Guides / Updated 2026-08-20
Early Access Walkthrough
A task-first route through building, production, policy and defense.
Treat the current Early Access campaign as four connected phases: stabilize the settlement, close one production chain, develop policy and retainers, then prepare a supplied defense.
Route
Do this in order
- 1
Finish the basic livelihood loop: water, housing, food and storage.
- 2
Produce one useful processed good from extraction through delivery.
- 3
Recruit and assign retainers only where their role supports your current bottleneck.
- 4
Build military supply before troops, then add walls and defensive engines around real approach routes.
- 5
Review seasonal stocks before every large expansion or campaign.
Four-phase route
Each phase should leave the previous one stable. If the city needs emergency labor transfers every time you build, the current phase is not complete.
- Settlement: water, homes, food, roads and nearby storage.
- Industry: one complete chain with repeatable delivery.
- Administration: retainers and policies assigned to a current bottleneck.
- Defense: military goods, supplied troops and fortifications on real approach routes.
Before the first battle
Troop count is not the readiness check. Confirm the settlement can replace consumed supplies while civilians continue eating and hauling.
- Military goods are stored before conscription begins.
- Food and fuel remain above the seasonal reserve.
- The route to the defensive position does not cross the busiest civilian delivery lane.
- A manual save exists before an irreversible policy or battle decision.
If it does not work
When progress stalls, return to the oldest broken dependency. A missing carrier or full output store can stop an entire chain even when every building looks staffed.
Completion signal
The city survives a seasonal cycle, maintains a production surplus and can supply its first defensive force.
Next moves