Basics
Resources
To construct buildings or recruit units you need resources. You receive resources automatically from your resources production (timber camp, clay pit, iron mine). You also receive those resources when you are not logged into your account.
The amount of resources that you get depends on the size of your resource buildings. It is important to build up your warehouse to make sure that you don't lose the resources that don't fit. At the top right of your screen you can see how many resources your warehouse can hold, and how many you currently have.
The number on the right shows how many of each resources can be stored. In this example, a maximum of 400000 of each resource can be stored. The numbers to the left of that show the resource amounts that are stored right now (53313 wood, 222435 clay and 21519 iron).
First steps
In the beginning you mostly need one thing: Resources. The timber camp cuts wood, the clay pit collects clay and the iron mine produces iron. The more you expand those buildings the more they produce. When you first join a world it is recommended to build up your resource production by a few levels.
After you have secured a good base production of resources you can start building troops. In the barracks (Level 3 Headquarters needed) you can start recruiting spear fighters. Spear fighters offer some protection against would-be attackers who might want to plunder your resources. They are not usually good attacking troops, but they are useful for raiding very small, undefended villages in order to plunder their resources.
In addition to recruiting troops, there are also other ways to help protect your village and defend your resources in the early stages of the game. One way to protect your resources is to build up your hiding place. The bigger the hiding place, the more resources are safe from attackers. Another good deterrent is to build a wall (Level 1 barracks needed). The higher your wall level the stronger your village's basic defense will be. This means your enemies will suffer higher losses when they attack villages with higher wall levels.
If you find you have excess resources, you might want to consider building a market. (Level 3 headquarters and level 2 warehouse needed). In the marketplace, you can see what your neighbors are offering and trade away resources you don't want. You can also create your own offers.
You should also look around your area to find a good tribe to join. It is always easier to fight and defend in a group. It is also a good way to meet some nice people!
Late start
Should you join a world that has been going on for a while already it is recommended to change your strategy a bit. It is of course still important to get a good basic resource production so that it is possible to build up your village quickly. But you have to quickly start protecting your village. For that it is best to build up your wall and hiding place and also to build a few units. Writing to your potential attackers can often help as well. It is always recommended to use the units you produced to plunder other villages. The plundered resources greatly help your growth.
Now we'll show you the biggest difference to the usual start:
Don't make the mistake of concentrating too much on creating your first nobleman. It might sound logical to try to get a second village as quickly as possible but it does not help you if you can't defend your villages. If you only concentrate on the noblemen you are an easy target, and also a well-liked target as bigger players would love to have a village that is already on the way to being ready to produce noblemen. By that time attacks start coming in, it's usually too late.
One method of preparing for this is to use a defensive strategy. This means creating lots of sword and spear fighters. If you create enough troops you are a very expensive target and your attacker will usually try to find an easier target. Morale also helps you if you are attacked by bigger players. A very big player loses up to 70% of his attack strength due to morale.
The security phase can take some time, but it will usually pay off, as you can always use those defensive troops in the later game. Once you have a good amount of defensive troops - something like 1200 spears and 1200 swords - you can start thinking about a nobleman.
You will probably be able to tell how valuable that tactic was by looking at your neighbors' villages ...
Village overview
The village overview gives you a lot of information about your village on one page. You can see the size of your buildings, your current resource production, your troops and troop movements.
You can switch between the classical and the graphical village overview. The classical overview is a big advantage when you are on a slow internet connection. If you have a premium account you will get a lot of very useful added information like the production in your buildings, the amount of merchants and the time when your warehouse will be full.
Below is a labelled village overview that shows what the different buildings look like.
Buildings do change their appearance depending on their size. Here you can see when the buildings change their picture:
| Building | Level for second graphic | Level for third graphic |
|---|---|---|
| Village Headquarters | 5 | 15 |
| Barracks | 5 | 20 |
| Stables | 5 | 10 |
| Workshop | 5 | 10 |
| Academy | x | x |
| Smithy | 5 | 15 |
| Rally point | x | x |
| Statue | x | x |
| Market | 5 | 20 |
| Timber camp | 10 | 20 |
| Clay pit | 10 | 20 |
| Iron mine | 10 | 20 |
| Farm | 10 | 20 |
| Warehouse | 10 | 20 |
| Hiding place | x | x |
| Wall | 5 | 15 |
Change village name
You can rename your village by going to the headquarters. On the bottom left under the buildings you see your currents village name, which you can edit and save with "change".
Construct buildings
If you want to construct a building, you have to click on the village headquarters and then click on "expansion to level X". You need the specified amount of wood, clay and iron. The exact amount depends on the kind of building and its level. The bigger you want to construct the building, the more resources are needed for the next level.
Additionally some buildings need other buildings at specific levels as requirement. As example, you can only build a market after you have constructed a warehouse up to a certain level. In the headquarters you see those requirements as well as the costs. You find more about that in the Building overview.
Recruiting units
You can recruit your first units in the barracks. To construct barracks you need to upgrade your headquarters to level 3. First you will only be able to build spear fighters; for other units you need e.g. a smithy and new buildings (such as the stables and workshop). In the Unit overview you can find a short description about the requirements for a certain unit and what its properties are.
