Well all im saying is, the best shinobis ive ever seen ran what I was saying.

Best good race to use, i would like dwarf but, they are quite hard. Elemental is awesome as well, but takes a lot of info gathering to play effectively. I would say if you are new, human is pretty awesome. Cheap troops and about as flexible as they get for how you want to play them.

I think Elemental are probably your best bet if you can manage one. They are a tough race to play well with. You need to be fast with perfect timing. Which requires high activity and good knowledge of the game.

Dwarf is also a nice choice, but they also have a tough learning curve. You need to how and when to make effective tech (building) switches. Being caught without Blacksmiths and low defense could spell the end of your kingdom. But not being able to convert to a heavy iron economy could also spell the end of you.

Spirit is a nice simple, fast race. Its heavy on the magic dust, but not more so than Elemental. The main thing to keep in mind about Spirit, is if you decide to mass up the Banshee unit, you must keep up with top land, otherwise you will fall too far behind in economy.

Unless you use Academies with Elf, I would not play them in a 4 week round.

Shinobi is possible, but 215 gold per point for defense may be a bit too much in a 4 week round. If you can manage to keep in the top 20 and have very strong imps at the end, then I can see a Shinobi having a shot at winning. Use the 10 hour return to your advantage.

Human is possibly a nice choice. You would need to use a well timed Battle Mage push for the extra speed. And you would need to grow with the BMs, otherwise your screwed. Avoid the BM if you dont feel comfortable with switching your buildings around, as it requires experience... aka you need to know what your doing =P. A Human without BM would probably do better than a Shinobi in my opinion.



EDIT: What reddaddy said =P

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The Age of Despair :: Round 2 :: 1 El Norte
The Age of Wisdom :: Round 4 :: 1 SmoochyWoochyPoochy
The Age of Wisdom :: Round 6 :: 1 Goblin Rings
The Age of Achievements :: Round 1 :: 1 Hufflepuff's Cup

I am talking about Shin in general. I would play them slow and therefore only in long rounds. Maybe I should've added that.

For this round, I would go Human too, or Spirit. Human as quaffle/reddaddy said, Spirit with some 15-20% towers and mostly Elites (don't explode on Banshees)

Ele is a tad too hard, Dwarf is way too hard. Shin & Elf don't have enough time in 4 weeks.

Depends on the round length.

I would NOT play either Shinobi or Elf in a 4-week round, as they need longer rounds to be competitive.

Dwarf is probably the best short-round race on the Good alignment, but they are arguably the most difficult race to play well, given that you have to be super-active (to train sufficient DP due to your elite OP unit lacking turtle DP), and you have to constantly re-arrange buildings for an optimum build (very tricky).

I am told Spirit is also a fantastic short-round race, but I know nothing about them and have never seen them in action.

Human and Elemental are both versatile races, so they can do well either in short or long rounds. The difference is that Elementals are difficult to play well in that you have to time your upgrades (if you upgrade too soon, you won't have enough military to be viable) and pushes perfectly (if you push and must sit or hit small, then you are screwed, because Elementals usually push specs for DP and hence will have a major economic contraction every time you push--which must be off-set by large land gains); whereas Humans are absurdly easy to play (only Shinobis are easier on the Good alignment, but Shinobis are generally ineffective except in a 6-week round).

In short, if you are relatively new, I'd recommend Humans. Among other advantages, 1) the combination of good turtle DP and cheap DP elite means you don't need to be super-active and be paranoid about your DP; 2) 10-hour return means that your period of vulnerability will be 2-hour shorter than most races; and 3) the building decisions are straightforward (6-8 percent Lumber Mills and Iron Mines and the rest the same as other races).

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Our pack's Royal Family Message every round now:

"Please don't hit active guys with huge OP--even if they leave land DP!!!"

Pretty much everything what barca said

1 small addition: after recent changes and robes prestation i *think* shin arent only a 6 weeks-only race any more.. i would say from 5 weeks and longer theyll be fine. The same *may* be said for elf too