Guide:Ambush

This is part of the Utopia WIKI Mini Guide Series.

THIS PAGE describes a game mechanism - Guide:Ambush in utopia. It also aims to discuss the implications of this game mechanism & how others have utilized it. To discuss further implications or ask questions with regards to Guide:Ambush, be sure to check out the discussions page.

!	The information or formula below is not up to date. Please refer to the discussions tab to contribute to ongoing research or start a new topic.

Why Ambush?

1. To Kill Elites (especially if your target is an orc).
   1. Why? --> The have an insanely low defensive value elite
   2. Why? --> Ambushes are 25% faster than normal attacks
2. To decrease incoming land (especially if your target is a chain target).
3. Because you're able to Ambush + Trad him and want to rub it in his face.

Notes About Ambush

1. You can ambush each successful attack once. If you fail, too bad.
2. You cannot ambush if your opponent used War Spoils.
3. You cannot ambush if your opponent's hit was made with Anonymity on.
4. If you successfully carry out an ambush you will gain 50% of his captured land, or 25% if he is a warrior.
5. You ALWAYS ambush from the last hit to the first.
   1. You will ambush the last successful hit. Conquests don't count. You CAN ambush an ambush.
6. A successful ambush recaptures 50% of the land taken from you.

How to Figure out What to Send

1. Take a SoM with < 10 thieves
2. Record the value of elites out on the SoM.
3. Record the value of offspecs out on the SoM.
4. Take another SoM with <10 thieves, and record the values in this SoM.
5. Use a SoM translator on these numbers to determine his true number of offspecs sent at you. Do the same for his number of Elites.
6. Once you have figured out these numbers, use this formula:

Raw Offense Required = [(His Elites sent*Racial Elite Defense Value) + (His Offspecs Sent*Racial Offspec Value) + Soldiers] * 0.8
 Remember, this is the RAW offense required - therefore, don't bother sending > 1 generals, they have no effect!

p.s. If you ever see a 0 in the 'army out' column, it means that he did not send ANY of that army type.

Example

June 4th, YR5 call (9:11) invaded Kzagl (3:17) and captured 81 acres of land.
June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded Kzagl (3:17) and captured 139 acres of land.
June 4th, YR5 piercing through (9:11) invaded Kzagl (3:17) and captured 131 acres of land.

Kzagl didn't take particularly kindly to these attacks, and thought it would be a good idea to ambush one of them, so he took 1 SoM of I just been, the largest hit against him, to see what troops had been sent out against him and whether it was a good idea to ambush.

SOM 1

** Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:46 hours) ** Ogres: 5,132 (49,308 offense / 11,485 defense)

Captured Land: 143 Acres

On seeing the no specialists (goblins) and high amount of elites (ogres), Kzagl made the decision to get a few of his acres back, so he took another SoM and started to calculate the ambush

SOM 2

** Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:51 hours) **

Ogres: 4,247 (38,597 offense / 9,598 defense)

Captured Land: 149 Acres

SoM	Som1	Som2
Ogres	5132	4247

Now, Kzagl used the SoM+SoM method that people use to find exact defense at home to find the exact troops out. So if you input the ogre amounts into a SoM calculator, you get an answer something like this:

[16:22:57] <tzar> !som 5132 4247

[16:22:59] <[-Honor-]> »» tzar, possible defence values are 4424 5899

Kzagl was unlucky and forced to get another SoM to work out the exact troops sent against him since the bot retured 2 possible values, so he did.

SOM 3
** Armies #2/#3/#4 (Back in 10:44 hours) **
Ogres: 4,468 (39,676 offense / 10,616 defense)
Captured Land: 178 Acres

Now, let's organize the data again.

Som	Som1	Som2	Som3
Ogres	5132	4247	4468

Now we input the extra number into the SoM calculator, and we get:

[16:25:35] <tzar> !som 5132 4247 4468
[16:25:37] <[-Honor-]> »» tzar, possible defence values are 4424

So, basically the target sent 4424 ogres (well, he sent a few more, but lost some in the attack) to attack Kzagl. If he had sent some soldiers or specialists (or both) you'd have to repeat these steps to figure out how many of those he sent. Now that we've established that beyond doubt, he sent 4424 ogres, we can calculate what is going to be required to successfully ambush.

Orc elites are great for attacking with, not so great for defending with. Because they only have 2 defense, that's what they defend with on an ambush.

Therefore, 4424 Elites * 2 Defense Value = 8,856

'The defense will fight at 80% of its normal capacity.' So, we multiply that number by 0.8

8,856 * 0.8 = 7084.8

Now, this is another important bit, when we calculate how much offense we're going to send, we don't modify it in anyway. If you're using angel's military calculator to do it, make sure you use the RAW OFFENSE number.

If you are just sending (5/0) offensive specialists at the target, you would require

7084.8/5 offspecs (send a few more to compensate for rounding error).

• Sending more than one general does not increase your offense.

You always ambush the last hit made against your province by that particular province. So in this case, if the paper had looked like this: June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 139 acres of land.
June 4th, YR5 piercing through (9:11) invaded Kzagl Elven Grave (3:17) and captured 131 acres of land.
June 4th, YR5 I just been (9:11) invaded KZAGL ELVEN GRAVE (3:17) and captured 25 acres of land.

You would have to ambush the hit for 25 acres before you could ambush the hit for 139 acres. You wouldn't necessarily have to be successful though, because once you've ambushed a hit by a province, you can't ambush that hit again, so the game moves onto the next hit.