PLAYER GUIDE
A guide by the players, for the players.
  • [The following was compiled by Athyton of Merlidia, much thanks go to him for efforts to help the community]

    SECTION I: Getting Started

    SECTION II: Province Development

    SECTION III: Miscellaneous

    1) Dismantling Buildings
    2) Officers and General
    3) Auction
    4) Additional Help
    5) Mercenaries
    6) Huge/Great Fires
    7) Wall Bonuses
    8) Resource Management
    9) Gold Production
    10) Peasant Revolt
    11) Inflation
  • 12) Land
    13) Politics
    14) Recruitment
    15) Kingdoms
    16) Attacks
    17) Inter Continental Attacks (ICA)
    18) Troop Fitness
    19) Volunteers
    20) Spies
    21) Paths
  • 22) Emperor
  • 23) Roleplay, Aegis and the Eternal Conflict
  • 24) Keeping the game alive

    =====================SECTION I=========================


    =========GETTING STARTED===========

    Tip 1:
    Read THE GUIDE


    Tip 2:
    Read the WALKTHROUGH


    Tip 3:
    Buy acres in batches. Really get together every dime and nickel and then buy acres. Acre prices go up based upon how many acres you have at the moment.
    ACRE PRICE = CURRENT LAND AREA / 2


    Tip 4:
    Plan your tax offices and get your tax coverage to 100%. In the beginning 9 tax offices should be enough.


    Tip 5:
    First sow, then reap. Do not spend any money / resources on your army too soon.


    Tip 6:
    One addition to this: each 4 citizens require one acre to live in!


    =====================SECTION II=========================

    =========TIPS FOR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT======

    KNOWLEDGE is important. Before you start playing, take your time
    reading posts in The Guide, especially the walkthrough on what you should do with your 50 first turns. Others are important too. The more you know about the game, the easier it is for you to make your decisions.

    Whenever a player starts the game, he/she will be given certain
    resources to manage. Now each player can use them as he wants, but there is generally a good plan to use. First thing to balance out is the farm and food production. Farms house 5 peasants and take up 7 acres per 1 building. So you have to be careful HOW you plan to grow. I will not put the numbers, as you need to figure stuff like this out with practice, but the guide gives simple examples.

    Second step will be increasing your resources, and so you need at least 20 of each building (wood/stone/textiles). Get CY and school count to 20, and then increase resources more to 100 (planning them as you need).

    Remember you will be exploring as you need more buildings and peasants, so keep in mind that you need an adequate number of tax collectors and a tax of 3 (hence you need around 20-30 pubs to prevent a revolt). Now get the tax collector.

    After those 4 the plan will be to get the university ASAP, since the
    university increases your skill up to 5 and thus increases your overall productivity, this is VERY important early on.

    After the university is done the goal will be the 3 protections (fire
    brigands, city guard, health centres). Health/crime/fire problems kick in after you GO ABOVE 2,000 peasants. So make sure you have those buildings planned.

    The next goal is the hospital, bank and granary (for safe keeping of
    food and cash, as well as lower peasant deaths).

    Finally in your final step of breaking through the fresh-province state, you will need to research the warehouse and wood store. It is quite hard for any province to get 15k textiles from the start for the warehouse research, as well as 8k textiles for the wood stores. Hence your best choice will be to bid in the auctions for the said amounts. Or ask a KD member if they have enough caravans.


    BUILDING POINTS increase as your Networth increases. If you want to
    expand your growth potential then Construction Yards are the way to go. For new players this would mean an enormous amount of Stone required. Either produce it or purchase it.

    Your building points will not increase till you are 200k NW. This means that you can do with 20 CY up until 200k NW. Just before you cross the 200k NW mark, you plan around 30-80 Construction Yards and start building them.

    NOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IS WHAT YOUR GOAL IS.
    What is it that you want to do in this game? Fight? Grow? Compete?

    When you get that question answered you can plan your strategy
    accordingly. For a person who wants to fight, you need to stress on certain points such as wood production (for wall breakers) and a bit of gold production for the army and so on. If you are planning to grow on your own, then you will have to build a stable economy that will allow you to grow easily and without asking too much help from anyone, which is what I prefer.


    Now as to how we are going to use our land. This following explanation will show how players SHOULD think when building/growing/exploring.

    LAND USAGE
    --------------
    The best method for comparing the relative value of building is land
    usage. What does this mean?

    Each building itself occupies 1 acre (farms 7 acre), but requires a
    certain number of peasants to operate. Peasants each require 0.25 acres of un-built land in order to live and work. Thus each Construction Yard and Market requires 2.25 acres in order to be productive!

    So a quick rundown of the buildings and the land they each require:


    - Lumber Mill, Textile Mill, Stone Quarry 1.25 (each)
    - Tax Office 1.50
    - Construction Yard, Market, School 2.25 (each)
    - Barracks 3.50
    - Farm 8.25

    For example let us compare selling textiles at the bazaar with using
    markets.

    Lets say you have 500 acres of markets that average 47,000 gold per
    Turn; your gold per acre is 47,000 / (500 *2.25) = 41.78 gold per acre but you have 300 textile mills producing 485 / turn average and the bazaar price for textiles is 22.

    (485 * 22) / (300 * 1.25) = 28.45 gold per acre. Tex mills are 32%
    less efficient! Truly, there are other considerations, but now you know how to compare apples to apples.

    However the bazaar prices for textile/gold exchange may change.

    The second benefit to thinking about total land usage comes when
    planning your buildings. For instance knowing the barracks require 3.5 acres each, you know that it will take 35% of your land to house 1 soldier per acre. So if your goal is 1 soldier per acre remember to set aside that much land for the military even though you only build 10% with barracks (the rest are for peasants)!

    Now that we have a general run down of the general idea of this game, we can move on to planning for the future steps.

    You may wish to consider building a small army. When small you can
    acquire land and resources from inactive provinces out there or from
    raiding active provinces/kingdoms, depending on your kingdom’s stance. Make sure you read the kingdom forums.

    To grow you need two things; land and buildings on your new lands. Hence the primary goal is getting gold to explore and the second is concerning on Construction Yards (CY).

    So how do you know that you are growing fine. Well there is a simple
    calculation. Building is related to your NW. Each acre of building costs something called building points. This cost is calculated by the simple formula:

    Building cost= 100 or NW/2000 whichever is larger.

    Ok so now that you know how much each building costs, the next step is to know your growth rate. At the end turn page you will see how much your builders produce in build points. (it is better if your builders’ skill is at 10 to calculate this one).

    Now you simply divide the build points per turn by the building cost. Build points per turn/building cost. The number you receive should ALWAYS be above 5. However a good growth is considered to be at 10 buildings per turn in lower Net-Worth ranges.

    Example:

    -NW=5mill
    -Building cost= 5mill/2000 = 2500
    -Assume you have 500 CY= 2.5k builder with 10 skill = 25k building
    points per turn
    -25k/2500= 10 buildings per turn.

    This is a good rate of building, meaning that in 100 turns you can build around 1k buildings which is considered great for growth. So always plan your CY number before hand and consider your other buildings as early on as possible.

    From this explanation, you can see that having a high Networth is not really advantageous. Another problem found with a lot of players is that they want to increase their Networth as soon as possible, just so they can catch up with bigger provinces.

    Players doing that, are hurting their provinces. Your best chance is to grow slowly and plan your growth at the very start of the game.

    If your province is planned with care, you will grow way faster later on; but if it is poorly planned, you will find it quite difficult to grow as you progress.

    Growth is also dependent on your aim. A warring province is hampered by a larger Networth as it can only reach down to provinces that are 50% of its NW (25% for those with a religion path).

    A bigger Networth also brings you in range of more developed players. Wait until you have a well developed province with good defences before you decide to concentrate on NW if you so wish.


    A good plan is to gather resources as a small province, and then grow fast later on.

    Before thinking of war, think of your economy. A good economy will allow you to have a stronger army later on.

    In fact a good working economy (resources/gold income) is the basis for any strategy. For an explorer it gives a good income for everything, and for attackers it allows them to be self reliant and at the same time more capabilities for what they wish to do (remember siege engines cost wood and lots of gold).

    The best strategy is to purchase large land masses at a go and designate and queue your buildings while the Building Costs are still low.

    Entertainers despise Martial Law so will not benefit a province under
    Martial Law. For revolts, if you have sufficient Pubs and Entertainers then no need to declare Martial Law as your entertainers will quickly regain your Morale as opposed to the slow rate of Morale growth through Martial Law.

    When employing Agents always have at least 1:200 Agents:Acres for max
    coverage. (this is highly expensive, and not advisable early on)


    Just concentrate on building a `stable` province, producing enough
    resources to support yourself, keeping your Construction Yards to a good level, able to plan things quickly, etc.



    Resource building ratios vary from player to player, with good reason.

    - Aggressive players need a lot of wood in order to build siege engines.
    - Defensive players need a lot of stone in order to keep those expensive walls operational.
    - And everyone needs some degree of textiles, to keep up on the necessary building research, but high-tech players need even more.

    - Textile Mills

    It is good to have more Tex mills then other resource buildings. I
    suggest you work to about 250-400 Lumber mills and Quarries and 500-750 Tex mills.

    Just count the amount of Textile you need to plan everything, more than a million.

    Textiles can also be used after you finish all the research, to get food (through the Bazaar) and reduce your dependency on farms. For Science and Religion path provinces they are more efficient than farms. For Magic, farms are better due to the 2x production boost they receive. The textiles are the only resource that can NOT be plundered by an attacker. If you get attacked, and the attacker destroys some of your farms, the textiles are invaluable.

    Smaller provinces derive the most benefit from Walls and Towers as the sieges necessary to take them down are expensive for potential enemies in their range.

    Keep 10-15% at all times, and a good defensive army on. Walls depending on the coverage multiply your overall defence value.

    Towers are very good defence for small provinces, 1 tower kills on average 1 attacking soldier. This makes the attacker lose a lot of extra soldiers, making his/hers second attack weaker.



    ======================SECTION III=========================


    ===HOW CAN I GET RID OF BUILDINGS====

    You cannot.

    The only way to do it is through a Rain of Fire from a Magic Path or someone attacking you with a Raze buildings attack. You cannot choose what buildings get destroyed that way.

    Spies can destroy certain buildings (markets, Fire Brigades, Hospitals) but this is not advisable as it can create a lot of problems for your province from plagues, fires and crime waves if you are not prepared.


    ===POPULATION =======

    Population fluctuates a lot. You can lose up to 15-20% of your population. It is designed like that, as it increases the difficulty of province management the more you grow and is a challenge to overcome.

    The best way is to have a certain number of unemployed peasants to act as a buffer zone, to avoid losing workers and the skill gained.

    Free land (keep 10% of it free) to maintain a buffer population is the only sure way to avoid losing peasants engaged in production and military.

    Further suggestions:

    - Keep Health Centres, Fire Brigades and City Guard at Very Good and for Fire Brigades at 1% of your total land.
    - Lower you tax rate, the higher your tax rate the worse your population influx.
    Look at the land use ratio and how much is dedicated to habitation and free land for more detailed fine-tuning.

    Other than that population fluctuates, A LOT. It is designed that way and the fluctuation increases with size.

    ====OFFICERS AND GENERALS========

    Each officer costs 500 gold per turn to maintain and the General costs 2000. Make sure you have the income to support them full time before hiring them.

    Dismissing them results in Morale loss (2 per officer and 8 for the General) that only recovers by 0.1 per turn.

    The General is the only unit that adds a 0.4 recovery to the Morale and Discipline modifier.


    =============AUCTION===============

    You can access it once you reach 30,000 in Networth.

    A useful way to sell extra resources for gold. Looking at the auctions you will see which products are more requested. Textiles and Wood are usually the resources that attract higher prices.

    When putting a bid on the auctions do not be greedy and try to always sell at the maximum initial price, especially when small. You can only put up for sale an amount equal to 2x your land size. For new players this translates as a small quantity since your province is still growing. The bigger players with the most gold to spend are unlikely to be attracted by the quantity on offer and may ignore your goods. Hence look at the other bids for the same item and see if your goods is in high or low demand; after this set the price for the initial bid.

    If you are thinking people do not have that much gold when they start, think kingdom aid. It is easier to send gold, because it requires less caravans.


    ==========ADDITIONAL HELP===========

    Check the Guide. Additional help is offered through:

    - Gamezone Chat
    - Empire Forums - See relevant Sections - Game Questions Or Game strategy
    - Kingdom Forums


    =========MERCENARIES=========

    Check the relevant section of the Guide

    Clarifications:

    You pay full price to hire them, full price per Global Turn (per hour) to maintain them and half their cost to attack.

    Attacking with mercenaries means you lose 3 points of honour if the opponent is smaller (NW wise) or 1 point if bigger, so a positive honour score is required for offensive use.

    When attacking with mercenaries you may only spend 5 gold upon attacking mercenaries per 1 barrack troop you send, for example to send one levie you will need to send 5 other barracked troops.
    You can still use them for defence, even with negative honour


    =========HUGE/GREAT FIRES=============

    Great fires happen at a rate of 1/500 turns. Meaning that whatever you do, a great fire or crime WILL happen, there is little you can do to prevent it. However you can lower the damage caused by great fires.

    A very good fire coverage is a good plan, but do not stop there, you can go over very good coverage (although it does not say), hence the more you build the better. 1% of your total land in Fire brigades guarantees that you will not lose buildings in the event of a great/huge fire.

    You will still lose morale so keep an eye out in your end of turn report to prevent revolt.


    =========WALL BONUSES=================

    Walls multiply your total defence provided by your army by the following numbers depending on coverage:

    Complete (5% of land) = x1.7
    Strong (10% of land) = x2.5
    Robust (15% of land) = x4
    Impenetrable (20% of land) = x6

    Masons guild offers a 50% to your wall coverage and Engineer`s guild offers a further 50%. With both these upgrades you can reach Impenetrable walls while only actually building walls on 10% of your land.

    However, be advised that both these upgrades can be erased by a Science province spying operation called Cold War.


    =========RESOURCE MANAGEMENT========

    1) Food

    Food will be a major problem in a starting province. It is difficult to know how many farms you will need to feed your ever expanding population and new players often end up starving their population. To avoid this you have to make sure that food produced is never exceeded by food eaten for a sustained period of time. If this happens it is altogether possible to lose over 80% of your workforce in a single fell swoop (I once lost 200 peasants out of my 250). This loss can be a crucial factor in slowing your growth, not only because you lose the skill for your workers but also because of the lost tax revenue.

    Food Decay is minimised by purchasing granaries. These are the first decay-preventing plans you will be able to get so it is worthwhile getting them as soon as possible. They can prove to be of great use storing up a big reserve of food. Each can safeguard up to 10,000 units of food so you do not need that many.

    2) Stone

    Stone is the one `resource` that does not decay. As such you might be forgiven for thinking that it is the one that requires the least management but that is not the case. Depending on Kingdom requirements, you may be forced to build walls as soon as possible; this will put a severe drain on your stone production. Walls, and towers, are very stone-heavy. (100 stone per acre of walls, 80 for towers). If your Kingdom does require that you have a high defence it may prove worthwhile, and has in my experience, to build about 200 acres of quarry. This will produce large quantities of stone so you can build up your walls.

    Of course, if there is no such requirement you may find it more beneficial to concentrate on other resources. As a general rule, defensive provinces need large amounts of stone to build up maximum defences.

    3) Textiles

    Textiles will plague a starting province. They are difficult, and expensive, to obtain in the beginning. Like gold they are used to start plans, and as such it is very possible that you will often fall short. Unfortunately, they are also needed to start building. For instance, markets use 50 textile per acre, this effectively rules out building large quantities for a long period. If you are a province looking for quick expansion you will need as many textiles as you can get. The auction is the best source for them, so keep an eye out for bargains early on.

    Textile decay is prevented with the Warehouse. But this is a very expensive plan to start, it is hard to get the textiles to start this plan. It is also a very expensive building, requiring 150 textiles per acre. Once you start building these, your textile problems will start to ease away. They can safeguard 1500-1800 textiles each.

    4) Wood

    Wood is not a major problem. With 100 lumber mills you can produce enough wood to see you through the first few hundred turns. Wood is often seen as a requirement for offensive provinces as it is essential in the production of ballista and trebuchets. This should not be a major worry for a starting province because few Kingdoms will have a requirement for offensive capabilities. However, if they do, it is worth attempting to generate as much wood as possible.

    Wood is subject to decay. The first 2.5k wood will not generate much decay, but after this point it becomes almost impossible to stock a decent amount without wood stores. These, for an attacking province, are a must have. Each store can safeguard 1000 units of wood.


    Now I will give a very small guide on how you might want to structure your economy depending on your style of play.

    a) Offensive provinces will want to look towards building a wood and gold based economy. This will help pay for an army as well as siege machines. But, it is worth remembering that you will need a fair bit of stone to build barracks and textiles will be needed to start plans for training grounds so you can recruit officers.

    b) Defensive provinces will want to focus on stone accumulation. With this you can raise up your walls and towers. But, again, never neglect wood and textiles for the research.

    c) Economic provinces may want to look towards a gold and textile based economy. This will help them look towards the planning aspects. Special plans will help your economy no end, and will contribute to a strong economy. The basic plans are all (apart from the possible exception of stable and archery rages) required by the end of your first 500 turns (which are not all covered in this guide). Never assume that an economic province is safe guarded. Aegis is a game that revolves around conflict and war is the most common means of expressing that conflict. To build in peace, you need the means to enforce those means either through a strong defence or a ferocious reputation as an aggressor.

    Of course, the above are merely guidelines. It is impossible to ignore production of one resource to build up another. A balanced economy is always required, but you must choose where to place the emphasis, if you want one, based on your style of play. This is only a rough guide and you may find that your style of play is not covered.

    The main thing to keep in mind is your role. If you will be a ruthless warrior, maximising attack is the aim, if you wish to be a defender and peacefully expand, strong fortifications and fielding the troops with the highest defence scores is the way to go. That is what will determine your province planning.

    =========GOLD PRODUCTION==============

    For a starting province, gold will be one of those annoying resources that you never seem to have enough of. This is because, for a starting province, it has only two purposes; to explore land and to start plans.
    Gold be gained through the following ways:

    - Tax - High tax levels not only decrease your morale but also decrease your population influx so before increasing them, make sure you produce enough morale points through Entertainers and/or Pubs. The aim is to have the highest tax level you can accommodate without loosing too many peasants.

    - Merchants - Employed by building markets

    - Auction - By selling surplus resources

    - Plunder Gold - War of-course. Gold oils the machines of war.

    - Through Caravans - Kingdom mates supplying you

    For starters, maximising merchants, tax officers, and getting a good balance of tax rates and pub/entertainers. Take advantage of the fast building rates of new provinces and obtain your optimal mix so as to achieve a 4.5 tax rate. 250-300 pubs are all you will need under the current mechanics so do not overdo it.


    ========PEASANT REVOLT===============


    Devastating and quite easy to unwittingly cause when starting out in the game

    When playing with your tax rate. keep a close eye on your morale. As long as it’s above 80 you are safe but when it dips lower than that, you risk peasant revolt (especially if the descent in a turn is drastic).

    The worst effect of peasant revolt is its solution. The only fix is to declare martial law and keep martial law fixed for a significant amount of turns (with 1% determined tax rate). If you weren’t paying attention and morale quickly hit rock bottom it takes approximately 30-40 turns before you can cease martial law. Make sure you store enough turns before declaring martial law and proceed to fix the problem (as martial law weakens your military). The rate of morale increase under martial law is 1-4 (random). Entertainers and pubs are negated by the effects of martial law. If you halt martial law too quickly (70+ morale is a safe stopping point) your peasants will start revolting again and you will have to start the process over from the beginning.

    It can set new players back several days because tax is your primary source of income for those first 1k turns or so and having to burn 30 turns at 1% tax while your military is weak, is not fun.

    =========INFLATION=====================

    Taxation and prosperous economic decisions will fill your treasure vaults with gold soon enough. As your income exceeds your expenses, profit will rise and you will begin to hoard gold. If you hoard too much gold, you will create a state of inflation. Inflation is relative within your province, so it has no effect, but if this gets to enemy ears, your economy may be subject to re-evaluation. Your rivals can call for economic measures to be taken against you by infiltrating spies and deflating your economy. The higher your inflation percentage, the higher the re-evaluation and monetary loss you will suffer. Deflation attacks can cause economic disasters in your province, with losses of up to 30% of the original capital, so beware.

    Inflation starts rising when you have more gold stored in your province than your NW/10. Anything above that is subject to the deflate spy operation.

    If your inflation is 100% you will lose 30% of your gold.

    If your inflation is 50% you will lose 15% of you gold.
  • =========LAND=====================
  • The most crucial factor in the growth of a province is land. Not everyone aims to grow big or keep growing for ever but those that do need to be aware of the exploration costs. It is possible to grow up to 50,000 acres on your own income but above that size, further growth is only really possible through warfare. This is due to the exponential growth of land exploration costs above that size so players need to factor the above in their gameplay. Aegis is powered by conflict so it is therefore impossible to declare yourself 'neutral' and aspire to be left alone. If you wish to achieve your full potential, you will need to engage with others and the need for war after a certain size emphasizes this point.

  • ========POLITICS=================

    This is a game that includes politics. Of course, there is the ability to fight, but you should be very careful in exercising that option. Your behaviour in forums should not make you a potential target.

    So for your own good, try to make a s many friends as possible in the beginning of this game. Show yourself in the chat on a positive way and start making friends.
    Your kingdom mates are your most important friends, so choose a kingdom that fits your style and participate in the forum. You cannot imagine how helpful this can be for your province. Avoid excessive complaining and arguing over the same point again and again. The politics thread is for concise statements setting out your position, not endless bickering. Send private messages for further discussions with your opponent.

    This is a game of Role-playing, so keep in-character. You will be appreciated for it.

    Your first crucial step in the journey to political power and fame, is joining a Kingdom. I strongly suggest browsing through the "Kingdom for Sale" thread in the empire forums, or looking through the scores for a KD which is open and relatively active. If you have friends already in Aegis, ask them! Chances are they will be more politically attuned than you are and will be able to direct them towards a Kingdom which is both active, yet protective towards its members.

    Make sure your KD has the same philosophy as you do. If you intend to live on peacefully for example, you do not want to join a KD which is constantly entangled in warfare, and vice versa.

    Now that you have joined a Kingdom, start browsing the Kingdom Forums. This is the hub of activity in any decent Kingdom. Find out who is powerful, who is influential, who is active and who is not. Post a lot, but relevantly. Most of all however, make friends. Connections are a crucial step on the road to political success, and an influential friend will rub onto you.

    Look into the official roles of the people in your Kingdom. Chances are you have a diplomat, and maybe a historian, treasurer, or scribe. If one of these positions is open, jump in! It is a great opportunity to give you a good reason to post on the Empire Forums!

    The Empire Forums is where the real politics goes on. Once you have become familiar with your KD, you can start posting on these independently, and making your own stand for your KD. A few threads a very significant:

    (a)Kingdom Politics: This is where inter-kingdom politics goes on. You should browse through this often, and post whenever you are needed. It is however, a good idea to think before you post here. One misunderstood post could have drastic consequences for your Kingdom

    (b) Empire politics: This deals on politics at a larger scale. Browse it, but mostly you should be staying in the KD politics thread.

    A few other threads can also be useful in politics: flaming, the tavern, each of these can be used to influence political allies and enemies...if you have the skill.
    You will only gain fame and power however, if you stand for yourself. If you are active, often, and participate in as many issues as possible, you are that much closer to fame and prosperity. However, keep in mind that there are times when you have to back down to live another day.

    ========RECRUITMENT==============

    Before you join a kingdom, you should try to gather some information on that kingdom (at least read the kingdom blurb - which you find Scores - King and then click on the kingdom you are interested in).

    Also it does not hurt to read the province recruitment ads (Forum Empire - Find a Kingdom thread).

    Decide whether their playing style corresponds to what you intend to do and whether you fit the demands that a kingdom places on new vassals (or whether maybe this kingdom only seems to be open but is in fact open only for certain provinces)

    This will save you from losing honour when a king/queen banishes you from their kingdom.


    ========KINGDOMS==============

    This game is designed to be played by players grouping together in kingdoms. By joining one you get the most out of it, as you are able to aid each other through transferring resources, a king providing a kingdom wide defence, joint actions when attacking/defending and benefiting from any Acts the kingdom may have.

    As a multiplayer game, interaction with fellow gamers is the crux of Aegis. Kingdoms offer a greater degree of safety due to their political ties, such as alliances and non-aggression agreements with fellow kingdoms. Further, many kingdoms, allow their vassals to attack kingdom-less provinces at will. Being outside a kingdom makes you more likely to be attacked.

    Before joining a kingdom, read their recruitment add or message the king to learn about their stance, e.g. aggressive, peaceful and so on to decide if it fits with how you wish to play the game.

    You select a kingdom from the crown page and you will have access to its private forums 24 hours after you join.

    Kingdoms provide defence through the king buying outposts. They have a purchase cost, and an upkeep cost.

    It is the same whether you buy 1 at a time, or 10 at a time. The price stays the same and does not change.

    Generally 25% protection is the most possible.

    When you buy, you are buying in %. Meaning the 1 you put in the box is 1% of your army charged to protect your kingdom.
    25% means you have 25% of your military strength protecting your kingdom.

    If you have 10k defence.
    25% of that is 2.5k defence which you will provide to all members of your kingdom, until you are attacking or lose units or lower the numbers.

    A kingdom is only as good as its members. Do not be afraid to approach ‘older’ players in the kingdom to benefit from their experience. Get involved in your kingdom and allocate roles. Watch for news and posts in the empire forums relating to your kingdom, discuss them with your kingdom mates and decide on courses of action. Although a king or a diplomat will handle politics, there are many other ways you can assist them, such as by monitoring empire forums and noting goings on with allies and enemies, watching for conflicts or establishing contacts with fellow players in other kingdom that may prove a valuable contact. Or perhaps you can assist with recruitment, messaging newer players and inviting them to join. There are many ways to contribute depending on your time online. Pick a role or position and try it out.

    ===========ATTACKS==============

    See the relevant section in the Guide (left hand link). Here is some additional information to supplement that found in the Attack Strategy description.

    To attack, you need to train an army (minimum 100 men). You do that by assigning militia to a troop type. The army page gives you details of the troop types and their offence/defence value as well as their cost.

    Then you need to spend turns training the army. Your troops need to be a minimum 31% fit to launch an attack.

    To see how many turns you need to spend to train an army to 100% fitness the following formula can be used:

    99/(Fitness gain per turn - (Weight*Fitness per turn)) = turns needed to reach 100% fitness.

    The weight of each troop is given as a % in the troop page accessed through the Army link.

    The fitness gain per turn depends on whether you have researched Training Grounds and whether you have hired any officers/general.

    The default is 0.5 without the special building and officers/General. See the section on troop fitness for more details on what affects your army training.

    Once you have your troops ready then you select a mission type and press to war. To win you need to have a higher offence than your opponent’s defence.

    If your opponent has wall coverage above 5% of his total land, you also need to have sieges (Ballista, Trebuchets and for Science Path provinces, mortars) to bring down the walls below 5% before you can gain anything.

    -Attack Types

    There are 2 major types of attacks. They can be broadly classified by whether, or not, you gain an immediate advantage from them. Plunder, Conquest or Enslave attacks will provide you with a measurable gain from your attack, with either land, peasants or resources.

    Raze or Massacre attacks do not have this advantage. It is not possible to measure the benefit reaped by performing these attacks. There are also the more devastating Path attacks, which have a similar effect.


    1) Conquest: This is a common attack, it is useful, especially in the later stages of the game, because of the huge price when you explore new land. Because it is so common there is not a social stigma attached to it, as with other attack types.

    2) Raze Land: This attack is considered malicious as it may cause the reset of a province and offers no benefit to the attacker as the same effect can be achieved using a conquest type attack. This is a dangerous attack to perform because it is likely to inflame tensions.

    3) The Plunder attacks: These are common and useful attacks. They simply allow for you to grab resources. The more common of the four is the Plunder Gold attack. This is because it helps to pay for the cost of attacking. It is also because the other three (plunder wood, stone and food) are only available to donators to the game.

    4) Raze Buildings: This is another malicious attack. It destroys buildings, and has little gain to the attacker. The gain that there is cannot be measured, it helps slow down a province giving you breathing time. This is especially useful in times of war because it does not have the stigma of being a path attack.

    5) Enslave: Think of this as a Plunder Attack that has a bigger attacking bonus. Not only does it boost your population, but it also diminishes that of the enemy. This can be a real asset, and like Raze attacks helps slow down an enemies’ growth.

    6) Massacre: This is a really nasty attack. Essentially it has all the attack power of Enslave but has a more profound psychological effect. It slows down an enemies’ economy during war, but does nothing to improve your own. Beware of using this because it will, likely, come with strings. Many people look down on this type of attack.

    Before attacking:

    1)Read your Kingdom`s forums whenever you login, and make sure that you meet any defence or offence requirements.

    2)Always keep track of all your kingdom`s alliances, NAP`s, MPA`s and protections over smaller Kingdoms.

    3) If you want to attack someone, and they are in a kingdom, look their kingdom up in your Kingdom`s forums to see if you are allowed to attack their members.

    4) Read the Kingdom Politics (Empire Forums) as much as possible, and ALWAYS read the "War and Stances" and "Kingdom Protection Notices" threads (both in Empire forums) whenever there are new posts there (indicated by a burning flame next to the post.

    This way, you keep track of all your kingdom’s diplomacy, and if you are careful enough, you will not start a World War.

    5) Check the NW range that you can attack. This will appear on the War screen, The value shown is the lowest NW you can attack without losing honour.

    6) Use the Scores screen to find a target in your NW range. You can search a specific NW range on that page.

    7) Use the Info button on the Scores page to determine if your intended target is part of a kingdom or is independent. (Attacking a kingdom member could anger the entire kingdom.)

    8) Using the Chronicles screen, perform a name-specific search for your intended target`s recent history. Depending on your or your kingdom`s rules, you may not want to attack a target that has been attacked within the last 100 turns. Many here on Merlidia see this tactic as vulturing, and may take action against you.


    9) If all items clear your personal rules and intentions, attack away.

    I would also suggest that you take into account common sense, if your target is part of an active, warring kingdom it is not worth the risk of attacking them. If they are part of a more passive kingdom you may be more heartened by it.

    =============Inter-Continental Attacks (ICA)============

    You can attack provinces in other Continents. The following restrictions apply:

    Restrictions...
    -Provinces must pay a fleet expense in gold and wood indicated in the war menu page to launch an ICA.
    -Networth attack restrictions apply at 50%.
    -Conquest attacks are not permitted. Only plunder, enslave, and raze attacks are allowed.
    -There are no spy options available for ICA.
    -A troop must be over 81% fit to take part in an ICA.
    -An ICA reduces a troop`s fitness by 30%.

    Features...
    -An ICA war win will gain you one `GOD FAVOUR` point for that continent.
    -An ICA war loss will lose the continent 1 `favour` points.
    -To gain `GOD FAVOUR` for a continent, the continent must lead in points. These points are shown on the Main menu page.
    -`GOD FAVOUR` points are reset every 24 hours.
    -A favoured continent gains +20% population influx and +20% food growth for all its provinces.
    -ICA attacks are shown on the chronicles page and there is a filter to go with it.

    Benefits of ICA...
    Plunder and enslave attacks +40%


    ============TROOP FITNESS=================

    Here is how fitness and modifiers work:

    1. All troops start with 1 fitness when hired and their fitness progresses until they reach 100 at which point they reach their full offence and defence value.

    2. A number of things affect how fast they train:

    A) Training Grounds (+0.5 fitness gain per turn)
    B) Officers (+0.05 fitness gain per officer/per turn) (50 officers max)
    c) General (+0.5 fitness gain per turn)
    d) Training weight (found in the troop link, Army Page)
    e) Success or Failure of an attack

    The maximum fitness gain per turn that can be achieved with Training Grounds, officers and a general is 4 per turn.

    However, this is countered by their training weight. So assuming one has all of the above, the exact gain of fitness for each troop per turn is:

    4 - (4 * Training weight) = Fitness gain per turn

    For example: Swordsmen - Training weight -17%

    4- (4 * 0.17) = 3.32 Fitness gain per turn.

    100 turns/3.32 = 30 turns to get Swordsmen fully fit

    3. On top of that, there is a discipline and army morale modifier.

    That modifier ranges from 0 (excellent) to -60 (worst). It is affected by the death/dismissal of officers/general and whether you lose or win a battle and indicated by a negative number.

    That modifier is a deduction in the fitness of troops. So if you dismiss your general, you get a -20. Therefore your troops’ fitness will immediately drop by 20.

    You regain 0.1 points from that modifier per turn. A general adds 0.4 recovery points for a total of 0.5.

    When you are at -60 hiring a general immediately improves it to -40.

    - A failed attack will result in a -2 morale and discipline penalty. A successful attack or defence improves it by one.

    - Dismissing an officer reduces the Morale and Discipline modifier by 2. Assassination lowers it by 4.

    - Dismissing a General lowers it by 20. Assassination of a General, lowers it by 8.


    ============ VOLUNTEERS==========

    Their rates and types are:

    Available to all paths (after completing the relevant special buildings)

    1) Dwarfs: 0-4 per turn
    2) Elves: 0-4 per turn
    3) Aesir: 0-1 per turn

    Magic Path (received upon completion)

    4) Warlock Battle Mages: 0-1 per turn
    5) Azure Drakes: 0-1 per turn

    Science Path

    6) Grenadiers: 0-2 per turn
    7) Mortar Cannons: 0-2 per turn

    Religion (only if the Holy Act is purchased and activated in the kingdom)

    8) Holy Avengers: 0-2 per turn

    There are various Acts that increase the rate of the above volunteers if active in a kingdom. See Marketplace – Acts for the relevant information.


    ============SPIES=================

    a) The Basics

    Spies have two separate roles: informers and weapons. Both of these are accomplished through the same basic mechanism: from the "Spy" page in the army section, you choose your target province, the number of spies you want to send, and chose to send off your spies.

    Spy fitness affects the entirety of your spying organisation, symbolising how even if spies do not actively participate in the mission, they still help to plan. In other words, no matter whether you send 1 or 200 spies, you still lose the same amount of fitness. Sending multiple spies is instead used to avoid agent defences (covered in the agent section). If the targeted province has a large amount of agents, it is likely your spies will be intercepted, or even killed. By sending more spies, you increase the chance one will get through, but every single one has a chance of getting caught.

    b) Why you would want to spy

    As I said earlier, spying has two purposes, information gathering, and destruction. Both of these techniques are crucial to warfare.

    Information gathering are mainly "info" missions: military info, building info, etc. If they succeed, you will be given a short summary of the targets capabilities: number and type of building/troops, populace, etc.

    Destruction type missions comprise of the rest of a spies repertoire. These missions are pretty self explanatory, letting you destroy farms, kill peasants, etc.
    A special selection of missions are also available only to members of the Science path. The most potent of these is the "Cold War" attack: by using this attack, provinces can destroy an entire "plan". This can be decisive in warfare: a province which loses its walls is completely open to attack, and a province with no fire brigades is extremely vulnerable to further "fire storm" spy attacks. These are extremely powerful, but use these and expect deadly retaliation.(cf. section c). Religion provinces also have a special mission that converts peasants from the target province to your faith, leading them back to your lands.

    c) The dangers of spy ops

    Spies, if they succeed, leave without a trace: your enemy will be left with only the damage done or possibly a brief message explaining there have been rumours of spies. If your spies are caught however, it can be disastrous. Your opponent will receive a clear message explaining they have caught and hung a spy from your province, and if you have caused a lot of havoc, you can expect a deadly retaliation.
    This is all the more important for Science path attacks, and mainly "Cold War": its power is often considered to rival other path attacks, and hence you may be retaliated with Rains of Fire or Wraths of God.

    2)Agents

    Agents are your only defence against spies. These are also employed through the mercenary screen, and their fitness recharges similarly to that of spies. However, on the spy screen, they cannot conduct missions: all they have is a "protect" percentage. This explains just how safe your province is against spies, and can range anywhere from 0 to 100%, depending on the amount of agents you have and their fitness. Although I am not completely clear about this issue, I do not believe the protect ratio is the amount of spy ops which are stopped, it is merely an indication of how safe your province is. For this reason, different kingdoms have different suggestions about Agent Protection. Some recommended keeping it at 95% whenever possible, others suggest keeping it rather low. However, it is usually accepted that the price to pay for 95% agent protect is barely anything compared to the price you might have to pay if you are attacked through spy ops.


    ============PATHS=====================

    A (VERY) SHORT GUIDE TO PATHS!

    Paths are a sort of speciality for your kingdom: they define the very nature of your kingdom, and make you especially powerful in some areas. They do not weaken you at all, apart from the significant time lost in reaching path status, so a path should be chosen as soon as possible, although at the same time it should not be developed before other, more important, plans. To "chose" a path, all you have to do is develop one of the 3 special plans: the University of Science, the Temple of the Gods, or the Grand Tower of Magic. All of these require an extremely large amount of time, textiles and gold to design, and are a long undertaking even for large kingdoms.
    An outline of the paths:

    1) Magic: Probably the most popular path, and not only for its coolness factor. The magic path is usually accepted as the path which lets provinces grow very fast: magic provinces build at twice the normal speed. Magic path`s special ability, Rain of Fire (RoF) is a very potent special attack which can decimate most provinces, although its power is complimented by a hefty price tag. Rain of fire destroys all types of buildings apart from Construction Yards, Towers, Walls and Barracks.

    In short, magic is the path which gives you the power to grow powerful, in the open, and openly exert influence. You will be able to develop very powerful armies, with drakes and warlocks, and rain fire on your enemies. However, your NW will probably grow very fast, and you should be prepared to be designated as the main attacker of your KD.

    2) Science: Science is a much more delicate path. Although it does gives its followers high power troops, the main advantages of Science lie in its darker, hidden abilities: spies from science provinces are extremely quick to train, powerful, and usually undetectable. Combined with the ability to explore land very fast "finance expedition" ability, this can make science provinces very deadly. However, they are unlikely to win an all out fight with a magic province: the ability to nearly cancel out fraud is not quite enough to raise armies which compare to magic path, hence science provinces usually have a much more supporting role, and will probably play a much more inconspicuous (although just as important)role in warfare.

    3) Religion: Religion is often considered the "defensive" path. However, this is not entirely true. It is, however, its primary ability: with Paladin Faith Keepers, and its very high influx of peasants, Religion provinces can usually hold the siege against much more powerful opponents, and will not lose much production power. However, attacking power reflects this: the main offensive abilities, Conversion, Wrath of God, and Conversion, can mainly only server to slow down, damage, but not destroy other provinces.

    As shown here, Religion also uses open warfare much less than Magic, although it can be just as apt as Science, if not more, when used properly. Instead, it will be used to slow down and destroy the coordination of opponents, and possibly destroy weaker provinces using the much hated "False Modesty".

    =========EMPEROR=====================
  • The emperor position is often seen as the ultimate accomplishment in the lands of Aegis. A player can take the position if he holds the Number 1 position in the Emperor scores. You can see who has the score by accessing the Scores' Page and selecting the 'Sort by Emperor Score' option. It is the emperor score that allows you to receive the crown and not the normal score derived from your Networth which is displayed by default in the Scores' Page. The emperor score is calculated differently for each path and is subject to periodic reviews. Roughly, Magic provinces have an emperor score equal to half their Nw while the other two paths have an emperor score roughly equal to their NW. I emphasize that these are subject to review so it is best to check up on the emperor scores and announcements by Moderator. Achieving the No 1 position, allows you to grab the emperor crown (the option will appear in your End of Turn Screen) if the previous Emperor is dead. For Details READ the Emperor Section in the Guide. The emperor's edicts affect everyone and before grabbing the crown make sure you have considered the consequences of being emperor. It can be the end of a rewarding path through the lands of conflict, or the beginning of another age of strife and war. It is up to the emperor and his supporters to plan and try to achieve the desired results so consider in advance your moves and more importantly your support!

  • ============ROLEPLAY, AEGIS AND THE ETERNAL CONFLICT=======

    All of the above is aimed at providing the new player with a firm grasp of the mechanics and assisting with province development. Aegis is much more than a number crunching game though. It is a game of skill and to enjoy it, you need to decide on your role in it.

    You can be a scoundrel or a pirate taking away the hard earned gold of others to fund your schemes. A blood thirsty warrior set out to terrorize and conquer other kingdoms and whole continents; an honourable knight protecting the weak or the peace against would-be tyrants; a politician or a demagogue riling the crowds and kingdoms against your enemies; a peaceful expansionist trying to resolve conflicts; a mercenary travelling the lands and trafficking in war. The possibilities are only limited by your time and imagination.

    Adopting a role and sticking with its theme is how you get to have the most fun in the game and this is from where the eternal conflict arises. As players have different views and outlooks, there will always be friction and the most common means of expressing that friction is war. Empires rise and fall under the heel of armies marching across the lands, storms of fire conjured by cruel magelords leave ash and desolation behind, whole towns vanish by the wrath of vengeful gods, spies under the cover of shadows remove your research in the blink of an eye.

    Do not fear conflict. Create a role, a purpose and pursue it to the best of your abilities. It is what adds excitement and invigorates the game. Seeing your province and yourself as a character with his own agenda and worldview also helps the player keep things in perspective instead of interpreting any hostile move against him as a personal attack leading to aggravation and consternation.

    Find like minded people and form or join kingdoms. Themed kingdoms are often the most successful and fun to play. Imagine a kingdom of rogues, who spy on other kingdoms under the cover of night passing information about defences and armies to warlords eager to plunder; mercenaries that can be bought with enough gold; blackguards masquerading as honourable paladins; silver tongued demagogues conquering through the power of words alone; crazed berserkers tearing apart everything in their path. The options are many and varied, and it is up to the players to realise them.

    Amidst all of that, do not be afraid to interact with fellow players. It is the very nature of multiplayer online games that require you to do so. Backroom deals, conspiracies, betrayal, alliances, promises, dark schemes; all of that require the biggest resource available and that is the other players.

    Of-course, all of these take time and time is often at a premium. But do not forget that you are not alone. That is the purpose of kingdoms. To gather like minded players and delegate tasks. Having a clear stance and idea of how you want to play and then deciding on a stance or purpose allows everyone to contribute and plan it right. Avoid becoming a passive consumer of the dramas playing out in kingdom politics, take command of your fate and carve your name into the annals of Aegis!

    ============KEEPING THE GAME ALIVE============

    1) Remember to vote for Aegis on the main page. Some of the vote links may offer game benefits.(Depending if the link host permits this or not). Not only will the voting benefit you, but it will attract new players to the game, and that contributes to keeping the game alive.

    2) Aegis is free to play, but if you really like the game and are able to donate a couple of "euros", it will help pay for the servers and other expenses. In the Aegean market on the main page, you will find more info on this.

    This is purely voluntary.


    ============CONTRIBUTORS=============

    Mek, Antiquity, Athyton, Aukflarer, Burama Bull, Calanthe, Caligula, Crimsoneer, Dragonclaw, Favouritas, Gondolin Shador, Hassan, Iamevilhomer, Iant Aman, Nebuchadnezzar, Marduk, Maws, Mulder, Osiris, Ramasi, Rampart, Rhadycall, Royr, Satanias, Shade, Sorami, TheDragon, Ulgar, Wind00, Yogibear, Zoneghost.
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