Welcome to this Oriental Empires Quickstart Guide. In this guide we will cover some of the most important mechanics and features of the game. A lot of things however, will not be covered here, but you can always find more information on specific parts of the game by using the ingame encyclopedia. Ingame there is also a very good explanation of HOW to do things, so in this guide, we will be focusing on the WHY.

Oriental Empires is a turn based 4X strategy game that lets you take control of one of several key factions/clans of ancient China. You will lead your selected clan over the course of 3000 years of history, founding new cities, developing new technologies and waging war with your rivals.

When starting a new game, you first have to choose between the Grand Campaign and a custom game. The grand campaign is the more historical variant and takes place on an accurate map of ancient China. All factions will also have fixed starting positions, based on their geographical historical location. When selecting a custom map, you will be able to generate a map based on your own preferences.

For first time players, it is advised to start with the Grand Campaign, as this will ensure a more balanced start and often a bit more time to familiarize yourself with the mechanics before you encounter other factions.

Next, you will need to select the faction you will be playing. Each faction has their own bonuses and penalties, so try and find one that matches your preferred playing style. Initially you can only select the factions with the most favorable starting locations, but later you will be able to unlock the others for further challenges.

Both the Shang and the Han are solid starter factions.

Now that you have selected your faction, the game begins. You will start your game with one town (your capital), one unit of heavy infantry (your faction leader) and one unit of settlers. Settlers are used to found new settlements, and will be consumed in the progress.

On your first play through, advice will popup suggesting good locations for your next settlement. Generally speaking, it is a good either to either find large open areas with fertile grounds, or areas that are close to a lot of natural resources (rhinos, copper , fish, etc.).

You can select a unit stack by left clinking on the banner and you can order a move order by right clicking on the desired destination. Note that the stack will not move yet, instead an arrow will indicate the move order being received. The stack will only move once you hit end turn and all orders will be processed in real time.

Start by sending out your settlers to find new fertile land, and by ordering your faction leader to scout the surroundings.

It is a good idea to start exploring early on in order to find the best locations for your towns.

In order to become the biggest, strongest, most recognized and/or most cultured faction, it is helps a great deal to have a solid economy. Armies and public works both require a lot of money to raise and maintain.

Pro tip: Take a good look at the building upkeep costs before clicking that build button!

Especially in early game, an upkeep of 60 gold per turn is not insignificant.

In Oriental Empires, there are a number of sources of income. You will gain money from taxes, trade, diplomacy, loot and by exploiting natural resources. Taxes will generally be the most important part and are an easy way of increasing your income. Of course the amount of taxes you will receive depend on your total population size, so you should always aim to grow your population (see section 3.2).

It is advised to keep a close eye on your income and expenses.

Exploiting natural resources is another great way to grow your economy. This is done by creating mines and other buildings on resource tiles. For some resources, like rhinos, founding a city in close proximity will already do the trick. If you are unsure of how to exploit a resource, however your mouse of the resource indicator until the tooltip pops up.

Settling on land near rhinos gives you a great little boost to your economy.

Another good way to boost your empires finances is to setup a trade network. In order for trade to work, you need to build a market in cities that have resources to export (silk, pottery, copper etc.) and you need other settlements in close enough proximity to sell the products to. Always remember that the size and value of the trade is not only dependent on the type of resources, but on the population size as well. A larger population will want to buy more resources, thereby increasing the trade value. Trade is indicated by dashed lines between settlements.

The lines between cities represent trade routes.

As you can read above, having a large population is important. Increasing your population size is done by founding new settlements, but doing this too much might cause rebellions (see section 3.3). The other way to grow your settlement, is through proper city management.

The amount of people that can live in a city is limited by the volume of food the city and the surrounding lands produce. You can increase the food production by first clearing land for farming and then letting your people actually farm the cleared land.

Important: Whenever your order you people to construct new public works or to create new land improvements, your people will start doing that instead of farming the land, so less food will be produced. It is often a good idea to have starting colonies grow a bit first before ordering such projects to be build.

It is a good idea to increase your population size by letting your farm their land.

In the city management screen, you can toggle between 4 different types of land improvements to select the type you want. Next you can select the icons to queue them. Land improvements do not cost money, but they do require labour that could otherwise be spend elsewhere. The buttons left and right of the settlement name are used for construction and recruitment respectively.

The history of ancient China is one of rebellions and revolts and this is reflected in the game. In Oriental Empires, the population is divided into two classes, Peasants and Nobles and both of these can revolt given certain conditions are met. Peasant unrest can have many causes. By clicking on the icon in the city management panel, you can see a breakdown of these causes. As a player, you should be aware that ordering your peasants to construct too many public works etc. will make them upset, since you are basically making use of forced labour. Therefore, it is generally advised to give your peasants a break after a long series of productions. Other ways to lower the unrest levels are to increase your empires Culture rating and by sending in a garrison of nobles.

Nobles have their own reasons to be upset with you. Most often this is related to your Authority level. Authority is a rating that dictates the amount of control you have over your nobles. It will increase with technologies and by winning battles, but losing battles or having your faction leader die will lower it significantly. In addition, having more settlements than authority will also increase your noble unrest.

While there are many things you can and should do to avoid unrest, sometimes, it is just beyond your control.

We hope this guide gave you some more insight in the principles underlying the Oriental Empires design. Of course Oriental Empires is a vast game and there is much more to learn. Just remember you can always hit the “i” button in the top right corner to get more information and be sure to carefully read the advice presented to you ingame. For any further questions, or feedback, we encourage you to visit our forums.