This is a work-in-progress basic guide written by the developer of the game. It covers the fundamentals of the User Interface, and through this introduces a few of the game concepts and mechanics as well.

If you have ideas/request regarding topics to add, please don't hold back on sharing them. As developer it can be difficult sometimes to maintain a neutral perspective and properly identify which areas of the game are the most in need of documentation.

An appendix can be found at the end of this guide with a brief overview of the fundamental game concepts.

You can find How-To snippets in the Table of Contents for select actions.

When you launch the game, you will be met with the following screen (click to magnify):


In the upper right corner, you will find two icons, one for the Main Menu (1) and one a shortcut to quit the game to the desktop (2).

To the left, a window shows the name of the current patch, information on Early Access and the planned release data of the next game update.

To the right, a flag menu has options for starting a new game, loading an existing game, showing the release notes for the current update (in-game), launching the editor and managing mods.


This is the main menu which opens from the icon mentioned above (1) or by pressing the Escape key in-game. From here you can save your game progress, load a previous saved game, access the Settings window, and quit the game.

The settings window has various settings for user interface, graphics, audio, etc. It also displays file system paths to save game files, logs, custom maps, etc.

When you start a new game from the menu, you will be presented with the following options:


When you press the Wizard or Warlord button, you will be sent to the next part of the process, using the options selected in the lower half of the window. If you forget to modify these, or change your mind, you can back-track from the next view.

The 'Quick Start' toggle will skip the detailed selection of game setting and use the defaults. You can select the number of opponents to use for this mode in the drop-down next to it. If you are not using 'Quick Start' the number and difficulty of opponents are not used (as you will be specifying these in the next view).

At the bottom of the window, you can choose whether to play on a Custom Map of your own design, added manually to the data folder or downloaded from the Steam Workshop. Use the Clear and Load buttons to change the current selection.

If you do not pick 'Quick Start' you will be presented with the following view, otherwise you can skip to Part 2.


This allows you to customize various settings related to the randomly generated world and the challenges you will face.

The left-hand column of options change parameters used during world generation - not that some of these may not apply if you chose a Custom Map.

Note the 'Player Nearby Culture Override' setting, which can be used to force having a specific culture generated in the vicinity of your starting position. This will also tend to give you additional starting units and characters from this culture - if other starting choices allow this.

Marauder options will affect the various unaligned forces spawned by events and game mechanics. Choosing non-default options can change the challenge level and nature of the game experience significantly. Marauders are generally less predictable in how and when they appear than the various kingdoms, cities and rival wizards/warlords. The Marauder concept covers everything from bandits and pirates to planar invaders and demonic hordes.

The right-hand column deals with the AI rivals. The AI Wizards play by similar mechanics as a player Wizard, with a randomly chosen template. The AI Warlords play with slightly modified mechanics - generally having a far lower power potential through having no magic, but starting with a relatively strong power base and opportunity for expansion.

'Silly' Events can be disabled or enabled depending on taste. None of these are completely absurd, but they may not fit the overall theme and mythology of the generated world. They can also contain pop culture references and similar.

Romance Events/Traits can be disabled or enabled depending on whether the player wants to deal with such personal traits and intra-personal events.

The World Seed is the seed used for the random generation of the world. Using the same seed with the same options and the same game build should give mostly the same results. It probably does not work well across different operating systems and hardware.

A Mod can also be chosen for the game. This is still experimental and poorly documented, so this is not recommended for new players.

Choosing which Wizard to play in a new game is done from the following view:


On the left-hand side you can pick from a list of templates. When selecting a template, the rest of the window will change to display relevant information on the template.

Traits are various special abilities and circumstances. Hovering the cursor over each will show a tool tip with additional information.

Masteries are the various magical disciplines. These determine the units and spells available at game start. Additional masteries can be unlocked during game play, and levels can be gained. As with traits, tool tips give additional information on each.

If you want to generate a new name, you can re-click a template, with each click changing to a new random name. You can also enter a name yourself.

If you click the optional Create Custom button, you will be taken to the following window:


The top-most panel shows a summary of your choices.

The main panel shows options. Each cost a number of points. Click an option to select it and hover to see additional information in the tool tip. De-selecting is done by clicking an already selected option.

The 'More Options' button will show additional Traits or Masteries to choose from.

The 'Show Mastery' button toggles between Trait and Mastery mode. You can click Mastery items multiple times to start with a higher level (cycling through them to de-select).

After naming your template and writing flavor text if you so desire, you can return to the Wizard Template selection window.


After choosing a Template you can pick a sigil and a pair of colors. Either from the pre-defined colors or from the custom color picker (the ? icon).

Once the world has been generated you will see something like the following:


In the center is the world map. You can pan your view of the map by using the arrow-keys, 'ASWD' or dragging with left/mid mouse buttons. To select a hex, left-click it. Right-clicking can be used to move armies or show information about sites, depending on your selection. More on that later in this guide.

The other elements of the User Interface are:

1) This is the outliner. It serves an overview and a shortcut to the various entities at your disposal. Clicking a header (e.g. 'Followers') will collapse or expand it. Clicking an item will select/focus it. Right-clicking a header will open a settings window where you can filter what is shown in the outliner. If there are too many items to display them all, a scroll bar allows you to scroll. Drag-clicking the mouse can also be used to scroll this list.

2) These are notifications. Some may give you various choices and/or contain important information, so you usually want to click all of these until you are familiar with the game. Clicking an icon will show the relevant information (and options). Once handled, the notification will be hidden. Such notifications can be re-shown by pressing the "Show Hidden" icon. Right-clicking an icon will dismiss it and suppress any information/options. Some notifications may not be optional and must be handled before the turn can progress. This will be indicated by the Next Turn button.

3) This is the mini-map and Next Turn button. The mini-map can be used to quickly move the camera to a specific position in the world and to keep you aware of the relative location of the active main viewport of the map. The Next Turn button will end your turn and give control to the AI and simulation logic. The Enter key is a shortcut to this button.

4) These icons can be used to toggle various aspects of the map: labels, borders, sites, etc. The "Search" icon will open a free-text search window which can be used to find a site, province, army or faction by name or part of it.

5) This panel will show details on the currently selected entity.

7) These are special actions such as Casting Spells. Hovering over an icon will show a tool tip with more information. Clicking will either show additional actions (if the action is a category) or perform the action, as relevant.

8) This a brief overview of your current resources and the expected change when progressing to the next turn.

9) This opens the Magic Window. It deals with Spells and Research. See the dedicated section for more information.

10) This opens the Military Window. It deals with Recruitment of new units. See the dedicated section for more information.

11) This opens the Followers Window. It deals with the Characters in your employ. See the dedicated section for more information.

12) This opens the Diplomacy Window. It deals with the various non-player factions of the world. See the dedicated section for more information.

13) This opens the Economy Window. It deals with resources, workers and hiring new workers/followers/mercenaries. See the dedicated section for more information.

14) This opens the Encyclopedia Window. It deals with the randomly generated world and cosmos. See the dedicated section for more information.

15) This opens the Faction Window. It deals with Quests, Victory and faction-specific details. See the dedicated section for more information.

The Magic Window has several panels. Navigation is done by clicking the tabs on the left-hand side.


The Mastery panel shows the currently unlocked masteries and their level. Hovering over each piece of information will give additional information in a tool tip. For example the Expected Progress for each Mastery will show where this progress originates.

The 'Show All' button shows all Masteries, even those not unlocked, in a different view which be panned by drag-clicking.


The Projects panel shows in-progress research and available new projects. To start a new project click a category icon to progress to the next view.


The list of available projects is shown after selecting a category. On selecting a project the cost and estimated time to completion is displayed to the right. Any missing resources or prerequisites are colored in red. To start a project click the 'Begin Project' button.

Filter opens a variety of free-text search options.


The Spellbook panel allows you to browse the various Spells you have unlocked through Mastery levels and Research Projects.


The Active Spells and Effect panel allows you to cancel effects caused by your spells. This may be useful due to undesired upkeep cost or no longer wanting the effect itself.


The Multicast panel is a shortcut if you want to cast a spell on multiple units at once. It can save a lot of mouse-clicks compared to casting the same spell manually once per unit from the world map.


The Lore panel shows you the result of increasing your Lore levels. These are gained by completing Research Lore projects or as a side-effect of events and dungeon exploration.

Clicking an icon will show the discoveries you have made and clicking an individual discovery shows any related lore and bonus effects gained.

There is also a shortcut to start a Research project for the next lore level.

The Military Window is where you recruit new units through various means. The primary recruitment types are: Training, Binding, Summoning, Creation and Raising.

The various elements of this window are:

1) This is the list of available unit types. You can filter these by clicking 'Filter Options'. Pressing the 'Hide' toggle on a specific item will hide it by default. There is a filter option to show hidden units so you can un-hide them.

2) This allows you to choose between any relevant sites for the currently select unit types. Regular military units can usually be recruited at a Fortress or City with the correct culture and/or buildings. Magical units tend to have greater restrictions on locations.

3) Picking a Trainer will speed up recruitment time greatly. For magical units you want to choose an Arcane-class follower and for regular military units you want to use followers with the Train Troops skill and/or having a Martial character class.

4) These are the basic stats of the selected unit type. Any stat changes gained by special effects and/or options are shown in parenthesis after the number.

5) The attacks used during battles are shown here.

6) Key stats regarding the cost and time to recruit the unit, and the cost of future upkeep.

7) Special abilities are shown here. Hover over each for details.

8) Some unit-types have special options available. These are usually unlocked through research projects.

Clicking a follower will show attributes and information for that characer. Hover over colored words for additional information (in the form of a tool tip).

The 'Favored Follower' toggle is used to mark a follower as favored. A limited number of followers can be given this status, and will gain additional experience. This status also impacts various random events.

The 'Fresh' icon can be replaced by one indicating wounds or fatigue. In that case the time to recuperate will be shown.

Pressing the 'Details' button will open the following panel:


A new row of buttons has appeared which will cycle between information on Offices, Character History and Opinions. The character selection panel remains to allow quickly cycling through details on different followers.

Different types of non-player factions can be browsed through the left-side tabs. Each faction is shown in a sub-window. Clicking a faction will open the following view:


This allows various diplomatic actions to be used.

1) Shows information on the target faction

2) Shows action-specific costs and information.

From this window you can buy and sell resources, specify stockpiles and access various options for hiring.

1) Select a resource to show market information and to make the target of the buy/sell/stockpile interface.

2) This shows the price to buy and sell the selected resources. Some resources also have a cap on the amount you can have. This is also shown here.

3) You can change the desired amount to sell or buy by using the entry field or dragging the slider.

The Stockpile options allow you to choose whether to auto-sell any resources gained above a specified amount.

• No Stockpile: You sell all you gain of this resource after paying upkeep costs.
  
• Stockpile Some: You can set a threshold, and any amount above this will be sold.
  
• Stockpile All: You don't auto-sell any of this resource unless you have and reach a cap on the amount of this resource.

Recruit Follower: Allows you to hire new followers by paying their recruitment fee.

Hire Mercenaries: Allows you to hire new military units. This is quicker than training them, but also more expensive. It can also give access to unit types that may otherwise be unavailable.

Hire Workers: Allows you to hire new workers to be used for constructing new sites and working at existing sites.

Pressing 'Show Workers' will open the following:


From here you can inspect your current workers and initiate training of workers by your followers.

1) The name and activity of a Worker unit.

2) The attributes and skills of the Worker unit.

Assign Trainer will open a character selection dialog, where you can see what skills each of your followers can potentially teach.

You open/close sections by clicking the +/- buttons. Colored words have tool tips for further information. The World and Cosmos sections contain details of the randomly generated world. The Mechanics section is the same across game instances.

Some of the information regarding the generated world is not shown here, but requires Lore Research (and is shown in the Lore panel). This mostly concerns special entities and nature of: Celestials, Demons, Fae, Dragons and Elementals.

The Victory conditions, progress made on these and the game settings are shown in this panel.


The Quests panel shows quests and progress on these. Clicking an item shows additional information.


The Wizard panel shows the template chosen at game start, including traits. Battle Mana shows the maximum amount of Mana which may be spent on spells during each battle. Special modifiers to this are shown here as well. Any faction-wide effects are also shown with relevant tool tips.


The Office Panel allows the assignment of Followers to various Offices if they meet the requirements. Some of these give a bonus to various faction attributes, others are related to specific entities such as armies, cities and fortresses. Emissaries to other factions can also be sent from here.


Favor with the different Deities is shown here.

If Favor is sufficiently high, a boon can be requested. This may or may not succeed and has a cost in Favor. The tool tip of the 'Seek Boon' button will show details.

The 'Offering' and 'Worship' buttons can be used to assign a Follower to these activities for the selected deity.

1) This is the selected hex. It will pulse with a glow effect.

2) Depending on the selected hex or entity, actions will be available here. Tool tips show details and clicking will open any relevant further windows or execute the action, as relevant.


Selecting a different hex (the one with the Wizard Tower) changes various parts of the user interface.

1) A row of icons shows other entities in this hex which can be selected by clicking the icon. Re-clicking the hex will cycle through these.

2) This button will open a window relevant for the selected object. This can be used to inspect/manage armies, cities, the Wizard Tower, etc.

3) The tool tip for an army shows the composition. For non-player armies the information depend on distance to a friendly observer - the details distant armies may be completely hidden, others may show a range of numbers and limited information on unit types.

Inspecting a friendly Army allows you to change the followers assigned to key roles. You can also rename the army, show the assignment of units or inspect unit details.


Unit Details are somewhat similar to what is shown in the Military Window when recruiting new units.

1) The attributes of the selected unit.

2) Special abilities and effects of the selected unit.

3) Change the role of the unit. Some units can be assigned as Scouts, Reserves or part of the Vanguard.

4) Equipment of the selected unit.

5) Attacks available to the selected unit - from equipment or inherent abilities.

Merge/Split can be used to create smaller units. This is useful for deploying a smaller part of your army as Scouts and/or Skirmishers.

1) Attributes and resource status of your Wizard Tower.

2) You can click slots to build special upgrades based on their color.

If you do not control a City (of any size - a village is also considered a City) you will see the following:


1) Key stats on the City and its population. Hovering over colored words will show detailed information.

2) Any city buildings or upgrades are shown here.

3) Details on the characters and religion of the city.

4) Details on the selected building (if any).

If you control the City, additional options are available:


1) This section can now be toggled between showing existing buildings and construction of new buildings by clicking the 'View Completed' button.

2) Details on the selected building (if existing) or building type (if construction pending).

3) You have special options available if you control the City, but can no longer send an emissary.

When encountering an Independent Realm for the first time they will usually ask you to send an Emissary for a number of turns. It can also be useful later on to improve Regard/Relations.

Based on a forum post by player @nidonv.

Finding their City is the first requirement (they may contact you before you have found it):

Originally posted by nidonv:

1) The easiest is to assign a follower to explore the province. No fights, no terrain. Not necessarily the fastest way however. As it can vary on how many hexes they explore, seen 1 to 3 hexes, randomly a turn. Large provinces take time. However you can assign multiple followers to explore a province.

2) Use physical troops, the fastest way, you can clear out a big swath of tiles in a couple moves. However terrain can be an issue. You also have to worry about other troops/wandering units, with the potential of losing your troops before you can get back to replenish troops after a few battles.

After that:

Originally posted by nidonv:

As to assigning a follower once you have found the capital city, there are 3 ways to do this.

1) Click on your follower and hit assign task and choose the province you wish to send them to. This is the one that seems to be bugged. When you remove them from another task, your list will still show that task, while in the list to the side will show them as idle.

2) Go to the diplomacy tab, click on the independent kingdoms section, and then find the kingdom. Will have a button for send emissary. Choose the follower. Make sure you hit select character under your list of followers.

3) Don't remember the name of the tab, it's after the encyclopedia tab, looks like a crown. Click on it. Don't remember the section, 4th one down I think. It will bring up a list of everything you can assign a follower to. General/Emissary/Advisor, etc. Click on the province you wish, select your follower. Again make sure you hit select character under your list of followers.

Originally posted by mek42:

How do you all value these traits; when would you pick one over the other?

Response from @Althea
Generally I'd say Summoner > Channeling, especially after the latest patch, but it's actually fairly complicated and the answer is "it depends."

The core of the matter boils down to this: in strategy games with limited resources, often, the player who expands the fastest and the most aggressively and efficiently to secure the most resources can snowball into being tremendously powerful and win very quickly. This is often counter to the instinct of a lot of people who play singleplayer - many players turtle and build up a lot and focus on research and building their economy internally, without taking generally beneficial risks which complicate the strategic scene. But you see this a lot in competitive multiplayer, and for that matter it's usually my preferred playstyle in singleplayer as well. (I have a short attention span and repetitive or monotonous activities quickly bore me.)

(Incidentally, on a highly developed map, I'd suggest that Warlords are actually far more powerful than Wizards. Grab all the clans within ten turns, then a quarter of a normal-sized map in fifty - the latter without trying too hard and while being hemmed in by a sea. This relies on having spoils to bribe the other clans into submission, which you get most easily from plundering weakly-defended villages. With more settled provinces you can also raid more of them at the same time and get more returns from doing so. And, well, you can't "grab" territory as a Tribal Warlord, but burning every settlement to the ground once you've got your literal money's worth out of them counts, right?)

Channeling can theoretically give you a lot more mana than Summoner saves you - it increases your mana income from nodes by some percentage noticeably higher than 20%, whereas Summoner only ever saves 20% mana (and thus functionally increases your mana income by no more than 20%).

However, the rate of return on nodes is fairly low - even in a good case, it takes thirty turns for a node to pay back the mana you invested in binding it. And you could've drained it for essentially free (barring a unit moving around) instead. For the cost of a Minor Mana Node, you could've raised twenty units of zombies or five units of giant lizards, not taking upkeep costs into account. That's a lot of military power compared to the benefit of gaining more mana than the Summoner in fifty turns from the moment of summoning/binding.

Summoner - simplifying a bit - allows you to expand quicker, allows you to get rid of Marauders more easily, and allows you to conquer more easily. If you conquer more, you get a lot more gold. If you get a lot more gold, you get a lot more resources. If you get a lot more resources, you can get a lot more of everything else, including, eventually, even Influence from city buildings.

So, in light of that, why does it "depend?"

Well, first off, Summoner only applies its bonuses to Summoned units, and maybe Bound ones as well, though I'm not sure. The interface doesn't cleanly distinguish between the two types. It does not apply to Created golems/oozes, or, notably, Raised undead. While golems probably aren't important from a strict "what is the most powerful playstyle?" perspective, undead are, and Summoner has very little value for a Necromancy-specialized wizard. (And if you have Necromancy, you're probably going hard on it. There's little reason not to, and even if you dip into non-Raised units for utility, they're never going to be the core of your army.) (Of course, Race: Undead includes Summoner-like benefits since it gives a -20% cost and upkeep to Raised units.)

Secondly, Channeler gives you a +5 mana income right out of the gate. In the very early game, this is huge. Even if you quickly get a few masteries and the +5 mana gen from quests, it's probably going to boost your income by a third early game, which means you can much more quickly amass the mana to summon early armies.

Thirdly, you can have both. =P

And probably the strictly "what wins the hardest?" Wizard build is going to have both Channeler and either Summoner or Undead.

To answer the question, though: if I had to choose one, I'd pick Channeler if I wasn't planning on relying on Summoned/Bound units. If you want to rely on Created golems, Recruited and enchanted troops, or Raised undead, Summoner does nothing for you. Channeler is always useful. I might also pick Channeler if I was aiming for a more relaxed game, generally, since it has greater long-term benefits. And I'd pick Summoner if I was looking for a more optimal, more aggressive playstyle, especially one in which I was relying on Summoned units. Fire 2 + Beast 1 + Summoning -> turn 7 Lesser Phoenixes is a pretty strong combination, for example.

Originally posted by zgrssd:

The powers of 0-cost starting races
Since they cost 0, it might at first appear the mundance starting races are not that important a choice. But in fact, they can make or break a early game!

Human
Humans in fantasy are usually the definition of average and this game is no exception. No particulary good stats, Equipment cost multiplier of 1.0.
Unfortunately, their culture tends to be highly variable. It is not uncommon to find the full range from cultured to tribal in the 4+ human cultures on any given map.
Humans as starting race is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you get!

Dark & High Elves, Dwarves, Halflings
As the longest lived species with a average equipment cost multiplier, these are the species with the highest Cultural development in 95% of all games.
If there are only 3 civilized and 1 high civilised cultures, chances are that the Elves have 1 high-cultured + 1 cultured. The dwarves and/or halfilings have 2 times cultured. It can happen that you got barbarians among those, but those are the exception - not the rule.
Of course they do differ a lot in stats, with the Dwarves tending to be the slowest species on any map. But also one of the thoughest that do not have Regeneration. They also have relatively weak skirmishers, given that they lack both quick firing bows and speed.
Elves tend to have more magic. But otherwise, the 3 are pretty similar to humans, statswise.

Goblins
If you want cheap equipment, nothing quite beats the Goblins as a starting race. A Equipment Cost multiplier of 0.5 is the norm and really hard to beat.
Unfortunately, their short lifespans are not conductive to technological development. You need luck to even get semi-civilized Goblins. So you will not get cheap platemail, but lower tech also means cheaper base gear cost - wich is then further halfed by the Racial Regiment Template.
A unit cost as low as 200 are entirely possible.

Orcs:
Orc have shorter lifespans and worse equipment cost multipliers then humans, meaning they tend more towards the Barbarian end of the culture spectrum.
If you find Orcs with decent gear, chances are they are are allied race of a more advanced culture.

Originally posted by Althaea:

Yeah, they all have pros and cons. I'd say that under standard settings, where there is a moderate amount of variety of standard cultures, Dwarves, High Elves, or Orcs are going to be the strictly optimal choice most of the time, though Goblins can certainly be efficient.

What's going on here is that, aside from tech level, under normal game settings, most races have a standard set of cultural traits and then some other stuff on top. I'm not sure longevity has a direct impact on culture, it's more that the default Dwarf/High/Dark Elf cultures tend to be Highly Cultured and not vary a lot from that.

Orcs frequently have cultural traits like Ferocious or Martial Honor, which is a straight-up buff to their military units. Makes them well-suited to a front-loaded War/Chaos build.

Dwarves almost always have Subterranean, Industrious and Master Smiths. This means that their workers often have Mining/Prospecting skills, that they get bonuses for productivity in mines and cities, and that their units are better-equipped even for their tech level. Mines tend to be the most valuable sites, so if you don't get unlucky, dwarves are great for that. Since they have so many miners, you don't need Earth 2 or followers training your workers in the right skills to build mines.

Comparatively, Elves aren't usually too interesting, but they're not as slow as Dwarves and have interesting follower classes.

Halflings might be interesting to look at as well. They often - though not always - are Master Farmers, giving them a very reliable economic boost.

These are owned and controlled by a Faction. An Army can be located in a Hex or at a Site. A Garrison Army is locked to a specific Site and cannot leave it. Under normal circumstances, a non-Garrison Army is always located in a Hex.

An Army contains 1 or more Units. It may contain Characters in the following roles: General, Scout Captain, Champion, Quartermaster. An Army has a movement point allowance per turn based on the slowest Unit in an Army. Units can be transferred between Armies and two Armies can be fully merged into a single Army.

Characters are named individuals under the control of a Faction. Those without an allegiance are assigned to the Unaligned Faction. A character has a origin Culture and a Race. Either can be none for some special characters.

Each character has a Type which belongs to one or more of the Super Types (Martial, Rogue, Arcane, Religious, Civic, Artisan, Scholar, Mercantile). For example, an Armsmaster is a Martial type, a Spellblade is Arcane+Martial+Rogue, a Smuggler is Mercantile+Rogue, etc.

Characters have a number of Traits, which represent a variety of concepts including skills, background traits, physical traits, personality traits among others. These are highly varied with effects across a variety of Mechanics and situations.

A character may be assigned to one and only one task, with a special idle task representing not being given particular responsibilities or prevented from such by recovery/incapacitation. A task may be carried out as part of Party.

Contrary to tasks, there is no hard limit on the number of Offices a character can hold, apart from any inherent to each Office. A character by default has no Office. Some tasks, such as Army General, are automatically tied to an Office and terminating one will terminate the other.

An entity which owns and controls armies, sites, characters and workers. May have a variety of actions available each turn. Some faction are able to conduct diplomacy. The special 'Unaligned' Faction is to represent independent entities - and it does have a unified AI, pay regular upkeep costs, etc.

Follower is a term used to refer to a Character controlled by a Faction, usually the player or a rival.

New units are gained through Recruitment, which is sub-divided into several Recruitment Types: Binding, Summoning, Training, Raising, Creating. The exact method is chosen prior to Recruitment, and there are restrictions on availability of each for almost all Unit Types.

Upkeep costs are based on the original Recruitment Type, but there are some exceptional circumstances where a Unit can change effective Recruitment Type after being created.

An entity which is located in a Hex and representing a specific location. Examples are cities, fortresses and dungeons. Most can be owned by a Faction and most can hold a Garrison Army.

A Unit is always part of an Army. It has a numerical Strength from 1 and up, representing the number of individual members. Each Unit has a maximum Strength which it cannot surpass through replenishment - this is normally equal the initial Strength when the Unit was formed. A Unit can be split into two smaller Units with combined Strength (and maximum Strength) equal to that of the full Units. Units of the same Unit Type can be merged provided this does not increase the Strength (and maximum) above the limit for the relevant Unit Type.

As mentioned previously, a Faction is an entity which controls Armies, Units, Characters, Sites and Workers.

In addition to controlling these, a Faction can execute various Actions which are not tied to particular controlled entities.


Wizards have access to the Mana resource, which is used to cast spells, recruit (magical) units, initiate research projects, construct special buildings/upgrades and for some special actions.

Spellcraft: Special discoveries which are unlocked through research. These can enable new actions, units, upgrades or apply various positive modifiers.

Research: Wizards can start various Projects which grant Spellcraft discoveries, new unit types, new spells, enchanted items or lore levels.

Spells: Spells are divided into two categories (with some spells belonging to both): World Spells and Battle Spells. The former can be cast from the map and may require a specific target. The latter are used during battles. Some spells have a cooldown before they can be re-cast. Some spells create effects which have an upkeep turn (usually in Mana) to be paid per turn.


Tribal Destiny: This resource is used to acquire various permanent upgrades to the Faction. The points accrue slowly, and the upgrades are divided into 6 categories, with 3 pairs of opposing categories. Unlocking multiple upgrades from a category will lock the opposing category.

Migration: Camps can enter migration state, which allows them to move as an army to a new location.

Clans: The Warlord belongs to a Tribe which has multiple Clans. Controlling one initial Clan, the remainder can be dominated through conquest and/or diplomacy, granting access to new units and camps.

• Independent Realm
  
• Ancient Evil
  
• Nomad Horde
  
• Planar Invasion
  
• Dungeon
  
• Organization
  
• Rebels

Before diving into the guide, these are four most common issues player have:

How to Select Your Army in Crowded Hex:
1. Left-clicking a hex will select the first selectable entity. Re-clicking will select the second. Then the third, etc. So if you want to select an Army, but you get the Wizard Tower in the same Hex, re-click (or use the icons at the bottom of the screen).

Moving Your Army:
2. Right-clicking when your army is selected will move it to the hex under the cursor. If there are other options available, a context menu will appear, and Move will be among the options. Left-click selects, right-click triggers an action.

Building a City and Growing Your Empire
3. To claim a province with no capital, you need to build a city or a fortress. To do so, first build an outpost, then upgrade it to Level 3. Then you can upgrade it to one of the other site types. Each step takes a turn.

How do I Get 2000 Food to Settle a City?
4. You don't need 2000 Food in your stockpiles. You can use the 'Buy Missing Resources' toggle in many windows to automatically purchase missing resources from the Market. Some windows/actions even do this automatically if you're missing resources (they will state the added gold cost incurred). This concept of buying missing resources allows you to circumvent resource caps. If you do want to increase those caps: Build Farms, Tower Upgrades, Cities, etc. and increase Life/Water/Time Mastery. But for your first City - gold is usually a better option than spending a lot of time increasing your food cap.