Guides
Written against the current ruleset, and updated when the rules change. Each one says which ruleset it was written for, because a world keeps its ruleset for life and an old world may not behave the way a new guide describes.
Getting started
Read these in order if you have never founded a kingdom.
Founding your kingdom and reading the map
Two boxes, one button, and suddenly you are a ruler. What those first clicks decided, what the ground in front of you is saying, and what to look at before you build.
Your first hundred days
Where to found, what to build, and the two numbers that decide whether your capital survives.
The economy
Nothing gets made unless somebody is standing there making it. Almost everything else follows from that. Four guides, in the order you will want them.
Staffing a city
Nobody walks into an empty building on their own. How to put your villagers to work, what the numbers on each row are telling you, and the two ways a building quietly stops producing.
Luxuries and how to secure them
Your people only shop at a crewed Market Stall, and a happy town works harder and pays more tax the same day. The seven comforts, the everyday ones that matter most, what your land will let you make — and why pottery comes before gold.
Trade — routes, contracts and the reserve
Your land will never have everything. Caravan routes between your own cities and to your neighbours, the one setting that stops a route emptying your granary, guards, and how buying and selling with another kingdom actually works.
The market — prices, ceilings, storage and spoilage
Why the price of grain in your city is not the price next door, what capping a price really costs you, how much your stores can hold — and why only the overflow ever rots.
War and the map
Since ruleset 31, standing next to an enemy is a decision.
Armies, marching and battle
Soldiers are people you took out of your own towns, and they want paying every day. What they cost, how far they walk, what happens when they meet somebody else’s, and how a city changes hands.
Raiding and defending trade routes
A caravan road is the softest thing a kingdom owns, and one army in the right place ends it in a single click. Who can do that to you, what it costs them, and the handful of soldiers that make them think again.
Armies that actually fight
How battle actually resolves: two hostile armies on the same hex fight once a day until one side is gone, the hex owner defends, and every battle you are part of arrives in your bell as a dispatch.
Diplomacy
You can only deal with kingdoms you have actually met.
Treaties and the diplomacy table
Every other ruler has an opinion of you and it moves a little every day. What you can offer, what each treaty really changes, and why the most valuable thing on the map is a neighbour who would rather swear to you than fight you.
Vassalage and the crown
One lesser kingdom sworn to you is worth more than a season of conquest. How an oath is won, what it actually gives you, and why the shortest road to a crown runs through somebody else’s throne room.
Road to victory
Most worlds have no finish line. The crown is something you hold, and something somebody else comes to take.