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A guide to Dawn of Discovery for the Wii
Written by Adam King (aka Gnik)
Version 1.3
This FAQ is intended for personal use only. You are free to save or print this
guide for your own use in playing the game, but it is not to be reproduced or
redistributed without the express permission of Adam King.
This guide is best viewed using a fixed-width font, with at least 79 characters
per row.
The most up to date version of this guide may always be found at
http://www.gamefaqs.com
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Table of Contents:
You can search using the code listed before the titles to jump right to that
section. Just press Ctrl-F and type in the code.
F-0 FAQ information and Overview
F-1 Version History
F-2 Game Overview
F-3 Controls
F-4 You Can Help!
G-0 Game Information
G-1 Goods, Trading, and Taxes
G-2 Basic Buildings
G-3 Resource Generators
G-4 Influence Buildings
G-5 The Tech Tree
G-6 Specialists
S-0 Strategic Advice
S-1 Fast Expo vs Fast Tech
S-2 Outposts vs Settlements
S-3 Harassment vs Treasure Hunting
S-4 Building Patterns
S-5 The Art of War
W-0 Story Mode
W-1 Chapter 1 - Create a New World
W-2 Chapter 2 - Brother vs Brother
W-3 Chapter 3 - William of Arabia
W-4 Chapter 4 - The Princess and the Flower
W-5 Chapter 5 - War, What is it Good For?
W-6 Chapter 6 - Desperately Seeking Sultan
W-7 Chapter 7 - The Great Escape
C-0 Continuous Mode
C-1 Settings
C-2 Opponents
C-3 Misc Tips for Continuous Mode
Z-0 Contact and Credits
Z-1 Contacting Me
Z-2 Credits
Z-3 Closing Information
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
F-0
FAQ Information:
###############################################################################
F-1
Version History:
1.0 - Dec 15, 2009
First draft. Covers virtually the entire game, except for a bit of Continuous
Mode.
1.1 - Jan 4, 2010
Covers the rest of Continuous Mode, added the controls for the DS version.
Probably complete unless people send in submissions.
1.2 - Feb 6, 2010
Covers the alternate branch on Mission 6. Thanks to Reaver027 for notifying
me of its existence.
1.3 - Apr 26, 2010
TZ informed me of some new tricks you can do with the second Wiimote.
###############################################################################
F-2
Game Overview:
Dawn of Discovery is a Strategy game in the vein of SimCity. Your goal is
to create a profitable and self-sustaining island habitat for your settlers,
and incrementally raise their standard of living so as to turn your island
outpost into a bustling metropolis. Along the way, you'll have to fend off
rival colonists competing for resources as well as villainous corsairs and
aggressive imperialists. There's never a dull moment in your multi-faceted
battle for survival and economic success.
Since this game is played against opponents (unlike SimCity), speed and
efficiency are just as important as building patterns and resource management.
You really have a lot to juggle at any one time in this game, but thankfully
the game's story mode acts as an extremely extensive tutorial to help you
become accustomed to the many aspects of the game.
Since the story mode in this game is so exhaustive and does a very good job of
teaching the basics of the game, this guide will focus more on things like
strategic advice and building strategies that are not covered in-game.
There will also be advice on how to obtain the highest rankings in story mode.
This guide was written for the Wii version of the game, but I've included a
little information on the DS version as well since it's virtually the same
game. However, I like the Wii version better because the presentation is
better and I find the controls easier to use.
###############################################################################
F-3
Controls:
Wii Version:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can play this game using either the Wii Remote by itself or using the Wii
Remote and Nunchuk. The Nunchuk provides no extra functionality and the
Wii Remote works fine by itself so I usually just use that.
Wii Remote:
Point - Move cursor
- While grabbing the map, move to scroll around
A button - Select options (while in menus)
- Grab the map (while not selecting a building)
- Examine a Building (while hovering over a building)
- Build buildings (while in build mode)
- Scroll through text (while it is displayed)
- Select soldiers, change amount of soldiers (military mode)
- Move Ship (while captaining a ship)
B button - Cancel (while in menus)
- Open the Build Menu (while the cursor is over empty space)
- Duplicate a Building (while the cursor is over a building)
Dpad Up - Open tooltips
Dpad Left - Scroll between Warehouses
Dpad Right - Scroll between Warehouses
Dpad Down - Open Military Mode
+ Button - Zoom In
- Button - Zoom Out (opens map at minimum level of zoom)
1 Button - Open Map
2 Button - Open Main Menu
Nunchuk Controller:
Control Stick - Scroll map
Z Button - Zoom In
C Button - Zoom Out (opens map at minimum level of zoom)
You can also play a limited "co-op" mode by plugging in a second Wiimote.
The second player can speed up the sailing rate of ships (useful for treasure
hunting) and heal maladies, which allows you to avoid building defense
buildings. Actually, you could pretty easily just control the second Wiimote
yourself if you wanted to make the game easier.
Second Wiimote:
A Button - Build Decorative Building (while over empty space)
- Set off fireworks (while over a house)
- Heal maladies (while over a house suffering from fire, rats,
or the plague)
- Speed up ship sailing speed by about 1.5x (while over a ship)
B Button - Highlight a particular square (no real effect)
DS Version:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously, the game is mostly controlled using the stylus. The buttons are
used for shortcuts, which are the same for either hand. There are less
shortcuts than in the Wii version, so you must use the menus more.
Stylus - Tap to choose things in menus
- Tap empty space, then Drag to scroll the map
- To build, select it from the build menu, then Drag the building
where you want it, lift the stylus, and tap the checkmark
- Tap buildings to see options for that building, such as clone
and demolish
- Hold the stylus down on a building or menu item to see a
tooltip.
- Tap to add Soldiers to your cursor in Military Mode
- Tap a ship, then Drag to move it
Dpad Up - Scroll between Ships
X Button - Scroll between Ships
Dpad Down - Scroll between Warehouses
B Button - Scroll between Warehouses
Dpad Right - Open Trade Menu
A Button - Open Trade Menu
Dpad Left - Open Build Menu
Y Button - Open Build Menu
L Button - Zoom In / Out
R Button - Zoom In / Out
Start Button - Open Menu
###############################################################################
F-4
You Can Help!
This guide is nearly done, but there's still a couple things I'm missing.
If you provide help, you'll be credited in the credits section.
- The Story Mode section contains "known worst scores for 3 Stars", in which
I have listed the worst scores I have achieved but still gotten 3 stars for.
If you have received a worse score and attained 3 stars, you can let me know
(ideally on the GF message board) and I'll update this section.
- You can also provide any corrections, or interesting strategic points you
may have.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
G-0
Game Information:
This is a compendium of information about Goods, Buildings, and Specialists.
For advice on how to use this information, see the Strategy section.
###############################################################################
G-1
Goods, Trading and Taxes:
This section covers the basics of your economy.
Goods
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goods are the most important aspect of the game, without goods you cannot have
inhabitants and thus no taxes and no money. Many parts of the game's story
mode also involve fulfilling certain goods quotes.
Essentially, your inhabitants have certain needs and demands, for Goods and
Influence Buildings (covered later). Their demands are always equal to the
needs of the level above them, for example Pioneers demand the needs of
Settlers. Your inhabitants will incrementally consume goods corresponding to
both their needs and demands, if available.
Goods are broken down into three fundamental types:
Resources:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources are not required by your inhabitants, but you use them to build up
your settlement, and they are also used when your Houses are upgraded. There
are 4 basic resources in this game.
Coins:
------
Coins are used to build buildings and pay upkeep costs. You predominantly
acquire Coins through taxes, so your coin intake is basically equal to the
number of citizens you have of each type times the tax rate for that type.
You can occasionally find coins in Treasure Chests, which is always nice, and
the Oriental Teahouse also generates a small amount of Coins.
Underneath your current amount of Coins, you're always shown a Balance, which
is the total amount of coins you're taking in from Taxes minus the total
amount you're paying out to upkeep costs. It is colour coded, Green means
you're gaining coins, Red means you're losing them. If you have no coins and a
negative balance, you're pretty much history as you will no longer be able to
afford the upkeep on your buildings.
If you're going to spend right down to your last penny, make sure your balance
is comfortably positive.
Wood:
-----
Wood is a basic resource that is used to build almost all buildings. It is
gathered by the Lumberjack's Hut.
Wood is generally very cheap to buy from the Trade Menu, and I would usually
recommend buying some at the beginning to help with your initial construction.
You can buy more later if you really want to build something.
Stone:
------
Stone is a basic resource that is needed for all but the earliest buildings.
It is gathered from a Mountain using a Quarry and Stonemason.
Throughout the game, Stone is needed in huge quantities, almost as much as
Wood by the end, and it is rarely cheap to buy. As such, it's important to
set up your stone production early and keep increasing capacity as you need it.
Iron:
-----
Iron is an advanced resource that is needed by late-game buildings. It is
gathered from a Mountain that has Ore Deposits (it'll have an iron bar above
it) by an Ore Mine and Ore Smelter.
Since only late game buildings (and House upgrades) use Iron, you will not need
as much Iron production as Stone, and you can afford to wait until at least
Citizens Level to set up Iron production.
Basic Goods:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food (and Pork):
----------------
Needed by: Pioneers
Fertility: Grain (only for Grain Farm)
Food is needed by absolutely everyone, so you will need a lot of it. Worse,
if you run out, your entire population will quickly leave.
Unlike other goods, Food can be generated in multiple ways, there are 3
buildings that generate Food and you can use any combination of them to meet
your needs. The Fisherman's Hut is simple and dependable, but can only be
built in limited locations, the Grain Farm is a stable generator but takes up
a lot of space, and the Butcher converts Pork from Pig Farms into food, if
you can position them properly. All 3 have their uses, see the sections below
for more information about them.
Milk:
-----
Needed by: Settlers
Fertility: None
Milk is also needed by absolutely everyone, so you will also need lots of Milk.
Thankfully, Milk is the absolute cheapest good to purchase from the Trade Menu
so shortages are easily dealt with. Later in the game you could spend a good
500 Coins on Milk and forget about it for a long time.
Dairies require no fertilities, so you can build them on any island. Stick
them on big islands that have lots of excess space.
Herbs:
------
Needed by: Citizens
Fertility: Herbs
Herbs are pretty hassle-free to grow, just toss down as many Herb Gardens as
you think you'll need and that's it. The only catch is that virtually every
House consumes them, so you'll need a lot.
They're also too expensive to buy from the Trade Menu, as is basically every
other good listed from here on down.
Clothes (and Hemp):
-------------------
Needed by: Citizens
Fertility: Hemp
Clothes are the first of the more complex goods you must gather, since you are
required to build 2 different structures to gather them, a Hemp Plantation to
generate the Hemp, and a Weaving Mill to turn it into Clothes. Clothes are
also consumed by almost everyone, so expect to devote a lot of space to them.
Spices:
-------
Needed by: Patricians
Fertility: Spices
Spices are much like Herbs, only more expensive to gather and usually harder
to come across.
Pottery (and Clay):
-------------------
Needed by: Patricians
Fertility: Clay
Similarly, Pottery generation is akin to Clothes. Thankfully, you don't need
quite as much, but since it takes a long time to generate more Pottery, make
sure you deal with any supply problems early.
Dates:
------
Needed by: Aristocrats
Fertility: Dates
Yet another basic type of Goods. If only they were all this easy.
Aristocrats seem to go through these at an insane rate, though.
Garments (Also Gold and Wool):
------------------------------
Needed by: Aristocrats
Fertility: None (but you do need a Mountain with Gold Deposits)
This is the worst of all goods, it takes 3 types of goods to generate them,
meaning that for best generation you need to fit 4 buildings within the
influence area of the Tailor. These will always be the thorn in your side at
the end of the game.
Special Goods:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These goods are used in Story Mode. None of them can be bought or sold.
Cargo:
------
Only available in Chapter 3. Must be raised from treasure chests.
White Lily:
-----------
Only available in Chapter 4. Generated by the Gardener Building.
Salt:
-----
Only available in Chapter 6. Generated by the Salt Mine.
Instruments:
------------
Only available in Chapter 6. Acquired from the Corsair Island.
Trading:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though the main use of the Trading Menu is to check the amount of goods you
have, you can also use it to buy and sell goods. Selling is a complete waste,
you barely receive any coins at all and you'll usually need those goods before
long anyway, but buying goods can be useful when you have a Shortage, to stop
the bleeding while you step up production.
However, only a few types of goods are really practical to buy, the cost of
all goods higher than Herbs is prohibitively expensive. You'll probably mostly
use it to buy Wood, Food, and Milk.
There's also the concept of Scarcity. Every time you make a purchase, it will
cost more to buy that same good the next time. The price you receive per item
is constant in a single purchase, though, so it makes sense to buy a lot in one
go before the price goes up. I believe the price gradually falls back down
over time, and I think it's also the case that Scarcity takes into account
purchases made by all players.
Another important thing you can do on the Trade Menu is Restrict Access to
Building Materials, which prevents your inhabitants from upgrading their Houses
(and thus consuming your Resources). You can also use this to control the
size of your population while you try to expand your goods production. It's
a very useful setting and you'll be using it a lot, just don't forget to
unlock it when you're done (though Cornelius will remind you constantly).
Taxes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taxes are how you make your Coins, and are fundamentally tied to Goods because
the amount of Tax you can charge is related to how well you satisfy your
inhabitants' needs. The Tax bars are broken into (at most) 5 colours, the
higher up the bar you put the needle the more tax you earn, but it can have
an impact on your population growth. Obviously, you should always put the
needle at the top of a colour bar.
Dark Green:
-----------
Population rises quickly under this setting.
This is the setting you'll want to use when building up your settlement.
Light Green:
------------
Population rises slowly under this setting.
Feel free to use this setting when your settlement is mostly built to squeeze
a little more money out of your residents.
Yellow:
-------
Population remains constant under this setting.
Essentially the same as Light Green, you usually won't have both colours
available.
Orange:
-------
Population slowly declines under this setting, and will eventually revert to
the previous level.
You should never set taxes to this setting.
Red:
----
Population quickly declines under this setting, and will quickly revert to
the previous level.
You should never set taxes to this setting, though if you are missing a basic
need for this level you will have no choice.
###############################################################################
G-2
Basic Buildings:
Anvil:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: Any
Cost: Nothing
Available: Immediately
This is not a building, the Anvil is used to destroy buildings you don't want.
You will be refunded a portion of the original resource cost when you destroy
a building, even if you were not the one to build it.
You can select an area to destroy by holding down A and dragging the cursor,
then pressing A again to confirm.
Be aware that demolishing buildings hurts your Efficiency score when playing
Story Mode.
House:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 1 Wood
Upgrade: Settlers - 1 Wood
Citizens - 2 Wood, 1 Stone
Patricians - 3 Wood, 2 Stone, 1 Iron
Aristocrats - 3 Wood, 3 Stone, 2 Iron
Holds: Pioneers - 8 people
Settlers - 12 people
Citizens - 18 people
Patricians - 25 people
Aristocrats - 40 people
Available: Immediately
Upkeep: 0
The house is the most fundamental building in the game. Houses contain your
settlers, who pay your taxes, and thus form the backbone of your economy.
You will build far more houses than any other structure.
In order to function, houses must be connected by road to a marketplace, and
must be within its influence area, but beyond this the distance from the
marketplace is irrelevant.
Houses can be upgraded, by meeting the demands of your settlers, and this forms
the main economic progression of the game. These demands come in two forms,
Resource Demands and Influence Building Demands. The Story Mode should
adequately brief you on these, but see the Strategy section if you need to
know more.
Each time they upgrade, houses hold more people who pay higher taxes. However,
there is a cost that must be paid for the houses to be upgraded. This will
be automatically deducted from your coffers if it is available, but you can
block these upgrades from occurring if they're consuming all your resources,
this is done in the trade menu.
Houses can be downgraded or destroyed under certain conditions. Not meeting
the needs of your settlers will eventually result in them being downgraded to
the lowest level at which their needs are met, and not defending them against
maladies may result in them being destroyed outright (you can rebuild them
by clicking on them with A and paying 1 wood). If your house is downgraded,
you'll have to pay the upgrade cost again, it is not refunded.
Road:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x1
Cost: Nothing
Available: Immediately
Upkeep: 0
Roads are necessary to connect your buildings to warehouses, which is essential
to allow them to operate. In the case of resource generators, the roads are
used by the Market Wagons that collect and supply the goods, so the proximity
to a warehouse directly determines the efficiency of the building.
In general, you'll want to try to get your work done with as few roads as
possible, although they are free they eat up precious space that you could be
using for other buildings.
Shipyard:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x3
Cost: 600 Coins, 12 Wood, 3 Stone
Upgrade: Level 2 - 300 Coins, available with Citizens
Level 3 - 300 Coins, available with Patricians
Defence: 4, 5, 6, at levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively
Available: After Settler Level on one island
Upkeep: 20 / 30 / 40 when not building, 100 / 150 / 200 when building
The Shipyard, as its name implies, builds ships. Since this game takes place
entirely upon small islands, this is very important. Without it you can never
leave your initial island.
There are two types of ships available, Exploration Ships and Battleships.
Exploration Ships colonize islands and raise treasures, Battleships attack
islands and other ships.
When building a ship, the upkeep cost of the Shipyard increases to the second
listed value. It also requires Wood, 8 for an Exploration Ship, 14 for a
Battleship. The Wood cost is paid incrementally as the ship is built, so you
can order a ship even if you don't have quite enough Wood yet. Bare in mind
that the Shipyard must have a Marketplace within ITS influence circle in order
to produce ships, which is smaller than that of the Marketplace.
An island must also have a Shipyard to move troops from its buildings to a
Battleship, and the Battleship must be relatively close to it.
This building can be upgraded. This allows it to hold more troops, but the
main advantage is that it builds ships much faster, Level 2 is twice as fast
as Level 1, Level 3 is 3 times as fast. So even though the upkeep costs are
higher, you won't be paying them for as long. It's sound investment if you're
waging war.
Barracks:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x3
Cost: 400 Coins, 10 Wood, 2 Stone, 2 Iron
Upgrade: Level 2 - 200 coins, available with Citizens
Level 3 - 200 coins, available with Patricians
Defence: 4, 5, 6 at levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively
Available: After Settler Level on one island
Upkeep: 100 / 150 / 200
The Barracks train troops, who are responsible for defending your island and
conquering enemy islands.
Make sure to move the troops from the Barracks to other defensible structures
or Battleships when it is full, since the Barracks will stop production when
it reaches capacity (but the price you pay will not decrease).
When attacking an enemy island, always conquer their Barracks first, then it
will start producing troops for you instead!
See the Strategy Section about War for more about Barracks and fighting.
Water Pump:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 100 Coins, 10 Wood, 10 Stone, 5 Ore
Available: From Tech Tree at City Level 3
Upkeep: 0
Every now and then, you'll encounter islands which have blue fertilities. This
means that the island has the potential to have that Fertility, but not until
the Water Pump is built on the corresponding Oasis.
The Water Pump must be unlocked from the Tech Tree at Level 3, and Level 3 also
contains the useful Oriental Architecture upgrade, so if you can avoid taking
any islands that require the Water Pump (at least until you can get your
second settlement to level 3) you can see some pretty substantial resource
savings. This won't always be an option, though, if you need a Water Pump
for a resource you need right now you'd be a fool not to take it.
Sometimes there will be tradeoffs between islands with sub-optimal fertility
and ones that can have full fertility but require a Water Pump. In this case,
quickly check the map to see if the specialist Anam Arell is available. If he
is, take the Water Pump island, then recruit him, he's a heck of a consolation
prize for your trouble. If not, it's more of a toss-up, but the 100% fertility
tends to pay off in the long run.
Decorative Building:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x1
Cost: Nothing
Available: Click Second Wiimote on an empty space.
Upkeep: 0
Totally pointless, as its name implies these buildings are purely decorative.
Like trees and meadow, if you attempt to build something, you will build over
them automatically.
###############################################################################
G-3
Resource Generators:
All resources generators except mines require roads to work. The closer they
are to the marketplace, the faster you'll be able to harvest their goods.
They also benefit from being built on islands with large settlements since the
roads will be better.
Lumberjack's Hut:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2 (2 square radius becomes trees)
Cost: 250 Coins
Available: Immediately
Generates: Wood
Upkeep: 4
Generates Wood. Wood is extremely important throughout the game, since
virtually every building requires it, but it's dirt cheap to buy from the
trade menu so later on when space gets tight you may wish to demolish some of
your Lumberjack's Huts to free up space. If you don't, you'll likely have way
more Wood than you'll ever need when the late game rolls around.
Quarry:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x2
Cost: 150 Coins, 5 Wood
Available: After 10 Pioneers on one island
Requires: A Mountain
Generates: Nothing, but required for Stone
Upkeep: 0
Needed for Stone. Of all the resources in the game, Stone will likely be the
one you have shortages of most often, in the mid to late game most major
structures need more Stone than anything else, and it doesn't generate as fast
as Wood. Thankfully, Stone is not too expensive to buy from the Trade Menu,
but beware of Scarcity, the price can go up in a real hurry.
Remember, any Mountain can support the Quarry, even if it has Ore Deposits.
You likely don't want to build this on a mountain that has Gold because they're
so rare, but if you have more than enough go for it.
The Quarry and the other mines don't need to connect to Roads. The workers
can run across anything, including buildings and mountains, to reach the mines.
Stonemason:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 200 Coins, 6 Wood
Available: After 10 Pioneers on one island
Requires: Nearby Quarry
Generates: Stone
Upkeep: 24
See the above comments about Stone's importance. You need one Stonemason per
Quarry, and it must be within the influence range of the Stonemason.
Basically, you'll always build both at the same time because they're useless
without each other.
Build this as early as you can manage it, you can never have too much Stone.
Ore Mine:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x2
Cost: 600 Coins, 5 Wood, 5 Stone
Available: After 20 Settlers on one island
Requires: A Mountain with Ore Deposits
Generates: Nothing, but required for Iron
Upkeep: 0
Needed for Iron. Iron is not nearly as important as Stone, so you will never
need very many of these. 2 will suffice for most of the game, maybe 4 at the
very end.
You require a Mountain with Ore Deposits to build this, but they're common.
Ore Smelter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 200 Coins, 2 Wood, 4 Stone
Available: After 20 Settlers on one island
Requires: Nearby Ore Pit
Generates: Iron
Upkeep: 24
Identical to the Stonemason, but it creates Iron.
Fisherman's Hut:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x3
Cost: 100 Coins, 4 Wood
Available: Immediately
Generates: Food
Upkeep: 9
The Fisherman's Hut is your initial Food generator. It must be built along
a shoreline, though its influence area is seemingly meaningless, putting many
huts beside each other does not reduce their efficiency.
The Fisherman's Hut does not generate a lot of food, but it can be placed along
any shoreline and it will function adequately, so if you have an island with
poor grain fertility you may be stuck with it until you get the pig farm. Its
upkeep is also very cheap, so it doesn't hurt to build them along shorelines
you don't need. You may need to demolish a few later on to make room for
Specialists, though.
Grain Farm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone
Available: After Settler Status on one island
Requires: Grain Fertility
Generates: Food
Upkeep: 20
Grain Farms are the game's main food generator. They require Grain Fertility,
but at full fertility they produce quite a lot of food.
Once you get the Pig Farm (which can be built anywhere, no fertility is
needed), you might want to demolish some of your old grain farms, particularly
if they were built on an island with less than maximum fertility, or if that
island has another, more important fertility that you want space for. However,
the Pig Farm is not flat-out superior to the Grain Farm, there are trade-offs.
The Grain Farm is cheaper to operate and is more dependable, so long as you
have the room to spare.
Pig Farm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2 (3 square radius becomes meadow)
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After Citizen Status on one island
Generates: Pork
Upkeep: 24
The Pig Farm is an alternate Food generator. Its main value is the fact that
it doesn't require any fertility and thus can be built anywhere. However,
it does cost more to operate and isn't substantially more effective than the
Grain Farm at full fertility. They're best used when you have no islands with
good Grain Fertility or if the ones you do have are out of room.
Keep in mind that the Pig Farm requires a Butcher to convert the Pork into
Food, like all Resource Converters it should be built nearby for optimal
conversion speed. Fitting 2 Pig Farms in the influence area of 1 Butcher is
tricky, but you need it for maximum Food production.
It's worth noting that a Pig Farm takes a while to produce Food, so if you're
experiencing a Food shortage, building a Pig Farm does not help much. Make
sure you build these BEFORE your food runs out if you want them to be
effective.
You can build over some of the Meadow, but the more you cover, the slower Pork
is generated.
Butcher:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 100 Coins, 6 Wood, 2 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After Citizen Status on one island
Requires: Pork
Generates: Food
Upkeep: 22
The Butcher is required to turn Pork into Food. Pork is useless by itself.
Build it near the Pig Farm for optimal conversion, though it can still work
by getting Pork from the market wagons, it is far slower.
For maximum generation, you need to fit 2 Pig Farms within the influence area
of the butcher, and it's also important to note that unlike the Stonemason,
the Butcher refuses to leave the roads to get the Pork (this is also true for
all other non-mine resource generators). It's definitely a bit of a
logistics battle to get it set up, but the food generation is quite substantial
if you do.
Dairy:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2 (3 square radius becomes meadow)
Cost: 100 Coins, 4 Wood
Available: After 60 Pioneers on one island
Generates: Milk
Upkeep: 12
The Dairy is used to generate Milk. Milk is one of those resources you tend
to build early on and forget about, but you'll need to build steadily more
Dairies as time goes on or you'll have shortages.
Thankfully, Milk is very cheap on the Trade Menu, so if you're running low
you can just buy some. You could potentially even consider demolishing some
of your Dairies and just buy your milk in the late game, when space is crucial.
You don't have to have enough space for the meadow, and you can build over it
later, but the more meadow you have, the faster your milk will be generated.
Herb Garden:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone
Available: After 100 Settlers on one island
Requires: Herb Fertility
Generates: Herbs
Upkeep: 32
Generates Herbs. Not much to say about them, the upkeep is high but you've
really got no choice in the matter, Herbs are too expensive to buy from the
Trade Menu.
Make sure to monitor your Herb supply in the late game so you don't run out,
you'll need to make more Herb Gardens as your population grows.
Hemp Plantation:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 100 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone
Available: After 200 Settlers on one island
Requires: Hemp Fertility
Generates: Hemp
Upkeep: 20
Generates Hemp, which is required for Clothes. This is the first of the more
problematic needs you'll have to satisfy, it takes rather a lot of Hemp
Plantations and their associated Weaving Mills to generate an adequate amount
of Clothes, and Buying Clothes is very expensive.
Weaving Mill:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone
Available: After 200 Settlers on one island
Requires: Hemp
Generates: Clothes
Upkeep: 24
Converts Hemp into Clothes. For optimal conversion, each Weaving Mill should
have 2 Hemp Plantations within its influence area. Don't forget that both
the Plantation and the Mill must be connected to roads.
Spice Plantation:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 300 Coins, 4 Wood, 8 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 200 Citizens on one island
Requires: Spice Fertility
Generates: Spices
Upkeep: 30
Generates Spices. Spices are not needed in huge quantities and their
generation is rather hassle-free, but finding an island with good Spice
Fertility can be difficult. You might need the Water Pump to get a good one.
Clay Pit:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 6 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 400 Citizens on one island
Requires: Clay Fertility
Generates: Clay
Upkeep: 24
Generates Clay, which is required for Pottery. It's very similar to Hemp and
Clothes, though thankfully you don't need as much of it.
Pottery:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 150 Coins, 6 Wood, 2 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 400 Citizens on one island
Requires: Clay
Generates: Pottery
Upkeep: 30
Generates Pottery using Clay. Just like the Weaving Mill, try to ensure that
you have 2 Clay Pits in the influence area of each Pottery.
Date Plantation:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 300 Coins, 4 Wood, 8 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 450 Patricians on one island
Requires: Date Fertility
Generates: Dates
Upkeep: 40
Generates Dates. Like Spices, the trick is finding an island with good
fertility. You need quite a lot of Dates, but it's not hard to build more
Date Plantations.
Gold Mine:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x2
Cost: 1000 Coins, 5 Wood, 5 Stone, 10 Iron
Available: After 800 Patricians on one island
Requires: A Mountain with Gold Deposits
Generates: Nothing, but required for Gold
Upkeep: 0
Required for Gold. Must be built on a Mountain with Gold Deposits, which are
fairly rare and tend to be on small islands. Worse yet, Gold Deposits are
almost always located on volcanoes, which are a real pain if Disasters are
turned on.
Unlike Stone and Iron, Gold is not used to create buildings, instead it is
used in the production of Garments.
Goldsmith:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 1200 Coins, 2 Wood, 10 Stone, 6 Iron
Available: After 800 Patricians on one island
Requires: Nearby Gold Mine
Generates: Gold
Upkeep: 80
Generates Gold. Identical to the Quarry.
Sheep Farm:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2 (3 square radius becomes meadow)
Cost: 200 Coins, 4 Wood, 6 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 800 Patricians on one island
Generates: Wool
Upkeep: 8
Generates Wool. Not much different from the Pig Farm, but it can be difficult
to locate these near enough to the Tailor for efficient Garment generation.
Tailor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 1000 Coins, 4 Wood, 8 Stone, 6 Iron
Available: After 800 Patricians on one island
Requires: Wool and Gold
Generates: Garments
Upkeep: 35
Generates Garments using Wool and Gold. Garments are easily the worst of all
goods, Gold is hard to come by, and ideally you have to find a way to get both
a Goldsmith and a Sheep Farm in the influence area of the Tailor, or you lose
a lot of your generation speed. Expect to devote the entire area around the
Gold Mountain to Garment production.
As if this wasn't bad enough, you need an absolute ton of Garments to satisfy
the needs of your people, and if you expand too much there may simply not be
enough Gold Mountains on the map to sate the demands of your people.
This is where the Oriental Market REALLY comes in handy.
Gardener Building
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 4x4
Cost: 100 Coins, 4 Wood, 2 Stone
Available: Story Mode Chapter 4 only
Generates: White Lily
Upkeep: 50
You need this building to generate the White Lily for Nasira in Chapter 4,
Part 2. It can only function on the White Lily Island but is otherwise not
difficult to use.
Salt Mine
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 200 Coins, 2 Wood, 4 Stone
Available: Story Mode Chapter 6 only
Generates: Salt
Upkeep: 24
You need this building to generate the Salt for Dr Wittenberg in Chapter 6,
Part 1. It takes some work to unlock the building plans but once you have
them the Salt is easy to get.
Unlike all other mines, the Salt Mine needs no Resource Processor, and must
be connected to a Road.
###############################################################################
G-4
Influence Buildings:
No influence buildings require roads to work, but they must have houses within
their influence area to provide any benefit.
Warehouse / Marketplace:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x3 / 3x4
Cost: Free / 200 Coins, 6 Wood
Upgrade: Level 2 - 200/100 Coins, available with Settlers
Level 3 - 200/100 Coins, available with Patricians
Defence: 4, 5, 6 at levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively
Available: Immediately
Influence: 20 square radius
Needed By: Everything except Marketplaces and Mines
Upkeep: 0 for Warehouse, 10 / 20 / 30 for Marketplace
The Warehouse and Marketplace are essentially the same building, except that
the Warehouse is created when you first settle an island, and the Marketplace
is built from the build menu, and they have different upgrade and upkeep costs.
You also can't demolish your Warehouses. As such, henceforth I shall refer to
both buildings collectively as Marketplaces.
With the exception of other Marketplaces, every building you create
must be within the influence area of a Marketplace, and most must be connected
to it by roads.
Marketplaces are responsible for collecting goods from Resource Buildings
(and also supplying goods to buildings that need them), which they do using
the Market Wagons. These travel by road to the goods buildings, pick them up,
then return to the Marketplace to deliver them. Since the wagons move at a
fixed rate, the distance they have to travel directly influences how fast you
get your goods. If the distance is getting to be too far, create another
Marketplace that is closer and disconnect the roads from the first one.
Wagons are not needed to deliver goods to houses, so they don't need to be
as close.
I believe upgrading your Marketplaces speeds them up to some small extent,
but the biggest speed increases come from increasing the level of your
settlement, each time you gain a new level the Roads in your settlement get
better and the wagons travel faster. There's more on this in the Strategy
Section.
It's also worth noting that one Marketplace can only collect a maximum of 8
distinct types of goods. If you want to collect more than this, you'll have
to build another Marketplace, but in practice it's rarely an issue.
Chapel:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 100 Coins, 5 Wood
Available: After 30 Pioneers on one island
Influence: 7 square radius
Needed By: Settlers
Upkeep: 3
The Chapel is the first influence building you have to deal with. It's cheap,
but it has a tiny influence area so you have to build a lot of them.
Convent School:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 350 Coins, 4 Wood, 9 Stone
Available: After 50 Settlers on one island
Influence: 10 square radius
Needed By: Citizens
Upkeep: 12
The Convent School has a larger radius than the Chapel, but not by much.
I usually build them together even though this is slightly wasteful.
Guesthouse:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x3
Cost: 550 Coins, 4 Wood, 6 Stone
Available: After 150 Settlers on one island
Influence: 10 square radius
Needed By: Citizens
Upkeep: 10
The Guesthouse has the same radius as the Convent School, so you might as well
build them beside each other.
Public Bath:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x4
Cost: 1200 Coins, 5 Wood, 19 Stone, 6 Iron
Available: After 150 Citizens on one island
Influence: 15 square radius
Needed By: Patricians
Upkeep: 25
The Public Bath is a really large building, but at least its influence area
is very big, you usually won't need more than 1 or 2 for each settlement.
Church:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x4
Cost: 1000 Coins, 7 Wood, 25 Stone, 7 Iron
Available: After 300 Citizens on one island
Influence: 20 square radius
Needed By: Patricians
Upkeep: 25
The Church has a massive influence area, you'll generally only need one.
It has another useful trait, which is that the Church also acts as a Chapel,
so you can demolish any Chapels that you may have around and free up some room.
Park:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x4
Cost: 1400 Coins, 5 Wood, 19 Stone, 6 Iron
Available: After 300 Patricians on one island
Influence: 12 square radius
Needed By: Aristocrats
Upkeep: 40
The park is big and has a small influence area. I generally build it beside
the Public Bath, making their collective width an even 6.
Theatre:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x3
Cost: 1600 Coins, 5 Wood, 19 Stone, 2 Iron
Available: After 600 Patricians on one island
Influence: 14 square radius
Needed By: Aristocrats
Upkeep: 45
Definitely the more convenient of the two Aristocrat buildings, the is smaller
and has a larger influence area than the Public Bath.
Cathedral:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 6x6
Cost: 7500 Coins, 25 Wood, 70 Stone, 25 Iron
Available: After 1200 Aristocrats on one island
Influence: 26 square radius
Needed By: None, but can charge Aristocrats higher tax
Upkeep: 100
This is the granddaddy of all buildings in the game, the mighty Cathedral
measures in at a gigantic 6x6 and has similarly insane resource costs. No one
specifically requires this building, but Aristocrats in its influence area
can be charged a higher tax rate.
The Cathedral also acts as a Church (and a Chapel), so you can get rid of your
old Church after building it to recoup some of the space. However, the extra
income provided by the Cathedral takes a long time to offset its massive
production costs, so I wouldn't build it unless you're really sitting on
money and you want to show off.
Fire Station:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 150 Coins, 5 Wood, 3 Stone
Available: After Settler Level on one island
Influence: 15 square radius
Needed By: None, but prevents Fires.
Upkeep: 15
The Fire Station defends against Fires. Fires, if left unchecked, will spread
and destroy any Houses they come in contact with, so you'll want to deal with
them as quickly as possible. As long as your Houses are within the influence
range of a Fire Station, the Fires will be put out before they can do any harm.
You can pinch a few pennies by not building the Fire Station until the first
Fire breaks out, but make sure you have a good spot for it.
Rat Catcher:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 450 Coins, 4 Wood, 9 Stone, 4 Iron
Available: After Citizen Level on one island
Influence: 15 square radius</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
Needed By: None, but prevents Rat Infestation.
Upkeep: 30
Identical to the Fire Station, except it defends against Rat Infestation.
Rat Infestation has the same effect as a Fire, only now you need a second
defence building to deal with it.
Hospital:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 600 Coins, 2 Wood, 1 Iron
Available: After Patrician Level on one island
Influence: 15 square radius
Needed By: None, but prevents the Plague.
Upkeep: 40
Once again, identical to the Fire Station. The Plague's effects are the same
as a Fire, only now you need 3 defence buildings covering every House. Good
thing they all have big influence areas.
If you can't afford the Hospital when the Plague hits, just bulldoze the
affected House and rebuild it. You will want the Hospital eventually,
though.
Oriental Teahouse:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 100 Coins, 10 Wood, 8 Stone
Available: Unlock from Tech Tree at City Level 2.
Influence: 5 square radius
Needed By: None, but generates Coins
Upkeep: 4
The Oriental Teahouse generates a few Coins from nearby Houses. It's not
a terrible way to make some money early on, but it doesn't contribute to your
population, so it's best to build them in places where you would build a House,
but can't get a road there for some reason. A well placed Teahouse is worth
around +50 to +70 to your balance.
In some building patterns, this is a good choice of building to replace your
Chapels once you get the Church.
Oriental Embassy:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 2x2
Cost: 100 Coins, 15 Wood, 12 Stone, 5 Iron
Available: Unlock from Tech Tree at City Level 3.
Influence: 7 square radius
Needed By: None, but increases the taxes you receive
Upkeep: 2
The Oriental Embassy increases the amount of tax you receive from your
residents. Its effectiveness depends on the number of Public Buildings
(the buildings your people need to increase their level) you have in its
influence area. It affects all of your inhabitants.
This isn't a bad building to have, but I find the Oriental Architecture is
usually more useful in the long run. Certain build structures that could fit
every single public building in its influence area might see great benefit,
though.
Oriental Market:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x4
Cost: 100 Coins, 15 Wood, 12 Stone, 5 Iron
Available: Unlock from Tech Tree at City Level 4.
Influence: 11 square radius
Needed By: None, but lowers Goods consumption nearby
Upkeep: 2
This phenomenal building reduces the amount of goods required by all houses
in its influence area. When your cities reach a certain size, this is often
the only way to keep up with the demand, particularly when it comes to
Garments.
Unless you're in the middle of a fierce war and desperately need the Saracen
Armor, this is the clear winner of the Tier 4 Tech Tree choices.
Oriental Palace:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x3
Cost: 100 Coins, 20 Wood, 25 Stone, 20 Iron
Available: Unlock from Tech Tree at City Level 5.
Influence: 10 square radius
Needed By: None, but increases the taxes you receive
Upkeep: 40
This building functions similarly to the Oriental Embassy, but it works based
on Defence Buildings located within its influence area. Though it's a bit
easier to fit all the defence buildings in its area, it's bigger than the
Embassy and by the time you get it, you likely won't have much use for it.
It doesn't help that the other 2 Level 5 upgrades are fantastically powerful,
either can instantly tip the scales of war decisively in your favour. The only
time you'd want to go for the Palace is if you've already defeated all of your
enemies, making the other two upgrades redundant.
###############################################################################
G-5
The Tech Tree:
The Tech Tree is a set of upgrades that you can unlock as your settlements
grow in size. Every time you upgrade a settlement to the listed number of
inhabitants, you may choose one of the technologies from that level. When you
capture a new settlement, if it was used to unlock any technologies that you
don't currently have, you will gain them.
Despite the fact that the game constantly refers to this as the "Oriental Tech
Tree", there are no other playable civilizations in this game. Also, none of
the technologies are prerequisites for other technologies.
The Tree is shown below:
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Sea Trading Cultural Capital Metropolis
Port Town Center City
(200) (400) (800) (1300) (2000)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Oriental Oriental Oriental
Embassy Market Palace
Oriental
Teahouse
Trade Water Lateen Carvel Hull
Contract Pump Sails Design
Trade
Agreement
Oriental Saracen Damascus
Architecture Armor Steel
Trade Contract:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enables the use of the Tribute Menu.
There's no choice involved here, but this would be a super important upgrade.
Without the Tribute Menu you can't unlock achievements (even if you meet their
conditions), and thus you can't get new Sea Charts. Also, you wouldn't be
able to buy Treasure Maps, if you're in to Treasure Hunting.
Oriental Teahouse:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enables you to build the Oriental Teahouse.
Which to take first between the Teahouse and the Trade Agreement depends on
whether you have a more pressing need for Coins or Goods. If you need both
equally, I would go for the Trade Agreement, since I usually build the
Teahouse after I get the Church. I only build the Teahouse earlier if I'm
really desperate for money.
Trade Agreement:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makes trading prices slightly more favourable.
The main use of the Trade Agreement is it lets you buy goods cheaper. It also
lets you sell goods for a little more money, but the selling prices are still
horrible. Still, if you ever need to buy goods to cover a resource Shortage,
you'll be glad you have this.
Oriental Embassy:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allows you to build the Oriental Embassy.
Whether or not this is better than the Architecture upgrade depends on the
design of your settlement. In general, a smaller settlement does better with
this, a bigger settlement does better with the Architecture.
water Pump:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allows you to build the Water Pump.
Obviously, if you are dependant on the Water Pump for one of your resources,
this is the top priority.
Oriental Architecture:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Decreases the cost of House upgrades by 1 per required resource.
House upgrades are probably the biggest drain on your resources (particularly
the ever-elusive Stone), so this can really pay off in the long run. For best
value, though, you would ideally like to get this before the Water Pump.
Oriental Market:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allows you to build the Oriental Market.
The Oriental Market is an amazing building that reduces the amount of goods
consumed by your people. This is fantastically useful in pretty much any
situation and there's few reasons not to take this first.
Lateen Sails:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makes your ships sail faster.
This is almost useless, unless you're really into Treasure Hunting, in which
case it makes running from Corsairs a little easier.
Saracen Armor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your troops have better defence and move faster.
This is somewhat useful for War, if you're currently being attacked and you
think you may not live to see City Level 5, you can take this to give you an
edge.
Oriental Palace:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allows you to build the Oriental Palace.
This building is not very useful, and the other two upgrades make you
dramatically more powerful in War, so I would tend to pass this up unless
you're playing alone.
Carvel Hull Design:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battleships can carry 6 troops instead of 4.
Incredibly powerful, increases your offensive strength by 50% when attacking
an island.
There's obviously a tradeoff between this upgrade and the next one. This
upgrade is only useful when you're attacking another person's island, if you
find you're doing a lot more defending than attacking this is less useful.
However, if you're doing a lot of attacking get this one.
Damascus Steel:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your troops have better offence and defence.
Another incredibly powerful upgrade, gives you a huge edge in War.
Unlike the Carvel Hull, this is equally useful on offence and defence, though
it's not quite as powerful on offence as the Carvel Hull is. If fighting a
very aggressive opponent, this is probably the better choice because you'll be
defending yourself often.
This stacks with the Saracen Armor.
###############################################################################
G-6
Specialists:
This is a listing of all the specialists in the game and what they do.
Specialists are extremely helpful in Continuous mode, so you should try to
memorize their requirements or print out this page for your reference.
Anam Arell
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Increases Fertility
Requirement: Built at least 1 Water Pump
Anam's power increases your island's fertilities. This is definitely useful
for any fertilities you have which are below 100%, and I believe it also
improves any 100% fertilities to perform even better He's a very useful person
in any case.
If he's around, it may be worth taking an island that needs a Water Pump even
if one that doesn't is available.
Greta Van Willstrom
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Increases the speed of the Market Wagons
Requirement: Every Warehouse and Marketplace upgraded at least once.
Greta is probably the best specialist in the game, her power is useful for any
island with production sites, faster market wagons means faster goods
collection and consequently faster production. Greta the Great indeed.
If Greta's around, keep your settlements small and upgrade to Settlers ASAP,
you want to get her working for you as soon as you possibly can.
Francis Norringham
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Mines and Production Sites become more productive
Requirement: Built at least two Gold Mines
Francis is a lot like Greta, but not quite as good. He speeds up production at
your production sites, but if your Market Wagons can't keep up with the
increased pace, you'll see no benefit. Make sure to place him on an island
with efficient goods collection.
His requirement also means you can't have him until late in the game. I
usually put him on the island I use for Garment production, even though they
have few production sites, every little bit counts with Garments.
Master McDowell
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Ships Build Faster
Requirement: Settled 3 Islands
Useful early on, not so much later when you can upgrade your Shipyards to Level
3, as ship production is already pretty fast at that level. Still, faster
Battleships never hurts in War.
His requirements are pretty easy (particularly on a map where the islands are
small), you'll tend settle three islands by the time you reach Citizen status
or so.
Captain Richard Bangs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Troops Train Faster and Upkeep on Barracks is reduced by 50%
Requirement: Balance is at least +500
Richard Bangs is invaluable in War, possibly even surpassing Greta in overall
usefulness. He causes you troops to train faster and reduces the upkeep cost
of Barracks by half, so you can turn an island into a fortress in no time.
His requirement is fairly tough to satisfy, though. You'll need a pretty solid
economy to achieve it. But there is a trick you can use - if you've almost
got enough to recruit him, briefly stop production on a bunch of your
production sites so that your balance is momentarily good enough. Then, start
production the moment he joins you, since you don't have to keep that level.
Aziz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Troops have better Offence and Defence
Requirement: Built at least 2 Barracks
Aziz's power is awesome, but you can only use it on defence since you can only
position specialists on islands you already own. Still, it makes it much
harder to conquer your islands. Make sure to move him away from the island
if it seems like you might lose.
Aziz's requirements are quite low and you should attain them easily when you
start to build your war machine.
Dr. Wittenberg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: No Fires occur
Requirement: Have at least 100 Settlers (or higher level)
Wittenberg's power allows you to demolish 1-2 fire stations on one island and
replace them with houses. Whee.
His requirements are low, but honestly he's barely worth the time it takes to
track him down on your ship. If your island has few ports for Specialists,
you'll likely end up getting rid of him.
Smelly Joe
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Rat Infestation doesn't occur
Requirement: Have at least 200 Citizens (or higher level)
See Wittenberg. Equally useless.
Ibrahim Talik
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: The Plague doesn't occur
Requirement: Have at least 300 Patricians (or higher level)
See Wittenberg. He's a touch better just because Hospitals are pricey.
Sharim
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power: Disasters don't occur.
Requirement: Have at least 1 Metropolis
Sharim is useful, as he'll be quick to tell you. Disasters can be extremely
costly, and Sharim is the only possible defence against them (besides avoiding
islands with Volcanoes, but Earthquakes are worse and all islands are
susceptible to them). Put him on the island with the most costly buildings.
Unfortunately, his requirements are extremely high, so by the time you can get
him it may not really matter anymore.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
S-0
Strategic Advice:
Since this is a Strategy game, this segment gives an overview of some of the
strategic choices in this game. They usually involve tradeoffs, so this will
be more of an exploration of the different options rather than specific
instructions on how to play.
Some parts of this section will be familiar to people who have played a lot
of Real-Time Strategy games before, in some ways this game resembles one.
###############################################################################
S-1
Fast Expo vs Fast Tech
This is a tradeoff that exists in almost every RTS - in this game, it's the
tradeoff between making a big settlement that generates a ton of money, or a
small settlement in which you can upgrade quickly. Here's a bit of a
breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of each:
Big Settlement:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Uses more space on your island, potentially leaving little for Resource
Buildings.
- Population increases quicker at first, allowing you to quickly achieve the
first three levels of the tech tree.
- Generates more money, which you can use to expand your settlement, build
other settlements, or fund your War effort.
- More of each resource is required for your inhabitants to level up, later on
this may make levelling up difficult or even impossible on a resource-barren
map. This will eventually slow progress up the tech tree but a skilled
player should be able to make a Metropolis even without Aristocrats.
In general, big settlements are powerful in the early game but face troubles
later on. If you're playing with this kind of style, you should play
aggressively, build troops early and use your early game power to impede or
destroy your opponents.
If the game continues on for too long, you may find yourself at a tech
disadvantage, reaching Tier 5 of the tech tree takes a lot of effort, let alone
for several civilizations at once.
Small Settlement:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Uses less space on your island, so a big island will have lots of space left
to generate goods.
- Less resources are required for your inhabitants to level up, so you can
reach later civilization levels much easier. Once you reach Aristocrats,
your population will increase rapidly and making minor expansions is not
difficult, you should have little trouble reaching Metropolis status.
- At least early on, you will not have as much money. You will need less for
your Resource Generation, but your War costs are no lower than those of any
other player. This puts you at a disadvantage against players who attack
early.
In general, small settlements are weak in the early game due to limited funds,
but become a force to be reckoned with later on when they can easily attain
the incredibly powerful Tier 5 upgrades.
In the early game, your only mission is survival. You will not have as many
funds to devote to War as a player who builds a bigger settlement, but the
defender always has the advantage and you will not need to build Battleships
since you will not be the one attacking. If you can hold them off until you
reach Tier 5, you will gain such a dramatic power increase that you should be
able to strike a decisive blow to your opponent.
Which strategy is best to use not only depends on your individual playstyle but
on the map itself, if resources are plentiful and islands are big, large
settlements have the edge because this mitigates their drawbacks. The reverse
is true in situations with small islands and limited resources.
Of course, you don't have to be either super big or ultra-tiny, you can opt
for something in the middle for more balanced early to late game performance.
This may be best when most of the map is initially hidden as you don't know
what kind of resource situation you're facing.
###############################################################################
S-2
Outposts vs Settlements:
This is probably the game's most interesting tradeoff - Every time your
settlement reaches the next civilization level, the roads get better, speeding
up the market wagons and ultimately resource generation. Thus, assuming the
island has enough space for it to be viable, you have to decide between just
building a lot of Resource generators and Marketplaces on your Resource Islands
(an outpost) or creating a small settlement to speed up goods generation. On
a very tiny island, an Outpost is really the only choice.
This increased generation does not come without a price. Not in terms of
Coins, mind you, the settlement you build will actually generate some money,
the cost is in terms of additional resources that will be required to upgrade
your inhabitants to the next city level. You can mitigate this to some extent
by limiting the civilization to Settlers or Citizens (by not building the
required public buildings for them to advance beyond this), but it will still
increase the amount of basic resources like Food, Clothes, and Herbs that you
require.
In some sense, then, by building small settlements on islands that generate the
later goods (Spices, Pottery, Dates, and Garments), you can essentially "trade"
earlier resources for later ones. This can be particularly worth it for
Garments, should you happen to have a medium or large island containing Gold
deposits, since you can only build so many Gold Mines and they all have to be
in one place. You might even want to make your Gold island a main island and
work towards a Metropolis if it's big enough.
Knowing when to build a settlement and when not to is just the kind of thing
you'll get a feel for with experience. It's very dependant on the layout of
the map and the relative quantities of resources available.
###############################################################################
S-3
Harassment vs Treasure Hunting:
There's no question that this game tends to keep you very busy - juggling the
needs of all your citizens while simultaneously trying to expand your
territory and fight off other players is a lot of work. But there will still
be times when you're stuck waiting on resource generation. In order to play at
peak effectiveness, you should try to find something constructive to do while
you wait. Essentially, you have two options:
Treasure Hunting:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Definitely the more simplistic of your two choices, you can just buy a few
Treasure Maps and raise some treasures. This only requires a single
Exploration Ship and it can yield valuable resources at a price far less than
you'd pay from the Trade Window. The only real disadvantage to Treasure
Hunting is that what you receive is totally random, you may get a resource that
you already have way more than enough of.
Still, the risk is not high (as long as you control the ship, you should be
able to avoid the corsairs, regardless of how many there are) and the rewards
can be great, so it's still generally worth your time. This is also the only
viable option in Story Mode or when playing by yourself.
Also, be aware that the size of the reward is NOT proportional to the amount
you pay for the map (or at least, not by enough for the expensive maps to be
worth it), so always buy the cheap ones.
Harassing the Opponent:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harassment is a concept that should be familiar to any RTS player, essentially
the concept is that while you may have nothing better to be doing right now,
this probably doesn't also hold true for your opponent. If you make a small
attack against them, they'll have to waste their time fighting you off instead
of doing what they need to be doing, all the while whatever you're waiting for
draws nearer to completion. Done well, it can be dastardly effective.
To harass someone, load up 2 Battleships with Troops (no more, this is not a
full-scale attack), and sail them to an island that looks badly defended.
Your objective is not to gain control of the island (though it would be a nice
boon if you did), merely to distract the opponent. This will require you to
prepare the battleships in advance, but this is good practice anyway, it never
hurts to be prepared.
So how do you defend against harassment? Well, the most logical thing is to
send your troops over there (if necessary) and fend them off, but this is
exactly what your opponent wants you to do (unless you aren't busy either, in
which case the harasser was unlucky with their timing). Alternatively, you can
abandon the island, and take all of your forces and attack one of THEIR islands
that seems badly defended, this will usually result in a trade, bonus points if
you end up with an island that was better than the one you started with or
manage to retain your initial island despite taking theirs.
But the best defence is probably prevention. 2 Battleships pose little threat
to an island that has a Barracks built on it and troops stationed in all
defensible buildings, so if you build a barracks on every island you're pretty
well harass-proof. Just try not to waste too much time commanding your troops.
Incidentally, you should never harass in Story Mode, it does horrible things to
your Efficiency rating.
As usual, which method is best depends on your current situation, as well as
your opponent's. You can see the opponent's base at all times during
Continuous Mode, use this to your advantage.
###############################################################################
S-4
Building Patterns:
Now we're getting into more Simcity-like discussion. This section deals with
how to lay out your settlements. As usual, there is not a clear best option
(unlike SimCity Classic where it's generally agreed that there is), so I'll go
over a couple building patterns. But you should also definitely experiment
for yourself.
These samples don't include the defence buildings, you can usually find
a spot for them along the edges or worst case bulldoze one house for each.
This segment contains diagrams that use the following legend:
H = house
1 = Chapel
2 = Convent School
3 = Guesthouse
4 = Public Bath
5 = Church
6 = Park
7 = Theatre
8 = Cathedral
The map is at double scale, so a house is one block despite being 2x2. This
means that the roads (bars) appear to be twice as wide as they should and that
buildings which have odd numbers in their dimensions will seem to take up
either 1 square or two (two of the same number adjacent means it's the same
building, not multiples of it). Hopefully you can still get the basic idea.
The simplest building structure looks something like this:
----------------
|HH|HH|HH|HH|HH|
|HH|HH|44|HH|HH|
|HH|33|44|55|33|
|HH|21|66|55|21|
|HH|HH|77|HH|HH|
|HH|HH|77|HH|HH|
----------------
You can shuffle around the public buildings to your liking, the main concept
is just of having rows two houses wide. One advantage to this building style
is that it's easy to put Oriental Markets in place, just bulldoze a few houses
and drop one in. there's basically no way to fit in the Cathedral, but it's
not that important anyway.
Chapels can become Houses once the church is built.
This structure is a bit more efficient with space, but less flexible:
--------------------
|HH|HHH|H77H|HHH|HH|
|HH|H2H|H77H|H2H|HH|
|HH|H1H|H66H|H1H|HH|
|HH|H3H|H44H|H3H|HH|
|HH|H3H|H44H|H3H|HH|
--------------------
Essentially, they are rows 5 houses long, that contain the influence buildings.
You'll note that only 3 of the bigger influence buildings will fit inside the
area, usually the Church is the odd building out because with its huge
influence area it can fit somewhere else, and this makes building the Cathedral
easier. This building pattern really shines when you're not planning to
upgrade all the way to Aristocrats, since you can omit both the Park and
Theatre and fit the Bath and Church snugly within a the ring of houses.
Once you have the Church the Chapels can become Oriental Teahouses.
The computer tends to favour a build structure that looks more like this:
HH2133HH
----------
3|HHHHHH|H
3|H5577H|2
1|H5577H|1
2|H4466H|3
H|HHHHHH|3
----------
HH3312HH
Basically it's a giant block of public buildings with Houses around it. You
do have to build a few more Chapels, Convent Schools, and Guesthouses this way,
but once set up it's nice and compact. The biggest advantage of this kind of
setup, though, is that you can build the Oriental Embassy inside the block
(make it a 6x6 block of houses instead, so you get one extra row) and it'll
work at full capacity as long as you don't bulldoze one last Chapel. You can
expand in any direction by another row to tailor the size of your settlement,
which is convenient.
Chapels become Houses after the church is built (but keep one for the Embassy).
One stage in Story Mode even has a setup that looks like this:
------8888------
|HHHHH8888HHHHH|
|HHHHH8888HHHHH|
|-----|44|-----|
|HH13H|44|H31HH|
|HH23H|66|H32HH|
|-----|77|-----|
|HHHHH|77|HHHHH|
|HHHHH|HH|HHHHH|
----------------
The Church would go where the Cathedral is before you have the Cathedral, it's
just there to illustrate that it can be built in that location. This is
obviously a real beast of a layout that could lead to a population of truly
massive size, you could even expand the entire thing by one more horizontal row
at the bottom when you have the Church. You also have a lot of places where
you could build the Oriental Market or the Oriental Embassy, but you'd better
believe this thing is going to consume an insane amount of goods.
Chapels become Teahouses after the Church is built. You really don't need
more Houses.
As you can see, there's a ton of possibilities. This only scratches the
surface, but hopefully you can see a number of basic techniques employed in
these samples that you can use in your own designs. Above all, remember to
tailor your settlement to your current needs and to the space you have to work
with.
###############################################################################
S-5
The Art of War:
Compared to island design and maintenance, War is extremely simplistic in this
game. Unlike in most strategy games, there is almost no skill involved in
fighting battles, your success or failure in War is basically directly tied to
the strength of your economy. Stronger economies can support more Barracks,
which means more troops and ultimately more power.
As mentioned above, Barracks are the backbone of your War machine. Your
Barracks constantly train troops, which you can move to other defensible
buildings (Warehouses, Marketplaces, and Shipyards). They continue to train
troops even during a battle, so they are the targets of highest possible
importance for an invading army, and the ones the defender must protect most
carefully. If you can hold onto them, an island with a Barracks can adequately
defend itself against a small attack, one with 2 Barracks is difficult to take
even with a large armada, and an island with 3 or more Barracks is virtually
unassailable unless you have Tier 5 and they don't.
However, Barracks are very expensive to maintain. Even a Level 1 Barracks
has an upkeep of 100 when training troops, and fully upgraded they cost 200.
It would take an extremely strong economy to support multiple Barracks on every
island you own without running down your coffers in an awful hurry. You'll
have to prioritize, more Barracks to the islands you absolutely cannot do
without, and less or none to the ones you can easily replace or no longer need.
One penny-pinching tip is to avoid upgrading your Barracks if you can spare the
space for it, 2 Level 1 Barracks have the same upkeep as a level 3 Barracks,
and has a troop capacity of 8 instead of 6. However, there are even cheaper
ways to get additional troop capacity than this, the easiest is to build a
bunch of Marketplaces and a Shipyard and move your troops into them. Their
upkeep costs are much less and they can dramatically increase the amount of
troops you have to defend against an attack.
And then there's always the mighty Captain Richard Bangs. If you are lucky
enough to recruit this specialist, your enemies might as well give up on ever
conquering the island where you place him, he not only speeds up troop
generation but also cuts the upkeep cost of Barracks by half. It's almost
unfair how powerful he is, recruit him ASAP if he's available.
So you now know how to defend your islands, what about attacking? Attacking is
done using Battleships, so first you have to build some. It doesn't take long
to build them from a fully upgraded Shipyard, so you don't really need more
than 2 Level 3 Shipyards at the absolute most (1 if you have Master McDowell).
Once you have at least 4 Battleships (the maximum amount you can have is 5),
load them up with troops and head for the island that looks the worst defended.
In War, he who controls the Barracks controls the battle. If you are the
defender, this means you have to hold on to your Barracks at all costs, if you
are the attacker, it means you must take the Barracks first. If there is a
battle that concerns the Barracks, throw EVERY troop you have into it, even
if this means leaving your beachhead totally undefended, you can always make
another beachhead. If you can take the Barracks, you will start to gain troops
on that island (even while the Barracks is under attack), and this increased
capacity is usually the key to victory, but don't expect the conquest of the
Barracks to be easy, you'll usually have to face almost every troop on the
island before you can take it.
Since you can have at most 5 Battleships, the absolute limit to the amount of
troops you can bring is 30, and that requires Tier 5, without it you're stuck
with 20. This may not be enough to take massively defended islands, who may
have 40 troops or even more as well as troop generation from the Barracks, so
you'll have to try to send some of your empty Battleships back to one of your
islands that has a shipyard, restock them, and send them back into the fray.
This is time-consuming and rarely effective, and you'll find that War tends
to favour the defender when an island is well-fortified.
If you both reach Tier 5, attempting to attack main islands is a total waste
of time, they'll be so well fortified that no attack can ever topple them. But
you shouldn't usually be attacking main islands anyway, the far more effective
way to fight is to attack weaker islands that generate important resources.
If you can cut off the flow of goods, their population will eventually revert
to a lower level, their balance will take a huge hit, and they may no longer
be able to afford their Barracks on their main island. Once they either
demolish some Barracks or their troop generation stops you have your opening.
Of course, that can also happen to you. The best defence (besides Barracks)
is overproduction, if you have a lot of surplus resources you have more time
to get the island back before you lose your civilization levels. A tiny island
with few defensive structures is also not easy for your opponent to hold on to.
Alternatively, you can attack your opponent somewhere where they seem weak,
causing major problems for both sides.
This may seem overwhelming at first, but it isn't as complex as it sounds.
Ultimately, War is just a matter of economics and timing, if both are on your
side you'll be difficult to beat.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
W-0
Story Mode:
This Section covers story mode. Due to the open-ended nature of this game,
I won't be providing exact building structures to use or anything like that,
but I will provide a summary of what goals you'll face on each chapter
(this lets you prepare for them ahead of time), and some general tips on how
to get a good ranking. This section was written for Hard Mode, but the basic
objectives of each mission do not change, you just have lesser resources and
the opponents are more aggressive on Hard.
As for rankings, the ranking system in this game works as follows:
Each time you clear a chapter, you are given a ranking between 1-3 stars in 3
categories, Speed, Efficiency, and Discoveries. You are given a medal with a
number of stars equal to the average of the 3 categories (rounded down).
The colour of the medal corresponds to the difficulty level. Here's a more
detailed look at how they're calculated
Time - Straightforward, this is exactly equal to how long it took you to
beat the stage. Faster is better. Time spent while time is
stopped does not count.
Efficiency - This is the most cryptic of the rankings, it involves the amount
of buildings you build, destroy, and the goods you use. Less is
better, as is a lower score.
Discoveries - This is the sum of the map segments you unlock and the treasures
you raise. It's very easy to max this, generally if you unlock
the whole map and raise a few treasures you'll get it easily.
So to get the Gold 3-Star rank (which is the best), you must get a total of
at least 8 of the 9 stars and be playing on Hard Mode. This seems quite tough,
but thankfully Discoveries is an easy 3 stars so it's really more like 5/6.
There is no additional reward for getting a perfect score.
So what happens if you get all Gold 3-star rankings? It seems to be nothing,
I've accomplished it and I haven't found any rewards. I think it's just for
bragging rights.
I recommend you play through Story Mode once before using this part of the
guide, or at least don't read ahead. Parts of the story are actually worth
not having spoiled.
Oh, and I came up with these Chapter names. Each part of each chapter does
have a name, but they're boring.
###############################################################################
W-1
Chapter 1 - Create a New World:
Facing a drought and food shortage, King George sends his sons William and
Richard to settle some fertile islands to the south. They will need to
establish a productive colony in order to send food and goods back to the
Occident.
Objectives:
- Familiarize yourself with the controls
- Build a House
- Build a Lumberjack's Hut
- Build 3 more Houses (and wait for a little bit)
- Build a Fisherman's Hut
===Save Point===
- Sail to the second island
- Familiarize yourself with more aspects of the game
- Build the Chapel
- Build a Dairy
- Build 3 Grain Farms
- Tribute 20 Food
===Save Point===
- Build a Shipyard and Marketplace
- Build an Exploration Ship
- Settle the third island
- Tribute 40 Food
Mission Overview:
This is a tutorial mission that exists to familiarize you with the basic
controls. As such, there are many minor missions involving stuff like zooming
around the island, which you should complete as fast as possible to avoid
wasting time.
Your real mission here involves food generation. This is the only task you
need to accomplish, so put all the resources at your disposal towards it.
I know you'll want to expand your settlements, but this will just drain your
food, so you must resist those productive urges.
Tips:
- Don't build any more Houses than necessary, they just act as a drain on the
goods you collect.
- There's a spot on the first and second island where you can build another
Fisherman's Hut, do this ASAP to speed up food generation.
- Build a ton of grain farms on the third island to get finished as soon as
possible. You'll likely run quite a negative balance, but it doesn't matter.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:11
Efficiency - 165
Discoveries - 2
###############################################################################
W-2
Chapter 2 - Brother vs Brother:
So far, the mission to colonize the islands has been a success, but Prince
Edward has had little success and is becoming bitter and competitive. With
Winter approaching, the King needs warm Clothes and Herbs for medicine.
Objectives:
- Settle on the smaller island to the south
- Reach Settlers level
- Build a Quarry and Stonemason
- Sell 1 unit of Stone
- Build a couple Herb Gardens
- Build a Shipyard and Exploration Ship
- Tribute 10 Herbs
===Save Point===
- Find Greta van Willstrom
- Upgrade your Warehouse and Marketplace
- Recruit Greta and build her specialist's quarters
- Settle a new island that can produce Hemp
- Build 2 Hemp Plantations and a Weaving Mill
- Move Greta to the new island
- Build a Fire Station and repair the destroyed house
- Build an Exploration Ship and Sail to Edward's island
- Tribute 20 Clothes
===Save Point===
- Build 10 new inhabitants houses.
- Your Food supply is set to 0, buy at least 1 unit of Food.
- Convert all 10 of the new houses to Settlers
- Raise the Treasure and return it to a Warehouse
- Sail towards the new island
Mission Overview:
This mission gives you much more control over your settlement design, and
introduces you to some new goods. It will also be important to pay attention
to your balance on this Chapter, particularly on Hard mode, where it is very
easy to run out of money. Don't forget to set the tax rates as you build up
your settlement.
Tips:
- I'm sure you're raring to build a huge settlement now that you have (mostly)
free reign of your construction, but it'll still slow down your tributing.
5-10 Houses until they upgrade, then about 20-25 Houses is a good number.
- Don't bother with Grain Farms on this mission, 2 Fisherman's Huts is enough.
- You can use the trade menu to get more Wood if necessary, but watch the
Scarcity, the price will rise fast.
- Build 4 Herb Gardens before building the Shipyard. Don't block access to
the beach where you need to build it, though.
- After tributing the Herbs, destroy all Herb Gardens, they're useless for the
rest of the Chapter. You need to improve your balance.
- Obviously, you should take the island with 100% Hemp Fertility for your Hemp
production.
- Build 4 Hemp Plantation and 2 Weaving Mills. Hopefully your balance is still
at least slightly positive. You're free to demolish these after making your
tribute, too.
- It's best to try to build the 10 new houses on your first island so you don't
need another fire station, but if your island is not well laid out for
expansion you can use one of the other islands for it. You'll need to
increase your Food and Milk production to meet the needs of your expanded
population.
- Sell all of your Food before building the 10th new house, it will be set to
0 immediately afterwards anyway. You'll have to buy it back at inflated
prices, but this takes some of the sting out of it.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:21
Efficiency - 280
Discoveries - 4
###############################################################################
W-3
Chapter 3 - William of Arabia:
William stumbles upon a strange civilization to the South, and returns to
inform his father. King George is seeking new lands to settle, and William
believes that they should attempt to open trade relations with this nation.
Edward is less trusting and believes a show of military force would be safer,
but King George favours William's plan. Contact shall be established.
Objectives:
- Sail to the marked island
- Settle the marked island
- Create 10 Houses and reach Settler level
- Reach a population of 200
===Save Point===
- Build a Shipyard
- Buy all of Sallah's treasure maps and raise them
- Tribute 40 Cargo
===Save Point===
- Find Anam Arell
- Reach Citizen level and get 200 Citizens
- To do so, you'll need to unlock an achievement and get a new Sea Chart
- After reaching the required Citizen Count, find Anam Arell again.
- Tribute 40 Herbs
Mission Overview:
This Chapter introduces you to the tech tree, Road Upgrades, and Citizens.
Thankfully, you don't have to tribute quite as much this time, so your finances
should be in better shape than they were in Chapter 2.
Tips:
- Save Room for the Convent School and Guesthouse while building your
settlement. Feel free to make it a bit bigger this time, but don't go nuts.
- You may want 2 lumberjack's huts here, a lot of Wood is needed for this
mission. Also, don't forget to build a Quarry and Stonemason.
- Watch out for Corsairs when raising treasure. Try to grab treasures when
they aren't very close to you.
- In the third part, you must unlock a new Sea Chart. You have a choice of
achievements to fulfill, but the "2 towns with Sea Port Level" is far easier
than the "20 tons of Clothes" one. Take the island with full hemp fertility,
and build a small settlement in addition to your Hemp Plantations. This
will have the added benefit of upgrading your roads and speeding up the
Market Wagons on that island.
- Since you need to Tribute 40 tons of Herbs, build a ton of Herb Gardens once
you have the Herb island.
- If you build 2 more Hemp Plantations and another Weaving Mill, you should
reach the 20 tons of Clothes just before the mission ends for the final piece
of the map and your third star.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:24
Efficiency - 388
Discoveries - 9
###############################################################################
W-4
Chapter 4 - The Princess and the Flower:
With the aid of Anam's horticultural skills, the Occident's barren lands are
partially restored. However, King George is intrigued by Anam's talk of a
Water Pump that can turn deserts into fertile land. He instructs his sons to
procure this technology from the Sultan, to this end William seeks to establish
relations with the Sultan's Daughter, Nasira.
Objectives:
- Upgrade to Citizens Level
- First, build a few Herb Gardens,
- Now, you must complete an Achievement to get a chart
- Produce Clothes on the New island and upgrade your inhabitants
- Reach a population of 400
===Save Point===
- You must complete another Achievement in order to find the White Lily
- Find Dr. Wittenberg
- Tribute 50 Iron
- Settle the White Lily Island and build the Gardener Building
- Tribute 1 White Lily
===Save Point===
- Build a City of population 800 on the specified island
- Build a Rat Catcher
Mission Overview:
This Chapter merely builds on the concepts you've learned so far. Treasure
Hunting and Achievements are of greater importance here than they have been,
and for the first time you're given the chance to create a truly massive
civilization. Just don't neglect the fundamentals of resource gathering,
perhaps more than anything this chapter deals with multitasking.
Tips:
- Don't forget to set the tax rate when the mission begins. You also have
no stone production, set that up ASAP.
- Raise 5 treasures for the Achievement, it's much faster than amassing all
that Iron. However, you should still set up your Iron production now,
so you'll have plenty by the time you need it.
- Unlock the chart on the left when given the choice, it's better. However,
if you were lucky with the treasures you raised, you might already have
found enough clothes to upgrade your inhabitants.
- Once the second part begins, hopefully you should be nearing the 30 tons of
Iron for the second Achievement. You should also try to increase your
population to 600 for another Achievement. You need 2 to reach White Lily
Island.
- If you have time to kill while waiting for achievements or Iron, try to raise
some more treasure.
- Build a Sea Port (200 inhabitants) on the White Lily Island, it'll help you
get an achievement later.
- You unlock the ability to Stop Production on this mission. From now on, do
this instead of bulldozing production sites when possible, since destroying
them hurts your Efficiency rating.
- Keep an eye on the amount of goods you have as you build the third city.
You'll need to increase production of Food, Herbs and Clothes.
- Building the Pig Farm is not mandatory. I wouldn't bother with it.
- Getting the 10000 Coin achievement is almost impossible on Hard mode, at
least without butchering all of your other stats. Raise some treasures
instead to increase your Discovery Rating.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:31
Efficiency - 966
Discoveries - 19
###############################################################################
W-5
Chapter 5 - War, What is it Good For?:
William meets with the Sultan, and he agrees to hand over the designs for the
Water Pump. Unfortunately, the Sultan's Sister, Farasha, seems less than
impressed with this arrangement, her views on the subject of foreign relations
are much more in line with Edward's. Undeterred, William sets out to put the
new pump to use in restoring the Occident.
Objectives:
- Build the Water Pump
- Find a Source of Herbs and Clothes
- Irrigate the other two islands (The Grain Irrigation is unnecessary)
- Build a Clay Pit and Pottery
===Save Point===
- Sail an Exploration Ship to one of Edward's Settlements to buy it from him
- Tribute the required amount of goods to Edward
- Upgrade the inhabitants to Citizens
- Take over the Island with the Church on it
- Upgrade at least one island to Patrician level
- Achieve 1200 population
- Achieve a balance of +1000
- Obtain 15000 Coins
===Save Point===
- Build Barracks and move troops to the Warehouses
- Defend yourself against the Corsair Attack
- Build Four Battleships and fill them with troops
- Build a Hospital
- Defeat the Corsairs attacking Edward's Island
- Conquer the Corsair base
Mission Overview:
This Chapter introduces you to the Water Pump, Patricians, and War. It's also</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
much longer than the previous chapters and getting the Gold 3-Star rank here
is very difficult. You really have to know your stuff here. Part 3 is much
easier than Parts 1 and 2, thankfully.
Tips:
- Build another Grain Farm, Quarry, and Stonemason on the first island before
you leave, to make sure you have adequate resources. Park Anam Arrel here
for now, but don't forget that you can move him later. And don't forget to
set the tax rate.
- Watch out for the corsairs, they're insanely aggressive on this Chapter and
there's an extremely high chance your Exploration Ships will be sunk if you
send them out on their own. Save often.
- Don't build settlements on any of the 4 islands that need water pumps.
You'll have more than enough settlements in part 2.
- You can immediately produce another ship and recruit Master McDowell. (This
is a good time to move Anam to one of the other islands). Then get to work
on settling the other two islands. Start with the one that has Iron and set
up your Iron and Pottery production. Make sure to build at least 4 Clay Pits
and 2 Potteries, even though this seems excessive you'll need them later.
- As tempting as it may be, don't rely much on the Trade Menu. Money is
insanely tight at the beginning and you'll need to pinch every penny. You
might want to buy some wood, though, you need a lot at the beginning and you
can get 40 wood for only 250 Coins.
- Treasure Hunting is a complete waste of time until you build the Water Pump
on the Clay Island, you will only find Spices. Afterwards, you can find
Pottery, which will help you buy the island.
- The requirements for Richard's islands are as follows:
90 Food for the one on the far left
20 Pottery for the second from the left
30 Iron for the third from the left
You cannot take over the island on the far right.
- Take the island on the far left first, if you took my advice about building
the extra grain farm you should have almost enough, you can build one more
Grain farm to cover the rest if you need to. Make sure you have a little
Food left before tributing it, though.
- Next you have to get the island with the church on it. Hopefully you have
nearly enough Pottery by now. You can go Treasure Hunting if you don't.
You will have a better chance to find the resource Edward currently needs,
so make sure you last visited the Pottery Island.
- After buying 2 Islands, you should have a positive enough balance to recruit
Richard Bangs, even though you don't need him yet.
- You now need to get the Patrician level, which requires the Church, Public
Bath, Pottery, and Spices. Use the island that already had the Church to
recruit your first Patricians.
- After getting Patricians, you just have to worry about Coins. Your balance
should now exceed +1000, you just need to wait until you have 15000 Coins.
You might want to take Edward's third island, but I would not recommend it;
the increase in population will put huge strains on your resources, and the
extra infrastructure you'll have to build to support them will crush your
Efficiency rating. Just be patient.
- If you're hitting the threshold of your goods production, restrict access to
building materials to ensure that you don't start to experience shortages.
- While you're waiting, raise a bunch of treasures to ensure you get 3 stars.
Don't buy the expensive maps, though.
- After part 3 finally begins, quickly build the Barracks on the island where
you sent Richard Bangs, and fill the warehouse with troops. You can upgrade
your Barracks to make this even faster.
- The Corsair Attack can be nasty if you are unprepared on the island they
attack. Save before you fill the Warehouse on the previous island in case
it's not an island you're ready to defend.
- The rest of the mission is easy. Don't forget the help of Master McDowell.
Once constructed, your armada should have no trouble sinking the Corsairs
and you have nearly infinite Coins now.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:50
Efficiency - Unknown
Discoveries - 14
###############################################################################
W-6
Chapter 6 - Desperately Seeking Sultan:
Having built a massive army, the sons consider how to handle the current
situation. William wants to negotiate, but Edward believes they must attack.
This time, George sides with Edward, believing that the warlike Farasha will
refuse to negotiate. Luckily, Nasira suddenly appears, and claims that her
father is alive and is being held by the Corsairs. She begs the Occident to
assist in his rescue, and promises that with his help the hostilities can be
calmed. William decides to trust her words and attack the Corsairs, much to
Edward's annoyance.
Objectives:
- Sail to Sallah's Island
- Pick one of the two charts offered and Settle an island.
----If you choose the map to the north----
- Reach Settlers Level
- Build a Shipyard and an Exploration Ship
- Find Dr Wittenberg
- Complete an achievement an unlock a map
- Settle the Salt Island
- Reach City Level 3 (Population 800) to unlock Oriental Architecture
- Tribute 10 Salt
----If you choose the map to the east----
- Reach Settlers Level
- Build a Shipyard and an Exploration Ship
- Find Ibrahim Talik
- Complete an achievement and unlock a map
- Settle the two islands containing oriental buildings
- Reach Citizens and City Level 3 to unlock the Rat Catcher and Water Pump
- Build Fire Stations, Rat Catchers, and a Water Pump on the islands
- Return to Ibrahim Talik
----The paths rejoin here---
- Find Sharim
- Destroy the Corsair's Island
- Tribute the Instruments
- Find Bonnie
===Save Point===
- Reach City Level 4 (Population 1300) to unlock Lateen Sails
- Find Bonnie again
===Save Point===
- Sail to Skull Island (you do not have to attack it)
Mission Overview:
There are no new concepts here, this is just another long mission. You'll have
unprecedented control over your settlement design here, but with great power
comes great responsibility - meeting the needs of your inhabitants on these
barren and infertile islands is no easy task.
This is also the only forked mission in the game, depending on which chart you
choose during Part 1, the mission will change.
Tips:
- This mission has a fork, depending on what chart you initially choose,
you will have to complete different objectives. However, the two paths have
a lot in common. I find the north path a bit easier, because the islands
have better fertilities, but it's up to you.
- You need a lot of stone, set up stone production quickly, ideally 2-3
Quarries total. Irom production can wait, you started with quite a lot of
Iron.
- Obviously, you'll want to complete the "500 people" achievement for the
sea chart, you need Battleships and troops for the other. Hunt for Treasure
while you wait for buildings to upgrade.
- I'd recommend the Teahouse over the Trade Agreement, Money is really tight
at the beginning and it can help.
- Remember to settle the best islands available for each resource.
Unfortunately great fertilities are hard to come by at this point, you'll
just have to make do as best you can.
- It'll take some doing to reach a population of 800 given your limited
resources. Try not to build too many houses or keeping up with their
demands will be very hard. Treasure Hunting may be able to help you collect
more goods, if you need them.
- If on the north path, build 2 Salt Mines to save time. Stop production on
them when you finish Tributing the Salt. Don't destroy them, this hurts
your Efficiency Rating.
- If on the east path, don't build anything beyond what you're required to
build on the two islands, because you'll lose control of them. If you need
more space (or stone), take the unsettled island in this area.
- Don't bother getting the "Sink 2 Ships" achievement until after you defeat
the Corsair's Island and get Sharim's Tools back. 3 Battleships will make
short work of them, regardless of what Cornelius says.
- In Part 2, you must reach Patricians level and city level 4. Unfortunately,
this requires Spices and Pottery, neither of which are in abundant supply.
An island in the area you just unlocked has 75% for Clay, but your original
island will have to suffice for Spices unless you've unlocked the Water Pump
(which is pretty hard to do without killing your efficiency rating).
- Evelyn does not believe your original island is big enough for a Capital
City, but she's wrong. If you can upgrade everyone to Patricians you can
make it. Resource gathering is the main problem.
- You may want to destroy the other Corsair Island to get an Achievement.
- Greta Van Willstrom is in the lower right. You should know by now how
useful she is, but upgrading all of the warehouses you currently have is
a pretty tall order. Still, without her you may never be able to meet your
Resource Demands.
- Getting some of the other achievements is too difficult on Hard Mode, raise
Treasures instead to compensate.
- Part 3 of this Chapter is the shortest mission in the game, it takes like 2
minutes tops to sail to Skull Island.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 0:59
Efficiency - Unknown
Discoveries - 31
###############################################################################
W-7
Chapter 7 - The Great Escape
The Sultan has been found! ...Behind prison walls, an army of pirates, and a
fleet of ships. Nasira and the others remain undaunted. To war!
Don't read any further ahead than you currently are in the mission if you don't
want to spoil yourself on the ending.
Objectives:
- Fully Equip 3 Battleships
- Destroy the Corsair Base on the Volcanic Island
===Save Point===
- Reach City Level 5 (population 2000), and unlock Damascus Steel
- Reach Aristocrats level
===Save Point===
- Conquer Skull Island
Mission Overview:
This is the culmination of everything you've learned. You'll have to build
a Metropolis, achieve Aristocrat status, conduct War on many fronts, and
basically everything else the game has to offer. Good luck.
Tips:
- Building the battleships is not hard, but it is time consuming. Build an
Exploration Ship first and raise some Treasure while you wait.
- The Corsairs are extremely aggressive here. Be careful when moving any
unarmed ships.
- The battle against Volcanic Island is hard, but thankfully Nasira is
uncharacteristically helpful, when the fight begins she provides you with
2 new fully stocked battleships. I assume you get less if you have too
many ships, so make sure you have no more than 4 before attacking.
- You'll need a bigger island for your Metropolis, and this requires an
achievement. Sink 3 ships is the easiest one, you should still have a few
Battleships left over from Part 1. Save before you attack, though, on Hard
the winner of the battle is random (and they seem to win about 80% of them).
- When you finally get your Sea Chart, take the top left one, it's the only
available source of Herbs. Also, set up clothes production on your starting
island if you haven't already.
- Keep your new settlement small! Hitting Aristocrats will be basically
impossible if you build too big and you'll hurt your Efficiency rating.
You might want to look at the builds listed in the Strategy section for help.
- You'll need another achievement, probably the "conquer 2 islands" one, in
order to find Spices and Clay. Take the island directly above the Volcano
Island for this, but you'll need the Water Pump.
- The Corsairs will actually regularly attack your islands on this mission,
and on Hard Mode they will attack often. Make sure you keep moving troops
from the Barracks into other defensible buildings. One Barracks per island
should be enough (and it's all you'll be able to afford).
- You'd have to be certifiably crazy not to take the Water Pump at Level 3.
- Treasure Hunting is always a good use of any spare time you may have.
- You can tribute 15 Dates for 15 Garments, should you have a lot of excess
Dates. However, Dates are very scarce, so I wouldn't recommend it.
- Unfortunately, you cannot take the Oriental Market at level 4, you're forced
to take Saracen Armor.
- Francis Norringham is on this map, and you can use him to speed up any
type of goods generation if you can get him. However, if you can't find him
(you won't unlock the whole map) it's more than possible to do without him.
- Even if you manage to build a Metropolis without Aristocrats, you are still
forced to upgrade to Aristocrat level. Get Aristocrats first.
- After you reach Part 3, your economy no longer matters, if some part of it
collapses just keep going. This Part of the Chapter is short.
- 4 Battleships will make short work of Skull Island, as long as you attack
the Barracks first. Aren't the Damascus Swords amazingly powerful?
- The Sultan is freed. Congratulations on beating Dawn of Discovery.
- Or have you? It would seem not! This is the surprise plot twist that I've
been trying to guard you against, because it was a pretty awesome one. The
game builds up to this fight the whole game, and then when it seems like
you're never going to get it, there it is. Here are the Objectives for the
final part. The tips follow.
Objectives:
- Conquer all Islands
- Defeat the enemy's Secret Base
Tips:
- Many of your islands have been taken. But you now control Nasira's island
and Skull Island, which should be enough. Fortify every other base you
still possess.
- Nasira's base doesn't have a Hospital, build it before the plague wipes
you out during battle.
- You've lost your Herb Supply, you may want to build 3-4 Herb Gardens on
Nasira's smaller island to make sure you don't run out.
- The enemy will quickly attack, usually against Nasira's main base. Defeat
them, and you will be given some new charts. Make sure to take the one in
the top right, as it contains the secret base. Immediately send 4 full
Battleships there and conquer it. You will likely have to fight off another
attack in the process. This is not easy, but focus on the Barracks and you
will be victorious.
- Your balance probably looks terrible at this point. Hopefully you had
enough of a financial cushion to weather it. Ignore all further resource
demands, just focus on victory.
- Retaking the rest of the islands is not hard. Go for your Metropolis first,
you really need the money, and inexplicably you receive the Carvel Hull
upgrade for conquering it. With both Tier 5 upgrades, you're now
ridiculously unstoppable.
- And so it stands for all to read, in the chronicles of our time, 1404,
peace and love won the day.
- For your sake, I hope you got the 3 star ranking, this Chapter is insanely
long. It's actually not that hard here, though.
Known worst possible scores for 3 stars:
Time - 1:33
Efficiency - 2851
Discoveries - 30
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
C-0
Continuous Mode:
Continuous Mode is exactly what its name implies - a mode that goes on forever.
Unlike many strategy games that have modes of this type, this mode never ends,
you'll have to come up with your own victory conditions. Some objectives might
be:
- Create a Metropolis with Aristocrats
- Defeat all opponents / Conquer the entire map
(the game acknowledges this but the mode does not end)
- Unlock every single achievement
Or you can just play for practice.
###############################################################################
C-1
Settings:
Continuous mode is very customizable, there are 9 specific aspects of the
game that you can customize. Each has 3 settings available, or you can just
hit the random button.
In general, I would recommend most of the "harder" settings, because on the
easy settings certain aspects of the game may become redundant.
Money and Goods:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - Each player starts with 5000 Coins and 5 Wood
Level 2 - Each player starts with 10000 Coins, 20 Wood, 15 Stone, and 10 Iron
Level 3 - Each player starts with 20000 Coins, 35 Wood, 30 Stone, and 25 Iron
This setting controls you initial allotment of goods.
Obviously, a large allotment of goods to start off with makes the game much
easier. With more money, the players can expand faster and have to pay less
attention to their balance.
I would recommend Level 1 if playing by yourself, and Level 2 if playing
against the computer (several opponents play very poorly on level 1, it makes
it too easy). Level 3 is so ridiculously big that it will almost never
be necessary to generate income.
Unlocked Charts:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - Only the section each player starts in is unlocked
Level 2 - Some of the Map is unlocked to start off
Level 3 - The entire Map is unlocked by default
This setting controls how much of the map is initially visible.
The more of the map that is initially visible, the less Achievements matter,
on Level 3 Achievements are totally pointless. On Level 3, everyone initially
gets their choice of islands to settle on, and which may be preferable to
having it be decided by luck. You can also immediately tell what specialists
are available.
I would recommend Level 1 if playing by yourself, and level 2 or 3 if playing
with others.
Civilization Level:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - You have to unlock all buildings using their normal requirements
Level 2 - Some buildings are already unlocked, you must unlock the rest
Level 3 - Almost all buildings are unlocked immediately
This setting governs the building unlock requirements.
I recommend this always be set to Level 1, the buildings are normally set to
unlock about when you'll be needing them and the game works best this way.
If you set it higher, you can have strange things happening, like the Plague
breaking out in a Level 1 settlement, and it allows you to militarize too
quickly for good game balance.
Disasters:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - Disasters never happen
Level 2 - Disasters happen occasionally
Level 3 - Disasters are fairly common
This setting controls the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Since the original SimCity, whether to play with or without disasters has been
a divisive issue. It remains so here. If you play with disasters off, there
is no disadvantage to taking Volcano islands.
Set this to whatever you prefer.
Corsairs:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - There are no Corsairs on the map
Level 2 - Corsairs are present, and they will attempt to pillage treasure
Level 3 - Corsairs are present in larger numbers and are more aggressive.
They are also harder to defeat in sea battles.
This setting controls Corsairs.
If Corsairs are turned off, Treasure Hunting suddenly becomes ludicrously
profitable, because you don't even have to control your ships anymore, just
send them out, grab the treasure, and send them back. This is kind of
gamebreaking, but it can be an interesting way to compensate if all the other
settings are set to their hardest levels.
I recommend Level 2 or 3 for this setting in most cases.
Tax Level:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - You collect a normal amount of tax
Level 2 - You collect less tax.
Level 3 - You collect very little tax
This setting controls the amount of tax you earn from your inhabitants.
Setting this above Level 1 drastically reduces your income, and achieving
a positive balance will be hard, particularly if you're also engaging in War.
Level 2 is manageable but progress will be slower.
I recommend this be set at Level 1 or 2 if playing by yourself, and Level 1 if
playing with others.
World Size:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - The playing area is very small.
Level 2 - The playing area is a medium size.
Level 3 - The playing area is very large.
This setting controls the size of the map.
This is pretty straightforward, a larger map means more resources and
ultimately bigger settlements are more viable.
Set this to whatever you like, but Level 1 is definitely not enough for a 3
player game.
Island Size:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - Most islands are small
Level 2 - There are some large and small islands
Level 3 - Most islands are large.
This setting controls the average size of islands on the map.
This is also rather straightforward. It's harder to make big settlements on
small islands, on Level 1 building a Metropolis will be very difficult.
I prefer Level 2 for this, it makes a nice balance.
Fertility:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 1 - Most islands have lots of fertilities, most fertilities are 100%.
Level 2 - Each island has a couple fertilities, the Water Pump may be needed.
Level 3 - Most islands have bad fertilities or need the Water Pump.
This setting governs island fertilities.
On Level 1, most islands have abundant fertilities, whereas on Level 3, 100%
fertilities are extremely rare and tend to only come from Water Pumps.
Level 2 is a mix, closer to what you'd see in Story Mode.
I'd recommend you match this to the size of the map, in order to ensure there
are enough resources to go around.
###############################################################################
C-2
Opponents:
You can choose from 6 opponents in this mode. They all play using different
strategies. The game ranks them from 1-3 dots, which I assume is supposed to
to be a rough approximation of how hard they are to beat, but in my opinion
The Sultan and King George are the hardest opponents.
Nasira
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nice to meet you again! I hope to be a worthy sparring partner for you!"
Nasira is a total pacifist. She will defend her islands if you attack them,
but otherwise she will never build battleships. You can play against her if
you don't want to pay any attention to the military side of the game but find
playing by yourself boring.
Nasira is actually fairly good at building up her settlements, if you choose
to also play non-aggressively don't be surprised if she expands fast and takes
the better islands. However, she doesn't defend them very well, so it is not
hard to take them back from her.
Since she will never attack, you can freely leave all of your islands
undefended against her and just focus on your economic infrastructure.
Sallah
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Greetings, dear friend of the Orient! I will try my best!"
True to his Mercantile nature, Sallah is extremely fast to settle new islands
possessing useful fertilities. Like Nasira, he will never attack you, but he
defends his islands from attack quite a bit better than she does.
Compared to Nasira, Sallah is not as adept at building up his settlements,
he'll usually stick to one main island and a lot of resource islands, and will
rarely raise 2 settlements to a high level. Nevertheless, he will generally
reach Tier 5 fairly quickly and take the Damascus Steel upgrade, making it even
harder to take his settlements from him.
Expand quickly against Sallah, or he may take the islands you want even if he
doesn't really need them. Alternatively, you can just focus on taking his
islands, if you attack before he has a chance to fortify them you can save
a few Coins building production sites.
Sultan Al-Mailk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don't underestimate the strength and wisdom of the Orient."
Okay, the kid gloves are off now. Unlike the two pacifists you have previously
faced, the Sultan is an extremely aggressive opponent. Expect a major attack
(3-4 full Battleships) within the first hour of the game at the latest.
Obviously, you must build Barracks as soon as you can manage and keep a
watchful eye on the Sultan's islands in case you see him building Battleships.
Don't forget that you can purchase basic resources pretty cheap at the
beginning of the game, if you need that 2 Iron for a Barracks just buy it.
Speed is very important against the Sultan, particularly early in the game.
Be careful not to expand beyond your reach, if you stretch yourself too thin
you won't be able to defend yourself, and the Sultan is quick to conquer any
inadequately defended islands.
The Sultan's biggest weakness is that he is simply too aggressive. Since he
puts such substantial resources into Battleships and Barracks, the development
of his settlement will be slower than yours. If you can fend off the first 2-3
attacks, you'll find that he is way behind in both his economy and on the Tech
Tree, and this will quickly give you the upper hand.
Another weakness the Sultan has is that he isn't smart enough to stop attacking
and focus on defense once the tide of battle starts to shift in your favour.
Even if victory is completely impossible, he will keep sending wave after wave
of Battleships against your now hopefully well-fortified islands. Build your
own battleships, and wait for one such hopeless attack, then attack his main
island. You'll have to fight two battles at once, but as long as you can
maintain control of the Barracks on each island you should be victorious.
With his economic backbone gone, the Sultan will be crippled, and you'll have
no trouble mopping up the rest of his islands.
King George
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Let us cross our swords in a friendly competition, to find out what you have
learned."
King George is basically the opposite of the Sultan, he focuses first on
economics and second on the military. And his ability to build up his
settlements is unrivalled, he can attain Aristocrats at a rate that boggles the
mind. He's a formidable foe to be sure.
However, George is not quite as anti-confrontational as his son William, once
his economy is up to snuff he'll start regularly attacking your islands in
waves of 3-4 ships. Coupled with the fact that he attains tier 5 rather
quickly, you must be well prepared or you may find yourself overwhelmed. He
is also fond of a rather sneaky trick whereby if he conquers one of your
islands that he does not need (or is about to lose control of an island), he
will simply bulldoze every building on the island to prevent you from using
them. Ouch. Don't let him take your main island under any circumstances or
you can kiss your settlement goodbye.
The key to beating George simply lies in playing well. Though he is a skilled
builder, he is not quite as adept at War as you can be, so you should be able
to beat back most of his attacks and be successful in your own offenses as long
as you pay attention. Focus your efforts on taking down crucial parts of his
infrastructure first, this will slow down the rate at which he can build up
his military.
Farasha
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I see you want to be my next victim. So, let us begin!"
Judging by her role in the storyline, I'm sure you'd expect Farasha to be an
extremely aggressive adversary. Shockingly, she is actually very
non-combative, after Nasira and Sallah she is the least aggressive player. Her
strategy is to quickly build up her settlements and take new islands, aiming to
reach Tier 5 as quickly as possible. And she is quite adept at it, if left
alone she can grab the best islands and reach Aristocrats level at shocking
speed, then her armada of Tier 5 Battleships will rain down upon you.
However, until either she reaches Tier 5 or you attack her, Farasha will not
attack you at all, and therein lies the secret to beating her. Since you know
you'll be relatively safe for the first hour or so, focus on building up a
mighty economy, then attack some of her lesser-defended islands. One
particularly mean trick is to follow one of her exploration ships with 2
Battleships, wait for her to settle an island and build a Barracks, then
immediately attack. Take the Barracks and you'll not only get the island, but
whatever buildings she just built on it. It's a great way to disrupt her
resource gathering, and that's really all she has since she keeps her
settlements small (and thus her economy weak).
Ultimately, she really isn't that hard to beat because her playing style is so
lopsided, you can exploit her docility in the early game quite easily. I
wonder if her AI was originally meant for the Sultan, but they switched them
because they felt this one was more difficult or something.
Prince Edward Riley
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It seems you need someone to show you how this is done. This time, I will be
the one to impress our father!"
Well, unlike Farasha, Edward fights exactly like you would expect: He is very
quick to take the best islands and puts all of his resources towards War.
However, Edward has the same problem he had in Story Mode, too - His skill at
building up his settlements leaves much to be desired. No wonder he always
relied on William for his economic infrastructure.
How easy your battle against Edward will be boils down to how hard you press
this weakness. Edward's poor building skills, quick expansion, and focus on
militarization usually result in him being bogged down by upkeep costs, which
will impede his ability to wage War. Keep an eye on his islands, and if you
notice that he seems to have a lot of room for expansion that he isn't using,
he's likely low on Coins. This is a good time to attack, focus on the Barracks
first and you'll likely be victorious.
If you really want to make short work of Edward, focus on monopolizing a
crucial resource, such as Spices or Clay. This is an effective strategy
against anyone, but it works particularly well against Edward since without a
strong economic backing he really can't do anything about it. You can then
trap him at a low civilization level while you build a massive high tech-level
armada. Or you can just wipe him out right then and there. Either way, he
won't live long. This is a game of economics, after all.
If you want Edward to put up some kind of resistance, you'll want to set the
"Money and Goods" setting to at least 2, and the Tax Level to 1. At anything
less he may well be the weakest opponent in the game.
###############################################################################
C-3
Misc Tips for Continuous Mode:
No Rushing
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlike in Story Mode, whenever you settle any island, your Warehouse is
instantly filled with troops. This allows you to defend a little better
against an opponent who rushes for Battleships and tries to attack super early.
Buy Low
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems like the price of goods on the Trade Menu rises if either you or your
opponents make a purchase, so if you want to buy some Wood to help you
establish your settlement, buy it right away.
Efficiency Doesn't Matter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since you're not being ranked, you can play differently than you would in
Story Mode. Build! Bulldoze! Speed matters more than anything else here,
use every tool at your disposal to grow your settlement.
You're Special:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None of the computer opponents will ever pick of specialists, which gives you
a rather large advantage. If you really want to make it a fair fight, you
could consider skipping them entirely, but the game can be pretty hard this
way.
Pick the Best Island
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have a choice, look for a large island with useful fertilities to start
the game. Herbs and Hemp are the best fertilities to start with, though
Grain and Ore Deposits are also useful. Don't pick a tiny island if you can
help it, your initial economy will be weaker and you'll be vulnerable to an
early attack.
All for One and One for All
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When playing with several players, if one person unlocks a Sea Chart, everyone
gets access to it. As such, try to make sure you've got an Exploration Ship
ready to nab those islands before anyone else does!
Hey! That's My Island!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a bug, and not a very fun one. For the first island, if you and the
opponent go after the same one, and both give the order to take it at the same
time, if you get the island the opponent will be stuck, effectively taking
them out of the game.
You'll probably have to restart if this happens.
I'm Trapped!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another bug, this time dealing with AI. The computer chose an initial island
that only had 2 beaches, one of which went to their Warehouse. They quickly
put Fisherman's Huts on the other one, thus leaving them with no place to build
the Shipyard. They were never smart enough to realize that they'd have to
demolish those and build a shipyard, so they never left that island. I routed
them in about 15 minutes.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Z-0
Contact and Credits:
###############################################################################
Z-1
Contacting Me:
You can reach me via email at terotrous at yahoo dot com.
Include "Dawn of Discovery" in the topic title so I know it isn't spam. If you
find out anything I add to the guide, you'll be appropriately credited.
You can also post on Gamefaqs' message board for Dawn of Discovery, which you
can find at the following link:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.php?board=958390
What to contact me about:
The "You can help" section spells this out pretty clearly, but basically any
information or corrections would be appreciated.
###############################################################################
Z-2
Special Thanks:
Ubisoft, Keen Games, and Sunflower Interactive - For making this awesome game.
Gamefaqs - For placing a bounty on the creation of this guide.
Ascgen -
http://ascgendotnet.jmsoftware.co.uk/
This program helped me create that ascii logo I used here.
Reaver027 - Informed me of the second path in Story Mission 6.
TZ - Informed me that the second wiimote can heal maladies, which is quite
helpful.
That's it for now. If you submit information, your name could be here!
###############################################################################
Z-3
Closing Information:
Thanks for reading this guide. I hope you found it helpful. Gnik out.
Dawn of Discovery Guide copyright Adam King, 2010. Do not reproduce or
redistribute.
Dawn of Discovery the game, and all related copyrights and trademarks are held
by their original owners. This guide is not intended to infringe upon said
copyrights in any way.
