Hi guys. I am an WW2/Civil War buff and have never played any of the past games that are mentioned in this forum. I really like the look of this game and want to learn it, but I am clueless where to start. for ex., to build Early Knights it says you need rudimentary fort. Ok, but I don't see anywhere how you can get/build this or how it may appear on its own.
And any other early tips would be helpful. I don't understand many of the endless terms in the game either but would like to get a decent game going with at least a clue of a strategy. And please don't say build infrastructure or increase gold because I need more specific help. I am not asking for a winning strategy. I just want to get a good game going. Thanks.
Newbie question
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chevalmalfet
- Private First Class - Opel Blitz
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2022 3:56 pm
Re: Newbie question
There's a good beginner's guide elsewhere on this forum - I recommend checking that out.
But a VERY basic run down:
Your goal in the game is to accrue the most Legacy of any kingdom over the course of the game. You can gain legacy via expansion, of course, but also through buildings, achievements, things like that - anything that makes your kingdom memorable. For example, the Roman Empire has sky-high legacy because it was enormous, but also because of its monumental architecture, glittering culture, laws, etc. So even dead states can win the game if their legacy score is high enough.
Okay, so far so good? You want to accrue legacy by doing basic kingdom-y things, like conquering territory, putting down rebellions, building up lovely regions. How do you do that?
The most basic interaction is choosing what to build in each province. There are six basic categories - food, infrastructure, money, equipment, piety, and stewardship (green, purple, yellow, red, orange, and blue). Food helps with population growth. Infrastructure builds things. Money, well, generates gold. Equipment/military buildings help with unit recruitment. Piety/stewardship convert population to your faith & suppress banditry and heresy, boosting your public order & fighting corruption. Each category has numerous buildings within it, divided into tiers. When you open a region, the game will shuffle each category and give you one selection from each to choose to build (you can mouse over to learn the specific effects of each available building). Tier II buildings won't be available until you've built at least 3 tier Is in that category, etc.
So, decide what each province needs. Generally, I try to build at least 3 infrastructure (can I use that word now?) buildings in each province to ensure it can at least build stuff in a decent chunk of time. Then everything else is case-by-case - is my kingdom bleeding gold? Then I'll need to build some money producing buildings somewhere. Is this province on the brink of rebellion? Then I probably need some blue or orange buildings. Is this going to be a recruitment center? Then some red military buildings wouldn't go amiss. Population not growing? Obviously it's time for some food, etc. Obviously there's endless complications (health affects pop growth, trading resources & bonus resources lead to interactions across provinces, some buildings unlock later ones), but you can learn those as you go.
The second basic interaction is your units. Each unit costs gold, metal, and manpower to create, and then has a maintenance cost each turn to upkeep. You pay those fees when you order the unit, plus you use equipment from hte province's store in order to get your men outfitted with their kit - be it spears, plate armor, bows, horses, whatever. So provinces with high equipment will recruit quickly, others will need multiple turns to forge enough weapons to outfit your guys. There's further complications with mercenaries, standing army units vs levies, but for now just know that you need those resources to recruit & maintain units.
Battles are resolved by roughly three factors combined: 1)a unit's base strength, 2)the leadership on each side, and 3)a random die roll.
Strength is modified by terrain (light troops fight better in mountains and woods, heavy units might flounder in a marsh), exhaustion (if your army is starving, the men don't fight as well), support units (ranged units can lend a bonus to melee units), etc. The leader gives you extra die rolls on the random factor and can set a minimum strength. And finally different terrains have different frontages - so in the mountains maybe only a few of your heaviest units fight, while on the open plains your horsemen can flank the enemy army and get in extra attacks.
So, build logically - don't take a massive force of knights into the Welsh mountains and expect to do well. Tailor your intended army to the terrain you'll fight in (which you can check by mousing over a province) and the enemies you'll be facing.
The third and final basic interaction are your decisions. You can access regional decisions, essentially one-time cards to play on, well, regions. They might be things like "recruit a mercenary company" or "fight the plague" and typically pay out a one-time bonus in exchange for a cost. They're randomly generated and you can only hold so many at once, but you can sell decisions you don't intend to use.
That SHOULD be enough to get started on. The first few turns, just ensure you're building in every province you can and getting some basic resource generation in place. Work out how many units your economy can support, based on your gold, metal, and manpower, and scout around the map for some likely nearby targets to practice war on. Watch the battle results carefully - I'd go round by round and use the tooltips to figure out where each number is coming from, and you can pretty quickly get a handle on the combat engine. And then, well, just play around and learn. Don't worry about making mistakes - even dead empires can win the game! So even if you lose half your provinces, just roll with it and see what you can do to recover. Getting your feet wet is the quickest way to pick up the ropes.
But a VERY basic run down:
Your goal in the game is to accrue the most Legacy of any kingdom over the course of the game. You can gain legacy via expansion, of course, but also through buildings, achievements, things like that - anything that makes your kingdom memorable. For example, the Roman Empire has sky-high legacy because it was enormous, but also because of its monumental architecture, glittering culture, laws, etc. So even dead states can win the game if their legacy score is high enough.
Okay, so far so good? You want to accrue legacy by doing basic kingdom-y things, like conquering territory, putting down rebellions, building up lovely regions. How do you do that?
The most basic interaction is choosing what to build in each province. There are six basic categories - food, infrastructure, money, equipment, piety, and stewardship (green, purple, yellow, red, orange, and blue). Food helps with population growth. Infrastructure builds things. Money, well, generates gold. Equipment/military buildings help with unit recruitment. Piety/stewardship convert population to your faith & suppress banditry and heresy, boosting your public order & fighting corruption. Each category has numerous buildings within it, divided into tiers. When you open a region, the game will shuffle each category and give you one selection from each to choose to build (you can mouse over to learn the specific effects of each available building). Tier II buildings won't be available until you've built at least 3 tier Is in that category, etc.
So, decide what each province needs. Generally, I try to build at least 3 infrastructure (can I use that word now?) buildings in each province to ensure it can at least build stuff in a decent chunk of time. Then everything else is case-by-case - is my kingdom bleeding gold? Then I'll need to build some money producing buildings somewhere. Is this province on the brink of rebellion? Then I probably need some blue or orange buildings. Is this going to be a recruitment center? Then some red military buildings wouldn't go amiss. Population not growing? Obviously it's time for some food, etc. Obviously there's endless complications (health affects pop growth, trading resources & bonus resources lead to interactions across provinces, some buildings unlock later ones), but you can learn those as you go.
The second basic interaction is your units. Each unit costs gold, metal, and manpower to create, and then has a maintenance cost each turn to upkeep. You pay those fees when you order the unit, plus you use equipment from hte province's store in order to get your men outfitted with their kit - be it spears, plate armor, bows, horses, whatever. So provinces with high equipment will recruit quickly, others will need multiple turns to forge enough weapons to outfit your guys. There's further complications with mercenaries, standing army units vs levies, but for now just know that you need those resources to recruit & maintain units.
Battles are resolved by roughly three factors combined: 1)a unit's base strength, 2)the leadership on each side, and 3)a random die roll.
Strength is modified by terrain (light troops fight better in mountains and woods, heavy units might flounder in a marsh), exhaustion (if your army is starving, the men don't fight as well), support units (ranged units can lend a bonus to melee units), etc. The leader gives you extra die rolls on the random factor and can set a minimum strength. And finally different terrains have different frontages - so in the mountains maybe only a few of your heaviest units fight, while on the open plains your horsemen can flank the enemy army and get in extra attacks.
So, build logically - don't take a massive force of knights into the Welsh mountains and expect to do well. Tailor your intended army to the terrain you'll fight in (which you can check by mousing over a province) and the enemies you'll be facing.
The third and final basic interaction are your decisions. You can access regional decisions, essentially one-time cards to play on, well, regions. They might be things like "recruit a mercenary company" or "fight the plague" and typically pay out a one-time bonus in exchange for a cost. They're randomly generated and you can only hold so many at once, but you can sell decisions you don't intend to use.
That SHOULD be enough to get started on. The first few turns, just ensure you're building in every province you can and getting some basic resource generation in place. Work out how many units your economy can support, based on your gold, metal, and manpower, and scout around the map for some likely nearby targets to practice war on. Watch the battle results carefully - I'd go round by round and use the tooltips to figure out where each number is coming from, and you can pretty quickly get a handle on the combat engine. And then, well, just play around and learn. Don't worry about making mistakes - even dead empires can win the game! So even if you lose half your provinces, just roll with it and see what you can do to recover. Getting your feet wet is the quickest way to pick up the ropes.