A concrete starter playbook. Adapt to your culture's signature mechanics — Fjordborn want timber and a boat shed early, Sun Dune want a caravanserai, Ironpeak want a mine — but the rhythm below works for everyone.
You spawn with a Settler-class unit on a starting hex. Place your first city on a tile that meets at least three of:
Don't agonize. Cities are not unique snowflakes — they grow into their stage tier (Outpost → Hamlet → Town → City → Greatcity → Capital). Found, then iterate.
Capital tag. Your first city is your capital. Capitals get a passive bonus and are the seat of governance — you can move it later, but it costs.
Cities have a needs grid with four axes: Water, Health, Security, Knowledge. All four start partly satisfied. Bring them to green within 30 in-game days.
| Need | Building | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Well, Cistern, Canal Basin (River Crown) | Mandatory if not adjacent to fresh water |
| Health | Healer's Hut, Medicine Lodge (Thunder Lodge), Sacred Well Court (Cairnveil) | Plague risk in summer / monsoon |
| Security | Guard Post, Hillfort (Cairnveil/Fjordborn), Watchtower | Raises raid resistance |
| Knowledge | Scribe Hut → House of Scribes (River Crown), Druid Grove (Cairnveil), Rocket Workshop (Jade Lotus, late) | Required for research |
Pick the two strongest tiles in your city radius and build their extractor right away (Farm, Pasture, Fishery, Mine, Lumber Camp, etc.). Don't spread too thin — get two chains humming before adding a third.
Each culture has a native-resource preference list. Match your first extractors to that list — you get more out of native resources than imported ones.
Build a Scribe Hut (or your culture's equivalent — see Research tree). Queue your first research:
Train a scout unit (every culture has a basic scout). Walk the edges of your visibility. Look for:
By in-game day 30 you should have a basic Barracks and 1–2 starter units. Don't go heavy yet. The goal is discourage raiders, not attack neighbors. Aim for:
Build a Mead Hall / Council Fire / Tea Court (your culture's morale building) so your starter army doesn't desert when winter hits.
By the time you have a real city, your neighbors do too. Send an envoy to the closest one and propose:
This is the single most underused move in the first hour. A friendly border lets you focus inward.
By the end of hour 1, you should be aiming for:
Don't try to do everything at once. The game is long.
Sources: city_development_system.md, economy_resources.md, movement_system.md.