To get further into the game, you need to make each turn fast, with the least amount of repetitive actions. At the start, when you are building and researching with an army about, and there is a distant objective involving no nearby exploration - just click where you are headed and then hit end turn until you are there.



When your white dots indicate you are to arrive at your destination, the automation cannot do that for you, so manually search that ruin.



You will need the ability to Parley. I scout the lands surrounding mine while researching Language House, which allows you to Parley and Bribe - which you use for quests in pacifying local towns of denziens.

You can customize your opponents and your own nation to a certain extent. Every nation has its own quest storyline which is influenced slighly by random changes of a cosmetic level. The Wind Walkers are pretty generic in comparison to the others.



You'll want to keep an eye on this window after you are warned that the time for the first policy occurs soon. You will have less than ten turns unless you play it at a super slow rate. You can pacify your neighbors in the area, but I recommend not buying their usage with influence until after your first policy.



This warning to save infuence is a good time to switch from food workers to influence workers. You will probably want at least 120 influence for the policy setting turn.

Part of making the early game go by quick to get you into the whole of the game is to be able to use the zoom out features of the map. When you fully zoom out, it becomes like a parchment map of borders and country names like in Age of Wonders.



But you can zoom in and toggle on all the numbers for each tile's food, science, production, and influence output too.



The pop-up notices have a default setting that works pretty good with how I described long distant unit movement. However, if two or more things get done in the same turn, be aware that you should meticously check to insure you have used everything efficently, as following a link about science will not then give you a link about a city construction queue. To make things faster, queue as much as you can confidently.



It is your choice what to do with heroes. You gain one when you build your first city, and they gain xp per turn but gain more by acting. I find I prefer to assign my first hero to my first army and gain it levels faster. But you can also assign them as governors to your cities and this is why it is important to gain mercenary company right away as heroes are purchased from the market. It is also important to develop the two techs that extract luxuries: open pit mine and alchemists laboratory.

While a single unit army is okay for terrain exploration close by, you need a decent army for the real quests. And even an army that wipes out a standard enemy will take damage. The AI attacks the lowest defense lowest hitpoint character first and foremost.



The battlemaps are sometimes ambushes off of quests, or wandering disturbed natives. Otherwise, theyre intitated by you. The tile of encounter becomes the center of the battlemap, which is the surrounding terrain. Its pretty simple and built for speed, and most of the time you shouldnt need to interfere manually if you travel in numbers.



As you do whatever storyline you chose, the ruins and nearby towns of natives will be the main elements in your quests. The quests are designed to reward you for expanding your kingdom.



The quests also give rewards which are often ways to complete other quests. I commonly see rewards of 15 titanium and quests asking for 10 titanium.



But doing these quests can gain you pacified towns of locals, and if you build a city in their land, you can assimilate them - gaining things like the ability to produce various units of theirs and gaining healing bonuses or production bonuses.



When you gain the Mercenary Market improvement, you can buy mercenaries and heroes: