Undead attacker build

[Smurfling]

First, I'd like to say that I'm a very casual player. That's not to be confused with being inactive, I will log on 2-3x a day and attack twice if the ability is present. I just don't want to make a commitment to joining a "real" KD and warring all the time (so, essentially, I'm a ghetto troll). I enjoy having the ability to walk away from the game whenever I no longer have the time / attention span to deal with it.

Right now, I'm looking for some opinions on a heavy UD attacker in the next age, and I can't seem to stick with any one build that I come up with. Feel free to pick at my initial "casual" build, I'm not too great at this stuff. I was thinking something along the lines of this (keep in mind, I generally end up as Monarch in my ghettos):

Homes ------------------ 10%
Training Grounds -------- 10%
Armouries --------------- 10%
Banks ------------------- 30%
Forts -------------------- 10%
Guilds ------------------- 10%
Towers ------------------- 7%
Dungeons --------------- 3%
Barracks ----------------- 10%

I also can't decide whether I want to be a UD Warrior or a UD Tactician... or maybe even Merchant. The problem I have with Warrior is that I will be losing the "perk" of -50% ambush losses, since I will most likely be using War Spoils at all times.

The problems I have with Tactician, are that while enhanced Conquest is nice, if it doesn't convert offensive specialists to elites, it's not going to be very useful to me (I assume it won't based on Bishop's note: "* Undeads convert will be a 10% base on successful trad marches against non-hit opponents of similar networth in a similar sized kingdom when you do not oversend. We will also significantly boost it if your total offense is specialists, on a sliding scale.").
Also, the 10% OME in war doesn't really affect me, as I avoid them like the plague (not out of hate, so much as ghettos make me suffer with their poor activity during one. And yes, that's my own fault for staying in them).

Any helpful tips or suggestions welcome, as well as constructive criticism.

[coboss]

Props for being a "ghetto" player and having a solid understanding of the game. You should probably try to join some non/low warring KD that is looking for players because you would be an asset. As for your strat, you are playing an attacker and its well known that attacking bonuses are more prominent than defensive bonuses. Scrap the forts, lower the banks, and consider scrapping homes. All your economy needs to support is drafting/training/building.
I don't know that you will have that much gc demand that you will need merchant. Warrior and Tact look pretty good on UD, but Warrior -25 losses are kind of redundant. 30% spec credits are solid since you wouldn't need to purchase as many specs, but if you aren't warring then it might not be as strong as say Merchant or Mystic. I would bump up your guilds so that you can have a higher WPA and able to cast some spells if need be.

Training grounds --- 30%
Banks ---------------- 12%
Barracks ------------- 10%
Guilds ---------------- 18%
Towers --------------- 7%
Dungeons ----------- 3%
Stables --------------- 10%
Other ----------------- 10% (Homes/Guard stations/Arms/Etc)

[Smurfling]

Do horses require food? And if so, will running 10% stables be able to be sustained from the base amount of food created per acre?

[Dragons Mate]

horses don't cost food, and even if they did it doesn't matter since you're undead and you don't need food!

[Smurfling]

Well, I know UD doesn't require food. Just didn't know if that expanded to horses (if they needed food, of course).

[DHaran]

Props for being a "ghetto" player and having a solid understanding of the game. You should probably try to join some non/low warring KD that is looking for players because you would be an asset. As for your strat, you are playing an attacker and its well known that attacking bonuses are more prominent than defensive bonuses. Scrap the forts, lower the banks, and consider scrapping homes. All your economy needs to support is drafting/training/building.
I don't know that you will have that much gc demand that you will need merchant. Warrior and Tact look pretty good on UD, but Warrior -25 losses are kind of redundant. 30% spec credits are solid since you wouldn't need to purchase as many specs, but if you aren't warring then it might not be as strong as say Merchant or Mystic. I would bump up your guilds so that you can have a higher WPA and able to cast some spells if need be.

Training grounds --- 30%
Banks ---------------- 12%
Barracks ------------- 10%
Guilds ---------------- 18%
Towers --------------- 7%
Dungeons ----------- 3%
Stables --------------- 10%
Other ----------------- 10% (Homes/Guard stations/Arms/Etc)

30% TGs will lower your potential for gaining elites as you will send less specs on attacks due to your modified offensive power. Maybe not a bad idea to make those mods later in the age if you've gained a significant level of elites, but early age you should be sending as many specs on each attack as possible in order to maximize your conversions.

[Ordray]

For optimum spec conversion, you shouldn't use stables either since the conversion rate is based on the % of total offense that consists of specs. Maybe I'm misunderstanding that, though, and it doesn't include horses.

[Palem]

I asked if ponies lower the conversation rate and bishop said no

[Ordray]

Ah, I missed that post then.Whoops.

[DHaran]

I asked if ponies lower the conversation rate and bishop said no

If you send horses your modified offense would lead to sending fewer specs thus few conversions. Sure the rate wouldn't suffer but raw conversion numbers will.

[Ordray]

Good point.

[Smurfling]

What would you suggest for a semi-casual attacker build, DHaran?

[justhoop]

im going to be running no stables, no TG, and maybe like 3% dungeons until our first war. I will run no defence either so hopefully every hit gets retaliated and keeps my acres low so i can bottomfeed off n00bs for as long as possible while gaining as many leets as possible. Once im running 50% leets and 50% ospecs start training defence and building my land up and trying to grow as slowly as possible so my leet ratio stays high! :D

[coboss]

30% TGs will lower your potential for gaining elites as you will send less specs on attacks due to your modified offensive power. Maybe not a bad idea to make those mods later in the age if you've gained a significant level of elites, but early age you should be sending as many specs on each attack as possible in order to maximize your conversions.

Yes TGs are high, but this is a mid-age build, not an early age build. If it were early age I would run 50+% acres split between Banks and Arms. Bishop posted remarks in the Age 50 Final Comments Thread and the attacks take into account your entire army (even that left at home). The thread is now 10 pages long so it was pretty easy to miss. Sure you could run less bonuses and more Ospecs, but if you run those bonuses and hit bigger targets and gain more land then the bonus rises proportionally. I don't think by running stables and TGs will hurt you in the long run. Early on I would focus on getting your entire prov populated and trained first for sure, so Arms instead of TGs, and then raze and rebuild into TG when you are fully drafted ~65%.

Hopefully everyone understands undeads convert - i cant give exact numbers (because there are so many variables) but it will be tied heavily to the land gain formula. An ideal target to get your base 10% convert is someone like so:

not hit before
your networth
in a kd with the same networth as yours (not your own kd though)

The attack must be a traditional march
In your attack you need to not oversend- i.e you need to get "a tough battle message"
If your offense is all specs (by offense i mean all your offense not just what you send) then you get a big boost to converts - as much as double your base. If it is less you get less of a boost.

[DHaran]

What would you suggest for a semi-casual attacker build, DHaran?

I wouldn't suggest Undead for a semi-casual player.