Fary T/m Balance

[jbabin87]

Up until our last war I have been running about 4.5 rWPA and 4.5 rTPA. I'm definitely breakable by at least a quarter of the warring KD, because I try to keep my draft around 60% so that I can still do decent dragon work. I have about 50% magic and 45% thief sci.

What do you think about this? Am I spreading out my resources too much? Should I be trying to achieve a 6 rWPA and drop my TPA a little bit? I'm trying to find the right balance, and would like your opinion. My role as a t/m consists mostly of keeping up m/s and using the rest of mana for fb/chastity.

Let me know your opinion!

[crease]

honestly there isnt a great balance this age for faerys. With massacre changes you should theoretically never be unbreakable and tpa/wpa are both outmatched by respective specialist races in terms of pumping in war after being massed. While it might take time for this to filter down to the low+midtier kds you will still have your niche. As a mystic 4.5 tpa+wpa is plenty enough to do your duty in both sides of the opping for now, so have fun while it lasts!

[noobium]

DR is a bit low against many kingdoms. good kingdoms will target breakable faeries early. there are some situations where it makes sense to draft low and enter war with 10ppa (usually with 40% homes for maximum BE), but doing so means having a plan to draft up the peasants to supply soldiers, and continuously aid them out in order to keep generating peasants. it also means being especially vulnerable once a kingdom realizes the best way to handle a t/m is to chain or massacre them out of usefulness.

anyway about 4.5wpa+tpa is sufficient for opping attackers and blocking most thieves, so that part is good. you'd probably want the military more than the peasants, at least at start of war. more military = more stuff you can send to slay a dragon against you safely, and afterwards fill the space with peasants that have to be fireballed. that way you will eventually get the same BE and econ as you would on low draft, at a time when attackers are far less likely to be able to hit you.

it is hard to be truly unbreakable now, but it is possible to have enough defense that attackers have to throw everything they have at you to chain with no sidetap. attackers who can 1tap a t/m an 1tap an attacker are really, really dangerous and that situation should be avoided as much as possible.

[Bukharistan]

IMO faeries/elves should be about 15-20% bigger than your biggest attacker and run 90-100 dpa. Right now I'm running Elf/Mystic. 3.5-4 tpa, 5.5-6 wpa and 90-95 dpa. It's doable if you run the right strat. It means that I can send like 35% of my army on the dragon, while we chain the highest off provs of the enemey, leaving me still UB or perhaps breakable by 1-2 provs. They've tried before to grab me, but it usually leaves them with little incoming land because of the NW gap and thus easy chain targets.

[Cry0]

War we just finished I entered it at 5.3 raw wpa 4.9 raw tpa, ~80 mod DPA. 85% chan science 55% thievery science & 10% TD. So around 10 mod tpa 10 mod wpa. Thief losses in first 24 hours ontop of enemy rogues AW'ing me opened up economy, add on dragon kill and dropping defense to stay above the top offense.

ALso entered war just beneath our largest 2 attackers. Enemy kd had really bad offense though so that makes everything a lot easier so take it for what it is worth.

Low BE and low peasants going into war is rough but kidnapping is pretty effective with high TPA in order to fill in pop gaps as stuff dies.

[jbabin87]

What I am gathering here is that I should significantly overdraft going into war and count on my dragon slay contribution and thief/wiz loss to open up my economy? It seems to make sense.

I'm going to go into the next war with a 5 rWPA and 5 rTPA, drafted to 70% with an all elite army and 3000 dspecs which should cover my first two dragon contribution (1075 acres). After the first dragon I'll be at 63-64% drafted and after the second I'll be at 57%, less the thief loss.

As it gets later in the age, should I drop my TPA so that I can hold more wizards? What's a good rWPA and rTPA halfway through the age, and at the end of the age?

[Cry0]

Train elites, train specs for free in war.

I have 4500 spec credits banked.. money in war goes to rebuilding attackers and dragons... spec credits are free dragon food.

Numbers really depend on how good your province is. You need honor and science.

If you lose wars and have bad honor/science then your late age numbers would be equivalent to a good kingdoms early age numbers.

We are all viscounts with going on 700k science to give you an idea.

** Effects Summary (Known Science Only) **
9.6% Income (58,758 books)
7.6% Building Effectiveness (71,473 books)
6.4% Population Limits (119,955 books)
34.5% Food Production (23,262 books)
0% Gains in Combat
54.1% Thievery Effectiveness (101,708 books)
89.8% Magic Effectiveness & Rune Production (280,336 books)

It all snowballs. If you are 2/5 war wins going against a 5/5 war win kd you are at a disadvantage most likely because you are low on honor bonuses and they probably have more science unless you managed a science pump to somehow close the gap.

[noobium]

since you can feed elites to the dragon, there is no need to train defspec except to save money. i much prefer to keep spec credits in reserve and save them for later in war.

[madtyres]

IMO faeries/elves should be about 15-20% bigger than your biggest attacker and run 90-100 dpa. Right now I'm running Elf/Mystic. 3.5-4 tpa, 5.5-6 wpa and 90-95 dpa. It's doable if you run the right strat. It means that I can send like 35% of my army on the dragon, while we chain the highest off provs of the enemey, leaving me still UB or perhaps breakable by 1-2 provs. They've tried before to grab me, but it usually leaves them with little incoming land because of the NW gap and thus easy chain targets.

How do you run such a huge army as Elf Mystic and yet have such high tpa/wpa? I currently run 3.1 tpa and 3.5 wpa (aiming for more wpa of course, but unable to pump properly so far), draft at 60% leaving BE at 80%. My mod def is usually about 80 per acre. Running 13% Homes and pop science is only +4.7%.

Do you pump a huge number of homes, or have crazy pop science? Or sacrifice BE to increase draft rate?

[Runefire]

How do you run such a huge army as Elf Mystic and yet have such high tpa/wpa? I currently run 3.1 tpa and 3.5 wpa (aiming for more wpa of course, but unable to pump properly so far), draft at 60% leaving BE at 80%. My mod def is usually about 80 per acre. Running 13% Homes and pop science is only +4.7%.

Do you pump a huge number of homes, or have crazy pop science? Or sacrifice BE to increase draft rate?

Draft more is the major answer. I run about 70%+ as a Faery Mystic. The raw power usually outweighs the BE bonuses.

Have used homes, but tend not to use a lot.

[noobium]

How do you run such a huge army as Elf Mystic and yet have such high tpa/wpa? I currently run 3.1 tpa and 3.5 wpa (aiming for more wpa of course, but unable to pump properly so far), draft at 60% leaving BE at 80%. My mod def is usually about 80 per acre. Running 13% Homes and pop science is only +4.7%.

Do you pump a huge number of homes, or have crazy pop science? Or sacrifice BE to increase draft rate?

The answer is simple - draft higher and don't worry about building efficiency. A t/m (especially a turtle like Elf) should look at having about 80% of their population in non-peasant roles when fully pumped (i know, it can go higher, but 80% is a draft that is practical to attain for a kingdom that only uses eowcf to pump). Since Elves and Faeries typically don't attack for acres in hostile and their exploration can be planned for, they don't have the problems attackers have with maintaining high draft when they grow oow.

Having great building efficiency at the start of war is not that important... if you can find a way to get new peasants, BE will rise during war. Homes will allow a t/m to max out their BE sooner, but you probably won't have maxed building efficiency at war start (nor should you draft low specifically for that reason, most of the time anyway).

[Bukharistan]

It's just about the strat you run. Running Elf/Mystic at raw 5.8 wpa/4.5 tpa. Still have 87 dpa. I run 25% homes, 13% forts, 15% TDs. That way I can steal/kidnapp in war whilst not having to worry about enemy thieves apart from super halfers. Because I always send out low amounts of thieves during war, as it goes on I become harder and harder to op by their thieves.

Our KD also tries to take out enemy halfers first when we go to war, to protect our TMs without WTs.

[madtyres]

Thanks for replying guys. Hmm 25% homes, no wonder. What is your BE Bukharistan?

So is 70% BE still considered decent for Elf Mystic? I guess I'll raise my draft from 60% to 68% and see how it goes. Won't make any money for funding before war, but as people said, pezzies will fill out the dead army in war. And I like the idea of a much better dragon killing ability from more 5 point def specs

The reason I was hesitant to drop BE below 80% is the rune efficiency in production plus all the other reduced bonuses in TD, WT, banks etc, not to mention non-existent income. But yes the benefit of better tpa and defense makes it look favourable. What rough minimum limit should I aim for? 70% sounds ok?

Thanks, I usually play heavy attacker but switched to T/M this age for more flexible hours and to ensure good MS coverage

[Runefire]

I was running 70% BE or so a couple of ages back as an Elf Mystic. Probably less than that actually. That was on something close to 70% draft rate.

Economy is always the issue for Elves. Usually I would hop from war to war and would bank some gold during CFs. Usually the attackers funded the bulk of the first dragon and with dragon slaying etc, I would take on the funding of the later ones. Or you steal it :)