We have seen how to level commanders, but let's have a look how to do this effectively during season start and make the most of the stamina we have as well as grow with resources and look at the Ring Trees and other things you need to know. This guide is more of an overview on all aspects you should consider. It might not always give you the one fool-proof recipe, but rather help you guide into making your own decisions based on knowing what options you have.
Disclaimer: Seasonal information is subject to change depending on patches brought out to the game by the developers. If there are any mistakes, please bear with me and let me know on discord where I need to make adjustments. Thank you.
Building Levels
Your Settlement restarts every season at the same basic level - you have to level up all the way up to level 20 respectively depending on the building in your base. Very few buildings require only one level.
General rule to make the most of the resources you have, is to follow the guide by the game that will lead you through 20 chapters to progress at season start. See next big headline "Chapter Progress" below.
Your buildings will give you access to more resources (some buildings "produce" certain resources) and also to higher level troops, bigger armies and other things you need. Depending on the campaign or season you are playing the buildings might look significantly different in what you have available.
If you don't need the season/campaign related information, you can skip these paragraphs and jump directly to "Important Buildings".
Season 1
The structure of the buildings looks different to what seasoned players are used to from campaigns and the earlier season 1 servers. We see the connection of buildings to each other a bit more clearly. There are still some level requirements that are not displayed at first sight though.
The buildings are (numbers in parenthesis indicate max level, "?" indicates unknown with best guess from other campaigns)
- Main Hall (10), then on the left side
- Storage (20) that unlocks access to the
- Resource Tributes (20), first Wood and Stone, which unlocks then Grain and Ore.
- The tributes unlock the Market (1), which in turn unlocks the
- Resource Center (4)
- Underneath that you have the building Battlements (10?), which unlocks with Main Hall 6, and this will unlock the
- Bowman Tower (10?)
On the right side you find the buildings
- Barracks (20), which unlock the
- Commander's Chamber (3), which in turn unlocks
- Training Grounds (10).
On the far right you can see
- Conscription Post (20), which unlocks the
- Apothecary (10).
Season 2
At the time of writing no access to this campaign and no information on what the building tree looks like currently. However, this season is NRP based, so it will probably have an Embassy building to allow you the option to build camps for opposite alignment troops outside your base.
Campaign Rebuilding Glory
The main buildings are:
- Main Hall (10)
- Tier 1: Storage (20), Apothecary (10), Barracks (20)
- Tier 2: Lumber & Stone Tributes (20), Conscription Post (20)
- Tier 3: Grain & Ore Tributes (20), Fellowship Hall (5)
- Tier 4: Market (1), Battlements (
- Tier 5: Military Embassy (if NRP, 6?), Training Grounds (10), Resource Center (4)
- Tier 9: Bowman Tower (10)
Campaign Tactics Evolved
At the time of writing no access to this campaign. It is however available as NRP only and should look similar to Rebuilding Glory with the difference of an Embassy Building to unlock opposite alignment's camps outside the settlement and by levelling this building you enhance the amount of camps you can build.
Campaign Rings of Power: Kings of Men
The main buildings are:
- Main Hall (10)
- Tier 1: Storage (20), Apothecary (10), Barracks (20)
- Tier 2: Lumber & Stone Tributes (20), Conscription Post (20)
- Tier 3: Grain & Ore Tributes (20), Fellowship Hall (5)
- Tier 4: Market (1), Battlements (10)
- Tier 5: Military Embassy (6?), Training Grounds (10), Resource Center (4)
- Tier 9: Bowman Tower (10)
Important Buildings
Of course, all buildings are needed and give you different value. There are however some that you might need more attention than others at any given time. Here are some examples of the more important buildings, on which you should focus during your start:
- Main Hall: imperative for overall progress and to unlock higher level troops, which let you take higher level tiles.
- Barracks: increases number of formations in your army, number of armies and amount of troops you can own at a time
- Conscription Post: Conscription Time and Conscription Queues
- Training Grounds: increases the Command one commander can carry, i.e. it increases the amount of troops in your army
- Quarters: grant access to building and upgrading the troop buildings, which reduce conscription times of the troop types for which they grant access. The quarters also give additional resource production (one resource type per quarter)
Before you start taking tiles, make sure to build your Apothecary, Conscription Post and Barracks. You do not want any troops to die when instead they could end up wounded and you want to start conscripting more troops immediately. Some players don't start taking tiles before they unlocked the third formation.
Chapter Progress
There are 20 chapters with progressive tasks, which can include building tasks, taking tiles, reach certain levels on commanders, joining a fellowship/warband and others. As mentioned, you will be rewarded with additional tile space and resources (in season 1 you also get other items like gems) to help you progress.
At the end of the day you should still apply common sense and not just follow blindly, but it is a very good guide to follow in general in order to avoid wasting your early game resources unnecessarily on buildings you might not need at that time.
Tiles, Mobs, Special Structures
(*Season 1 & 2 values may differ)
The most important thing to do at season start is to take tiles. This is how you gain ring power, which allows you to unlock ring abilities over time and progress faster.
Tiles
Tiles require 20 Stamina and are also needed to gain ring power as well as build a steady income on resources.
- Level 1:
available rss: produces all types of resources, 50/h each, total production 200/h
(1) army Level 1 defender, (1) formation, t1 troops, ~30 EXP - Level 10:
available rss: grain, ore; produces 240/h
(1) army Level 4 defender, (2) formations, t1 troops, ~650 EXP - Level 15:
available rss: wood, stone; produces 280/h
(1) army Level 7 defender, (2) formations, t1 troops, ~1,200 EXP - Level 30:
available rss: grain, ore; produces 360/h
(1) army Level 12 defender, (3) formations, t1 troops, ~3,200 EXP - Level 40:
available rss: wood, stone; produces 420/h
(1) army Level 15 defender, (3) formations, t1 troops, ~4,000 EXP - Level 60:
available rss: grain, ore; produces 560/h
(1) army Level 18 defender, (3) formations, t1 troops, ~7,100 EXP - Level 90:
available rss: wood, stone; produces 640/h
(1) army Level 20 defender, (3) formations, t2 troops, ~9,500 EXP - Level 130:
available rss: grain, ore; produces 800/h
(1) army Level 25 defender, (4) formations, t2 troops, ~18,700 EXP - Level 150:
available rss: wood, stone; produces 880/h
(1) army Level 28 defender, (4) formations, t2 troops, ~23,000 EXP - Level 200:
available rss: grain, ore, wood, stone; produces 1000/h
(2) army Level 35 defenders, (4) formations, t3 troops, (2x) ~33,000 EXP - Level 230:
available rss: grain, ore, wood, stone; produces 1200/h
(2) army Level 40 defenders, (4) formations, t3 troops - Level 260:
available rss: grain, ore, wood, stone; produces 1400/h
(2) army Level 42 defenders, (4) formations - Level 300:
available rss: grain, ore, wood, stone; produces 1600/h
(2) army Level 45 defenders, (4) formations
I do not have any reports of the current level 230/260/300 tiles to provide you with the EXP info, but when you are ready to take them you might already be past level 40 - unless your commanders are quite well developed.
Mobs
Mobs require 10 Stamina and are easier to beat for good EXP with fewer losses, which makes them a good source for your main army once you have gotten over the first stages of growth. On top of saving a lot of stamina you also get some goodies. However, these have been capped per day. Mobs appear in the levels 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40. Compared to tile defenders they are easier at the same/similar level.
With DD commanders you can even go ahead and hit them with 1 troop each. Commanders heal fast and the troop losses are neglectable with such numbers.
Special Structures
All across the map there are special structures that have defenders on them and almost all of them give you PvE EXP. Keeps are an exception to this and will not gain you any EXP from hitting them.
- Camps: Some camps are easy and give good Exp. Other camps can be tricky, watch out not to waste too many troops for too little exp.
The defenders vary from 2x level 15 (Hobbit Camp, 500 health) to 2x level 50 - Altars: 2x level 20 defender
- Springs: 3x level 30 - careful here though, make sure that you don't occupy all Springs around a structure and leave the other teams in your faction out cold. They are needed to build fortresses to occupy structures
- Neutral or (unguarded) enemy crossings (3x level 30)/tunnels (2x level 20) are fairly easy and depending your level worth it to hit - careful here that you don't hit accidentally a pass, which is much stronger.
- Defensive Camps: Now, these you can hit only later in game once they have been taken. They do however give you EXP also beyond the confinements of other PVE, which means you can get EXP beyond level 40.
Commander Levels
In all seasons (except season 1) you start with your commanders at level 5 and have to work your way up to max their levels at 50. The levels require increasing amounts of EXP per level. This lets you progress very quickly in the beginning, but requires a bit more "stamina" on your account to see things all the way through.
While levelling, make sure not to aim for too high levels of tiles or mobs. If you keep losing a lot of troops per every hit, you will not be able to sustain that for long and end up being much slower than you would hope for. Aim preferably for slow and steady.
Try to rotate through your commanders. There are several options to approach the season start. Some say to wait till you have 3 formations available for your army. If you do that, make sure to hit once or twice with your main commanders before you do the real start with the secondary and lower commanders. That way you do not lose Stamina while you wait to be ready to unlock the third slot.
You can use your main gear on the weaker commanders. This will aid you with limiting the troop losses as much as possible. You can then work through your less developed commanders and take tiles in the meantime to get your resource and power production running. Once you reached the point where you can use 3 armies, go ahead and set up two armies for your main army commanders: in each army 2x main commanders + 1x less developed commander. Since you likely used all your commanders already, you can also rotate through on this spot. The advantage is that the higher EXP level on those commanders will also make up a little for lower respect levels and you can comfortably hit higher tiles than just level 10/15.
Another thing you should consider: Damage Dealer (commanders where the damage comes from the commander itself and not from the troops) do not need a specific amount of troops to deal their damage. It does not scale on the amount of troops. This allows you to load up these commanders with just a single troop and reducing your losses quite significantly.
Again: test a bit and play around to see what you can hit comfortably without losing too many troops. Make sure you can sustain your growth.
For a more detailed explanation on all the different options how to level Commanders, please read the guide "Basics: How to Gain Commander Experience".
Resources
I would recommend to use barter (see more on the topic Market further down towards the end of the article) only very scarcely in the beginning as you need every resource you can get and you put in more rss than you gain. If in desperate need, of course it's a solution, but try to do it as a last resort only.
Expansion
In general, expansion is largely dictated by your fellowship or warband. However, you also need to consider your individual expansion for resources. If you ended up in a poor spawn location with a lot of competition, you might want to work with forts to get to more remote areas that are not quite as busy.
When you farm tiles from a fort further away from your base, you will have longer reinforcement times, but you can compensate for that by circling around the gear as mentioned in the paragraph under "Commander Levels" and using all your commanders - maybe on some lower level tiles around your base that you had dropped already or haven't taken yet. With your main commanders you can sweep mobs close to your base while you wait for the reinforcements to arrive.
In general it is a good practice to expand with forts in all major directions right at the start - or rather as soon as your resources allow for forts. This will give you an advantage over people who sleep on that and you can move further on farming further away early on.
What you should not do in most of the cases is to relocate into a different area. Depending on your server and your team's/faction's expansion planning you might be asked to resettle very early on either to expand further or to join the first skirmishes and battles at the front lines. Only relocate early on if you are absolutely sure that you won't have to move again within the next three days.
Troops
You want to unlock t2 and t3 asap. Another focus will be to get to the troop types that you will be using mostly as quickly as you can too.
Keep in mind: you should always try to use troops that you can sustain conscripting and healing in reasonable amounts based on your resource income. Sometimes this will mean you have to stick to t2 troops rather than t3.
Often medium sized troops will be superior against tiles as there are a lot of small troops on defenders and if there are medium troops, at least you will not have a direct counter against you. But at times you might not be able to sustain medium troops for early game. In that case it is better to use small troops or a tier lower than you would usually use, which will still allow for taking tiles and sweeping mobs and have a steady progress going for yourself - maybe at tiles one level lower than you might hit with other troops.
Ring Abilities
The ring varies from campaign to campaign slightly as well as from faction to faction. Every faction has a unique ring ability that can be unlocked. All the other abilities are the same as the rest of the server.
There are different approaches on how to set up your ring skills in early game. The main point is that you want to level it up as soon as you can and especially unlock the milestones like level 10 for resources, level 30 for EXP-based and PvE-based skills and lastly for level 50. Don't forget to put always points into "Dominance" (top left tree) whenever you can to open up more tile space.
Beyond that, I advise against using some of the available skills
- "Abundant Wisdom" and "Abundant Might" in early game.
You will need those in PvP however. - Skills I generally don't use as they are a waste of points in my opinion are "Clairvoyance" (spy - or scout - up to two armies on neutral tiles and structures, not keeps),
- "Invigoration" which I usually do not skill at all since it would cost so many AP and get you in the danger of accidentally using it when instead you wanted to use Stamina Potions.
- I also do not use "Time out of Time" and
- "Extract" if I can help it (opinions on this differ).
"Extract" is a more expensive way to "Gather" resources from a tile you own. In my opinion, the price in AP for Extract is just too high compared to Gather. If you are desperate for resources, you might reconsider that of course You should gather as soon as you can, but don't start on tiles lower than 130/h as it would be a waste of AP.If you decide to Extract, you should do so sparingly as it costs a lot of AP and gains you little. The only thing would be to do it on 90/h Stone tiles if really needed.
Important to keep in mind is that you can reset the ring points. However, this works only for some of the skills. Those that are unlocking a specific skill with just one point as well as the basic tree skills that unlock the dependent skills will remain as is when you reset. You can do the reset once every 24 hours.
Fellowship/Warband (FS/WB)
You want to join a team as soon as possible. Once you built your Fellowship Hall you can help and get help for your buildings to speed things up.
Note: If you use speed-ups to finish buildings faster, you should wait until you received all available help and only then use the boosts. This way you can save a bit.
These Boosts will unlock certain very important milestones for your team, like more resource production or unlocking of buildings like Fortress (essential for map movement and structures), Altar (mind sharpen), Well (gather) or Employment Hall (neutral troops). Always make sure to use up all your daily attempts to boost. They refill at one attempt per 30 Minutes.
Make sure to always check the pins and announcements and follow the requested movements in order to be able to keep up with your team and help where help is required.
Market
If you are a spender and can afford it, try to level up your market as soon as possible by as much as possible. You can trade your blue and green gear for Silver and Gold Ingots as well as purple gear for Gold Ingots and Equipment vouchers per item. Make sure not to trade items that you need. You should first lock the ones you want to keep in your inventory (by clicking on the lock on the items you want to keep).
The higher your market the better the daily offers you get and also the better the Barter deal you get (starting from level 8 for 42% up to level 30 for 80%). Levels 31 - 40 will increase the resources obtained from the Merit Store that will open with server progress.
The Silver Ingots are seasonal items, which means they get lost if not used by the end of season. Make sure not to waste any of them.
There are many different play styles and certainly other approaches. For me, keeping the above points in mind, is what worked well so far. The main point is that you have a good plan and understanding on what you want to do in which order and at what time. Then follow up on it and - good luck on your spawn spot!
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