A Good Strategy For The (Fill In The Blank) Race

[Zephyrus]

Every race has a purpose. That was the original intention of Promisance. And while they have been given new names, and some odd bonuses, the obvious (and some rather odd) strategies do exist. I guess I'm sort of compiling a list of what I've played, what I've seen others play, and what I've read about in terms of strategy. Here goes.

Mouse
The original intention of mouse was to create a newbie friendly race. Mouse is the one race with no major penalties. But, it has no major bonuses, either, and the ones it does have seem rather contradictory. A negative offensive bonus isn't too nice. A positive defence bonus will only work if you're guard massing, but likely you won't be. Good build and cost factors mean you'll be able to use land decently well, and won't bankrupt as easily. A minus to industry, but you're not massing much. Food and food consuption basically cancel each other out, unless you go on grain massing sprees. Overall, mouse is the average race, recommended for learning the game and the basics of troop massing. But, with it's double penalty to magic without any real specialty to make up for it may not be too helpful.

Squirrel
Squirrel is the definitive hawk race. See those whopping bonuses to your hawks' power and the loyalty of your woodlanders? Squirrel is likely overpowered because of this. You can go pure huts and have tons of fun buying everything, and selling them later. And, guess what, because of the cash you make, you can take the negative profit with no problems. Hawk strategies are incredibly self sufficient. Your negative attack will be countered by the fact that you likely have more troops. Your negative defence is nothing, because you will want to be attacked. Your build penalty will slow land runs, which is a definite down. Your industry penalty isn't too bad, and it only matters if you use barracks at all. Hawking squirrels are very nice, because often, most of the penalties won't even apply to you, and you can have fun both looting/foraging and espying/stealing/poisoning others for profit. People will hit you for resources, though, and that is annoying.

Shrew
This is one of the more warlike races. Note the bonuses to both attack and defence. Your attack bonus will be utilized whenever you make land grabs. Very handy. You get the second best industry bonus in the game, and that is even better, often allowing you to be a merchant of troops. Defence will make your guard towers even stronger, allowing you to be weak to only hawks and online attacks. But, you are weak to hawks, as you will not be able to afford to build huts, and hawks can do just about whatever they please to your empire. Remember, you have a nice penalty to costs, and that will come to haunt you when you are unprepared, so have a nice stock of resources, and don't be shy about pounding resources out of your neighbors.

Otter
Woot! Offense +24. You're basically hitting with a quarter more troops, and you don't even have to pay for them. That makes otter a very nice race for heavily troop-based strategies. Likely, you will mass troops, forget your land (def -10, after all) and just pound your neighbors. You can sack them and get land from them, and when you've gotten it all, store it for the next day. Wanting to be attacked when indying seems a bit counterproductive, but you still have your troops even if you lose land, and you'll gain more than you lose. Build bonuses allow you to quickly utilize land you gain. Again, beware hawks, as you likely won't have them yourself.

(more later)

[Zephyrus]

Hedgehog
The most prominent bonus here is the cash. You're going to be earning quite a bit with hedgehog. Defence isn't much to joke about. But, using it takes some thought. One idea is as follows, you alternate between markets when making runs and guards otherwise, and keep the remainder in tents. I've heard a 50/50 split is good. You will get insane amounts of cash. Penalties to cost, industry, farms, and attack suggest that you rely on being able to buy large amounts of troops and grains instead of making them yourself, and that your decreased pvtmarket costs and increased cash gain fund everything. Hawks aren't really recommended, but there's no penalty should you decide you need them.

Mole
Here is another offensive race. Mole also gives an attack bonus without sacrificing industrial strength. No penalty to costs means you get to keep more of your troops. Also, farms +18. This seems silly, but isn't. Mole is called a lawn gnome for a reason. It's a nice race. Simply put, you build barracks to make troops, selling a few for cash. You gain land using your atack bonus. You place all of this into foragers and forage, giving you very large amounts of food. What you do with this food is up to you. Def -6 hurts. Live with it. You're still going to build towers if you don't want your tail sacked to bits. Hawk penalties make this your weakness. Making food is good. Keeping it takes a bit of work. But, if it works, you get insane amounts of net, as food is net without upkeep. Penalties to income, so selling food beats making cash, and to market, so if you sell food, think of a better way of buying troops. Mole is nice because you can lawn gnome, and occasionally, you can build barracks instead of foragers for quick gains. Mole is great, though obviously quirky as I haven't really seen too many in the top.

Hare
Nice attack bonus. Those are always nice. Defence penalty, but a minor one at that. Bonus to build for all those land runs. The makings of an offensive race. Only a slight magic penalty. Upkeep might be a bit steep, though. Import loylaty from others. Again, industry bonus with no attack penalty. Probably not cheap to maintain, but certainly powerful.

Badger
The... most... overused... race... ever...
Whopping bonuses to both attack and defence. Build bonus for land grabs. Only medium hawk penalty, but with a bonus to loyalty. So, basically, nice race for hybriding. Nothing stops you from being 60% huts, 40% barracks, putting barracks into guards for the night. Expensive, but no real penalty beyond that. Overpowed, even though less than from the TSR days.

Vole
Really nice industry bonus. Highest in the game. While attack and defence is messed up, there is a plus. Costs are actully lowered with vole, allowing you to build a massive army quickly and maintain it cheaply. Not really magic prone. But why would you need magic? Attack is worse than a squirrel, but I'd say industry and costs more than make up for it. Bonus to farms and food for further upkeep convenience.