~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FAQ/STRATEGY GUIDE TO
The Settlers:
Rise of an Empire
Game by
Ubisoft
Blue Byte
This guide written by
SOLDYNE
Version 1.00
VERSION HISTORY:
1.00 - First creation February 1, 2009.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
(TO GO TO ANY SECTION USE THE FIND COMMAND AND COPY/PASTE THE ENTIRE LINE OF
THE SECTION YOU ARE LOOKING FOR)
(DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT $200)
I. INTRODUCTION
II. OVERVIEW
III. BUTTONS AND INTERFACE
[A] MAIN MENU
[B] HOTKEYS and CONTROLS
[C] SINGLEPLAYER
[D] MAIN GAME INTERFACE
[1] CITY INFORMATION BUTTON
[2] TREASURY BUTTON
[3] STOREHOUSE STOCK BUTTON
[4] FOOD BUTTON BUTTON BUTTON
[5] cLOTHING BUTTON
[6] CLEANING SUPPLIES BUTTON
[7] ENTERTAINMENT BUTTON
[8] DECORATIONS BUTTON
[9] PROSPERITY BUTTON
[10] MILITARY BUTTON
[11] MENU BUTTON
[12] CHAT BUTTON
[13] CONSTRUCTION PANEL BUTTONS
[14] MINI MAP BUTTONS
[15] BIULDING INFORMATION WINDOW
[16] CURRENT QUEST DETAILS BUTTON
[17] QUEST LOGS BUTTON
IV. THE KNIGHTS
[A] MARCUS
[B] ALANDRA
[C] ELIAS
[D] KESTRAL
[E] HAKIM
[F] THORDAL
[G] PROMOTIONS
V. THE BUILDINGS
[A] DEFENSE AND ROADS
[1] WOODEN WALL/GATE
[2] STONE WALL/GATE
[3] TRAIL/STONE ROAD
[B] RESOURCE GATHERING
[1] WOODCUTTER
[2] HUNTER
[3] STONECUTTER
[4] FISHER
[5] IRON MINER
[6] GRAIN FARM
[7] CATTLE FARM
[8] SHEEP FARM
[9] BEEKEEPER
[10] HERB GATHERER
[C] RETAIL
[1] BUTCHER
[2] BAKER
[3] SMOKEHOUE
[4] DAIRY
[5] TANNER
[6] WEAVER
[7] BROOM MAKER
[8] SOAP MAKER
[9] PHARMACY
[10] TAVERN
[11] BATH HOUSE
[12] THEATER
[13] BANNER MAKER
[14] CARPENTER
[15] BLACKSMITH
[16] CANDLE MAKER
[17] SWORDSMITH
[18] BOW MAKER
[D] MILITARY
[1] SWORDMAN BARRACKS
[2] BOWMAN BARRACKS
[3] SIEGE ENGINE WORKSHOP
[4] OUTPOST
[E] SPECIAL
[1] CASTLE
[2] CATHEDRAL
[3] STOREHOUSE
VI. LIFE IN THE CITY
[A] ECONOMY AND STRIKING
[B] FESTIVALS AND FAMILIES
[C] TRADING AND DIPLOMACY
[D] RUINS AND SHIPWRECKS
VII. THE MILITARY
[A] BATTALIONS AND REPUTATION
[B] THIEVES
[C] SIEGE WEAPONS
[D] EXPANSIONS AND OUTPOSTS
[E] MERCENARIES
[F] BANDITS
[G] WILD ANIMALS
VIII.THE CAMPAIGN
[A] UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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I. INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to my guide on The Settlers 6: Rise of an Empire. I would first
like to give Ubisoft and Blue Byte a grand "Thank You" for creating such a fun
game with detailed graphics and great sound and music.
I would like to say that this is my 4th FAQ/STRATEGY guide. I purchased the
Gold Edition, so, I write this guide from that perspective (game version
1.6.4827).
If anyone finds that any info in this guide is erroneous, my explainations
are difficult to understand, or you just have some new info to add then drop
me a line at [email protected] and have the subject read:
ABOUT YOUR SETTLERS GUIDE!
This is because I have many filters on my email account and this will let me
know that your email is worth opening. I should not have to say this but,
PLEASE make sure you computer is clean of viruses and such before sending
me any messages. Thank You!
Now for some legal stuff:
This guide is Copyrighted under law and cannot be reproduced by others without
express writen permission from me. You may not link directly to this document
or display a copy of it on any website. I worked long and hard to get this
information and I would like to be credited for my work.
A Note About Pronouns:
I will tend to use masculine pronouns throughout my document. This is not
intended to disrespect or in any way ostrisize the female population. It is
just how I write. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
OK, now onto the good stuff!
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II. OVERVIEW
The Settlers 6: Rise of an Empire is best described as a real time strategy
game with a mix of resource management and city building thrown in. there is
a single player campaign mode and a multiplayer mode. I do not play multi-
player mode very much for any game so this guide will concentrate its
content on the singler player game and of course give general information
about game mechanics.
if you are interested in the multiplayer aspect of the game you are welcome
to go to the official Settlers website at
http://thesettlers.us.ubi.com/home.php
and join the forum discussions.
As I said previously, I purchased the Gold Edition. At first the Gold Edition
seems to be without a manual, however, if you go into your install directory
you can find an electronic .pdf manual buried in the Ubisoft game structure.
I did not find it until after I beat the game, but, oh well!
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III. BUTTONS AND INTERFACE
After installing and running the game you are presented with a long but
very well done intro movie and some nice, fitting music. The intro movie
can be skipped with a few mouse clicks, after which you will be presented with
the main menu.
[A] MAIN MENU
Here on the right hand side of the screen you have 7 buttons: Singleplayer,
LAN Game, Multiplayer, Profile, Options, Credits, Exit Game. Just below the
final button you should see a number, this is the game version.
Singleplayer will bring you to the main story of the game.
LAN Game and Multiplayer will begin a multiplayer game (not discussed in this
guide)
Profile will bring you to another screen where you can edit, delete, create
and select profiles. A profile is sort of a way of keeping different peoples
games seperate from each other mainly for use during singleplayer. This
way two or more people can play the main game without interferring with
the other person's progress. If only one person is playing this game then
this screen holds little use.
Options will take you to the game settings like Video, Sound, Mouse Controls
and it can show you all the shortcuts (hotkeys) that you can use in the game.
We will go over a few of them shortly. The game should automatically
configure itself for your systems requirements. If not, then you can alter
them here.
Credits will take you to a list of all the people that made this game
possilbe.
Exit Game will...well...cause you to exit the game. What more do you want?
[B] HOTKEYS and CONTROLS
I will not cover all the shortcuts here, you can easily read the list in
the game yourself. In fact, most of the shortcuts have buttons in the game
that do the same thing. What I will talk about are the most useful of the
hotkeys:
NOTE: It is best if you play this game with a mouse that has a mouse wheel.
There are a few ways to move around the map you can either move your mouse
cursor to the edge of the map or you can hold down the right mouse button and
move the mouse. You can alter the speed of scrolling in the Game Options
menu. You could also click on the mini map, but, this is not very accurate.
To zoom in or zoom out you can spin the mouse wheel.
To rotate the angle of the camera you can hold Control+mouse wheel.
To rotate bulidings you can hold Shift+mouse wheel.
[C] SINGLEPLAYER
Once you have decided to start playing the game and have chosen Singleplayer
you will see a second menu with buttons named Campaign, Custom Game, Load.
Campaign will take you to the world map and will show you all the maps that
you have unlocked on the current profile as well as any cinematic movies.
Here you can replay any map that you have played before. Doing so will not
affect the story in any way.
Custom Game will allow you to play a map that is not linked to the main story
in any way. These maps are one shot games that provide various levels of
challenges and fun. The Gold Edition shiped with a map editor which will
allow you to create your own custom maps. This editor is not supported by
Ubisoft or Blue Byte and I have not used it myself so I will not cover it
in this guide. If you are interested in making your own maps you are welcome
to experiment and I am certain that someone on the official forums has
plenty of advice for new map makers.
Load Game will of course load up a previously saved game.
[D] MAIN GAME INTERFACE
When you start your singlplayer game you will see the world infront of you in
full color, 3D graphics surrounded by lots of buttons all over place. Of
course the manual can tell you what each button is but I will add my own
experience to the descriptions here (as a supplement to the manual).
Please note, that if you are starting from map 1 "Vestholm", then not all
of the buttons will be available right away. This is due to two factors.
One, the first few levels are tutorial levels so some aspects are locked out.
Two, some buttons are for advanced cities which require you to upgrade your
village before they become available.
At any time during the game you can hover your mouse over just about anything
and you will get a temporary popup that will give you a breif description of
the item.
We will start in the upper left hand corner and work our way around clockwise.
[1] CITY INFORMATION BUTTON
The first button which is always available is the City Information button.
This button is followed by a progress bar which monitors your City
Reputation (discussed later) which is measured as a percentage. To the left
of the bar is 0% and the right is 100%.
If you click on the City Information button you will get a drop down menu
which shows your current and max population, your current and max number of
families (called wives in the game)(To be discussed later), your current
and max number of soldiers and your current reputation.
Just below this button will be temporary icons that pop up during the game
which show you different things which are affecting your cities reputation.
If the icon is green it is a poitive effect, if the icon is red it is a
negative effect.
Also, after a festival, you will get a quick pop up under this button that
shows how many new weddings you had (thus increasing the number of families/
wives in your city).
[2] TREASURY BUTTON
This Gold Coin button shows your currnent gold stock piles. If you click
the button you will get a drop down that shows you your potential income
due to taxes and your potential maintenance due to your military.
These figures are not always accurate. For example, The estimated tax
has to physically be collected by your tax collectors which can be killed
by enemy soldiers. The tax is also determined by current retail income
which can obviously change as settlers engage in commerce. Soldier's pay
can obviously change if you recruit more troops or lose them in battle.
Any time you gain or lose funds a temporary pop up box will be displayed
with an icon showing the source.
[3] STOREHOUSE STOCK BUTTON
The wagon icon button is followed by your two most imporant resources, stone
and wood. If you click on the button you will get an overview of your
current storehouse's holdings on all of your resources (these will all be
discussed later). at the very botton of this popup is your storehouses
current total and max total storage capacity.
[4] FOOD BUTTON
The apple icon button shows the total amount of finished food product
availabe for sale and eating in your entire village. If you click on the
button you will get a detailed drop down of how much of each kind of food
you have availabe (discussed more later). Food is required for your city
so if you ever hit 0 then this button will have a red outline warning you
of impending famine.
[5] cLOTHING BUTTON
The shirt icon button shows the total amount of finished clothing
available for sale and use in your entire village. If you click on the
button you will get a detailed drop down of how much of each kind of clothing
you have (discussed more later).
[6] CLEANING SUPPLIES BUTTON
The brush icon button shows the total amount of finished cleaning
products for sale and use in your entire village. If you click on the
button you will get a detailed drop down of how much of each kind of item
you have (discussed more later). This button is only available after town
upgrades.
[7] ENTERTAINMENT BUTTON
The musical icon button shows the total amount of entertainment
available for sale and use in your entire village. If you click on the
button you will get a detailed drop down of how much of each kind of fun
you have (discussed more later). This button is only available after town
upgrades.
[8] DECORATIONS BUTTON
The decoration icon button shows the total number of buildings in
your village that have been decorated. If you click on the button
you can see how many buildings have been decorated which which decorations
and you can see the total number of decoratable buildings in your
village (discussed more later). This button is only available after
town upgrades.
[9] PROSPERITY BUTTON
The treasure chest icon button will give you a drop down of your town's
prosperity measured as a total number of rich or poor buildings as well as
giving you a total number of taxable buildings in your city (discussed more
later). This button is only availabe after town upgrades.
[10] MILITARY BUTTON
The crossed swords icon button will give you a drop down of your current
military supplies such as number of swords and bows available. This button
is not for current numbers of soldiers which can be found in the City
Information drop down.
[11] MENU BUTTON
In the upper right hand corner is the Menu button. This will let you pause
the game as well as access saving and loading features and exiting the game.
[12] CHAT BUTTON
below the Menu button is a chat button. this is only available if you are in
a multiplayer game. This will let you send messages to other players during
your game.
[13] CONSTRUCTION PANEL BUTTONS
On the right side of the screen you will see a list of buttons. Most of the
button icons on this panel will match the button icons from the top of
the screen. These buttons will open up side menus which let you build
certain buildings. The Resource Gathering, Food production, and Clothing
production buildings are available from the beginning. Cleaning supplies,
entertainment, decorations and military support buildings require upgrades
before they become available.
The last two buttons are the Defense and Roads button and the Demolition
button. The Defense and Roads button will let you build wooden or stone
walls and gates as well as lay down trails or stone roads. All of these
options are available from the start except stone roads which require
upgrades.
The demolition button will destroy most any building (except the castle,
cathedral, and store house) as well as any trails or roads.
[14] MINI MAP BUTTONS
In the lower right had corner of the screen is the mini map and its associated
buttons.
The mini map will show you an overview of the entire map and all the
territories you have explored. any areas which have not been explored will
be covered in dark grey. Any areas you have explored but do not own will be
shown in light grey. You can also see small icons on the mini map which
correspond to locations of raw materials. This can be very useful for
planning your expansion strategies later.
If you hover you mouse over any territory you can see its name displayed
below the mini map. This is very useful when you have a quest that wants you
to go to a certain area.
If you click on the mini map you can center your main view on the area you
clicked on. This is not very accurate but it is much faster than scrolling
around from one side of the map to the other.
The blue button to the left of the mini map will alter the kind of map you see
in the mini map screen. the default is a territory map which shows only
the resource icons and the colored boarders of owned territories (both
freindly and enemy). It will also show the gerneral position of buildings
and military units.
if you toggle this button it will show you a terrain map which gives you an
idea of where cliffs, fertile ground, forests and rivers are located.
The crossed swords button will select all of your military units inlcuding
all swordsmen, bowmen, your knight, seige engines, and all of your thieves.
If your military is spead out and you want to converge on a single spot,
then this can be a very useful button. if your thieves or your knight are
doing something useful then this might make things a little tricky. There
will be a more in depth discussion of military units later in this guide.
There will also be some buttons that appear to the left of the mini map
when any military unit is selected:
A Hand (stand ground), complex crossed swords (attack-move), wagon wheel
(dismount segie engine). All of this will be discussed in more detail
in the Military Chapter later.
The face icon button is the button to select only your knight. When you
do this you will get more buttons that appear to the left of the mini map.
From top to bottom the new buttons are: The knights active ability (discussed
later), Build an Outpost (only available if your knight is in an unclaimed
territory) followed by the default military commands.
The button on the top of the mini map is the Promotion Button. This
tells you what rank you knight currently is, what requirements your knight
needs to get promoted and if you meet the requirements and your knight
is in the market place it allows you to promote your knight, thus upgrading
your village. Details will be discussed later.
The next button is your production menu. Clicking on this will open up a
complex menu which lists all the possible buildings that gather resources,
produce final products or have something to do with infrastructure.
In any of these sub menus you can click on the icon and then select whether or
not to allow this building to continue to produce, or to stop selling its wares
and stockpile the equipment (either for a quest or just to stop using
resources). This menu can also tell you how many of each kind of building you
have in your city. For example, if you want to know why you are running low
on wool, this menu might show you that you only have 1 active sheep farm, but,
3 active weavers, allowing you locate one of your weavers and replace it with
a tanner for example.
The production menu is much more useful in the later part of the story when
your city has grown large or when you have specific quests that ask you to
stockpile certain goods.
The shaking hands icon button is the Diplomacy button. Clicking on this will
bring up a menu that lists all the other factions on the current map and
what your relationship is with each one and if you have any kind of trade
relations with them. This menu is mostly just for show as you can easily
see on your mini map what your relationship is with another faction. Allied
territories are visible on the mini map and enemies are not. Trade will
be discussed more later.
The next button is the weather button. This button will show you what month
and thus what season you are in. On many maps this is very important as
some resources are not availabe in the winter, such as fishing, harvesting,
and beekeeping. Also, rivers and lakes can freeze in the winter months
allowing new tactics and strategies to be used in combat.
The final button surrounding the mini map is the time button. pressing this
button will alter the speed at which the game is played. The game defaults to
the standard x1 speed. Clicking once will double this to x2 and clicking
again will increase to x3. Clicking one more time will reset the speed to
x1 again. To pause the game you should press the menu button.
[15] BUILDING INFORMATION WINDOW
This popup window will be displayed at the bottom of the screen whenever
you click on a building. in this window you will see what needs and desires
the settlers in this build have and how close they are to needing more of it.
It can also show you what upgrade level the building is (and thus how many
settlers call this building home) as well as what business this building does.
To the right of this window are two buttons. The person icon button will
center the screen on a settler who works in this building and will toggle
through all the settlers who work in this building. The building icon button
will center the screen on this building.
The Castle, Storehouse, and Cathedral have different building information
windows which will be discussed later.
[16] CURRENT QUEST DETAILS BUTTON
The Quest Details window will display a portrait of the person who is
requesting the quest as well as a breif description of what the quest is.
The arrow to the right of the portrait will replay the audio file associated
with the quest (to refresh your memory).
Depending on the quest you may see a magnifying glass button which will center
your view, or put a ping on your mini map, to show you where to you need to go
in order to complete the quest.
Some quests require you to send goods. If so, then a cart with an arrow will
appear to allow you to dispatch said goods. If you do not have enough to
comply with the request this button will do nothing.
[17] QUEST LOGS BUTTON
Above the Quest Details window on the left hand side of the screen will
be a bunch of buttons for other quests you might currently have. Clicking
on any of these will display the current quest details for that quest.
Clicking on the same quest again will minimize the current quest details and
give you more visible map area. If you currently have no quests, then this
area will contain no buttons.
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IV. THE KNIGHTS
In this game you take the role of a king overseeing many lands. You don't
directly rule every single village. That duty falls to your knights.
Your knights double as both a powerful military unit and your representive
to your subjects. They are your village mayors, your foriegn diplomats, and
your army's general.
All knights share certain abilities and responsibilities. Firstly, They are
the only unit which can claim new territory. They do this by moving into
an unclaimed land and then a button will become available next to the
mini map which will allow you to spend gold and wood to build an outpost.
The cost of the outpost is always different depending on the map and
particular territory. Usually, territories with more resources cost more
to expand to.
Knights are also the only ones which can perform trade actions. To do this
you must order your knight to move next to a freindly village's storehouse.
When they are in position new buttons will appear which allow you to purchase
certain goods that the village sells. If your knight moves too far away from
the storehouse then the trade buttons disappear.
Knights are also the only ones that can explore ruins and shipwrecks. If you
order your knight to move next to a ruin (destroyed building with a hand icon)
then a button should appear. Pressing this button will make a horse drawn
cart appear which will carry gold to your castle. The amount of gold can
range from 80-400 depending on which ruin you are exploring.
Finally, your knight is sometimes required to interact with certain
quest related events. This is done the same way as exploring ruins. This
could be anything from breaking someone out of a prison, to digging a water
well in the desert.
All knights are essentially immortal. They are exceptional fighters and
their strength is dictated by your cities moral. low moral means low
strength, and high moral means high strength. If your knight every falls in
battle they will be magically moved to the castle where they must heal. Once
they are sufficiently healed they will reappear at the castle ready to head
back out into the wilderness.
Knights do not require any food, clothing, or supplies of any kind. They are
your fastest unit and due to their regenerative abilities make for excellent,
early spies (at least until you can make thieves).
In addition to all of these abilities each knight has a certain set of
abilities which makes them unique. Each knight has one passive ability which
is always active and always provides some kind of boost to the village. Each
knight also has an active ability which requires a button to be pressed and
usually only affects a small radius around the knight. Active abilities
need time to recharge after each use.
[A] MARCUS
Marcus is one of your initial knights. He is known as the Lord of Chivalry.
Marcus' passive ability is to reduce the gold cost to recruit new soldiers.
Marcus' active ability is to replenish troops torches without being near
a castle or outpost
My Rating: C
Marcus' passive ability is not really a major benifit. If you follow my
guide and build your settlement well gold will not be a major issue by
the time you need to recruit a large army. His passive ability is nice.
Being able to replenish torches can be useful sometimes, but, most of the
time you will have enough troops with you to do what you need to, and, most
of the time your target will be an outpost. Once you take the enemy outpost
your troops torches will replenish anyway, so, this is just a small time
saver and not really a must have ability. He is probably the best knight
to use until you unlock Hakim.
[B] ALANDRA
Alandra is also one of your initial knights. She is known as the Lady of
Healing.
Alandra's passive ability is to increase the gold recieved from sermon
collections by 20%.
Alandra's active ability is to heal sick settlers in the village market
place.
My Rating: D
A 20% boost to sermon income sounds like a great idea, but, holding a sermon
also stops your settlers from working and early on the 20% boost is not really
all that much. Later on when you can get a decent sermon income you will
be rolling in gold anyway so there is no point to holding a sermon just for
extra cash. Her active ability is completely worthless for the first half
of the game. Settlers only get sick when the population is high or a quest
activates a plague on a certain map. At that point you will have the
ability to create medicine or purchase medicine from a trader or ally.
The only good thing about this ability is that it saves time but not enough
to matter.
Personally, though, I like this character from a roleplaying perspective.
She is the most paladin like of all the knights and seems to have the most
noble of intentions for the most part (with the exception of certain story
elements which will be discussed below).
[C] ELIAS
Elias is available starting with Map number 3. He is known as the Lord of
Trade.
Elias' passive ability is to increase the income from selling goods to your
allies and decrease the cost of purchasing.
Elias' active ability is to feed hungry striking settlers at your town square.
My Rating: D
His passive ability is pretty much worthless. By the time you have enough
excess stock to sell to an ally, you wont need the money. When it comes to
making purchases it does not happen all that often. His active ability
may come in handy on one or two difficult maps, but, the point of this guide
is to help you design your settlements so they are efficient and to avoid
striking settlers and famine. Thus, if you follow the guide you won't need
his active ability at all. In fact, I would say that if you do need his
ability then you should restart the map and try again, and this time choose
a different knight.
[D] KESTRAL
Kestral becomes available on map 4. Kestral is known as the Lady of Plunder.
Kestral's passive ability is to increase the amount of taxes collected
without negative effects.
Kestral's active ability is to steal the full income of a building without
any negative effects.
My Rating: C
Kestral's abilities are all about money. As per the story line she is a
mercenary so money is very important to her. Her passive ability can be a
great boon for any city just starting out which can help increase the speed at
which new settlments grow. Her active ability is just a variation of her
passive ability which pretty makes her a "one-trick-pony". Her rating would
be higher if she could do something other than just steal gold. Ultimately,
her skills become less useful as the city grows, but, on many maps getting
started fast is more important than long term income.
[E] HAKIM
Hakim is available on map 5. Hakim is known as the Lord of Wisdom.
Hakim's passive ability allows you to upgrade any building for less resources.
Hakim's active ability is to cause a nearby enemy battallion to convert over
to your side permenantly.
My Rating: A+
Of all the knights this guy kicks major butt. Being able to upgrade all
buildings for fewer resources is an amazing ability and can kick start a
new settlement like nothing else. Fast growth of a city is key to many maps.
His active ability is just amazing compared to everyone else. You could
essentially have a full contingent of military forces on your side before
you are even able to build them yourself and they cost no resources to gain.
You still have to pay them of course. Many people think that using Hakim
is almost akin to cheating!
[F] THORDAL
Thordal is available starting on map 6 and is the final knight. Thordal is
known as the Lord of Song.
Thordal's passive ability allows your settlers to gain more families after a
festival (meet more wives).
Thordal's active ability allows him to entertain settlers near him with his
bard-like singing.
My Rating: B
Thordal's passive ability is quite nice. More families (wives) in your
settlement will increase the overal efficiency which is one of your main
goals on every map. I have never been able to max out families on any city
so this ability actually has some use on every map. His active ability is
much like Elias' ability. If your settlers can't find any entertainment, then
you have designed your city poorly. His rating of a B just goes to show how
useful I think his passive ability is.
[G] PROMOTIONS
Promoting your knight is the process which allows your city to be upgraded.
All cities start out by only being able to build a few kind of buildings.
Every pomotion allows you to build new building types and, most importantly,
to build new military units. The early tutorial maps limit the number of
promotions you can get, but, later maps have no limits. There is a point of
dimishing returns however, when getting promoted gives your city no more
benifits towards winning the map.
To get promoted your settlement must meet various criteria at each level.
When your settlement has achieved all the needed requirements you must move
your knight to the marketplace and then press the promotion button next to
the mini map (it should be glowing green). This will cause the promotion
proclaimation to appear with a button at the bottom. Pressing that button
will promote your knight and subsequently upgrade your settlement.
Level 1 -
Title - Lord/Lady
Requirements - None
Rights - All Resource Buildings
All Food Retailers
All Clothing Retailers
Wooden and Stone Walls
Trails
Needs - Food
Notes - This is the default level. The first thing you should do here
is to build your woodcutters, food suppliers and retailers and one tanner.
Also, you should be able to upgrade your castle right from the start of most
maps. If you have a stone quarry in your first territory start minning it.
Level 2
Title - Sheriff
Requirements - 10 Settlers, 6 Clothes, Level 2 Castle
Rights - Sword Smith, Sword Barracks, Cleaning Retailers, Thief
Troop Salaries
Needs - Clothing
Notes - As soon as you are promoted you should build one soap maker and
one broom maker. If you don't have any stone quarries then explore and expand
to find one. Also, on maps with heavy military activity you should seek out an
iron mine and start building your sword smith and barracks. Right before you
get promoted you should start thinking about beekeepers and stocking honey.
If you have decent stone income you should upgrade your storehouse and
cathedral as high as you can. You will eventually want level 4 in all three
of your special buildings and there is no reason not to have them early.
Level 3
Title - Baron/Baroness
Requirements - 30 Settlers, 12 Cleaning,
Level 2 Castle/Storehouse/Cathedral
Rights - Medicine, Bow Maker, Bow Barracks, Tavern, Festival,
Stone Roads
Needs - Cleaning
Notes - Now you have Bowmen and are ready to take on the world...maybe.
You also have access to the festival. I suggest holding one if you can afford
it to help increase efficiency. by now you might be starting to stock up on
some raw materials. This is when you should start thinking about building 2
of every building because it will help you get promoted to level 5, which is
the hardest promotion to get.
Level 4
Title - Count/Countess
Requirements - 50 Settlers, 18 mead (2 taverns), level 3 Castle
Rights - Baths, Siege Workshop, Battering Ram, Mounted Catapult
ammo carts, Tax manipulation
Needs - entertainment, wealth
Notes - Build 2 bathhouses right away. If you are attacking any enemy
forts with stone walls, the ram is your opportunity to do so. If you are being
attacked you can build some stone walls and mount some catapults assuming you
can afford them. The next level is the hardest to achieve because you need to
have 20 buildings at the rich level. The best advice here is to put your
taxes and your troop salary to 0. The no tax boost to reputation should
counteract the no troop payment and so long as you don't hold too many
festivals you should be fine for money until you are promoted again. All
retailers will eventually become rich over time, the trick is to make sure you
have at least 20 retailers (thus the 2 of each retailer idea). If you are
close to the 20 mark but not quite there, then look at your storehouse and
see what raw materials you are heavy on and build something that uses it.
Unless you want catapults at level 6, then I recommend not bothering with
your promotions any longer. Keep upgrading your special buildings though as
they provide useful benefits beyond promotion requirements.
Level 5
Title - Marquis
Requirements - 70 Settlers, 20 Rich retailers,
Level 3 Castle/Store/Cathedral
Rights - Theater, Banner Maker, Siege Tower
Needs - Decorations
Notes - At this point in the game, the only real reason to get to
level 5 or above is if you plan on attacking a lot of stone fortresses. In
those cases, you will want catapults which are the next level. Otherwise,
Level 5, 6 and 7 really don't offer anything that can help you win the map.
Settlements can easily get by without decorations and the theater is not
required to get the entertainment bonus to reputation.
Level 6
Title - Duke/Duchess
Requirements - 90 Settlers, 9 Buildings with Banners, Level 4 All
Rights - catapults, carpenter, candle maker, blacksmith
Needs - nothing new
Notes - Ah, the elusive catapults. A few of these in your army and
you can take down those stone walls in a matter of minuets. If you don't need
catapults then this promotion offers nothing of use. The decorations are
nice, but they don't help you win maps.
Level 7
Title - Archduke/Archduchess
Requirements - 150 settlers, 30 rich buildings,
30 fully decorated buildings, level 4 All
Rights - none
Needs - nothing new
Notes - as you can see this promotion does absolutely nothing. the 150
settlers requirement is not only difficult to reach but it also seems to be
the threshold for a "large" settlement where plague starts to break out
regularly. 30 rich buildings is also absurdly difficult. the 30 fully
decorated buildings is something that just takes time. Really, there is
absolutely no reason to get this promotion except to say you did it at
least once (I did!).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
V. THE BUILDINGS
Except for the castle, storehouse and cathedral which are always built for
you at the start of every map, all buildings must be built from the
ground up and require some amount of wood or stone.
Whenever you wish to build a building you will be able to place down a
plot of open land which reserves this area for the building. A settler
will then emerge from your storehouse pulling behind him the required
materials to build the structure. When he gets to the plot he will begin
constucting the building. Either he will build it from scratch or he will
build on an extention if it is an upgrade.
All plots can be rotated by holding down Control plus moving the mouse wheel.
All plots will also try to automatically align themselves to any nearby
trails or roads.
Except for the castle, storehouse cathedral and walls, every settler that
builds a building or upgrade will stay with the building as a new resident and
becomes a permenant member of your settlement.
All buildings have a set amount of health and all of them can be attacked by
catapults or soldiers with torches. Even your Castle made of stone can be
burned by a torch.
If any of your buildings catch fire then they can continue to burn until
their health is reduced to 0. Normally the residence of the building will
respond automatically to the fire by running to the marketplace and grabbing
a bucket of water. If you want to speed up the process or if your main
buildings are on fire then you can click the burining building and select
the new button that will call all nearby settlers to put out the fire.
After a building is done burning, the residents will repair it automatically.
You can speed this up by clicking on the damaged building and pressing the
new button to call all nearby settlers to repair the building. As far as I can
tell, repairing a building does not cost any resources. You can also repair
damaged walls.
[A] DEFENSE AND ROADS
Walls allow you to defend your settlement much more easily than just with a
loose grouping of troops. Without a wall, the enemy troops can just run right
past your troops and burn down your storehouse, cathedral or castle. Putting
up a wall can slow them down, cause them to use up all their torches, or just
make them give up and go home without a fight.
The gate will automatically allow all allies to pass in or out of
the gate without hesitation but will not allow enemies through. If an enemy
gets inside your gate either by destroying a piece of wall or with a
siege tower then they can open the gate from the inside to let their allies in.
When building a wall you can select either the end of a gate or the end of
a wall and press the wall button that appears to drag more wall section to be
built. If you build the wall section close to a cliff or impassible terrain
then you will get a special icon that looks like a wall section with a red
arrow pointing diagonally down. If you build the wall section when you see
this icon then the wall will automatically meld with the impassible terrain
making a seal at that point. If you dont make a seal then enemy troops may be
able to walk around your wall.
[1] WOODEN WALL/GATE
The wooden wall is also known as a wooden palisade.
The gate portion costs 10 wood.
each section of wall costs 1 wood.
The wooden palisade can be attacked by rams, catapults and soldiers with
torches.
Troops cannot stand on the wall.
No weapons can be mounted on the wall
[2] STONE WALL/GATE
The stone gate costs 16 stone.
The stone gate can be upgraded with a Stone Trap which costs 100 gold and
5 stone. The stone trap will cause damage to enemies that are trying to enter
your gate.
The stone wall costs 1 stone per section.
The stone wall can only be attacked with rams or catapults.
Troops (especially archers) can stand on the wall for extra defense.
Wall towers (inbetween sections of wall) can be upgraded with mounted
catapults. A mounted catapult costs 200 gold and 5 iron.
These mounted catapults are able to attack any siege engine
within a very large range. They come prebuilt with 10 stones of ammo and
can be automatically resupplied by nearby ammo carts.
a Stone Wall with one or two mounted catapults is pretty much invincible as it
will be able to destroy any attacking catapult or ram before the siege engine
can destroy the wall or gate. I have not been able to target a mounted
catapult even with another catapult. The enemy AI will retreat most of the time
when they see you have mounted catapults because they know it is a lost cause.
[3] TRAIL/STONE ROAD
Trails are free to build and will increase the settlers speed by a visible
amount. You can click and drag a straight section of trail almost anywhere
that a settler could walk. If you click and drag short pieces in different
directions you can make a curved trail.
If the trail turns red that means there is some other object blocking it.
trails will automatically delete any trees or small rocks that are in its
way when you finalize your decision.
The stone road requires town upgrades and costs 1 stone per section. The cost
will be displayed as you are laying out the road. You can overlay a stone
road on a trail to upgrade it. Stone roads impove the speed of travelers
even more than trails so it is very useful to upgrade trails to your
outter most buildings as soon as possible to increase the rate of resource
gathering.
[B] RESOURCE GATHERING
All resource gathering buildings work the same way. They send out a settler
from the building which travels to the nearest resource within a large radius
of the building. The settler engages in some animation and then takes the
resource back to the building. When the building is full of resources, one of
the settlers living in the building will take the resources back to the
storehouse where a retailer will use it to make finished goods.
You will know what resources are within radius of your building because all
acceptable resources within radius will be surrounded by a green highlight.
If that highlight is not there then the resource is too far away for the
gatherer to go.
All resource buildings start at level 1. Each building can be upgraded
to level 3. Each upgrade adds another settler/worker and also increases
their efficiency, thus gathering and delivering raw materials at a faster rate.
The storage of the building also increases as does the mode of transport. At
level 1 the settler will transport the goods on their back and walk to the
storehouse (slow). At level 2 the settler will use a cart (faster). At level
3 they will use a horse drawn cart (fastest and greatest capacity). There is
rarely ever a reason not to upgrade a building to level 3.
All resource gathering settlers only have 1 need; food. resource gathers will
never have a need for clothing, entertainment, or cleaning supplies.
As a general rule, you should always place resource gathering buildings on the
outskirts of your village, away from the marketplace. the marketplace should
be reserved for your retail buildings.
[1] WOODCUTTER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Wood is your primary resource in this game (not gold like other games).
Most everything in this game requires some amount of wood to be built
or upgraded. Those few things that don't need wood will need stone instead.
Woodcutters obviously need trees in order to cut wood. One tree equals 1 unit
of wood. Trees do grow back over time. It is possible to have too many
woodcutters near each other and thus they deforest an area. The trees will
grow back eventually, but, the key is to spread out your woodcutters so
the growth rate is equal to the deforestation rate.
most settlements can start with 3-4 woodcutters for early growth and
then go down to 1 or 2 after the settlement is up and running.
Trees do not have an icon on the mini map but are quite obvious to find.
If you build a building or trail over a tree it will be gone forever even if
you destroy the building or trail. You have been warned.
Wood is also used by broom makers and carpenters, but, they use so little
wood that you should not really notice it.
[2] HUNTER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Hunters are one of four sources of food for your settlers. They hunt wild
game animals. The general icon for game animals is a Deer, but, the game
animals could be moose, reindeer, boar, or anything else the designers think
could make good eating. Regaurdless of the type of animal being hunted,
the icon will always be the same.
Game animals are used for Food (meat), Clothing (Hides) and Soap (animal fat).
Unfortunately any one of these retail items will use up an entire animal
carcass (1 unit of game animal).
Most settlements of any size can be sustained with 3 hunters each with their
own game animal resource.
Game animals will repopulate themselves over time, but, it is possible to
overhunt in an area. The general rule of thumb is to put one hunter per
icon.
[3] STONECUTTER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Stone is your second most needed resource. It is needed to build stone
walls which are the ultimate in city defense. Stone is also used to upgrade
your three main buildings and to build roads.
Stone quarries show up on the mini map. Stone does not replenish itself. Each
quarry starts with 250 stone.
Generally, one would put 2 stone cutters next to each quarry. This will double
your stone income. This is important when your quarries are in outter
territories. If your outter territories are taken over by the enemy then
all of your bulidings in that area are destroyed. mining out a quarry quickly
reduces the risk of losing the quarry to the enemy.
Most of your settlements can get by with a single stone quarry for all of
your upgrade needs. If you plan on building long stone wall sections or
lots of stone roads then a second stone quarry should be mined. The only
time you would need more stone is if you were using catapults or mounted
catapults and needed to make stone ammo carts.
once the stone quarry is depleted then you should destroy the stone cutter
huts. There is no point in having settlers standing around doing nothing all
day.
[4] FISHER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Fish is another source of food in the game. Fish are shown on the mini map
by a fish icon.
Fish are like game in that they can be over fished but they
do respawn over time. On many maps, the water will freeze in the winter
preventing the fishermen from getting to the fish. This is generally not a
problem as the fishermen are very adept at gathering fish during the
warmer months and you usually have enough supplies to last the winter.
most settlements can get by with a single fishermans hut and even this may
cause an excess of fish.
Fish are only used by the Smokehouse as food.
[5] IRON MINER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Iron mines are just like stone quarries except they produce iron ore instead
of stone. Iron has its own icon on the mini map. Iron does not replenish
itself. Each mine starts with 250 iron.
Generally, one would put 2 iron miners next to each mine. This will double
your iron income. This is important when your mines are in outter
territories. If your outter territories are taken over by the enemy then
all of your bulidings in that area are destroyed. mining out a mine quickly
reduces the risk of losing the mine to the enemy.
Iron is used entirely for your military. Swords, Bows and Seige engines all
use iron. Unfortunately, your military is expendable and thus requires
replacement when they die in battle. This means that your iron needs will
vary depending on how well you do in combat.
The only exception to this is the blacksmith which makes decorations for
your retail buildings. Even for the largest of settlements the blacksmith
will use no more than 35 iron total. This retailer is only available on
few maps and is not required for any purpose so it can be avoided if iron
is running low.
Generally, on most maps 1 or 2 iron mines will be sufficient, although,
if you have access to more then it can't be a bad thing.
once the iron mine is depleted then you should destroy the iron miner
huts. There is no point in having settlers standing around doing nothing all
day.
[6] GRAIN FARM
Level 1 - 3 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 4 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 5 wood
9 storage
The grain farm falls into a slightly different catagory of resource gathering.
Grain will not show up on the mini map because it does not exist naturally.
When you build the grain farm building you must then select the farm and a
button will pop up with a grain icon. Clicking this button will allow you
to plant a grain field for 3 more wood.
You can plant as many grain fields as you like with restrictions. First, you
need enough wood to plant the field (I guess the wood is used for the fence).
Second, you can only plant a field on fertile ground. For most maps this is
not a problem, but, on the arid maps fertile ground can compete with trees.
If you plant a field on top of trees then you might lose out on some wood,
because, the trees will never grow back once you place down a field.
When a field is ready to be harvested a settler will go out and collect the
grain. Each field produces only 1 unit of grain. The field then needs time
to regrow. you can watch the field regrow or you can hover your mouse over
the field and see what percentage it is.
On many maps, fields will not grow in the winter. You can see what season it
is by clicking on the weather button next to the mini map.
Generally, 3-4 fields can be handled by a single grain farm, Which can service
1-2 bakers. Bakers are the only retailer that can make use of grain.
[7] CATTLE FARM
Level 1 - 3 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 4 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 5 wood
9 storage
The cattle farm works just like a grain farm with a few exceptions.
When you place down a pasture (which costs 3 wood for the fence) you need
fertile ground. The problem here is that cattle don't just pop up out of
no where.
Cattle come from 1 of 2 sources. You can either find wild cows (yes I said
wild cows) in an unclaimed territory. When you claim the territory the
wild cows will wander (ever so slowly) to your city and just mill about.
If you have any empty pastures then the cows will automatically head to
the open pasture where your cattle farmers will start carring for them.
If you can't find any wild cows, then you must find a village that can
sell you a herd. When you buy a herd of cows they will walk (very slowly)
from the ally storehouse to your city (or open pasture).
Once the cows are present, they need time to produce milk. Your settlers
will travel to the marketplace and gather water to put in the cow trough.
So, as long as the trough has water the cows will always produce milk.
Each cow can produce 1 unit of milk. One pasture can hold 4-5 cows. 1
cattle farm can support 1-2 pastures of 8-10 cows which can support 1-2 dairy
retialers (cheese makers). Cattle can be milked all year round.
[8] SHEEP FARM
Level 1 - 3 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 4 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 5 wood
9 storage
The sheep farm works exactly like the cattle farm except you need sheep.
Each sheep can produce 1 unit of wool. One pasture can hold 4-5 sheep. 1
sheep farm can support 1-2 pastures of 8-10 sheep which can support 1-2
weavers and 1 banner maker. Sheep can be shorn all year long.
Note that a sheep pasture is different from a cattle pasture although they
look similar.
[9] BEEKEEPER
Level 1 - 3 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 4 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 5 wood
9 storage
Beekeepers work exactly the same as a grain farm. The bee hives need fertile
ground and cost 3 wood each to build. They are much smaller than fields or
pastures however and it can be tempting to put them all next to each other
to conserve space. You need to make sure that your beehive are accessable
otherwise you may have beekeepers with nothing to do.
Beehives produce 1 unit of honey/wax each. A single beekeeper can work 3-4
hives. one beekeeper can support 2-3 taverns and 1 candle maker (and you
still might have excess honey).
Bees hibernate during the winter months on most maps.
[10] HERB GATHERER
Level 1 - 2 wood
3 storage
Level 2 - 3 wood
6 storage
Level 3 - 4 wood
9 storage
Herbs won't become available until about half way through the game and only
useful when your town gets a plague.
Herbs have their own icon on the mini map. one herb gatherer can support a
single pharmacy. Since disease is so rare and mostly event triggered it is
not worth it to build these until your city is running smoothly.
once you have gathered about 25-30 herbs in your storehouse and have 9 medicine
stored in the pharmacy then I would suggest stopping production on the herb
gatherer. People will only buy medicine if they are sick. If people don't
buy medicine then the herbs will start to pile up in the storehouse taking up
room for other more useful items.
If a plague does break out then you can put your gathers back to work. Your
pharmacy should have 9 bottles ready for sale and 25-30 herbs in the storehouse
to make more. This should be sufficient for any sized plague that hits your
city.
[C] RETAIL
Retial buildings take raw material from your storehouse and use it to make
some kind of finished good which is then sold to other settlers in the
village. The retailer will make some money off of this trade and then must pay
some of that money as taxes to your tax collectors.
When a settler is looking to satisfy a need or a want they will go to the center
of town known as the market place. Here they will wait until a
retailer has a finished product for them to purchase. Because of this, it
is best to keep all of your retail shops as close to the marketplace as
possible. None of these buildings are extreamly large so you should be able
to fit all your buildings nearby.
As with the resource gathering buildings each retailer can be upgraded through
three levels. Each upgrade will add a new settler and will increase the
overall efficiency of the shop.
Only retailers which are not busy will go to festivals or sermons. While they
are attending these activities they are not producing any wares.
Retailers are more needy than resource gathers. Retailers will need food as
well as clothing, entertainment, cleaning supplies and decorations for thier
homes. These needs will develop as your city upgrades so you don't have to
worry about all of them right away.
[1] BUTCHER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
This retailer uses a game animal carcass to produce a single unit of sausage.
Butchers compete for materials with the Tanner and the Soap Maker. Most
villages can have 2 of each butcher, soap maker and tanner (total 6) and can
be supplied by 3-4 hunters.
[2] BAKER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
The baker uses grain to bake bread. 1 grain farm with 3-4 fields can support
2 bakers. There is no competition for grain.
[3] SMOKEHOUE
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
The smokehouse turns raw fish into food. 1 fisherman can support 2
smokehouses. There is no competition of fish.
[4] DAIRY
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
The Dairy turns milk into cheese. 1 cattle ranch with 1-2 pastures can
support 2 dairies. There is no competition for milk.
[5] TANNER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
The Tanner turns animal carcasses into clothing. Tanners compete for
raw material with Butchers and soap makers. 3-4 hunters can support
2 each of butchers, tanners and soap makers.
[6] WEAVER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
The weaver turns wool into clothing. The weaver competes for wool with the
banner maker and the theater. 1 sheep farm with 1-2 pastures can support
2 weavers, 1 banner maker and 1 theater.
[7] BROOM MAKER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Broom Makers use wood to make brooms. Wood is used to create and upgrade
almost every building in the game. For a young settlement 3-4 wood cutters
can support town growth and 1 broom maker. Later on 1-2 wood cutters can
support 2 broom makers.
[8] SOAP MAKER
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Soap makers use animal carasses to make soap (from the animal fat). They
compete with the butcher and the tanner for materials. 3-4 hunters can
support 2 of each butcher, tanner and soap maker.
[9] PHARMACY
Level 1 - 4 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 6 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Pharmacies turn herbs into medicine for plagues. Plagues are very rare, so,
1 herb gatherer can easily support a single pharmacy. See herb gatherer
description above for more details.
[10] TAVERN
Level 1 - 5 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 7 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 9 wood
9 capacity
Taverns provide entertainment in the form of mead made from honey. Taverns
compete with candle makers for honey. 1 beekeeper with 3-4 beehives can
support 2 taverns and 1 candlemaker.
[11] BATH HOUSE
Level 1 - 5 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 7 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 9 wood
9 capacity
The Bath house uses water from your marketplace fountain to create nice warm
baths to entertain your settlers. Cow and Sheep pastures compete with the
bath house for water. A fully upgraded marketplace can easily support 3 cow
pastures, 3 sheep pastures and 2 taverns with plenty left over.
[12] THEATER
Level 1 - 5 wood
3 capacity
Level 2 - 7 wood
6 capacity
Level 3 - 9 wood
9 capacity
Theaters use wool to make costumes for plays. Theaters are a little different
than other retailers. They don't sell their costumes, they save them up for
a play which the sell tickets for. In order for a play to begin, you have
to select the theater and press the "play" button which will start the show
going and any villagers which want some entertainment will buy a ticket and
see the show.
Also, you need at least 6 costumes before you can start a play. At level 1 the
costume capacity is only 3 so you must upgrade the theater to level 2 before
it becomes useful.
I do not use theaters in my cities at all. because they are not automatic they
are more of a pain to use. Also, with 2 taverns and 2 bath houses your city
should have plenty of entertainment and the theater will go mostly un-used.
I suggest building one just to see the animation. After that, destroy it and
never look back. It might be more useful if they sold their tickets as soon
as they had enough costumes for the play. Oh well, maybe in settlers 7.
[13] BANNER MAKER
Level 1 - 6 wood
1 capacity
Level 2 - 8 wood
1 capacity
Level 3 - 10 wood
1 capacity
The Banner Maker uses wool to create banners which decorate retail shops.
The banner maker competes for wool with the theater and the weaver.
Banner makers only make one banner at a time. Banners do not wear out over
time so once a buildings is decorated it will stay decorated forever.
Upgrading the banner maker will increase the speed of decorating the city and
increase your population. Your city should only ever need 1 banner maker.
[14] CARPENTER
Level 1 - 6 wood
1 capacity
Level 2 - 8 wood
1 capacity
Level 3 - 10 wood
1 capacity
The Carpenter uses wood to create benches which decorate retail shops.
The Carpenter competes for wood with the broom maker.
Carpenters only make one bench at a time. Benches do not wear out over
time so once a buildings is decorated it will stay decorated forever.
Upgrading the Carpenter will increase the speed of decorating the city and
increase your population. Your city should only ever need 1 Carpenter.
[15] BLACKSMITH
Level 1 - 6 wood
1 capacity
Level 2 - 8 wood
1 capacity
Level 3 - 10 wood
1 capacity
The Blacksmith uses iron to create decorations which decorate retail shops.
The Blacksmith competes for iron with the sword and bow makers.
Blacksmiths only make one decoration at a time. These do not wear out over
time so once a building is decorated it will stay decorated forever.
Upgrading the Blacksmith will increase the speed of decorating the city and
increase your population. Your city should only ever need 1 Blacksmith.
[16] CANDLE MAKER
Level 1 - 6 wood
1 capacity
Level 2 - 8 wood
1 capacity
Level 3 - 10 wood
1 capacity
The Candle Maker uses wax to create candles which decorate retail shops.
The Candle Maker competes for wax with the tavern (honey).
Candle Makers only make one candle at a time. These do not wear out over
time so once a building is decorated it will stay decorated forever.
Upgrading the Candle Maker will increase the speed of decorating the city and
increase your population. Your city should only ever need 1 Candle Maker.
[17] SWORDSMITH
Level 1 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 10 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 12 wood
9 capacity
The Sword smith is technically a retail building because it sells its swords
to your barracks so you can recruit troops. Sword smiths use iron and
competes with the bow maker, the seige engine workshop and the blacksmith.
Iron is limited in quanity on all maps, but, 1-2 iron mines should be enough
to make all the weapons you need to win most any map. Having more than 1
sword smith can increase the speed at which you can replenish your troop
numbers.
[18] BOW MAKER
Level 1 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 10 wood
9 capacity
Level 3 - 12 wood
9 capacity
The Bow smith is technically a retail building because it sells its bows
to your barracks so you can recruit troops. Bow smiths use iron and
competes with the sword maker, the seige engine workshop and the blacksmith.
Iron is limited in quanity on all maps, but, 1-2 iron mines should be enough
to make all the weapons you need to win most any map. Having more than 1
bow smith can increase the speed at which you can replenish your troop
numbers.
[D] MILITARY
[1] SWORDMAN BARRACKS
Level 1 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 10 wood
12 capacity
Level 3 - 12 wood
18 capacity
The barracks are where you recruit new foot soldiers. In order to do this
you will need a working swordsmith supplied with iron. When swords are
available the barracks chief will purchase 3 swords at a time and bring
them back to the barracks. Here he will set up gear to outfit swordmen.
In order to recruit a unit of swordmen you must have a minimum of 6 sets of
gear in the barracks and at least 90 gold in your treasury. Then a button
will become available which will let you recruit your troops. Troops
are recruited 6 at a time as a single unit. Military units will be discussed
in more detail later.
Upgrading the barracks will make the purchase of weapons faster and more
importantly increase the capacity of gear. At level 1 you can only recruit 1
unit at a time. Level 2 permits 2 units and level 3 permits 3 units before the
barracks chief must purchase more gear.
As long as you have a sufficient supply of iron then 2 sword smiths can easily
keep your barracks full of gear and ready to recruit new soldiers when you need
them.
The barracks itself is not a retail building as it does not make money for the
barracks chief. The money is paid directly to the soldiers as a recruitment
bonus. The barracks settlers do have desires for food, clothing, cleaning
supplies, entertainment and decorations.
[2] BOWMAN BARRACKS
Level 1 - 8 wood
9 capacity
Level 2 - 10 wood
12 capacity
Level 3 - 12 wood
18 capacity
The Bowman barracks is exactly like the swordman barracks except it
recruits ranged troops instead of melee troops. Read the swordman barracks
description above for more details.
[3] SIEGE ENGINE WORKSHOP
Level 1 - 8 wood
5 capacity
Level 2 - 10 wood
10 capacity
Level 3 - 12 wood
15 capacity
The siege engine workshop is where you build...not surprisingly...siege
engines. The engineer will gather iron from the storehouse and create
sets of siege engine parts. Each type of siege engine will require 150 gold
and 5 seige engine parts. Upgrading the workshop will increase the capacity
of parts and the efficiency of the workers.
More information on the different types of siege equipment will be discussed
later.
like the barracks, this is not a retail building but the settlers here will
have desires for food, clothing, cleaning supplies, entertainment and
decorations.
[4] OUTPOST
Level 1 - variable gold and 10 wood
Level 2 - 100 gold and 10 stone
The outpost is a military building which is used to claim new territory.
To build the outpost you must first move your knight into an unclaimed area
then use the Build Outpost button next to the mini map (see interface section
above for more details). The cost of the initial outpost will vary depending
on the relative usefulness of the territory. The more resources the territory
has, the more expensive it will be to claim the area. Costs vary between
200 and 1000 gold.
After a territory has been claimed you are free to build any other
buildings you wish as well as trails and roads.
Upgrading the outpost is always a fixed amount of 100 gold and 10 stone.
Note that the first level requires wood and the second level requires stone.
No one lives in the outpost directly and so building and upgrading it does not
increase settler count. You can station a unit to guard the outpost by
selecting the unit and then left clicking on the outpost. Archers are much
better at defending an outpost then swordmen. So long as a unit is
assigned to the outpost any damage will be repaired at no cost.
If an outpost is captured by the enemy then they will gain control of the
outpost as well as the territory and you will lose all buildings that were
in the territory (they will be destroyed), this includes all walls and any
troops on the walls. However, any troops on the ground will remain there, and
could possibly take the outpost back (although you would still lose all the
other buildings).
Upgrading the outpost will increase its health allowing it to take more damage
before it can be occupied by enemy forces. On some maps, upgrading the
outpost is enough to keep the enemy from taking control because they run
out of torches before they can take it over, giving you a chance to conduct
repairs.
[E] SPECIAL
These buildings are all required for your city to survive. If any of them
are destroyed for any reason then you lose the map. Each of these buildings
requires a lot of gold and stone to upgrade. Each one of them provides a
valuable service to the infrastructure and growth of your city.
[1] CASTLE
Gold Stone Troops
Level 1 - - - 25
Level 2 - 150 25 43
Level 3 - 250 50 61
Level 4 - 500 75 91
The castle controls your troops and your taxes. From here you can decide
(after your knight is promoted) how much to pay your troops and how much
to tax your people. Changing these figures can alter your city's reputation
which has a direct effect on how well your troops do in battle.
Your Troops can be paid nothing, 2 gold each month or 3 gold each month.
Your retailers can be taxed nothing, 50% or 100%.
You can also hire a thief. Notice that if you subtract 1 from all the
maximum troop numbers at each castle level you will have a number that is
divisible by 6 which just so happens to be the number of troops in each
fresh unit you recruit at a barracks. This is because they want you to
have a full contingent of soldiers and a single thief. One is really all
you need anyway.
No one lives in the castle and it does not require any maintenance.
A castle upgrade is required for your first knight promotion.
[2] CATHEDRAL
Gold Stone Sermon Seats Population
Level 1 - - - 10 50
Level 2 - 150 20 15 100
Level 3 - 250 40 30 150
Level 4 - 500 60 60 200
The cathedral determines your city's maximum population and thus the
maximum number of buildings and upgrades you can have. After your castle,
this should be second building to upgrade as it can limit city growth if
not upgraded soon.
The cathedral is also able to hold a sermon. When a sermon is held
settlers from your retail buildings will attend the sermon. after the
sermon is complete they will leave the cathedral and donate a sum of money
from their own pockets. This money is syphoned directly to your treasury
(Don't worry, the priest in charge says that it's not a sin). If Alandra is
your knight then the sermon donations will be 20% higher.
While you are holding a sermon you retailers are not producing any goods.
If you have a lot of buildings that are full of goods and no one is buying
anything then taxes will be low. This is a perfect time to hold a sermon.
If you are running low on finished products then you should hold off on the
sermon to let your settlers produce their wares.
Holding a sermon will also temporarily increase your city's reputation.
One priest lives in the cathedral and counts toward your population, although,
his pious nature means he has no desires to fill (he even grows his own food).
[3] STOREHOUSE
Gold Stone Capacity Water
Level 1 - - - 250 15
Level 2 - 150 20 500 30
Level 3 - 250 40 1000 70
Level 4 - 500 60 2000 120
If the castle is the mind and the cathedral is the spirit then the storehouse
is the body of you village. All your resources are gathered here. All your
retailers come here to fetch raw materials to produce goods. Upgrading the
storehouse will increase its capacity. In the beginning 250 capacity is quite
small and you should upgrade as soon as you have the gold and stone, but,
not before you upgrade the castle and cathedral.
In my experiences I have never filled a 2000 capacity storehouse before,
although I have gotten past 1000, mostly from emptying out iron mines and
stone quarries early.
Right in front of all storehouses is the market place and the fountain.
Everytime you upgrade the storehouse you also upgrade the marketplace.
Each upgrade will make the marketplace look nicer and the fountain will grow
in size and capacity holding more fresh water each time.
If you click on the fountain you can access the marketplace. Here you can
see how much water you have available and ,if your knight is promoted high
enough, you can hold a festival. Festivals will be discussed more later. The
only time you should worry about water would be on a few arid maps which
have quests that ask you to deliver water to allies, otherwise you should never
have any water issues.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VI. LIFE IN THE CITY
[A] ECONOMY AND STRIKING
As with any city there is a system of checks and balances that allow a city
to either grow or die. This game is the same way.
The economy of Settlers 6 begins with raw materials (Wood, game animals,
milk, grain, fish, iron and wool). These raw materials are collected by
resource gatherers at various locations outside of your main city and
when the gatherer has collected and stored enough of the material in their
hut, they will bring it to the storehouse at the center of town. Stone
is a raw material but there are no industries which refine it.
Raw materals are pretty much useless to your settlers. You need retailers
in your city in order for the raw materials to be made into useful objects.
No one wants to eat raw fish or un-processed grain and that animal carcass
will get pretty stinky if you wear it in the sun all day.
Retailers will walk from their shop to the storehouse and bring back materials
which they will use to create their wares.
There are 7 catagories of finished goods: Food, Clothing, Cleaning Supplies,
Entertainment, Decoration, Military, and Special.
Food, Clothing, Cleaning and Entertainment are considered Needs. Settlers
will strike if needs are not met. Decorations are considered wants. Settlers
will not strike if their wants are not met, but, they can increase city
reputation and make your city look nice (as well as increasing tax revenue).
Below is a list of raw materials and their finished goods.
Gatherer -> Raw Material -> Retailer -> Finished Product (catagory)
Hunter -> Animal Carcass -> Butcher -> Sausage (food)
Hunter -> Animal Carcass -> Tanner -> Leather(clothing)
Hunter -> Animal Carcass -> Soap Maker -> Soap (cleaning supplies)
Fisher -> Raw Fish -> Smokehouse -> Smoked Fish (food)
Farmer -> Grain -> Baker -> Bread (food)
Rancher -> Milk -> Dairy -> Cheese (food)
Herder -> Wool -> Weaver -> Tunic (clothing)
Herder -> Wool -> Theater -> Costumes (entertainment)
Herder -> Wool -> BannerMaker -> Banners (decoration)
Woodcutter -> Wood -> Carpenter -> Bench (decoration)
Woodcutter -> Wood -> Broommaker -> Broom (cleaning supplies)
Iron Miner -> Iron -> Sword Smith -> Swords (military)
Iron Miner -> Iron -> Bow Smith -> Bows (military)
Iron Miner -> Iron -> Blacksmith -> Weathervanes (decoration)
Iron Miner -> Iron -> Seige Shop -> Seige Engine Parts (military)
Herb Gather-> Herbs -> Pharmacy -> Medicine (special)
Beekeeper -> Honey -> Tavern -> Mead (entertainment)
Beekeeper -> Honey (wax) -> Candlemaker -> Candle (decoration)
Marketplace-> Water -> Bathhouse -> Hot Bath (entertainment)
Medicine is a special catagory because you only need it when plague strikes.
The seige engine workshop is not really a retailer because they don't
sell seige engines to the settlers; they sell the parts to you, but, they
do use raw material to create a finished product.
The Marketplace is not really a resource gatherer but it does produce water
at the fountain which is used to create entertainment. Water is also used
by the herder and rancher to keep the animals healthy.
As you can see, many different raw materials are used by many different
retailers so there will be competition for some of your materials. As long
as you have a decent income of raw mateirals then you should be alright. See
the building section above for more details about each building.
Once the retailers have finished producing their stock they will display it
on shelves in front of their store. When a settler is in need of a particular
item they will walk to the market place and purchase the item from the store.
When this occurs the retailers gain gold as personal income. Every month, your
castle will send out 1 tax collector on horse back to each of your retailers
and collect a portion of that retailers income as taxes which you gain as
gold income.
Taxes can be altered at the castle when your knight is promoted high enough.
You can choose to tax your retailers nothing, 50%, or 100%. No taxes will
raise city reputation, 50% is default, 100% will lower city reputation.
You can spend gold on castle, storehouse and cathedral upgrades, as well as
military recruiting and soldier salaries.
So, lets recap what we have here. If you want to upgrade your settlements
infrastructure and maintain an army, you will need gold income. Gold income
is given to you mainly in the form of taxes from retailers. Gold can also
be gained through ruins (described more below) and holding sermons, but,
those are not prefered methods.
Retailers gain gold when they sell a finished product. Finished product
requires raw materials which are gathered from the storehouse. The store-
house is stocked by resource gatherers. And that, in a nut shell, is the
ecomony of the game, however, your settlers are not going to work for
free.
The needs of the settlers vary depending on their jobs. As we discussed,
your soldiers will work for gold. They do not need to eat. Resource gatherers
will only have a need for food, nothing else. Retailers on the other hand
have all kinds of needs which must be met: Food, Clothing, Cleaning,
Entertainment and Decorations.
Except for decorations, every need will diminish over time which means
that eventually, all finished goods will need to be purchased again and again,
thus giving you a sustainable and cyclic economic structure.
Problems arise when your settlers needs are not met. If a need is not being
met then your settlers will start wandering about your market place with a
little icon in a bubble over their heads. Yellow means they are getting
close to running out, red means they have none of that need left. This is
called a settler strike.
Striking settlers will not work until their needs are met. A need can be
met with any object from the catagory they are lacking. Thus a hungry
settler can be satisfied with a wedge of cheese just as easily as with a
loaf of bread.
Your economy can essentially collapse if the settlers that
are striking are also the same settlers that produce the need that they are
striking for. For example, if your food retailers start striking because of
a lack of food then food will never get produced even if there are raw
materials. To fix this you will have to first ensure that you have some
raw food materials and then delete the striking retailer buildings
and build new ones. This will be costly in wood and, frankly, if your city
is that bad off, you should probably start the map over.
If your settlers are striking it means that your retailers have no finished
goods for sale. This could mean that you have run out of raw material or
your retailers are not efficient enough or you don't have enough of that
type of retailer to keep up with demand.
To figure out what the problem is you can click on the storehouse to see how
your raw material stock is doing. if you are running low then you need to
create another of that resource gatherer. Unfortunately it may take some time
for that gatherer to get up and running. Before doing this you should ensure
that all your resource gatherers are fully upgraded.
If you have plenty of stock then your retailers are just not keeping up with
demand. First ensure that all retailers are fully upgraded and then if
you still have demand issues and your supply is good then build another
of that retailer.
Since retailers and gatherers both need food, food will be a very important
product in your settlement. This is why you are given 4 sources of food,
three of which have no competion with any other industry. You should always
strive to provide more than one source of food, although, it might be difficult
on some maps to provide more than 2.
A basic rule of thumb that I have found to work on most maps in single player
is that you should have at least 2 of every retailer in your city.
As long as you have sufficient raw materials then you should be producing
a decent amount of excess supplies in all areas. You can see what your current
levels of finished products are by looking at the buttons on the top of the
screen. As long as these numbers are in the positive then you have product
to satisfy needs. A good idea for an efficient settlement is to have at least
9 or more of each item in stock at all times.
One drawback to having too many retailers is that you will have too much
finished product in your city thus flooding the market. Your retailers won't
be selling much on an individual scale due to too much competion. This will
eventually hurt your gold income because if retailers can't sell product
they can't pay taxes. The only time you should go over the 2 retialer idea
is if you are falling below the 9 overstock concept described above.
Most likely this will occur for food retailers on maps where certain food
sources are scarce.
[B] FESTIVALS AND FAMILIES
The center of every settlement is the marketplace. The marketplace always
sits right in front of the storehouse and always has a fountain of
fresh water flowing.
When your knight has been promoted enough you can start throwing festivals
to entertain your villagers. To start a festival you must click on the
fountain in the marketplace. If you are able to throw a festival a button
will be available. When you mouse over the button it will tell you how
much gold the festival will cost. The cost of a festival increases with
your city population. The more people you have the bigger the festival will
be.
When you click on the button the music will change to become very upbeat and
happy, many of your villagers will come out of their homes and walk toward
the market place. Here they will dance, clap, and talk with each other.
If you click on the marketplace again while the festival is running you can
see a yellow progress bar. When the bar is empty the festival will be over.
While the festival is engaged retailers will not produce any products.
Festivals are not suggested when your city is running low on finished goods.
Festivals have 3 main effects.
1. Your city reputation will temporarily increase while the festival is
active.
2. Your cities stock of entertainment goods (mead) will temporarily
increase and satisfy any settlers striking for entertainment.
3. After the festival is complete you will be informed as to how many
of your retailers found wives.
The third effect is very important for the efficiency of your city. When
a retailer meets a woman at the festival there is a chance they will get
married. Throughout this document I sometimes refer to wives as families
or weddings.
Your city can have a maximum number of wives equal to twice the number of
retail buildings in your city. A level 1 retail building will only increase
your maximum by 1, a level 2 or 3 building will increase it by 2. It seems
that the closer you are to the maximum the fewer wives you will gain from
a festival, and the further you are from the max the more a festival will
bring.
A wife in the household will increase efficiency of the retailer. Basically,
the wife will do the shopping allowing the retailer to spend more time
making goods. You are limited in the number of families your settlement
can have, but, I have never been able to achieve the limit during any of
the maps I have played. That is not to say that it cannot be done, just that
it is not required.
If you have Thordal as your knight then you will increase the number of
wives gained after each festival. Overall I like this ability because I like
my settlers to be very efficient.
If at any time you have a cart sitting on the marketplace then you cannot
hold a festival. Sometimes you can click on these carts and order them
to return to where they came from.
[C] TRADING AND DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy is really not much of an aspect in this game as all relationships
are pretty much event driven. On nearly every map if there is another
village around your relationship with that village will be static throughout
the entire progress of the map with a few exceptions (explained in the Campaign
section below).
When it comes to trading there is a little more action involved. Your
settlement can have 1 of two kinds of trade relationships with a village or
cloister: you are either friendly or allies.
If you are on friendly terms with a village then you have the ability to
negotiate a trade for goods. In order to purchase goods from a settlement
you must maneuver your knight next to their storehouse. When your knight is
close enough a few new buttons will appear with various icons. In the case of
allies you do not need to move your knight close to their storehouse, you
should always see the purchase icons available for trade at any time.
each icon represents the item they are willing to sell to you. It could be
a raw material or it could be a finished product. The number above the icon
is the number of units they have available to sell while the number below
is the cost of the first shipment. The more product you buy from them the
higher the price will go.
When you make a purchase a cart carrying the goods will leave the storehouse of
the village and head to your city. At the same time a cart carrying gold will
leave your castle and head to the village. At any point along the trip
either cart could be captured by bandits if the cart enters a territory
with bandits in it. You can assign a unit of troops to either cart and that
should deter the bandits from attacking (although you should be using your
troops to clear out the bandit camp instead).
If you purchase raw material the material will be stocked in your storehouse.
If you purchase a finished product the cart will stop in the marketplace and
act as a retailer selling his wares to your settlers who need them. While
the cart is there you cannot hold a festival. If you have a festival in
progress then you cannot purchase a material that will cause a cart to take
up a space on the marketplace. You can only have 3 carts sitting in your
marketplace at any one time.
If you purchase sheep or cows then the herd will begin walking by themselves
toward your city and if you have any open pastures they will walk into
them by themselves. Sheep and Cows cannot be stolen by bandits although
they can be attacked by wild animals. On some maps, the only way to get
wool or milk is to purchase the animals from a nearby village. When you
make a single purchase of cow or sheep you will buy a whole herd of 5.
For the most part, you should never need to purchase materials (either raw
or finished) from a village. If you do, then you should probably restart the
map, unless you are just experimenting.
You do not need your knight in order to sell goods. You can sell goods to
friendly or allied villages at any time. In order to do this you must
have at least 9 units of a raw material availabe in your storehouse. If you
click on this material in the storehouse window you will see a slider
appear to the right. Sliding this bar up will increase the amount of the
material that you are selecting. Next to the bar is a trashcan. If you like
you can simply dispose of the item. Above the scroll bar you should see a
list of all the villages which are willing to purchase the item. Once you
have selected the amount of material to sell click on the button for the
village you wish to sell to. Then, just like in a purchase, horse drawn
carts will leave both areas to conduct the exchange in real time.
Selling raw material is a good way to make quick cash and to relieve space in
your storehouse at the same time. If you have Elias as your knight he can
increase the amount of money from selling goods and decrease the amount of
gold you pay for goods. This is not the best of abilities as you should have
plenty of gold by the time you have enough excess materials to sell and
you will not be engaging in a lot of purchases on most maps except to
buy one or two herds of animals.
Another place you can do business is at the harbor. On maps that have a
harbor you will be told ahead of time (via a pop up quest message) that
a ship is comming to the harbor. If you wish to see what they have to sell
then you must move your knight to the harbor and next to the harbor storehouse.
When the ship arrives then the trade buttons will appear.
The harbor usually has items for sale that no village every does such as salt,
jesters and mercenaries. Salt will increase the flavor of all of your food
for a short time which has the effect of temporarily increasing your city
reputation. A jester will travel to your marketplace and act as
a small festival satisfying entertainment needs but it will not create
families. Mercenaries are like half strength troops; one battalion of mercs
is 3 men with 1 torch instead of 6 men with 6 torches. They cost less to
recruit than regular troops but you get what you pay for.
[D] RUINS AND SHIPWRECKS
Hidden away on many maps are ruins and shipwrecks. You will come into
contact with these mysterious places when you are exploring the land. When
you find one you should see an icon of a small hand over top of the ruin.
If you move your knight close to the ruin or shipwreck you will get a button
to appear. Pressing the button will "explore" the ruin and a cart will appear
full of gold which will automatically head back to your castle and deposit in
your treasury.
You must be careful though, as bandits can capture your gold cart and you can
lose the gold forever that way. Ruins can give anywhere from 80-400 gold.
Knowing where the ruins are on each map can give your settlement a
quick influx of gold for use in early upgrades and soldier maintenance.
I think it is fair to warn you now and later in the campaign section below
that on Map 15 "Vestholm" there are some ruins in the south west of the map
which have 4 activation buttons. Only one of them will yeild gold. The
other three will dispatch 50 units of wood from your storehouse to the
ruin.
I have personally dispatched over 200 units of wood to each activation point
and have not seen anything happen. In fact no one has seen anything happen
with this ruin. Many people believe it is a sick joke by the developers.
I think it was a quest that was partially designed and was just never fully
implemented. Either way, once you get the gold, just leave the ruin alone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VII. THE MILITARY
[A] BATTALIONS AND REPUTATION
A battalion is any group of soldiers, mercenaries or bandits that act as a
single unit on the battle field. For fresh troops this means a grouping of 6
soldiers or 3 merc/bandits. When you first recruit your troops at the
barracks you will get 6 fresh men ready for battle.
Barracks get their gear from the smiths in your city which make their weapons
from iron in your store house which is mined from iron mines on the map.
Barracks can hold gear for 1.5 battalions at level 1, 2 units at level 2 and
3 units at level 3. For all maps in singleplayer, having 1 sword and 1 bow
barracks each at level 3 is all you need. Some maps you can get away with 1
each of the smiths but on the more military heavy maps 2 smiths of each
weapon type should be more than enough to keep your barracks stocked with
gear.
When a battalion is selected it will attack and move as a single unit. When
you select any member of a battalion you will automatically select all members
of the unit. When the unit takes damage, it will start to lose members one
by one. I am very confident when I say that a unit with 6 troops will do
more damage and defend better than a unit with few troops in it (although I
have not done much testing to prove this).
You can select multiple units on the screen by clicking and dragging a box
around the units you wish to select. YOu can also select all units of the
same weapon type on the screen by double clicking on the unit type you want.
For example, If you are in a battle where things are messy and you need to
select your archers then find 1 archer and double click on him, this will
select all your archers in the immediate area.
Each individual member of a battalion will count towards your total troop max.
Thus if you start with 2 units of 6 each (total of 12) and lose 3 members in
each unit, then you have enough left over to recruit another fresh unit (6 more
troops).
Troops are paid 2 gold per month per member by default. If you give them high
pay then they get 3 gold each. As each unit loses members you pay less gold
each month. Troop salaries can be manipulated at the castle.
There are two kinds of units; Swordmen and Bowmen. Swordmen are your melee
troops. They are adept at hand to hand combat and excel at fighting face to
face. They do not do well against ranged attackers and are good choices for
defending your seige equipment.
Bowmen are your ranged attackers. Bowmen will always prefer to fight from a
distance but if they are engaged in melee (by swordmen) then they will fight
hand to hand. They do excellent damage from a distance, but, their melee
skills are very poor. They work best if they are attacking from atop an
outpost or from a stone wall where they seem to enjoy a slight defense bonus.
They can gaurd siege equipment, but, prefer to fire at enemies from the back.
I find that having an equal number of swords and bows in my army is a good mix
that can be difficult for the enemy to overcome. Something I find interesting
and useful is that when you have both swordmen and bowmen selected and tell
them to move to an area, they will automatically form up with swordmen in front
and bowmen in back, which makes setting up for attack or defense much easier.
When fighting enemy bandits or soldiers you should always try to engage the
enemy bowmen in melee combat first by running up to them with your swordmen.
This will reduce the damage you incur from the arrows and give you the upper
hand by being the only force on the field with ranged attacks. If you bring
your knight along, have your knight run into battle first so that the enemy is
distracted and gives your troops a few free hits before your knight falls and
goes back to the castle to recover.
When Fighting the enemy, tactics are one thing but moral is another. In this
game moral of your troops is very important and can be the difference between a
terrible defeat and an easy victory. Even your knight's strength is affected
by moral. Moral is directly related to your city's reputation.
Your reputation is measured in degrees of percentage and your troop strength
is measured in stars. Every 20% of reputation will give your troops another
star of strength:
0%-19% = 1 star
20%-39% = 2 star
40%-59% = 3 star
60%-79% = 4 star
80%-100 = 5 star
Reputation is affected by many different factors:
Each promotion your knight recieves is +10% permenant bonus to reputation.
Offering both leather and wool clothes is +10%.
Offering both soap and brooms is +10%.
Offering both baths and mead is +10%.
Holding a festival is +10%
Holding a sermon is +10%
High Soldier pay is +20%
No Soldier pay is -30%
High Taxes is -30%
No Taxes is +20%
Some other rare things also affect reputation like buying salt or a jester from
the harbor traders.
Reputation seems to start fluctuating oddly after your knight is promoted to
level 4. I think it has to do with rich and poor buildings or it could just
be a bug. The lesson to learn here is that the more things you offer to your
troops and settlers the more your city will benefit and higher your troops
moral (and thus their fighting strength) will be. Treat your retailers and
troops poorly and you can expect bad losses on the battlefield.
Except for the promotion bonus, all bonuses listed above are temporary and
usually change on a monthly basis when taxes are collected. If you know you
are going into battle and your reputation is less than 80% then I suggest
holding a sermon and possilbly a festival right before going into battle.
This will give you another star of strength which should last until the battle
is over. It does not matter if anyone actually attends the sermon or if
any wives are acquired at the festival. It also does not matter how far away
your troops are from the city.
Reputation also affects your enemies. I believe that bandits have very low
reputation all the time, which makes them more of an annoyance later on then
a challenge. Enemy troops moral is determined by their main cities reputation.
If you can find ways to reduce your enemies reputation and keep yours high then
you can do a deadly blow to their military in combat.
[B] THIEVES
What good is a military without a little recon and intelligence? Theives are
the answer to an army that does not know where to go. Theives become available
once you promote your knight. They are recruited at the castle and cost 120
gold. They count toward your troop limit and have the same salary as your
troops. The troop limit at each castle level is designed to allow at least
1 thief as well as many full battalions.
The thief is a very special unit. It cannot attack or defend itself. Its
purpose is to spy, gather intelligence and steal resources. The theif will
be virturally undetectable by all but your enemy's troops, blending in with
the surrounding populace like another settler, which allows them to walk right
through an enemies gate without being stopped. Theives can even walk right
past a wild animal without being attacked.
One of the more interesting abilities of a thief is to interact with an
enemy's special buildings to do some harm to the enemy settlement. If the
theif interacts with the enemy castle they will steal some paperwork. If the
theif is able to sneak back to your castle without being detected by the enemy
military then the enemy cathedral will be damaged thus lowering the enemy
reputation significantly. This will then give your troops an edge in battle
strength. Apparently the paperwork is supposed to be the blueprints to the
cathedral and the damage is done through sabbotage.
Intertacting with the enemy storehouse will allow your theif to steal a random
amount of their raw supplies. This ability is fairly useless as the amount
always seems to be small and not worth the trouble of getting caught.
However, if you have destroyed most of the enemies resource gathering
buildings in their outlying territories then stealing what provisions they
have left might cause the settlement to go into strike which could be a fatal
blow to their entire economy.
Most later maps have quests that must be done with a thief, those will be
discussed later in the Campaign chapter below.
I think that the best use of a thief is as a spy. Since you can sneak your
thief past the enemy gate you can then tell him to stay behind one of the
enemy buildings away from the military patrols. While he is in the territory
you can see everything that the enemy is doing and how best to assault
the objective.
[C] SIEGE WEAPONS
If The enemy is behind wooden walls then you need only a large force with a
bunch of torches. If the enemy is behind stone walls then you will need
something with a little more kick! Siege weapons are the only answer to
defeating certain maps. The only question then becomes which weapon.
All siege weapons are built at the siege engine workshop which you may build
when your knight is promoted high enough. The workshop will use iron from the
storehouse to create siege engine parts which can be used to create 1 of 3
types of siege equipment. Each type of engine requires a certain level of
promotion.
When you have decieded which engine to build an ox drawn cart will be created
that carries the engine parts as well as an instruction manual on how to
assemble it. The cart can be moved as a regular unit and is slower than your
regular troops. In order to assemble the engine you must assign a unit of
troops to the cart. This will cause another set of buttons to appear to the
left of the mini map.
Pressing the top most button will cause the troops to use the manual and
assemble the pieces into a seige engine. The bottom most button will cause
the troops to stop gaurding the engine. Once assembled the engine is ready
for use and it must be staffed with troops at all times in order to be used.
When assembled the engine is much slower than before, but, it can be
dissassembled in cases where it needs to be moved to another area.
The siege engine can be captured by enemy forces if it is unmanned. Any
troops assigned to the engine will gaurd it with their lives. The only way to
destroy a siege engine is by attacking them with stone tower mounted catapults
which become available at the same time as the seige engine workshop.
All siege engines cost 150 gold and 5 siege engine parts. Each upgrade to the
workshop will allow storage of 5 more parts, thus, a level 3 shop can hold
three engines worth of parts at a time.
Battering Rams - These are the first engine available. They can attack both
walls and gates of any type but do more damage to gates than to walls. These
are the easiest weapon to attain of the three and the easiest to use as they
have no ammunition to speak of. You should not need more than 1 or 2 of
these on most maps to get through the enemy gates.
Battering Rams are very susceptible to enemy archer fire from the walls.
Siege Towers - These are the second engine that becomes available. They allow
your troops to scale the enemy walls and let them in behind the gates
without destroying them. I have never been able to get them to work so I
don't have any tactics or recommendations for them. You do need one unit to
work the tower and one unit standing on top of it so at most you can only have
half your army on the inside at once. Of course once you are inside, you can
have one of your troops open the gate to let in everyone else.
To open an enemy gate from inside you simply select one unit of troops and then
right click on the enemy gate. The unit will run to the side of the gate and
begin working the mechanisim to raise it so that others can walk through.
If the unit is destroyed or leaves the gatehouse then the gates will close
again.
Catapults - Catapults attack the enemy walls and gates from a distance using
large boulders. Catapults do more damage to walls then they do to gates.
Catapults require ammunition in the form of stones. They come assembled with
10 boulders and must be refueled with a stone ammo cart.
An ammo cart is created at the store house. When you have the ability to
create siege engines you will have the ability to create an ammo cart. If
you have at least 10 stone available you can make another ox drawn cart
which will carry the stone. ammo carts do not have to be protected but
they can be stolen if they are not. To refuel a catapult (or mounted catapult)
you simply need to have the ammo cart near the catapult and it will refuel
automatically (if only the rest of life were that simple). When the cart is
empty, it will return to the storehouse automatically to refuel itself.
Ammo carts do not count as troops and will not be selected when you use the
Select Military button on the side of the mini map. You must select them
individually or use the click and drag method.
When assaulting an enemy wall it is a good idea to have about 3-4 catapults and
2-3 ammo carts each. If you are using catapults then don't bother with rams.
Make the decision before hand to attack either the gate or the wall but not
both. You can attack the gate with a ram at the same time you attack the gate
with catapults, but, the catapults do such lousy gate damage that they would
be more useful attacking the wall. Ultimately you just want to get inside
so you can finish the map, so, if you have catapults then use them.
Anti-Siege Weapons - Mounted catapults are the answer when you are under siege.
Mounted catapults are built on the stone towers that connect the different
sections of stone walls. They work automatically and do not need to be staffed
in order to function. They will immediately start firing upon any siege weapon
in its range, which is usually further than enemy catapults. Mounted catapults
also seem to be more powerful than regular siege engines which gives the
defender a large advantage.
Mounted Catapults cost 200 gold and 5 iron. They must be supplied with ammo
like regular catapults. Since they are closer to your storehouse I would
suggest having only 1-2 carts per catapult and only if you are being sieged.
Mounted catapults, as far as I can tell, cannot by attacked directly with any
kind of weapon. They cannot be targeted by other catapults and they can't be
burned down with torches. They are for all intents and purposes, invincible.
This combined with their range and increased damage makes a gate gaurded by
1 or 2 of these pretty much a super fortress. Many times I have seen the enemy
troops march on one of my catapult gaurded gates with a handful of different
weapons and when they see that I have mounted catapults they have always
turned and ran back to their city. They know that the mounted catapults
would destroy their siege equipment before they could do any harm and without
siege equipment, troops are useless against a stone wall.
I always like to buy a few mounted catapults for my gates on every map where
I can afford them. The problem with these beasts is when the enemy starts
building them on their walls.
At any point when you put a military unit next to the enemy walls they will
usually start to build mounted catapults right away. Since the catapults,
like everything else, needs to be built by a settler then you need to act fast
before that settler arrives with the materials. Once the enemy has even 1
working mounted catapult then you will have a very hard time assaulting
their city.
If you get into this situation then I suggest going for catapults and bringing
at least 4-5 of them with 2-3 ammo carts each. Before you do your assault I
suggest you save the game. If your catapults are destroyed before the wall
comes down then restart and bring along 2 more catapults. The idea here is to
overwhelm the city defenses with numbers. Once the wall comes down you can
abandon your catapults and rush the city. If you try to bring your catapults
into the city, the mounted catapults will continue to destroy them anyway.
Then only way I know of to destory a mounted catapult is to either take the
territory (which destorys all enemy construction) or to destroy all walls
on the sides of the tower.
[D] EXPANSIONS AND OUTPOSTS
On most maps in singleplayer you will start out with a city in a single
territory, with a level one castle, storehouse and cathedral and no settlers
save for your knight and priest (he lives in the cathedral). Some maps are
gracious and give you some form of food and perhaps even a single stone quarry.
If you want to win on The later maps then this will not be enough and you must
explore and expand your territory to calim new resources.
In order to claim a new territory you must either build an outpost in an
unclaimed land or take over an outpost owned by the enemy.
The outpost is a military building which is used to claim new territory.
To build the outpost you must first move your knight into an unclaimed area
then use the Build Outpost button next to the mini map (see interface section
above for more details). The cost of the initial outpost will vary depending
on the relative usefulness of the territory. The more resources the territory
has, the more expensive it will be to claim the area. Costs vary between
200 and 1000 gold as well as 10 wood.
After a territory has been claimed you are free to build any other
buildings you wish as well as trails and roads.
Upgrading the outpost is always a fixed amount of 100 gold and 10 stone.
Note that the first level requires wood and the second level requires stone.
No one lives in the outpost directly and so building and upgrading it does not
increase settler count. You can station a unit to guard the outpost by
selecting the unit and then left clicking on the outpost. Archers are much
better at defending an outpost then swordmen. So long as a unit is
assigned to the outpost any damage will be repaired at no cost.
If an outpost is captured by the enemy then they will gain control of the
outpost as well as the territory and you will lose all buildings that were
in the territory (they will be destroyed), this includes all walls and any
troops on the walls. However, any troops on the ground will remain there, and
could possibly take the outpost back (although you would still lose all the
other buildings).
Upgrading the outpost will increase its health allowing it to take more damage
before it can be occupied by enemy forces. On some maps, upgrading the
outpost is enough to keep the enemy from taking control because they run
out of torches before they can take it over, giving you a chance to conduct
repairs.
On some maps a good tactic is to take over all the lands owned by the enemy
before attacking their main base. Even if they reclaim the land they have
lost a lot of raw material income which could lead to settler strikes and
possibly a large drop in their city reputation which of course leads to
low troop strength.
A good tip when expanding to an area just for stone or iron is to assign 2-3
resource gathers to the mine or quarry. This will quickly drain the resource
of its raw material and move it to your storehouse. This way if an enemy
takes over your outpost and you lose control of the mine or quarry it doesn't
matter because it is now all emptied.
Controlling territory that has no resources is for the most part, pointless.
If you lose control of an area that has no resources than don't worry about it,
unless of course it is a point of pride for you.
[E] MERCENARIES
Mercenaries can be purchased (recruited) at harbors on certain maps.
Merc units will have 3 troops and 1 torch. They are cheaper to recruit than
regular units but you get what you pay for.
Once you recruit mercenaries you have to keep paying their salary (they are
mercs after all). Merc strength is affected by city reputation just like
regular troops. Mercs count toward your maximum troop limit.
For the most part, mercs are not worth the gold. There is no map where mercs
make any difference and you can easily go the entire game without them. If you
feel you have to purchase mercs to fill your ranks then you should probably
restart the map.
[F] BANDITS
Bandits are like mercenaries. Each battalion has only 3 men and 1 torch.
Bandits are cowards and will not attack you unless you attack them. They
are basically an annoyance and should be disposed of as quickly as possible.
When you encounter a bandit camp you will see three different kinds of tents.
Each tent will occasionally spawn a new type of troop either swordman or
bowman. One of the tents will be the main bandit tent and will usually spawn
both kinds of troops.
The best way to deal with a bandit camp is to have your troops burn down the
tents first, then attack the bandits. Once the tents are burned down, they are
gone forever. If you destroy all the bandits and there is still a tent left
then bandits will continue to spawn.
When assaulting the bandits you should send in your knight first. The bandits
will attack your knight and let your troops get in a bunch of free hits.
By the time your knight is dead and recovering in the castle the bandit
numbers should be reduced sufficiently for your troops to clean up and have
few if any losses.
If bandit archers are giving you trouble then have your swordmen engage them
in melee and they will immediately stop shooting you with arrows, just like
when dealing with enemy troops.
To completely clear the territory of bandits you must kill all the units and
burn all the tents. Usually, 1 battalion of troops can destroy a single tent.
The main tent may need two units.
[G] WILD ANIMALS
As you explore the maps of the singleplayer game you will run across wild
animals such as wolf packs, lion prides and bears. These creatures are
usually found near wild game hunting areas and they will occasionally
attack and kill the wild game.
If you have hunters in the area the wild animals may attack and kill your
hunters instead. Unfortunately your hunters just aren't equipped enough
to fight back (eventhough they have bows and arrows).
If you ever come across a pack of wild animals and they are interferring
with your settlement then you can either send your knight after them, or,
better yet, send in some troops.
Wolves always attack in packs of 4. Depending on your reputation your
knight might be able to take out all 4, but, if rep is low, then it might take
a few tries. Lions are a bit tougher than wolves and so you should take
along some troops.
Bears on the other hand are tough customers. The usually appear alone, but,
some times there will be a mated pair. A bear is powerful enough to kill
one soldier with each attack. Your knight should be able to survive 4-5 hits
before falling. If you are going after a bear I suggest bringing your knight
as a shield, and at least 1 unit of swordsmen and 1 unit of bowmen (I am not
kidding). If you just use your knight, the bear will heal fully by the time
your knight has recovered, so, you will need backup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VIII.THE CAMPAIGN
(under construction, comming soon, its on the way, just hold on!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[email protected]
Copyright all rights reserved
If you don't beleive me then check out the Copyright Act of 1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Copyright_Act_of_1976
Version 1.00 February 1, 2009
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