8Realms FAQ

8Realms Frequently Asked Questions by Hodgelett

How do I…start?
* A good idea is to start off following the tasks. See the guide “Tasks and Rewards” for what each task rewards you with. There is also “The Beginners Guide“.

How do I…Trade?
* You need a Trade Post and then you can use the world map to propose a trade route with another city that has also built a Trade Post by clicking on that city or settlement square. Then you can offer repeating trades or single offers by clicking on that city again.

For anyone finding they have to guess in the dark about whether the game will reject their trade as “unbalanced” (particularly for people early in Classical trying to sell their iron surplus to willing buyers!), here are the values the game assigns to each resource:

2 IRON = 3 WOOD = 3 STONE = 6 GOLD = 6 FOOD

You are allowed to trade up to double, or down to half, this price before it gets rejected. So you can trade 2 iron for anywhere between 3 and 12 food, or 200 iron for 300 to 1200 food, etc.

Note that if you try to trade away more than your hourly production of a resource, the number will show in red and the “Proceed” button just does nothing when clicked, instead of saying what the problem was. This limitation makes sense for rolling agreements, but not really for one-off purchases AFAICS so perhaps it’s a bug (bug report for both issues filed).

NB: You can specify which city you want to create the trade route out of by clicking on the name of your capital (which should be blue) on the “Offer trade link with X? It will cost these resources” pop up. You can only set up one trade route with each Empire’s individual city or settlement.

How and where do I…Start a new City?
*You need to research the required Governance level (I for your first settlement, II for the second etc).
*You need a MINIMUM of 1000 of each resource. Better to start your settlement with as much resource help as you can afford.
*You need a good location. There are several guides and opinions on this. “Creating a new settlement” , “Settlements: A brief guide“. Choose wisely, you cannot move!

How do I…increase culture? “Culture Guide!”
* Complete the tasks.
* Capture luxuries.
* Build plazas/markets and a Capitol.
* Upgrade the Village Centre.
* Wait.

How do I…Capture or Raid?
* First you must have reached Classical.
You need the required troop buildings in at least one of your cities, i.e. *Barracks* + stables, blacksmith, armoury or training ground. If you’re transferring from one city to another you’ll need a Trade Post in the sending city.
*You need a *Parade Ground* in the city you’re going to be sending your troops to capture or raid from. The higher the level of Parade Ground, the more armies you can send out.
*To raid or capture a resource, you go to the World Map, select the tile with the resource you wish to raid or capture, and look at the figure next to the two chevrons to determine the defending army’s strength. Click ‘Raid’ or ‘Capture’ to select which troops to send on the attack. A successful raid will mean the resource will be left undefended and your army will bring back resources. A successful capture means your army will hold the resource and automatically give you 25 of the relevant resource each hour, or ‘culture’ from a luxury. You can reinforce weak defending armies if you have enough army slots (from the parade ground).
*For the benefits of raiding luxuries and more on capturing and raiding: “Raid and Capture facts”

NB: for the luxury tasks the resources *must* be captured by armies from the ***same*** city.
NB2: Plazas increase the culture received by luxuries captured by armies from that city only.

HELP My gold/food is negative!
* Your armies are too big. Different units use different amounts of gold and food per hour. Scale down your armies, improve your resources or be more selective with what troops to train. Having a settlement devoted to military training with all your buildings and lots of food tiles might be a good idea if you plan to be a strong military nation.
* Gold is related to population. Some buildings give greater population boosts than others. See the Population (Gold) guide

Do I need x building?
* Some buildings pool resources, most influence only the city they are in.
– Libraries allow you to research only one technology, but a library in more than one city will decrease the time.
– Plazas only increase culture if you have a luxury captured by that city.
– Sawmills and Stone masons only benefit cities with more than two of that resource.
– Military buildings – parade grounds need barracks to upgrade. Armouries, stables and blacksmiths often rely on each other and barracks to upgrade. The general consensus is keep one settlement as your war machine.
– Lookout Posts increase army speed and in theory warn you of raids
– Storehouses – you can have as many as you wish. They increase population, your overall resource storing ability by 1000, and because of the population thing: gold.
You may wish to replace some with housing if you are aiming for gold over resources.
– Tax office – increases gold production like sawmills and stone masons improve wood and stone.
*Village Centre 8/9/10 can be skipped, you can go straight to Town Hall as soon as you research it. The same follows for storehouse/warehouse, barracks/recruitment office etc. The researched building replaces all under it.

I’ve run out of space/resources!
* See the above post and choose what buildings you do or don’t need.
*There are technologies that allow you to build on hills and forests. Wood becomes unnecessary after Renaissance, and Stone the age after.
*The tiles under your control expand through the ages.
*Capture or raid resources on the world map.

How do I…build on forest/hill tiles?
* First you need to have the appropriate research, forest during Classical and hill during Feudal.
You then have to DEMOLISH whatever is built on that tile. i.e. logging station, sawmill, quarry or stone mason; then you’re free to build!

What is mood?
* At the moment happy people give you resource bonuses. Unhappy populations may riot.
* Losing too many battles decreases happiness

What troops are there?
* Astea’s Troop Guide features base troop statistics
NB: any statistics on troops varies depending on the stat boosting research you have done.

Which Wonder?
* Have a long term plan, it’s worth wading through all these and putting them in context and not judging on an age by age basis. Things that look essential early on change in the later stages.
– 1st:  The Ancient Wonders: Pros/Cons 
– 2nd: Some Wonder Suggestions

*** Coal ***
At the beginning of the Renaissance you are given a warning: this will be the last age you need wood. However, do NOT just demolish all your wood buildings at the end of the age and replace with other buildings, as wood resources become Coal resources. Similarly Coffee and Sugar tiles give coal instead of wood.
You can build coal pits on both hills and forests, so bear this in mind for the Industrial age.