Gnomes
Roleplay Info
Hard working and very religious, the diminutive Gnomes are the greatest tinkers and mechanics, they have a passion for mechanical devices, and will spend long hours constructing progressively more complicated gadgets. Related to dwarves, gnomes still differ a lot from their dwarven cousins and spend most of their time deeply submerged in the studies of their awesome machines of war. Being fascinated with everything of Creation, gnomes try to duplicate Nature's most successful designs in their own machines which they use to defend themselves until the Final Cataclysm, which every gnome believes is coming. Their size makes open warfare hard despite the excellence of the machines their craftsmen can forge, but being small also allows them to slip in and out of places without being noticed.
Strengths
Gnomes build the absolute strongest War Machines, have excellent food production, are good at construction, and are capable of using Thieves successfully.
Weaknesses
Overall poor troops, and terrible hire and use of Assassins. Average mana production.
Special Ability
Gnomes have 3 special abilities.
Gaea's Love - Uses stored food to cast a powerful, single turn Aphrodisa (see Spells) on a target. Gaea's Love has a cap of 5 food per population.
Gaea's Presence - Casts the spell Gaea's Presence (see Spells) with maximum duration on a target. Overall power is determined by population and magic skill, but maximum effect is all but guaranteed even with low studies.
Gaea's Wrath - Call upon the forces of nature to attack an enemy kingdom. Up to 5% of troops and 15% of buildings are destroyed by this spell. Overall power is determined by population and magic skill, and a strong patrol of Rangers will defend against it.
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The Numbers
Troop Percentages
| Troop | Quality |
|---|---|
| Archers | 50% |
| Assassins | 20% |
| Clerics | 350% |
| Fighters | 75% |
| Mages | 100% |
| Rangers | 105% |
| Thieves | 200% |
Food Modifiers
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Food Consumed | 0.9 | For every 1 unit of population or military, .9 food is consumed. |
| Food Produced | 1.7 | For every 5 farm parts, 1700 food is produced |
| Population | 0.3 | Population will grow by 30% per turn if housing is available. |
| Cannibalism | 0 | More information on Cannibalism |
Equipment/Construction
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Build Rate | 2.1 | Laborers are 210% as effective as normal laborers when constructing Buildings. |
| Build Equipment Rate | 3 | Laborers are 300% as effective as normal laborers when constructing Weapons, Armor, and War Machines. |
| Armor Usage | 1 | Armor usage is normal. |
| Weapon Usage | 0.75 | Weapon usage is 75% of normal. |
| Armor Study | 5 | Armor study is above normal. |
| Weapon Study | 0.8 | Weapon study is below normal. |
| War Machines Production Quality | 2 | War Machines are produced at 200% of the studied quality. (i.e. 100% study means 200% war machines.) |
| Laborers per War Machine | 0.8 | Number of Laborers required to handle a War Machine is 80% of normal. |
Misc.
| Type | Modifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Assassinate | 0.2 | Assassins are 20% as effective as normal assassins when trying to assassinate others. |
| Loot | 2 | Thieves are 200% as effective as normal thieves when trying to steal from others. |
| Mana | 0.75 | Population will produce mana below the normal rate. |
| Morale | 2 | Morale changes at a rate 200% that of the normal rate. |
| Mutiny | 1.1 | Read more about Mutiny. |
| Search | 1 | Rangers are normal when exploring for land or food. |
| Spy | 1.1 | Spies are 110% as effective as normal spies. |
| General Study | 1 | Study of non-magic areas and general magic skill proceeds at 100% of the normal study rate. |
| Spell Study | 1 | Study in realms of magic proceeds at 100% of the normal spell study rate. |
Strategies
Gnomes are first and foremost a building & equipment race. Their mutiny mod isn't great, so you'll have to play it peaceful at the start. Once you can't really search for land anymore, you'll need to jump on anyone that gives you a retal so you can build up your landbase. You need to be able to make alot of gold as well, and gnomes have several ways of doing this. They can loot gold, they can sell deflectors for profit, they can sell food, or they can just self produce it with that awesome Gaea's Love special and some quickly built economy buildings like marketplaces or colleseums.
The general idea is that once you've accumulated a good land mass and are pulling in alot of gold, you start producing equipment. Gnomes build second best (arguably the best with food mod) warmachines, and are the only race that can produce deflectors. Once you're to the point where you can afford to mass-produce quality equipment, you'll be dominant.
Another note: most people forget that gnomes can also loot very well. In fact, they have 3rd best loot mod in the game. So if you happen to stumble upon anyone with some unprotected goodies, make them pay for it.
Fang's First 200 turn-by-turn Start for Gnomes as of 7/17/2010 ('new gnomes')
Numbers in parenthesis are the amount of land I gained from exploring that turn. This will obviously vary as there is a random factor to land gained. I suggest looking at the next step to see what buildings are being built next so that you know how much land you need to have available. If you can build what's needed, don't explore!
The Gaea's Presence special will convert free land to farms sometimes (which I then destroy when I need the land) and also produce random bumper harvest (which adds food to your storage). That can also affect the results you will get - make sure not to starve. I pushed the food limit a few times relying on getting a bumper harvest to see me through (though don't do this if there is no food on the Open Market to fix after you don't get it!).
Destroy 40 Farms, 10 Outpost, 4 Guard Tower, 5 Armory, 5 Vault
Sell 20 War Machines, sell 500 Mages, and all of your food (You can do this under the Open Market tab - Sell Item)
Build 1 Coliseum for 23 turns
Hire 1881 Laborers
Build 6 Barracks, 5 Villages
Build 11 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Hire 400 Ranger (While not being used right away, this will allow them to train to higher experience before they search -- which means they will find more land)
Build 11 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 11 Villages
Hire 600 Rangers
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Explore for Land (17)
Build 11 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Hire 500 Rangers
Explore for Land (20)
Build 11 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Hire 476 Laborers
Build 12 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Explore for Land (16)
Hire 476 Laborers
Build 10 Villages and 4 Barracks
Build 1 Coliseum
Hire 600 Rangers
Explore for Land (22)
Build 14 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Explore for Land (22)
Hire 714 Laborers
Build 17 Villages
Build 1 Coliseum
Build 1 Coliseum
Explore for Land (19)
Hire 715 Laborers
Build 7 Villages, 4 Barracks, and 10 Training Field
Build 2 Coliseums
Hire 700 Rangers
Explore for Land (18)
Build 3 Marketplace for 8 turns
Hire 1000 Rangers
Explore for Land (17)
Build 3 Marketplace for 2 turns
Use Gaea's Presence Special on yourself (The Special screen is located under the Warfare tab. Don't confuse this with Gaea's Love)
Build 3 Marketplace for 4 turns
Explore for Land (22)
Build 3 Marketplace for 6 turns I gained a Bumper Harvest of 22,000 Food during this turn
Explore for Land (22)
Build 20 Barracks
Hire 700 Rangers
Explore for Land (23)
Explore for Land (15)
Build 40 Farms
Explore for Land (11)
Explore for Land (12)
Build 21 Villages (gained a bumper harvest of 29,000 food during this turn)
Build 2 Coliseum
Explore for Land (17)
Build 21 Villages
Hire 7900 Scholars
Study Economy Skill (1 turn)
Study Construction Skill (1 turn)
Explore for Land (14)
Build 3 Coliseums (Gained 30k bumper harvest during this turn)
Explore for Land (11)
Build 18 Villages, 4 Barracks
Explore for Land (19)
Hire 1191 Laborers
Build 6 Marketplace for 3 turns
Explore for Land (18)
Build 6 Marketplace for 2 turns
Use Gaea's Presence special on yourself
Explore for Land (13)
Explore for Land (11)
Explore for Land (10) -- 32 land converted to farms during this turn
Destroy 32 Farms //This is what I did because my free land got converted the previous turn; Don't do this if that didn't happen!! And don't just copy my number either!
Build 42 Villages
Explore for Land (19)
Build 3 Coliseum
Explore for Land (16)
Build 18 Villages and 1 Coliseum
Explore for Land (14)
Explore for Land (11)
Build 6 Marketplace for 4 turns
Explore for Land (15)
Build 6 Marketplace
Explore for Land (8)
Explore for Land (6)
Explore for Land (10)
Explore for Land (13)
Explore for Land (9)
Build 43 Farms ---> Round to the nearest complete farm; some of my land got converted without my noticing which is why this number is odd
Explore for Land (13)
Explore for Land (8)
Explore for Land (6)
Explore for Land (15)
Build 46 Barracks
Hire 22,000 Scholars
Study Economy Skill for 2 turns
Use Gaea's Presence special on yourself
Hire 3000 Scholars
Study Economy Skill for 12 turns
Study Construction Skill for 7 turns
Study Magic Skill for 4 turns
Study War Machines Skill for 6 turns
Use Gaea's Presence special on yourself
Study War Machine Skill for 9 turns
Sell 30000 Scholars on the Open Market
Hire 9500 Archers, 5200 Clerics, 4000 Fighters
Explore for Land (13)
Explore for Land (13)
Build 20 Training Field and 5 Armory
Explore for Land (10)
Explore for Land (12)
Explore for Land (7)
Build 20 Training Field and 10 Armory
Explore for Land (7)
Explore for Land (11)
Explore for Land (9)
Hire 4047 Laborers
Build 698 Deflectors for 4 turns
Explore for Land (9)
Explore for Land (9)
Build 44 Guard Towers
Explore for Land (12) --- 10 land converted to farms
Explore for Land (10) --- 10 land converted to farms
Explore for Land (6) Bumper Harvest of 30,000 food during this turn
Use Gaea's Presence special on yourself
Destroy 20 Farms and 60 Training Field
Build 56 Guard Tower and 22 Outpost
Explore for Land (13)
Explore for Land (4) --- 49,000 bumper harvest during this turn
Destroy 40 Farms
Build 38 Outpost and 30 Vaults
Destroy 30 Farms
Build 30 Armory, 10 Vaults, 4 Barracks and 1 Coliseum (I only had 49 coliseums; this one should have been built a long time ago)
Destroy rest of Farms Gnomes are good builders, and Farms are the easiest building to build. Destroying these will lower your score slightly, which will make your defense more effective per score. Also, since you lose unbuilt land first during a military attack, this will protect your more difficult buildings from being taken. You will lose land under the new military code, assuming it gets implemented.
Buy or Hire up to 2000 Mages. This will feign having decent defense from spells that Mages resist, making it less likely they will get used on you.
There are other options than this, however. I am considering if it might be beneficial to have less soldiers and more Deflectors for defense, or if it might be better to have more vaults and simply save gold for a stronger recovery after getting attacked.
After these first 200 Strategy Summary (Theoretical at this point in time)
Gnomes make excellent use of War Machines and Deflectors, which means they are very dangerous for retaliating if they have the gold to build them. During these 200 the goal was to get good studies so your kingdom can recover easily from losing land while you sit and gather turns (which is the best way to go about it). Gnomes could easily get a much higher starting score than this strategy, but it would not be as good for the longterm.
During your next 200 you can attempt to use your offensive special to gain some land, take retaliations if you have them, loot gold, and further study your basic skills. You should be able to have at least 600% studies after the end of your next set of turns, ideally 700%. This will put you in a prime position to do real damage and outpace the other kingdoms in the universe. Don't be afraid to crunch it a little. Also, your build modifier is good enough to use schools for this next set of study and have it be worthwhile.
To be updated...
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