How to play

The aim

• Conquest: destroy the enemy Palace before they destroy yours.
• Race: be first to reach the Modern Age. The computer will still attack you.
• Last Stand: raids that grow and modernise. Keep your Palace standing for 15 minutes.

Maps and enemies

• Map: Inland Sea, Rivers (cross at the sandy fords), Islands (linked by land bridges), Lakes or Black Forest. Random picks one for you. Every map is shuffled each game.
• Map size: Small, Medium or Large.
• Enemies: 1 to 3 computers, each with its own country, colour and leader. In Everyone v everyone they fight each other as well as you. In Teams, 2 v 2 you and a green ally take on the other two. You see what your ally sees, and it sends help when you're attacked.
• You win when every enemy Palace has fallen. You lose if yours falls.

Phone or tablet

• Tap a villager or soldier to select it. Tap a building to open its menu: train, upgrade, or advance an age. Double-tap a unit to select every one of that type on screen.
• With units selected, tap the map: ground to move, a tree, mine, bush or fish to gather, an enemy to attack, an unfinished building to help build it.
• Drag one finger to look around, pinch to zoom, tap the little map to jump.

PC or laptop

• Left-click to select, drag a box for lots. Right-click to give orders.
• WASD or arrows to scroll, wheel to zoom, right-drag to pan. Esc cancels, H home, full stop idle worker.

Nothing is automatic

• Send villagers to gather food, wood and stone. Gold opens in the Bronze Age, iron in the Iron Age, oil in the Industrial Age.
• They drop off at your Palace or a Store. Houses give room for more people.

Palace levels and ages

• Your Palace has 25 levels. No other building can be upgraded past the Palace's level.
• Upgrading a Barracks, Stables or Dock makes every unit from it stronger.
• When the Palace reaches the top level of its age, you can advance: Stone, Bronze, Iron, Castle, Gunpowder, Industrial, Modern.
• Every age brings a new Champion from your country with a different bonus.

The sea

• Build a Dock on the coast for fishing boats, warships and transports.
• To invade by sea: select soldiers and tap your transport to board. Then select the transport and tap the enemy shore to land them.
• Two fords cross the sea on foot. The island in the middle has rich mines. Watch out for Captain Malus and his pirate ship.

Wounded, Bag and Decrees

• An Infirmary saves most fallen troops as wounded. They heal and come back.
• Your Bag fills with shields, resource packs, healing and speed-ups found while gathering and fighting.
• Decrees are tasks from the crown. Complete them for rewards.
• ✕ Deselect: the red button on the right lets go of whatever you have selected (people or buildings), so you can tap around the map freely.
• Walls: select villagers, open Military, tap Wall, then press where it starts and drag to where it ends. Let go and the line stays: tap Build or Cancel. Tap a wall to Upgrade walls (wood and timber cost wood, stone and brick cost stone, steel costs iron, concrete costs stone and iron) or Make gate: your troops pass, enemies must smash it.
• Scouts: train them at your Palace for 3 times a villager's cost, up to 3 at once. They wander slowly on their own to reveal the map and never avoid danger. If one is killed you get a warning and a red ! marks the spot for 2 minutes: send troops to check it out. Move one yourself, then tap Search to set it wandering again.
• Towers shoot any enemy in range: arrows, then bullets, then lasers.
• Repair: select villagers and tap a damaged building. Rebuild: tap the ruins of a destroyed building with villagers selected.
• Foot soldiers can capture a badly damaged enemy building if no one defends it. Outlaws and rebels are enemies to everyone.