Thievery lets your province spy on, rob and sabotage other provinces without going to war or casting magic. Your thieves gather intelligence, steal resources, and hurt an enemy's economy, army and wizards. This page explains how thievery works, then lists every operation with its effect and numbers.
In short
- You train thieves on your Military Menu. They are professional soldiers of the underground.
- Each operation lowers your Stealth Rating, which rises 3 points a day. Thieves will not act below 5% Stealth.
- Your success depends on your thieves per acre (TPA) against the target's. Damage depends on how many thieves you send.
- Sending too many thieves raises the chance the enemy catches them.
- Harsher operations need worse relations with the target, and many work better in war.
- Operations work best against provinces close to your own size.
How thievery works
Thieves and Stealth
Thieves are trained on your Military Menu. They keep a Stealth Rating that decides when they can be used. The rating rises automatically by 3 points each day and drops each time your thieves run an operation. Your thieves will not carry out missions without at least a 5% Stealth Rating.
Thieves per acre (TPA)
The best measure of your guild's strength is the number of thieves you keep per acre of land, known as Thieves Per Acre (TPA). It is modified by your Thieves' Dens, your Crime science and your racial bonuses or penalties.
The success rate of an operation depends on both your TPA and your target's TPA. The raw damage depends on raw strength: the more thieves you use, the more damage they do.
Success, failure and size
Sending more thieves makes an operation stronger, but it also raises the chance that the enemy catches your men. The larger your province, the harder it is to keep your guild organised, so keep training thieves as you grow. As with most things in Utopia, operations are easier and more effective against provinces similar to you in size.
For the calculations behind operations, see Thievery Formulas.
Relations and war
Some operations are Unfriendly, Hostile or War only. Because they are destructive, you can run them only against provinces that have at least that level of relations with your kingdom. Many operations are also more effective when relations are heightened. Where a figure is given as "X (Y in war)", Y applies during war.
Reading an operation entry
Every entry below lists the effect, who can use it, the relations required, the difficulty, and the meter movement. "Message" is the text your thieves report on success, where known. Operations are grouped by purpose:
- Intelligence: gather information only.
- Economy: steal or destroy resources, buildings and income.
- Military: hurt an enemy's army, horses, prisoners and combat.
- Guilds and wizards: weaken thieves and mages.
- Propaganda: convert enemy units.
Intelligence operations
Espionage operations only gather information about the enemy province. Sending 5% of your thieves will return completely accurate results. None of them move the meter.
Spy on Throne
Estimates the resources and troops a province has.
- Effect: Gives an estimate of the resources and troops available to a province.
- Consumes only 1% Stealth.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: very low
- Meter movement: 0
Spy on Defense
Reports the enemy's standing defenses.
- Effect: Reveals Net Defensive Points at home.
- Consumes only 1% Stealth.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: very low
- Meter movement: 0
Spy on Exploration
Gives the current pool size and the cost per acre in gold and soldiers.
- Effect: Reveals pool size, and costs per acre in gold and soldiers.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: very low
- Meter movement: 0
Snatch News
Shows the target's Kingdom Paper.
- Effect: Displays the targeted province's Kingdom Paper.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: low
- Meter movement: 0
Infiltrate
Reports on the size of your opponent's guild.
- Effect: Gives an estimate of the number of thieves in the enemy province.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: low
- Meter movement: 0
- Message: Our thieves have infiltrated the Thieves' Guilds of [province name] (##:##). They appear to have about X thieves employed across their lands.
Survey
Reports on the distribution of buildings in a province.
- Effect: Gives an estimate of the buildings in the enemy province, as displayed by the Internal Affairs advisor.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: low
- Meter movement: 0
Spy on Military
Provides detailed information about your opponent's army.
- Effect: Shows the enemy troops out, as well as an estimate of troops at home and in training, as displayed by the Military Advisor.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: low
- Meter movement: 0
Spy on Sciences
Estimates the strength and effects of your opponent's science levels.
- Effect: Gives an estimate of the bonuses an enemy province gains from its science, as displayed on the Science page.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: low
- Meter movement: 0
Economy operations
These operations steal from your target or wreck its buildings and income.
Rob the Granaries
Steals food from your opponent's storages.
- Effect: Steals up to a max of 31.5% (46% in war) of enemy food, at the rate of 95 (135 in war) bushels per thief.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.06
- Message: Our thieves have returned with X bushels.
Rob the Vaults
Steals gold from enemy coffers.
- Effect: Steals up to a max of 5.2% (14% in war) of enemy gc, at the rate of 40 (106 in war) gc per thief.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.12
- Message: Our thieves have returned with X gold coins.
Rob the Towers
Steals runes from your target's wizards.
- Effect: Steals up to a max of 24.5% (35% in war) of enemy runes, at the rate of 18.2 (26 in war) runes per thief.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.09
- Message: Our thieves were able to steal X runes.
Kidnapping
Kidnaps peasants from your enemy and brings them to your province.
- Effect: Steals up to a max of 1.85% (4% in war) of enemy peasants, at the rate of 0.132 (0.285 in war) peasants per thief.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.12
- Message: Our thieves kidnapped many people, but only were able to return with X of them.
Gains seem to drop by 50% when the enemy province reaches a certain level of under-population. This is designed to make it harder to player-kill. See Thievery Formulas for more.
Arson
Burns down enemy buildings to disrupt an enemy's stability.
- Effect: Destroys a small amount of enemy buildings.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.24
- Message: Our thieves burned down X acres of buildings. OR Unfortunately, our thieves were too few in number to find any buildings to burn.
Greater Arson
A more powerful Arson that lets you target a specific type of building. Only Rogues can master this difficult operation.
- Effect: Destroys up to a max of ~6% of targeted enemy buildings, at the rate of 0.0045 buildings per thief.
- Available to: Rogues only
- Relations required: Unfriendly
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.3
- Message: Our thieves burned down X [building type].
Incite Riots
Incites riots that disrupt tax collection for several days.
- Effect: Decreases the target's income by 15%.
- Duration is capped to 18 at age 95.
- The more thieves you send, the higher the minimum, average and maximum duration.
- Unaffected by the Sabotage damage bonus.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.18
- Message: Our thieves have caused rioting. It is expected to last X days.
Military operations
These operations weaken your target's army and its performance in combat.
Night Strike
Assassinates a portion of your enemy's military, both at home and away.
- Effect: Kills up to a maximum of 16.25% of enemy soldiers, at a rate of 0.67 soldiers per thief. Also kills a much smaller amount of specialists and elites. Affects all troops, even those that aren't home.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: Unfriendly
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.24
- Message: Our thieves assassinated X enemy troops.
Steal War Horses
Steals an enemy's horses for your own use.
- Effect: Steals up to 20% of the target's horses, at a rate of 0.35 horses per thief. You only gain half of this number; the rest are released.
- Available to: Rogues only
- Relations required: Unfriendly
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.18
- Message: Our thieves were able to release X horses but could only bring back Y of them.
Bribe Generals
Increases the losses your enemy suffers in all combat, until they discover the bribed generals.
- Effect: Effectively a 1 in 5 chance per attack to increase troop losses by 20% on all combat.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.09
- Message: Our thieves have bribed an enemy general!
Free Prisoners
Releases prisoners from an opponent's dungeons. You gain half of them.
- Effect: Releases up to a max of 12% (17% in war) of the target's prisoners, at a rate of 0.06 (0.07 in war) prisoners per thief.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.03
- Message: Our thieves freed X prisoners from enemy dungeons.
Guild and wizard operations
These operations target enemy wizards and thieves.
Sabotage Wizards
Drains the target's mana for several days, limiting their ability to cast spells.
- Effect: Reduces mana by 5% of the current level each tick, before mana regeneration.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: Unfriendly
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0
- Message: Our thieves have sabotaged their wizards' ability to cast spells.
Destabilize Guilds
Decreases the target's spell duration for several days.
- Effect: Decreases the duration of the target's Self Spell and Offensive Spell casts by 20% while the effect is active.
- Available to: Rogues only
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0
Assassinate Wizards
Kills enemy wizards to permanently weaken their ability to cast spells. Only Rogues can master this difficult operation.
- Effect: Kills up to a max of 1.2% of target wizards, at a rate of 0.006 wizards per thief.
- Available to: Rogues only
- Relations required: Unfriendly
- Difficulty: high
- Meter movement: 0.36
- Message: Our thieves assassinated X wizards of the enemy's guilds!
Bribe Thieves
Reduces the ability of an enemy thieves' guild to conduct and defend against thievery operations, until the enemy catches the double agents.
- Effect: Reduces thief effectiveness by 10%.
- Available to: All
- Relations required: All
- Difficulty: medium
- Meter movement: 0.09
- Message: Our thieves have bribed members of our enemies' guild!
Propaganda
Propaganda
Tries to convince enemy peasants, military or wizards to revolt and join your province. Only Rogues can master this difficult operation.
- Effect: Not fully determined.
- Available to: Rogues only
- Relations required: War
- Difficulty: high
- Meter movement: 0 (War only)
- Message: We have converted X [wizards, thieves, soldiers] from the enemy to our guild. OR We have converted X [of the enemy's specialist troops, (elite unit name) from the enemy] to our army.
Changelog
- Age 106: Meter movements updated to reflect forum changes of "all values have tripled" on 6 May 2024.
- Age 106: NS updated to reflect 25% more damage on 29 May 2024.