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[Guide] Get your first two great buildings in less than a month

DeletedUser10415

This is the picture-book upgrade of a tutorial I wrote on how to get GBs fast. The response to the tutorial was so positive, I decided to do it up right.

So you've finished the tutorial. No more mandatory things to be built, stuff to be produced, research to be completed, or territory to be taken. You're free to go your own direction. At this point, many will try to race through to Iron Age and beyond as fast as they can. This is a mistake. Here's an example of why:

6ZuF9mm.jpg

This city is in the neighborhood with one of my Late Middle Age cities. Setting aside the fact that it's a Colonial Age city with buildings left over from Iron age, a strange mixture of road types, and space-wasting decorations all over the place, note how many Great Buildings it has. None. Colonial Age and not a single Great Building.

Let's compare my neighbor's city above to my city below:
wOfd5Sc.jpg

One Age behind and yet 7 Great Buildings. Level 11 Babel, level 10 Lighthouse, level 9 Zeus, level 6 St. Mark's, level 6 Chateau, level 5 Hagia, level 4 del Monte. And #2 in neighborhood rank, compared to #22. Note also I've got just the one stone quarry, and they've got six goods buildings. I don't need them, and won't, until possibly Modern Era, where refined goods come in. This is because my three goods-producing GBs deliver a total of 53 non-plunderable goods for my age per day.

So how is it that my Late Middle Age city's outcome is so different from that Colonial Age city? That is what this guide will demonstrate. Also, it'll show you how you can be the first one on the block with Great Buildings.

Day One:
You're in Bronze Age, and the tutorial part is finished. It's now time to get busy on building the coin and supplies you'll need to get you far enough through the tech tree to have Smithery researched. This is the key technology to my foolproof method of getting your first two great buildings quickly. I started a city specifically for demonstrating this method, and here is where I got on the tech tree by the end of the first day:
J6i3xsb.jpg

Notice how I'm making a bee-line for Smithery. Tools is tempting, but you can pick that up later. Smithery is the immediate concern.

Now of course you'll need coins and supplies to fund your research. The quickest way to gain coins (before you get Smithery), is with huts. Sure - you've got to babysit them, and collect from them every 5 minutes, but take heart in the knowledge you've only got to do this for the first day, because once you get Smithery researched, coins will not be a problem. That will be explained further on down. Here is my city at the end of day one:
Ehh02zn.jpg

Note that while there is room for another hut, I didn't build it because I wanted to keep my population enthusiastic for the 20% bonus to production. That's 20 coins more per 5 minute collection, as opposed to the 6 more coins I'd have gotten with an extra hut and a merely happy population. Note also I have two Spearfighter Barracks. You could probably get away with just one at this stage, but I knew I'd need two on day two, so I built 'em. I didn't however unlock any extra slots in them. I also kept the Hunter from the tutorial because there was room for it.

So day one is spent collecting from the huts as often as possible, and the supply buildings too, which you may as well set for 5 minute productions too. I admit, i set a few 15 minute productions though. As you can see, supplies aren't in short supply. It's coins that are needed, and so the three potteries and the hunter is plenty.

Also at the end of day one, this is my progress on the continent map:
VR55DP3.jpg

Scouting both of these after taking Dunarsund is a storyline mission you've got to do, and it will be followed by a storyline mission to take one of these two territories. Tyr on the left or Fel on the right. You don't need Tyr, and you need Fel, but that's day two. Just reiterating we're not rushing through anything here.

Quest types:
A bit about the types of quests you will be given. There are three types.
Storyline Quests are mandatory. They can be put off, but they cannot be aborted and thus skipped.
Side Quests are optional. You can either complete them or abort them.
Recurring Quests are optional. You can either complete them or abort them, but they'll keep coming back. They are unique in this way. Too, they are only presented to you when you have completed or aborted your way through all the side quests there are for your age but before you've advanced to the next age. There are other circumstances where recurring quests are activated, later on in the game, and you can have up to three of them running simultaneously, but in these early ages you'll only have the one at a time. They can disappear on you if you advance the storyline (continent map) too far. You can take Hymir, but then stop until you are ready to advance to Iron Age. These recurring quests are key to my method of gaining your first two great buildings in less than a month, and so naturally you'll want to get to them as quickly as you can.

That explained, now we get into aborting side quests. You're going to run into several of these before you can get to getting Smithery researched, and it won't hurt you to abort most of them. This one for example is a no-brainer:
7GaOr4S.jpg

Look at how long it takes to make this stuff:
dnPyUVV.jpg

In 8 hours, you'll make way more coin than 200. Abort it.

Here's another:
AKhUoGn.jpg

Useless. Also, you wouldn't be able to produce this stuff anyway as you won't have a Fruit Farm. They're huge and a waste of space and population. Abort it.

You don't need Tyr. I took a few of the sectors in it for the resources (probably coin) they provided, but you can just Abort this one:
jm1EWXH.jpg


Some other time, Mandrubar, like some time after Smithery gets researched. Abort it:
pSX9s8J.jpg


Ditto. Abort it:
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These cost coins. Abort them:
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And:
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Here's a storyline quest you'll want to do... Fel - NOT Tyr:
PMKcnfD.jpg

The one with the EXPANSION!

And now for something completely different:
ZwpEnsJ.jpg

It's a recurring quest! I believe this is the first one you'll see, and when you see it, you'll be into the recurring quest zone. Unless you have 8 FP to spend when you get it though, there's no harm in aborting it. It'll come back around.

Day Two:
It's time to finish up researching Thatched Houses, and then onward to Smithery. If you've already researched them before day two, that means you've been buying forge points. You can do this, but it gets expensive fast. The first one costs you 200 coin, and that cost increases by 50 coin for each subsequent purchase. Now you may be tempted to build some Thatched houses. You may even get a quest to do so. If there is a quest, unless it's a hidden reward, abort it. You don't want thatched houses, which support 27 population. You want chalets which support 32 population. The coin they produce doesn't matter, because you won't be collecting from them anyway. That doesn't make sense does it? It will.

Once you've got Smithery researched, naturally you'll want to start building blacksmiths. Thing is, they're expensive at 425 coins or so and 40 supplies. Look here at my city near the start of day two. I've collected my huts and potteries a few times and researched Smithery:
ucccAtt.jpg

Note the coin balance in the upper right corner.

I've got to make room for some blacksmiths so I sell some huts. And then I can build exactly one blacksmith and no more:
RVhKzB8.jpg


Lets sell those potteries, that hunter, and some more huts:
dAbi6vw.jpg

Oh! Now I have two blacksmiths getting built, and nothing left to sell that will get me another, and not enough huts for anything useful. What am I to do?!

Smithery, in addition to giving you the ability to build blacksmiths also does something else. Something wonderful. You can join a guild now. And you will be doing that shortly. Before you do though, you should be into the recurring quests by now. Abort through them until you get to this one and accept it:
AAvRUIr.jpg

1800 coins will take forever you might say. No...it will only take a few minutes.

Now you're ready to join a guild. Click on the tab marked with a single shield icon along the bottom of your screen. Locate a guild that has auto-join enabled. The more members the better. Click "join" under the guild you've chosen to join it. This is what all this looks like:
3khVv1Y.jpg

Close that, and then aid everyone in the guild. That gets you 20 coins for each aiding action, and maybe even a random blueprint, though probably not in your first guild.

Next, leave the guild. To do that, click the social button among the buttons in the lower left corner, then the guild button, then scroll down the list of members until you get to yourself and click the red icon to the right of your name. Then join another guild and repeat the process:
Njn3Gd9.jpg

Aid everyone. Leave. Find another guild to join. Etc. Etc. Rinse and repeat until you have gained the 1800 coins for the recurring quest you accepted. Collect the reward for that quest, and then abort through the other recurring quests until you arrive at that one again. Accept it.

Now you can build four more blacksmiths. Get those started. Why blacksmiths you might ask? Well, there's another recurring quest that involves blacksmiths. This one:
172OyTS.jpg

A helmet is the result of a one day blacksmith production run. Two blacksmiths then, set at one day productions, will complete this recurring quest. Thirty blacksmiths, set at one day productions, will complete this recurring quest fifteen times per day. Not to mention giving you tons of supplies. And random rewards too.

Random rewards are key to my method of getting your first two great buildings in less than a month. All the recurring quests give you random rewards. Most often, they'll give you coin or supplies. Less often they'll give you goods of your age - 5 of one type per reward, or a medium forge point pack (5FP into your inventory). Less often still, you'll get medals, or perhaps a blueprint piece for a great building of your age or lower. As you're in Bronze Age, and there are no Stone Age GBs, that's a 50/50 chance for either Zeus or Babel.

Back to the guild-hopping grind. Hop enough guilds to collect your 1800 coin, complete the quest, and then build some more blacksmiths. Maybe you've got some forge points to spend. Your huts aren't going to support many more blacksmiths, so next up for research is chalets. Also, don't be setting those blacksmiths for one day productions just yet. 15 minute ones, while you're guild-hopping for coin. Chalets will eat into your supply stockpile rather severely, as evidenced in this picture:
OIdN4Z4.jpg


After you research chalets, you should make a bee-line to brewing. Schools aren't worth building as they're 3x3 and deliver 240 happiness, while taverns are also 3x3 and deliver 280 happiness. The sooner you get a tavern built, and eventually two altogether, the sooner you'll be up to peak blacksmiths. Then researching Tools would be okay - I know you want to. Then Manuring.

You recall how I said you wouldn't be collecting from your chalets? Well, you won't need them for income, because you'll be guild-hopping for that. You just need them for population, and they don't need to be connected to roads to your townhall for that. Here's my city after 5 days of doing helmet and coin recurring quests, and guild-hopping like mad:
Ji0QRwV.jpg

I guess the first thing you notice is that Zeus great building there. :cool: I've also researched everything except growing, so I have all the expansions from the Bronze Age tech tree. I've got a lot of military, but it's not necessary. It was really just force of habit. I'm a fighter by nature.

Here's another city I started to see what blacksmith peak would be without military:
w8svZmL.jpg

38 blacksmiths vs. 30 in the other city.

(Work in progress - Taking a break 2:50am 4/20, will finish eventually, but I hate deadlines :p)
 
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DeletedUser25893

great guide, i was trying to do that myself, and on the gold repete quests, but forgot about the supplies, now i need to redue it, lol.... what about the 4/4 army repeteable? i think there are two in bronze that do it? worth it?
 

DeletedUser23123

I broke in and started a 4 world.
Day one (4-20) It was rough. Supply was mostly the issue. Had 8 Huts and 4 Hunters. After a bit longer through the tech tree. Got a a hold of Pottery. Made enough to build 3 Pottery. Dropping 4 Huts and swap for 4 Stilt. By the way got the Long House. At this time, I did my first Aid and manage to receive 1 each of Babel and Zeus. Set everything for 1 day. Minus the Houses. I did however fought my way to Fel. I have Dunarsund and Tyr. Hymir has been Scouts and await.
Day two (4-21). A quick run through. By habit wasted forge on useless research. No Smithery yet. After today collection though with the help of the Treasure Hunt. I manage to collect total of 8,026 coins and 5,477 in supplies. Got a stone thrower from the THunts and 1 med Forge Pack. Also, 1 print of LoA and the Colosseum. The second print for Zeus came in also. I skip various quest till I got the 1800 of Fnord. I got it finish. Nice!
And of coarse the May Day Event Started. I sticking with the Glarg's Play Book. :)
;) P.S. On one of the Quest it said to invite a friend. I got a hold of Jaelis. :D I Swear, I did Not know he'll be there :rolleyes:
 

DeletedUser25893

got so many Bps from the guild hoping, only problem now is all the ones you can join are 1 and 2s, so its going slower now for the 1800 gold, 3 days and almost have ToB and zeus... Thanks a lot for the info
 

DeletedUser

Sorry but I find this amusing.
Started playing back beginning of December, was more or less clueless at start but came on the forum and hunted up information about the game. Majority of that time I've been playing on Android as PC died so no treasure hunt. Joined a guild because I liked the description and didn't have to apply. Turned out it was a newer guild and only had about 30 players when I joined with no one above EMA at the time. Stuck with that guild ever since and been helping it grow. I M/P guild, neighbors and friends daily and negotiate for all sectors.
Got Zues, Babel, Lighthouse, Aachen, Hagia, St. Mark's, and Castle Del Monte up currently, will have Saint Basil's in a few days (waiting to get expansion as part of current event or it would be up.) Complete sets of prints for Colosseum and Notre Dame which I'll likely never use, and a ton of prints for higher age buildings including over half the prints needed for both the Arc and Chateau.

No need to guild hop, no reason to disconnect houses etc. Just build smart, make good friends and be in an active supportive guild.
 

DeletedUser25625

Very nice job. I followed a lot of this advice for my first 5 days. Now, I have 45 hours (2 collections of 24 Blacksmiths) to go before I hit the Iron Age (with 6+ BPs for Babel and Zeus).

What's the best combination of buildings for someone who wanted to "stall out" at the end of the Iron Age [doing the recurring quests] instead of Bronze Age?

I ask because - the entire Bronze Age tech tree only costs 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 7 + 9 + 10 + 8 = 127 FPs. Well, I suppose you could FP up all three IA techs w/o unlocking any. That's another 39. So 166 + 10 in the hold bar. That's 176. Divided by 24 per day = 7 1/3 days. That means over the next X days until you get all 9 blueprints for both GBs - you lose out on FPs. No where to put them (as you can't contribute to GBs without Architecture, which puts you in the Iron Age).

If you stall out between IA and EMA - you can at least stay until you have all the BPs you need (for all 4 GBs). And, you don't "waste" FPs as you can contribute them to other people's GBs - to get medals, BPs, ... and FPs [in Inventory] back.
 

DeletedUser23123

I went and got the Architecture. Which did knock me in Iron Age. So for that. I'm going to just get the Army Units of that age to fight the Cont. Map.
 

DeletedUser

If your going to do this then start at a time you'll have a lot of free time, preferably a couple days where you can spend all day on FoE like a weekend.
Buy the Quick Start package for the extra FP packs and diamonds. It's very cheap and worth it as you use those extra FP to accelerate your getting to smith so you can start Guild Hopping. Just my take on it but I'd ignore the helmet quests as not going to be in bronze long enough to really cash in on those.
Instead build as many huts and smiths as you can, with just enough Culture to keep them enthusiastic.
Set the smiths for 5 min productions to match your huts.
Remember your going to be on this all day for at least 1 day and preferably 2 so the coin and supplies will accumulate faster with this combination.
Your looking for the collect 1800 coin recuring quest and when you've got the supplies the pay ×coin ×supplies quest. (think those are 600 each in Bronze?)
Next start with the small guilds, even the 1 person ones are fine, your just looking to aid for the coins and possible BP. Use aid, don't try manually m/p as it will eat to much time.
While your doing this guild hopping go ahead and send friend requests (on PC not such an issue, but on mobile only time you can see people out of your hood/guild is while your not in a guild so this is your chance to try getting a full friends list of higher age players.
Keep an eye on your rewards from the completed recurring quests, your looking for goods and this is why you want to start with the small Guilds first so you can complete the recurring a few times and have some goods for trade before hitting larger guilds.
Once you've got some goods start checking the market for any favorable trades. Remember no FP cost for trading in Guild and you can frequently find better than fair trades as players are trying to expedite their trades or give their guild mates a good deal. Your boosted goods don't matter at this point all your looking for is to work the market in your favor. Also don't be afraid to trade up if the chance arises.
Now depending on your patience and free time you can either sit on FP rewards to give you a bit of extra time in Bronze or burn them on research. Personally even if I have the time I prefer getting architecture as soon as possible so when I do settle in for at least a few days I can contribute to GBs to hopefully get more BPs and FP packs along with medals for expansions.
When your eyes get blurry or you just can't stand looking at the screen anymore, find a larger Guild that's at least 10th level and call it a day. Before shutting down take the opportunity to post some fair trades to even out your goods or build up what you'll need for those GBs. You want to be in a larger Guild during down time for improved odds of getting trades and higher level Guild will net you bonus FP.
Since your using the aid button and not manually visiting each city to M/P your going to get a large number of BPs of all ages, and moving into the Iron age will have almost no impact on what BPs you get.
Regardless of age you will likely be getting more BPs from the lower ages than higher ages, simply because there are far more players in the lower ages. Also many of the smaller Guilds you'll be dashing through are made by low age/new players while the larger Guilds will be more likely to have the more advanced players.
 

amg777

Member
Very nice job. I followed a lot of this advice for my first 5 days. Now, I have 45 hours (2 collections of 24 Blacksmiths) to go before I hit the Iron Age (with 6+ BPs for Babel and Zeus).
I ask because - the entire Bronze Age tech tree only costs 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 7 + 9 + 10 + 8 = 127 FPs. Well, I suppose you could FP up all three IA techs w/o unlocking any. That's another 39. So 166 + 10 in the hold bar. That's 176. Divided by 24 per day = 7 1/3 days. That means over the next X days until you get all 9 blueprints for both GBs - you lose out on FPs. No where to put them (as you can't contribute to GBs without Architecture, which puts you in the Iron Age).
.

I stayed in BA a little while after spending the 166 Parasite refers to, and spent some of the fps on market trades balancing out what I was getting from the recurring quests, and trading some of the BA up. Couldn't use them all, but at least some weren't "wasted". (Normally, I rarely use fps on trades, unless it's really in my favor, getting most of what I need within my guilds.)
 

DeletedUser25625

I redid the math.

You start with 10 FPs. There is a story (mandatory) quest to buy an FP. Plus, you get 2 for going to Bronze Age. Not sure about the 10 in the hold bar - as you get 10/full bar when entering the Iron Age. So, 153 is the actual number of hours (assuming you acquire no other FPs), where you don't waste/lessen the value of your accrued FPs. True completing [out of Guild] trades with FPs is helpful - but a large diverse guild should be able to fill any BA/IA goods requests ... check that before you finish "flipping" a guild.
 

DeletedUser26471

First, this is great; thank you for writing it. But something seems off in the Day One picture. Though you mention happiness, the numbers don't work. You have a longhouse and 20 huts which gives a total population of 350. You have four memorials and two obelisks, nothing polished, which is total happiness of 324. How can you be at 120%? Thanks if anyone can explain what I'm missing.
 

DeletedUser10415

Weird. Well, there's room for another memorial, which would cover the discrepancy and then some.
 

DeletedUser25625

Your Bronze Age setup is 30 Blacksmiths (2x2) plus 13 Chalets (2x2) and 1 Longhouse (4x2) plus 2 Taverns (3x3). So, that's 120 Supply squares + 60 Population squares plus 18 Happiness squares = 198 squares

Blacksmiths require 12 Population = 360 Population
Chalets provide 32 Population = (360 - 70) / 32 = 290 / 32 = 9 Chalets. But, you also need to support the military - so 4 more Chalets (128 People) is needed
Taverns provide 280 Happiness = 280 * 2 = 560 Happiness = 466.67 * 120%. So in order to be over - that means you need a Total (Used and unused) Population of 466 or less. Polished allows you to go to 932

I'm leaving in/ignoring the military buildings [and the 128 Population usage] - as you would otherwise get plundered

I figured out the Iron Age setup.

There are 5 Reward Expansions (4x4) as part of the Tech Tree. So we have the previous 198 + 80 for a total of 278 squares

10 Butchers (4x3) plus 15 Cottages (2x2, 73 Population) plus 7 Triumphal Arches (3x2, 190 Happiness) = 120 Supply squares + 60 Population Squares (1095 Population [*1.2 = 1314]) + 42 Happiness squares (1330 Happiness) = 222 squares

Butchers require (60 Population) = 600 Population. That means we can build 6 more Butchers (72 squares) based on Population, but only 4 more based on squares available (56) ... except we also get 10 Medals for entering Iron Age and that's enough for our first Victory Expansion. Giving us 16 more squares.

So, the Ideal Iron Age set up [whilst gathering BPs] is 16 Butchers, 15 Cottages, and 7 Triumphal Arches. Notice that I've gotten rid of the Longhouse !!!

... and with fewer/larger buildings - less need for connecting roads [and the minimal happiness they provide].

Note: Iron Age has two 24-hour productions recurring quest for Butcher or Goat Farm or both. Just do the Butcher (meat) one. And the coins quest requires multiple guild hops and/Cottage collection.
 
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DeletedUser26471

Thank you for the analysis. Very useful way to look at things.
My results after a couple days have left me underwhelmed with the recurring quests--wait all day for the helmets and then get coin/supplies and a few goods, but the grinding through the guilds has produced several BPs. The randomness is a disappointment, though. I must have collected 10. BPs for the Tower, but only have 6 of the 9 I need. Well, off to visit a few more folks...
 

DeletedUser26471

Forgive my early moaning above. I'm starting to figure this out. According to the odds, of course the quests have low likelihood of delivering the BPs--for one coin quest I need to aid 90 people; probably there is 90x the chance that I get a BP from aiding rather than from the coin quest. Also figured out that the helmet quest actually gives the opportunity for two quests, since I will have plenty of supplies to pay for the pay coins/supplies quest. Yes, the duplication is a pain, and I do wish they'd made it so when you trade in two hard-earned duplicate BPs you'd be sure of getting one that you need, but, hey, I guess if it was easy, everyone would get all the GBs, right?
So again let me thank you for this brilliant work, and the beautiful presentation. I hope you will complete it, or add to it. I am thinking hard about moving up to iron age in order to be able to contribute FPs and look for blueprints that way, too, but I'd really like to hear your analysis on how well the system will work in the iron age, and thanks to Parasite for a good start on that.
 

DeletedUser26471

Results! Four days in to a new city, and I've only been playing the game for about a week and a half total, and I have collected all of the BP for a Tower of Babel. On the coin quest got yet another duplicate, did the 2 for 1 trade, and just stared in amazement as the last piece appeared. I think it felt all the better for all the extra effort. Thank you again for this great idea!
 

DeletedUser10415

At the very least, I suggest remaining in Bronze Age and continuing the recurring quest grind until you have a full set of Zeus blueprints as well. In the meantime you'll be accumulating Bronze Age goods, supplies, coins, and medium forge point packs from the quests.

The system works half as well once you advance to Iron Age. This is because every time you age up, two more Great Buildings are added to the pool of possible random BPs. Also, Bronze Age cities typically have Bronze Age neighboring cities with maybe a few Iron Age cities in the mix. An Iron Age city's neighbors will range from Bronze through to Early Middle Ages, as neighbors shift as one goes up in ages. This too will expand the range of BPs you'll get from polivating your neighbors. The upshot of all this is it could take you months to get the BPs you'd need to build Zeus if you advance, compared to weeks if you wait.
 

DeletedUser25625

I guess the question is this - does the Attack/Defense bonus round up? I.e. Level 1 Zeus = 3% bonus. For a Spear Fighter 7 Att/7 Def - does the 3% bonus round up or do nothing? If it does nothing, the Zeus is worthless until you reach level 5. If it does something - then it's best just to have it built.

I think Goods and FPs are far more valuable at this point. The time [in Iron Age] you spend trying to finish the Zeus is time gaining BPs for Hagia Sofia (FPs/Happiness) and Lighthouse (Goods/Supply Bonus).
 
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