The purpose of this ongoing thread is to provide new players with a basic guideline to the most frequently asked questions when playing the game for the first time. If you have a question, just ask it in here so that the community can collect and compile crucial, quick to look up information at one place. Every help is appreciated, I will add new suggestions to the first post.
1. Researching Technology & Spells
1.1 Why can't I research any technology or spells in the campaign?
1.2 How do I start/increase to research new technology and spells in the sandbox mode?
1.3 How are spellbooks working exactly and how do I research spells?
1.4 What are the goals of the different technology trees?
2. City/Resource/World Management & Improvement
2.1 How can I use resource tiles found on the world map (i.e. fertile land, lost library)?
2.2 Is there a way to find more resource tiles other than by exploring the map?
2.3 What effect has the sphere of influence and how to propagate it?
2.4 What is the difference between Influence, Diplomatic Capital, Prestige and Reputation?
2.5 Why can't I build new city improvements even though I seem to have the appropriate resources?
2.6 How can I get more free tiles / increase the level of a city?
2.7 How can I get more food to build houses and gain population?
2.8 How can I use caravans and what is their benefit (Food, Roads)?
2.9 Why is my conquered city not advancing to the second level?
2.10 How can I raze my own or conquered cities?
2.11 How can I cast city spells?
2.12 Where can I find the resource Elementium?
3. Sovereign/Champion/Unit Management & World Interaction
3.1 What is the difference between Movement (Moves) and Combat Speed (Action Points)?
3.2 How can I form and control a stack of units and single out specific units?
3.3 How can I improve my troops and design better units?
3.4 Why can't I go to tactical combat sometimes?
3.5 How can I retreat from combat?
3.6 How can I equip my sovereign/champions with items and where to get them?
3.7 Is there any way to increase the amount and regeneration rate of Essence, Health and Mana for my troops?
3.8 How can I increase the quest and notable locations level of my sovereign?
3.9 What are the benefits for each tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) and Domination (Empire) technology tree?
3.10 Why is it sometimes I cannot talk to other champions to hire them?
3.11 How can I get other champions to cast spells like my sovereign?
3.12 How do I get married and conceive offspring?
3.13 How can I trade with other factions and make treaties (Foreign Relations)?
4. Miscellaneous
- Researching is disabled in the campaign. The player will gain new technology by progressing through the campaign and completing specific goals. If the player is presented with new technology, a message will pop up accordingly.
- Elemental distinguishes between two types of research: Arcane Knowledge for spells and Tech Knowledge for technology. The main provider for Arcane knowledge are Ancient Temples, whereas Lost Libraries provide for tech knowledge. Both can be found as resource tiles on the map. There are also champions that roam the lands and provide either knowledge if hired for a certain price. In addition, arcane and tech knowledge can be increased by advancing in the respective technology trees, Civilization (Kingdom faction) or Imperium (Empire faction) for tech knowledge and Magic (Kingdom faction) or Sorcery (Empire faction) for arcane knowledge. Advancing in those trees will unlock appropriate city improvements and techs.
- The first crucial stage is as early as the sovereign creation screen. As of now, you can choose between Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Enchantment at character creation. You also have to consider the allegiance your faction belongs to as well as the race of your sovereign, because only the Kingdom factions will get the Life spellbook and only the Empire factions will get the Death spellbook. If you play the game by advancing in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and completing quests, you will obtain more spellbooks like Summoning, Restoration, Ruin, Combat, Mastery etc. You must also consider the fact that certain spells require a combination of spellbooks to become available for research. You are, for example, only able to research the Summon Fire Giant spell if you are in possession of both the Fire AND the Summoning spellbook. If you advance enough to obtain the Mastery spellbook, all other spellbooks suitable for your faction should be unlocked including the elemental ones.
- Once you acquire Arcane Knowledge, you can add the spells you want to research to the research list. You will automatically research the spells in the order you have put them in the research list. If you want to access higher level spells, you have to increase your knowledge by researching the next level in your spellbook.
(thanks to user: fivecoins)
- There are 5 different technology trees you can focus your research on, if you acquire any Tech Knowledge. Instead of picking the tech you want to research, you can only set the research goal to one of the 5 technology trees. After each breakthru you will be able to pick the actual tech you want to receive in that technology tree. The different techs are color coded which indicates the likeliness of them to appear after a breakthru. Even though both allegiances (Kingdom and Empire) in Elemental have different names and sometimes slightly different benefits in their technology trees, they basically have the same focus:
1) Civilization (Kingdom) and Imperium (Empire) focus on the betterment of your city growth, economy, production and tech research.
2) Warfare (Kingdom) and Conquest (Empire) focus on the betterment of your troops and unlock more powerful weapons, armor and items.
3) Magic (Kingdom) and Sorcery (Empire) focus on the betterment of your magical abilites and provide magical items and new spellbooks.
4) Adventure (Kingdom) and Domination (Empire) provide you with more quests and notable locations and more resource tiles in the world. In addition, the monsters that are roaming the world become stronger and spawn faster. (see question 3.9 for more details)
5) Diplomacy (Kingdom) and Cooperation (Empire) provide you with more options in dealing with other factions and allow you to train monsters units and caravans.
- Resources have to be in the sphere of influence of a city (colored borderline around the city) in order to use them. Contrary to regular city improvements like workshops/slave pits that are build in the city construction mode, the player has to click on the resource tile itself to build an improvement on it. A hammer icon will appear on the lower left side of the screen and the player will learn the price/requirements by hovering the cursor over it. After the construction is completed, the given amount of the resource will flow continually into the global pool with every turn.
- Since resource tiles are not necessarily close to your city, they might be easily and constantly destroyed by neutral and foreign factions. Apart from sending units to protect them, there is another way to make sure your resource tiles are safe: As soon as you build city improvements next to any resource tile, they are incorporated into the actual city and can't be singled out for destruction. There is an important downside to it though: The more resource tiles you incorporate into your city, the less free tiles are available for building new city improvements (see questions 2.5 and 2.6 for more details).
- In combination with looking for additional resource tiles in other parts of the world, there is another option to get a hold of valuable resources. Some techs in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree will make additional resource tiles appear close to your cities. See question 3.9 for a detailed overview over the type of resources that will appear for each tech.
!!! Beware that all of the additional resource tiles unlocked by these techs will only appear within your sphere of influence (colored borderline around your cities) and will not appear in any other part of the world. !!!
- The sphere of influence is basically all the space that is under your control because it has been civilized by your faction. Every faction has its own sphere of influence, indicated by the space within the colored borderline. Knowing about these spheres is important, because they determine the accessibility of many abilities that you might or might not have and monsters will only spawn within the sphere that is uncontested.
- The most basic means to increase Influence is by building new cities via pioneers. The Influence is growing continually from these cities every couple of turns. There are several city improvements that the player can build to increase the rate for each city. They can be researched in the Civilization (Kingdom) or the Imperium (Empire) technology tree.
- Apart from the most obvious benefit of enabling the player to use resource tiles and open space to build improvements, the sphere of influence is also the only space in which the sovereign/champions can access the item shop, use specific spells like Teleport and it's the only space where you and your troops regenerate hitpoints. Last but not least, any sovereign killed off in a foreign sphere of influence is dead forever and the entire faction is destroyed.
!!! Beware that you lose the game if your sovereign is killed in a foreign sphere of influence. If you die in neutral or domestic space, you will respawn in the first city you built with the penalty of losing one point of essence permanently. !!!
- As mentioned in question 2.3, the sphere of influence describes the land mass that belongs to your faction as opposed to neutral and foreign territory. The more Influence a city produces the quicker and larger the sphere of influence will grow.
- Diplomatic Capital comes into play when dealing with other factions. It is a resource that only effects diplomacy and can be traded for money, resources, treaties and other things when you are in negotiations. It is represented by a quill and ink icon. There are city improvements that will increase the amount of Diplomatic Capital you receive each turn, they have to be unlocked in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. In addition, you can find the resource tile Scenic View to boost the amount of Diplomatic Capital you receive each turn. A large amount of Diplomatic Capital in your stock will make other factions think better of you and make them go down with their perceived value for trades/treaties.
- Prestige, represented by a goblet icon, indicates the amount of people that stream to the city each turn. It is the rate of city growth and leads to increasing city levels if all housing conditions are met.
- Reputation is a vague concept that applies only to your sovereign and comes into play if he/she wants to propose to another champion. Sometimes the candidate is not willing to commit to a marriage because your Reputation is too low. You increase your Reputation by slaying monsters and leveling up with your sovereign.
- There might be two reasons why the player cannot build the desired improvement:
1) The city does not match the appropriate level. Every city can reach up to 5 levels and most of the better improvements require a certain city level to be build. The level of the city can be seen in the Resources tab at the lower left section of the screen. The required city level for an improvement is listed next to the name of it, represented by a black castle tower icon.
2) There are no free tiles left. Every city level provides a fixed amount of free tiles that can be used to build city improvements. The required amount of free tiles for any improvement are represented by a grey tower icon in the list for the improvement cost. The player can learn about the total amount of available free tiles for a city from the white resource indicator that is hovering over the city on the map or by clicking on the city detail screen (big circle at the lower mid section of the screen).
!!! Beware that forests, hills, beaches or any resource tile that is connected to the city will block free city tiles! In addition, the closer two cities are located to each other the less free tiles will be available to both of them. If you want to be able to raise cities to a high city level and build many improvements, you must provide for enough free space that surrounds them. !!!
See this thread for more detailed information on city tiles, city improvement and influence:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/393849
(thanks to user: sagittary)
- In order to increase the amount of free tiles for new improvements the player has two options:
1) Increasing the level of the city by building enough houses for the population to grow. The level bar at the lower left section of the screen shows the amount of people currently living in the city. The house icon in that bar is the population cap. Prestige, indicated by the goblet icon in the Resources tab, indicates the rate in which new people stream to the city. In order to raise the population cap the player has to build more huts/houses (Kingdom) or shanties (Empire), which costs food.
2) Destroying built improvements to free up used city tiles. This option appears radical and counterproductive at first glance, but can be the only method in certain situations when there is no more room or food left to build new houses. Once the city reaches the next level and gains more free tiles, the razed improvements can be built again.
- Always contemplate the fact that it is a big effort room- and food-wise to raise a city to the maximum level and to be able to build a lot of city improvements there. Sometimes it makes more sense to specialize and prioritize, not every city has to reach high levels and has to house every single improvement to be of use. For example, it's perfectly valuable to build one city that incorporates a lot of resource tiles sacrificing building space but keeping them safe in return. Or to build mostly gildar related improvements in a city that has many gold mines in its vicinity, etc. Consider building military, economic, food cities if it appears sensible and there is not much room for city improvements.
- The first and best means to gather more food is by finding and cultivating food resource tiles on the map (fertile land, wheat, pumpkin, etc.). Always remember that new resource tiles may appear if you advance the right tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree (see question 3.9 for more details). Apart from that, you can build city improvements that raise food production or research better farming and housing tech in the Civilization (Kingdom) or Imperium (Empire) technology tree. Another option is to research the Trading tech in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree that enables the player to train caravans. If the player sends a caravan to another city, it will automatically establish a trade route for food and connects the two cities with a road increasing the movement speed for every unit that walks on it.
!!! Beware that food is different from other resources in that it is not stored and that it can't be utilized at a later time. The amount of food listed at the top of your screen is an indicator of how many additional houses you can build at the moment. !!!
- You can unlock caravans by researching the Trading tech in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. Once unlocked, they can be trained like regular units with the Train Unit option in a city. After completion, you can send the caravan to any of your cities or the cities of friendly/neutral factions. After their arrivial, they will automatically establish a trade route between the city of origin and the city they travelled to, and they will create a road that will increase the movement speed of any unit that walks on it. Every turn you will see a trader wander back and forth between both cities to indicate to you that they are connected and profiting from each other. You can click on traders to see about the specific bonus on food production for both connected cities in the Vitals tab on the lower left side of the screen and to learn about the amount of turns it will take before higher level roads will appear. You can establish a two-way connection between cities to increase the bonus on food production even further.
- Be adviced that you can increase the maximum amount of caravans for each city when playing an Empire faction by researching the repeatable tech Advanced Trade Routes in the Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. Kingdoms on the other hand may research the tech Merchant Guilds in the Civilization (Kingdom) technology tree to increase the amount of gildar a city with a trade route produces each turn.
!!! Beware that the caravans/traders can be attacked and destroyed by enemies. Even though the roads will remain, you are forced to train a new caravan if you want to re-establish the trade route. !!!
- The benefit of caravans is not only the construction of a road network, but also the trading of food between the connected cities. The more trading routes you establish, the higher percentage on food production in those cities and the more food in your global resource pool to build houses, raising the population cap in your cities. The effect is more prominent if you establish routes between cities that are far away from each other and between cities that are both high on food resources.
- If you are sure that the city has enough housing to support a growing population but the city simply won't pass the threshold, you most likely captured the city of a minor faction. Minor factions don't appear in the Foreign Relations screen and it is by design that their cities don't advance to the second level, regardless of the provided housing. The benefit of these cities lies in the monster camp that is located nearby, which can be used like a resource tile to train new monster units if you have the appropriate faction alignment. Furthermore, most minor faction cities provide valuable resources like crystals.
- Hit x while a city is activated.
- The sovereign/caster musn't reside inside the city to cast a city spell, but has to stand next to it in close proximity within 3 tiles. Open the spellbook and choose the desired spell, then click on any city tile if the cursor turns green.
- Elementium is a rare resource that is needed for the construction of the best magical items. It is represented by an icon that looks like a black sketch of a shield. There is no resource tile that will provide you with a regular amount each turn. You can only find Elementium by increasing your Quest and Notable Locations level through the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree (see question 3.9 for more details) and by exploring the world. The completion of higher level quests and the exploration of better notable locations will sometimes provide you with a small amount.
- The amount of Movement (Moves), indicated by a little-green-figure-and-a-red-cross icon, determines the speed in which a unit can travel over map tiles. A Movement of 2 corresponds to a distance of 2 tiles that a unit can cross in one turn. You can see the remaining Moves of a unit in the Vitals tab at the lower left side of the screen.
!!! Beware that certain map tiles like forests and hills will cost more Moves to cross. Also be adviced that a stack of units will only be able to travel with the Movement speed of the slowest unit. You can pick the Organized talent at sovereign creation to make an entire stack move at the speed of the sovereign regardless of the other unit's Movement speed. !!!
- Combat Speed, indicated by a swinging sword icon, determines the amount of Action Points a unit has in combat. Every move and combative action will consume a certain amount of Action Points. You can see the remaining Action Points of a unit at the lower left side of the screen while in combat. There are several items to be found and researched that will provide units with more Movement and Combat Speed.
- Stacks of units are automatically formed when one unit/stack of units walks on the same tile of another unit/stack of units. The maximum stack size is 12. Each unit can be singled out by clicking on its corresponding icon on the lower right side of the screen. To separate one or several units from an entire stack, shift-click on the units you want to move away to highlight their icon and right click on the tile they should move to. Alternatively, you can click on the little arrow on the top of a unit icon to make it walk to an adjacent tile. You can activate the entire stack by clicking on the shield symbol next to the unit icons.
- The lower shield symbol with the number scribbled on it represents the round about combat strength of the activated stack of units based on the cumulative attack, defence and combat speed rating. With it you can compare your stack strength with the strength of another stack.
!!! Beware that the number is a rough appraisal and no guarantee for a victory/loss when engaging in combat !!!
- Click on the Train Unit button on the lower right side of the screen when activating a city and you will not only see the Train button to train units, but also a Design button that will open the screen to create your own units. The options in the early game are very limited and will increase when you research tech in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) tree. While the tech in those trees will provide you with more "regular" items and more elaborate actions for your troops, advancing in the Magic (Kingdom) and Sorcery (Empire) technology tree will unlock more magical items to choose from.
!!! Beware that contrary to regular items that mainly require materials and iron to supply your troops with, magical items require crystals and elementium to furnish (see question 2.12 on how to get Elementium). Also consider the fact that even though regular units will increase in their level when fighting, a regular unit can not be improved or upgraded with better items or techs that you have unlocked and that they cannot be merged together to form a bigger Quantity after they are already trained. !!!
- The training screen provides you with the option to create formations from the units that are available to train, indicated by Quantity. Better Quantity units have better statistics on damage and defence than singular units, but cost more money. In order to unlock better Quantities, you have to research the tech for it in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) technology tree. Kingdoms start by unlocking a Party (3 units) with the Logistics tech, Empires have to unlock a Group (3 units) with the Armies tech. Going from there you can follow down the technology tree to unlock even bigger Quantities (9 and 12). Be adviced once again that you cannot merge singular units into bigger Quantities once they have been trained.
- Apart from the Quantity of troops you can also increase their Quality, which translate to higher hitpoints at the expense of longer training time. Kingdoms start by unlocking Experienced with the Training tech, while Empires unlock Experts with the Warrior Castes tech. Like with the Quantity of troops, you will be able to research even better Qualities further down the tech tree.
!!! Beware that each unit you train not only costs the initial price in money and materials, but demands a regular Wage each turn as upkeep, indicated by a coin icon in the Training screen. Troops with better equipment and higher Quantity will demand higher Wages. If you should run out of gildar to pay these Wages, the most expensive troops will desert and leave from their services. !!!
- Hit Esc to open the options screen. There you will find the Tact-Combat Threshold, which determines at what stack strength combat should be resolved automatically without asking you. Set this option to 0 if you want to be asked all the time.
- You have to run into the fog tiles that are shimmering in a bluish light to escape from battle. The bluish fog tiles may not just appear at the left or right side, but also at the corners or upper and lower side of the battlefield depending on its layout.
- Open the equipment screen of your sovereign or champion (indicated by a sword & shield icon on the lower right) and click on the item you want to equip. You can transfer items between your sovereign and champions by clicking on the Trade button in the Actions tab (lower left side of the screen) or by simply dragging the item from your Vitals tab to the icon of the receiver on the lower right. Besides spending points in the sovereign creation screen to start off with items, you can find new items by completing quests or buying them in the item shop. You can open the item shop in the Actions tab whenever you are located in your sphere of influence (colored borderline around your cities). Newer and better items will be available in the item shop once you unlocked them via the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) and Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree.
- Essence is an important stat for your troops and determines the maximum amount of mana a unit has. You can increase the essence of your sovereign and champions by leveling up and spending points on their essence attribute. In addition, you can increase the essence for all of your troops by researching tech in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and building city improvements.
- The health of your troops is only restored each turn if they are within your sphere of influence. The rate is the highest if they are stationed inside your cities. You have two costly options to make sure that your troops can regenerate even in neutral or foreign territory. Both options are available at the item shop for your sovereign/champions and at the Design screen for your regular troops once you have researched the appropriate technology in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) technology tree:
1) You can buy Salted Pork that will instantly replenish 5 health. You can use it on the map screen or during a tactical battle.
2) You can buy Medical Packs once you have researched the Superior Equipment (Kingdom) or Superior Tools (Empire) tech and equip your troops with it. Medical Packs not only raise the maximum health by 5, but also increase the health regeneration rate by 1 even in neutral and foreign space.
- In contrast to health, the mana regeneration rate of your troops is generally capped at 1 regardless of where they are located at the moment. There is only one option to increase mana regeneration for the Kingdom factions by researching the Arcane Mastery tech and building the Tower of Ereog. Once completed, it will raise the mana regeneration rate by 2 globally for all of your troops. There are some fantastic creatures you can summon/train that not only regenerate faster, but even regenerate mana during combat. There is also a high chance that your children will develop the ability of mana regeneration during combat.
- You can increase your quest and notable locations level by researching tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree. There you will find several techs that increase not only your quest and notable locations level, but also provide you with additional resource tiles in the world (see question 3.9 for more details).
!!! Beware that the more your are advancing in this tree the stronger and more numerous the monsters become that roam the world. Also mind the fact that the research of all the other factions will contribute to the amount of quests, notable locations and the amount/strength of roaming monsters in the entire world !!!
The techs in both trees have a huge impact on the interactivity of your sovereign with the world and the allocation of resource tiles. You can find a detailed and constantly updated overview over the exact benefits here:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/393211
(thanks to user: Dereliction)
- The talk option is automatically deactivated if you don't have enough money to hire that champion. You can see the money he/she is requesting from you if you click on the champion and hover over the hire button on the lower left side of the screen.
- The only option to let other champions utilize magic is to imbue them with your essence or to get children with your spouse that will inherit your and your spouse's magical abilities (see question 3.12 for more details). Essence describes the amount of mana for your heroes. In order to imbue other champions, you first have to learn the spell Imbue Champion. Once learned, you can stand next to the champion and click on him/her after choosing the spell from your spellbook. You can increase the essence of you and your champions by leveling up, researching new tech in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and building appropriate city improvements.
!!! Beware that each imbuement costs 3 essence and therefore lowers your own magical abilities. !!!
- Hire a champion of the opposite sex, select him or her and click on the Actions tab (lower left side of the screen). From there click propose. You might need to raise your reputation level though if you try this early on in the game. Reputation increases when fighting monsters and enemies. After the marriage you simply have to keep playing until the children are born so you can name them. Continue to play and your children will reach maturity and appear as champions in the first city you founded. They inherit your sovereign's and spouse's magical abilities. During the entire process your sovereign and spouse don't have to "be" together or need to stay in a city to give birth to them.
!!! Beware that if your spouse is killed off in a fight, you won't be able to marry another champion. Always ponder the fact whether you are willing to risk his/her life and the future of your offspring by leading your loved one into combative situations. !!!
(thanks to user: tlvs)
- Click on an empty tile to deactivate anything you might have highlighted on the map. Now you can see all the global options you have on the lower left side of the screen. The handshaking icon represents the Foreign Relations screen. By clicking it you will get an overview over all your relations with other factions you have met so far. Click on any portrait to deal with that faction/sovereign.
- Most of the trade and treaty options must be researched before you can utilize them when talking to other sovereigns. You can research them in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree.
- You may notice the term Perceived Value appearing on either side of the screen. Put anything on the table in the middle that you want to trade/propose. For treaties, a detailed explanation of the benefit will appear for both factions. The Perceived Value on the other sovereign's side will indicate what their faction expects in return for the trade/proposal. You have to match their Perceived Value by putting enough money, resources or Diplomatic Capital from your side on the table before they agree.
- You can increase the relationship with other factions by training a larger army than your opponents, gathering a large amount of Diplomatic Capital and by marrying off your children to their children. All those options will make them go down with their Perceived Value when you are proposing trades/treaties.
I think these are more about strategy than about mechanics, so I hope they belong here:
1. It makes sense to focus on building food related improvements in that cities, but the other cities will also benefit from it, obviously on a much, much lower scale. Therefore you always have to contemplate whether you are willing to use precious building space for food related imrpovements in cities that have no food resource tile around. My suggestions: If that city has lots of free space to build stuff: yes. If that city is surrounded by many forests, hills and other resource tiles that will consume building space: no.
Edit: 2. You can increase the max amount of caravans by 1 for each city if you play an empire faction by researching advanced trade routes in the Cooperation tech tree. You can research it as often as you want.
3. Maintenance cost for buildings is indicated by a hammer and coin icon in the cost list. If there is no such an icon, there's no maintenance cost for it. You can also hover your cursor over the gildar icon at the top of the screen to learn about the amount of gildar you get/lose every turn.
I took a closer look at my food production after reading this thread and performed an experiment. Most of my cities produced -1 or -2 food because of huts, and my farm city produced +7.2, for a total of +1. I built caravans connecting two of the cities to the food one. What I didn't understand before was that trade adds a percentage to food produced in the city -- it doesn't add food directly. So the two cities producing 0 base food got no benefit from it directly but the food-rich city managed to produce 8.something as a result.
So it looks like unless you get some base food in a no-food city food-enhancing improvements make no sense and caravans don't help directly at all -- they just improve the food-rich city. Also, there's no point in sending a farmer that produces 1 food to a no-food city; he's better off in the city that already has several +% improvements.
I begin to think that researching Lost Bounty very, very early is tremendously important, so you place more cities near food. Especially since my experiment suggests food bounty can pop up underneath existing improvements.
Am I missing something?
There is a spell that allows you to enchant any city to produce 1 food. Any bonuses then apply to it. Can make a difference in the early game. Also, be aware that some buildings other than housing consume food, marketplace for instance, so only build marketplaces in cities that have a gold mine to save food.
Right -- I forgot about Nature's Bounty. However, if you have N high-food cities, the first N "nature's bounties" still go best in those cities rather than in no-food cities, don't they? So with 1 food city I could have used an Enchant slot for it, one for another city, leaving room for a familiar, arcane weaponry, and arcane armour (or, later, additional summoned creatures).
I begin to think Imbue Champion might be worth it just for the extra Enchant slots on the champions.
Edit: I wondered if an offspring might be able to do some enchanting, too -- but when I examined the one unmarried one from an older game, she didn't have those spells. Is there a way to give offspring more spells?
I seem to have lots of questions the last couple of days!
I think you are right, it seems more sensible to establish a trade route between cities that are both high on food resource tiles to increase food production. I will change the FAQ accordingly. Thanks.
Okay, I hate to mention it again - but does anyone know if there is any information on different racial traits or abilities out there? This is pretty ridiculous tbh, basic info like this should be right on the site or in the rulebook.
As a new question, why would I be unable to retreat from a fight? I've had multiple occasions where units ran to the "glowing fog" but could not leave.
1. Sometimes it's not really worthwhile to keep them, you can still trade with them or destroy the city once you have captured it. The devs need to give minor factions more unique items before they will be worth it.
2. It makes a lot of sense to leave out the costly Enchantment spellbook, because it is one of the earliest you get when advancing in the Magic/Sorcery tree. As for the elemental ones, fivecoins said that you obtain them by researching the Master spellbook, I haven't had the time to check it out myself. If it's true, then it might be sensible to stick to the one preferred elemental book and get the other ones later in the game.
3. I do it the same way. Potential casters (high int) and potential melees (high Str, Dex or Con) I stack with the sovereign, champions with "social" talents stay home.
No list about racial abilities I know of, sorry. As for the second part: it's most certainly a bug. Also happened to me before.
Oh, it is VERY worth it, and not just because of the imbue slots. You see, one thing that is not readily apparent is that once you imbue a champion, anytime he levels up he can put points into essence. Do this at the very beginning of the game, and mid-game you have several very powerful casters.
Also, these imbued champions after just one level are able to summon a familiar which enables them to detach from the main stack and become independent for the early fights(wolves/bandits/bears/spiders). After second level up they can summon rock giant, 4th level up a fire giant, etc.etc. You'll end up with several powerful(for that game stage) stacks that don't cost you a dime.
On the topic of taking enchantment spellbook: I find it worth the points because it helps with the early game a lot. For instance, i usually start the first city not adjacent to the fertile land, so that the farm does not take away 4 city slots and does not block city build queue. That however means you cannot build a hut until the city naturally expands the zone of control to enclose the fertile land, which takes a bit of time. If you however have the nature's bounty spell, you can cast it on the fresh outpost and the city will grow much faster because it can build the hut right away.
How do you use the imbue feature to give a champion essence?
Select your caster, open the mana/spells panel, choose "imbue champion", click "cast spell", select the champion to be imbued. You have to research the spell first, of course, but it's first-tier and can be the first spell you go for.
Your essence declines by 3, and his/hers increases by 3 (from zero). Dunno what happens if you try to imbue essence again on the same champion, but wouldn't be surprised if it also increases his/her essence by 3.
Sorry if this has been asked before;
Is there a way to see what bonus I selected for my city when it leveled? It's hard to remember when you start getting several.
How can I recruit Ogres? I conquered a minor faction next to an Ogre encampment. I can't figure out which tech is needed to recruit the ogres.
Thanks
Does this mean that you can only obtain the production bonus of the hired champion when he is stationed in the sovereign's city, and the production bonus is not being gained while exploring with said champion?
Ok, after reviewing earlier posts in this thread, the answer appears to be, yes, you have to park the champion with production bonus in the city. However, I've hired champions with arcane research bonus and it works while adverturing....This appears to be inconsistent and contradictory....Any Ideas?
I don't think so.
You have to be an Empire faction in order to be able to build an ogre camp and train units.
I think it depends on the sort of bonus the champions provide. Knowledge is provided globally, production/growth bonuses only in the city they are stationed in. But you are right, it is inconsistent simply because there is a serious lack of information.
Filthgrinder: All I know to do is write things down. But I've started trying to follow a set of imperfect heuristics that makes it easier for me personally.
I'm nearly certain that 1-4 are the right thing to do most of the time, but I suspect #5 is wrong -- you might be far better off selecting a random guardian if the city has only +1 tech per turn unless the game is keeping track of fractional tech research points.
Edit: dunno what to do if a city has gold AND tech AND arcana but if you're that lucky maybe it doesn't matter so much? I'd probably pick gildar: focus on one rather than scattering the bonuses around.
I know this has already been asked but I haven't seen an answer: is there any way to edit the key map?
Also, you can currently toggle quick moves on strategic map but not the tactical map... is that correct?
One question, I am confused about the use or application of the ability bonus that is selectable after a battle. Where can I find out about this?
Thanks!
Hi. Thinking of buying Elemental but have a question. When creating your character can you pick the skin color of the character? I watched the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5wya5o1An8 but couldn't confirm if you could do this in addition to changing hair color, type of face and clothes. Is changing skin color possible?
When creating the sovereign, yes, it is possble to change the skin color
Do you mean the point(s) you can distribute between stats when a champion levels up? If so:
- strength increases his attack power by 10% per point spent
- dexterity increases his defense by 10% per point spent
- constitution increases his hitpoints by one per point spent
- essence increases his total mana pool by three per point spent(available only if he already has some essence to begin with)
- intelligence makes his spells more effective(depends on spell)
- charisma lowers the cost of hiring champions(only useful for your sovereign)
Yes, altho it is not in one place. If you picked ,say, tech research bonus, then opening the city summary screen and clicking the tech production icon will give you a detailed report of how much base research is produced by what, and also all the bonuses that are applied to that base to get the total research produced by the city. The level-up bonuses are listed among the % modifiers.
Naturally, the gildar bonus would be listed in the gildar report etc.
Where are the screenshots saved?
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
