Guide · Economy and upkeep
  1. Contents
  2. Getting started
  3. Races
  4. Units
  5. Buildings
  6. Economy and upkeep
  7. Combat and sieges
  8. Magic
  9. Map and movement
  10. Guilds
  11. The round and scoring
  12. Glossary

Economy and upkeep

Four resources: food, wood and iron, which a city makes and stores, and gold, the treasury's. Everything is paid for when it is ordered — a building level, a unit, a study. Every building's levels →

Every figure here is at a world's normal pace, speed 1. A faster world scales them: at speed 2 every time halves and every rate doubles.

Where it comes from

  • A Farm, a Lumbermill and a Mine make 200 an hour at level 1, ×1.15 each level after.
  • The Keep's tax is the gold: 40 an hour at Keep 1, rising with the Keep.
  • The ground: a city makes 60 % of a resource with nothing of it around, +15 % for each matching hex among its own and its six neighbours, up to 160 % — water feeds the Farm, forest the Lumbermill, rock the Mine.
  • The race: +25 % of the one resource it makes most — the Human food, the Elf wood, the Dwarf iron, the Undead the tax's gold; the Orc takes ×1.25 in plunder instead.
  • Economy science: +5 % of all of it a level.
  • Your stores hold what your cities' Warehouses do — 14,400 of each of food, wood and iron a city at Warehouse 0, more each level; what comes in past it is lost. Gold has no cap. You start with 2,000 food, 2,000 wood, 2,000 iron, 500 gold.

How upkeep and desertion work

Each unit costs one thing an hour: the two lowest tiers eat 4 and 8 food, the three highest are paid 12, 12 and 20 gold. The Undead eat nothing: their two lowest tiers are paid in iron, the three highest in gold, every rate ×1.2.

Troops at home or in a guildmate's city cost half. An army more than 6 hexes from every one of your cities is outside your territory and costs ×1.5. Military science takes its share off all of it.

When the granary runs dry, the troops who eat go unfed; when the treasury or the iron store does, the troops paid from it go unpaid. After 12 h, 5 % of them desert each hour, the cheapest first, until they are fed or paid.

Sell food, wood or iron on the market to fill the treasury; buy food, or raise a Farm, to fill the granary; buy iron, or raise a Mine, to pay the Undead.

Military science divides the whole bill by 1.05 a level. Every unit's upkeep →

How the merchant trades

Buy and the price climbs; sell and it drops. Left alone, every price drifts back to 1 gold in about 24 hours.

The merchant takes a fee on every trade, over the price when you buy and under it when you sell: 10 %, halved by Charters (Economy 7), halved again for Humans, whose people trade most.

How research works

A level has a fixed price in what its track is made of, gold on every track — 2,000 iron, 400 wood and 400 gold for Military's first, 2× more each level after (64,000 iron at 5, 2,048,000 at 10), whatever the other tracks stand at.

One study at a time, across all three tracks, paid when it starts. It takes 1 h for a first level, 12 h for a fifth, 96 h for the top, and the level is yours when it ends. Cancel and 80 % of the price comes back; the time is lost.

Humans research the first level of every track free; every other race pays less for one track and more for another.

LevelEconomyMilitaryMagicTakes
12,000 food, 2,000 wood, 667 gold400 wood, 2,000 iron, 400 gold300 wood, 300 iron, 2,000 gold1 h
28,000 food, 8,000 wood, 2,667 gold1,600 wood, 8,000 iron, 1,600 gold1,200 wood, 1,200 iron, 8,000 gold2 h
316,000 food, 16,000 wood, 5,333 gold3,200 wood, 16,000 iron, 3,200 gold2,400 wood, 2,400 iron, 16,000 gold4 h
432,000 food, 32,000 wood, 10,667 gold6,400 wood, 32,000 iron, 6,400 gold4,800 wood, 4,800 iron, 32,000 gold8 h
564,000 food, 64,000 wood, 21,333 gold12,800 wood, 64,000 iron, 12,800 gold9,600 wood, 9,600 iron, 64,000 gold12 h
6128,000 food, 128,000 wood, 42,667 gold25,600 wood, 128,000 iron, 25,600 gold19,200 wood, 19,200 iron, 128,000 gold24 h
7256,000 food, 256,000 wood, 85,333 gold51,200 wood, 256,000 iron, 51,200 gold38,400 wood, 38,400 iron, 256,000 gold36 h
8512,000 food, 512,000 wood, 170,667 gold102,400 wood, 512,000 iron, 102,400 gold76,800 wood, 76,800 iron, 512,000 gold48 h
91,024,000 food, 1,024,000 wood, 341,333 gold204,800 wood, 1,024,000 iron, 204,800 gold153,600 wood, 153,600 iron, 1,024,000 gold72 h
102,048,000 food, 2,048,000 wood, 682,667 gold409,600 wood, 2,048,000 iron, 409,600 gold307,200 wood, 307,200 iron, 2,048,000 gold96 h

Before the race's discount. What each track gives on the way:

Economy

  • Every level: income +5 %
  • 2 A third city — a seat may hold 3 cities
  • 4 A fourth city — a seat may hold 4 cities
  • 5 Roads — woods, marsh and hills within 3 hexes of your cities are marched as open ground
  • 6 A fifth city — a seat may hold 5 cities
  • 7 Charters — the merchant's spread halved
  • 8 A sixth city — a seat may hold 6 cities
  • 9 Stewards — each Keep level holds 5 building levels
  • 10 A seventh city — a seat may hold 7 cities

Military

  • Every level: attack and defence +4 %, upkeep ÷1.05
  • 2 +2 armies — the command limit +2 from Military
  • 3 Drill — training 20 % faster
  • 4 +2 armies — the command limit +4 from Military
  • 5 Forced march — every unit +1 speed
  • 6 +2 armies — the command limit +6 from Military
  • 7 Siege engines — the wall's bonus cut by 25 % for your assaults
  • 8 +2 armies — the command limit +8 from Military
  • 9 Outriders — every army sees 1 hex further
  • 10 +2 armies — the command limit +10 from Military

Magic

  • Every level: mana and every force's magic +25 %
  • 1 Arcane Eye, Farsight
  • 2 Haste, Slow, Dispel
  • 3 Ward
  • 4 Freeze
  • 5 Breach