t/m is short for thief/mage. their purpose is to do stealth operations, ops, and magic spells on other players. these spells can be as simple as a crystal ball, used to gather information on another province, or as complex as a land lust, used to take an enemy’s land. ops can also be used to gather information or just nightstrike an opponents troops. t/m’s tend to have a lower draft rate then attackers, but they have more thieves and wizards, and are less vulnerable to enemy ops and spells.

some people who choose t/m tend to specialize in one area, either thief or mage. if you are a super thief and a minor mage then you would be a t/m. the opposite would be a t/m. the major is capitalized and the minor is lowercase.

the major t/m races are as follows:

elf

faery

halfling

attackers do what the name implies–they attack. when a kingdom works together, the t/m’s weaken a target and then the attackers attack those weakened targets. attackers tend to have a higher draft rate then t/m’s. they also tend to have fewer thieves and wizards. as a result, they are more vulnerable to ops and spells.

the major attacking races are as follows:

human

dwarf

orc

avian

undead

races can be played however you want. just because faery is a major t/m race doesn’t mean it can’t be played as an attacker. any race can be played however you want. however, some combinations are better than others. below i have made a chart of the attacker races and their values.

humans make good attackers because they have an extra point for offense. the +25% maximum science bonus can be useful if used to it's full potential. for those that don't invest a lot in science, this bonus is a wasted opportunity. humans also have some negatives. the +30% military wages can add up. the lower mana and stealth recovery makes humans unfit for t/m roles, unless they are minor.

elves can make good attackers as seen on the list above, but they make better t/m's. the -5% population limits the size of an effective army and will probably make most people raise their draft rates more to compensate. the lower (50% lower) military wages is an advantage because elves can raise their military pay and boost their military efficiency.  exploration costs are 35% higher then normal which will eliminate many really large t/m elf provinces since some t/m's tend to grow via exploring. the other option is landlust and paradise. their advantages as a super mage far outweigh their disadvantages. the +2 mana/hour let's them cast many more spells, especially in conjunction with the mystic personality. this could be a very good race for a very active mage. having access to all of the spells is a big plus. elves make very good a/m's when in large groups (kingdom strat). the disadvantage of this is that their offense and defense tend to suffer and they can be defeated by a kingdom of pumped attackers.

dwarves are an attacking race. their largest bonus is an extra 15% building efficiency which can keep be close to 100%, even with a higher draft rate. the shorter construction time gives them an early start and the +20% income is useful in training units. they require only 25% more food, which can be offset with proper science. magic effectiveness is 20% lower, but that isn't a big problem, because most dwarves won't be mages. people wanting to be a a/m should pick another race though.

orcs are a good offensive race. they have the highest offensive value for an elite (7), +1 strength for prisoners used (build lots of prisons), and they gain 15% more in attacks. the negative is that they fail more spells and thievery ops. people don't pick orcs to be t/m's. orcs make a good race if you are looking for brute strength, especially offense.

faeries are another good t/m race. their magic effectiveness is 50% higher, 15% of spells on them fail, and they gain +1 stealth per hour. ironically, they have -10% thievery effectiveness after the thievery bonus, but this is small enough to be offset by a minimal amount of science and/or thieves dens.

halflings are the final good t/m race. elves make good super mages and halflings make good super thieves. halflings have lower thief losses and higher thief effectiveness. they also have -75% building costs which will save you money that can be spent on replacing lost thieves. the -10% gains minimizes their effectiveness as an attacker. their cheap elites are as powerful as offense specs, plus have 4 defense. they are also much cheaper then other elites at a cost of only 300gc.

avians are good attackers. they have the strongest defense spec, +75% birthrate which will give them a quick start in the age and guard them against heavy fireballing, and a lower attack time which is good for active attackers.

undead's are strong attackers. their biggest strength is the +15% population. their biggest weakness is the -50% science. it's not a huge problem if you don't research a lot of science which many people do not do. the lower thievery effectiveness just prevents undead from being a strong a/t. not needing food can save you 10% or so land which you can use for another building. spreading the plague is a nice treat when you are in war, but doesn't help you much in random attacks, unless you are attacking someone who already has the plague.

these units are at the top of the list of units to train. they are used for attacking. each offense spec has a value of 5 offensive points and 0 defensive points or 5/0. humans have an offensive spec with a value of 6/0. offense is needed for attacking. however, it is not needed for t/m’s (thief’s/mages). make sure you that have enough defense before you start training offense.

these units are the second down on the list of units to train. they have a value of 0/5. avians have a value of 0/6. defense keeps you from being attacked. dpa or defense-per-acre is usually between 40-60 dpa. t/m’s tend to have a higher dpa.

these units are the third down on the list of units to train. they have both offensive and defensive values. they can be useful for raising your offense/defense. however, an excess of elites can lead to ‘suiciding’ or making an attacking and leaving too little defense at home, since the defense value of elites is not used when they are out on an attack. some players are tempted to send out their elites on an attack and this is what happens. elite units also increase your networth by more then off/def specs. this can cause problems since attacks are networth based.

these units are at the bottom of the list of units to train. they have no military value. however, they are used ton perform thievery operations. thieves are easily killed during thievery operations and need to be retrained/replaced. this is where you train them. it is a good idea to train more then the standard 10 thieves you start off with. for t/m’s a high thief-per-acre (tpa) ratio is good. for attackers it is less important. the more thieves you have, the higher the losses an enemy will have when they fail an operation on you.

the best way to tell how much offense to send is to download utopia angel. angel is a program that calculates your offense and your opponent’s defense. it is only for windows. to use angel, you must have your enemies cb/som/sos/survey and your own province information. if you cannot download angel, then use the online attack calculator at utopiatemple.com

mystics are a very important part of utopia. mages can cripple an enemy province if they work together properly. mystics are also important for the average attacker. for example, minor protection is just a spell, but it gives you a defensive modifier that could mean the difference between keeping your acres and losing them in an attack.

because magic is so popular, it is necessary to always have guilds; around 10% is the minimum. if an enemy finds out that you have none, or little, guilds, then you will be the recipient of many offensive spells. unlike thievery, wpa is the only factor that prevents opponents' spells from being successful.

thievery is a very useful tool. it can be used to steal things (gold, food, peasants, troops, etc.) while mystics cannot. however, to guard against thievery ops, you must rely on watchtowers instead of tpa. having a high tpa will not help catch thieves, it will only cause higher losses when they are caught. the good thing is, thievery does not require runes to operate. the bad part is that you lose thieves at a much higher rate then wizards and they have to be constantly replaced (you can lose thieves on both successful and unsuccessful ops). the benefit is that thieves cannot be killed directly through thievery ops like wizards.

an elite pump is when you stop growing to train more elites. in order to do this, you want to reconfigure your building strategy. elites cost a lot, so if you don't want to be in a pump forever, therefore razing and rebuilding some buildings is necessary. in this pump, you want to have a high number of armouries, so that elites cost up to 1/2 of their normal price. you also want to build more banks, so that you can afford to train those troops. what about your old specs? these are the troops you are converting. release them into soldiers before training them into elites, but don't convert to many, you want to make sure that you can pay for them all. the same goes for converting buildings, if you raze them all at once, you will have a lack of jobs. do it in phases! note: pumping elites will cause your networth to rise significantly. it is not the best idea to do a large elite pump for this reason.

for a science pump, it is a good idea to build lots of libraries. the other way is to build schools and pay for sciences. sometimes, people incorporate a science pump into another pump.

for a wizard pump, you must covert a lot of your buildings to guilds. it takes a long time to train a lot of wizards, so the more guilds you build, the faster it will take.

for a thief pump, you want to raise your draft rate. then train the new soldiers into thieves. a thief pump usually takes the shortest time, and is usually a part of another pump.