Military Race Rankings(Life+Warlord)

[Anskiy]

Halflings:

Economy:

Halflings get an above average economy overall. Most of the essentials are around, and they get the Mechanicians Guild to build them fast. The one notable absence is the Colosseum, which makes massing Halfling armies costlier. Then again, Halflings aren't meant to be a military race anyway. The Animist's Guild isn't around, but with the Halfling farmer bonus it's not really needed. Overall, it's a solid A, it's hard to go wrong economically with them.

Military:

Halflings are not a military race, and this shows. Lucky is a very potent trait, especially paired with solid buffs and levels, however they miss a lot of units in their regular lineup. The loss of halberdiers and archers is especially egregious, and keeps them from expanding much early on. Their swordsmen do get surprisingly tough as the game goes on, especially behind a wall. With buffs they are even capable of some early game conquest. Some.

Halflings can't build either the Barracks or War College, so they are forced to wait it out or use Heroism to truly benefit from Lucky. Your only real options for military units as a Halfling is either making Slingers, or turtling until a Wizard's Guild is ready. This is a clear D, with the score improving to a B if you can level them up easily.

The unique unit, the Slingers are glass cannons in every sense of the term. They lack any kind of defense or resistance, but dish out a ton of pain in return. They also happen to be ranged with six ammo. That's a lot of heat! Slingers, like their sword swinging brothers, also benefit a lot from buffs, being 8 figures. However they never actually become durable and so should avoid close range combat at all costs. Being physically ranged units also makes them vulnerable to myriad counters, like Warp Wood and Guardian Wind. In the end, this makes them rather specialized and narrow in application despite their strength. They rank a C, being a bit too inflexible for extended battles. 

Wizard support:

Halfling cities are economically a great help to any wizard. Their innate research boost is very noticeable, and all three major buildings, the Wizard's Guild, Sage's Guild and Amplifying Tower, are available and backed by strong production. Halflings are also curiously great for lair hunting, as they get two flavors of ranged damage and benefit from the extra hit rate of Lucky on them. You may have to send multiple stacks given their frail nature, however it's not too hard to produce more military units with a Mechanician's Guild on the task.

Overall:

Halflings are arguably one of the tougher races to play well. Their units being effectively glass cannons makes early game conquest rather tricky, and in some instances impossible. However, with their lair clearing abilities and research bonus, they are capable of turtling until good spells come around, and then pull off a major upset on other wizards. Their low unrest with most races also means that whatever they do manage to conquer and hold lets them build stronger troops to defend their glass cannon armies. Heroes are particularly welcome for this race, as it gives them units that can be built to be tough and handle the cruelty of melee combat.

[Anskiy]

I do feel that they are a bit lacklustre as a race.  I did think of one minor change that could be made: increase the pop growth rate.  As it is, there's not much motivation to create more gnoll cities than your starting settler(s) if you can find anything better.  They don't even benefit from much from high population, since they can't build many economy buildings or unrest reducers.  Allowing them to put up WR-producing cities faster would help their 'send out fast attackers early' strategy without making them overpowered late-game.

If their lack of unrest-reducing buildings is too much of a handicap, is it possible to code gnoll garrison units as more effective unrest reducers, maybe limited to gnoll cities?  Scary guardsmen who eat your liver if you annoy them?

I feel like Gnolls perform fine as a heavy rush centric race. The problem with that, is that there are races which can rush and still be strong in the late game. Barbarians are a good example, Dwarves are likely another. In the context of these, a pure rush race that falls off seems mediocre, understandably. Honestly, I'm still fine with that, I just find it weird that it then has an Armorer's Guild unit, as if it's supposed to have a mid to late game purpose once conquest is over.

[Anskiy]

I forgot to rank the Halfling navy last time, but it's fairly similar to their regular line up; pretty bad D since they lack Barracks and War College, a middle of the road C if you can level them swiftly. It's a C because none of their boats benefit from Lucky, thus being very generic.

Time for High Elves though!

High Elves:

Economy:

High Elves get most of the economic buildings. They only miss the Colosseum, which is somewhat significant, but more than made up by the other buildings. They get all the food buildings, which is welcome considering their slow growth. Mechanician's Guild is a valuable addition, and helps get to the important three buildings faster. The innate power generation is not noticeable at first, but ends up being a fairly solid contributor to your magic prowess as the game goes on. Overall, this is a decent A.

Military:

Their regular units are fairly capable, if not exciting. 40% base hitrate is a pretty solid bonus, and makes their halberdiers and magicians fairly potent. +1 Resistance isn't worth much, though it helps resisting various statuses with some buffs. Elves also lack any healer units, which usually isn't a big deal but does hamper their ability to deal with Chaos curses like Corruption. Forester movement is actually pretty good to have, forests are the most common terrain type on Arcanus, atleast if my games are anything to go by. It's a fairly standard B, mainly thanks to the extra hitrate.

Longbowmen are a great start to their unique unit lineup. They are essentially sniping bowmen, not only do they have the same base hitrate as regular Elven units, they also come with Long Range, meaning they care little about distance penalties. They come from the Forester's Guild, which means it takes fairly little time for Elven cities to start mass producing them. And that's not all; they can effectively rush down a lot of early game garrisions, Guardian Wind or no. Their hitrate and six figure count allows them to still punch swordsmen effectively, and with a Barracks and Alchemist's Guild around they can even survive the counterattack!

The other unique units don't show up until much later. Elven Lords are perhaps the best melee unit in Arcanus; they combine accurate, high armor piercing melee strength with sky high resistance and good defenses. The Poison immunity is some nice icing on top. Of course, this amazing unit doesn't exactly come free, infact their upkeep is very noticeable and will eat into your economy if you mass multiple stacks of them. Provided the enemy doesn't hard counter arrows at this stage of the game, Pegasai are a decent substitute for Longbowmen. They don't have anywhere close to their raw power, however their high speed, reasonable health and ranged attacks still make them good for harassment and support. Flight lets them avoid retaliation from most ground units, though you should still be careful about attacking well defended garrisons.

The unique unit lineup gets an A. It provides them with tools for every situation, be it early game aggression or defense, or late game offensive capability. What few holes remain are fixed either by their regular units or rare and very rare summons.

The Elven navy is largely unremarkable, they have a Mechanician's Guild to create more boats but not much else, and they lack Warships. It's a tentative B, since enough veteran galleys produced quickly can still rule the seas.

Wizard support:

High Elves grow slowly, so their innate power isn't noticeable early on. They do get all of the important trio, and even get to speed them up with a Mechanician's Guild. As mentioned before, their bonus does contribute as they start growing, and building their cities in good spots can really pay off here.

High Elves are decent at lair hunting, Longbowmen can effectively fight anything that doesn't kill them first. With enough stacks they can still whittle down such lairs anyway. Elven Lords have great stats for lair hunting, but can't hit the air. Pegasai can kite many monsters, and are completely safe from many ground units; unfortunately their damage is rather mediocre and offsets this somewhat. Unlike Sprites, being flying and ranged isn't remarkable enough considering how late they are unlocked on average.

Overall:

High Elves are slow city builders. Despite this, they actually have a pretty strong early game thanks to Longbowmen. They remain firm during the mid game, with decent halberdiers and magicians in their armies, and blossom into a formidable force late game with their Elven Lords and innate magic power. They don't suffer from many economic deficiencies, and can fund most military endeavors, be it armies of regular units or summoned stacks. Their high unrest with many races is a noticeable issue, however it's far from game changing and can be controlled easily. All in all, a solid race, if a bit on the generic side.

[Suppanut]

Why Elven Lords are better than Paladins in melee?

[Anskiy]

They have a base hitrate of 50%, which ends up being more damaging in the long term.

[Suppanut]

Where could I check hitrate?

[Anskiy]

Hitrate is in the top right corner of the unit screen. All units have a base hitrate of 30% and evasion of 30%, but bonuses(or nerfs) to these are shown as + or - x to hit or to defend. X here represented x times 10.

[Anskiy]

High Men:

Economy:

High Men generally have a good economy. They pay lower prices for their buildings, and have every economy building available to them. Keep in mind though that they have an innate unrest of 1, which limits how much gold they can extract from taxes early on. Their bad unrest tables are also quite noticeable when conquering others. This is a B overall, the early game taxes being low and high unrest with most races does reflect poorly on their performance, despite their building flexibility and cheaper buildings.

Military:

Their regular units are nothing special, and infact could be considered sub par thanks to their massive resistance penalty. The one exception here is their Magicians, they sport six figures instead of the standard four. This is a huge boost to their attack power and lets them burn down enemies other magicians would struggle with. This is very easily a C, their magicians keep them at average.

From the special units, Knights are effectively upgraded cavalry. They have decent defense and resistance for the mid game, however considering that they come from the Fighter's Guild, their damage is rather mediocre, even with First Strike. Pikemen are highly offensive, with armor piercing attacks from eight figures. However they have little else over the average halberdier. Crusaders are incredibly strong. They have good defenses, decent offenses, especially with eight figures, and can heal themselves. With this unit on hand, High Men wizards can build strong armies with potent magicians being guarded by robust units up front. Infact this unit is so good, High Men almost never have a reason to create pikemen or priests.

The Armorer's Guild unit is a drop from the amazing heights of the Crusader. Paladins are effectively Knights that are immune to Death and Illusion magic, and can pierce armor. They can also boost the stats of all friendly units by 1. While these traits should make them amazing, they are sadly locked too deeply behind a line of religious buildings. As such, the average High Men economy simply can't support them realistically early on, and when it can, their bonus is usually too late to decisively swing battles in your favor.

Overall, their unique units rate a B. Many of them are niche, but Crusaders and Magicians legitimately form a strong army, and it's nice to have options to deal with unexpected situations.

High Men get cheaper ship yards, the Mechanician's Guild, and Warships, so their navy is an easy A.

Wizard support:

High Men can build all of the three important buildings, and pay less for it. The unrest does make construction a little hampered in the early game, however past that it's easy to control.

High Men have passable lair hunting capabilities. Crusaders are quite potent, but can't hit the air. Magicians can, and are stronger than magicians of other races. It will likely require multiple stacks because of their low health though. Pikemen are useful for cutting down high defense enemies, and Paladins can hunt down some Death and Sorcery lairs effectively with their immunities, as well as support squads with their bonus. What's missing here is a good non magical ranged/thrown attack option.

Overall:

High Men live up to their claims of being a militaristic race. It takes a while for them to truly shine, but if they survive to the mid game, they can start dominating with very robust armies. Their units also give them decent flexibility, and unlike Gnolls, they can actually make up for their resistance penalty. Their unrest tables are a bit sore, but past the mid game it's fairly easy to control. Overall a fairly strong race, especially for conquest strategies.

[Anskiy]

It's been a while, so let me get back into this.

Klackons:

Economy:

Klackons have pretty much the best economy on Arcanus and even Myrror, barring dwarves on Rich locations. They have an unrest modifier of -2, meaning that you can run max taxes on them with little repurcussions. On top of this Klackons are also excellent at production. They can quickly get up many important economic buildings and churn out many taxpayers in their population. It's not uncommon for Klackons to hit 1000 gold in the first few years of the game on their own. While they miss many advanced buildings, they don't need any of them at all. Hell, even the Miner's Guild and Parthenon is overkill for them.

Of course, these great gifts aren't free. Klackons have the worst unrest modifiers with most races; this means that when you do start capturing enemy cities, you either have to give up on max taxes, or lose a lot of productivity on them. Razing more enemy cities in lieu of building your own is definitely an option, but not always viable since outposts still take a while to become productive. And Klackons generally want units from other races at some point; more on that later.

Despite that noticeable flaw, Klackons rank an A in economy, and infact they deserve a higher rank. The sheer earnings and swift production is more than enough to earn them the top spot here.

Military:

Klackon military is incredibly one dimensional. On one hand their regular units are quite sturdy at +2 defense, and they can produce a lot of them. On the other, they have absolutely no ranged capabilities. This is quite a noticeable downside, and forces them into taking losses in many battles anyway. They rely ultimately on quantity over quality, and this works fine.. until it doesn't. There are many effects that rely on targeting resistance, and they don't get any help there. And while their durability is noticeable, it eventually falls behind the power of uncommon fantastic creatures and the unique units of other races. Thus, their regular lineup gets a C overall. Their advantages are more than cancelled out by the setbacks.

Their unique unit is rather disappointing. The Stag Beetle is supposed to be their answer to flying and ranged enemies, gaining fire breath and 4 moves. However, their regular attack is half that of the halberdier, and their other stats aren't much better, being only +1 defense and +2 resistance more. Admittedly, this does help them resist some effects in the mid/late game better than halberdiers, which isn't trivial. Still, it's a straightforward C.

Their ships are, like the rest of their military, mediocre. They can produce a lot of ships, but their ship upgrades stop at Galleys, and their army training buildings stop at the Barracks. The lack of advanced ships cancels out the greater numbers in the long run. They net a C here.

Wizard support:

Klackons get all three major buildings, and build them very fast. They aren't very good at lair clearing, but Stag Beetles are decent enough for some medium difficulty lairs, and hurling enough halberdiers at some lairs can still clear them eventually. This is a race that can definitely afford that.

Overall:

Klackons are a bizarre blend of a rush and economy race. On one hand, they have possibly the best economy of all races; on the other, their military units are quite mediocre and rely on huge masses to make progress. Thus, they have to take advantage of their numbers and overwhelm better races before getting outmatched. They are the avatar of mediocrity, with a dash of prosperity.

[JustOneMoreTurn]

Alchemy seems like an automatic 'must have' choice for Klackons, so that their gold production can be turned into spells and summons, and production turned to gold at 2/1 rate. Such 'must choose' designs aren't good, but I can't think of a solution offhand. Maybe drop the production bonus, make units (and buildings?) cheaper, and give them some other benefit to compensate for the reduction in overall effectiveness? That would also need a food bonus or a drop in food requirements, since the goal is for Klackons to swarm their enemies. Maybe a city defence bonus for living underground, if there are still unit limits for garrisons, since quantity doesn't work when it's limited.

Another option: automatic 1:1 gold->mana conversion for them, so that you don't have to take Alchemy.