest number of Wizards (which will be needed to help counter enemy spells) and Towers produce the Runes your own Wizards need in order to cast spells themselves. These are the first two buildings I set into construction - 100 Guilds and 65 Towers. A bit much for an Attacker, yes, but the boost is needed starting out and the percentages will diminish as I acquire new lands.

    I also started 20 Homes (mainly for the bonus to Birth Rates) and 20 Farms (to help compensate for the extra food consumption).

    The remaining 75 acres I used for Banks - between the +40% Income and +20% BE bonuses, these will give my income a powerful boost for when I pump up my military later on.

    I then sent my initial 500 Soldiers out to explore 125 acres of new lands.

    Military
    To be certain of having sufficient Soldiers, I set the Draft Rate for 60%. This is the only option which can be adjusted at this stage.

    Sciences
    I invested my initial allotment of 1500 Books in Population Science. This is always a good investment, and one can never get too early a start on this. Alchemy (income) and Tools (BE) are also good choices, and usually preferred, but my bonuses from Merchant and Dwarf make these unimportant for the moment.

    Some will argue against this approach, and with valid opinions. Variegation is a big part of what makes Utopia tick - and even those who may do the same things don't always do so for the same reasons.

    My reasoning for starting with Housing is because this approach will max out my Population well within 13 hours or so. Every working Peasant provides Income, and three unemployed Peasants as much as an employed one. With all the bonuses to Income - both direct and indirect - I want to cram as many people onto my lands as quickly as possible.

    Since I have a strong income and no real expenses at this stage (apart from modest Draft costs), as well as nearly all of my starting funds, I kicked Research up to Focused. I could have gone higher, but the cost per Book makes it a bit too expensive at this stage.


    Entry: First Utopian Month

    Building and Exploration
    For the first few ticks, I kept sending all available Soldiers to explore more lands until the total (between current land and that being explored) reached 600 acres.

    As new lands became available, I set them into construction as Stables until I had a total of 50 underway - 8.13% of my 615-acre goal. Stables would normally be among the first lands built but my +20% BE should more than compensate for the later start.

    Later, as more lands come in, I set 130 acres underway as Armouries. In addition to lowering Draft expenses, these will also be crucial for my Military pump towards the end of Protection. By waiting as late as possible to train Military, I avoid any wage expenses until then. This pump is all I'll be needing them for and, between free construction and 100 free raze credits, the expense of switching over is minimal.

    Once all the Armouries are underway, I built the rest of the incoming land as Banks.

    Sciences
    Checking in regularly, I split my incoming Books from research 40/60 between Alchemy and Tools until the latter reached 1500, then continued with Alchemy until it totalled 4000. This offers a +1.5% bonus to both Income and BE by the time my first set of buildings were finished.

    I then turned my attention towards Food Science so that my Farms could better keep pace with my growing population.

    Once I started investing in Food Science, I dropped my Research rate to Active - not quite as effective, but only 59.4% the expense.

    Towards the end of the first Utopian Month, after hitting 2500 total Books in Food Science, switch back to putting all the books in Tools for more BE.

    Mystics
    As soon as my Guilds and Towers came in, I had sufficient Runes to cast Love & Peace. Peasants fill jobs and produce income (at +80% due to Merchant, Banks, and Alchemy) so I want as many workers as possible.

    The next hour, I had enough to cast Builder's Boon to help compensate to some degree for the lack of accelerated construction and Fertile Lands to help maintain food for all those hungry little Dwarves.


    Entry: Second Utopian Month

    Status Report
    Your mileage may vary depending on how active you are the first month, but here's a general overview of how things should be looking 24 hours after starting your Province:

    At this stage, you should be sitting near 595 acres (including the 5-acre daily bonus) while the last 10 acres arrive in the next few ticks. Most (if not all) Stables are finished, with around 250 Horses, and Armouries are starting to be completed.

    There should be around 625,000gc sitting in your Treasury, with 60,000gc gross and 45,000gc net Daily Income. With Fertile Lands goings, you should still be producing a surplus of food and your population is consistently maxxed as new lands come in.

    Sciences should look like:
    • 2000/2000 +2.7% Income
    • 1400/1000 +1.6% BE
    • 1500/0 ~ +1.0% Population
    • 525/1975 +7.5% Food
    You should also have at least 30 Wizards and 2000 Soldiers waiting in the wings by now.

    Buildings
    Now that Population is capped and I no longer need the extra Birth Rates, I can use twenty of my free building credits to Raze them to be rebuilt as Training Grounds.

    This is the last construction I'm going to mess with (apart from the daily 5 free acres, which will also be Training Grounds) until after the military pump.

    More non-Homes means more jobs and, at this point, more money (still at +80%) - money that's going to be needed soon.

    Military
    With 40 hours of Protection left, half of the Armouries should be completed - reducing Draft Costs by 26% or better. With Population topped out, Patriotism needs to be cast in order to maintain the influx of Soldiers needed for the military pump coming up.

    Sciences
    Continued investing in Tools Science until 5000 Books total, then start back in on Housing.

    Once there were 6000 Books in Housing, divided the rest of incoming Books evenly between Combat, Thievery, and Magic.


    Entry: The Half-Way Point

    With 36 hours of Protection left:
    * Personality & Race: Merchant, Dwarf
    * Acres: 605 Acres
    * Money: 1,245,358gc (64,729gc daily income)
    * Food: 43,587 bushels
    * Runes: 13,044 runes
    * Population: 15,626 citizens (25 per acre)
    * Peasants: 11,594 (74% Peasants)
    * Building Efficiency: 123%
    * Wizards: 63 (.104 Raw WpA)

    * Soldiers: 3,969 (25.4 % estimated draft rate)
    * War Horses: 949

    * Science Intelligence
    * +3.5% Income (3,826 points + 174 in progress)
    * +2.2% Building Effectiveness (2,815 points + 2,185 in progress)
    * +1.2% Population Limits (1,965 points + 2,316 in progress)
    * +14.1% Food Production (1,878 points + 622 in progress)

    * Survey
    * 1. Homes: 40 (6.6%)
    * 2. Farms: 60 (9.9%)
    * 3. Banks: 119 (19.7%) + 16 in progress (2.6%)
    * 4. Training Grounds: 25 in progress (4.1%)
    * 5. Armouries: 130 (21.5%)
    * 6. Guilds: 100 (16.5%)
    * 7. Towers: 65 (10.7%)
    * 8. Stables: 50 (8.3%)

    * Total Acres Built: 564
    * In Progress: 41 (6.8%)
    * Total Acres: 605
    * Un-Built Acres: 0

    Recast Patriotism and Fertile Lands as needed.

    Nothing else to do ATM except invest Books and horde Gold.


    Entry: The Big Pump!

    Miltary
    With 20 days of Protection left, I have over 6000 Soldiers and 2 million gc at my disposal. Armouries and 123% BE have lowered my Training Costs to 465gc/Berserker and 233gc/Axemen. Taking the reconstruction of my Armouries into account, I cast Inspire Army then train 3500 Berserkers and 1500 Axemen.

    My initial plan was to go with 3000 Zerks and 2500 Axemen (which I probably should have done), but I'll be active enough to keep training between now and OOP so I went ahead and took the chance on more offense before razing the Armouries.

    Buildings
    As it stands, I just barely have enough workers to keep my current Buildings at optimal efficiency, so I'm not going to suffer any loss of income by razing all 130 Armouries - everyone will still have a job.

    I build these acres back as 45 more Training Grounds, 45 Barracks, and 40 Watchtowers.

    This done, I use the last of my remaining funds to train as many Thieves as I can. Since this cost isn't affected by Armouries, I've lost nothing by waiting until now to do so. And since I already have pretty much all the Soldiers I'll be able to train by the time Protection ends, I drop my Draft Rate to 40% to maintain my workforce (and Income).

    Production Status
    Stables are filling nicely and will reach capacity just before Protection ends and 100 Wizards are at my call.

    Sciences
    At this stage, I check in mainly to continue distributing Books between Combat, Crime, and Magic Sciences. Once these three Sciences reach 2500 each, I included Food and began splitting the incoming Books evenly between these four.


    As the clock ticks by and I near 800 Thieves in training, I begin to also train Axemen and a few Berserkers. Not all of them will be finished by the time Protection ends, but they'll be finishing while new lands from my first attack are coming in.


    Entry: O-Dark-Thirty

    Status Report
    Zero hours left in Protection. All the safeguards granted you by the Lords of Utopia will soon be gone and you'll be left to fend for yourself. Minutes to go before you cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war!

    Activity will play a role in your situation, but your Province should be looking somewhere along the lines of:

    Personality & Race: Merchant, Dwarf
    Acres: 615 Acres
    Money: 273gc (52,232gc daily income)
    Food: 74,906 bushels
    Runes: 29,365 runes
    Population: 16,014 citizens (26 per acre)
    Peasants: 8,749 (55% Peasants)
    Building Efficiency: 123%
    Networth: 78,534gc (127gc per acre)

    Axemen: 2,136 (10,680 defense)
    Berserkers: 3,503 (24,521 offense / 14,012 defense)
    War Horses: 3,000

    Total Modified Offense: 28,484 (46 per acre)
    Practical Offense (100% elites): 28,484 (46 per acre)
    Total Modified Defense: 29,605 (48 per acre)
    Practical Defense (0% elites): 10,680 (17 per acre)
    Thieves: 429 (0.70 per Acre) (from CB)
    Wizards: 150 (0.24 per Acre) (from CB)

    ** Science Effects Summary **
    +3.6% Income (4,000 points)
    +2.9% Building Effectiveness (5,000 points)
    +2.0% Population Limits (6,000 points)
    +17.2% Food Production (2,828 points + 1,041 in progress)
    +2.8% Gains in Combat (2,382 points + 1,487 in progress)
    +11.8% Thievery Effectiveness (2,378 points + 1,491 in progress)
    +11.8% Magic Effectiveness & Rune Production (2,379 points + 1,490 in progress)

    ** Buildings Summary **
    1. Homes: 40 (6.5%)
    2. Farms: 60 (9.8%)
    3. Banks: 140 (22.8%) + 5 in progress (0.8%)
    4. Training Grounds: 70 (11.4%)
    5. Barracks: 45 (7.3%)
    6. Guilds: 100 (16.3%)
    7. Towers: 65 (10.6%)
    8. Watch Towers: 40 (6.5%)
    9. Stables: 50 (8.1%)

    Total Acres Built: 610
    In Progress: 5 (0.8%)
    Total Acres: 615
    Un-Built Acres: 0


    ** Summary **
    Non-Peasants: 39.0%
    Efficiency (SOM): 118.6% off, 105.0% def, 100.0% raw
    Net Offense at Home (from Utopia): 28,484
    Net Defense at Home (from Utopia): 29,605
    Modified Attack Points (calculated): 35,577
    Modified Defense Points (calculated): 25,927

    ** Standing Army (At Home) **
    Axemen: 2,136 (12,666 defense)
    Berserkers: 3,503 (29,082 offense / 16,618 defense)
    War-Horses: 3,000 (up to 3,000 additional offense)
    Total Attack Points: 32,640
    Total Defense Points: 25,927

    ** Troops in Training **
    Axemen: 590
    Next 19 hours: 74 74 73 75 28 29 23 24 25 21 23 25 21 23 16 19 10 3 4
    Berserkers: 81
    Next 19 hours: 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 5 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 5 1
    Thieves: 376
    Next 13 hours: 44 42 43 42 43 35 32 26 24 17 14 9 5

    Mystics
    With exposure imminent, I want to get my defensive spells active:
    * Nature's Blessing to protect against Storms and Droughts
    * Magic Shield to give my scant few Wizards a better chance of defending
    * Minor Protection for a general defensive boost

    I also want to make sure to keep Inspire Army going to reduce military expenses. I have enough food reserves that I can forego Fertile Lands for a while. Too much food will only draw unwanted attention, and Food Science is on the rise again.

    Buildings
    As the last of the Buildings finish construction, they now require more workers than I have to remain at optimum efficiency. Fortunately BE has inertia, so I have a bit of leeway here before it decreases significantly. Combat losses during my first attack will create vacancies for new Peasants to fill, which will bring my buildings back up to optimal.

    Military
    I've been nudging my Draft Rate back and forth to ensure I can train all the Soldiers I have and have all the Soldiers I can train. Military Efficiency, too, has inertia, so I'll want to raise my Pay Rate to 200% as soon as possible to start it climbing.

    Now to hunt for likely targets to attack as soon as Protection drops......


    Though some strats/builds/etc may prove more effective, coming OOP with
    • 40.5 OpA (with 3000 Zerks)
    • 48.5 DpA (Zerks Home)
    • 23 DpA (3000 Zerks out)
    ain't exactly shabby.



    Allow me to reiterate... While I've done my best to present the experience of developing a Province that leaves Protection ready to leap into the fray, it is in no way to be construed as the passing of stone tablets. This is merely one potential example of a reasonably effective Attacker. Your particular goals - as well as those of your Kingdom's - may not coincide with what is presented here.

    You may prefer a different Race and/or Personality, or perhaps opt for a Mage/Thief - which doesn't attack at all. This merely illustrates the inner workings of Utopia and presents to the novice player a reasonable expectation of their first three days experience with the game. Hopefully, this has provided enough insight that a newcomer can work out a reasonable plan for developing their Province on their own.

    Be certain to participate in your Kingdom's Forums - both to contribute as part of a team and to receive more specific advice (and perhaps aid shipments). Some Kingdoms are very businesslike in this game, and some are less than tactful about it, but most of them have years of experience to volunteer to new players who are willing to listen.

    Welcome to Utopia: The World of Legends.

    And prepare for battle!!!!
    Last edited by Twyla; 23-02-2012 at 11:11. Reason: Completed
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  2. #2
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    Im sure this will be a useful post for many new players to read. So thumbs up for your efforts.

    im not exactly sure what you meant by this: "Stables would normally be among the first lands built but my +20% BE should more than compensate for the later start."

    i am under the impression stables are not effected by BE, but i could be wrong.

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    Forum Fanatic gergnub's Avatar
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    Correct on the stables DDodge.

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    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DDodge View Post
    im not exactly sure what you meant by this: "Stables would normally be among the first lands built but my +20% BE should more than compensate for the later start."

    i am under the impression stables are not effected by BE, but i could be wrong.
    Capacity of Horses is not affected by BE, but the production of Horses is.

    Once built (discounting any other factor), a stable would normally require an additional 59 Utopian Days to reach capacity - which Attackers would want by the time they come OOP. With a normal construction time of 14 days and 71 days of usable protection time, Stables built on Day One would barely reach their capacity by the time Protection ends.



    From my Building Advisor:
    ~ 11 Stables completed
    ~ Hold 660 Horses
    ~ Produce 13 Horses per day
    Last edited by Twyla; 15-02-2012 at 22:56. Reason: Added Stable info from Building Advisor
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    Some comments...

    (1) You don't need to build extra homes in protection. The 40 you start with are good enough to bring your population to maximum within 16 days with no exploration. Assuming your exploration is finished early, you'll reach max population well before OOP, and at that point the homes are just deadweight.

    (1a) For the reference of everyone here - base birthrates are roughly 3% of your total peasant population while in protection, 2% otherwise. This bit of information is helpful for planning protection economies.

    (2) There are too many guilds and towers for a starting province. You only need enough at most to cast l+p, patriotism, IA, and Minor Protection when the time comes, and all of those are optional. I usually wait until I need guilds for IA to build them, but it's entirely possible to use no guilds at all and forgo spellcasting until post-protection. Point is - if you're building a building, make sure it's useful to you. At this early stage, you really don't need the WPA, especially if you plan to grow considerably from your starting size where that WPA means less. But, at least it seems you have built enough banks to fund a specialist army. If you still want that many guilds, it'd be better to put the stables in your initial build and build the remaining guilds later.

    (3) Lots of banks in freeze time is the way to go, without a doubt, unless you are staying small and planning war out of protection, in which case they're still important but space must be assigned to the relevant military buildings. 25% of your goal acerage is a good place to start, maybe 20% depending on what else you can build at this stage that will be relevant.

    (4) Research in protection - This should be invested about equally in alchemy/tools to start, or full alchemy, until your population reaches maximum, at which point some housing science may help. Focused is too high; once again, if you are planning to grow, the expense of the investment is not worth it. As long as you can train what you draft and draft considerably, it's okay to run science, but I usually keep it to minimal or limited for the first day of prot to get the benefit of miniscule science, and whatever excess money I have will go into training leets or extra thieves. Whatever you do, the exponential cost of science improvements mean that you should split your books among the economic categories to get the most long-term benefit, even if it seems like +2% BE and +1% population are insignificant. Or just pump hard into alchemy to pay off the cash as soon as possible, I suppose...

    Of course, I could be wrong and have screwed up more protections than succeeded...

  6. #6
    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    Three unemployed Peasants produce as much income as one employed one - not a great deal, to be sure, but it adds up pretty fast with +80% Income. The extra Homes, +20% BE, and L&P nearly doubles the Birth Rate. This combination means a LOT more money when it comes time to train your military. I'm estimating about 2.1m gold in training expenses for 2500 Axemen and 3000+ Berserkers - which this accomplishes.

    There are a lot of Guilds and Towers, yes, but this build is intended to start attacking the instant Protection ends - with roughly 0.25 WpA starting out. Land gains (and possible defensive losses) will drop the percentage of land they occupy pretty fast, so the additional build-up is needed.

    Focused Research is high starting out, yes, but all of the income bonuses (and lack of construction expenses) make this possible without being a massive drain. If you noticed, Alchemy was the first Science to be seriously built up - owing to the +40% effectiveness due to Merchant. That also helps enable pumping Tools to take extra benefit from Dwarf's +20% BE. Combat, Crime, and Magic are the last to be built up as they're useless in Protection.
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    If you make it work GJ Twyla... But since you sounded like a troll in the other thread people are gonna give you trouble....

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    Well thought out, I believe starting off with heavy guilds is worth it not only for the extended self spells but it also means you come OOP with a pretty solid WPA and therefore magic defense. It might not be enough to stop the fae but any other race is likely going to have trouble casting anything on you for those first few months OOP.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Twyla View Post
    The -25% Thievery Effectiveness can be compensated for by Crime Science and/or Thieves' Dens, or one could simply build Watchtowers and not worry about it. I intend to run a mixture of these to offset the penalty, though not much as Thievery isn't particularly crucial to an Attacker.
    Bad idea to run a mix, as a generality you either need a high enough tpa to do ops, or simply run thieves to do sot and run a high percentage of WT to counter negative effects.
    Quote Originally Posted by Twyla View Post
    I invested my initial allotment of 1500 Books in Population Science. This is always a good investment, and one can never get too early a start on this. Alchemy (income) and Tools (BE) are also good choices, but my bonuses from Merchant and Dwarf make these unimportant for the moment.
    also a bad idea, as you dont hit max population for some time after age start putting your initial books into alechemy will always pay off as an advantage
    Last edited by Persain; 16-02-2012 at 19:15.

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    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    Solid point concerning Thievery - I decided WTs were the best option, given the -25% Thievery makes it that much harder to compete TpA-wise.

    The extra Homes issue was strictly due to wanting to cap my population as quickly as possible - which happened 15-17 hours in. Hard to say for certain as I still had new lands coming in from exploration at the time. With free construction and the starting allotment of free razes, switching them over was a freebie. Though differing from expected norms, Housing was actually the best option for this particular strategy. Most of the time, Alchemy would be the best option.


    Also updated to reflect the big military pump at OOP minus 20 hours.
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    Forum Fanatic octobrev's Avatar
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    You really don't need dspecs with a /5 elite
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  12. #12
    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    Entirely true, though two factors have to be taken into account:
    1. Elites cost $700 each while Specs are only $350 (base costs). Even with all the Income bonuses, this needs to be taken into account to have a reasonably effective army OOP.
    2. Many have expressed concerns over NWpA - Dwarf Elites weighing in at 6 NW each while Defense Specs are only 5 NW each.
    Though you're entirely correct about their versatility, which only Dwarves and Halflings have the option of utilizing.
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  13. #13
    Forum Fanatic octobrev's Avatar
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    The high elite cost is all the more reason to train them first. By training elites only you maintain a higher peasant count and income. Dspecs are quite easy to train at higher drafts especially if you've been stocking credits. It creates a sort of slingshot effect in war since, as you grow, you maintain your high offense by training specs to replace the elites designated defense.
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  14. #14
    Mediator goodz's Avatar
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    Have you considered turning draft off for first 10-12 hours?
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  15. #15
    Enthusiast Twyla's Avatar
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    If a Province is starting out at the beginning of an Age, the Draft is frozen at Aggressive for the duration of Protection. While one could garner a tiny fraction of an edge in population growth by setting the Draft Rate to 0%, you'd then lack the soldiers to explore the last 75 acres under this plan.

    Not saying that this couldn't be adapted to work with a base of 525 acres vs 600 acres (that may even be a better option), but I was after an OOP Province that would be capable of breaking most explorers that early in the game while still being reasonably well defended from other attackers - and size matters. Particularly since I'm getting a late start this Age.
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