Elemental: War of Magic
FAQ Version 0.7
by Craig Gibbens aka Gyb
[email protected]


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x Table of Contents x
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01.00 Introduction
-01.01 Version History
-01.02 About the Game
-01.03 About the Guide

02.00 The Basics
-02.01 Your Sovereign
-02.02 Champions
-02.03 Cities
-02.04 Prestige
-02.05 Influence
-02.06 Resource Tiles
-02.07 Housing, Food & Gold
-02.08 Technology
-02.09 Magic
-02.10 Kindom vs. Empire

03.00 In-Depth
-03.01 City Placement
-03.02 Resource Tile Output
-03.03 Dynasty System

04.00 Strategy
-04.01 Tips and Tricks

05.00 Glossary of Terms


                         ++++++++++++++++++++++
                         + 01.00 Introduction +
                         ++++++++++++++++++++++


+++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 01.01 Version History +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

 9/21/10 v0.5 - Basic outline, introduction, core concepts
 9/29/10 v0.6 - Massive fleshing out of sections
 10/06/10 v0.7 - Even more massive fleshing out, uploaded

++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 01.02 About the game +
++++++++++++++++++++++++

  Elemental: War of Magic is a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate)
 fantasy turn-based strategy game by Stardock Games. You are a Channeler,
 a rare individual who is still capable of using magic after a global
 Cataclysm destroyed civilization 1,000 years ago. It is your goal to rebuild
 the world as you see fit, whether through peace and cooperation or war and
 domination. You will found cities, build troops, research lost technology
 and spells, go on quests, and in general do whatever else you want to do.

  If you follow reviews or read gaming news at all you know that Elemental was
 recieved very poorly upon release and suffered from a wide array of bugs,
 crashes, and so on. I am not going to defend or criticize Stardock here,
 simply try to write an objective guide. I am beginning this guide post game
 version 1.08, the game is now at version 1.09.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 01.03 About the guide +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

  Elemental includes a campaign mode however this guide is focused solely on 
 sandbox play. The goal of the guide is to make the game a bit more accessible
 by breaking down the core concepts behind game play. As official documentation
 on Elemental is somewhat... lacking, at least at the time of this writing,
 I hope fellow players will find this helpful.

 Since Elemental's release there were and will continue to be many, many
 patches and updates which are significantly altering the gameplay. I will
 attempt to stay abreast of these changes and keep this guide as current as
 possible. At the same point there are certain areas of play that I know are
 going to drastically change in the near future (magic for one), so some areas
 of this FAQ will be "glossed over" until the state of the game is a bit more
 stable.

 Comprehensive FAQ's for 4X games can be dense, to say the least, so consider
 yourself warned. I am an avid player of this kind of game and have been
 playing Master of Magic, the game Elemental is constantly compared to, off and
 on since 1994. I also owe a great deal to the wonderful community at the
 Elemental forums. This is my first FAQ. Oh, and pronounce "Gyb" as "jibe"


                        ++++++++++++++++++++
                        + 02.00 The Basics +
                        ++++++++++++++++++++

 Every 4X game ever made has a learning curve and Elemental is no different.
 This section will familiarize you with some of Elemental's core concepts. Each
 of these concepts will get a more in-depth treatment in later sections.

++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.01 Your Sovereign +
++++++++++++++++++++++++

 In Elemental the leader of your people is called the Sovereign and he/she will
 be an actual figure in game that you can move around the map. Your Sovereign
 can attack and be attacked, cast spells, explore and go on quests, and
 otherwise do anything else that your other units will do. Based on your pre-
 game choices your Sovereign may be a combat monster, a behind-the-scenes 
 manipulator, or something in between. But regardless of your choices your
 Sovereign is your most important unit because if he/she dies in hostile
 territory it is game over.

 In the early game you will have little choice but to use your Sovereign for
 scouting, questing, defense against wild creaturs, and recruitment of
 champions. As your kingdom grows you will need to decide if you want to
 continue to risk your Sovereign on the front lines or keep him/her safely in
 your territory.

+++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.02 Champions +
+++++++++++++++++++

 You will notice a number of non-hostile humans wandering the desert. These are
 Champions, notable people who can be hired to serve your kingdom. By default
 Elemental will spawn a Champion named "Janusk" near you after the first turn
 of every game to act as your advisor (he can be disabled from the options menu
 if you prefer). 

 Champions can serve as scouts, warriors, or even mages if you grant them
 spellcasting ability with the "Imbue Champion" spell. Some champions have
 abilities that make them best suited to stay stationed in a city, granting
 a bonus to food or production. 
 
 If you find a Champion of the opposite gender and have a higher reputation 
 level than they do (you can see your reputation level on the main Kingdom
 screen) you can ask them to marry you. This will start the dynasty system,
 covered in depth in a later section. In general you want to marry someone
 with the highest stats and coolest special abilities you can find as early
 in the game as possible (which can be hard to do).

++++++++++++++++
+ 02.03 Cities +
++++++++++++++++

 Cities are your primary centers for production, research, and spreading your
 influence across the land. Your Sovereign has the ability to build your first
 city, but after that you will need to produce pioneer units to found
 subsequent cities. For the most part it is only "worth it" to build cities
 that will be near (say, within five tiles) a Resource Tile, but this is 
 debateable since "city spam" is always a viable strategy in a 4X game.
 Optimal city placement is covered in a later section.

++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.04 Prestige +
++++++++++++++++++

 In Elemental your kingdom grows by having people flock to your banner. Your
 ability to draw the refugees in from the blasted wasteland is called Prestige.
 Each city has its own Prestige level and it starts at 1, meaning your cities
 will grow by one person per turn. Special abilities and buildings can increase
 this number. As we go along remember that your cities do not grow in
 population because of food or birthrate, but because of Prestige.

+++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.05 Influence +
+++++++++++++++++++

  Influence (territory that is considered part of your kingom) is shown by
  your kingdom's colored borders spreading out from around your cities. A city
  will start with an influence radius of one tile in each direction, and will
  grow to two tiles after about 13 turns (special abilities and/or buildings
  may modify this). The influence will continue to grow indefinitely but at an
  increasingly slower rate. Higer populations will cause influence to grow
  faster. At present there is no way to track how long it will be until a
  city's influence grows another tile.

  There are two reasons you care about your influence: Resource tiles and
  monster spawn. Resource tiles (covered next) are of vital importance to your
  kingdom and can only be "claimed" by falling within your influence and then
  being built upon. Wandering monsters can not spawn within your influence
  (although they can spawn OUTSIDE it and then wander in) so spreading 
  influence keeps your cities safe.

  Influence is also important because your troops can only heal while within
  your territory, and there are spells (notably teleport/spirit dance) that
  can only target within your area of influence. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.06 Resource Tiles +
++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

 A Resource Tile is a special tile on the map that, when claimed (is within
 your influence and built upon), will provide a set number of that resource for
 your kingdom each turn. If the Resource Tile is within 5 tiles of a city
 square then it is considred "linked" and any multipliers that city has may
 apply to the Resource Tile (only one city may be linked to a given Resource
 Tile; multiple cities near a Tile will not stack). Once produced resources are
 not city-specific and are available for use anywhere in your kingdom (global
 resource pool).

 Resource Tile control is vital to your economy. Unlike other 4X games you may
 be used to basic land tiles do nothing for your cites, only the special
 resource tiles provide any benefit. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.07 Housing, Food, and Gold +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 While Prestige controls how many people join your city each turn, housing
 determines the maximum number of people your city can support. A city starts
 out being able to house 10 people; to grow beyond that you will need to build
 housing improvements (huts/shanties/etc.), which requires access to Food. 

 I find it easiest to think about Food like currency. The number of Food
 displayed in the top bar is how much you have, period. You can't store it so
 if you have 4 food this turn, you will still have 4 food next turn. 
 Because Food is usually in short supply in the early game, you will need to
 watch how you "spend" it. If you build one house, that takes one of your food.

 Food is also required to build many (but not all) gold-related buildings.
 Think of food as the foundation of your economy, you are taking away some of
 the food that would otherwise be used to support more housing and instead
 selling it off directly for profit. Or something like that. Point is you need
 food not only for housing but also for most economic improvements.

 Much of this will change in game version 1.1 :)

++++++++++++++++++++ 
+ 02.08 Technology +
++++++++++++++++++++

 For the most part Elemental uses a non-linear technology tree; there are five
 areas of research and you are under no pressure to research them all. It is
 completely possible to win a game by focusing solely on one or two research
 paths and ignoring the others, or by balancing your research over all paths.
 Further, even within a path there are separate branches of research available.
 Finally certain techs are not 100% guaranteed to be available every time you
 reach a new research level, potentially throwing a curve into plans to bee-
 line to specific techs. 

 The main source of research is the Lost Library resource, and you will want to
 control as many of these as possible.

+++++++++++++++
+ 02.09 Magic +
+++++++++++++++

 Magic is one of the areas that will be getting a large overhaul in a future
 patch so I will not go into a lot of detail yet. The basics as of v1.09 are
 you get +1 mana for each caster per turn, and they can store mana up to their
 Essence attribute. You research spells using Arcane Temples in a manner
 similar to technology. The main difference is you unlock "spell levels," and
 once you do you can then research any spell from any book you have of that
 level. Some books are chosen at the start of the game, and others are found or
 researched in the tech tree. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 02.10 Kingdom vs. Empire +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 There are two allegiances available in Elemental, Kingdom (the good guys) and
 Empire (the bad guys). Aside from obvious graphical differences each side has
 their own tech tree, special buildings, and equipment. The different tech tree
 in particular lends to a very differnt feel and game pacing for each side.

 In general the Kindom tree lends itself to fast diplomacy, while the Empire
 tree lends itself to fast conquest. There are numerous other differences, but
 that is the nutshell version.

                           ++++++++++++++++++
                           + 03.00 IN DEPTH +
                           ++++++++++++++++++


++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 03.01 City Placement +
++++++++++++++++++++++++

  Factors to consider when deciding where to found a city include geography and
  distance between cities, availability of Resource tiles, and using influence
  to strategicly block portions of the map.

   Cities in Elemental actually take up multiple tiles on the world map as they
   grow, meaning whenever you construct a new building in a city you will need
   to pick which tiles it will occupy. This is why availability of open space
   is a factor. At present you can not build on these tiles: water, coastline,
   forest, and mountain. Also note that the only building you can build on a 
   beach tile is a harbor. 

   While your influence spreads from your city's hub (the actual tile where you
   founded the city), distance from the city is calculated from any tile that 
   has a city improvement/building in it. This means that if something needs to
   be "within five tiles of a city" then you count from ANY tile that includes
   part of your city. This is especially important when founding cities close
   to each other, as you can not build a city improvement within five tiles of
   another city's improvement. To illustrate:

   AXXXXXB

   If A and B above are cities and the Xs are empty tiles, the game will have
   let me settle like that because there are five empty tiles between each
   city. However I will not be allowed to build any improvements to the right
   of city A or to the left of city B. Where it gets more complicated is:

   AXXGXXXXXB

   Here A and B started eight tiles away from each other with a Gold Mine (G)
   between them. After a few turns both cities expand with improvements:

   AIXGXXXXIB

   Still legal so far because there are five tiles between each improvement
   (I). Next A builds another improvement next to the Gold Mine, which then
   makes all the tiles between A and the mine contigeous:

   AIIGXXXXIB

   As soon as a city improvement "touches" a resource tile like our Gold Mine,
   that resource is considered part of the city. Distance from city A is now
   calculated from G, and that means city B's improvement is no longer legal.
   City B will get to keep its improvement, but it can no longer build in that
   direction.

  When picking a city location to harvest nearby resources, you have a choice
  between building your city directly next to a resource or leaving space for
  your influence to eventually include the resource. Each decision has its
  merits. If your city "touches" the resource then it will be included in your
  city's defenses; however, it will also take time from your city's production
  queue to build the improvement. If the resource is within your influence but
  not touching your city then you can build on it without it taking turns from
  your city's production queue, but the resource will not be defended by your
  walls. 

  When time is not a factor (that is I'm not rushing to grab a specific
  resource before someone else does) I prefer to start a city one tile away
  from any / all resources, let my influence expand over them, build the
  resource, then build improvements out to include the resources in my city
  walls. 

  I kind of expect the above dynamic to change a bit in upcoming patches so for
  now any further debate on "optimal" city placement will have to wait.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 03.02 Resource Tile Output +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Food: 

 Food is the stuff that your people eat, at least theoretically. In practice
 food is used to set the limit on how much housing you can construct in a city.
 Food is also a prerequsite for certain economic buildings.

 Food is one of those resources that you will either have not enough or way too
 much of. 

 Fertile Land: 4
 Oasis: 6
 Fruit Grove: 4
 Twilight Bees: 3
 Wild Wheat: 6

Gold:

 Money makes the world go round. Gold (or Gilder) is predominately generated
 from claimed gold mines, but can also be generated and increased by certain
 city improvements. Gold is needed to pay for construction, unit training, unit
 upkeep, city upkeep, hiring heroes, buying equipment, and more. As such it is
 vital to generate as much gold as possible per turn.

 Gold can also be earned through adventuring, either as a reward for defeating
 enemies or found in goodie huts. At times this can be quite profitable, but
 you can�t count on adventuring to support your entire economy. 

 You can never have enough gold.

 Gold Mine: 5

Materials:

 Materials is a generalized concept for stuff that isn�t metal. Materials can
 be generated from lumber, stone, clay, etc. Materials are used in all sorts of
 construction, from units to improvements. 

 The availability of materials in the early game can be very challenging, but
 by late game you will probably have a gigantic surplus you have nothing to do
 with.

 Old Growth Forest: 4
 Stone:
 Clay Pits:


Metal

 Metal is used in the production of units and is needed for certain weapons and
 armor. While having a source of metal is certainly desirable it is not
 strictly necessary for victory. Metal currently has no use other than unit
 training. Note you do not need metal to buy equipment for your Sovereign/
 Champions, just regular units.

 You will either need a lot of metal or none at all (but probably a lot).

 Iron Ore: 1
 Ventril Mine: 3

Crystal:

 Crystal is used to outfit units with magical equipment, so it plays a role
 similar to metal. If you do the magical research necessary you can provide
 your units with a variety of useful trinkets. Crystal currently has no use
 other than unit training. Note you do not need crystal to buy equipment for
 your Sovereign/Champions, just regular units.

 Some neutral faction cities can provide crystal each turn (even without an
 associated Crystal Crag visible on the map) once conquered. Check the neutral
 city�s overview screen to see what it is producing.

 Crystal Crag: 1

Horses/Wargs:

 Mounts can be added to trained units to add +1 to both moves and combat action
 points. Horse Tiles can only be used by Kingdom factions and Warg Tiles by
 Empire, but they both work the same way: when claimed they will produce one
 horse/warg every four turns.

 There is no downside to outfitting your troops with mounts other than
 cost/training time.

 Horses: .3
 Wargs: .3

Tech:

 Lost Library tiles are the main source of Tech. Progressing up the technology
 tree provides many benefits in Elemental so you will want to control as many
 of these as possible. 

 You will never have enough Tech.

 Lost Library: 5

Arcane:

 Ancient Temples are the main source of Arcane. Your overall strategy will 
 determine how important Arcane is for you; you can succeed with just a small
 number of low level spells, or you can research all the way up to the game
 winning spell. 

 Arcane Temple: 5

++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 03.03 Dynasty System +
++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Once you have acquired some Champions of the opposite gender as your Sovereign
 you may notice the option to propose (located on the Champion's action tab in
 the lower left). A Champion will only accept your proposal if your reputation
 is higher than their level. You can see your ____ on the Kindom report screen.

 If you get married you will eventually start having children. Note that you do
 not need to keep your Sovereign and spouse together for this to happen. When
 the children grow up they will inherit some of their parent's abilities and
 can then be used as Champions themselves or even be used in arranged marriages
 between other factions. Expect it to take around 20-40 turns before you start
 having kids and then another 40-60 turns for a kid to grow up (rough
 estimates).

 The primary benefits of arranged marriages are a diplomatic boost with the
 faction and the potential for grandchildren down the line.

 When married your male children will always stay with you and have the other
 faction's daughter join you, while your female children will always go to the
 other faction. Horribly sexist, I know.

 When grandchildren grow up they have a chance to join either of their parent's
 starting faction. It seems weighted towards their joining their mother's
 faction, that is, your son's kids will probably defect away from you while
 your daughter's kids will probably defect back to you. It isn't set in stone,
 just seems like it happens that way most often.

 Because children inherit the abilities of their same-sex parent you can end up
 getting the abilities of other Sovereign's this way. So for example I marry my
 daughter to Kul-Kulan's (or whatever his name is) son, they have a boy, that
 boy grows up and joins me, now I have a grandchild with the Organized trait.

 The formulas that determine children starting stats are still a little screwy,
 for example even if both parent's have 2 base move I frequently get kids with
 1 base move, which sucks. Also no matter how pumped my two parents stats are
 (STR, DEX, etc.) the children and especially grandchildren tend to "even out"
 to 10 (because the AI tends to not level their kids much so all their stats
 stay at 10). The only exception is Essence which has been stated to always be
 "50-100% of the higher parent's essence."

 One thing I do before sending my daughters off to marriage is level them up a
 bit and equip them with a basic set of armor. It only take 3-4 easy battles
 to get them to level 3, put the level ups in hit points or dexterity, and buy
 them whatever armor you can afford. This increases their survivability
 considerably even when controlled by the AI.

                             ++++++++++++++++++
                             + 04.00 Strategy +
                             ++++++++++++++++++

 More to come when the game play stabilizes. As of 1.09 if you have any
 experience playing 4X games you will do fine once you get the mechanics down.
 For now I'm just including basic tips and tricks.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 04.01 Tips and Tricks +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

 If you click on a resource within your borders, the tab at the bottom left
 will tell you which city the resource has been claimed by. If the resource is
 more than five tiles from any city square then it will say "not linked." If
 you construct some buildings towards the resource you can link it and thus
 gain your city's multipliers, if any.

 Whenever you have a unit, city, resource, etc. selected make sure you notice
 the tabs on the status bar in the lower left; these tabs will have all of the
 various options for you to interact with that object (such as asking a
 Champion to marry you).

 Holding the center mouse button down and moving the mouse will rotate the
 camera.

 "Intimidating" as a Sovereign ability is kind of powerful right now; try it
 before it gets nerfed.

 As of 1.09 Caravans boost Food production and are the only way to make roads.
 The most efficient thing you can do is send one caravan from each city back
 to your capital city. This will give a big boost to food production in your
 capital, and also create a somewhat efficient road network for yourself. Send
 the caravan from your capital to any city outside your kingdom/empire that 
 you want a road to (to make later conquest easier ;)

 Many of those goodie huts you see popping up around the world require a
 certain technology in the "Adventure" (Kingdom) or "Domination" (Empire) in
 order for you to loot them. I'll have the list of which tech unlocks which
 level up before too long, but for now just realize the more investment in 
 those tech branches, the more goodie huts you will get.



                         +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
                         + 05.00 Glossary of Terms +
                         +++++++++++++++++++++++++++


-Champion: hero units; most Champions must be recruited by paying them gold.

-City: For convenience I use city to mean any population center you create,
regardless of its level (Settlement, Village, Town, etc.).

-Empire: One of the base allegiances in Elemental; the "bad" guys.

-Influence: The radius around a city considered to belong to your faction;
your borders. Increasing Influence means more territory. A city�s base
influence is determined by population.

-Kingdom: One of the base allegiances in Elemental; the "good" guys.

-Prestige: The number by which a city's population will grow each turn.
Increasing Prestige means faster city growth.

-Resource Tile: The actual tile on the game map where a resource is located.

-Resource: Something generated by a Resource Tile, such as food or metal.

-Shard: An elemental resource tile of great power.

-Sovereign: The leader of a faction; your leader is a Sovereign, and so are
the leaders of your rivals.

-Summoned: I creature brought forth by magic, such as an earth elemental.

-Unit: A troop that had to be trained in a city; normally when I say unit I�m
NOT including Champions or Sovereigns. 

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Legal Stuff

This document is Copyright �2010 Craig Gibbens (Gyb1) and is the intellectual
property of the author. It may be not be reproduced under any circumstances
except for personal, private use as long as it remains in its unaltered,
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publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web
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