I don't know from others but Elf/Heretic seems pretty awesome to me. I intend to run it as an A/M/t.
For personal reference, this may become a longerish post.
Elf
+35% WPA
+15% Tower Efficiency
+1 Defensive Specialist Strength
Spell book: Mage's Fury, Chastity, Inspire Army
Elite: 7/6, 700gc, 8.5 NW
Heretic
Wizards do not die on failed spells
Reduced thief losses on failed operations (-66%)
+30% Magic and Thievery Science Effectiveness
Spell and Operation Damage +15%
+1 Mana
Access to Blizzard and Revelation
Starts with +200 Wizards and +400 thieves
There are several pros to this combo. First and foremost how they compliment each other with their wpa bonuses. Elf has +35% wpa, I'll use a hypothetical science rating to show how easily this prov can shoot up in wpa. Say after your Heretic bonus, you have +50% wpa from channelling, the result of the combo's bonus will be 2.025 (1.35 × 1.5 = 2.025) this means the mod wpa is +202.5%. Last time I checked getting +50% in channeling doesn't take all that much effort even without the science modifer of heretic.
Needless to say, the combo will easily generate insanely high wpa mods. The player can apply this in many ways. For my purposes, I'm going to use it to maintain 6-8+ mod wpa while maintaining a moderately low 3-4 raw wpa. I could get it as high as most T/M's by late age.
As for thieving, the Heretic persona, by itself helps your prov to manage all three roles. This is due mostly to how the Heretic's bonuses in interacts with thief dens. Both of which effictively raise mod tpa and diminish theif loses on ops. With a mere 5-10% thief dens the Elf/Heretic can effectively rob *(see section on A/t/m for more on this point). If some uses this combo I advice run a minimum 2-3 tpa. Heretic only has basic thief ops but robbery goes a long way in and out of war.
As an attacker being able to effectively run low raw wpa and tpa will allow the player to train more military than other A/t/m combos. A rather elusive role for most combos imo. I should be able to muster at least a 72% draft target with this combo*(see section on effiency principle). The general military break down will be 8.5 dspa with the rest being 700 gc 7/6 elites, and theives of course.
Oh boy, told you this maybe a long one. A couple more pros- 1) no penalties is in and of itself a bonus, 2) starting bonus makes it easy to get 2 raw tpa by oop, 3) Heretic's spell damage, mana regeneration, and Elf's tower bonus will make for a super effective FB runner 4) the spell-book beautiful even without MS.
The effeciency principle- I think by now dear reader you get an idea of what I'm about to say. The key to running this the way I want to is the effeciency of running low raw numbers with super high modifiers allows you to maintain a large overall military and still run ops like a champ.
On A/t/m- A/t/m can be frustrating even to the most grizzled veterans of Utopia. Were it not for the before mentioned "effeciency principle" this combo has I doubt I would run it at all. I've only seen a few nonsage combos (in the 40+ ages I've roamed Utopia). To be able to run A/t/m effectively in all three roles you'll usually want a densely populated province and some kind of way to eliminate a few buildings yet manage the key buildings for all three roles. You may need to forgo a few options in more than one field. In short, A/t/m requires an astute building strat and is in no way advisable to new/newer players.
I have some solutions I think to the issues inherent in the triple role prov. I may come back later and talk about the building strategy I'm still chewing on.
Before I wrap this up, I want to touch on the few cons- 1) nonmystic A/t/m will take time to generate raw wpa to meet the 3-4+ wpa goals (this means most of the age you'll have to run high guild percentages in a build strat which will require a lot of pinching and forgoing of buildings), 2) Elf's raw military numbers leave a lot to be desired, 3) if you want population beyond the maximum science bonuses you'll want to run heavy homes.
To sum up, this should be an interesting age!
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