Avian Cleric (guide)

[kilava]

I'm playing Avain/Cleric heavy attacker this age and I thought it would be fun and useful for me and others if I wrote a piece about this combo. I'm not the greatest player and there are probably better ways to play and explain this combo, but I think this will work well for many players.

I'm trying to write it in such a way that everyone can understand it, therefor I'll try to be as clear as I can.

English isn't my native languish, so there will probably be some grammer and spelling mistakes.

Age 53

Avian/Cleric

Bonuses:
* - 30% attack times
* Defensive Specialist Strength +1
* - 50% Your Military Casualties (on attack or defense)
* 1 extra General

Penalty:
* - 10% attack gains
* No access to stables

Other Information:
* Offensive Specialist: Griffins (5/0, 4 nw)
* Defensive Specialist: Harpies (0/6, 6 nw)
* Elite Unit: Drake (7/4, $650, 6.5 nw)
* Spell book: Clear Sight, Town Watch, Fanaticism


Introduction

Avian/Cleric isn't the attacker that will have the highest offense or gain, but they do have excellent attack time, turteling ability and build flexibility.

To get the most out of a avian during war you need to use the attack time, if you can't log in and attack again as your army comes home you might want to consider another race. Low attack time is great in wars but you need to be active and use it for it to matter.

The reason as a avian to choose cleric is while you can attack more times than other races those extra attacks makes you lose more troops. If you are in a long war the losses will stack up and your offensive capabilities will suffer. The extra general is another 3% offense or more importantly another attack. With the lower attack time this extra attack will fast stack up during a war.

If you use another personality and hospitals to lower your losses, you would need 30% hospitals at 80% BE to get the same reduction in losses. Hospitals effects depends on BE and if you lose peasants from example fireballs or kidnapping your reduction in losses will be lower. Hospitals can also be destroyed by for example tornadoes.

Cleric will always give you -50% losses whatever else happens to your province. It's 100% reliable.

A downside to cleric is that it doesn't give you as hospitals a % chance to cure the plague. This usually isn't a problem since you get a 20% chance to cure the plague each time you cast nature blessing. The problem arise when you run out of mana while trying to cast nature blessing or when you don't log in for a longer period of time.

Plague: No Population Growth, 15% Lower Tax Collection, 15% Lower Defensive Military Effectiveness and 10% mortality rate in prisons per day.


General protection strategy

How you plan your protection strategy depends on your kingdoms plan when you leave protection. Some kingdoms will attack aggressively while others might go into fortified right away and train their army. Much depends on your kingdom but I'll give a example on a way to attack right away when you leave protection. I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, but it is simple and it works.

72 hours left in protection

Build:

95 Banks
55 Guilds
33 Towers
97 Armouries

Explore: 125 acres

Set draft rate to 50%

Research Rate: No research

Allocate 1500 books in alchemy

Build as the land comes in:

10 Farms
38 Armouries
30 Guilds
47 Training grounds

55 hours left in protection

Cast love and peace

Research Rate: Limited

24 hours left in protection

Cast Inspire Army - If successful wait 5 hours to train

19 hours left in protection

Train 540 thieves, 1500 defensive specialists and the rest elites. Keep training more elites until OOP

0 hour left in protection

Cast minor protection and clear sight

Out of protection

Plunder if you find someone with a lot of gold otherwise attack for land.

Train some more defensive specialist. After a few day you should have 6-7 defensive specialist per acre. A good offense is a good defense, but your kingdoms overall capabilities also matters when other determines if you are a good target to hit.

As you gain more land you can let your % banks and armouries drop while phasing in more training grounds, dungeons, guilds (increasing your raw wpa faster) and so on. Depending on your kingdom you might want to do something else entirely.

War setup

The most important thing is common sense, things are never the same so you need to adapt to the current situation. Whats the opponents strong points? Your build should reflect the opponents capabilities. If you face a kingdom with 1 faery and the rest orcs you might want to use guard stations while watch towers might not be needed. Against another kingdom it might be the other way around.

TPA/WPA: As a avian/cleric heavy attacker I would recommend 2 mod wpa and 2 mod tpa. Some have higher some lower, but the reason I think it is a good number is that if the opponent isn't a attacker/thief, attacker/mage or thief/mage they won't have high enough mod wpa/tpa to get a good success rate. If you have a low mod tpa/wpa, let say <1 you are vulnerable from ops/spells from other heavy attackers. If the opponents heavy attackers can do ops/spells on you its like making them into hybrids while their real hybrids can target other provinces in your kingdom.

War build

When you create a war build its not just the numbers that matters its also how effective it is when you gain and lose acres in war.

As a avian your attack time is much lower than your building time so your % of any building will drop after you start gaining acres. (enemy ops and spells will of course also affect how you manage your build)

In the early age you wont have the science and perhaps not the number of wizards as I use in this build.

In the build presented here I listed 17,4% GS, but note that I wrote "FLEX" behind it. With this I mean that depending on the situation you might want to use the % to bolster other building % or for example use 17,4% barracks for even faster attack time. Use it to adapt to your current situation.

I use homes in my war build to pump up my province even more before a war, but I never build any during a war.


Assume: 2000 acres, 500 BPA, Lord and 200% wages.

** Effects Summary (Known Science Only) **
13.3% Income (180,000 books)
9.5% Building Effectiveness (180,000 books)
8.5% Population Limits (340,000 books)
49% Food Production (75,000 books)
4.9% Gains in Combat (25,000 books)
42.4% Thievery Effectiveness (100,000 books)
42.4% Magic Effectiveness & Rune Production (100,000 books)

Raw Living Space = 2000 * 25 + 200 * 8 = 51600

Mod Living Space = 51600 * 1,085 * 1,02 = 57101 or 28,55 People per Acre

Farms needed without using fertile land:

Farms = 57991 * 0,25 / 70 * 0,80 * 1,49 = 171

Building Efficiency: 80%

1. Homes: 200 (10%)
2. Farms: 171 (8.6%)
3. Banks: 300 (15%)
4. Training Grounds: 360 (18%)
5. Guard Stations: 349 (17.4%) FLEX!
6. Guilds: 220 (11%)
7. Towers: 80 (4%)
8. Watch Towers: 280 (14%)
9. Dungeons: 40 (2%)

Total Land: 2,000 Acres (100% built)

** Effects Summary (Available Buildings Only) **
1. +1,600 maximum population, +28.8% birth rate
2. Produce 9,576 bushels (11,970 with FL)
3. 6,000gc, +12.75% income
4. +17.71% offense bonus
5. -23.05% losses when attacked
6. Training about 3.52 wizards per hour
7. Produce 768 runes per hour
8. Thieves: 19.26% catch, -28.9% damage
9. 800 prisoners (2,400 offense, 400gc, 400 jobs)

Peasants needed to get 80% BE:(formula only works if you have less than optimal workers)

Workers (peasants + prisoners) = (0,80 / (0,5 * 1,095) - 1) * 1800 * 25 * 0,67 = 13905 workers --> 13505 peasants or 6,95 peasants per acre.

Raw WPA needed to get 2 mod WPA:

Raw WPA = 2 / (1,03 * 1,424) = 1,36

Raw TPA needed to get 2 mod TPA:

Raw TPA = 2 / (1,03 * 1,424) = 1,36

7 Defensive specialist per acre

Elites per Acre = 28,55 - 6,95 - 1,36 - 1,36 - 7 = 11,88

Mod DPA (Army out, Fanaticism) = 7 * 6 * 1,05 * 1,076 * 0,97 = 46

Mod OPA (Fanaticism) = (11,88 * 7 + 0,4 * 3) * 1,12 * 1,076 * 1,02 * 1,1771 * 1,05 = 128,17

NW/A = 500 / 92 + 55 + 6,95 + 1,36 * 4 + 1,36 * 4 + 7 * 6 + 11,88 * 6,5 = 197,48

Offensive points per net worth = .6490
Defensive points per net worth = .2329
Military points per net worth = .8819

Summery

128 Mod OPA (5 gen, Fanaticism)
46 Mod DPA (Army out, Fanaticism)
2 Mod WPA
2 Mod TPA

Note: 17,4% flex

Calculation formulas

The formulas aren't complete, I just used what was relevant for my calculation. Things like unbuilt acres and dragon would affect the numbers.

For the complete formulas: http://wiki.utopia-game.com/index.ph...he_Utopia_Wiki

Raw Living Space = Built acres * people per built acre + number of homes * extra population per home

Mod Living Space = Raw Living Space * science * honor

Farms = population * bushels needed per population / bushel per farm * BE * science

Workers (peasants + prisoners) = (BE / (0,5 * science) - 1) * non homes buildings * working people per building * 0,67

Raw WPA = Mod WPA / (honor * science)

Raw TPA = Mod TPA / (honor * science)

Elites per Acre = population per acre - peasants per acre - wizards per acre - thieves per acre - specialist per acre

Mod DPA = defensive specialist per acre * defensive value * minor protection * 200% wages * fanaticism

Mod OPA = (elites per acre * offensive value + prisoners per acre * 3) * generals * 200% wages * honor * training grounds * fanaticism

NW/A = Books per acre / 92 + built acres + peasants * 1 + wizards per acre * 4 + thieves per acre * 4 + defensive specialist per acre * 6 + elite per acre * 6,5

Offensive points per net worth = Mod OPA / NW/A

Defensive points per net worth = Mod DPA / NW/A

Military points per net worth = Offensive points per net worth + Defensive points per net worth



If there is something that you think is wrong, unclear or should be expanded on I would like to hear your thoughts about it.

/Kilava

[Twyla]

Nice post!

Though showing what the province would look like at 2000 acres is nice, it might perhaps be better to at least include what the province will look like OOP.

[Topsy]

3 things I'd add/change to the pro: 1) you don't have "cast patriotism". No matter what, soldiers are the biggest limiting factor in protection(whether you have kd support, in which case soldiers take a bite out of the aid you can get before taxes kick in, or if you're by yourself).
2) The first few bpa in all the sciences are huge. Doesn't mean you should do the non econ related ones right away, but a couple bpa in tools/housing ontop of alch are worhwhile.
3) it's worth making more guilds off the bat, and then makign more armories in your second batch(even if you want the same % after both are made). Getting that first patriotism/L&P is big.

[TommyB]

Why cast L&P you should already be at max population when the guilds come in and I don't see any additional exploring going on after the initial 125 acres ?

Edit: I guess there is a (minor) effect if you build all 125 explored acres at once at the same time. If you build them as they come in there is no need though (I explored 200 acres and didn't need L&P).

[kilava]

"Though showing what the province would look like at 2000 acres is nice, it might perhaps be better to at least include what the province will look like OOP."

I made the strategy to be simple and easy as possible to use, personally I explore 200 acres so I don't know exactly how many elites you can train. If you are active during protection you should beable to have about 2k elites OOP (more in training).

I can post a summery of the build OOP.

"1) you don't have "cast patriotism". No matter what, soldiers are the biggest limiting factor in protection(whether you have kd support, in which case soldiers take a bite out of the aid you can get before taxes kick in, or if you're by yourself)."

I don't see how you will have the gold to train more soldiers, even if avians elites aren't the most expensive elite by far it still cost a good deal more than specs.

"2) The first few bpa in all the sciences are huge. Doesn't mean you should do the non econ related ones right away, but a couple bpa in tools/housing ontop of alch are worhwhile."

I put the first 1500 books in alchemy since I wanted to benefit the most from the high income during protection. It might be good to put 250-500 in tool but I think population (you aren't maxed out yet) can wait until the limited research gives you new books.

Personally I use the new books to get 1500 books in alchemy, tools, population and 1000 in the rest. After that try to keep around 1/3 of the books in population, 1/3 in tools and alchemy and the last 1/3 in the remaining categories.

"3) it's worth making more guilds off the bat, and then making more armories in your second batch(even if you want the same % after both are made). Getting that first patriotism/L&P is big."

Yeah you might be right about getting more guilds. What do you think about getting 25 more guild at the start (25 fewer arms)?

"Why cast L&P you should already be at max population when the guilds come in and I don't see any additional exploring going on after the initial 125 acres ?"?

You won't have max population when the guilds come in...



I haven't changed anything in the first post yet, I'll wait and see if there are any more feedback.

[TommyB]

You won't have max population when the guilds come in...

I was, more or less, while exploring 200 acres. Actually I think I reached max 2 ticks later but anyway I didn't think L&P neccessary at this point. It may depend a bit on when you build those explored acres but otherwise 16h with 1% protection bonus and the starting homes is enough to fill up.

Now if you plan to explore to 800+ acres then L&P is a biggie.. but not at this size.

Edit: Mistake on my part. I was faster to reach max because my province has -10% pop. So by all means cast L&P especially if you don't have to consider between this and ToG. ;) It shouldn't take too long to reach anyway though. Not sure what the birthrate bonus for protection is but I remember it being > 4% on the first tick.

[Topsy]

yeah, 25 would be fine. I'd do the whole 30, or a bit more so that you're around 15% when they come in. But this is mostly for the sake of patriotism, which you aren't as into.

Reason for patriotism, even if you can't train all soldiers, is that oop you can steal/pillage gold pretty easily, but you can't steal soldiers. Alternatively, you may have KD support, inwhich case getting gold is also always more effecient than getting soldiers(since you are drafting soldiers at under 100 gc/soldier).

[mrpow]

Nice post -- generally what i was thinking about my avian/cleric province too.

[fuzzy|]

.....Research Rate: No research.....

um this does not compute

[baka]

Nicely done... I appreciate posts like these!

[Ethan]

To expand on fuzzy's comment - when science is low, the impact of every point it fairly major. Since the lowest levels of sci are also very cheep, it is almost certain that the money invested in alch sci (or pop, or BE even) early on will pay for itself before protection is over. Aka - you can train *more* elites by starting on science right away. Even once it starts to be the case where you train a few fewer elites... if you get 10 bpa at the cost of .2 epa... that is probably a good deal to take.

Think of sci as having a "pay back time", a length of time which it takes to make back the expense. If the payback is fairly short, it is very worth it to get the jump on it, at end up stronger than those that don't. (This changes once that age goes "static", as in growth slows way down. Then sci is one of the only ways to increase strength, so the payback might be huge, but it is still worth it cause any other approach to getting the same benefit is even more costly.)

Personally, dislike pat in protection. Aggressive draft is expensive, the increased cost means fewer sols trained. I've never done great at gc hunting right oop though, so that factors in as well.