Undead spec to elite conversion, how does it work?

[Blindman]

Is it based on a percentage of specs I send or is there a fixed number gained somehow?

Eg.

If I attack with 1000 offensive specs and 1000 elite
or
100 offensive spec and 1500 elite

Same offence, assuming I make the land grab, will I get the same or a different amount of elites?

How does it work?

[Bishop]

Number 1 is better. The conversion is a % so in attack one you have more specs to convert.

[Blindman]

So do undeads try to build only off specs and convert to elites through combat or do they build both?

[Bishop]

I havent played an undead in a while, but in war i assume you train only specs - out of war you train as many elites as possible.

[E_Boko]

you start off on a healthy diet of specs. convert as many as you can to leet. then for the final % push you buy the leets. getting the last 60-90% of your army to be leet is harder. you convert more based of ratio of specs to leets in total army so first attack you can convert up to 20% of your specs to leets in one attack. then it drops to ~12%. and once its over 50/50 ratio then you get a lower conversion rate. at that point its faster and better to buy the leets instead of converting. you wont convert faster then you can gain land so the ratio will stall around 75% of leets to specs.

[Persain]

you wont convert faster then you can gain land so the ratio will stall around 75% of leets to specs.

Another concept that is harder to run/calculate relies on the same principle if you know u cant find plunders is: Calculate the total number of offensive units you have space for. I.e.i WANT to be A acres, i want B raw tpa, C raw wpa, D mod DPA. That will leave me with a total offesive population of say 10,000 troops.

If i want to be full leets, i train up { 1/0.75~1.33 or 33% } extra total offensive troops. Thus my desired population of 10k leets turns into 10k leets and 3500 off specs. Then release off specs and train up dspecs/theives....or just release because u were hit down to desired acres. This is best used when you outgrow your kd in war and expect to be hit down to size or have 1,000's of leets to train. Just run next to no defense as you convert your specs into leets. when you have enough leets smile :D.

[nooblet]

Early age:
Pure specs, go for conversions. If you have lots of spare cash laying around then training elites would make sense, but chances are you are better off running higher science to get an early jump on the important ones - they are still useful for undead despite the science penalty.

Early-mid age (stagnation period):
By this point you should be able to get a sizable portion of offspecs converted. Around the time you can use reservist and normal draft is a good time to switch from training specs to elites while out of war.

Elite pumps:
Like all other races, undead benefits from elite pumping. Coordinate with your kingdom to find the best time to do this. Usually during and after a post-war cf you can train nothing but elites, thieves, and the bare minimum defense, then fill in as you grow with dspecs. Using a lot of armories and banks and fortified to do this will help.

By mid-age, you should only train offspec during war or just before a hostile wave. With effort spent on elite pumps, an undead can get a surprising number of elites - their lack of food requirement allows for better pumping. During war, sometimes you can train elites, but you'll probably be busy training defense instead.

Your province will not implode if it has 20-25% specs for offense instead of elites. While the conversions won't cover losses completely, they'll still be enough to retain your offensive strength during war. Ideally you will want all elites; the question is not whether you should train both, but when you should train either.

Usually during war there will be a dragon to slay, and using your offspecs to slay is the best option if it is available. If you have enough elites to keep hitting most of your targets, you could release all of your offspec at a dragon, and focus on training defense+thieves during the war. After war you'd set up elite pump as specified.

I ran something like this, but I had a high-offense province, which affects my economy different from what I would have if I were running balanced offense:defense... so don't take all of this as gospel truth...

[Persain]

Early age:
Early-mid age (stagnation period):
Elite pumps:

+1 good advice