The usual format - the facts followed by the methods :-)

The two are intertwined, hence why they are one topic here.

It would also be silly to quote the entire tech tree, as it's...big :-)...and it's already in the manual AND Logickal's tech tree page. (Maybe he'll post it here, if not - it's elsewhere on this forum.)

The buildings are fairly simple:

Essentials:

Barracks - your troops come out of them. Max of 3 can be 'active' at any one time.
Blacksmith - gives you access to most of the buildings/tech tree.
Mil Academy - opens up more techs, also improves army limit by 5 (discussed later)
Training guild - lets you buy the upgrades for the barracks and the movement techs. Also essential :-)

Recommended:

Marketplace - a nice way to ditch spare resources and bring in rarer ones. Be sure to get the appropriate techs first, or it won't be worthwhile....

Resources:

Mine - Gives metal.
Quarry - Gives stone.
Woodmill - Gives wood.
(Make sure you keep at least one of these. Loss of one set is usually fatal in the long run :-) )

Goldmine - Gives gold (in addition to that of your castle/techs).
Gempond - Gives gems. You'll need one eventually, but probably not straight away.

Defence:

Palisades - wooden wall. Blocks things, but easy to destroy/remove.
Stone walls - better walls. Same as palisades, but more health. Still doesn't help if someone takes them over and then pulls them down ;-)

Outposts - good sighting range, and bonuses to range (+1) and fighting ability (skill).
Towers - +3 range bonus and even more skill. Poor sighting however, so they don't totally replace outposts!

Drawbridges - like a wall, but your units can pass through. Until it gets taken over, then suddenly it's a pain in YOUR neck instead :-)
That's why, if you're retreating, you should go for walls instead. They block everyone, and they HAVE to be pulled down first :-)

And those are basically the buildings :-)

There are also a hefty library of techs, too numerous to go into here. But there are a few vague 'categories' it would help you to know....

Skill techs - increase in skill for all troops. Flat rate, one-off payment - unlike troop levels :-)
Movement techs - reduce the penalty on the terrain, and help on those long journeys :-)

Commerce techs - build up the marketplace, ends with resources being at decent prices. Very worthwhile.

Defence techs - give access to the various buildings given above, as well as others such as take-over protection. Not urgent, but you'll probably find a use for them at some point :-)

Spy network - there are a couple of techs for this and outposts.

There are other techs, which give things such as increased income, but they tend to be mixed with the others.

----------

Finally - the exploits :-)

First up, the resource buildings. All resource buildings have an upgrade feature which lasts until their re-gen cycle begins :-)
Typically this is 40 turns. Deciding if it's worthwhile is a simple case of maths.

Goldmine:

Cost: 2500 gold.
Gain: 250 gold/turn

Therefore, it will pay for itself in 10 turns, and after that the rest of the gold is a bonus :-)

Gempond:

Cost: 2000 gold, 50 gems.
Gain: 10 gems/turn.

Payback - 5 turns for the 50 gems part.
For the gold, the market value for a gem is 25 gold. so 8 turns will serve that. Total - 13 turns till payback.

Mine:

Cost: 1000 gold, 500 metal.
Gain: 50 metal/turn.
Payback - 10 turns for the metal part. Market value of metal = 10 gold, so 2 turns for that as well. 12 turns until payback.

Quarry:

Cost: 1000 gold, 500 stone.
Gain: 50 stone/turn.
Payback - as mine. Metal/stone/wood base price is always 10.

Woodmill:

Cost: 1000 gold, 500 wood.
Gain: 50 wood/turn.
Payback - as

Woodmill:

Cost: 1000 gold, 500 wood.
Gain: 50 wood/turn.
Payback - as mine.

Gold techs are also worthwhile. The taxes tech should ALWAYS be your first pick, paying for itself in a few turns. Resource gen is much less valuable, but give constant gems.

(cont.)

Military academies have an extra use. You are allowed 20 stacks of units at any time - each mil academy increases this by 5.

To get more troop types, you must upgrade your barracks. Bear this cost in mind when deciding what your army will be.

All ranged troops (minus the catapult) rely on the archery tech. If you can't get ranged troops, this is why!

The training tech/upgrades are indispensible. The sooner you get them, the better your chance later in the game. The players who survive usually have most of their troops as well - so you can't really start soon enough!

As shown above, all you need to consider is the maths behind the techs. How soon will it pay you back? Will it be too late...? Do you really need it, or are armies more important right now?

Finally, a light brush-over of tactics...although this will be covered in more depth in the "Advanced tactics" section.
There are two basic approaches with techs.

1) You race up the tech tree as quick as possible, including upgrades.
Pros - you get a powerful economy. You can build whatever you like.
Cons - you have to live that long! Neglecting armies make you a target if you don't sign NAPs everywhere.

2) You build lots and lots of armies - only buying the techs/upgrades you urgently need.
Pros - gives you the best chance of getting another castle quickly.
Cons - the econ players may eventually out-pace you and you'll become a target. Of course, if you succeed in your attacks, you'll have a bigger income base anyway, and - again - can build/buy whatever you want! That assumes you win though, and nothing is certain...especially in the harder games....

Anything missed out, as usual, add it here. But remember - this is about the good use of buildings and techs, not an overall strategy. That is reserved for the major tactics lectures a couple of weeks away or so.

The tech tree I did can be found at: logickal.net/wol

Read and appreciated.

Seems no one else had anything to comment on..
Thought id let you know people are reading it though CTD

Next up is politics :-)

We've covered the basics, now we're gonna start bringing it together...the good stuff :-)

If at any point people don't understand...well, they get referred back to the earlier lectures...! :-)

Logikal- Nice tech tree. I might even link to it over the online manual.

Is the drawbriges tech path correct? I have castle protection and walls tech and yet can't see the drawbridge tech yet.

have you researched castle walls at 1 one of your castles yet??? It is also a Prereq.

Ah thanks... good grief this is expensive. heh... can't believe I am still asking all these simple questions sometimes.

We all do - it never hurts to be surer than sure

bumped for newbies

what to reasearch? Well this is the best way to have the most gold in the least time or at least the way I got it.

(note that you must also take the surrounding resource generators to help you with the following)
Turn 1 research taxes.
Turn 2 build blacksmith, research millitary
Turn 3 build milltary acadamy, research commerce
Turn 4 build a Market first and if you can a barracks, research tax reform(after you build the market)
Turn 5 build a traing guild, research archery.

Now from there you will have 3 barracks producing ranged and melee units. 3000 gold per turn(plus 100 wood, stone, and metal)

Last Edited : Sunday, 21 September 2003 - 12:06

yep, thats the best way to go about it. Any other new people like to learn from me just PM me. I know saruman here is benifiting from my guidance.

I think you will have 3500 gold income.
1000 castle income
1000 taxes
1000 tax reform
500 Gold mine
____
3500 Total Income in Gold

Last Edited : Sunday, 21 September 2003 - 23:03

not many are lucky enough to find a gold mine with in the first 5 turns and take it. there are the maze maps that show a gold mine on the other side of the forest/mountain but it takes many turns to get to it. Or the wide open maps that has the mines either a stone throgh away or 2 turns travel. Besides a gold mine only gives 250. you must also upgrade it to get the full 500 and that takes 2500 gold. not worth it till you have your 3000 base ready.

A gold mine gives you 500 gold to start and an additional 250 after you buy the tech.

Last Edited : Sunday, 21 September 2003 - 23:11

oopps...I should probally reread the manual for the hundredth time...My bad.

Of course, this is only one of the extremes. The other is a gain a military advantage and use it to crush a nearby opponent before they can make the most of their advanced economy

I do not know about that CTD. If both players have the potential to create the same number of troops but one player(player X) spends his gold on slowly creating a millitary force while the other(player Y) uses the above plan then they would both have the same number of troops by turn 6(potentially) but player Y has now a income of about 3500 gold in which he/she can then spend it on upgrades and troops or just troops which enables him/her to deploy all his troops in one big batch than having to wait several turns till they have a force of 400ish(easy to do with basic level troops) And most castles are at least 3 turns travel time from each other so once you build a small force(300-500) It would take you B amount of time to get to the castle and by that time the player Y will have nearly 800-900 troops ready and waiting to push his/her forces back home(so long as they use a P/R/S system and use a larger stack vs a smaller stack)