Universal (Kinda, Sorta) Settlement Evolution Theory (Unfinished)

Lately some have been asking me for a simpler breakdown of expansion races. When I started getting into Orcs, I noted some common themes. For better or worse, the devs tend to experiment with new ideas through new developments. We all know my feelings about combat. But with settlements, while some become an interminable slog, I can appreciate the attempt to evolve the process every time. Dwarves is long, and boring. Fairies is not boring, but very short. Orcs is very long, but while I won’t call it fun I certainly won’t call it completely boring because you do have to plan ahead a little more than with the others. Wood Elves so far I’ve encountered Culture buildings that require roads and a 10% cut to your Mana store every night around 3am WST (Whatever Standard Time). As irksome as that sounds, I just finished Orcs so I’m really not that bothered by that. So while I’m going to offer a guide on strategies for each settlement, note that they all have similar themes that you can likely apply to future settlement (I’ll project for Wood Elves as best I can).

A note: Is this long? Yes, because I’m covering 3 and 1/2 Settlements. But it’s well worth reading through to see how elements of previous Settlements apply to the current one you’re on (or will be on).

Dwarves: The Elvenar Wiki is a great resource and not utilized enough by players. For example, which researching this article I realize I should be calling them Settlements instead of Expansions, which I’ve been doing up until now for no apparent reason. But no longer! I digress: there’s information abounds on Settlement buildings so you can get an idea of how much space you need. Your Portal gets bigger as you upgrade it, so you want to leave free space for it to grow. Every Settlement requires a Portal with road access. Your Settlement Buildings have to be connected by their own set of roads as well. Dwarves presents you with two different buildings: Granite Mines and Copper Foundries. Your Research Tree and your Portal tells you what Buildings you want to dedicate your space to. Your Portal stores more Granite than Copper. Upgrades also cost considerably more Granite than Copper to unlock. Therefore, you want to gather a lot more Granite than you do Copper.

In this Settlement, Granite Mines operate like Residences. Granite gathers over time with a cap depending on its level. At Level 1, a Mine gathers 24 Granite per hour with a max of 4 hours. After 4 hours, you stop gathering Granite until you click on it. So you lose out on precious Granite while you sleep until you get to an 8 hour cap at level 3 (or 10 hours at Level 4 for those who like to sleep in on the weekend). It’s imperative to upgrade these ASAP. Unfortunately, after Level 2 you need Copper. You can increase your production by 20% by upgrading the Portal to Level 2, but after that you need copper. And to even build Copper Mines you need a bunch of Granite to go with the KP. So expect a lull, but upgrade your buildings as much as you can before proceeding. Portals store more goods, but more importantly they boost your Settlement Goods output. Eventually, you’ll get to unlock Copper Foundries. These work like your Factories, only they take small amounts of non-boosted Tier 1 goods and produce a trickle of Copper. Fortunately, you don’t need all that much copper so just keep producing it in 3 hour bakes and 9 hour ones while you sleep (there are some pesky mandatory long bake quests so bear with those). The Foundries are the exception to the Max Every Building rule because after Level 2 you spend too much Granite and Copper to justify the 4-8 Copper increase. Once you have your Factories and Portal where you want them to be, just collect and bake and work your way through the tree. Be patient and put your excess KP into Wonders. Our motto for Dwarves: You’ll Get Through It.

Fairies: Fairies is most everyone’s favorite Settlement. If you’re not a fan of the Tenement High Rise style of Dwarves, you’ll love the new buildings (even if the design style is largely Put a Flower On It). It also offers a much needed  building upgrade for 2nd Tier goods. The factory designs range from bizarre to very pretty. Be prepared as this Settlement starts the trends of certain buildings making a more abrupt and severe dimensional change than Dwarves. Consult your wiki for building sizes and plan ahead, especially with workshops. There’s a fun little Grasshopper and The Ant style quest. The resource gathering is entirely bake based and less of a grind while the basic principles from Dwarves carry over with some key differences.Here, you can see the devs getting away from the things that made the Dwarf slog…well, a slog. It’s short and sweet. Short is a good thing for you, bad for the devs. More on that later.

NOTE: At some point you will get a quest to demolish your Settlement. DO NOT DECLINE IT. If you want to continue to gather resources for roads, leave it open until you’re ready to move on. You can also keep Resources after you’ve sold your buildings and research new technologies with that quest open. Things get more costly as you move forward, and every quest reward counts. Don’t demolish it until you get the quest too, because it can get messed up.

From here on, expect the Portal to expand as it upgrades and for production buildings to be static. Note that the Day and Night Farms are much bigger than Mines/Foundries, so you won’t be building as many Farms. Looking at the Portal, you’ll note the Portal stores more Ambrosia than Night Essence. So you may think you want to build more Day Farms than Night Farms. And you can (I may have had 5-6 Day Farms to 4 Night Farms), but pay attention to what they produce. Take heart: you don’t ever need to buy diamonds to make Ambrosia. This is a new concept to the Settlement Resource: both buildings are used to make goods in separate manners. It may seem confusing at first, but all becomes clear and can be applied to Orcs as well. Start with the Fundamentals: upgrade the first unlocked building and Portal right off the bat. Unlike Dwarves, you’ll unlock Night Farms at a much quicker pace and will need that to continue with upgrades. Day Farms benefit from early maxing out because a large number of Sunflowers are needed for upgrades but are also easily produced. And for free! So get used to that NEVER HAPPENING EVER AGAIN. Sunflowers and Night Berries don’t have a purpose outside of making Roads and upgrading buildings, so that’s their purpose. Max your Portal and all buildings and you’re ready to begin. Ambrosia is made via the Fireflies produced via Night Farms, which is fairly straightforward. Night Essence is a tad more complicated: you need to produce cocoons at the Day Farm. The Night Farm has to produce Night Sheep before it can produce Night Essence. Build both at the same time so you have enough to make Night Essence. Keep a calculator handy if you want to be super efficient but it’s really not a must for this chapter. It’s not difficult at all to complete.

Orcs: Here we are. The product likely borne of some high scoring bellyacher complaining about Fairies being too short and leaving them with nothing to obsessively log onto every hour and ruining it for the rest of us. It’s easy (and fun) to knock the devs, but I understand completely that it takes time to come up with a new Settlement feature that expands on gameplay, introduces new elements and a fantasy race with a backstory etc. etc. So I’m going to cut them some slack. Because I just finished orcs, and time forgives all. Residences get a little beefier which means some restructuring, but I actually added MORE Residences with the change because Orc Residences give more Population in the higher upgrades. Which you’ll need if you want to boost 3rd tier if you’re so inclined. The Orc resource is available, which those of you trying to expand to the 10th outer ring know all about regardless of which chapter you’re on. In any case: Orcs takes Fairies and Dwarves and mashes it up into a bundle of complicated frustrations while the devs get breathing room to do whatever the hell they’re doing with combat, make contests to soothe your anger over the messed up combat system and not being able to expand your map without Orcs. And come up with Wood Elves. It’s a test of your patience, to be sure. Great news, though! You’ve already learned the key principles to success. Now we just apply them.

Leave room to expand your Portal, set your tracks. Mushroom Farms are the first Resource Building to unlock. They’re small and build/upgrade fast. You want to have as many of these as you can pack in with room for a couple Rally Points. I dedicated a lot of space to this chapter to place 17 Mushroom Farms and 4 Rally Points. It still took a lot of time, but I also started with the wrong strategy. Like with Dwarves, max out your 1st Resource Building and Portal first. Mushroom Farms are going to be producing full time and unfortunately produce the majority of what you need. Rally Points should be maxed out, but save that for last. While upgraded Rally Points bake more and with faster times,  Mushrooms are critical to speed things along.

To upgrade all of your Orc Resource Buildings, you need Hardshrooms and Debris. Like the Sunflowers and Night Berries of Fairies, these two items are only used for roads and building upgrades. The downside is that to make Debris, you need to make Psychoshrooms in order to make them at the Rally Point. Which takes several hours. Like in Fairies -but moreso-  alternate bakes of what you’re going to need. Start with Hardshrooms twice a day followed by Psychoshrooms daily. Keep doing that if you need to upgrade your Armories to produce Orcs for expansion space (try to religiously do 12 hour cooks of Orcs to build a cache) or go straight to building your first Rally point. By then you should have enough Psychoshrooms to start building Debris. Use that debris and Hardshrooms to upgrade all your Farms all the way up to 4. This will snowball the amounts of Hardshrooms and Psychoshrooms so inch your way closer to maxing out your Portal. Your Portal boosts production to the point where you can upgrade your Rally Points. Once your last Rally Point is upgrading to Level 4, stop making Hardshrooms and Debris. DO  continue to make Psychoshrooms as you’ll need them. For poop.

Yes, POOP is a resource in the Orc chapter. I remember the moment when a quest asked me to make Orc dung twice.  The Reward dialogue from the Goblin was GHARR-HARR IT’S A POO PARTY! POOOOO-POOOOO! (ed. note- I swear I am not making this up and only partly paraphrasing.) Anyhoo: while you spend your time making doo-doo at the Rally Point, you can fire up some Powershrooms. These take a day and a half to make, which make it a challenge. Make collection times as routine as possible (manage your time). Consistent times make collection easier, but don’t sweat it. The important part is to always be producing something at your Mushroom Farms to fuel your Rally Points, and vice versa. Case in point: once your Rally Points have created enough Orc Mookie, your Mushroom Farms can finally produce Shrooms of Wisdom. They take 2 days. But worry not! While those simmer at 225 degrees, you can turn your Rally points to producing Armaments. To keep things simple, I will now point out that you can always bake these if you’re in between debris or dootie stinks because they only cost a smidge of gold/supplies/orcs and are the fastest to collect on. These combined with Powershrooms equal Loot. Loot and Wisdom Shrooms are a topsy turvy mix of Ambrosia and Night Essence in terms of components required and time to produce. Keep both factories producing and you’ll do fine.

If you want to be hyper efficient, use a calculator to project needs. Requirements for production can be a little lopsided. For example and with all buildings maxed: each Mushroom Farm produces 400 Psychoshrooms. 280 of them produce 72 units of  Orc Dung. 80 units or Orc Dung are required to make 100 units of Wisdom Shrooms. Similar with Loot regarding Armaments and Powershrooms. Purely up to you, but a little basic math can keep you from wasting precious time to get through this. As with Dwarves, you’ll get through it. I did.

Wood Elves: I’ve only just started this, but I’m ready to apply! In this one, the Orc resource is Mana. Mana is accumulated through Culture buildings that unfortunately require roads. On the plus side, the Weeping Willow is a high end Culture building whose size and rating outstrips the Pond of Recreation for overall Culture. But what I’m really drooling over is the WoodElves Habitat to finally replace my Wayfarer’s Tavern as a non-Diamond non-contest Population/Culture building. Long story short: you’ll have to build roads for Culture now, but it’s a small price to pay for a much needed bonus resource. I also anticipate at some point there will be outer province rings requiring Mana and possibly Orcs as well. I suspect this because of the strange rule of your Mana stores getting a 10% deduction every evening. That means if you have 1000 Mana, when the clock strikes 3 AM WST, you lose 100. If you have 100,000 you will lose 10,000. It’s certainly to keep you from stockpiling millions of Mana, but don’t fret. I built 7 Weeping Willows where my Ponds were and I pull in 30,000 Mana a day. Losing 3 grand is a drop in the bucket. Plus Mana gets used a lot. The following is an attempt to apply the formula before, but again they evolved it a bit. The research tree is less linear, so expect a lot of jumping around before getting to the end.

Unlike earlier chapters, there’s a lot to unlock before you get to the Portal. Feel free to take detours for Expansions and building upgrades because you’ll want to re-organize your buildings to set up your Settlement buildings. Leave room for your Glade (portal) to expand. Forest Fabricators use Mana to build Mana Tears and are your first building. I can’t speak to the quantity of which buildings to use, but you’ll probably want something like 3 Forest Fabricators, one dedicated to each Grafting Site. Here’s how it works: Grafting Sites are permanent level 1 buildings representing tier 1 goods that cook raw materials to be processed by the Fabricators into goods used for Research upgrades. Upgrade your Fabricators first, because upgrading your Glade (Portal) requires these finished goods. Mana Tears are your Hardshroom type resource for upgrading the Glade, so only build enough to max out your Glade. Space constraints aside, this seems rather straightforward. Time will tell.

Next: My review of Wonders. Even the ones I don’t have yet. Because you can tell.

 

Errata and Random Musings

Early on, I decided to edit previous articles with any corrections or new information to keep it all in one section for posterity. The complete revamp of the combat system put paid to that. So at the moment, I figure I’d spend some time with some observations, hints, and a correction or two.

Combat: As of posting time, I haven’t the foggiest what is going on. Ask anybody, and opinions range from “complete debacle” to “absolute shitshow”. And they’re both right! My first impressions were that the bonus vs. other units were being re-balanced, so my advice to people in my Fellowship was to take note of this and “adjust tactics accordingly”. For example, the Cerberus has a bigger bonus vs. Magic as well as attack vs. light ranged. However, whereas before a pack of Cerberus against archers with a Magic backup was an easy victory, they get cut to ribbons. By the archers. The Sorceress unit is vastly overpowered to the point where one of them melts my entire army no matter how well complemented they are against the bulk of the enemy forces. There were times where if I saw a big mixed army I would Negotiate to avoid heavy casualties. Now I can’t win a single battle because matching armies with the supposed unit they’re vulnerable to doesn’t even work. Sure, you can train units faster but they’re so pitifully weak across the board you’re just flushing all your Supplies down the drain.

Until this is definitively fixed, I wouldn’t advocate wasting precious Supplies building troops. I haven’t even tested out the Mercenary camp units because it’s not worth the aggravation of losing them all in a heartbeat. They promised your existing units to be more powerful and they clearly aren’t. They added the Cerberus to both factions by creating another building to make space for, and for some inexplicable reason aren’t applying Training Speed upgrades to it while also making it take up slots in your Barracks. Explain to me again why I need to build two separate buildings that fill up the Barracks training queue? Yeah, don’t spend a day and a half training up a complement of Cerberus to lose them within 3 minutes. It baffles me that they planned this dramatic change to combat, launched it piecemeal at a time (imagine starting a game of chess where all you have is pawns with the promise that other pieces will be available later in the game) and generally seems like it never occurred to them to test out the new system before implementing it so, you know. IT WORKS. That’s all I can say on that subject for now.

Orcs: I am currently on the “Let’s Take Some Time To Work On Wonders” phase while I tirelessly upgrade my Mushroom Farms. Turns out I had it backwards: your Mushroom Farms are the ones to upgrade first. My apologies to anyone steered wrong before this correction: if it’s any consolation, I have paid for it via a longer stay in this tree. What I have done is alternate between Hardshrooms and Psychoshroom production to upgrade each farm to Level 4. Your Hardshrooms will go towards the cost to upgrade Farms while Psychoshrooms are used to create Debris.I still maintain you should concentrate on upgrading your production buildings before working on the tree again, but you’ll want to upgrade Farms first and then your Portal. The 20% per upgrade boost to your portal means more Hard/Psycho shrooms as well as more Debris output to fuel those upgrades. You may be tempted to upgrade your Rally Points for faster Debris production, but the fact remains having to pull double duty producing two types of mushrooms negates that advantage. You’re better off focusing on the Portal first for bonus mushrooms. When those are maxed out, you’ll have ave a much easier time (although still with 1-2 day waits on 3 types of Mushroom bakes) accumulating Loot and Wisdom Shrooms. Orcs cost quite a bit to raise in Supplies, all the more reason not to waste it on troops you’ll lose in a minute.

Tournaments: After every Tournament, I like to compare my Relic boost percentage before and after. With the recent Steel Tournament, I was surprised to learn it caps at 700%. I am totally okay with this, because I can imagine the game breaking potential of not capping production buffs. Plus I can still improve them with the Mountain Hall Wonder which has other nice benefits as well. At this point, I’m comfortable with getting no more than 2 or 3 stars in the first 3 provinces for some easy KP and Mystery Shards. With Combat currently broken, I’m going to be negotiating heavily so it’ll work out. My advice on Tournaments still stand: the costs are worth the benefits, especially the more often you do them.

Lord Pumpkin: I was super miffed that there was no feasible way to complete the Summer Solstice quest line. But the recent contests redeemed that one with some very manageable goals for active players. Wonky Walter was fun. Lord Pumpkin cracked me up, though. As with the Orcs section, I find it fun sometimes to “roleplay” within the world of Elvenar. Here comes a corny riddle speaking Pumpkin who starts and ends every quest with “Booooo!” And all I can think of is the dude with the Renaissance cap saying “My Liege! Look, I know Lord Pumpkin is ridiculous and your first impulse is to want to kick his ass rather than produce any amount of Beverages or whatever for him. We all feel this way. But he’s Lord Pumpkin. He only gets one week in one month where he’s relevant, and we all kind of feel sorry for him.And even now, he’s completely ridiculous. He’s not asking for crazy stuff, we can spare it. After that, he’s out of your hair for the rest of the year, so we just humor him.” Nice rewards, too!

Wood Elves: Nowhere near there, but I took a look at the tree and it’s actually quite interesting with what they’re doing. It’s like what they did with previous Expansions but in reverse: you get upgrade Culture items early and the Portal/factories come into play towards the end. That’s a win-win, so more on that when I (eventually) get to it.

Diamonds: I get that free to play games rely on microtransactions for players looking for an edge. But is it just me or do the devs not get the micro part? 20 dollars for a single expansion square? 20 dollars or more for a single Culture item? Early on, I shelled out a little bit that turned into comparatively quite a bit because it seemed worthwhile. Now I don’t see the point. Hopefully they’ll figure that out.

No idea what’s next on the blog. Suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

Orcs: A Universal Settlement Theory?

I had a long term player recently take an indefinite hiatus while trying to work up the Orc research tree. I just got into it and I totally understand. The cook times are insufferably long for everything. I’m already completely annoyed by them in the storyline. Some people find the concept of collecting orc shit to be annoying ESPECIALLY since you can’t say “shit” in chat without it censoring it. I get it: I’ve only started playing the Orc chapter and already I don’t like much about it. Aesthetically, you’re going from flowery to muddy which seems like a big step backwards. Everything costs a ton in Population and there hasn’t been a Culture building that adds Population without requiring Diamonds since the Dwarven chapter. Space continues to be an ever-dwindling premium as buildings seem to get bigger and prohibitively exorbitant to upgrade.

All that said: I will not be broken. I will get through this. We will get through this. Just like with the Dwarf chapter. In all fairness, I understand the devs are trying to add new content while also balancing the challenge. The Fairy chapter is a mercifully sweet palate cleanser after the dull slog that is Dwarves. But it’s over far too quickly, and there’s a realistic need to pace game developments so people don’t lose interest too quickly. The Orc chapter seems daunting, I won’t deny that. But looking forward, I realized that all three Settlements (and likely future Settlements) follow a very similar formula. As with all of these articles, these are just personal observations and subject to change (expect a brand new article on combat at some point after I delete the old one as inevitable obsolete). But here is what I have noticed so far:

1. Settlements are temporary, but the space for them are permanent. Every expansion chapter starts and ends the same: you sell off all the old stuff and place new ones. The space I have used has not changed in dimensions for the last 2 expansions and has served me well. It’s a sizable square at the bottom left of my city. This is where your city planning comes into play, and I find squares are best when it comes to Settlements. This is an ongoing challenge with finding space for Wonders and changing building dimensions and I may have to scale back my Settlement ground for that reason. That’s a bridge we all have to come to eventually. In the meantime, with the space you have-

2. You have two types of buildings and a ratio to match. With Dwarves, you have Granite and Copper. They’re roughly similar sizes, but I always stress somewhere around a 2:1 ratio favoring Granite because you’ll need that in more significant numbers. Fairy buildings are significantly larger, but both provide items with similar cook times so I suggest a 1:1 ratio on that one. With Orcs, you have the teeny tiny Mushroom Farm and the hugemongous Rally point. 3:1 favoring Mushroom Farms is ideal as you’re going to need a ton of mushrooms to fuel your Rally Points and they’re easier to place in tight blocks. Plot your space out in advance. Leave room for your Portal to expand and use the portal roads to sketch out where you’re putting things. Prepare in advance, because-

3. Setting up takes time. So take the time to prep. For example: after researching the Dwarven Portal and its tracks, you then have to research the Granite mine. All of that takes conventional Goods and Resources. To unlock Copper Mines, however, you’re going to need to have Granite. So you’re going to spend some time filling up your tree with KP and upgrading your Granite to make more Granite so you can make Copper to upgrade your granite to and now my eyes are crossed. By contrast, the Fairy tree breezes by. But there’s a gap between your Day Farms and Night Farms where you can easily stockpile Sunflowers. Sunflowers are free to make and are used to upgrade a number of things.  Take full advantage of them because they can go quickly. Which brings us to Orcs: while the 12 hour cook for Hardshrooms is an instant pain, you have plenty of time to work your way through the research tree (and upgrade your Armories for the Orc resource) so when you finally start building Rally Points you’re well stocked. Facility upgrades as well as the Portal require copious amounts of the “lower end” resources to upgrade. Which is why-

4. Upgrade your Portal and Factories as soon as possible and as much as possible.  I still maintain that the Copper Foundries only need to be upgraded to 2-3 max. With Fairies, you can easily max your Day Farms followed by your Night Farms and then the Portal early on and reap the benefits of advanced production to the point where you’re perfectly content to let them sit idle for hours to days on end. With Orcs, you’re not likely to have that luxury. To upgrade any of your factories, you need Debris and Hardshrooms. Hardshrooms are the basic production unit of your Farms. Debris, however, requires Psychoshrooms which at Level 1 produce 100 a day per factory. 640 Psychoshrooms make 30 Debris in 10 hours at Level 1. You need 38 Debris to upgrade 2 Mushroom Farms to Level 2. Let’s compare that to Dwarven facilities. Hardshrooms are like Granite in that that you require a lot of it. For upgrading purposes, Debris is your Copper. However, the devs flipped the script: Rally Point upgrades reduce the time Debris is built so it’s tempting to upgrade those first. But you need Psychoshrooms to make Debris which cuts into your Hardshroom production which requires Debris to upgrade so you can make more Hardshrooms. And that’s not counting Orc resource production. I know what your immediate reaction to that is: it starts with a Capital F and ends with a Big Fat That. However-

5. Take heart and stay strong. The Fairy chapter should be viewed as a much needed honeymoon chapter. It’s quick, easy to manage, and doesn’t demand a lot of you. So the Orc chapter can feel like a rude awakening by comparison. I won’t deny it, but let’s put things into perspective: you and I have spent countless hours trying to build the best city in Elvenar. Odds are you’re in my Fellowship or in one of your own. You want to get to a point where you stand back and feel proud of what you did. At the same time, sometimes you get frustrated and feel like you’re spinning your wheels. And I won’t even get into my feelings on the Elvenar freemium aspect, especially as of late. And while the storytelling aspect of the expansion races is nowhere near Tolkien grade (except in the Peter Jackson adaptation sense that it drags everything out far longer than it needs to be ohhhhhh yes I went there) I’ve liked the storytelling theme. Dwarves are kinda rude but you feel bad for them because you get the impression they lost their kind and their pride and drink their feelings when not hitting you up for pointless Copper statues. Fairies show up, Dwarves are dicks to them. Not cool, Dwarves. Then they take off (but show up in an easily beaten Quest challenge now and then which amounts to HEY JUST DROPPED FOR A FREE MEAL AND A FEW BREWSKIS) and the Fairies prove themselves to be not much better with HEY MAKE US STUFF. But then you get into court politics which is essentially a Grasshopper and The Ant parable which is kind of fun. I hope the Grasshopper character comes back in a one-off quest line like the Dwarves, conical hat in hand looking for something to get him by because his schemes didn’t work out.

Then the Orcs show up. I’m not even to the point where I’m literally collecting their own shit and I’m already sick of all of theirs. I can see how players find this storyline insulting. Elvenar is inherently a game of civility. There’s no PVP, competition is largely friendly and the game is definitively skewed through large scale cooperation. But I’ve seen more **** in reference to this chapter in Fellowship chat than anything else in our history, period. So I’m going to say what you’re all thinking before moving. The unvarnished truth needs to be said-

6. Fuck Orcs. And I’m not just saying that to validate the frustrations of countless players in this chapter. Do a bit of roleplaying and immerse yourself in the role of the leader of a fantasy city-state. You have to oversee day to day operations and form alliances with neighbors to build trade so your people prosper. Then you come into contact with dispossessed refugees (Dwarves) and exchange knowledge that mutually benefits each other. Fairies follow suit. The Orcs, however, come on as invaders right out the gates. The others come off as moochy, but Orcs lack even that basic subtlety. And while thematically it makes sense, they come off as a cartoonish older brother without the excuse of blood relations. So. WWDBD? Well, Dirtbeard is going to put up with their boorish antics because he’s looking at the long game. Orcs are nothing if not muscle, and you’re going to need muscle to expand your borders. You’ve already put up with the unique arrogance of two other mythical races. What’s one more? In the meantime, you’re surrounded by big dumb galoots who will fight anything and everything as long as you pretend to be deferential to their dumbass king. I’m still early on in the chapter so I’m holding out hope that they do a better job of portraying the Goblins as the brain behind the brawn. So far Dirtbeard is not impressed. But-

7. It’s still early. I’ll admit, I started this article pointing out the common themes between Settlements and inevitably went on a tangent with a much needed venting on the very common frustrations of Settlement mechanics. I’ve only tasted it and already I can’t help myself with dwelling on the negative. However, patience is the watchword of Elvenar. And until there is an announcement of the next expansion, I really don’t need to be in a rush. But so far, the key to victory involves taking the time to optimize your Settlement to produce what you need to get through it. You can do it. I believe in you.

 

 

Tournaments: The Glory and The Agony

(Edited 10-6-16)

Tournaments are a relatively new feature. Most people don’t like them, and it’s understandable. It’s like provinces on a miniaturized level, except they don’t go towards land expansion and at first glance the exorbitant costs don’t seem to match the reward. If that was the case, this piece would end here. But I have found that while Tournaments cost and arm and a leg, they should. Because the rewards are long lasting, and if approached prudently, can make you a Goods producing powerhouse.

Here’s how they work: Tournaments rotate through each of the Goods progressing from 1st to 3rd tier. Each Tournament starts at a fixed time for 72 days. There is a 72 hour cool off period between Tournaments after one ends, so you have plenty of time to prep for your boosted Tourney for the next tier. When a Tourney starts, Province 1 is unlocked on the map in a nearby dead space (as in, it doesn’t cover up any mines or neighbors so don’t worry about that). You get 8 encounters that you can either Fight or Cater (aka Negotiate). Complete all 8 and you get the prize listed in the left sidebar. That Province is locked for 16 hours and a new Province opens up. The difficulty increases with every new Province. Likewise, when the lower completed Provinces reset after those 16 hours, the difficulty is bumped up. The key difference is the reward changes for that level. Provinces typically alternate between 2-6 Relics and KP between Mystery Shards, with one or two Relic payouts without KP. We’ll talk about Mystery Relic pacing, as I call it, later on.

Keep scale in mind. Enemy Tourney armies are small, but same for your deployed armies. And while losing a handful of units might not seem much, consider how long it takes to produce a full squad when you’re trying to blitz through a 3 day event. Likewise, Catering can go from “drop in the bucket” to “staggering amount” in a short amount of time. But that’s the name of the game: paying the price for the payout. My experiments in Tournaments has cleaned me out more than once, and yet recently I find my recovery time has shortened. Here is why “paying the price for the payout” is worth it: in 3 days time, you can score more Relics specifically for your boosted Factories faster than you could with aggressive Province expansion. Which is hindered by scouting times, high Coin cost, and having to slog through non-boosted provinces. Having experimented with Tournaments since they came out, my production boosts have gone up by approximately 300 percent. Three. Hundred. Percent. And the more you do it, the easier it is to recoup your losses. But before you go all in on Tournament Mania, keep the following in mind.

1. We’ll need Resources. Lots and lots of Resources. At the very least, you’re going to need all 3 Tiers up and running with enough time to stockpile all 9 Goods as evenly as you can. I have always favored Catering with using my armies if I come up short in finishing a Province. I don’t advise relying on fights since Squad Size Upgrades don’t factor into battles, although Unit Promotions do. That means that your only advantage is how far up the chapters you are compared to what’s facing you. Plus, the clock is ticking. In preparation for a Tournament, I try to keep all my Goods equalized but my Boosted Goods well in stock. Here’s why.

2. The 2nd or 3rd Province is a big hint for what to expect. The first Province’s catering requirements are largely Coins, Supplies, and one smattering of Goods. Later levels might switch that up. Pay attention to the 2nd or 3rd Province requirements (it does vary), because you’ll quickly see a common set of Goods from each tier in most of that Province. If the majority of the encounters in that Province ask -for example- Planks, Crystal, and Gems? Load up on those, because the majority of future encounters will demand increasing amounts of those 3 Goods. The other 6 will get tossed in from time to time to change things up, but that Goods Trio are going to come up the most. That’s why I advise to equalize your non-boosted Goods but especially stock up on boosted Goods. If one or more of the commonly required Goods are boosts you have, you’re in good shape. Otherwise, you’re going to want to trade heavy for those non-boosts. Throughout, keep this in mind.

3. Pace yourself. Never let your reach outstrip your grasp. Ever seen the movie Colors? Sean Penn and Robert Duvall play rookie and veteran cop, respectively,  in an LA patrol anti-gang task force. Sean Penn is an avid young rookie who gets the nickname “Pac Man” because of his gung-ho attitude. It clashes with Robert Duvall’s approach of a softer touch when it comes to the gang problem. In one scene, Duvall summarizes their conflict in a single joke: “There’s a young bull, and an old bull. And they’re at the top of a pasture looking down on a field of cows. The young bull says ‘Hey! Let’s run down there and get us one of those heifers?’ The old bull says ‘Here’s a better idea. Why don’t walk down there. And get them all.” Get it?

Monitor the drain on your Goods carefully. If they’re draining faster than you can replenish them, close out the last Province and call it a day. Remember that unlike Map Provinces, Tourney Provinces are all or nothing ventures. Your troops should only be called in as a last resort to finish the province. There’s always next time. So what’s a good way to know when to say when?

4. Stop with Mystery Shards, unless you’re good to go.  How much are you willing to pay for a Wonder Shard? Rhetorical question. But if you want to know what all 8 levels of a Tourney Province entails, a portion of it is paying out the nose for a Shard, any old Shard.Mind you, Relic rewards probably await you on the next level. But if you’re running low on Goods, call it a day on that Province. Especially if Level 8 pays out in a Shard. You know what you get if you win all 8 levels in a Province? Nothing, pretty much.Try to maximize Relic gains as best you can while not putting yourself in too dire strait with supplies. Remember: the next tier is not too far away. Ooh, almost forgot!

5. Tournament Points, aka TP (huh huh huh): Sorry for the Beavis and Butthead moment, especially as of the most recent edit I am currently delving into the Orc chapter. More on that later. You’ll notice after completing each Province you get points.In the information sidebar of the Tourney Provinces you’ll see a progress bar and a menu button. Tournament Points for that Province go towards a bonus Relic or two. It’s possible to get the first and second chest on your own, but neighbor participation contributes towards the prize. Considering my map is comprised of 90% Gold Mines, this is largely an FYI. But who knows a few years down the line?

6. There’s a value to non-boost Tournaments as well: If my Goods are comfortably stocked, I’ll often partake in non-boosted Tournaments. Naturally, I don’t do them anywhere as fiercely as boost Tournaments. However, the early levels in the first couple Provinces are handy for some quick KP. Is it necessary? No. But something to keep in mine.

That’s the gist of Tournaments. Sure, it has a high cost. But the rewards to your Boosts are well worth it if you play it cool. As your Goods production increases, you find it easier to recover your stores until the next one. Don’t feel obligated to drain the coffers every time, though. Remember: Tournaments keep on cycling. So there’s always next time.

 

 

 

 

The Dwarven Chapter: You’ll Get Through It!

The appearance of the Dwarves marks the first of the Expansion races, and the least favorite. To be fair, future Expansion chapters seem to have learned from the mistakes of this chapter and are a lot more enjoyable to play. I don’t want to waste a lot of space bagging on the Dwarven chapter because it’s one flaw becomes immediately apparent: it’s slow. Very, very slow. Elvenar is by nature a slow paced game, but you may find the slowdown of the Dwarven research tree to be frustrating. Some in my Fellowship have told me this chapter had gotten so frustratingly slow for them they were on the verge of quitting. My response is twofold: one, it’s not all bad. And before you hotly dispute that claim, two. You’ll get through it. I’ll even put in a tidbit about the next Fairy chapter to give you a taste of how much easier it gets.

First, the upside of Dwarves: early on, you get some handy tweaks to your Residences. Depending on your race, your buildings get 1 grid narrower on one side and a little bigger on the other. It doesn’t sound like much, especially since you only get a total of 50 extra pop per building within those two upgrade levels. But if you squeeze your houses into symmetrical rows like I do, you’ll notice it scoots your housing closer together for more space. Which I turned into housing space for 12 more fully upgraded Residences for some much needed Population. Other buildings get a little beefier or slightly narrower, but apart from the Barracks which changes dimensions it’s nothing dramatic that you can’t handle. Another big benefit is your 1st tier Factories get a big upgrade. They cost quite a bit on Population and take up an extra grid of space, but the production boost you get is significant. Finally, the Culture Buildings. Temples of the Holy Fire are a nice 5×5 symmetrical Culture powerhouse that’ll get a lot of use, but you also have the Wayfarer Tavern which gives a significant Population boost per building. Plus, they’re cool looking. One last upside: significant unit promotions that make combat a lot easier with these particular units.

The downside: Dwarven Chapter is slow. Very, very slow. Even if you’re not aggressively gathering Knowledge Points, you’ll still find that you will be filling all available research tree branches and waiting for your Expansion Resources to catch up. So here’s what you’re going to need to get you through this chapter.

1. Space: If you can, free up a block of space in your city for Expansion buildings. You’ll need this for future Expansions too, so plan ahead. You only need road access for the Portal, which stores the unique resources produced. At max level it measures 5×5, so account for that. Your mines and foundries require Portal Tracks which work just like roads, and neither of those buildings increase in size for upgrades. So you’ll need-

2. Lots of Granite. Copper? Not so much: Note how much your Portal carries of Granite as opposed to Copper. So the space you have should largely be dedicated to Granite Mines as opposed to Copper. How many of each depends on how much space you have.with 2-4 Copper Mines at most. I had 12 Granite Mines and 8 Copper, but I felt like I would have done better with half the Copper with more Granite. Copper works like your factories: you set up 3 hour or longer “bakes”. In this case, you spend a small amount of 1st tier non-boosted Goods in exchange for a dribble of Copper. Granite, by contrast, accumulates like your Residences do. They produce after a certain time period until it maxes out after a certain amount of hours, so you can collect at any time. The downside is that a Level 1 Granite Mine maxes payout after 4 hours. Because of this, you have to frequently stay on top of them as well as miss out on about 2 collections while you sleep. Which is why I strongly recommend you-

3. Upgrade your Granite. Copper? Not so much: Early on, this will be a painstaking process. To unlock Copper Foundries, you need Granite. But to upgrade your Granite Mines and Portal past level 2, you need need Copper. So remember when you hit this bump in the road: You’ll Get Through It! Once you get your Copper placed, focus on maxing your Granite Mines while keeping pace with upgrading your Portal. Level 4 Granite Mines produce more AND cap at 10 hours, so you won’t feel bad about sleeping in on the weekend.Your Portal offers more space to bank and also a 20% production bonus at each level. Focus on that for a while. Copper gets a little bump at Level 2 and 3, so that’s as far as I would go with upgrades to Foundries. Getting your resource production up to snuff is going to take a while, so-

4. Find something to do with that KP lying around: As I said, your ability to move forward in the research tree is going to be hindered by your Copper and Granite accumulation. Inevitably you’re going to have some extra KP kicking around. So if you have Ancient Wonders, sink them in there. Or the Wonder of your neighbors/Fellows. You’re going to spend a lot of time on this chapter, so above all have-

5. PATIENCE: You’ll get through it. Keep cranking out the Granite and Copper, keep up with the day to day in the background. One foot in front of the other gets you to the finish line. Then you’ll be at the Fairy chapter. I won’t dedicate a whole section to it because it hardly warrants a comprehensive breakdown. After you sell back your now useless Dwarf facilities, principles are the same: a Portal that can expand to 5×5 needs road access, uses Flower Lanes (aka Portal Tracks) to two types of production facilities. These are Day Farms and Night Farms. These are significantly bigger than Foundries and Granite, but you will do just fine on a 1:1 ratio. Both Farms work like your Factories and it’s in your best interest to max them out along with your Portal. But you’ll find that process is a breeze in comparison to the Dwarf chapter. In fact, you’ll be cruising along to the point that your KP progression and production of Ambrosia/Night Essence (the Fairy Granite/Copper) are keeping a fairly even pace. Plus there’s a fun Ant and the Grasshopper type storyline going on.

You’ll get through it. And then you’ll be able to upgrade your 2nd tier Goods so they can finally perform like your other tiers. Patience, though. You’ll get there.

To Arms! Part 2: Fighting and Winning

Now that we’ve described the troops you’ll be using and their strengths/weaknesses, we’ll get to the best way to come out on top. First of all, look at the enemy army. The easier armies to tackle are the ones who have one or two types of units. If they’re all Ranged types, Cavalry or Light Infantry should dominate your forces. If you’re Human, match one Cerberus unit for every Cannoneer if possible and take them out first (more if possible, and more on how to easily do that) so your ground troops can decimate their remaining Infantry. All orcs and War Dogs? Keep your Magic unit protected and your 4 squads of Heavy Infantry will quickly make short work of them. The more diverse types of enemy units, the harder it is to go up against them. Unfortunately, the complicated fights are often the most expensive to negotiate. However, depending on where you are at the game that might be less costly than the Supplies and long wait to replenish your troops.

Where you are in the game also affects victory or defeat. If you don’t have Heavy Infantry and unlock an area with Swamp Monsters, Treants, and/or Knights? You’re going to have a bad time. Squad Size upgrades and unit Promotions also have a major effect on victory. A battle with only two squads of Knights might seem like a cake walk for your Heavy Infantry, until you realize their concentrated troop size deals out more significant damage with one hit than the same amount of troop numbers split 4 ways. Keep in mind that at some point your Province expansions will slow or cost you more casualties until you have enough upgrades to counteract this. Again, refer to Part I to see which unit types fare the best against others. Here are some tactical tips to help:

There Is No Shame in Surrender (Even Before Battle Starts): If at any point you feel like you messed things up and you’re going to lose the fight, there’s a little white icon in the bottom left corner of that complicated looking bar at the bottom of the combat screen. Whatever casualties inflicted on you remain, just be aware you don’t have to watch all of your troops be slaughtered at the bitter end. Which brings me to that caveat in parentheses: you keep the remaining troops when you surrender, so you lose nothing if you quit right off the bat. But why would you? Because it gives you a free look on the battlefield. You can see the terrain which can determine how you want to position your troops (or if it’s one of those maps where all their ranged units are hidden behind a whole shrub wall and it’d be less of a headache to just negotiate that one). Also, you can see who is positioned where so you know where to position your troops. Which leads to-

Use Position and Terrain to Your Advantage: Terrain, like the previously mentioned example, can make what would normally be a straightforward battle into something you’d want to negotiate out of. But it can also work in your advantage: bottleneck areas are great for slowing down enemy infantry. Remember that Heavy Infantry can attack through barriers, which means you can gore the enemy and get away with it while they’re still on the march around barriers. Ranged units can do the same. You can also use terrain to sneak behind enemy lines with your Light Infantry units to take out their Ranged support in certain situations. But getting back to the advantage of that First Look is how to ideally position your troops.

Troops are always arranged in a vertical line. From top on down, we’ll call that Position 1-5. If you have all 5 unit types unlocked, do the following: assign one unit type to each slot before you start combat. If you’re going down the line of your unit types, it’d be in the following order: Light Infantry 1st, Ranged 2nd, Golem/Cerberus 3rd, Paladin/Treant 4, Priest/Sorceress 5th. When you start combat, you’d expect them to be deployed in that order, they’d be arranged from top to bottom in that order right? Wrong. Why is that? Beats me. But you’re going to want to write this down:

1st unit picked= 3rd position/ 2nd unit picked= 2nd position/ 3rd unit picked= 4th position/ 4th unit picked= 1st position/ 5th unit picked= 5th position

If that’s confusing, consider that the 2nd and last unit you pick stay where they are. Your first pick is going to end up in the middle. Now, this won’t matter if your army is entirely 1 unit with a Magic backup. But if you’re planning on using your fastest troops against ranged units in the shortest path possible, this tactic is critical. Because you can-

Take Out The Most Damaging Unit Early: I play Human, which you’ll note if you’ve read the revision to the Magic Class which I added shortly after completing this post. That’s because I noted the range of the Sorceress is nowhere the same as the Priest, which explains why the Sorceress moves faster. For Humans, the Cannoneer is the bane of your existence as it can decimate your Heavy Infantry from the other end of the map and still packs a wallop on the rest of your troops (Golems are a close second for the same reason). But no matter which race you play, you’ll want to quickly eliminate those most capable of doing damage to your most valuable troops. The Cerberus unit is great for this due to its ability to quickly traverse the map and do major damage to ranged units. Since they often go first during a round, you can take out a pesky Ranged unit in the first round. Mind you, they’re often flanked by Heavy Infantry and that unit is likely to get sacrificed right away. But if it protects a trio of Paladins so they only take minor damage, it’s well worth it. With Elves, the Sorceress can draw ranged fire with minimal damage while your troops of choice deal with the infantry. The Sorceress excels at hamstringing any unit on the field so your other units can deal more damage than is dished in return, so once you’ve taken out the most damaging unit on the field they can help you mop up. Same with the Human Priest unit, although note the difference in Part 1. They’re good for making sure your next unit’s attack can take enemies off the field or severely reduce their power. Ultimately, it comes out to-

Thinking Tactically Takes Time: And practice. Once you do enough fights (and more than a few catastrophic defeats), you’ll grasp that the fighting mechanics isn’t all that complicated. If you mouse over each opposing unit, it shows a red grid of where they can travel. This tells you where you can move out of reach of their attack, which gives you the advantage of first strike (especially nice if that unit is Heavy Infantry with enough reach to avoid a counterattack). Recognize boneheaded mistakes and avoid them, repeat solid tactics. Don’t rush battles and you’ll have more to fight with next time. If the costs are too high, consider taking a break from battles until your army is stronger. Finally, recognize when negotiating is the only option to save you a big headache.

That’s the long and short of it. Let me know if there’s anything I missed or valuable tips to be added.

 

 

 

To Arms! Part 1: Basics of Elvenar Combat

Combat in Elvenar is quite simple, yet it’s something many struggle with.This is due to a great deal of conflicting information or confusing tutorials out here. I will do my best to explain it in the clearest manner possible, so feel free to comment to let me know if I need to clarify anything. First, the important thing is to know your unit types and what they do. The tricky thing to a universal guide is that there are a few key differences, but I’ll point them out as we go along. I will leave out the Province units for brevity’s sake but they’re pretty easy to figure out which is which and the same principles apply to them in terms of class.

Light Infantry Class (Sword Dancers/Barbarians): These are your foot soldiers, and early on you will be using them a lot. Later on you’ll find you use them less in favor of your Heavy Infantry as primary footmen, but they’re still good to keep in stock. Their biggest advantage is against the Heavy Ranged types like Golems, especially for Sword Dancers when they’re upgraded through research (Barbarians, alas, only get a bonus against Light Infantry for some reason). They get mowed down rather easily, but they’re cheaper to replace than any other unit. You can use them as a rapid strike force to take down Heavy Ranged units before they can do too much damage to your Heavy Infantry.

Light Ranged Class (Archers/Crossbowmen): This is another early unit type I find myself relying less on them as you progress. They’re fragile, but one or two early on are valuable support for your infantry. They’re more costly than Infantry, but if you protect them well you won’t need to spend more Supplies replenishing them. You’ll find yourself using them less when other units become available. At this point, I rarely use them due to Heavy Melee being more effective against other infantry unit types even when upgraded, but the Wonder that boosts their damage might make them more valuable so I may revise that opinion once I research that aspect. As it is, their role is to stay 4 spaces away to strike from long range. Upgraded Archers get a bonus against other Light Ranged, whereas Crossbowmen get a bonus against Heavy Melee. Early on, 1 or 2 of them can soften up the enemy as they approach before your ground troops clash. Their major drawback is how extremely fragile they are and can be easily decimated by enemy infantry or even other archers. Keep them protected until you find something better.

Heavy Ranged (Golems): Note that only Elves get this unit. These are your anti-Heavy Melee units. They’re a little more durable than your Light Ranged but are still just as susceptible to Light Melee units. Keep them protected and hammering away at Heavy Melee. Golems have a bonus resistance vs. Light Ranged.

Light Cavalry Class (Cerberus): These units are available to Humans in place of Golems. These units are cheap to produce, but tend to fall fast and don’t do as much damage as Light Melee. However, they are the best unit for taking out Ranged units of both classes. Their movement speed is double that of the Barbarian, and further upgrades increase damage while also adding a Wounding attack like the Magic class discussed later. One or two units kept away from melee units can lay waste to the enemy’s ranged units while your infantry mops up theirs. Later I will explain how to use unit positions to your advantage. If you have this unit, you can take out or severely cripple units such as Light/Heavy Ranged and the dreaded Cannoneer on your first strike. I use these frequently for that reason. They’re highly resistant to Light Ranged, moderately towards Heavy Ranged when upgraded. They are also nice for chasing down Magic Class units who tend to hang in the back frustratingly out of reach. Heavy Melee will butcher them easily, so keep them out of the way if possible.

Heavy Infantry (Treants/Paladins): When you get these units, it’s a big game changer. And the upgrades make them even deadlier. These are your walking tanks. They absorb a lot of damage and deal out plenty in return. The also have two distinct advantages: they have a reach able to strike enemies one grid away from them, which means the unit can’t retaliate with a defensive strike. They can also attack through barriers like logs and rocks. Paladins get a bonus to Heavy Infantry while Treants do not, but both get bonuses against Light Infantry. Also, on Promotion they get a Daze attack which reduces the attack damage of the unit they hit. They’re expensive and slow to produce, but they’re worth stockpiling. They easily demolish Light Infantry, and are your first choice in going toe to toe with other Heavy Infantry units. Light Ranged can chip away at them so are best dealt with early on, but the AI also inexplicably moves them within striking distance sometimes. Heavy Ranged is their weakness, so pair them with some units to protect them.

Magic Class (Sorceress/Priest): This is your ranged support class, and that’s where the similarities end. While their primary role is to add a debuff effect along with damage to the enemy, they even differ in that regard. Let’s start with the Priest. They move one spot at a time, which makes them vulnerable to flank attacks and are best kept in the background. To counteract that weakness, their range is the same of the dreaded Cannoneer with a wide damage range to boot. Their debuff is increased damage with a bonus vs. Heavy Infantry. I only use one of them per combat. They’re resistant to Light Ranged, although that’s useless information because they’re most likely going to get chopped down by an Infantry flank attack.

The Sorceress is far more versatile. This Elven unit significantly reduces the attack power of units. It also moves as fast as Light Infantry and is resistant to both types of Ranged. You may be inclined to use more than one unit as opposed to the Priest because they can occupy the Ranged units of the enemy while your Golems dispose of Heavy Infantry, for example. They also have bonus damage vs. both types of Infantry so they can be instrumental in hamstringing enemy footmen while your own bring them down. Be careful with them, though, as they’re still vulnerable to Infantry units.

A quick breakdown to review:

Light Infantry: Cheap, fast moving. Strong against Heavy Ranged, weak against Heavy Infantry.

Light Ranged: Early ranged support for infantry, fragile. Strong against Infantry, weak against all others.

Heavy Ranged: Elven unit that pummels Heavy Infantry. Resistant to Light Ranged attacks. Vulnerable to Light Infantry and Cavalry. Armor reduction effect.

Cavalry: Human only unit. Fast moving, devastating to Ranged units. Vulnerable to Heavy Infantry retaliation. Armor reduction effect.

Heavy Infantry: Expensive but valuable tank unit. Long reach and attacks through barriers means attacking without retaliation. Good against both Infantry types and any Ranged that stumbles into its path. Has damage reducing daze effects. Slow, which makes them vulnerable to Heavy Ranged units.

Magic: Weakens the enemies to your advantage at range. Sorceress moves like Light Infantry, damage bonuses to both Infantry types,  and highly resistant to both types of Ranged for running interference. Priest moves one space, best kept far away from battle. Increases damage to target, attack bonus vs. Heavy Infantry. Resistant to Light Ranged.

Now that we’ve covered the basic unit types, onto Part II: Tips and Tricks for Combat.

(Edited 08-18-16: Magic Class revised, differences in player race expanded)

 

Helping Culture: Quick Reference Guide

(This article was updated 10-6-16 to include Orc cultural buildings)

When giving Neighborly Help, Culture is the most common request. Culture needs a minimum level for your city to function, but it’s also important in that bonuses increase the amount of Coins and Supplies generated. Since those are the universal cornerstones of advancement, you’re going to want to have as much of those as possible. Therefore, you’ll want the buildings that give the most Culture to be selected for maximum effect. Often people will modify their city descriptions to point out where they want Culture the most. But what if those are all taken? And you’ll see that most of these are a mouthful, making it a challenge to convey that in the relatively short city title. So I made a handy reference you can copy/paste below into a text file so you can refer to it if you want to know what the highest Culture rating is available. Technically, the bigger the structure the higher the Culture rating. But diamond purchased buildings can buck this trend. This was all copied from the stats on the Elvenar Wiki page and credit goes to that page for producing the stats. This is just rearranged in order of least to most culture with expansion races in between. Hope this helps.

Elves

Flying Boat 250-> Spot of Whispering Trees 400-> MotherTree 400-> Well of Floating Islands 440-> Mysterious Cyclone 440-> Shrine of Enar 450-> Goddess of Fertility 550-> Protector of the Woods 840-> Valorian Seasnake 1000-> Temple of Ages 1200-> Golden Torch Tower 1200-> Garden of Harmony 2100

Dwarves 

Mysterious Gatekeeper 1100-> Wayfarer’s Tavern 1300-> Ancient Grounds 1800-> Temple of the Holy Fire 2400-> Elder Dragon Oracle 2800

Fairy

Singing Fish Organ 810 ->Harvest Festival 1680->Temple of Seeds 4700-> Giant Snail Palace 3200-> Pond of Recreation 3700

Orcs

Grab Rap Shroom 2300-> King Diabhal’s Throne 2300 -> Campfire BBQ 2900-> Symphony of the Swamp 6000

Humans

Holy Codex 110-> Hallowed Shrine 340-> Monster Fountain 410-> Delicatessen Butcher 430-> Prison of the Condemned 450-> Mage Tower 570-> Battle Monument 690-> Fountain of Youth 750-> Floating Citadel 900-> Astrolabe 1000-> Central Place 1400-> Battle Arena 1700

The Joys of Fellowship

When I first started looking for a Fellowship, I was at the end of my rope. Upgrading your buildings and researching new upgrades requires Goods from factories. When you start Elvenar, you get one boost per tier for three tiers of Goods. At that early stage, I could produce a decent amount of steel but not much in planks or marble. To upgrade my steel factories, I needed the other two. But those factories put out next to nothing unless I upgraded them, which requires more resources to pour into with paltry returns. Joining Fire & Ice turned that frustrated slog around.

First and foremost is trading support. One of the first things you want to do after joining is phase out your non-boosted factories. You may feel loath to let them go considering you put a bunch of hard won coin/tools/goods/population/space/culture and most importantly time into developing them. But consider this: you work two jobs.Your first job is a 12 hour shift which pays you with a pint of ice cream at the end of the day. Your other job you work 4 hours, and they pay you actual money. But they want you to drop off a gallon of ice cream, more or less, at the end of the week. Bear with me on this analogy: it makes more sense to dedicate a full 8 hours to the job that lets you earn enough money to buy all the ice cream you need. Focusing on building boosted Goods and trading off the surplus frees up resources otherwise wasted on diminishing returns. When I joined Fire & Ice, it simplified things much easier. Regular Neighborly Help is also a big factor. Helping the neighbors on your map gives you coin (tools if they help back). More often than not, they don’t return the favor. But add 24 other players (hopefully) visiting your city daily makes for a bonanza of much needed assistance. And the social aspect has plenty of benefits with more seasoned players being able to give you guidance on what to expect. It also can get lonesome if you have no one to talk to. A Fellowship that regularly communicates is a strong one.

So how do you get into a Fellowship and create a mutually beneficial relationship? Below are some vital tips.

Read The Description: Every Fellowship has a section where they have a blurb stating what they are all about and what they require. Many require a minimum player score (the number on your avatar bar is your Player Rank, which is totally different) which can be found by clicking on your Player Rank next to the trophy icon. The higher ranking Fellowships are, the higher the required minimum. Sometimes they take exceptions if you’re close enough, but odds are you’ll be outright rejected if you don’t come close to what they’re asking for. I have a form letter I send to the dozens upon dozens of brand new players who apply without looking at our requirements. I’m fairly certain other Fellowships don’t do that, but I do get some positive feedback from applicants who come away with a better handle on Fellowships.

Message the Archmage When You Apply (AND VISIT DAILY): This is a twofold tip. Fellowships get 25 members max. When a space opens up, more applicants than open space pour in. Things such as Player Score and needed Boosted Goods production come into play. How often you play is also a big factor into getting accepted. When you apply, message the Archmage with the equivalent of a cover letter. Score is good for a Fellowship rank, which makes them more attractive to people wanting to join up. Boosted Goods balance the trade markets which retain members who rely on trades to keep their cities flourishing. But I’ve found that the biggest X Factor when it comes to an MVP in a Fellowship is daily Neighbor Help. Visiting 24 Fellows takes 10-15 minutes max if you do nothing else on Elvenar the entire day. Letting the Archmage know what you’re willing to do for the Fellowship speaks volumes and increases your chances as opposed to the silent applicants.

Learn the Codes: When it comes to Neighborly Help, many Fellows use a universal code in their city descriptions for the areas they want visited. C=Culture, B=Builder, M (or MH)=Main Hall. C/B/M means you target Culture buildings first, Builder second, Main Hall as a last resort. When it comes to Culture, target the largest structure. If you find a lot of small  structures, consider skipping those and going for the next needed structure. (More on that in another post). Needs change as Fellows progress (and so do Culture buildings, again to be covered later) so pay careful attention to city headers when you visit.

Don’t Be a Jabroni:  Odds are, you know who Dwayne Johnson is. Before he became a film superstar, he was pro wrestler known as The Rock. The Iron Sheik was a household wrestling name in the 80’s. He used to babysit The Rock. “Jabroni” was the Sheik’s homegrown term for a “jobber”, someone who accepted a paycheck to get beaten by someone with far more star power. I won’t get into into the particulars, but the Sheik imparted some vital advice to Dwayne as he entered the business. “Bubba, let me tell you. You go into the locker room. You sit down, you keep your mouth shut. You just open your ears and just listen to everybody, okay? Don’t be the jabroni and talk a lot. Let your talent and ability speak for itself. That’s smart.” I was originally going to title this point with No Drama, but why not go the extra step? Listen to feedback and don’t take it personally. Sometimes an attempt at constructive criticism strikes you the wrong way. Assume their best intentions and try to work it out. If that doesn’t work, bring it to the Archmage. Public drama is toxic to a Fellowship and is best avoided through any means possible. Remember that you’re all here to grow and have fun.

Next post: Comprehensive Culture Guide. Comments section is up. How am I doing?

 

My name is Dirtbeard, and I play Elvenar.

If for some reason you’ve stumbled upon this blog and need an explanation, I’ll give you the short of it: Elvenar is a free web browser fantasy city builder game where you choose an elven or human race (this affects building size but overall is largely cosmetic) and develop a city. It’s a largely cooperative game with no PVP and something you can play at a leisurely pace in the background while you’re browsing online. It’s a fun diversion for when you’re looking for something you can play at your own pace without having vicious slurs hurled at you by pissy teenagers. I find a great number of players are much older than the demographics you commonly find in other games, which is really cool.

One of the elements of the game are Fellowships, which is the equivalent of a “clan” in Elvenar. I am head of a Fellowship called Fire & Ice. There is a chat bar for members where you can pass messages, talk about the game, or just chat about whatever. I have and continue to give advice to new members as well as explore new features and give my 2 cents. Consider this my disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on Elvenar, so your results may vary. The comments section is always open to correct me if I’m wrong or submit your 2 cents to.

Next post: The hows and whys of joining a Fellowship, and how to excel in them.