Undead Attacker Build Strat Advice

[Shadowjack]

Hello! My current build is as follows;
20% Homes
25% Training Grounds
15% Stables
25% Guard Stations
10% Guilds
5% Towers

I'm trying to optimize my build as much as possible. I really like Guard Stations as it makes me a poor choice to chain and it creates a large disparity in acre gain in favor of my attacks versus the attacks of my enemies.

However, I'm also considering using 25% Forts or 45% Homes or 40% Homes and 20% Stables.

My logic is that while Guard Stations reduce my acre loss, they do not make me harder to hit. They are quite safe and they help me trade with Orcs, however, having extra defense + offense from other said builds could potentially be stronger. I like the extra Building Efficiency and Birth Rates that Homes provide. Forts are a building I don't care for as an attacker but since I already have 25% Training Grounds it makes me view Forts as a more viable option. (because TG provide a larger bonus to an attacker than Forts)

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I have decided not to run Watch Towers and I want to continue doing so. I am doing fairly well this age and I prefer to stick to a fairly offensive minded build with some defensive features. Thanks.

[Palem]

Get rid of the homes, put in Barracks.

[Shadowjack]

I actually scrapped my Barracks in favor of Homes. It seems that Attackers can rarely make 3 sets of attacks per day unless they're Tactician with Quick Feet or Avian with Barracks etc. I'm Tactician and still can only make 2 attacks per day due to attack times. So I usually attack when I wake up and then add +4 hours to my second set of attacks for the day. Am I missing something? I just returned to the game 3 weeks ago from a 15 year absence.

[Palem]

Didn't know you were Tact.

I'd still scrap the homes and put in another 5% Towers and 15% Hospitals.

[Shadowjack]

That is something I played around with a little too. I'm in sort of an up and coming kingdom so my enemies often don't play that optimally. I scrapped my 10% Hospitals because I wasn't getting my peasants taken/killed. I lose 50% less units while attacking so I thought Hospitals might not be as good of an idea as I thought. I have been choosing buildings that are always going to be useful. Buildings like WT and Hospitals are less useful when I don't get bothered with much. I realize this is exploitable in elite kingdom warfare but the kingdom I landed in is still growing and learning so I feel like I can utilize more exploitative strategies. However I am still very open to hearing your thoughts! As for Towers, 5% has been enough for me to just barely cast all of my spells each day and I only sometimes need a small amount of runes for when I fail Patriotism multiples times.

[Palem]

You lose the full amount on defense, which makes you very easy to drop, even if you aren't losing the full amount because of GS. The hospitals are to reduce your defensive losses. Hospitals don't have anything to do with pezzie deaths.

The extra towers are mostly to aid out extra to your mages. Runes are hard to come by, and it looks like you've got space available.

[Shadowjack]

Whoops I got some bonuses mixed up for a moment :) Yes, Hospitals don't help with peasant losses. The Towers idea is interesting although our T/M are running a large amount of Towers so they never seem to need any runes. About Hospitals, they are very nice but partially only if I'm being attacked often. The chance to cure the plague is wasted as I am Undead. I'm really not liking using buildings that only come into play half of the time. That's why I'm more tempted by extra Homes or Forts as they are always going to be useful. Having 25% Forts requires my enemies to send a lot of extra offense to break me and if they do chain me they won't have much left to attack others with. Homes are nice because they can bolster both my offense and defense.

[Palem]

Hospitals come into play on every attack that surrounds your province. They lover offense losses too.

Forts on a province that isn't unbreakable is a waste.

[Shadowjack]

Hospitals are always good, yes. The offensive aspect of it is not as good for Undead as other Races though. I see your point about Forts although they would give be a sizable boost to defense which in turn makes my opponents attacks for less acres, similar in the way that Guard Stations do. If I am chained they will have less offense to make multiple attacks on me, and especially on more vulnerable targets. So in a sense, Forts reduce the enemy kingdoms overall attack power if they choose to target me. If they don't target me at all, Hospitals are obviously better, but are they better than Homes? Homes allow me to have much more offense and more building efficiency which are both always going to be useful.

Any configuration of these substitutions would be fine. But which set up is most optimal is very difficult to analyze.

[Palem]

You want the other kd to target you though. That's your job as an undead. To soak up hits and return the pain.

[StratOcastle]

I almost cried when I read this Palem ;-).
Hey Shadowjack, I'm an undead cleric and I use hospitals and watch towers.
Hospitals for troops, how about dungeons to insulate some BE from shelling(?). Even with CS I'd like to think you could depress the effect of a dedicated sabotage run.

[Shadowjack]

@Palem I see what you're saying although they're probably going to hit me regardless of my buildings, right? Forts and Guard Stations effectively reduce the amount of acres they take from my kingdom(albeit differently). I'm really considering adding some Hospitals as I just remembered that buildings have diminishing returns :)

@ StratOcastle Dungeons are definitely being considered. What % do you think is best? I think my strat will have more room now that I'm aware of diminishing returns, having max %'s is clearly not going to be as optimized as possible. But when you made your comment to Palem, are you suggesting some of what I said here is silly? Please elaborate if so. I am trying to do my best and my strategies are working very well so far, but I know they are not perfect. I do think that my logic in this thread is reasonable.

Regarding Watch Towers, they are clearly a great building. But so far my opponents have not been using any thievery on me in the past 2 wars so they have essentially done nothing for me. This makes me lean more towards versatile buildings such as Homes.

[Palem]

Forts do not lower the amount of acres you lose. If you can be hit then how far you are dropped depends entirely on how far the other kd wants to drop you.

[Shadowjack]

Actually Forts do reduce the amount of acres my kingdom loses as they will have less offense left over to hit the other provinces in my kingdom. If it requires 50k to break me and they have 50k, they can only hit me. If it requires 40k to break me they can hit me and send 10k at someone else or use it for an Ambush.

[Shadowjack]

Another interesting note is that while Forts are clearly inferior to Training Grounds for an attacker and from a mathematical stand point, Forts become a viable option in theory once an attacker already has 25% Training Grounds.