Elemental: War of Magic FAQ Version 0.7 by Craig Gibbens aka Gyb [email protected] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x Table of Contents x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 01.00 Introduction -01.01 Version History -01.02 About the Game -01.03 About the Guide 02.00 The Basics -02.01 Your Sovereign -02.02 Champions -02.03 Cities -02.04 Prestige -02.05 Influence -02.06 Resource Tiles -02.07 Housing, Food & Gold -02.08 Technology -02.09 Magic -02.10 Kindom vs. Empire 03.00 In-Depth -03.01 City Placement -03.02 Resource Tile Output -03.03 Dynasty System 04.00 Strategy -04.01 Tips and Tricks 05.00 Glossary of Terms ++++++++++++++++++++++ + 01.00 Introduction + ++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 01.01 Version History + +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 9/21/10 v0.5 - Basic outline, introduction, core concepts 9/29/10 v0.6 - Massive fleshing out of sections 10/06/10 v0.7 - Even more massive fleshing out, uploaded ++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 01.02 About the game + ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Elemental: War of Magic is a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) fantasy turn-based strategy game by Stardock Games. You are a Channeler, a rare individual who is still capable of using magic after a global Cataclysm destroyed civilization 1,000 years ago. It is your goal to rebuild the world as you see fit, whether through peace and cooperation or war and domination. You will found cities, build troops, research lost technology and spells, go on quests, and in general do whatever else you want to do. If you follow reviews or read gaming news at all you know that Elemental was recieved very poorly upon release and suffered from a wide array of bugs, crashes, and so on. I am not going to defend or criticize Stardock here, simply try to write an objective guide. I am beginning this guide post game version 1.08, the game is now at version 1.09. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 01.03 About the guide + +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Elemental includes a campaign mode however this guide is focused solely on sandbox play. The goal of the guide is to make the game a bit more accessible by breaking down the core concepts behind game play. As official documentation on Elemental is somewhat... lacking, at least at the time of this writing, I hope fellow players will find this helpful. Since Elemental's release there were and will continue to be many, many patches and updates which are significantly altering the gameplay. I will attempt to stay abreast of these changes and keep this guide as current as possible. At the same point there are certain areas of play that I know are going to drastically change in the near future (magic for one), so some areas of this FAQ will be "glossed over" until the state of the game is a bit more stable. Comprehensive FAQ's for 4X games can be dense, to say the least, so consider yourself warned. I am an avid player of this kind of game and have been playing Master of Magic, the game Elemental is constantly compared to, off and on since 1994. I also owe a great deal to the wonderful community at the Elemental forums. This is my first FAQ. Oh, and pronounce "Gyb" as "jibe" ++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.00 The Basics + ++++++++++++++++++++ Every 4X game ever made has a learning curve and Elemental is no different. This section will familiarize you with some of Elemental's core concepts. Each of these concepts will get a more in-depth treatment in later sections. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.01 Your Sovereign + ++++++++++++++++++++++++ In Elemental the leader of your people is called the Sovereign and he/she will be an actual figure in game that you can move around the map. Your Sovereign can attack and be attacked, cast spells, explore and go on quests, and otherwise do anything else that your other units will do. Based on your pre- game choices your Sovereign may be a combat monster, a behind-the-scenes manipulator, or something in between. But regardless of your choices your Sovereign is your most important unit because if he/she dies in hostile territory it is game over. In the early game you will have little choice but to use your Sovereign for scouting, questing, defense against wild creaturs, and recruitment of champions. As your kingdom grows you will need to decide if you want to continue to risk your Sovereign on the front lines or keep him/her safely in your territory. +++++++++++++++++++ + 02.02 Champions + +++++++++++++++++++ You will notice a number of non-hostile humans wandering the desert. These are Champions, notable people who can be hired to serve your kingdom. By default Elemental will spawn a Champion named "Janusk" near you after the first turn of every game to act as your advisor (he can be disabled from the options menu if you prefer). Champions can serve as scouts, warriors, or even mages if you grant them spellcasting ability with the "Imbue Champion" spell. Some champions have abilities that make them best suited to stay stationed in a city, granting a bonus to food or production. If you find a Champion of the opposite gender and have a higher reputation level than they do (you can see your reputation level on the main Kingdom screen) you can ask them to marry you. This will start the dynasty system, covered in depth in a later section. In general you want to marry someone with the highest stats and coolest special abilities you can find as early in the game as possible (which can be hard to do). ++++++++++++++++ + 02.03 Cities + ++++++++++++++++ Cities are your primary centers for production, research, and spreading your influence across the land. Your Sovereign has the ability to build your first city, but after that you will need to produce pioneer units to found subsequent cities. For the most part it is only "worth it" to build cities that will be near (say, within five tiles) a Resource Tile, but this is debateable since "city spam" is always a viable strategy in a 4X game. Optimal city placement is covered in a later section. ++++++++++++++++++ + 02.04 Prestige + ++++++++++++++++++ In Elemental your kingdom grows by having people flock to your banner. Your ability to draw the refugees in from the blasted wasteland is called Prestige. Each city has its own Prestige level and it starts at 1, meaning your cities will grow by one person per turn. Special abilities and buildings can increase this number. As we go along remember that your cities do not grow in population because of food or birthrate, but because of Prestige. +++++++++++++++++++ + 02.05 Influence + +++++++++++++++++++ Influence (territory that is considered part of your kingom) is shown by your kingdom's colored borders spreading out from around your cities. A city will start with an influence radius of one tile in each direction, and will grow to two tiles after about 13 turns (special abilities and/or buildings may modify this). The influence will continue to grow indefinitely but at an increasingly slower rate. Higer populations will cause influence to grow faster. At present there is no way to track how long it will be until a city's influence grows another tile. There are two reasons you care about your influence: Resource tiles and monster spawn. Resource tiles (covered next) are of vital importance to your kingdom and can only be "claimed" by falling within your influence and then being built upon. Wandering monsters can not spawn within your influence (although they can spawn OUTSIDE it and then wander in) so spreading influence keeps your cities safe. Influence is also important because your troops can only heal while within your territory, and there are spells (notably teleport/spirit dance) that can only target within your area of influence. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.06 Resource Tiles + ++++++++++++++++++++++++ A Resource Tile is a special tile on the map that, when claimed (is within your influence and built upon), will provide a set number of that resource for your kingdom each turn. If the Resource Tile is within 5 tiles of a city square then it is considred "linked" and any multipliers that city has may apply to the Resource Tile (only one city may be linked to a given Resource Tile; multiple cities near a Tile will not stack). Once produced resources are not city-specific and are available for use anywhere in your kingdom (global resource pool). Resource Tile control is vital to your economy. Unlike other 4X games you may be used to basic land tiles do nothing for your cites, only the special resource tiles provide any benefit. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.07 Housing, Food, and Gold + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ While Prestige controls how many people join your city each turn, housing determines the maximum number of people your city can support. A city starts out being able to house 10 people; to grow beyond that you will need to build housing improvements (huts/shanties/etc.), which requires access to Food. I find it easiest to think about Food like currency. The number of Food displayed in the top bar is how much you have, period. You can't store it so if you have 4 food this turn, you will still have 4 food next turn. Because Food is usually in short supply in the early game, you will need to watch how you "spend" it. If you build one house, that takes one of your food. Food is also required to build many (but not all) gold-related buildings. Think of food as the foundation of your economy, you are taking away some of the food that would otherwise be used to support more housing and instead selling it off directly for profit. Or something like that. Point is you need food not only for housing but also for most economic improvements. Much of this will change in game version 1.1 :) ++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.08 Technology + ++++++++++++++++++++ For the most part Elemental uses a non-linear technology tree; there are five areas of research and you are under no pressure to research them all. It is completely possible to win a game by focusing solely on one or two research paths and ignoring the others, or by balancing your research over all paths. Further, even within a path there are separate branches of research available. Finally certain techs are not 100% guaranteed to be available every time you reach a new research level, potentially throwing a curve into plans to bee- line to specific techs. The main source of research is the Lost Library resource, and you will want to control as many of these as possible. +++++++++++++++ + 02.09 Magic + +++++++++++++++ Magic is one of the areas that will be getting a large overhaul in a future patch so I will not go into a lot of detail yet. The basics as of v1.09 are you get +1 mana for each caster per turn, and they can store mana up to their Essence attribute. You research spells using Arcane Temples in a manner similar to technology. The main difference is you unlock "spell levels," and once you do you can then research any spell from any book you have of that level. Some books are chosen at the start of the game, and others are found or researched in the tech tree. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 02.10 Kingdom vs. Empire + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There are two allegiances available in Elemental, Kingdom (the good guys) and Empire (the bad guys). Aside from obvious graphical differences each side has their own tech tree, special buildings, and equipment. The different tech tree in particular lends to a very differnt feel and game pacing for each side. In general the Kindom tree lends itself to fast diplomacy, while the Empire tree lends itself to fast conquest. There are numerous other differences, but that is the nutshell version. ++++++++++++++++++ + 03.00 IN DEPTH + ++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 03.01 City Placement + ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Factors to consider when deciding where to found a city include geography and distance between cities, availability of Resource tiles, and using influence to strategicly block portions of the map. Cities in Elemental actually take up multiple tiles on the world map as they grow, meaning whenever you construct a new building in a city you will need to pick which tiles it will occupy. This is why availability of open space is a factor. At present you can not build on these tiles: water, coastline, forest, and mountain. Also note that the only building you can build on a beach tile is a harbor. While your influence spreads from your city's hub (the actual tile where you founded the city), distance from the city is calculated from any tile that has a city improvement/building in it. This means that if something needs to be "within five tiles of a city" then you count from ANY tile that includes part of your city. This is especially important when founding cities close to each other, as you can not build a city improvement within five tiles of another city's improvement. To illustrate: AXXXXXB If A and B above are cities and the Xs are empty tiles, the game will have let me settle like that because there are five empty tiles between each city. However I will not be allowed to build any improvements to the right of city A or to the left of city B. Where it gets more complicated is: AXXGXXXXXB Here A and B started eight tiles away from each other with a Gold Mine (G) between them. After a few turns both cities expand with improvements: AIXGXXXXIB Still legal so far because there are five tiles between each improvement (I). Next A builds another improvement next to the Gold Mine, which then makes all the tiles between A and the mine contigeous: AIIGXXXXIB As soon as a city improvement "touches" a resource tile like our Gold Mine, that resource is considered part of the city. Distance from city A is now calculated from G, and that means city B's improvement is no longer legal. City B will get to keep its improvement, but it can no longer build in that direction. When picking a city location to harvest nearby resources, you have a choice between building your city directly next to a resource or leaving space for your influence to eventually include the resource. Each decision has its merits. If your city "touches" the resource then it will be included in your city's defenses; however, it will also take time from your city's production queue to build the improvement. If the resource is within your influence but not touching your city then you can build on it without it taking turns from your city's production queue, but the resource will not be defended by your walls. When time is not a factor (that is I'm not rushing to grab a specific resource before someone else does) I prefer to start a city one tile away from any / all resources, let my influence expand over them, build the resource, then build improvements out to include the resources in my city walls. I kind of expect the above dynamic to change a bit in upcoming patches so for now any further debate on "optimal" city placement will have to wait. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 03.02 Resource Tile Output + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Food: Food is the stuff that your people eat, at least theoretically. In practice food is used to set the limit on how much housing you can construct in a city. Food is also a prerequsite for certain economic buildings. Food is one of those resources that you will either have not enough or way too much of. Fertile Land: 4 Oasis: 6 Fruit Grove: 4 Twilight Bees: 3 Wild Wheat: 6 Gold: Money makes the world go round. Gold (or Gilder) is predominately generated from claimed gold mines, but can also be generated and increased by certain city improvements. Gold is needed to pay for construction, unit training, unit upkeep, city upkeep, hiring heroes, buying equipment, and more. As such it is vital to generate as much gold as possible per turn. Gold can also be earned through adventuring, either as a reward for defeating enemies or found in goodie huts. At times this can be quite profitable, but you can�t count on adventuring to support your entire economy. You can never have enough gold. Gold Mine: 5 Materials: Materials is a generalized concept for stuff that isn�t metal. Materials can be generated from lumber, stone, clay, etc. Materials are used in all sorts of construction, from units to improvements. The availability of materials in the early game can be very challenging, but by late game you will probably have a gigantic surplus you have nothing to do with. Old Growth Forest: 4 Stone: Clay Pits: Metal Metal is used in the production of units and is needed for certain weapons and armor. While having a source of metal is certainly desirable it is not strictly necessary for victory. Metal currently has no use other than unit training. Note you do not need metal to buy equipment for your Sovereign/ Champions, just regular units. You will either need a lot of metal or none at all (but probably a lot). Iron Ore: 1 Ventril Mine: 3 Crystal: Crystal is used to outfit units with magical equipment, so it plays a role similar to metal. If you do the magical research necessary you can provide your units with a variety of useful trinkets. Crystal currently has no use other than unit training. Note you do not need crystal to buy equipment for your Sovereign/Champions, just regular units. Some neutral faction cities can provide crystal each turn (even without an associated Crystal Crag visible on the map) once conquered. Check the neutral city�s overview screen to see what it is producing. Crystal Crag: 1 Horses/Wargs: Mounts can be added to trained units to add +1 to both moves and combat action points. Horse Tiles can only be used by Kingdom factions and Warg Tiles by Empire, but they both work the same way: when claimed they will produce one horse/warg every four turns. There is no downside to outfitting your troops with mounts other than cost/training time. Horses: .3 Wargs: .3 Tech: Lost Library tiles are the main source of Tech. Progressing up the technology tree provides many benefits in Elemental so you will want to control as many of these as possible. You will never have enough Tech. Lost Library: 5 Arcane: Ancient Temples are the main source of Arcane. Your overall strategy will determine how important Arcane is for you; you can succeed with just a small number of low level spells, or you can research all the way up to the game winning spell. Arcane Temple: 5 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 03.03 Dynasty System + ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Once you have acquired some Champions of the opposite gender as your Sovereign you may notice the option to propose (located on the Champion's action tab in the lower left). A Champion will only accept your proposal if your reputation is higher than their level. You can see your ____ on the Kindom report screen. If you get married you will eventually start having children. Note that you do not need to keep your Sovereign and spouse together for this to happen. When the children grow up they will inherit some of their parent's abilities and can then be used as Champions themselves or even be used in arranged marriages between other factions. Expect it to take around 20-40 turns before you start having kids and then another 40-60 turns for a kid to grow up (rough estimates). The primary benefits of arranged marriages are a diplomatic boost with the faction and the potential for grandchildren down the line. When married your male children will always stay with you and have the other faction's daughter join you, while your female children will always go to the other faction. Horribly sexist, I know. When grandchildren grow up they have a chance to join either of their parent's starting faction. It seems weighted towards their joining their mother's faction, that is, your son's kids will probably defect away from you while your daughter's kids will probably defect back to you. It isn't set in stone, just seems like it happens that way most often. Because children inherit the abilities of their same-sex parent you can end up getting the abilities of other Sovereign's this way. So for example I marry my daughter to Kul-Kulan's (or whatever his name is) son, they have a boy, that boy grows up and joins me, now I have a grandchild with the Organized trait. The formulas that determine children starting stats are still a little screwy, for example even if both parent's have 2 base move I frequently get kids with 1 base move, which sucks. Also no matter how pumped my two parents stats are (STR, DEX, etc.) the children and especially grandchildren tend to "even out" to 10 (because the AI tends to not level their kids much so all their stats stay at 10). The only exception is Essence which has been stated to always be "50-100% of the higher parent's essence." One thing I do before sending my daughters off to marriage is level them up a bit and equip them with a basic set of armor. It only take 3-4 easy battles to get them to level 3, put the level ups in hit points or dexterity, and buy them whatever armor you can afford. This increases their survivability considerably even when controlled by the AI. ++++++++++++++++++ + 04.00 Strategy + ++++++++++++++++++ More to come when the game play stabilizes. As of 1.09 if you have any experience playing 4X games you will do fine once you get the mechanics down. For now I'm just including basic tips and tricks. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 04.01 Tips and Tricks + +++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you click on a resource within your borders, the tab at the bottom left will tell you which city the resource has been claimed by. If the resource is more than five tiles from any city square then it will say "not linked." If you construct some buildings towards the resource you can link it and thus gain your city's multipliers, if any. Whenever you have a unit, city, resource, etc. selected make sure you notice the tabs on the status bar in the lower left; these tabs will have all of the various options for you to interact with that object (such as asking a Champion to marry you). Holding the center mouse button down and moving the mouse will rotate the camera. "Intimidating" as a Sovereign ability is kind of powerful right now; try it before it gets nerfed. As of 1.09 Caravans boost Food production and are the only way to make roads. The most efficient thing you can do is send one caravan from each city back to your capital city. This will give a big boost to food production in your capital, and also create a somewhat efficient road network for yourself. Send the caravan from your capital to any city outside your kingdom/empire that you want a road to (to make later conquest easier ;) Many of those goodie huts you see popping up around the world require a certain technology in the "Adventure" (Kingdom) or "Domination" (Empire) in order for you to loot them. I'll have the list of which tech unlocks which level up before too long, but for now just realize the more investment in those tech branches, the more goodie huts you will get. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 05.00 Glossary of Terms + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -Champion: hero units; most Champions must be recruited by paying them gold. -City: For convenience I use city to mean any population center you create, regardless of its level (Settlement, Village, Town, etc.). -Empire: One of the base allegiances in Elemental; the "bad" guys. -Influence: The radius around a city considered to belong to your faction; your borders. Increasing Influence means more territory. A city�s base influence is determined by population. -Kingdom: One of the base allegiances in Elemental; the "good" guys. -Prestige: The number by which a city's population will grow each turn. Increasing Prestige means faster city growth. -Resource Tile: The actual tile on the game map where a resource is located. -Resource: Something generated by a Resource Tile, such as food or metal. -Shard: An elemental resource tile of great power. -Sovereign: The leader of a faction; your leader is a Sovereign, and so are the leaders of your rivals. -Summoned: I creature brought forth by magic, such as an earth elemental. -Unit: A troop that had to be trained in a city; normally when I say unit I�m NOT including Champions or Sovereigns. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Legal Stuff This document is Copyright �2010 Craig Gibbens (Gyb1) and is the intellectual property of the author. It may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use as long as it remains in its unaltered, unedited form. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. The following sites are allowed to use my guide: GameFAQs.com