MooingCat’s Power Start Guide: How To Start A New World!
How to start a brand new world! In this guide I go through the steps of how to get started properly in a few simple steps to follow. Whether you are completely new to the game or are an experienced player starting on a new world, this guide will work for you!
I have split this guide into different sections, simply click on the section you are interested in to expand it! Each section is accompanied by a video version, which goes through the same material. So you can either watch the video, read the text, or use both!
If you want to share this with your friends and guild-mates, you can use this link:
> Part 0: Choosing The Right Server & World
If you're new to the game, or want a quick refresher, let me give you a quick breakdown of how servers and worlds work in the game, and give you some pointers on choosing the right one for you.
Servers
The game is split into different regions / servers. You can find a full list of regions by clicking on the flag in the top-right corner of the login screen (same for browser and mobile). If you are already in-game you have to logout again to see this. Next to the flag (or in your browser URL) you will see the link to the world. The first part of that is the code / abbreviation of the server, and is often used to refer to the server you play on. For example, the German server starts with "de", so you could also say "I play on DE". Most are quite easy to understand, but there are two that might be a bit confusing. First you have the "International" server, which is shortened to "en", and uses the UK flag (and UK timezone). So, International = EN (= UK, but that is not commonly used). Second, the link / abbreviation for the beta (test) server is "zz.forgeofempires.com", not "beta.forgeofempires.com" as the link would suggest.
You will probably have your closest location automatically selected, but you do not have to play on that server if you don't want to. In general, I recommend playing on:
- US: If you're in the Americas and want to play in english.
- EN: If you're in Europe / Africa and want to play in english.
- US or EN: If you're in Asia / Oceania and want to play in english. You can choose either US or EN, but the one closest to your time zone is probably the best. US (EST/EDT) will be ahead of you, EN (GMT/BST) will be behind you. Both 8 PM and 12 AM (midnight) are important times in the game, so you can translate both of those, for both servers, to your local timezone, and choose based on the times that work best for you. 9:30 AM is also important, but to a lesser extent than the other two times (8 PM = GvG Reset, 12 AM = GBG Reset, 9:30 AM = Event Start Time).
- Your Local Server: If you want to play in your own language, choose the server of your country (if it exists), or another country speaking the same / similar language as you. For example, if you are in Chile you could choose Argentina as that's also in spanish.
Choosing a location close to you is beneficial in some of the competitive aspects of the game (as the physical server the game is hosted on will be closer to you), but if you just intend to play casually it doesn't really matter.
Worlds
Each server is split into multiple worlds (how many depends on how large the playerbase is on a server). The name of each world starts with a unique* letter of the alphabet, for exampel "Arvahall" and "Brisgard". The worlds are listed by how old they are, but you'll also notice that they are also listed alphabetically. That is because the oldest world starts with "A", followed by "B", "C" and so on. *If there are more worlds than letters of the alphabet (some are skipped), the names will restart on A again, but they will still be listed behind all the older worlds.
In addition to the full name, worlds can also be referred to by their initial letter, "I play on R world". If context doesn't make it clear, you can also include the server name or abbreviation, "I play on EN R world". If a server has multiple worlds starting with the same letter, it is probably better to just use full name, or use the world number:
If you play on browser the URL for the world you play on will start with the server abbreviation, followed by a number: "en1", "us8", "de16", etc, where "A" = 1, "B" = 2, and so on. Using the example in the previous paragraph, you could also say "I play on EN16", which is the number for Rugnir (R) on the International server.
Which world should you choose?. This depends on what you are planning to achieve. If you want a beginner-friendly world where it's easy to get help with resources from other players, choosing an older world will be better for you. That doesn't necessarily mean the first world of a server (Arvahall), in fact most worlds are well established at this point, but you shouldn't choose one of the last 2-3 worlds on the list. If you want a challenge, or if you want to become one of the big players quicker, choosing the last world added is the best option for you. There will be much less help early on, but because everyone is starting from scratch you have a much more even footing.
Account
Your account is tied to the server you play on, meaning you can use it to create multiple worlds on the same server. Each world is separate and you can not share things between them, with the sole exception of Diamonds (premium currency), which are tied to your acount. This means diamonds you earn in one world can be used in any other world that are tied to the same account, which is why Diamond Farming is a thing, but that's outside the scope of this guide :)
If you want to start a world on a different server, you have to create a new account on that server, and then select the world you want to play on. It is not possible to transfer worlds between servers.
> Part 1: The Start - First 15 Minutes
The first ~15 minutes of the world can be a bit hectic, but are very important for a good foundation. The first thing you need to do is the tutorial. Simply click your way through it until you have no more prompts, then research Spears to get second half of the tutorial, and complete that as well. If you are brand new to the game, I recommend actually reading and understanding the prompts, but if you are experiences simply click, click, click your way through! This applies to all future prompts and information texts you get, if you're new to the game make sure to read them, otherwise things in this guide might not make sense. Once you've gone through the tutorial, the first step is to update your layout.
Below is how I like to set up my new world. There might better layouts out there, feel free to suggest your layouts in the commments, but I think this is a really good one. Be careful, though, make sure you don't run out of resources as you build. In the video you can see how I approached it, building up slowly as I got the resources to do so. A few things to note: 3 Stilt Houses and 2 Potteries are needed for Quests, but I would not build more of these. The huts give more coins per minute, and hunters give more supplies per minute per tile on the 5 minute production, which is the one you'll be using the most in the beginning.
(I missed a 2x2 space by the Longhouse, you can put another Hut there :P)
Early on, your main source of income is from Quests and the Continent Map, so while you are working on building up your initial city layout, also make sure to complete the quests. You can see the quests you can complete at this stage in my video above, or you can use the fandom wiki to have a look at future quests. You start on this quest after the tutorial https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Build_up_your_Army, from there you can click on the next quest under the "Additional Information" section.
Whenever a story quest asks you to build a building, do so. One of the first buildings to be placed in your layout is your first Spearfighter barrack for the quest. When you get it, I recommend opening all slots (except diamond slot) and recruiting 4 units. Another quest you get is to buy a FP. When you get it make sure to complete it, and then use the FPs you have to unlock "The Wheel" technology. Build the expansion, and continue on your initial build. You don't need to build the 2nd spearfighter barrack quite yet, you can take the remaining sectors of the initial province first.
When you have recruited the 4 units, you can continue to take the remaining 2 sectors, which is very easy with 6 spearfighters (including the 2 you got earlier). Try not to lose those, though not the end of the world if you do (make sure to enable "highlighting of unattached units" in settings). If you need help on how to fight I show how I did it in the video :) After you have taken the province, scout the next two provinces, starting with the one to the right (10 coins).
If you haven't built the 2nd spearfighter barrack or have any other parts of your initial layout unfinished, finish those now! After that, you have come to what I call the "first lull". You have built your initial layout and you will be stuck on the story quest until you research the next technology - so now it's time to wait a bit! Over the next ~1 hour and 45 minutes you should keep on collecting as much as you can, and I also recommend fighting the next couple of provinces, but more on that in the next part!
> Part 2: The First Lull - Continent Map - Next 1 Hour 45 Minutes
Your next goal is to get 5 Forge Points (FPs) for the next technology (Construction). I recommend waiting for 2 FPs to generate naturally, which will take 2 hours from when you started the city, and then buy the remaining 3 FPs. This will cost 900 coins, so while you wait it's time to generate some coins! The main way to get coins is to just keep on collecting your buildings on time, so it's important that you collect regularly. The second way to generate coins is to fight on the continent map, though between scouting costs and recruiting units you won't actually make that much from this. Despite that, I still recommend doing a bunch of fights now that you have some downtime :)
If you want to see me fight all of the following provinces, check out this part's video. In the next section I've numbered the provinces, as can be seen in the image below, according to scouting order.
As you can see in my video, I am waiting for all my spearfighters to fully heal between each fight. You have plenty of time while waiting for the 2 FPs, so there is no need to rush anything here.
Another thing I recommend doing at this point is to start adding friends. You don't have access to the friends list yet, but you can still start adding friends for when you do. To add friends, simply open the global ranking, click on a player, and send a friend request. Below you can see screenshots of doing so on browser and phone.
If you are starting out on a brand new world, I recommend sending friend request to a bunch of the top players. If you are starting on an already established world, I recommend sending out requests to a bunch of different players of different ranking. On new worlds you can send requests regardless of if the player is in a guild or not, but on an established world you should only send requests to players in a guild. In both scenarios, if the person doesn't respond by the time you have access to the friend list, delete the friend request and send out new ones to other players.
> Part 3: The Second Push - Side & Recurring Quests - Next 30 Minutes
It has been 2 hours, so you can now buy 3 FPs and research the next Technology, Construction! Doing so will allow you to complete a few more story quests, until you get to "Celebrate Victory". After you complete this quest you will trigger the first side quests, and after completing quite a few of those, you will get recurring quests! Recurring quests will be one of your main sources of resources early on, especially goods. Up until now you haven't unlocked any goods buildings, and following my recommendations you might not unlock BA goods buildings at all, but more on that later!
So, your job is now to complete and/or abort the side quests until you get to the recurring quests. You can see me doing it in this parts's video, but I'll also include a list of all the side quests below, with my recommendation for if you should complete or abort it. "Yes" = I recommend you complete it, "No" = I recommend you abort it, "Maybe" = I'll leave it up to you.
- Maybe - "Produce a flagon" (5 min Pottery)
- Yes - "Build any building, decoration or road"
- Maybe - "Produce 2 flagons" (5 min Pottery)
- No - "Build 1 stilt house"
- Yes - "Make people enthusiastic"
- Yes - "Have 2 potteries"
- Maybe - "Produce 2 flagons" (5 min Pottery)
- Yes - "Build any building" (road for exampel)
- No - "Acquire all sectors of Tyr without fighting" (you only get this if you haven't fought any Tyr sectors yet)
- Maybe - "Produce 2 bowls" (15 min Pottery)
- Yes - "Build 2 cultural buildings"
- Yes - "Recruit 4 new units" (delete and recruit Spearfighters)
- Yes - "Have less than 10 population available" (sell huts - don't rebuild yet)
- Maybe - "Buy a Forge Point"
- Yes - "Gain 250 happiness" (buld and sell memorials)
- Yes - "Have 75 population available" (rebuild huts)
Quite a few of these are production quests, so if you complete all of them this part should take around 30 minutes. But if you abort all of those, you can probably get through this in 5 minutes. Personally I think it's worth going for them, because you don't really need to rush. The next part of this guide is another lull, this time until you've generated enough free FPs to move on.
For the quest to build 2 cultural buildings, I recommend keeping one or both of them in your city. Personally I placed one, sold it, then placed another and kept that. This gives you a nice boost of happiness, and doesn't waste all of the resources needed to build them :) If you keep one or both, I suggest getting rid of the trees now. They have served their purpose as an easy way to get early happiness, but now as you are starting to get more and more friends you don't want the trees to be aided - they seem to have a high priority :(
My city at the end of this part (and throughout the next part)
> Part 4: The Second Lull - Recurring Quests (Or Sleep) - Next 4.5 to 9.5 Hours
This is probably the most relaxed period of the start of your city start. During this time you can either keep on collecting and completing recurring quests, or this is also a nice breaking point for the day if you started in the evening. You do need a decent amount of coins for the next part (2000 initially, but more later), so if you don't at least do a bit of collecting now you might be stuck for a bit.
The length of this part will depend on 2 factors: 1) if you got a 5 FP pack from side/recurring quest, and 2) how many coins you've collected. For the next part you need 10 FPs*, exactly how you get these is up to you. If you don't get any packs and don't want to buy any FPs, it will take another 9.5 Hours. If you get a 5 FP pack, it will take 4.5 Hours (If you're incredibly lucky and get two 5 FP packs you can move on immediately after getting them). If you want to buy some Forge Points I recommend waiting 5.5 Hours (for 6 FPs) and then buy the remaining 4 FPs. So, while you wait, either take a nap and/or complete some recurring quests!
* If an event is active, you will probably be able to get 20-30 FPs immediately after unlocking events (from the free grand prize), if that is the case you only need 6 FPs!
If you have a similar layout to me, your best option for recurring quests is the 1800 Coins one. I have 17 Huts, 3 Stilt Houses and 1 Longhouse, which unaided gives 17*7*12 + 3*14*4 + 120 = 1716 per hour (if collected on time), so roughly 1 hour per recurring quest.
You can also get coins by aiding friends and neighbours, which is possible despite not having unlocked the friend list. You can aid players manually by going to the ranking list, finding someone either on your friendlist or in your neighbourhood, enter their city manually (clicking the avatar on browser, or the "visit" button on mobile), and then aiding them manually. It's a bit more effort, but still possible if you need to boost your income :) You will probably have around 70-80 neighbours, which even at 20 coins each is 1400-1500 coins, or almost a full RQ. Make sure to leave at least 5-10 players unaided, you need that for later.
> Part 5: The Third Push - Event, Friends & Guilds - Next 1 Hour 30 Minutes
What I've called "the third push" is probably the most eventful period of your first day, here you will unlock events, friends AND guilds, all within a very short period. As I mentioned in the last part, you need 10 FPs to do this, the rest you will get from story quests. So, your first step is to research "Cultivation" to unlock events! If an event is active at the time, make sure to check the grand prizes, you might be able to get some FPs for free. You will probably not be able to do a lot in the event, but you could try to play it a bit. For now, though, just ignore the event and focus on quests.
You will now get some side quests to build a Fruit Farm (and later you will need one for the story quest), so build one of them (you can see my layout suggestion below or in the video). You will get some side quests to produce various production in the Fruit Farm, which you can either complete or abort, personally I aborted them to get back to recurring quests.
You will now start a questline to get all the blueprints for the Oracle of Delphi (Oracle), so your next step is to complete these! Below you can find the first part, in the order you get them:
- Gather 100 supplies
- Build a Residential building (sell and rebuild a hut)
- Produce 2 Flagons (5 min Pottery)
- Research a technology (research "Thatched Houses", buy FPs if you're missing some)
- Produce 1 Bananas (15 min Fruit Farm)
At this point you probably have to wait for your Fruit Farm construction to complete. While you wait you can sort out your friends list, which you just unlocked from "Thatched Houses". If you followed my advice from earlier and sent out a bunch of friend requests, you could start cancelling those who haven't answered now. Especially if you are on a new world, if they haven't answered by now they probably aren't worth keeping. So, cancel most requests, and send out new ones! If you're on a brand new world send out to a bunch of the top players, if you're on an established world simply send out to a bunch of random players. You should send requests to the players suggested by the game as well.
You have now also unlocked the Aid All ("Neighbourly Helpers") panel, so if you need coins you could start aiding your neighbours/friends! Make sure to do it while completing recurring quests, and also keep in mind you need to motivate or aid 5 buildings for a quest later on, so don't do all quite yet!
Alrighty, when you have finally produced your first Bananas in the Fruit Farm, it is time to continue the story quests for the Oracle blueprints!
- Produce 1 Bananas (15 min Fruit Farm)
- Add 1 friend (send a friend request)
- Motivate or polish 5 buildings
- Sell any 1 building (road for example)
- Build the Oracle of Delphi
You should now build the Oracle, but do not contribute FPs to it! I recommend building it, collecting the 20 FPs from the story quest, and then deleting the Oracle again. This will mean you're stuck on story quests until you reach Iron Age (IA), but those 20 FPs are much more valuable when used for research than for the actual Oracle. The Oracle is not a good great building, so no need to waste FPs on it in my opinion.
You should spend those forge points on unlocking "Smithery" and "Teaching". If you're smart about it you will complete two 8 FP recurring quests and the "research 2 technologies" quest while doing so! You can spend the final FP for the other 8 FP quest on "Chalets", for example. The "Smithery" technology is a big gamechanger, both for the blacksmith and access to guilds! Let me go over each of these:
Blacksmiths: These are better than all the other BA supply buildings, so I recommend replacing at least the Hunters and Potteries with Blacksmiths. Personally I kept the Fruit Farm, but you could sell that as well. There is a second reason Blacksmiths are really good, and that's for recurring quests. In BA, one of the recurring quests asks you to produce the 24h production in a Blacksmith 2 times. With the layout suggested below, you can fit in 16 Blacksmiths, which mean 8 recurring quests per day. On average this will produce 15 goods and half a 5 FPs pack per day, which in addition to the supplies, coins and blueprints is quite a nice reward for BA. Depending on how long you plan on staying in BA and if you're able to trade within the guild, you might not even need a goods building, but more on that in part 6 and 7 :)
Example of City after getting Blacksmiths. If you are moving up to IA immediately you might not go for this many blacksmiths. You can replace Fruit Farm as well if you want. Eventually you can also replace huts with Chalets and get a few more Blacksmiths.
Guilds: Unlocking guilds is a big deal both on old worlds and brand new ones, though it will probably have a bigger immediate impact on well established worlds. You can now do what's often called "guild hopping". Look for open guilds (guilds you can join without applying), join them, aid all the players (even easier now than before thanks to "aid all"), then leave the guild again (I show how to do this in this part's video). Do this as much as you want for really easy free coins and blueprints. In the next part I will discuss staying in BA vs moving to IA, so if you plan to move to IA immediately you might want to hold back a little bit. After you leave a guild you can't rejoin it for 7 days, and you get much more coins guild hopping in IA vs BA (50 vs 20 coins per aid). That said, recurring quests are easier to complete in BA vs IA, requring you to aid 90 vs 120 people to complete. Still, you get much more coins, so if you plan to move up to IA, it might be better to wait a bit before going through all the free-to-join guilds. If you plan to stay in BA for a bit, go ahead and guild hop as much as possible!
You can now decide if you want to keep on doing this every 7 days, or if you want to settle down. Setlling down will give you access to the Guild Expedition (GE) and eventually Guild Battlegrounds (GBG), after reasearching "Military Tactics" in IA. Even if you can't do much right now, it might be worth it still for the small rewards you can get even now. Staying in a good and supportive guild will also help you trade better (and for free), which is definitely something you need if you plan on advancing through IA and beyond. You can probably do some trading while guild hopping, but in a good guild you probably have an easier time getting help. You could also do a middle ground of guild-hopping every monday, then finding a guild to settle in for the week. You can't go back to the same guild each weak, but if for example you are in a guild with a sister guild, you could guild-hop every monday, before staying in the main or sister guild for the rest of the week (join before GE starts).
If you are playing on a brand new world, and you don't want to settle yet, either stay in the last guild you joined, or even start your own open guild until you are ready to do more guild-hopping. This way people can aid you while they are guild-hopping, and you get your buildings aided as well. On an old world I would stop in the last open guild you join, I wouldn't recommend starting your own temporary guild.
> Part 6: The Choice - Bronze Age or Iron Age?
You have now gotten through what I consider the first stage of your city, which is basically the same regardless of what you plan to do. Now your choices will impact how you continue from here. There are three main ways to continue: either 1) stay in the Bronze Age (BA) for some time, 2) rush to the Iron Age (IA) immediately, or 3) move up to IA in a few days. All have pros and cons, so let me go through reasons for choosing each. In the next part of this guide I will go through a few different wayt to continue your progress :)
Stay in Bronze Age: With this approach, you will stay in BA for some time (at least for a week or two), but more on the details in the next part :)
Pros: The main reason to stay in BA is to build up a decent stock of goods before you move up. You need 207 BA goods for IA technologies (75 optional, though you probably want to do those as well), 198 BA goods for EMA, and 400 BA goods for HMA (71 optional). Around 800 BA goods in total. Staying in BA will allow you to generate these through recurring quests, which is another reason you might want to stay in BA. As previousely mentioned, it is easier to complete the collect coins recurring quest by aiding in BA, and you are also able to use blacksmiths for recurring quests. And if you're staying in BA you can take the time to reserch goods buildings as well.
Cons: One of the downsides of staying in BA is that you can't advance in the story quest, because you can't contribute FPs to Great Buildings yet. You will also struggle getting further on the continent map, though at this stage it doesn't take long to catch up later on. Staying in BA also limits the features you're able to take part in, such as daily challenges, contributing to GBs, GBG, Settlements and Reconstruction Mode.
Iron Age immediately: As the name suggests, with this strategy you will move to IA as soon as possible, possibly even within a day, by going for "Militia" ASAP. More details in next part :)
Pros: The main reason to move up to IA immediately is to unlock Daily Challenges ASAP, and to get more coins from guild-hopping. Both of these can help your FP production early on, more coins will allow you to buy more FPs, and if you are lucky you can get FPs or even some good buildings from daily challenges (in addition to Castle System points). This will also help in unlocking more IA features later in the tech tree, like the ability to contribute to other Great Buildings, access to GBG, Settlements and the Reconstruction Mode. Early on the settlements can be a great source of coins, supplies, FPs as well as some very good early buildings. You probably can't do too much in GBG yet, but even a few fights or negotiations when possible can get you some very nice resources. You also unlock Soldiers (better Spearfighters), which are one of the main units you'll use early on.
Cons: Main disadvantage of moving up early is that you might struggle with goods, and you will probably not be able to complete as many recurring quest. Also, going for the daily challenge this quickly doesn't always work out. There are many of the tasks you can't do yet, so if you're unlucky you can't really take advantage of it.
Iron Age in a few days: This is a more balanced approach, where you take a few days to prepare all of the first IA techs before you move up. More details in next part :)
Pros: You still get access to most of the IA features (except for Daily Challenges) in more or less the same time-frame as moving up to IA immediately. Staying a few days in BA to prepare will allow you to run blacksmith (and other) RQs for longer, building up more BA goods and possibly even some FPs. Once you've moved up to IA, your progress through the tech tree to unlock GBG, Settlements and Reconstruction Mode will take roughly the same time as if you moved up to IA immediately (unless you got lucky and got a lot of FPs from the few early Daily Challenges).
Cons: Compared to moving up to IA immediately, you lose out on a few days of Daily Challenges, and you will get less from guild-hopping. You also delay getting Soldiers, making it harder to fight on the continent map (though as mentioned earlier, it won't take a lot of time to catch up). You will have a bit more time to get BA goods, but not long enough to get all you need.
> Part 7: Continued Progress!
Regardless of your choice going forward, I recommend that you unlock "Brewery" next for the Friends Tavern. After that, your choice of how to progress (as discussed in the previous part) will decide which technologies you should focus. Let's go through all three options:
> Stay in Bronze Age
If you decide to stay in BA for a bit, it doesn't matter too much which order you do technologies in. After unlocking "Brewery" I would go for the expansions first, and then optionally for the goods buildings you have boosts for. If you plan to get goods buildings, you should probably also upgrade your huts to chalets. You're entering into a more relaxed period anyways, so moving to a longer collection time is a nice bonus :)
Below you can see an example of how your BA city might look when focused heavily on Blacksmiths for RQs. This example has 30 Blacksmiths, for 15 RQs per day. If you decide to get goods buildings, you should simply replace some of the blacksmiths with those (and more Chalets if you need more population). If you need more happiness, you could replace the Stone Circle for a 2nd Tavern, and possibly some paths when you unlock those. You could build trees as well, but they will probably be aided before everything else. If an event is active you might also get buildings with a lot of happiness there. Level 1 event buildings usually give a lot of population and happiness :)
Example of how you could build your city after a day or two
> Iron Age immediately
Below you will find my suggested technology path for aging up to IA immediately. At this point you will probably have 4 FPs in your bar, which means you need an additional 28 FPs, and you also need 8 Wine, which you've hopefully already gotten. How fast you're able to do this depends on a few factors, but if you have been able to pick up a few 5 FP packs, or if there is an active event going on, you might even be able to unlock this right away. If not, you will at most have to wait a bit over a day, though you should have enough coins now to buy a few FPs if you want to speed things up. In the video you can see me buying quite a few FPs, which I was able to do because I had done a lot of guild-hopping. If you're on a brand new world you probably won't have as many coins to spend, but perhaps still enough to speed things up a bit.
As you can see, after unlocking the first IA technology you have to go back to BA techs in order to unlock any further IA techs. You need 45 FPs (and 5 Stone) to unlock the next IA tech (Architecture), which will take anywhere from a few hours to 2 days, depending on how many 5 FP packs you get, if there's an event going on, if you get a lucky daily special, and how many FPs you can buy.
From here I recommend focusing on unlocking settlements. They are a great source of early resources, and of course the buildings are really nice early on. You do need 30 Lumber, 20 Stone, 16 Marble and 12 Dye (plus some IA goods) to get there, so what you didn't manage to get in BA you need to trade for. If you can't do that, you probably have to take some time off to research and build a BA goods building. Settlement buildings cost some coins/supplies to build, but you get a lot in return, and outside of that settlements are not linked to your city power. So despite being a baby city, settlements won't be harder to beat.
As for which settlement to choose, you should choose Vikings or Egypt. Personally I prefer Egypt because it's an easier settlement to play, the secondary reward is better, and I think the main building is on par for an early city. The units you get from the Bathhouse will probably help more than the boost from Yggdrasil at this point, but you can definitely choose Vikings as well, or even switch to Vikings after one or a few playthroughs of Egypt.
Example of city layout after unlocking Militia and getting Chalets, before being able to unlock more IA techs.
> Iron Age in a few days
Below you will find my suggested technology path for aging up to IA after a few days. The main difference between this and aging up to IA immediately is that you fill in all the remaining BA techs you need for the first three IA techs before moving up to IA. You can optionally research a goods building if you want to start producing more BA goods that way, but I'll leave that decision up to you. For the initial IA techs you need 8 Wine and 5 Stone, but you shouldn't have any problem getting those from RQs while you work on the BA techs.
Once you reach IA, my recommended path is the same as for moving up to IA immediately. Your first target should be to unlock settlements, for which you need 30 Lumber, 20 Stone, 16 Marble and 12 Dye (plus some IA goods). Hopefully by spending a few days in BA you have already produced these, if not you need to get started trading yesterday!
Below you can see a city example a few days after moving up to IA, during an event.
Example of my city a few days after moving up to IA. As you can see I did this during the Summer Event, and was able to pick up a few buildings from there. I will probably replace quite a few blacksmiths with goods and military buildings next
When a new world opened last year, I started on my Higher Age Units journey. While that particular journey might not be for your, the first few episodes of that series follows the standard progress through the early stages of the game. On that I followed the last path of staying a few days in BA before moving up, but things aren't that mouch different for the other two paths. Check out my recaps of the first few weeks below, or check out the entire playlist here: Higher Age Units Playlist
> Part 8: Seize The Opportunities Given To You
As you play you might get lucky, and in that case you should seize the opportunity to capitalize on it! The main resource limiting you early on is Forge Points, but there are a few different ways to get a big influx of FPs.
Events
If there is an event active while you start, you can usually get around 20-30 FPs for free from the first Grand Prize. So, without having to do anything event related, you can collect and spend those FPs directly on the tech tree. As you can see I did that in one of my test worlds, and it allowed me to really speed up unlocking Great Buildings :)
Events also presents you with an opportunity to get buildings. Don't expect to get anything close to fully leveled, but even a level 1 event building is really good this early in the city, it definitely beats any houses you can build. And you probably can't do a lot, if any, event quests, but make sure to spend the free event currency you get from the start and every day during the event.
Recurring Quest FPs
If you hit the jackpot and get some 5 FP packs from recurring quests, you can really speed things up. On one of my test worlds I got really lucky with 3 FP packs on day one, which allowed me to move up to IA within 12 hours! From that I was able to do Daily Challenges quickly, which is another great source of resources.
I took a shot at the Unbrithday Party (UBQ), and was really lucky!
Daily Challenges
Daily challenges can be very hit or miss, but if you're lucky you can get 30 or even up to 100 FPs. On one of my test worlds I was lucky and got the 30 FP challenge, and I was even able to complete it! Don't expect to be able to complete all daily challenges, some are simply too challenging. You might be able to get some good buildings or other resources as well, but early on FPs are the main thing :)
Incidents
Don't sleep on Incidents! Especially the new ad incidents are really good this early on, with a chance of giving you a lot of goods, FPs and units! Regular incidents are definitely worth picking up as well. They don't give as much as the Ad ones, but every now and then you do get some FPs. You also get medals from regular incidents, which are very nice for a few additional early expansions :)
4 Examples of Ad incident rewards
