Thievery

No one ever said leadership involves only public activities. With a state-sanctioned paramilitary thieves guild available to you, the possibilities are endless. What may not be possible through war or magic may still be possible with deceit and deception. Never underestimate the power of the underground unknown.

Thieves are professional soldiers, trained in the arts of the elite underground and are trained on your Military Menu. They maintain a Stealth Rating which determines when they can be used. This rating rises automatically each day by 3 points and drops each time your thieves conduct an operation. Your thieves will not carry out missions without at least a 5% Stealth Rating.

The best measure of your guild's strength is the number of thieves you maintain per acre of land, often known as Thieves Per Acre (TPA), modified by your Thieves' Dens, your Crime science and your racial bonuses or penalties. The success rate of your guild depends on both your and your target's TPA. The raw damage, however, is based on raw strength - the more thieves you use in an operation, the more damage they can do.

The larger your province, the more difficult it will be to keep your guild well-organized and efficient. As your province grows larger, be prepared to keep training additional thieves to keep your network intact and effective. Like most things in Utopia, thievery operations are easier and more effective against provinces similar to you in size.

Information on how to calculate thief operations can be found here.

Thievery operations are divided in two categories, as listed below:

• Espionage Operations
• Sabotage Operations

The Thieves' Toolbox: The Espionage Operations

The espionage operations will simply gather information regarding the enemy province. Always keep in mind that the numbers displayed by these operations are not accurate and can be out by up to 25%! Nevertheless, sending more thieves when conducting the operation will highly increase the reports accuracy - 10% of your thieves will return completely accurate results (note that Race/Personality bonuses can affect this accuracy).

Spy on Throne

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Gives an estimate of the resources and troops available to a province

• Consumes only 1% Stealth
• Requires 10% of thieves for 100% accuracy.

Snatch News

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Displays the targeted provinces Kingdom Paper

Infiltrate

Reports on the size of your opponent's guild.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Gives an estimate of the number of thieves in the enemy province.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have infiltrated the Thieves' Guilds of [province name] (##:##). They appear to have about X thieves employed across their lands.

Survey

Reports on the distribution of buildings in a province.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Gives an estimate of the buildings in the enemy province, as displayed by the Internal Affairs advisor.
 Operation Message: 

Spy on Military

Provides detailed information from your opponent's army.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Shows the enemy troops out as well as an estimate of troops at home and in training,
                     as displayed by the Military Advisor.
 Operation Message:

Spy on Sciences

Estimates strengths and effects of opponent's science levels.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Gives an estimate of the bonuses an enemy province gains from its science, as displayed on the Science page.
 Operation Message:

The Thieves' Toolbox: The Sabotage Operations

Listed here is a short reference guide to each of the offensive operations available to you and their effects. As mentioned previously, sending more thieves will increase the strength of these operations. Nevertheless, sending too many thieves also increases the chances that the enemy catches your men! Certain operations are designated Unfriendly, Hostile or War Only operations -- Because of the destructive nature of these operations, they can be run only against provinces which have at least a certain level of relations with your kingdom. In addition, you will find that many operations are more effective during heightened relations conditions.

Sabotage Wizards

Reduces opponent's Mana Levels, limiting their ability to cast spells.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect:             Reduces the target provinces mana by a small percentage.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have sabotaged their wizards' ability to cast spells.

Rob the Granaries

Steals food from your opponent's storages.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Steals up to a max of 31.5% (46% in war) enemy food at the rate of 95 (135 in war) bushels per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have returned with X bushels.

Rob the Vaults

Steals gold from enemy coffers.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Steals up to a max of 5.2% (14% in war) enemy gc at the rate of 40 (106 in war) gc per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have returned with X gold coins.

Rob the Towers

Steals runes from your target's wizards.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Steals up to a max of 24.5% (35% in war) enemy runes at the rate of 18.2 (26 in war) runes per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves were able to steal X runes.

Kidnapping

Kidnaps peasants from your enemy and brings them to your province.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Steals up to a max of 1.85% (4% in war) enemy peasants at the rate of 0.132 (0.285 in war) peasants per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves kidnapped many people, but only were able to return with X of them.

You can also refer to Thievery Formulas for more information. Note that gains seem to drop by 50% when the enemy province reaches a certain level of under population. This is designed to make it harder to player-kill.

Arson

Burns down enemy buildings to disrupt an enemy's stability.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Destroys a small amount of enemy buildings.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves burned down X acres of buildings. OR  Unfortunately, our thieves were too few in number to find any buildings to burn.

Greater Arson

A more powerful version of Arson, this operation allows targetting of a specific type of building to burn down. Only Rogues

can master this difficult operation.

 Available to:       Rogues
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect:             Destroys up to a max of 6% of targeted enemy buildings at the rate of 0.0045 buildings per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves burned down X [building type].

• Out of date as of age 63

Night Strike

Assassinates a portion of your enemy's military, both at home and away.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect:             Kills up to a maximum of 13% enemy soldiers at a rate of 0.67 soldiers per thief.
                     Also kills a much smaller amount of specialists and elites. Will affect all troops, even those that aren't home.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves assassinated X enemy troops.

Incite Riots

Incites riots which disrupt tax collection efforts for several days.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Decreases targets income by 20%.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have caused rioting. It is expected to last X days.

Steal Horses

Steals an enemy's horses for your own use.

 Available to:       Raider
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Steals up to 20% of the targets horses at a rate of 0.35 horses per thief.
                     Note that you only gain half of this number as the rest are released.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves were able to release X horses but could only bring back Y of them.

Bribe Thieves

Reduces the ability of an enemy thieves' guild to conduct and defend against thievery operations until the double agents are caught by the enemy.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Reduces thief effectiveness by 10%
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have bribed members of our enemies' guild!

Bribe Generals

Increases the losses sustained by your enemy in all combat until the bribed generals are discovered by the opponent.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Effectively a 1 in 5 chance per attack to increase troop losses by 15% on all combat.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have bribed an enemy general!

Free Prisoners

Releases prisoners from an opponent's dungeons. You gain half of them.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Releases up to a max of 12% (17% in war) of the targets prisoners at a rate of 0.06 (0.07 in war) prisoners per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves freed X prisoners from enemy dungeons.

Assassinate Wizards

Attempts to assassinate enemy wizards to permanently weaken their ability to cast spells. Only Rogues can master this difficult operation.

 Available to:       Rogues
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect:             Kills up to a max of 1.2% target wizards at a rate of 0.006 wizards per thief.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves assassinated X wizards of the enemy's guilds!

Propaganda

Attempts to convince enemy peasants, military, or wizards to revolt and join your province. Only Rogues can master this difficult operation.

 Available to:       Rogues
 Relations Required: War
 Effect:             not fully determined
 Operation Message:  We have converted X [wizards, thieves, soldiers] from the enemy to our guild.
                     OR  We have converted X [of the enemy's specialist troops, (elite unit name) from the enemy] to our army.  
           

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