Virtual Survey: Match Personality & Race

[StratOcastle]

Greetings. I'm planning to start a new Virtual Kingdom thread and would like to see how the community would match the 8 available personalities and 8 races.

Rules are simple: pick one of each personality to match one of each race with the intent that they will operate in an 8 player kingdom. Example:

Avian Cleric

Dwarf Tactician

Elf War Hero

Faery Mystic

Halfling Rogue

Human Sage

Orc Warrior

Undead Merchant

~ Thank you for your participation ~

[shadoweminence]

Avian Cleric

Dwarf War Hero

Elf Mystic

Faery Merchant

Halfling Rogue

Human Sage

Orc Warrior

Undead Tactician

[noobium]

this is a terrible idea but why not...

Avian -> War Hero x2
Dwarf -> Cleric x1
Elf -> Mystic x4
Faery -> Sage x2
Halfling -> Rogue x4
Human -> Merchant x4
Orc -> Tactician x4
Undead -> Warrior x4

Switch around the numbers as much as you wish, but the personalities are all either the best fit or the least-worst fit of all that remained for War Hero, Cleric, and Sage.

...oh, 8 provinces only? In that case the race-personality matches are the same, except that the Rogue is worthless and are you seriously going to war with 8 provinces?

[skoyl12]

Noobium didn't get the game :)

Avian war hero

Dwarf warrior

Elf mystic

Faery Rogue

Halfling sage

Human merchant

Orc cleric

Undead Tactician

[Hell Fire]

Elf Warrior
Avian Tactician
Orc War Hero
Undead Merchant
Dwarf Cleric
Faery Mystic
Halfer Rouge
Human Sage

;)

[Persain]

i like what shadoweminence posted...though i would tweak just ever so slightly. i think feary rogue is op as crap.

Elf Mystic
Avian Cleric
Orc Warrior
Undead Tactician
Dwarf War Hero
Faery Rouge
Halfer Merchant
Human Sage

[Tapout]

Hmmm... difficult... maybe...

Orc / War
Ud / Tact
Av / Mer
Dw / WH
Elf / Cler
Fae / Rog
Ha / Myst
Hu / Sage

[Shrinky]

Avian Tactician

Dwarf Tactician

Elf Mystic

Faery Rogue

Halfling Rogue

Human Merchant

Orc War Hero

Undead Warrior

[noobium]

Let's assume you were to replicate these picks 3 times over, so each race/personality combination was represented 3 times. I would pick the same matchups I picked before, with the following rationales:

Merchant -> Human: ToG and science bonuses, solid all-around province. Humans and Merchants both excel as peacetime. Human is one of two races (the other being Halfling) that can easily bank specialist credits and remain a functional province, a task made even easier by Merchant's spec credits. Building credits and build costs are often overlooked as well.

Sage -> Faery: ToG again, combined with the difficulty of gaining science through Learn attack. While a lot of personalities work better for Faery, if anyone has to pick Sage it should be a race that gets the most out of it.

Mystic -> Elf: This is self-explanatory.

Rogue -> Halfling: I prefer Faery/Rogue for the same purpose this age, since Faery has a better spellbook and slightly better overall defense. Still, if you're forced to pick a Halfling and forced to pick a Rogue, it's pretty much self-explanatory.

Warrior -> Undead: An inherent offense boost in war and a sustainable offense, with an extra general to boot. Perfect as an offensive weapon while they are viable, and the extra general is better for more plague spreading than anything else. This one is pretty much a no-brainer based on the criteria, and probably the best Warrior and best Undead in any circumstance. Their slow attack speed sucks, but they can match an unmodded Tactician and still have buildings to spare; or their attacks align with other t/m classes, and forget about speed.

Tactician -> Orc: Almost levels with Avian for attack time, while possessing all of the bonuses of Orcs, including defensive buffs which affect both thievery and magic. Hitting faster with +30% gains allows either more space for offensive builds, or build heavy barracks and go to town with better offense and better gains than their Avian counterpart. Like Undead, probably the best overall Tactician and best overall Orc, but slightly less of a no-brainer.

Cleric -> Dwarf: Decent enough as a province that can be adapted to play both heavy attacker and cow. I wouldn't waste a stronger HA on Cleric. Since Dwarf troops are relatively cheap, a Dwarf/Cleric can still go without hospitals, which can't really be said about other races that want to remain competitive. The land save from not building hospitals means a lot more to Dwarf than anyone else. While there are better cows and better Dwarf HAs, the good HA personalities are matched to races that use them far better.

War Hero -> Avian: WH is pretty much crap, and the turtle races that get good use out of it are using options far better for their race. Of them, only Merchant (Human) is anything an Avian might consider running, and Human/Merchant is so much better if forced to pick. Avian gets shafted with WH by default, although Avian synergy with WH is not that bad. Their best hope is that other provinces are judged as greater threats, allowing the Avian to get more use out of WH training bonuses. It also helps if the Avs start higher on size tier than most Avians do.

[StratOcastle]

Thank you for elaborating noobium. My hope was to get some reflection on the choices.

- Others feel free to detail your reasoning. No right or wrong as this will occupy Roleplaying for a kingdom template -

Again, thank you all thus far for your enlightening participation.

[Tapout]

To elaborate then:

Orc/War - Is the no-brainer for me. +Enemy Losses & Bloodlust coupled Enhanced Conquest, Extra gen and war OME makes them ideal bounce waving down unbreakables. I think it's a very good combo, especially given most provs who think they're UB will not be running Hosps or GS. Can do a lot of damage.

Ud/Tact - The other no-brainer. Good space efficiency without farms or rax means they can have WT's plus CS to give good thief defense. As they get no ops other than intel being able to run 1 thief, 100% intel makes best use of this meaning they can grab intel with minimal losses and not worry about the stealth having been put to better use.

Hu/Sage - +Sci Effects, FoK and Cheap Sci kind of makes sage pretty straightforward for this combo as well for me. I dislike the lack of Sci Protection on Sage this age, but at least humans can run all leet and turtle up to make them less likely to get learned heavily oow.

Fae/Rog - Sab damage, extra stealth, all ops, great spell book for def and leet def less open to NM. What's not to like.

Everything after those is pretty much up in the air and I'm still not convinced about them. I could have gone Elf/Myst, Av/Cler, Dw/Mer and Ha/WH I suppose... But I went with:

Ha/Myst - +Pop gives them decent enough space for a high rwpa, and I think I prefer the cheap leet def to elves specs. Also the +TPA gives them extra security against AW runs. So possibly not as strong a mage as Elf (I think it would be close but I haven't run the numbers and with MF Elf may edge it) but I think more durable in terms of being harder to disable.

Elf/Cler - 5/5 army with no need for hospitals gives them some space saving. And if you run hospitals they get even more durable. They should absorb a lot of punishment and have decent util spells. A kind of mid-nw level grinder I guess I'm thinking. The +WPA can be used to free up some troop numbers or make you slightly more resilient.

Dw/WH is decent combo in terms of the quick train and free build gives them lots of versatility in terms of changing up. If sat at top of nw rankings they maybe have some options for hitting and building up quick. I'm not convinced, but I'm sure in the hands of someone competent could be good. To be blunt I don't like Dw and never have, so I always struggle with considering how to play them as anything.

Av/Mer also not ideal, but the income, spec and building credits support some durability for a race that may well have a lot of transitional land.

[Spahrep]

Avian Sage
Dwarf Merchant
Half WH
Fae Warrior
UD Rogue
Orc Mystic
Elf Cleric
Human Tact

Awwwwww Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa. Because no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

[Persain]

My hope was to get some reflection on the choices.
- Others feel free to detail your reasoning.

Elf Mystic
Avian Cleric
Orc Warrior
Undead Tactician
Dwarf War Hero
Faery Rouge
Halfer Merchant
Human Sage

-elf mystics is obvious. if you want magic dominance u need this.
-avians slef burn out, if u want the avain to not be a toss away race/mix it has to go clearic.
-Undead goes tact because its a space saving building and it gives you an attacker that can run a/m
-Orc is the same concept as undead, you now have an attacker athat goes a/t. You want the max mod off on your orc because +gains AND +generals =great at chaining/suriving at the bottom. (if your orc runs tact he burn his leets out to quickly
-dwarf. this is my throw away race. war hero is just useless and dwarf is nearly the same. the only advantage they have is a full building swap mid war and speed training allows for you to conceputally build 35% forts+train lots of def in a very short time and get a half unbrekable built. i say conceptually becuase in pratice a good kd wont let u do this.
-feary - a feary doesnt have enough of a tpa/wpa boost to compete with halfer/elf. So here we set it up to hurt attackers. rogue lets it prop anyone who grows, toss in a ****ty wpa and now it can run good def/tpa and use its mana to do things like fake gold/greed/vermin/drought or ToG.
-halfer. your real bank. A well run halfer will be safe to everyone but pumped elfs. you use this guy to tutrle, grow pump tpa to be safe from rogues and go unbreakable hitter. as he grows he hopefully has stored up credits and can go boom 5k specs trainied.
-human. Ideally if u get enough science u can tank elf/halfer/feary ops. add in a saphire dragon and he may just become your best prov. even if u have crap science he can be a decent pure attacker.


@ noobium your choice are very good and if you have better players that setup will beat the other ones people list. i just question sustainability over say 8-9-10 days compared to what i listed

[skoyl12]

Avian war hero

Dwarf warrior

Elf mystic

Faery Rogue

Halfling sage

Human merchant

Orc cleric

Undead Tactician

------
Elf/my, fae/ro, human/me, halfer/sage are my defense provinces.
Elf and faeries cover traditional T/M roles, NM,NS, MS
halfer and human run all elite, both have potential for attack or ops/spells on attackers. Human is merchant cos in case it's not controlled can go full ToG mode. Halfer is the best all around race so having all sciences high is important and not easy.
Now on the attackers. Un/tact is solid choice no need to explain. Orc/cle is used so offense loss from attacks is in par with undead so both retain similar opas.
Dwarf is the weakest attacking race so i put warrior there to draw some agro on it. With the 15% OME and 5th general it comes close to orc and undead.
Avian war hero doesn't seem dangerous but if left uncontrolled has fast training, birth rate bonus, warspoils

[noobium]

-elf mystics is obvious. if you want magic dominance u need this.
-avians slef burn out, if u want the avain to not be a toss away race/mix it has to go clearic.
-Undead goes tact because its a space saving building and it gives you an attacker that can run a/m
-Orc is the same concept as undead, you now have an attacker athat goes a/t. You want the max mod off on your orc because +gains AND +generals =great at chaining/suriving at the bottom. (if your orc runs tact he burn his leets out to quickly
-dwarf. this is my throw away race. war hero is just useless and dwarf is nearly the same. the only advantage they have is a full building swap mid war and speed training allows for you to conceputally build 35% forts+train lots of def in a very short time and get a half unbrekable built. i say conceptually becuase in pratice a good kd wont let u do this.
-feary - a feary doesnt have enough of a tpa/wpa boost to compete with halfer/elf. So here we set it up to hurt attackers. rogue lets it prop anyone who grows, toss in a ****ty wpa and now it can run good def/tpa and use its mana to do things like fake gold/greed/vermin/drought or ToG.
-halfer. your real bank. A well run halfer will be safe to everyone but pumped elfs. you use this guy to tutrle, grow pump tpa to be safe from rogues and go unbreakable hitter. as he grows he hopefully has stored up credits and can go boom 5k specs trainied.
-human. Ideally if u get enough science u can tank elf/halfer/feary ops. add in a saphire dragon and he may just become your best prov. even if u have crap science he can be a decent pure attacker.


@ noobium your choice are very good and if you have better players that setup will beat the other ones people list. i just question sustainability over say 8-9-10 days compared to what i listed

Over 8-10 days the provinces that are going to be most useful are defensive provinces, not attackers. I'd rather have Sage on Faery for defensive purposes, than Human who will have to risk being chained and lacks opportunities for ops defense. I definitely wouldn't consider Merchant on Halfling... Mystic, Sage maybe, War Hero possibly.

Let's say I had to run through two more times, and I cannot repeat race/personality combinations:

Round 1:
Avian/Warhero
Dwarf/Cleric
Elf/Mystic
Faery/Sage
Halfling/Rogue
Human/Merchant
Orc/Tactician
Undead/Warrior

Round 2:
Avian/Cleric - Warrior/Tact are not available this round and WH is unavailable, which leaves Merchant, Sage, and Cleric as viable picks, the first two have better options.
Dwarf/War Hero - Throw-away so that a better race is not saddled with WH, picking better fits for other races
Elf/Rogue - Effective as a strict t/m, could be played a/t/m with enough honor bonuses and skill. There are only 2 rogues that are particularly effective, this is the third-best
Faery/Merchant - ToG again, but much harder to hit with than Humans.
Halfling/Mystic - Somewhat effective as a mage. I won't use Faery Mystic - FA/Mystic is a terrible race/personality in any situation and should not be used by anyone. Halfling/Mystic is nice if they can figure out a way to grab acres during war.
Human/Sage - Superior science-gathering ability and a preference for playing turtle.
Orc/Warrior - Flip of the Orc/UD picks in the first round. Orc/Warrior is too much of a glass cannon to be a first pick - I've played with Orc/Warrior in many ghettos and they are not all they are cracked up to be. I would much rather have CS+RM and forgo building barracks/wt.
Undead/Tactician - Flip of Orc/UD picks. Undead/Tactician is pretty solid, but Orc/Warrior is a step down from tactician.

Round 3:
Avian/Warrior - Third HA option gets Warrior almost automatically.
Dwarf/Mystic - Grow fast, get wizards, give no ****s. Since Mystic is kind of bad, I'd rather not pick the other viable Mystic (Human) when Dwarf lacks as many useful picks.
Elf/Tactician - Mostly for CS, decent mage with attacking ability. Fast hitting is kind of crappy for a province that doesn't AIAO normally. No thief losses on intel is useful for saving a lot of retraining costs.
Faery/Rogue - The last good Rogue option, and a good one.
Halfling/Sage - Better-than-average science, and like Faeries Halflings have difficulty with Learn attack. If a Halfling is going to cow, this is a pretty good personality so long as anyone who would Learn attack is deterred.
Human/Cleric - Expensive-as-hell elites need to be preserved, especially if those elites are used defensively. Normally I would prefer Humans as Warriors, but since we're forced to pick rainbow races/personalities Cleric will do. I would avoid wasting Cleric on Orc and Cleric on Avian is mostly a matter of not forcing Cleric on a different race... because Cleric kinda sucks.
Orc/Merchant - Orc/WH and Orc/Cleric are both cruddy, and there are WH and Clerics that use the personality better. Sage, Rogue, and Mystic are obvious no-gos. The Orc/Merchant isn't entirely bad, as extra build credits + spec credits can pay off.
Undead/War Hero - Sadly Undead gets the shaft with WH this time. As with Orc, the two strongest personalities are taken, and three personalities are incredibly bad for Undead. Merchant is terrible for Undead. WH does have an advantage when cranking out offensive units.

Many of these are suboptimal, but the intention is to avoid any of the least-good options, and hopefully pick the best option.

Some other stuff...

Tactician and Avian are no less sustainable than anything else, at least in terms of troops being lost. A hit is a hit - if your hits are not worth the troops lost on them, then you have bigger problems than long-term sustainability. While Cleric, Merchant, and Warrior have implied sustainability bonuses, Tactician having a worse situation has nothing to do with their attack time. A problem with Tactician or Avians is that they often fail to synchronize their hits with other provinces, which leads them to make sub-optimal attack choices.
With -20% attack times and mixing Tacticians with non-Tactician attackers, I wouldn't even bother running barracks on Tact/Avian for peacetime or initial hostile. The land save and CS is worth a lot. When wars drag onwards, the Tactician has the option to build heavy barracks and utilize their fast hitting when it will mean a lot more.

Sage is bad for this kind of kingdom. Sage and Merchant work best when most of the kingdom is using them, not as a minority role. The same is true of cleric, and to a lesser extent Warrior and Tactician. I put Sage on provinces that should be defensive provinces for the most part.
Normally I would want WH on defensive races as well, but doing so would have meant saddling HA with worse personalities. There are only 4, maybe 5 personalities that work on a heavy attacker, with Sage, Mystic, and Rogue being pretty much hopeless.

Probably the only thing I would swap in round 3 is Elf/Tactician and Halfling/Sage, for Elf/Sage and Halfling/Tactician. Halfers can make better core attackers and thus get more out of Tactician, but Halfer/Tact still sucks.

Anyway this isn't really the question, but it's fun to look at some of the alternatives if I were forced to make the choice.

If I were to add a 25th province that doesn't fit any of the above, my shortlist of options would be:
Human/Mystic (if I really need a 4th source of MS, which with this kingdom is likely)
Human/Warrior (quite effective if used right, since they can switch between suiciding and turtling while having an effective peak OPA, along with all of the other things Humans do)
Dwarf/Tactician (if I need another slot for a fast hitter, which I probably don't)
Undead/Rogue (since the best two options and the third okayish option is taken, if I want another Undead I'd probably pick one that negates Undead's annoying penalty, rather than something weak like Cleric or Sage. It also, at least in theory, grants a 4th rogue for AW, and TW is a great spell for an a/t).
Halfling/War Hero (meh, they're fine, but I really hate having any Halflings other than the ones I'm forced to pick).