Detailed Race Analysis by Kanga

As you are about to see, I disagree with a lot of what Archfiend and Anti say about the races. I can’t

guarantee that my judgements and calculations are any better than theirs, and I may be wrong, but I’m

going to back my judgement on it.

HALFLINGS:

Advantages: Very cheap elite. 25% thievery bonus. 25% less food used.

Disadvantages: 15% magic effectiveness

Elite: 4/4 500gc

Comments: Many people seem to think that Halflings will be the best race next round. Certainly their very

cheap elite will allow them to build lots of elites, and still have money spare for sciences. Their NW will

increase very rapidly. Expect to see a lot of them up the top ranges early in the game. But I have serious

doubts about their ability to stay with the leaders. Their units are only 4 / 4. Compared to a dwarf, they will

have to have 50% more housing to hold the same number of units. Given that most dwarves have around

40% housing, halflings would have to have at least 55% housing to stay even with the dwarves. Sure their

thief bonus will be great, but will they have enough housing space to have lots of thieves, AND enough room

to build sufficient elites to defend themselves? The magic effectiveness will also hinder them, as they will be

exceedingly vulnerable to spells against them and will struggle to cast spells themselves.

Summary: In my opinion, halflings are best used for thief provinces. I’ll be surprised if they can hold their

own in the upper echelons (sorry for the pun) of the game.

ORCS:

Advantages: -30% attack time, + 10% population, Bloodlust spell

Disadvantages: +35% spell costs, rely on defensive specialist for defense.

Elite: 7/2 Ogre

Comments: Ogres biggest problem is their defense. Their defense consists entirely of their basic defensive

unit, plus a lousy 2 points from their Ogres at home. In order to have sufficient defense to survive into the

mid and end game, Ogres need to have HUGE numbers of their basic defensive unit. This means lots and

lots of housing, to be able to fit them in.

Their advantage is their very powerful offense. If they can somehow find enough room to build a few ogres,

they can very rapidly become very powerful offensively. Coupled with the Bloodlust spell, and even the very

top players can be pressured by a large orc. The problem is that very few players are good enough to reach

the top 50 and stay there with an Orc. Large orcs have provided me with my biggest land grabs this round,

simply because they couldn’t produce enough defense for their land.

The 30% attack time bonus is very important early in the game when you want to get as much land as

possible, but not as important later in the game, when other factors limit how much you can grow safely.

They suck magically, and due to the need to have lots of defense units, are often light on thieves too.

Summary: If you could get off to a flying start, get up very high early, and keep the land coming in you

might be able to stay there as an Orc. But if you aren’t able to do well early, you are effectively dead. Very

few orcs make it out of the infancy stage in this game after the first week.

FAERIES:

Advantages: +20% runes, +5 % max population, Nature’s Blessing, Clear Sight, Greater Protection spells

Disadvantages: - 5% thievery, rely on offensive specialist for offense.

Elite: Beastmaster 1/8

Comments: Faeries have dominated the current round. In this round they had a 15% population bonus and

no thievery disadvantage. The 15% population bonus was a huge factor in their domination, as they were

able to build large offense and thief guilds to supplement their fantastically strong Beastmasters for

defense.

Next round, this advantage will be significantly decreased. Faeries will have a harder time balancing their

forces across all three areas. They will still be the best race for explorers to choose, but no serious player

explores for land.

One way of looking at the key advantage, and limitation, of faeries is that their units are single purpose.

Beastmasters defend – and defend very very well. Defense is the first priority in Utopia, so faeries do very

well. Their swordsmen are their offense. They are quite weak, so it is hard to get enough of them to attack

decent targets. If you don’t have time to look for the best targets, faeries are not a good choice.

Summary: Clear Sight is the deciding factor for me. This round, every non-faery has been decimated by

arson and boat sinkings. Faeries won’t be as dominant next round, but are still capable of making the top

10. And once in the top 10, they can rise through the ranks by simply not being arsoned to death, as long

as they keep Clear Sight cast.

HUMANS:

Advantages: +15% income, -10% learning costs, + 1 vote for regency, quick feet spell, multi purpose elite

Disadvantages: -5% magic effectiveness, weak defensive elite.

Elites: 5/4 Knights

Comments: Great for cash farms, Humans are not much use for anything else. They have weak defense

and only moderate offense. This round they are easily the most popular choice for smaller provinces, but

rarely make it into the top ranks, and this will not change next round.

One problem many inexperienced / stupid / reckless humans have is they send out too many knights to

attack, and leave themselves with insufficient defense, and get hammered before their knights return home.

This has brought many many humans undone this round.

Their chief advantage is the income bonus. This allows them to build mainly elites, and to make use of their

learning cost bonus. Most humans in this round have very high sciences.

Summary: Not a good option for most players. Requires too much housing to get a decent defense.

Inexperienced players will get hammered, and experienced players will struggle to get them into the top 50.

DWARVES:

Advantages: -10% attack time + 1 general, multi purpose elite

Disadvantages: +15% spell costs

Elite: 6/6 Beserker, 1000 gc

Comments: The Dwarves advantage is based entirely around their elite, the most powerful unit in the game.

The extra general is useful for a bit of newbie bashing after your main attack, and the reduced attack time is

handy for getting your armies back a bit faster. Increased spell costs is a pain in the bum, but not all that

bad.

With their multi purpose ability, Beserkers are the dwarves greatest strength and their greatest weakness.

All of the top players lived on a diet of dwarf and human meat during the middle stages of the game, as they

repeatedly found medium to large provinces who had sent too many elites out on attack and not enough

home to defend their land. But a large dwarf can be stunningly powerful – earlier in the game when I was

number 2 in the world, the number 1, Savannah had the military power to attack me and defend against a

counter strike with the remaining berserkers. Fortunately for me, she never had enough boats to do this,

probably due to the small number of thieves she had at that stage.

Summary: The most powerful race for this round. The biggest problem for an experienced careful player is

stopping arson and boat sinking – this is very difficult, and is the reason that the top 10 will not be entirely

full of dwarves.

ELVES:

Advantages: -10% spell costs, -25% military losses, -10% learning costs, Greater Protection, Nature’s

Blessing.

Disadvantages: - 1 general

Elites: 3/6 Elf Lords

Specialists: 0/4 and 4/0

Comments: This race has taken on an entirely new look this round. The specialists have a strength of 4

compared to all other races 3. Their traditional thievery bonus has gone, so no longer will they be of any use

for people wanting to create thief provinces. They now appear to me to be a fairly strong military race. With

the cheap 4 strength specialist, and the 25% reduced military losses, the elves will be able to maintain a

very strong offensive army, while relying on their cheap strong Elf Lords for defense. 10% learning costs and

10% reduced spell costs are also handy benefits. The –1 general will hurt a lot early in the game, but

becomes irrelevant by the early mid game.

Summary: Elves could be the surprise packet of next round. With fewer losses in battle they will be able to

rapidly build up a large military force, and in conjuction with their cheap military units, the learning cost

bonus will see them have powerful science early. Much better staying power than say the Halflings, and will

probably match it with Faeries and Dwarves. If they can stay close to the pack early in the game could rise

rapidly through the ranks in the mid stages.

AVIANS: Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole with their current settings. When the race is finalised will

do a more detailed analysis.

The Last Word:

Faeries: Still powerful despite their reductions, and Clear Sight will allow them to stay at the top. Will

always struggle offensively, but can overcome this if played well.

Dwarves: The most powerful race, except for their inability to defend from small thief provinces. Take away

Clear Sight from a faery, or give it to dwarves, and Dwarves would rule the world.

Elves: A strong military race with a nice combination of extra bonuses.

Halflings: Weak military, high NW race that will provide fodder for the Dwarves and Orcs. Perfect for

thieves.

Orcs: Only for the experts, or for the warmongers who don’t mind constantly losing the land they have

gained. If you are not a large orc, you are a dead orc.

Humans: Still likely to be the weakest race, at least they can now try to protect all that stockpiling gold

with thieves. Will once again be the most popular choice for new players, and they will then never progress

past 200k NW.

Avians: Needs a lot of work to be playable.

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