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 10% 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:

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.

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:

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: Gives an estimate of the enemy troops out as well as an estimate of troops 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 Offensive Operations

Listed here is a short reference guide to each of the offensive operations available to you and their effects. As mentionned 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 except Undead
 Relations Required: Unfriendly
 Effect: Reduces the target provinces mana by a small percentage.
 Operation Message:

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:

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:

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:

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 1.75% (2.5% in war) enemy peasants at the rate of 0.1 (0.27 in war) peasants per thief.
 Operation Message:

Arson

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

 Available to: All except Undead
 Relations Required: All
 Effect: Destroys a small amount of enemy buildings.
 Operation Message:

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 targetted enemy buildings at the rate of 0.0045 buildings per thief.
 Operation Message:

Night Strike

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

 Available to: All except Undead
 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.
 Operation Message:

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:

Steal Horses

Steals an enemy's horses for your own use.

 Available to: All
 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.
 Operation Message:

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:

Bribe Generals

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

 Available to: All
 Relations Required: All
 Effect: Coming Soon
 Operation Message:

Free Prisoners

Releases prisoners from an opponent's dungeons.

 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:

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 1.4% target wizzards at a rate of 0.007 wizzards per thief.
 Operation Message:

Propaganda

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