2014, New player questions

"Hmm I do not think that they do ... if a commander is not part of an army then they cannot die and thus they do not participate in the battle at all "

So which is it? Can any veteran player say with certainty whether or not the pool troops will defend the castle? I realize they cannot benefit from a commander(since there is none) but are they penalized in any other way IF they can, indeed, defend the castle?

Would really like to know one way or the other....thanks  Dragonwort

And yes, the research tree is the same for all the races.  For crafted equipment with different bonuses, any race can research and craft, for example, forester's armor.  No matter who crafts it, the 8% additional bonus will only apply to elves.

There are Discoveries (which must be achieved and cannot be researched directly) that do differ based on race -- for example, the racial swords and the racial mounts.  Only an elven city can achieve the Elven Thoroughbred discovery; only a human city can achieve the Traditional Sword discovery.

With that said, it is possible for a city to HAVE the discovery from another race.  This occurs when a city is owned by a player of race A, who makes the discovery, and then is captured by a player from race B.  So for example, if I as a human capture an orc city that has the War Wolf crafting discovery, I can make war wolves (mounts with bonuses for orcs).  I might want to make them and sell them to orcs, but I probably would not use them myself because of the penalties to humans.

If you use the puzzleslogic site, the crafted items that are Discovered rather than directly researched are highlighted in light blue.

Honestly if your goal is the "specialize" an entire account only in mining, probably you wont be able to find enough mines to keep you busy (unless you happen to snag silversteel or obsidian, which both have short harvest times and large quantities in a given mine).  However, mining can still be one activity among many.