Roleplay Info

Evil is the first word that comes to mind and deadly is the second. Some of the stealthiest assassins and thieves are dark elves - so quick and deadly that most never suspect that they are about to die. Smaller and far more aggressive than other elves, dark elves prefer to keep away from sunlight and open spaces and live underground. Using their special ability of Dark Power they can steal mana not only from their enemies' mana reserves but also by sapping the power of spells and protective barriers. They have excellent mages and good archers and clerics, which combined with their ability to sap barriers makes them very powerful on the attack. They are good at all covert operations and can also use magic very effectively. Basically they are willing to take on almost any enemy and use any means to destroy them. Their underground habitat makes farming difficult and you will rarely find a dark elf kingdom that can sustain a very large population. Fortunately dark elves study very fast and can compensate for their weaknesses by improving magic skill and economy and learning and using spells to their advantage. Dark elves have very poor rangers and most of their land will be gained in battle and not from exploring.

Strengths

Excellent Mages, good Archers and good Clerics, excellent Assassins, very good at all covert operations, good at studying, excellent Mana production, lower consumption and low Mutiny.

Weaknesses

Very bad at exploring and very poor food production.

Special Ability

Dark Power - Steals mana from your enemies and from spells on their kingdoms and adds it to your own mana reserves. The strength of the Dark Power is determined by the dark elf's Population and Magic Skill.

Back to Races

The Numbers

Troop Percentages

Food Modifiers

Equipment/Construction

Misc.

Strategies

General Strategies

Dark Elves are certainly a mana race, but also enjoy having arguably the best base troops of any of the mana races. Although their Mages pale in comparison to Sprites and Leprechauns, their Clerics and Archers are certainly more balanced, and their Assassins are to be feared.

Any Dark Elf player is going to spend a significant portion of the game overcoming their poor food production - it's a steep hill. Since they're a mana race, the easiest way to do this is with a few food supplementing spells. Fasting and Gaea's Presence aren't too hard to acquire early on, but they will distract you from studying spells that are probably more useful for a dark elf.

As far as the search mod goes, this means you're going to have to play aggressively and go to war more often that your other elven brethren. This can be alot of fun, especially if you play to your strengths on your attack runs. Dark Elves have excellent covert ops & mana production, which means your preferred methods of prepping targets should be Assassination and damage spells.

Mana Battery

This trick is unique to Dark Elves, but has fallen out of practice a bit. The idea is as follows: the Dark Elf Special, mana sapping, can allow you to accumulate a LOT of mana. However, sometimes there aren't too many targets around with tons of mana to steal. So some clever Dark Elf solved this problem by casting a lot of friendly spells on a target, then SAPPING OFF HIS OWN MANA! You should be careful, as some spells don't really stack, but Physical Barriers etc. or anything split over 2 turns will sit and is sappable. Bless is a good spell to use if no other spells are available.

The amount you can sap is dependent entirely on your Population and Magic Skill, so study this up! Then you can dump a bunch of friendly mana on a target, sap them 5 times and use all that mana to create giant barriers on yourself. It is true that you're giving out retaliations by sapping, but the hope is that you'll use the mana you gain to create impenetrable barriers. On that note, it's usually better to use poor mana races as battery targets - Goblins, Ogres, Trolls, etc. This gives you a little insurance on the hope that they won't be able to take down your barriers.

The downside to this strategy is that it burns up alot of turns, so it can really slow you down.

back to Races

Links