MILITARY

The Draft
Your first step in building a military is employing a draft. You can set the portion of your population to be drafted and over time, they will be trained into soldiers. You can control the rate of this draft - Reservist, Normal, Aggressive, or Emergency. A higher draft level will allow you to draft more soldiers per day, but at a higher cost per troop. A high draft level may, however, result in less effective troops.


Specialists & Elite Units
While soldiers are necessary, they are fairly weak. You will want to quickly train those soldiers into either Specialist units or Elite units. Specialists provide cheap powerful fighters. Elite units give you more flexibility and special benefits, but cost far more to train and maintain.


Military Efficiency & Pay
Your efficiency is a measure of how effective your army will fight. Efficiency is a function of a number of things, including army size, spells, dragons, buildings, and more. Of biggest concern is your military size - a larger military will be naturally less efficient than a small one. On the other hand, paying your troops higher wages can counteract this and increase efficiency over time.

The key to survival in Utopia is a strong and sustainable military. Almost everything else you do will likely be focused on being able to develop this area of your province. Your military consists of four (4) basic military units, as well as several generals to lead them in combat. I will take this opportunity to explain how your military structure works.
Your Generals
Each province maintains a military leadership of five generals, with slight variations for certain races. One of these generals remains at home at all times to lead your defense. The remaining generals may be sent to combat at any time, and they remain with your army during battle. Without a general at home, you will not be able to send additional forces to combat, so you have the ability to maintain five separate attack brigades at any given time. In any attack, you may send additional generals, giving you more strategic options and resulting in 5% additional military effectiveness for each general sent.

Your Military Units
Your military is composed of a mix of three types of units. Soldiers are cheap but weak - these are the conscripts in your army which can be easily replaced. Specialists can be trained only to attack or defend and can be a key component of any army. Elite units are capable of both attacking and defending, and offer special abilities in addition to their military capabilities. Elite unit strength varies by race; special abilities vary by personality. You can learn more about these unique features in Chapter II: Races and Personalities.

Military Effectiveness and Wages
Each day, you must pay your army wages. This money is used for training and other purposes, so raising pay will increase your military's strength over time. You may pay your military anywhere from 50% to 200% of their "normal" pay levels as described below.

Your army's pay, combined with its size and other factors such as spells and buildings, will determine its overall fighting effectiveness. For example, a 10 soldier army with 110% effectiveness will fight as though it were 11 soldiers. As your army grows, you will find its effectiveness may fall - this is the result of training lower quality troops. More information on this can be found in your Military Advisor.

Training Your Military
Acquiring basic Soldiers is based on the draft of your peasant population. Drafting an individual requires time and money - the more you would like to draft per day, the higher the cost. You may set both a Draft Speed and a Draft Rate to determine what portion of your total populace will be drafted into the military. For example, a 30% Draft Rate will train 3 of every 10 peasants in your kingdom into your army.

Drafting a soldier costs money and will automatically be taken out of your coffers. If you do not have available funds for the draft, only those soldiers which you can afford will be drafted. As you draft a larger portion of your populace, you will find that the costs begin to rise and the effectiveness of your military begins to drop. It is up to you to determine the ideal size of your military.

Once your peasant has been trained into a soldier, you can spend more time and money to train them into any of the more advanced combat forces. This allows to you to build a stronger army without consuming a larger portion of your peasant population. However, these more advanced forces require higher daily wages as described below. It is up to you to determine the right mix of forces within your army.


The Actual Numbers: Military Capabilities
  Unit #1
Basic Soldier
Unit #2
Offensive
Unit #3
Defensive
Unit #4
Elite Force
Offensive
Battle Strength
150*
Defensive
Battle Strength
105*
Cost Varies$350$350*
Wages None$1.5/Day$1.5/Day$1.5/Day

* Elite values & costs vary by race and can be viewed in Chapter II: Races & Personalities.