No specific personality. Assuming 10% housing and tools. MP on 24/7. This can be easily adapted to A/t by moving 10% from guilds to thieves’ dens, and it can be changed to pure attacker by moving that same 10% to training grounds, stables, and forts in roughly the same proportions given here. As a pure attacker you could also build more guard stations or dungeons.

8 farm
20 guild
11 rax
20 arm/bank
11 tg
11 stable
13 fort
6 gs

10 peasants, 7.45 dspecs, 6.05 ospecs, 1 thief, 3 wizard
NW = 138
47.3 opa = .343 opnw
48.3 dpa = .350 dpnw

No specific personality. Assuming 10% housing and tools. MP on 24/7.

8 farm
10 guild
9 tower
5 rax
20 arm/bank
16 tg
6 stable
16 fort
10 td

10 peasants, 7.8 dspecs, 8.45 ospecs, 3 thief, 1 wizard
NW = 148
62.5 opa = .422 opnw
51.8 dpa = .350 dpnw
5.1 mod tpa

No specific personality. Assuming 10% housing and tools. MP on 24/7.  This can be easily adapted to A/t by moving 10% from guilds to thieves’ dens, and it can be changed to pure attacker by moving that same 10% to training grounds, stables, and forts in roughly the same proportions given here.  As a pure attacker you could also build more guard stations or dungeons.

8 farm
20 guild
11 rax
20 arm/bank
16 tg
4 stable
15 fort
6 gs

10 peasants, 7.5 dspecs, 6 ospecs, 1 thief, 3 wizard
NW = 141
52.5 opa = .372 opnw
49.5 dpa = .351 dpnw

Let me know about any word or abbreviation that needs to be defined.

Another good list is found here. 

dpa – defense per acre

dpnw – defense per net worth

dspec or d-spec – defensive specialist

FL – fertile lands spell

MP – minor protection spell

opa – offense per acre

opnw – offense per net worth

ospec or o-spec – offensive specialist

QF – quick feet spell

tpa – thieves per acre

TW – town watch spell

wpa – wizards per acre

No specific personality. Assuming 10% housing and tools. MP on 24/7.

7 farm
10 guild
8 tower
11 rax
10 td
20 arm/bank
12 tg
12 stable
11 fort

6.7 dspecs, 6.9 opsecs, 3 thieves, 1 wizard
NW = 144
53.4 opa = .371 opnw
50.5 dpa = .351 dpnw

Disclaimer:  This is a non-freak, pure attacker strategy.  I didn’t optimize or even summarize economic buildings and numbers.  I did assume minor protection would be cast 24/7.  Fog and animate dead 24/7 are also a good idea especially in war.  I was surprised that stables didn’t help, but I’m just going by the numbers.

Assuming 200% pay rate, 10% alchemy, and 10% housing science.  (Tools would be wise as well but is not assumed in BE and building numbers here.)

27.5 pop/acre
10 peasants – 100% BE (low estimate)
7.5 dspecs
8 ospecs
1 thief
1 wizard

7% Farms*
17% Armouries or Banks*
16% Training Grounds
9% Barracks
14% Forts
10% Guilds
7% Towers*
20% Watchtowers
*economic numbers unoptimized

This gives a war attack time of less than 12 hours and 40% catch thieves.

143 nwpa
50 dpa = .351 dpnw
56.4 opa = .396 opnw

A better result than I expected.  Some tools science would allow some land to be taken from maybe farms, armouries, banks, barracks, or towers and put to military use.  I don’t know about the thieves.  Scrap them altogether?  These numbers aren’t bad at all.  Maybe I missed something.  Tell me if you see it.  Even if these numbers are correct, I prefer the flexibility and thieves of a Gnome.

I don’t like playing T/M. I don’t much like thinking about T/M strategy. That said, this will be a very basic skeleton of a T/M build. It is race/personality generic, and assumes no elites or improved specialists. Housing, Crime, and Channeling science are key.

Someone else will have to make whatever improvements are needed to this outline.

Per acre:
10 peasants
10 d-specs
4-7 thieves
4-7 wizards

7% Farms
30% Guilds
20% Towers
20% Thieves’ Dens
23% for whatever you want (probably homes, banks, armouries, schools, libraries, or one of the buildings listed above.)

Dark Elves can get away with about 8 elites instead of 10 d-specs.

There are different T/M tactics such as financial, starvation, and population, which have their own associated spells and ops. These generally should not be mixed because certain spells and ops negate the effects of other spells and ops. I don’t know and don’t care to know the details, because I find playing T/M very boring. But the Utopia Wiki has some information that looks good.

Race and personality are the two most important decisions in the game. Some players like the sound of a certain race or personality, but my advice is to weigh the actually strengths and weaknesses and see which combination suits your play style best.

Races are always tweaked before the start of a new round. So the following may not apply beyond Age 37.

The easy method:
Choose Gnome and Freak. There, wasn’t that easy? Now click here to see a very strong strategy for your combination.

By Role:
The four basic roles are Attacker (A), Thief/Mage (T/M), Attacker/Thief (A/t), and Attacker/Mage (A/m). I use capital letters to indicate the primary role if there are two.

A/t is the best role. A medium sized thief guild can supply resources and intelligence that can greatly ease an attacker’s work. A pure attacker my have a stronger army, but maintaining that larger army without stolen resources can be slow and frustrating.

A/m is an awkward role. Thieves can be used to take resources from a target for your own use. Magic generally can only be used to destroy resources. It does not augment the attacker role. It is usually wiser to choose only one purely offensive role, either attacking or magic, and not both. It is better to be either a strong attacker or a strong mage instead of being mediocre at both. Of course some will disagree with me, and there are successful A/ms out there.

Finally, there are T/Ms. The number of T/Ms in a kingdom is often limited. The T/Ms army only exists for defensive purposes. Some people say they enjoy playing T/M. I think those people are crazy. To each his own.

I only recommend Gnome Freak unless you are planning on being a T/M.  These are ranked from best choice to worst.

A
Gnome Freak (or Sage)
Human Sage (or Merchant or Freak)
Orc Warrior (or Merchant or Freak)
Dark Elf Sage (or Merchant or Freak)
Dwarf Sage (or Merchant or Freak)
Elf Sage (or Merchant or Freak)

A/t
Gnome Freak (or Sage or Rogue)
Human Rogue (or Sage or Merchant)
Elf / Dark Elf Rogue (or Sage or Merchant)
Orc Rogue (or Warrior or Merchant)
Dwarf Rogue (or Sage or Merchant)

A/m
Elf Mystic (or Sage or Merchant)
Dark Elf Mystic (or Sage or Merchant)
Gnome Mystic (or Freak or Sage)
Dwarf Mystic (or Sage or Merchant)
Orc Mystic (or Warrior or Merchant)
Human Mystic (or Sage or Merchant)

T/M
Elf Mystic or Rogue
Gnome Mystic or Rogue
Dark Elf Mystic or Rogue
Orc Mystic or Rogue
Human Mystic or Rogue
Dwarf Mystic or Rogue

+25% Gains on Attacks
-50% Draft Costs
-50% Military Wages
Spreads & is Immune to the Plague
No Bonuses from Honor
-15% Science Effectiveness

8/2 Elite – $800

Orcs are best as pure attackers. This will just be a general sketch of the strategy I recommend, assuming 75 bpa in each science.

26.85 pop/acre
12 peasants – 90% BE
7 dspecs
1 thief
1 wizard
5.85 elites

6% farms
25% armouries
8% training grounds
10% barracks – to get attack time under 12 hours in war
8% forts
15% hospitals – 35% lower loses
10% guilds
7% towers
11% stables

55(acre) + 12(peasant) + 6.75 * 5.85(elite) + 7 * 5(dspec) + .6 * 6(horse) + 4 * 2(t/w) + 7(science) = 160 nwpa

Defense: 8 * 5 * 1.129(DME) * 1.1091(forts) = 50.1 dpa = .31 dpnw
Offense: [4.85 * 8 + 6(horse)] * 1.076(OME) *1.09(generals) * 1.0843(TG) = 57 opa = .356 opnw

Compare this to my Gnome Freak’s 67 dpa, .35 dpnw and 70 opa, .365 opnw, and take into account that the Gnome strategy gives 7 tpa on top of that. Whatever reason anyone has for playing Orc, it makes more sense to play Gnome Freak. Better offense, better defense, better thieves, better flexibility. In the final analysis, the only real advantage Orcs have over Gnomes is the plague. So the question is this: Is the Orc plague bonus worth sacrificing 13 opa and 17 dpa?

  ALL THIS COULD BE CHANGING SOON.  I’M SEEING POTENTIAL FOR A FULL-SPEC ARMY I MISSED PREVIOUSLY.

Gnome
+40% Thievery Effectiveness
50% Cost Thieves
+10% Population

-15% Birth Rates
No access to Hospitals

5/5 Elite – $300

Freak
Large randomness in all attacks.
Every 7 Elites take up the population space of only 6 peasants

If the only bonuses for Gnomes were the +10% population and elites, that would be enough.

The population bonus is easily the best in the game. Playing Freak with a full elite army increases population even further, usually something like 7.5%. A Gnome Freak with a trained elite army has a base population of about 30 per acre. And that does not include science. Just 100 housing books per acre, puts the Gnome Freak at 33 ppa. No amount of improved specialists, improved buildings, or even Orc elites come close to matching that sort of raw power. Even assuming that an Orc province has 9 elites per acre, which amounts to 9 x (8 – 5) = 27 additional raw opa, does not let it surpass the Gnome Freaks additional opa due to 7 ppa bonuses, 7 x 5 = 35 additional raw opa.

The only way to build a province with more attacking potential is to play another race with Freak and a nearly full elite army or to use a huge science-pump (probably with Humans). Other full-elite armies are very expensive to train and highly pumped humans take a while to build and plenty of resources to maintain.

The thief bonuses and freak randomness just sweeten the deal. The thief bonuses keep costs down and frees up more room for elites by making fewer thieves capable of maintaining a higher tpa. The freak randomness does require that more offense be sent to be sure of a successful hit, but it also deters and bounces enemy attacks.

The Gnome weaknesses are relatively minor. In a longer war we can have population and income problems. But a Gnome with population problems often has a higher ppa than other races in their prime. In war kidnapping can help a little.

Net worth is also a concern. While elites will increase nwpa, they will also increase offense and defense at an even faster rate. This means the more Gnome elites, the higher dpnw and opnw we have.

Gnomes are ready-made thieves. When running a Gnome Freak full-elite attacker, you don’t want to neglect thieves. Thieves can be a great source of income and are very nice for taking SoMs, if you are detail oriented. Keeping 3 raw tpa with modest crime science and about 10% thieves’ dens will give about 7 mod tpa. This is enough to be effective against nearly every attacker. With this A/t combination, we are primarily still an attacker. The thief element is there to assist in combat and to provide resources.

If you look at my age 37 strategy, you can see that 7 tpa, 70 opa, and 62 dpa are easily reachable.

The last reason to play a full-elite Gnome Freak is how easy and flexible it is. There is no difficulty in dividing troops to be trained. And when these troops do attack, you can determine exactly what defense you want to keep at home.