Here comes a little guide on how to become a terrorist-thief.......

For me and many others this has been an easy way to get a lot of power with low NW. As you probably know; thieves can have such enormous power. One little(?) terrorist thief can sink a top 100 Province very fast...

One of the best things with being a thief is that you don't have to bother looking for landgrabs, atleast not later in the game. Here comes a complete guide on how to become a real pain in the ass for your enemies:
 

The Beginning(0k-300k NW)

First you'll have to choose a race. I chosed Dwarf because I knew that I would start offensive and grow big in the beginning(more about that later) but it's very personal. The best race is probably Faery because they have those damn Beastmasters who are unbeatable in defense. But if you are, like me and MANY others, tired of Faerys and think that they are so damn booring to play I would advice you to choose Elf or Dwarf. Both these races has got good defense(6) and both of em know how to attack, which is very usefull the first weeks. :) The reason why I've chosed not to recommend Halflings is that they are this rounds punch bags. The main reason to this is that the high NW fools the player to gain more land and get more lanfat. Halfgiants totally suck too because you need 3 of em to equalize 2 Elf Lords/Zerks. That's a HUGE difference.
Elfs/Dwarfs may therefore build 1/3 more thieves than Halflings who have got that +25% Thievery bonus. So in conclusion: Elfs/Dwarves will get 8% better ratio and 33% more thieves than halflings can. Simple math. Hehe.

Homes, guilds, homes, guilds and some more homes is the key to success. It's not THAT simple but almost. Your opening structure should be something like this:
40% Homes What can I say? The most important aspect of the game is a lot of peasants.
10% Guilds Magic is important, especially for terrorists.
10% Towers Just to keep some storage room for the runes you'll steal. :)
10% Armouries Makes your elite units and thieves much cheaper.
10% Farms You gotta feed your people
10% Strongholds This may look a little bit strange but it will be explained later.
8% Guard Stations Noone is going to take my land.
2% Shipyards Yes..you'll have to attack to grow...

Closer explanation: This strat allows you to be up there fighting with the top 100 provinces in the beginning. That will keep others from attacking you. That's why the Strongholds/Guard Stations are included. Be offensive. Grab a lot. Another tip is to follow Hidden Carnage "Dwarf tactic" until you reach 300k NW and then you switch to my "Time to convert from a regular player to a terrorist"-tactic...
 

The rest of the game(300k--->)

This is th time to convert from a regular player to a terrorist.

When you reach 300k NW it's time to stop training military like all the others do. It's time to change everything. By now you should have somewhere around 2000 acres, 300k NW and 15k Elite Troops. That's not any exact numbers, just a fingerpoint on how your province should look like...
Now it's rebuilding time. This will slow your growth heavily but it will also take you one step towards that terrorist province you want to be. These are the numbers you should rebuild to:

55% Homes
20% Guilds
15% Farms
10% Towers

When you have these buildings it's time to start training those thieves! Look up a few goldtargets so you can afford re-building your acres, drafting max and training thieves max. Your pop should be up to somewhere around 40-45k Peasants by now so you can train 4k Thieves per day. Then you'll just have to sit there and draft, train, draft, train.....until you pop is down to 10k. By then you should have like 50-60k Thieves. Time to drop the land. You don't HAVE to do this but if you want to be a REAL pain in the ass it's time to drop your dear, hard earned acres. I think the best way is to drop down from 2k acres to 1k acres. That will double your thieve-ratio AND your wizard ratio. There are of course different ways to drop your acres but I have my personal favorite: First make a Missionary/learn attack with 50% of your elites. Then you wait to the very last hour BEFORE your troops comes home. Then you send out the rest of your troops to another target and takes some peasants/science points from him. That way you will have your acres totally undefended for an hour. Time to call in some friends and make em take the acres from ya. IMPORTANT: Don't tell it to too many ppl. Hehe.

This is about it. If you follow these steps you'll be a pain in the ass for all your enemies with your 60-1 Thieve ratio and your 2-1 Wizard ratio. :)

Here's a good strat to completely ruin a person's Province;
Day one; Kill his Wizzards. Throw Amnesias and Expose Thieves(not that neccessary because you probably have 6 time better ratio than him but anyway)
Dat two; The most important day, Arson. Burn his homes. All of em. *aaarrggghhh* Throw a lot of Fireballs so his peasants will go down fast...
Day three; Sink his boats so he can't break you. This is also a very good way to prevent him from recovering. Throw Vermin, Amnesias and all the other destructive spells on him. By this time he will be so depressed that he will quit playing the game. Hehe.

Notice: It's no idea to starve the guy. It's almost impossible since all the other provinces in the Kingdom can send food to him. Lots of food. It's much more effective to burn him...hehe....I really hope that they will keep Arson for the next round too. The game will won't be any fun without it!*evil grin*

Be well and I hope that you won't burn ME. Hehe.

Join my club,

Lars, (UIN; 7428797)

Play the game at http://games.eesite.com/utopia/     and good luck!!!!