Preliminary age change power rankings.

This is an attempt to measure the raw military strength each race can put out as an attacker. It does not measure T/M or hybrid potential in any way. It does not measure economy in any way. It does not measure sustainability in any way. It does not account for the "unused" side of any elites, so it makes no measure of ambush defense or turtling ability. (As such, dwarf shows as taking a small nerf from last age because the NW of the elite went up - even though it is clearly an improvement to the race overall, since it isn't ambush fodder now.)

It does account for science (and FoK), pop bonus, +tpa/wpa (for reducing the raw number needed to hit the minimal mod an attacker requires) and assumes Fanat and TW when available. Each race has it's units distributed for a 65:35 off:def split (just over 1.8:1, so not quite dt yourself).


Rankings____OPA_____DPA____NW/A____MPNW____%Max
Elf_________74.68____40.21___179.81____0.64____83.02%
Faery______67.19____36.18___154.13____0.67____87.14%
Human_____72.41____38.99___164.53____0.68____87.97%
Avian______74.94____40.35___163.1_____0.71____91.84%
Dwarf______77.31____41.63___167.78____0.71____92.11%
Orc________76.94____41.43___165.74____0.71____92.79%
Undead_____82.57____44.46___171.54____0.74____96.21%
Halfling_____82.81____44.59___165.52____0.77___100.00%


Editorial section:
If these changes hold up, it is another age of the halfer. They take a tiny nerf, and a few others get a buff. But their nerf has no impact on raw power, and pes aren't going to be around in war anyway. For A, A/t, A/T, T/a, or T/m, halfer is the choice. For all of those except pure attacker, it is the *only* real choice. The only people not playing halfer in a kingdom should be the MS coverage T/M. And frankly, I'd go faery mystic t/M - just run like 30% towers or whatever it takes. If your players are good, you get coverage with 2 or at most 3 t/M, and all 17 (or 22) other provs go halfer - 25% pure A, 50% A/t, 25% A/T or a/T.

For other interesting options... there are none. Seriously, just go halfer. I played it this age, and it was stupid good. Got a comparison to a kingdommate - he was 40 acres larger (on about 2200 acres), and had about 12k less pop compared to me. I'm on 69k max pop, he has 57k. Sure, he's human, he gets that 6/4 army... but figure 10k more o-specs vs. his elites - he doesn't catch up on offense to me unless we go to over 80% DR, pure offense. Seriously, he'd need 50k elites vs. my 60k o-spec... leaving him with 7k for the rest of his prov! It is just impossible for a human to match a halfer for military, and that 12% gap shows it.