Best Race/Personality Combo For a Somewhat Noob

[Ithendis]

Hey all, I used to play when I was in high-school (It's been a few years), and I played shortly a few semesters ago. What are the best combos in your opinion? I am thinking about running either A/t or a/T. I am pretty open to any strat, though. I have seen a lot of posts about how good Human/Sage is. What are your thoughts?

[smercjd]

Undead is a relatively easy race. You don't have to worry about Sabotage since they have no access and you don't have to worry about food.

If you want attacker -- Undead Tactician/Cleric gives you nice building space so you have some advantages there, Merchant gives you ToG and more credits which is also nice.
If you want TM -- Faery have some innate bonuses so you don't have to pump as hard, and large spellbook (which could make them more difficult) but it's nice to be able to see. I recommend Faery: Rogue/Mystic or Sage

[natebane]

Dwarf is pretty nice for new guys. They're a forgiving race if you screw up a build strat or if you feel like experimenting a bit. Dwarf/rogue makes a nice A/t with the BE bonus.

[dieaready]

Human/warrior is op this age. 100 opa, 35 dpa w/o elites and 3 tpa is possible and not too difficult to build if you know how to do it.

[Clampy]

If you're not in a top kingdom sage is, and almost always has been the best personality in my opinion (provided you run high sci, which you should but very few people do). Humans are great (ToG on a non-mage province is OP), Dwarf/Rogue is a sweet combo too. I'm a Human/Sage this age if that helps. Try to find a good synergy between your race and pers.

[Attero]

I say the Dwarf would be overall the best for a new player. Free builds, high BE is awesome. The personality really depends. I like the idea of a Dwarf Merch since it will give you ToG but if AT is the way the Rogue would be best. The age is winding down so just grab something and get to playing :) now is a great time to experiment.

[StratOcastle]

Also take a look at elf rogue: Specifically for what you asked for.

Sage is mildly overrated, IMHO.

Reason #1: I'm playing sage this age and my insider perspective finds it is what I expected, nothing more.

Reason #2: for several ages all I've done is travel kingdom to kingdom, helping during wars. In all that time, in the ages sage is considered good, I've had no problem with them in war. I fight many wars and I restart provinces all the time; you'd think the disparity in science would present problems. It hasn't. I've dominated or been in the fight every time.

Reason#3: you're new so this isn't a criticism. The secret gem, that sage is, has to do with how you think. The sage has a blooming effect when chained. I'm familiar with this since I've known brilliant players who've run sage. it's a tricky thing knowing how to take a chain, retain science and work your magic. Clampy is by all measure a mechanical freak. This can result in the Micheal Jordan effect - why can't other do what I can?

Know Your Static Bonus, Know Yourself.

A lot of players get wound up in the milking of numbers and don't notice the big obvious stuff like the race/personality bonuses. If they can't compute something they can't reason with it. The reason I so easily handled sages in war is knowing what they need to have advantage. I used my advantages vs theirs to secure position.

As an orc warrior I rotated/relayed attacks out to keep acres coming in every 2-3 hours. I wouldn't double tap the sages. I just let my orc and warrior bonuses work for me, inflicting egregious damage without compacting their wtpa(wizards&thieves per acre). I was fighting 3 sages in my sector who were fighting back. I played in The Core for this particular war. If you prevent a sage from working their twpa then it's just their other sciences vs your static bonuses. Orc warriors have great center of mass bonuses. And let me explain further; some sages were dwarves.

My advice: Never, Ever, leave dwarves alone. As the orc warrior I knew what it meant to let dwarves use their free build. I have made it a practice to always engage dwarves to keep their builds in the pipe. Dwarf building efficiency is too dangerous a logistic to leave unchecked. Their weakness is they can't accelerate build. Many laugh and say virtually no one can. I do. In war I accelerate build when possible and at opportunity. So you see that with the orc warrior I kept attacks on the dwarf sages to keep their new builds from coming intact while I accelerated the builds of my own. It was helped by stealing gold from fat attackers. Luckily we had inactive t/ms who weren't shelling fat attackers 24/7. Mixed blessing ;-)

[Palem]

If you're not in a top kingdom sage is, and almost always has been the best personality in my opinion (provided you run high sci, which you should but very few people do). Humans are great (ToG on a non-mage province is OP), Dwarf/Rogue is a sweet combo too. I'm a Human/Sage this age if that helps. Try to find a good synergy between your race and pers.

I'd hate to disagree with you Clampy, but nearly 12 weeks into the age, picking Sage is a bit of a mistake.



@Ithendis
Honestly man, just play whatever sounds fun to do. You're not likely to land in a kingdom that demands absolute optimization. More than likely, if you're active, they'll be thrilled to have you. Even picking a horrible combo (like say Orc/War Hero) can be a nice learning experience as far as figuring out why that just doesn't work. As long as your engaged and learning that's the important part. Figuring out the best combos and stuff comes later down the line, when you get in a strong kingdom and activity isn't the defining factor of what wins 95% of wars.

[noobium]

For a new player:

Undead/Warrior or Undead/Tactician
Orc/Warrior or Orc/Merchant
Dwarf/Cleric or Dwarf/Merchant

My preference is to pick orcs if I start late, since most of your science will come from learns.

Forget about Sage attacker unless most of your kingdom picks Sage attackers. Even then it's a bit overrated unless you're going for growth and picked Humans. Human/Sage has some serious penalties early age too, which makes it difficult to secure position without careful planning.

[tetley]

Picking sage at this point will be underwhelming, save that for next age.

Imo an avian merchant will have the best "catch-up" late-age ability cause of their conversions.

[noobium]

Avian is kinda hard to play well without a clear use in the kingdom, although it's fine for a solo prov fooling around. This late in the age sure.

I wouldn't pick Human at all unless I were in an organized kingdom, which would mean your race is picked for you. Solo Human blows, though Humans are probably the best race overall.

There is no such this as an "a/t", just varying levels of tpa and science for attacking provinces. (disregarding Elf and Halfer for a moment as those aren't standard attackers).
You should have healthy crime science on any province that isn't Undead. t/m sci will be better, but there is no reason to have only 25 bpa in crime when you should have close to 100.
In general I prefer using massacre and thief attrition to get core provs opping. Sometimes it makes sense to raise tpa to 3-4 on an attacker, but why do that when 2 tpa can target an 0.5 tpa massed prov just as well? At higher levels a/t-type strategies work better, but those should be situational.
Attacking Rogues are pretty bad due to lack of defense... only way they would work is by using lots of them, and aside from undead a non-Rogue will thieve just as well.
Dwarves are generally compatible with a/t though, but they should be using an econ personality. Dwarf is kinda weak this age but it's still playable.

[Clampy]

I should've clarified that I like sage IF you're starting from the start. Playing a sage now would (as a few people mentioned) be silly.

I stand by my point that the vast majority of players don't invest in enough science though. Next age I highly recommend you pump it as hard as you can. At least active at all times except war, and higher when in normal OOW. Then you can get values like this (at 2.5k acres) and dominate any other personality:
+25.1% Population Limits

[RedPanda]

One can still catch up even late age.

But really a new player should not play a sage unless they are going to be babied through every step in the process

In my books playing a A/rogue or an A/mystic would be better for the long term growth of a new player and when you have played through all 3 roles (A, T, M) as primaries is when you think if you should play a sage.

[dieaready]

Depends on how you play, I've seen a new prov put on 600k books in a week of war after joining mid war in the middle of the age. By EOA he actually caught up with those of us who were pumping sci...

[pathetic sheep]

Depends on how you play, I've seen a new prov put on 600k books in a week of war after joining mid war in the middle of the age. By EOA he actually caught up with those of us who were pumping sci...

You may be mixing up "new player" and "new province". The base gains on learn attack is 9%. An orc warrior could make 10 attacks with +30% gains in the first 10 hours out of protection. If you chained provinces with science pumped higher than average then the new orc will be pumped too.