Frequently asked questions

Follow the taskmaster's tasks (the figure beside your village): they walk you through the first buildings and give rewards. Upgrade your fields first - they produce everything else - and queue the next jobs before you log off.

Up to five upgrades can wait in the fields queue and five in the village queue. They start one after another while you are away.

New players are shielded for their first week: nobody can attack or raid you. Attacking or raiding another player yourself ends your shield early. Use it to grow your fields, build a Hidden Cellar and train some defenders. Your profile shows how much protection is left.

Use Forgotten password on the login page. We e-mail you a link to choose a new one; it works once and for one hour.

Gold comes from the gold mines among your fields - they are the only gold production. Depending on the village's layout it has one, two or three mines. Raise them like any other field. Tasks, inviting friends and selling spare champion gear bring some too.

Every upgrade above level 10 costs a little gold on top of the resources. The building page shows the price.

Level 25, in every village. Levels 11 to 25 climb more gently than in most games of this kind, and each field's page shows what the next level produces.

Every building level and every soldier eats crop. Upgrade wheat fields, a Grain Mill and a Bakery, and do not train more troops than your crop can feed. If crop runs out, soldiers starve.

The Hidden Cellar hides part of your resources from raiders. Gold is only safe inside the Treasury.

At the Merchants' Guild you can buy resources from the merchant with gold: 1 gold for 30 resources, up to a daily limit that grows with the Guild's level.

Your troops at home always defend. Losses fall mostly on the front line: rams, catapults and expensive attackers stand further back, so a solid front protects them and there is no need to log in at night to save them. Send reinforcements to a village that is about to be hit, or ask your allies.

An attack fights to the end and is the only way to use rams, catapults and chiefs. A raid is a short fight to grab loot; both sides lose only part of their troops.

Archers bring a third kind of attack, ranged. They are strong against infantry and weak against cavalry. Defending archers also get a bonus from the wall.

Use the combat simulator at the Muster Field.

Build a Champion's Hall and train one of your researched soldiers as a champion. The soldier type sets its base strength and which weapons it can use.

Each champion uses one weapon family (sword, spear, axe, mace, bow or lance), decided by the soldier it was trained from. Other gear fits every champion.

A champion has a home village: where it was trained or last revived. To move it, send it alone (no troops) as a reinforcement to another of your villages that has a Champion's Hall. When it arrives, that village becomes its home. Sent with troops, or to a village without a Champion's Hall, it only visits as a reinforcement and still belongs to its old village.

Yes, once it lives there. An oasis always joins the village the attack came from, so move the champion first. That village needs its own Champion's Hall at level 10, 15 or 20 (for 1, 2 or 3 oases), the oasis must be within 3 squares of it, and the oasis's animals must be beaten.

A champion whose home village is lost falls and is moved to your capital, where you can revive it.

Each quest card shows the risk. Longer quests pay more and find better gear, but hurt more. A strong, well-geared champion is hurt less.

The village's active champion. A village with one champion living there uses it automatically; with two or more, choose on the Champion page. Switching takes 1 hour. Every champion can march with an army (one per army) - pick it on the Muster Field's send page.

Collect enough culture points (the side panel shows how many you need), build a Villa or Palace to level 10 and train three settlers. Send them to a free valley on the map.

Enemy chiefs lower a village's loyalty with each successful attack; at zero it changes hands. Your capital - the village with the Palace - cannot be conquered. Festivities in the Town Hall can raise loyalty.

With an Embassy at level 1 you can join an alliance, at level 3 you can found one. Allies can send each other resources and reinforcements.

Computer-run rulers that live in the world alongside you: they build, trade and run their own alliance, so the map is never empty. They only raid inactive players and empty oases.

No. Patronage saves time and gives better overviews, but battles are decided by armies, walls and champions.