3. What units should I build in LOU? 
By ICEBURGH

It depends completely on the situation at hand, every troop has their use and it is up to you to choose which unit types you need in a particular area, and therefore what castle layout to use. By the time you are finished reading both this guide and the PvP Combat guide, you should have a better idea of which unit types to build and how to use them.

FIRST:  Always make sure you can support your military. Each unit has their own recruitment cost, but above all make sure you can feed your troops.  After every few castles you should make a food city using this layout (http://louopt.com/VOpz). By now you should have read QueenDeb’s guide about how to run your empire efficiently in order to support a large military.

SECOND:  Make sure you research your Unit Combat Strength in the research tab often and keep doing so as you title up. The best way to make sure your research is up to date is to consider your Title. Focus on the troops that you use most often as this is expensive.

Emperor – 40-50%

King – 30-40%

Duke – 20-30%

Prince – 10-20%

Zerk castles are your bread and butter: They bring home major moolah by raiding dungeons. If you are on a safe continent, consider building a large amount of them as their raiding will produce well over 3x the amount of a regular resource city (once a full castle of zerks is raiding high level dungeons consistently with the war minister). They are also great in PvP but always be sure to scout out your enemy to find out what you are up against.

Other troop types:  It is only in a war zone that you will really need to build other types of troops to counter the enemy, and their uses in PvP will be discussed below.  The only other castle types you likely want to have on a safe continent apart from Zerks are Defense Castles, many of which are on the water (if your alliance has a good navy), which can be used to send defense to support water castles of yours or allies on foreign continents (very useful for invasions of enemy continents!). But also to defend our palaces on our home continents from attacks through moongates.

Below I will discuss all the units used in Lord in Ultima, their advantages and weaknesses.

A units effectiveness is decided by 8 things:

1. TS of the unit

2. Attack Power

3. Unit Type (Inf, Cav, Magic, Artillery... determines how well certain troops DEFEND against you)

4. Defensive Values (Anti-Inf, Anti-Cav, Anti-Mag, Anti-Art - used for defending ONLY)

5. Food eaten/day

6. Travel speed (Inf = 20 mins/tile, Cav = 10 mins/tile, Siege = 30 mins/tile, etc.)

7. Recruitment cost/speed (Cost and amount of time to build the unit)

8. Raiding ability (Attack power + Loot capacity)

TS: Indicates how much troop space the unit takes up in a barracks. A level 10 barrack has space for 1,000 TS. Therefore, it can hold 1,000 infantry, 500 Cavalry, or 100 Siege:

Infantry = 1 TS, Cavalry = 2 TS, Siege = 10 TS, Sloops/Frigates = 100 TS, Galleons = 400 TS

As units with more TS (heads) are a) more expensive and b) take up more troop space, it is useful to break down a unit’s stats per TS (head). (i.e. Stats for units with 2 TS are divided by half). The chart below will give you an idea of the differing strengths of each unit:

Note: Cavalry units eat more/day than their infantry equivalents per TS.  They are generally less effective statistically per TS, however, this is compensated by their added speed. Also, do not forget that with better stats comes a higher recruitment cost and recruitment speed (e.g. Mages are the best attacker in the game, but are also the most expensive and slow-building infantry unit). Keep in mind that certain troops are better at raiding, and that raiding should be the backbone of your economy.

(To find out stats of a unit in-game, go to the ‘Recruitment” tab above the build queue and hover over a unit’s picture. Values shown there do not consider Stats per TS/head.)

OFFENSIVE UNITS

Offensive units are used to attack and raid only, at no point should they be used as defense (unless extremely desperate) as they have poor defensive stats.

Berzerkers: (Training ground) Cheap and fastest offensive troop to recruit.  BEST raiders - in time should form the backbone of your economy through raiding.  They do fairly well against all defensive troop types EXCEPT Rangers.  Average against: Everything except Rangers, Weak to: Rangers, Frigates, Sloops, Fairly weak to: Guardians, Paladin

Knights:  (Stable) Used to counter other defensive troop types, especially Rangers, Paladins and Ballista. They are good raiders, but shouldn’t be considered over Zerks for this purpose as they eat ALOT of food per hour.  They are also more expensive and slower to recruit than Zerks. They are quick so are good if you need a timely assault mid-baron siege for example. Strong against: Rangers, Paladin and Ballista,  Weak to: Guardians,  Sloops, Fairly weak to: Templars

Mages:  (Moonglow) Very expensive and slow to recruit. Best used as a counter to rangers and guardians. They have the highest attack power per TS of any land unit in the game so are excellent at dealing a large amount of damage in an assault. Strong against: Rangers, Guardians, Ballista, Ships Weak to: Templar, Paladin

Warlocks:  (Moonglow) Very expensive and slow to recruit.  Basically a faster mage. Therefore, like the Knight, it is good for quick assaults but also eat alot per day. Technically it is stronger than the mage, however since it takes up 2 TS per unit while mages only take 1, a full castle of Mages is actually better than a full castle of Locks per TS. Strong against: Rangers, Guardians, Ballista, Ships Weak to: Templar, Paladin

Catapults:  (Workshop) Very slow to recruit, these siege engines are used to destroy the buildings inside an enemy castle. They are very weak against any kind of defense, unless the defending TS is much smaller in comparison. For this reason, Catapult sieges are almost always preceded by “clearing waves” of Zerks, Knights and Mages so that these war machines face no resistance when it is their turn to fight. Strong against: Enemy Buildings, Weak to: Everything, especially Ballista

Rams:  (Workshop) Very slow to recruit, these siege engines are used to destroy the walls inside an enemy castle. They are very weak against any kind of defense, unless the defending TS is much smaller in comparison. For this reason, Ram sieges are almost always preceded by “clearing waves” of Zerks, Knights and Mages so that these war machines face no resistance when it is their turn to fight. Strong against: Walls, Weak to: Everything, especially Ballista

DEFENSIVE UNITS

Defensive units are used to defend (and raid, if not needed for defense), at no point should they be used to attack as they have awful offensive stats.  All troops get defensive bonuses from the walls except for ships.  Defensive INFANTRY troops (Rangers, Guardians Templar) as well as Ballistas will use their corresponding towers for a 100% bonus to each troop the towers can hold.  Mounted troops such as Crossbows and Paladin only get bonuses from the walls as there are no towers in the game for them.

Ranger:  (Training ground) Cheapest and quickest to recruit, the ranger defends great against Zerks. Decent raiders when not needed for defense. Uses Ranger Towers.  Very weak to Mages, Warlocks and Knights. Strong DEFENDING against: Zerks, Weak DEFENDING against: Knights, Mages, Warlocks

Guardian:  (Training ground) More expensive than the ranger, but fairly quick to recruit, the Guardian is great against Knights (and paladins should someone be stupid enough to throw them at you).  Uses Guardian Towers.  It also does decent against Zerks but is very weak to magic. Not good for raiding unless combined with Zerks or Rangers. Strong DEFENDING against: Knights, OKAY against Zerks,  Weak DEFENDING against: Mages, Warlocks

Crossbows:  (Stable) More or less a mounted guardian.  They are much faster than the guardian but the guardian is better statistically TS to TS. Very effective against Knights + Paladin and decent against Zerks. Very weak to magic.  Not good for raiding and eat alot.  Does not use towers.  Strong DEFENDING against: Knights, OKAY against Zerks, Weak DEFENDING against: Mages, Warlocks

Templar:  (Trinsic Temple) Anti-magic.  Strong against mages and warlocks, Templars are decent against Knights but are weak to Zerks. Decent for raiding but not ideal. Uses Templar Towers.  Strong DEFENDING against: Mages + Warlocks, OKAY against Knights, Weak DEFENDING against: Zerks

Paladin:  (Trinsic Temple) Fast mounted Anti-magic. Strong against mages and warlocks, does decent against Zerks but is weak to Knights (opposite of Templar in that regard).  Good at raiding, preferable IMO over templars for this reason as well as speed for quick defensive support. Does not use towers.  Strong DEFENDING against: Mages + Warlocks, OKAY against Zerks, Weak DEFENDING against: Knights

Ballista:  (Workshop) Fantastic against Catapults, Rams and Ships, but fairly weak against everything else. Best to pile them in with a large amount of other defensive types to give an advantage against Catapults and Ram sieges.  Uses Ballista Towers.  Strong DEFENDING against: Catapults + Rams + Ships, Weak DEFENDING against: All other types

NAVAL UNITS

Can only be built in water castles. They can only attack or travel to other water castles, either on the same continent or anywhere in the world.

War Galleon:  (Shipyard) Offensive navy unit worth 400 TS space and can only be trained in WATER castles. Very expensive and slow to recruit, these are basically Catapults on water.  They don’t deal much offensive damage (30 base attack per TS, same as the ranger) but are excellent at destroying buildings. They can only attack other water castles.  Strong against: Walls/traps + Buildings, Weak to: Everything, especially Ballista

Sloop:  (Shipyard) Defensive navy unit worth 100 TS space and can only be trained in WATER castles. Expensive and slow to recruit, they are very good against all unit types except magic. They can only support other water castles. Strong DEFENDING against: Zerks, Knights and Siege equipment, Weak to: Mages and Warlocks

Frigate:  (Shipyard) Navy unit worth 100 TS space and can only be trained in WATER castles.  Expensive and slow to recruit, Frigates are used to transport troops across water to other continents.  Each Frigate can transport 500 TS worth of land troops. Not recommended for defending (especially over sloops) as their best use is for transporting.  Strong DEFENDING against: Zerks + Knights, Weak to: Mages + Warlocks + Siege equipment + War Galleons

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Scouts: (Stable) Ineffective as an Offensive or Defensive unit, the Scout has the special ability to gather information from enemy castles. Using the “Scout” command, Scouts will attack only enemy Scouts, the result of which will determine how much information is shown to the Attacker via a Scout Report. Use them to Scout other people, or to defend your own castles/cities from being Scouted.

II. HOW EFFICIENT MILITARY BUILDS WORK

Military cities or castles are meant to build troops of a specific type.  Their effectiveness is primarily measured by a good balance of Overall TS (maximum troop capacity) and Recruitment Speed.  It will become quite obvious why it is important to build only troops of ONE recruitment type, and that offensive and defensive troops should not be mixed.

Overall TS: The maximum amount of units this city/castle can hold.

1 unit of Infantry=1 TS (e.g. 1 zerk)

1 unit of Cavalry=2 TS (e.g. 1 knight)

1 unit of Siege Equipment=10 TS (e.g. 1 catapult)

A lvl 10 barracks can house 1k TS. Generally the best layouts allow you to house between 250-300k troops. This number will vary with each type of unit as you discover your preferred military layout.  Adding a castle will increase your Overall TS by 300%.

Recruitment speed: Determined by the amount of recruitment buildings (training grounds, stable, moonglow and trinsic).

Each recruitment building increases the recruitment speed of the troop it creates. Therefore a single lvl 10 training grounds will increase the recruitment speed of Berzerkers, Rangers and Guardians by an additional 150%.

IMPORTANT: Barracks give bonuses to your recruitment speeds too! Every recruitment building a barracks touches will gain an extra 25% recruitment speed, so this makes layouts VERY important.

LAYOUTS: Suggested layouts according to troop type can be found on pg.7.  Below I will break down how good military layouts are justified in City Planner 2, in the case you wanted to make your own or tweak existing ones.

Note: If you do not yet have the LoU Tweak extension you will not be able to open your own cities as shown here, please read QueenDeb’s guide on how to import and export layouts into City Planner 2

Above is a Zerk castle layout (located at this link: http://louopt.com/OYnz). As you can see, barracks are positioned to touch as many of the recruitment buildings (training grounds in this case) as possible. To find out more about the military capabilities of a city or castle, click the “Military” tab that is circled above. Below you will see this information:

In the very top right corner is listed some basic information from left to right: Total number of buildings, Construction speed %, and current maximum TS. As you can see, this castle is capable of housing 300k TS.

Below this on the right are listed the overall recruitment percentages for each recruitment building type. As this castle is built to recruit Zerks quickly, we have built many training grounds. Because of the recruitment speed bonus they give (and the extra bonus from touching barracks), units recruited at the training grounds are built 5850% faster than their base recruitment speed.

The numbers in the row right of the golden clock symbol are the amount of seconds it takes to recruit each troop type in this castle. The total amount of seconds is rounded up from .5s and down from .49s. In this case we are able to recruit a zerk every 3 seconds (rounded down from 3.42s). The best way to make a layout is first to decide how fast you want to build your troop, then to find out how to maximize the overall TS by placing barracks efficiently. In this instance I managed to get 3s Zerks with an overall TS of 300k.

Finally, the red numbers indicate how much food will be consumed per hour when the castle is at its maximum TS capacity.

Other Essential Castle Buildings

Hideout:  Commonly overlooked but ESSENTIAL building. By having one hideout in your castle, you are not able to completely starved out from an enemy plunder. If your food reaches 0 at any time, 10% of the troops within that castle (including supporting troops from allies if under siege at the time) will immediately die, losing another 10% every hour afterward. Give you and your teammates some time to react and send food by having ONE of these in here to avoid “insta-starvation.”

Warehouses:  Needed in all military cities/castles to store the resources necessary to build your city, and to recruit and feed troops. 2 Warehouses should be all you need as long as your supplying hub is within a few hours (especially depending on food consumption/h!). To increase food production further, you can place a Mill touching them.

Markets:  If you wish to raid and plunder with this castle/city, you will need markets to supply the carts necessary to ship the res back to your hub for distribution. This is a MUST in zerk and knight castles, as raiding is the best way to produce resources for your empire.

Trinsic Temple:  A MUST for offensive castles (except Siege Equipment + War Galleon castles), if you wish to train barons and capture enemy castles using this castle. Not needed in defense castles.

Moonglow:  You don’t want to lose your hard-earned resources from raids and plunders due to over capacity, therefore, in all raiding castles (typically Zerks, Knights and Paladins) build one moonglow tower which will auto-purify any incoming resources that exceed storage capacity.

Below you will find suggested military layouts for each type of unit.

RECOMMENDED LAYOUTS

LAND OFFENSE

2s Zerk - 268k TS  http://louopt.com/gK3s

3s Zerk - 304k TS  http://louopt.com/aK3s

5s Knights - 252k TS  http://louopt.com/pK3s

6s Knights - 276k TS  http://louopt.com/wK3s

7s Knights - 292k TS  http://louopt.com/IT3s

5s Mages - 232k TS  http://louopt.com/3N3s

6s Mages - 264k TS  http://louopt.com/pO3s

11s Warlock - 224k TS  http://louopt.com/EO3s

21s Rams - 220k TS  http://louopt.com/xP3s

33s Catapults - 220k TS http://louopt.com/OO3s

LAND DEFENSE

3s Rangers, 4s Guardians - 292k TS  http://louopt.com/tL3s

3s Ranger-Specific - 292k TS  http://louopt.com/tL3s

4s Guardian-Specific - 300k TS  http://louopt.com/yQ3s

4s Templar, 8s Paladin - 272k TS  http://louopt.com/IL3s

4s Templar-Specific - 280k TS  http://louopt.com/gM3s

5s Templar-Specific - 300k TS http://louopt.com/YNzz

7s Paladin-Specific - 252k TS  http://louopt.com/MM3s

8s Paladin-Specific - 276k TS  http://louopt.com/1M3s

6s Crossbows - 260k TS  http://louopt.com/7Fgt

7s Crossbows - 276k TS  http://louopt.com/1Xkt

30s Ballista - 224k TS  http://louopt.com/qP3s

NAVY OFFENSE

2s Zerks + Frigates - 228k TS http://louopt.com/Aypz

3s Zerks + Frigates - 272k TS http://louopt.com/8xpz

6s Mages + Frigates - 212k TS http://louopt.com/azpz

5s Knights + Frigates - 208k TS http://louopt.com/vzpz

6s Knights + Frigates - 236k TS http://louopt.com/qzpz

70 minute War Galleons - 340k TS http://louopt.com/Uzpz

NAVY DEFENSE

3s Rangers, 4s Guardians + Frigates - 252k TS http://louopt.com/jLzz

4s Templars + Frigates - 236k TS http://louopt.com/IMzz

5s Templars + Frigates - 264k TS http://louopt.com/ANzz

22 minute Sloops - 340k TS http://louopt.com/Uzpz