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. Nevertheless, sending 5% of your thieves will return completely accurate results .

Spy on Throne

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Gives an estimate of the resources and troops available to a province
 Difficulty:         very low
 Meter Movemement:   0 

• Consumes only 1% Stealth

Spy on Defense

Reports enemy's standing defenses.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Reveals Net Defensive Points at Home
 Difficulty:         very low
 Meter Movemement:   0 

• Consumes only 1% Stealth

Spy on Exploration

Gives current pool size, and costs per acre in gold and soldiers.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Reveals pool size, and costs per acre in gold and soldiers.
 Difficulty:         very low
 Meter Movemement:   0

Snatch News

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Displays the targeted provinces Kingdom Paper
 Difficulty:         low
 Meter Movement:     0

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.
 Difficulty:         low
 Meter Movement:     0

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:
 Difficulty:         low
 Meter Movemement:   0

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:
 Difficulty:         low
 Meter Movemement:   0

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:
 Difficulty:         low
 Meter Movement:     0

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

Drains the target's Mana levels for several days, limiting the ability to cast spells.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect:             Reduces Mana level by 5% of current level each Tick, before Mana regeneration.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have sabotaged their wizards' ability to cast spells.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0

Destabilize Guilds

Decreases the target’s Spell Duration for several days.

 Available to:       Rogues
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Decreases the target’s Duration of Self Spell and Offensive Spell casts while the effect is active by 20%.
 Operation Message:  
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movemement:   0.06

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.12

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.09

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.12

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.24

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].
 Difficulty:         high
 Meter Movement:     0.3

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 16.25% 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.  
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.24

Incite Riots

Incites riots which disrupt tax collection efforts for several days.

 Available to:       All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect:             Decreases targets income by 15%.
 Operation Message:  Our thieves have caused rioting. It is expected to last X days.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.18

Steal War Horses

Steals an enemy's horses for your own use.

 Available to:       Rogue
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.18

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!
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.09

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!
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.09

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.
 Difficulty:         medium
 Meter Movement:     0.03

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!
 Difficulty:         high
 Meter Movement:     0.36

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.  
 Difficulty:         high
 Meter Movement:     0 (War Only)

Changelog

• Age 106: Meter movements updated to reflect forum changes of "all values have tripled" on 6 May 2024.
• Age 106: NS updated to reflect 25% more damage on 29 May 2024.

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