Diplomatic Units in Illy

Running a military city is an act of fine balancing between various needs. In addition to building troops a player has to pick and choose which diplomatic units to build and how many. Here, I will try to give a breakdown of diplo units by race and their strengths and weaknesses. This post should be taken with a grain of salt, as the success of your diplomatic units depends first and foremost on what your opponent is building.

Humans

Humans have the most well-balanced diplo units. Speed, attack, and defense skills place all of their T2 units in the top or middle of the pack. Human assassins and spies are the strongest of all races.

Elves

Elves outdo all the other races on the speed of units. Also, elves are kings of scouting, being both fastest and strongest on attack and defense, which makes them critical for running fast scout operations. Elf thieves are the weakest, lacking in strong attack/defense and good carry abilities.

Orcs

Like humans, orcs have overall robust diplo units, and their thieves and saboteurs are outstanding. Both orc T1 and T2 thieves have a very high carry capacity. With the increased warehouse size, orcs are the only race for which you can build a city that is capable of emptying a warehouse in a single trip and not have negative gold upkeep on the thief army.

Dwarves

Dwarves have really ended up with the short end of the stick - their diplomatic units are slow and have middling to poor performance. While dwarf thieves have high attack, their low speed and carry capacity make them much less useful than human or orc thieves. That said, dwarf diplo armies may still end up winning a lot of times, even if they are not as efficient as the other races.

 

Summary of diplo units

Race	Type	Name	Visibility	Speed	Attack	Defense	Carry
Scouts
Human	T1	Scout	1.9	17	15	17
	T2	Ranger	4.1	22	34	28
Elf	T1	Tracker	1.6	22	18	20
	T2	Outrider	2.8	30	40	36
Orc	T1	Hunter	2.9	18	15	17
	T2	Stalker	4	20	36	30
Dwarf	T1	Sentry	1.7	14	14	17
	T2	Watcher	4.4	18	33	31
Thieves
Human	T1	Burglar		15	15	16	59
	T2	Master Thief		22	38	30	64
Elf	T1	Rogue		19	14	17	50
	T2	Dark Elf		25	31	29	54
Orc	T1	Goblin Cutpurse		17	14	18	71
	T2	Plunderer		20	34	28	76
Dwarf	T1	Footpad		14	18	20	57
	T2	Halfling		16	39	36	60
Assassins
Human	T1	Cuttrhoat		16	18	18
	T2	Assassin		22	39	35
Elf	T1	Willowblade		18	15	17
	T2	Night Shade		24	34	30
Orc	T1	Poisoner		17	15	17
	T2	Iqadron Acolyte		19	36	30
Dwarf	T1	Executioner		14	14	17
	T2	Deep Dweller		18	33	31
Saboteurs
Human	T1	Saboteur		15	15	17
	T2	Agent Provocateur		22	35	29
Elf	T1	Elven Pruner		17	14	17
	T2	Dark Elf Saboteur		32	30	20
Orc	T1	Goblin Saboteur		16	17	20
	T2	Arsonist		19	40	35
Dwarf	T1	Sapper		13	16	17
	T2	Underminer		19	34	36
Spies
Human	T1	Agent	2.6	17	17	21
	T2	Spymaster	3.6	23	39	37
Elf	T1	Waysman	1.6	21	14	17
	T2	Farseer	4.2	28	32	32
Orc	T1	Goblin Spy	2.9	18	16	16
	T2	Listener in the Dark	3	21	35	27
Dwarf	T1	Observer	2.7	16	15	17
	T2	Keeper of Secrets	4.2	19	36	30
Race	Type	Name	Visibility	Speed	Attack	Defense	Carry

Differences between T1 and T2 units

T2 units tend to be used in most attack scenarios as they usually carry more bang for your Illy buck. T2 scouts report on all of the city’s armies including the ones stationed or moving outside the city; T2 thieves steal advanced resources in addition to basics; T2 saboteurs stall research, not just construction; a pack of T2 assassins can kill two commanders in one city whereas T1 only kills 1 commander per successful hit.

For defense, T1 units are cheaper and faster to build, and the ongoing upkeep is cheaper or the same per each defense point. However, building T1 is not always the most practical way of defending against enemy diplo.

What to build and how much?

When in doubt, build scouts. T1 scouts for defense and scouting armies stationed out in field, T2 for actively scouting cities. Every military city needs a few thousand scouts for defense. At the same time, when both sides build up a healthy stock of scouts during a war, getting a report becomes a real chore as scout packs (10,000 and more) start failing. In such cases, other methods of troop estimation, such as recording reports from direct attacks on cities, totaling up data from recent combats, and estimating based on sovereignty, become more important.

Thieves are worth bothering with only for offense, with some notable exceptions. The best defensive thief management is storing your advanced resources in the hub. When thieves come back to their owner with gold or basic resources, they haven’t stolen enough to justify their upkeep during the travel time, so they are a net gold drain on the player. However, that calculation changes drastically for a city under siege, and in some situations thief reinforcements may be called for.

It’s fun and worthwhile to have a pack of saboteurs on hand. 1-2 packs that are more than a few hundred will break through most defenses. This is a tool often used to “pin down” cities targeted for siege to ensure they cannot exodus because of stalled research. Sab defense is not a concern for players with complete research in cities. Experienced players tend to stop doing research during a war - but if research you must, consider sab reinforcements in combination with a rune.

Assassins can be a useful tool to help break through city reinforcements, when stacks of multiple commanders from many cities greatly increase the overall city defense. Bear in mind that an experienced opponent will be also reinforcing with assassins and it may require a large amount to break through the defense (although in practice, few people have scores of assassins on hand as they tend to be too rarely used). Plus, even T2 assassins only kill 5 commanders per hit at most. Thus, it would take several large packs to kill a lot of commanders in a city. If you want to take up the assassin gamble, build up a swarm of assassins in a city or two.

Spies can provide valuable insights into the city’s operations revealing the inventory, as well as build and research queues. Most typical use of spies is to get intel for thieves and saboteurs. Players who thieve usually have one or two packs of spies on hand - it does not have to be larger than a couple thousand as players rarely think to defend against spies.

Messengers

Messengers are often overlooked when queuing up diplo builds. It’s easy to start a queue of several thousand scouts or thieves and forget the messengers. Yet, a quick recall of occupying armies is often crucial during wars, so make sure that you have about 10 messengers on hand in every city, at all times.

Scribes of Allembine

These are special diplomatic units awarded in the Heroic Statue quest. They are a spy type of unit and each provides 120 defense against spies. 

This concludes an overview of diplomatic units in Illy. In another post, I will discuss some use techniques for diplo units and buildings.

Stay tuned!

--Tink