Guide:Combo Selection
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Your Race and Personality combo is extremely important. It will affect how you play Utopia and what spells and ops you have available to you. To decide what Race and Personality bests suits you first need to select what role you will play in the kingdom. Will you play as a full out attacker, will you dabble in Ops or Spells. Quite often you will work with your kingdom and other players to provide cover in areas others are lacking.
There are a wide but set variety of possible playing styles, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. All are discussed here in very limitted detail. All recommended combinations are simply that- recommended. There is no such thing as a "wrong" combination of race and personality (however, there are inefficient ones) and all players should play as they feel comfortable. If unsure, ask a kingdommate or friend to help you decide. It is always a good idea to ask for advice and input from your kingdom when it comes to deciding what you're going to focus on in the coming age.
Before dipping (albeit broadly) into the choices available to a newcomer it is worth mentioning two almost conflicting virtues of Utopia- It is illegal and wrong to be forced to choose a certain style, theme, race or personality by your king, kingdom or alliance. You don't have to do what you don't want to do. Yet even so, you should remember that Utopia is a teambased environment and there is much to be said for the pride and pleasure earned from having a united theme or an organised group of attackers. The balance between being an individual and playing for the kingdom is one that is addressed in the decisions you and your fellow kingdommates make every day. It is upto you how to view that balance.
Contents
Utopia Province Role Types
Pure
Attacker
Any players that exclusively attacks enemy provinces is known as an attacker. This is done through the War Room page, and allows the attacker to take land and other resources from enemy provinces. Attacking is the most common style of play, and almost any race is capable of attacking effectively, with the Warrior and War Hero personality most often cited as useful personalities to accompany an attacking player.
Thief
As intended here this playing style would be better off known as "pure" thief or "superthief", in that they are not capable of attacking, nor are they generally able to perform concerted magical offenses. Their sole expertise lies in thief operations such as Nightstrike and Kidnapping. The Halfling and Gnome races are specifically geared towards thievery, as is the Rogue personality.
Mage
Similarly to the Thief style above, magic-only players are normally called "pure" mage or "supermage". Likewise, they do not attack, nor do they carry out thief operations beyond simple (link)intelgathering, instead relying on spells like Fireball, Tornado and Meteor Shower. Both Elves and Faeries make excellent mages, and the Mystic personality is an vital and natural choice for the pure mage.
Warning
It is worth mentioning that both the supermage and superthief are generally considered to be poor choices. While their respective talents are often ummatched, many players and kingdoms believe that to focus on only one discipline of the three is, for lack of a better word; lazy. While attempting to play all three styles is generally not recommended unless the player is very confident in his or her abilities, simply playing one style is often inefficient. As an example, even as traditionally "pure" a thief race as Gnome has qualities that makes it an worthwhile choice for attacking. Pure attacker is not generally seen as a problem, but it is often possible to dabble in the arcane or the underground while retaining an impressive army.
Hybrid
As explained above, any player who uses only one discipline (attacking, thievery or spellcasting) is known as a pure member of that discipline. Conversely, any player who uses two or more disciplines is known as a hybrid. Hybrids are normally differenciated by a slash (/) between the two chosen disciplines, and are often referred to ingame by the first letter of each style. For example, an Attacker/Thief is known as an A/T. The possible variations are:
Attacker/Thief
As expected, attacker/thieves both hit for land and use their thieves to steal, kidnap or kill enemy resources, peasants and troops (respectively). Gnomes and Humans make excellent attacker/thieves, whereas Dwarves make poor ones, and virtually any personality bar Mystic comes recommended. Rogue, once again, is especially useful.
Attacker/Mage
Using both armies and magic, attacker/mages are often deployed against an enemy's economy as well as their lands. Elves and Dark Elves are equally good at this craft overall but Elves are better at attacking and Dark Elves better at magic. Mystic isn't a requirement to be a useful A/M, but without it many struggle to build up the necessary number of wizards to be an effective mage and therefore need more time to get ready.
Thief/Mage
Thief/Mages (T/M) rather obviously utilise both thief operations and spells. They seldom sent out troops (often not having any offense whatsoever), instead focussing on crippling enemy provinces without taking land. Normally this is done through extensive Nightstrikes, Meteor Showers, Fireballs and other assaults from several players onto one enemy province. Once their target has been sufficiently softened up, the attackers move in to take the acres. Elves, Gnomes and Dark Elves all make strong t/m.
Attacker/Thief/Mage
Seldom seen, the A/T/M is a challenging effort to play as all three disciplines at once. Due to space and income limitations it's currently extremely difficult to play as an A/T/M, but it can be done. At the players own risk. The writer is nowhere near skilled enough to guess what the "best" choice for this playing style is. If you're new to Utopia, it's highly recommended you don't try to play as this.
Explorer/Bank
Normally only attempted by top kingdoms, a bank is an extremely large province that from early in the age is made to grow to tremendous size with the aid of the rest of the kingdom. He or she then performs many useful tasks, such as paying for and killing dragons and aiding the growth of the smaller provinces in the kingdom. Humans make excellent banks, as do Dwarves, usefully combined with the Sage or Merchant personalities.
An explorer is related but different. While banks are a kingdomwide effort, explorers normally involve one player growing exclusively for his/her own benefit, often to the detriment of their kingdommates. Explorers are generally regarded as "useless" as they do not attack, perform ops or cast spells. Explorers are considered selfish and undesirable by many kingdoms. Dwarves are excellent explorers, but any race can do it, as can any personality.
