Military

Conflict is at the heart and soul of the fine world of Utopia. While peace has it's place, combat is what makes the world go 'round here. Conquering others is your way of making a name for yourself around the world. But beware -- too many enemies and you may not live to see tomorrow. I cannot make you a masterful leader - that can only be learned through experiences of success and patience through failures, but I will share what I can.

Military Units
To attack other provinces you must deploy armies comprised of different kinds of military units (Horses, Prisoners, Mercenaries, Solders, Offensive Specialists, Defensive Specialists, Elites, Generals). You must have sufficient units of each type drafted and/or trained. See Units for more information.

You can view each races unit strengths through the games Race & Personality details page.

Understanding Attacks
With risk comes reward. Remember this forever during your time here in Utopia. There will be plenty of opportunities to attack the smaller, weaker lands around the world. There will be plenty of bullies looking to attack you. There will be plenty of chances to feed on the remains of provinces ravished by others. The Lords understand this is not noble, and they will see to it that this behavior is not rewarded.

You will quickly find that attacking others of similar networth to yourself will be richly rewarded. Attack smaller enemies and you will suffer a variety of penalties - gaining less and finding your army away for long periods. You will also find that attacking within your own kingdom has few, if any, rewards.

Attack Times
Attacks are missions which take both time and effort to carry out, and subsequent rest for your military forces. Attacks will require about 16 days (baseline) to complete -- this includes time spent attacking, resting, and preparing your new land or other resources for use. A variety of factors can affect this base time, including the size of your opponents. Attacking vastly different size opponents will result in higher attack times. You will find this information shown on the Attack Menu within your War Room.

Random Factor
In general you will have the most success by attacking with more offense than your opponent has defense. However, there is a random factor on attacks. The random factor on attacks is +-3.5% on offense and defense. To succeed an attack, the off/def ratio must exceed 0.97, where each of off and def have been randomized by up to 3.5%.

Example: attacker sends 100 off against targets 100 def. Worst case, off gets knocked down to 96.5, and def gets bumped up to 103.5, so you get 96.5/103.5 - which is 0.932367... so the attacker will fail. You need to send slightly over 4% extra to compensate for the maximum potential randomness every time.

War Horses
War Horses are produced from stables and allow your military to fight with more power. You may include up to one horse per military unit sent in combat, and each offers 1 additional point of offensive strength.

Mercenaries
In addition to your own troops, you will may also hire mercenaries to help in attacks. These mercenaries are paid to serve under you for only a single attack. For a hefty price, these can increase your attack capabilities substantially, 3 points per mercenary. You will also learn that you can capture and hold enemy prisoners of war to serve as free mercenaries through the construction of Dungeons on your lands.

Prisoners
Prisoners are taken from the total number of enemies that would've been killed after an attack, usually at a 2/3 prisoner to total kills ratio - IF there is room in your dungeons for them. Prisoners have no upkeep, every 2 prisoners fills 1 job, and every prisoner produces 0.75gc per hour. About one third of the prisoners sent are lost in the fight. They are then again immediately available to your general. Each prisoner sent in your attack will provide 3 offensive points.

Specialist Credits
On successful Traditional March attacks you earn credits allowing for specialist units to be trained at no gc cost. The amount of credits gained is directly related to the amount of defense you break. Defense *.008 * Relative Networth is the base formula. These will decay while out of war at a rate of 20% at the dawn of each Utopian Month. Upon leaving End-of-War Ceasefire, all credits will be lost. You also have the option to not use credits when training units.

Building Credits
On successful Traditional March attacks you earn credits allowing for buildings to be built or razed with no gc cost. The amount of credits is tied to nw but the exact formula is currently unknown. It is estimated to have a base of approximately: acres taken * 0.4 * rel nw. These will decay at a rate of 20% at the dawn of each Utopian Month IF your total credits are greater than 15% of your total land (Credits > Acres * 0.15). Upon leaving End-of-War Ceasefire, all credits will be lost. You also have the option of not using credits when building.

Traditional March
The standard attack - captures a portion of enemy lands.

Raze
Simply destroys a portion of the enemy lands and is not affected by differing province sizes. Only destroys buildings during War.

Plunder
Captures some of an enemy's gold, food, and runes. Troop losses on Plunder defense are reduced by 50%.

Learn
Steals a portion of target's allocated books plus a portion of the target's unallocated books. During War, Learn reduces the effectiveness of target's Science. Troop losses on Learn defense are reduced by 50%.

Massacre
Rampages through a province killing any population that can be found, including peasants, wizards, and thieves. Damage increased during War.

Conquest
Similar to a Traditional March, but does not need to be fully successful to capture land. It is limited to opponents of very similar in size to yourself, except in War.

Ambush
Can be conducted against a province that has recently captured land from you. Strike an opponent's army away from home and recaptures 50% of the land stolen from you. Because of its surprise nature, no offensive or defensive modifiers are considered - only raw military strength - and the defense will fight at 80% of its normal capacity. Specialists in the opposing army will defend with the strength of defensive specialists of that race. A province attacking Anonymously or using War Spoils cannot be ambushed. An army can only be ambushed once.

Be sure to check out the Ambush Guide if you are still unclear.

Addition Information

 * Attacking & Defending
 * Units