Game Guide - How to Begin? Eador: MotBW Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Beginning the adventure with Eador is a certain challenge. While the game offers many useful tips, achieving the best results requires that you learn it inside out. This is a chapter for those players that feel lost in the initial stages of the game because they don't know what to do or which path is the best to choose. The following pages of the guide are my attempts to describe all initial activities, step by step, with proper explanations to my decisions and alternative solutions. I hope that thanks to them no one will feel disappointed or confused by the game's mechanics.
The first thing to get acquainted with is the map. If it's large and filled with many opponents, you need to prepare for a long and devastating war. If it's small, you may be able to win in less than 20 rounds. In the former case, select the Commander or the Wizard for the hero, in the latter: the Warrior or the Scout.
In the meantime, look around the provinces around your castle as they will provide you with income in gold or crystals. For example, if there are only swamps in the area, your Wizard will gain lots of crystals for spells, but the Commander won't get enough money to recruit soldiers. The other two classes don't need to bother with such things!
The choice of the hero's class determines the shape of the entire play. Warriors and Scouts require Workshops and other buildings that allow buying equipment - seeing as that they're both skilled soldiers, their gear is quite often what wins or loses the battle. The case is very different with Commanders, who are poor warriors entirely dependent on their army. It's logical they would want to have a military infrastructure. What about Wizards? The bearded men in funny clothes depend on artifacts and units only to a small extent, but instead require schools of magic to be able to learn new spells. Each hero has their own build for the expansion of the kingdom (you can find more about heroes and their advancement in the Heroes chapter) - make sure you remember that along the play.
How does it look on the practical side? Regardless of the choice of the hero, there is one building that you should build right at the beginning - the Tavern. It increases gold income, allows recruiting mercenaries, and opens access to other useful buildings further in the game.
Once it's up and running, hire your first units. Mercenaries are generated randomly, so it's not always a good idea to recruit them (sometimes it may even ruin your budget). On the other hand, high-level units lets you deal with the opponent quickly and save the time required to gain new troops. Make sure to consider both options before making a choice.
Example: as seen above, building the Tavern got me a highly useful Pikeman. It cost me some money, but the upkeep cost doesn't leave a lot to wish for, and its statistics are solid.
At this point, you should look around the capital and check how strong are the creatures in its dungeons. If there are the undead, goblins, bandits or orcs, you may have some chances against them and should attack. It's a much better option that gaining new provinces, as it brings more income (see below).
Example: a battle with a group of Orcs and Goblins dwelling beneath the surface of the capital has brought me almost 100 gold of income. During the fight, I kept protecting my hero, who shot most of the enemies without a sweat. None of the allies died and the hero leveled up.
If you won your first battle, regenerate the strengths of your troops by moving them to the city's garrison. In the meantime, think about how you want to expand your infrastructure. As I mentioned earlier, Scouts and Warriors will be grateful for a Workshop where they could buy and repair their equipment. The Wizard will make a good use of a Library, while the Commander will be comfortable in any of the recruitment buildings. Notice, however, that if you suffered some losses or gained a Command point, you should focus most importantly on units rather than other needs - otherwise you won't be able to widen the reach of your empire.
Example: since my units have been gravely wounded in the previous battle, I moved them to a garrison to accelerate their recovery and send my Scout to explore the terrain, which quickly gave a positive result (see below). For my new building, I chose the Workshop, because my hero's gear was halfway worn out and required repairs.
Once the "easy" dungeons beneath the capital run out, it's time to get us some new areas. The provinces surrounding our castle are usually the easiest to conquer, whereas the further away a given province is situated, the more difficult challenges await within it. Conquering provinces isn't something you should be impatient about. Each offers a different kind of income (see: Economy: The Basics) and is guarded by a different kind of opponent. In general, you can assume the following difficulty level:
Free Settlement < Brigand Outlaws = Orcish Tribes < Barbarian Tribes = Lizardmen |
Since free settlements are the easiest to conquer, choose them first. The income from other provinces may be greater, but it's almost certain we won't be able to defeat their defenders.
Example: my soldiers may not have recovered fully, but driven by a thirst of money I decided to attack the nearest free settlement. At the same time, I build an Altar in the capital in order to gain access to the Brotherhood of Light and be able to recruit Healers. Before battling the settlers, I tried to negotiate with them, but given that their price was too high, I decided to conquer the province by force (see below). This resulted in a drop of my karma and the happiness of the subjects, but I valued gold more.
Conquer provinces as long as you have enough army units and weapons for your hero. If on one of your conquered tiles you come upon a location that is easy to raid, make it your priority. Nevertheless, try to seize those provinces that you need the most at a given moment (i.e. because they give a lot of gold or have a special resource). Also, pay attention to what race is living on the terrain you're interested in, because they affect the nature of your kingdom. At this point, you won't be able to form any alliances yet, but if you have a chance further in the game, don't hesitate to use it (see: Races).
Example: having conquered my first province, I decided to return to the capital and repair my health. In the meantime, I build the Brotherhood of Life and recruited my first Healers, which greatly increased the recovery rate of my units. In the following round, I paid a visit to Orcs dwelling in caves beneath the castle and made quite a profit on them. I also build a Pantry, which is required for constructing more advanced buildings.
At this point it becomes crucial to conquer all provinces within the first circuit around the capital, one by one, replenish supplies and grow your infrastructure (local as well, if you can). If you're playing a Wizard, you absolutely must build a Library and at least one school of magic (see: Magic). Regardless of the hero's class, you also need to take care of the kingdom's finances by constructing buildings that will let your economy grow. The Inn is a good choice, seeing as it guarantees +2 gold income and allows building Pubs in provinces (additional +1 gold).
Example: in the following rounds, I had managed to conquer several closest provinces, replenish my losses and repair my budget with Tavern and Pubs. I also haven't forgotten about exploring the easiest dungeons and keeping my hero's equipment in line. Additionally, I had chosen a defensive specialization for my army, which fits the Scout very well (see: Units and Strategy). This explains my investment in a Pikeman School and the following Forge.
The rest of the play involves widening your influences, recruiting better and better units, leveling your hero and... fighting enemies. There are no strict rules there - just react to the enemy's actions and try to seize their capital as fast as you can, but don't forget about defending your own. Uncover new terrain along the way; you might also want to hire a second hero to have them help out in dungeon raids and acquiring resources. In one word - play, play, play!