Gimme some advice on my Undead/Warrior Strat.

[JackRabbitSlim]

I'm trying to come out as an Attacker with decent Thievery capability for Intel n Gold n Runes and the like. I have been playing, on and off, for many years. So I've been working on this strat for awhile.

Homes: 15%
Banks: 10%
TG: 13.5%
Rax: 13.5%
Hosp: 13.5%
Guilds: 18%
Towers: 8%
Stables: 8.5%

I've been running a 60% Draft Rate. I keep my Off:Def about 60:40. I maintain at least a 2 TPA. During War, the only thing I have been changing is the TG's. I turn them into 13.5% Guard Stations to discourage chaining. My Science is 50k in Alchemy, Housing, Tools. So far. I just started in Military. I'm going to try to get it to 50k also. Then just start over building them all to 100k. I keep Sci running at least ACTIVE all the time.

So tell me what is good, what is bad, and what you would do different. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings too bad. I only have 2 left. So it can't hurt real bad. LOL

[Bishop]

Turn the homes into GS instead. Your sci should be weighted more to pop and alchemy - 8:4:12:0:4/2:2:2 or something.

[Persain]

What bishop said, then up your draft rate to 70-75% and turn stables into WT during war if u can manage army in-army out

[JackRabbitSlim]

@ BISHOP ........Are you saying to change the Homes to GS all the time or just during War?

Also, what kind of Building Efficiency is acceptable in and out of War? I have seen guys with BE's in the 60's and 70's. Is that ok? I try to keep mine in the 80's and closer to the 90's if I can. Right now I'm at 96.4% BE.

Another question. Do you think a draft of 70-75% is ok? That seems like it will ruin your BE% plus just kill your economy.

[Bishop]

Anything over 80% be is fine, you want 60-65% draft as standard, and more when youa re about to war (75% is too high imo) - i would not run homes on an undead.

[JackRabbitSlim]

Thanks for your advice.
I will use some of it.
I want to have as good a Province as possible.
Again, Thank you.

Also thanks to Persain.
I appreciate the insight.

[Persain]

Also, what kind of Building Efficiency is acceptable in and out of War? I have seen guys with BE's in the 60's and 70's. Is that ok? I try to keep mine in the 80's and closer to the 90's if I can. Right now I'm at 96.4% BE.

Another question. Do you think a draft of 70-75% is ok? That seems like it will ruin your BE% plus just kill your economy.

Usually u can just ingnor BE as a useless number for an undead. Your unlikely to use any buildings that provide resources effected by a lower BE other than towers (so the lower the BE the more towers u need). AS well since the return on investment of total military power per nw doesnt start to fall off untill your well over 80% draft rate you have no reason to "need" a lower draft rate. The only negatives for for undead/orc to "over drafting" is you are more likely to be targeted, and your prov needs a bit more micro-managing. (ie knowing how to adjust your build as u get/dont get hit.)

Note though upping your draft to 75% just means that u are always drafting solds "getting ready", if you are actively learning/growing 65% is very easy to maintain, if you know war is incoming set draft to 75%, plunder a bit and start to train up, your unlikely to hit 75% but if it takes long enough you are supper prepared for war.

BTW as far as economy is concerned i'll just say my BE is 72.3% at 73% draft and i have no issues drafting to use credits. I'm running 5% banks, 200% wages and have both greed/riots on me. Then again not many people are willing to have a net income ~1,000 gc/tick.

[nooblet]

When I went undead I went for lots of military science as soon as I had reasonable levels of alchemy and housing. Military science and Tools are a bit more effective for UD than they are for other races due to their preference for heavy attacking and having more land that is affected by BE mods. Usually at least equal investment in all four sciences is best, up until 100 bpa where it makes more sense to raise tools+military than alchemy. Housing science can go on for a while, but I find at high levels that military/tools/crime/channeling become more important... especially for an undead that is spending 100 bpa to raise their population by 1% at a very early point.

[JackRabbitSlim]

I adjusted my Strategy a bit. We just came out of War and I am a little over 1200 Acres.

Banks- 10%
TG's- 10%
Rax- 10%
Hosp- 10%
GS's- 10%
WT's- 10%
Guilds- 20%
Towers- 9%
Stables- 8%
Dungeons- 3%

I have my Sci. set to Active and I am running about a 35DPA, 55OPA, 2.25TPA, and a 1WPA(finally).
My Draft is set to 60% for now.
I'm gonna tweak it to maybe get my Military to a 40DPA, 60-75OPA, 2.5TPA and a 1WPA around 1500 acres.

So after all that, tell me what you guys think.
Have I got it decent or are there some other changes I need to make.
I want to get this Province functioning as good as it can.
So, please give me tweak advice.

[Ganga]

As an attacker I have never found watchtowers usefull, raze them. 2 TPA is more than enough defence against theives for an attacker. Use watchtowers more if your an A/M and want to protect your wizards. Undead with 1 Wpa isnt casting chasity so you dont really need more than 10% guilds to cast GP, magic shield and animate dead. I would drop towers to <4% and you have 25% free land to put into your other %'s.

[Bishop]

WTs were massively buffed this age.

[Ganga]

Theres just not enough theiving dmg being done on 2tpa attackers regardless of how effective watchtowers are. If you want to run buffed wt's drop your tpa to >1 and put those troops into offense/defense.

[Bishop]

1 tpa is useless for intel, 2 is minimum and 2 tpa is not an effective defense. WTs have their place.

[Ganga]

Well I guess thats your opinion.But I have never had trouble getting my own intel when I have under 1 tpa, you will fail alot on som's but dont lose any theifs and your not using stealth for anything else so its easily done.
2 tpa will stop anyone will less than 4tpa from opping you(anyone with more than 4tpa is probably a rouge and is focused on prop/AW, even if that rouge ops you, you should just take the hit for your kd and lose some troops to nightstrikes rather than overcompensate and run WT's KD wide to stop the 1-2 rouges from NS'ing attackers...)

Use WT's situationally when you see your going up agaisnt a kingdom of A/T's, otherwise the few rouges you run into in war are not enough to need 10% wt's kd-wide. I never run a single wt and always have just under 2tpa, am always the largest attacker in the kd( so i take the most T/M threat) and never run into enough theiving dmg to make me want watchtowers.

[Bishop]

Wts work differently this age though. I can guarantee you that 1 tpa and no wts will result in my nsing all your troops away.