IzziesBeginnerGuide

This page will be created for Izzie to keep her guides on, to help those just starting who don't yet want to tackle the lengthier modules.

So! You want to play March of History, but don't want to spend three days going over the basic of a complicated game, such as this? This guide is for you! (I will be translating it into a couple of languages when I'm done. Help would be appreciated!)

Seignories

When you start, you have a single town, which you have to grow and make money from. Most of the functions you are concerned with are under the last of the four buttons. It is called Seignories ! Inside your town you'll two things. On the left are tabs. On the right is your town with two option at the bottom. (Do not forget where this is. You'll need to find that Mines and Fields option on the right side later, in order to build a mine, or make a farm.)

Go through the tabs on your left. You may not need to use the i (information) tab for a while, but I usually do use it at the start of the game to raise taxes. It takes a full point to raise the taxes, so I don't do it too often. The Politics tab shows how loyal your people are to you. You need to have 80% of better in order to receive funds from the land, and also KEEP this town in case the previous owning family goes AI. (Aim for 100%.)

NOW, the most important tab: BUILDINGS. That is where the work starts. Look at which buildings you have, and which you'll need. (I suggest writing down what you think you should build next. Please note that I have made a list below. An important warning: Do not build many things before you have a MARKET. If you do not have a market, you can't get more materials, so you'll be stuck and unable to build!) Look at the Construction Sites tab. Are you building something? Early in the game you should constantly be building something in your town. Make sure that if you do build, you allocate workers to "construction sites" in the Buildings tab. If you do not, nothing will happen. The time will be shown in the Construction Sites tab.

In the beginning, you should start with some cash, wood, stone, iron, and food. Keep reading for advice on how to spend it. Do not spend your resources until you know how they can be used. Once again, don't build everything until you have the market to trade with.

Political Points

Look at the "game date" in the top left of the screen. You will start with 4 or 5 PP points! These political points look like a crown. These points are one of the most important things in this game. Check in your Family button to see if you have 5 family members highlighted (activated). You will need 5 family members ACTIVATED (lit up green button), in order to receive 5 PPs on New Year's Day. On Jan 1, you will get paid your 5 PPs and you will receive your tax income from your lands. (If you see November or December rolling around, I would try to spend those last PPs. Sometimes you can use them to endorse a new kingdom. Some Kings or Queens will send you funds for your endorsement. Ask in the chatbox.)

Your first PPs, I suggest you spend only on:

Market

Granary

Windmill

(Then sawmill, Woodcutter's Hut, Church, Small Forge, Motte-and-Bailey Castle, Fence, Forge, Training Camp...)

The windmills and granaries are very important in the early game because they are your own supplementary income, besides your taxes. You will gain 50 pounds from the windmills every 30 days (in game time). You can gain .2% on your population growth rate with every click of the granary food disbursement. So, this income is not immediate, but it has a direct effect on the tax money that you will receive on Jan 1.

Once again, the market is your main streamline to the world. Without it, you cannot buy, sell or trade anything. Other players can only send you cash and vice versa. Without a market, you can't acquire any goods. Therefore if you spend all of your iron and you have no market, you'll have a hard time getting any. (You'd have to save up, chop a bunch of wood and then build your own iron mine. Just more trouble than you need to deal with early game.)

IMPORTANT NOTES: If you overproduce an item and do not have the storage to hold them, your item count will turn RED. You CAN sell (vendre) some of these items on the market at low prices. There are two options: (1) Sell to the local market (the game), which gives you a set price. (2) Sell them on the Toutes les provinces (public game market) for any price that you choose. However, list low, and check that often because you don't want your stash to grow overfull while no one buys your goods.

You should also look into storage for said item. If you can not hold 400 food, then it may be time to upgrade to feed those armies. In order to do that you'll have to research a bunch of things in the Castle. . . . (I'll go further into families later on in this tutorial.)

Help

Help is always available in the chatbox. You can find other players who have been here for a while. Most of them will instruct you, but they won't want to go step-by-step with you. Use this guide for that, and only ask questions when you really need the help. That way, people will be more patient with you.

Motte

The motte is your castle. It builds pretty quickly (25 days), and it is important once you have decided to advance. You need: 1,000 pounds, 50 wood and 30 stone. This building provides access to your technology. The first things I look at are things that will increase my income. So, I research the windmill improvement (gives you 100 pounds every 30 days, instead of 50), and the Plow horse (it increases your population growth) first off. Population growth is important in two ways. First, it affects your tax income. Secondly, it affects your ranking in the game. If you have 4000 residents, you outrank the player who has 3500 tax paying residents. After that I look at the military for my main province. You need the first military upgrade in the Motte in order to have a successful army.

Notes: I will make an army guide, but for now just remember that you must have on hand a lot of cash! You'll see notes like this often: (29/9/1133 - House of Pomeranian takes London, which was controlled by house of Hastings.) Do not be swayed! Make sure you have the complete funds before making any armies. If you can not fund them for the entire year, then do not train the men. If you are short on food or cash, the army/s will disband and you'll lose all the investment. (As you advance, you'll realize that the PP loss is the one that's really felt hard. You only get them once a year.)

How to Make a Field

To see this menu, click on Mines and Fields. FIELDS include: Goats, Cows, Pigs, Spring Wheat, Fall Wheat, and Vegetables.

First off, food is only important for two things: armies and granary boosts. So, this is not something to worry about right away. Your people feed themselves the bare minimum to stay alive. Once you do have food, make sure that you are getting a clear supply line, in the direction that your army is going to travel. If the supply line is broken in any way, the soldiers will start going AWOL. Then you'll have to recruit more later. If the number of troops goes too low, or they don't have enough food or cash, they will disband completely. (Ask older players for help with this.) Click on your Seignories button and Armies tab to approve food for your armies. You should do this check every time you move an army.

To Plant: Right-click on a square next to your town. Select the type of field. Plants cost less to make than ranches. (See below.) At right in the image you see a wheat field growing. On the left you see a pig farm. On the left you will also see two deposits to mine. There is a stone deposit. There is an iron deposit.

http://i.imgur.com/LCGPtDE.png

The construction of field costs one political point (PP), 500 pounds and 20 wood. The construction of a ranch costs one political point (PP), 800 pounds and 20 wood.

After 2-3 years of using a field, you must hoe it to repair the land. It only takes 2 seconds.

After 2 years of a ranching (livestock parcel), you must repair the fence.

This costs 200 pounds.

Note: I have a few provinces. My home province has one field and one ranch. The fields produce higher yields in similar time frames, but the benefit to the ranch is that your food won't overflow because you have to approve before it gets to the granary. Therefore, I suggest mixing the two types in your lands.

Field Cultivation

Fields are plants that you harvest in order to grow food for your land.

Red notes: Just click on Manage the Plot (for plants) OR Manage the Feeding Ground (for ranches) to choose what to farm. If you have plants, you have to plant ONLY the correct plant according to the season. A green leaf at the top of the page means SPRING. A tan leaf means it is fall. You should only plant the correct plant for that time of year. Vegetables grow fastest and can be grown any time of the year except for winter.

Three breeds of animals can be raised:

cows: 60 day production cycle (180 days in winter). (50 food)

goats: 25-day production cycle (75 days in winter). (20 food)

pigs: 10-day production cycle (30 days in winter). (10 food)

You must return after they grow, to butcher them. You will not get the food until you do so. You can make any animal at any time of year. Remember, pigs grow fast. Goats take about 2 hours, so I like that time frame. If you want cows, they will take 3-4 hours.

Purple notes: In winter you can not plant fields, and any winter stock (animals) that you cultivate will grow much slower. It is best to grab the fields and ranches in the fall, right before the winter hits! Please note that winter is the blue hash-tag sign.

http://i.imgur.com/WCZEc00.png

NOTES: 0 to 50 workers can be assigned to a field. Production time does not change with the amount of workers. Your YIELD does. If you only have 25 workers, for example, you will produce half the amount of pigs, goats or cows at the end of the time cycle.

More will be added later . . . Again, if you want to edit, go ahead. I will fix any grammar or errors. Thank you! Izzie (discussion)