Resources and Economy

Everything in the game rests on resources. Over the long run it is not the size of your army that wins but how quickly your economy recovers.

The five resources

• Wood: the base material of every building and most units. Produced by the Lumber Camp.
• Stone: the main material for walls and large structures. Produced by the Quarry.
• Iron: required for weapons, armour and siege engines. Produced by the Iron Mine.
• Grain: both produced and consumed. The Farm produces it and sets your population cap.
• Gold: a scarce resource used for special actions and trade.

Production runs by the hour

Every level of a resource building raises hourly output. Production continues while you are offline; what accumulated is credited when you log in. Because of that, a few short visits a day beat one long session.

A full warehouse stops production

Storage capacity is a hard ceiling. Once the warehouse is full, production spills over and those hours are gone for good. If you will be away for a while, check your Warehouse level before you leave, spend the resources on buildings or troops, or trade them away on the market.

Population cap

The Farm level sets how large a population your city can support. Every building level and every unit consumes population. When you hit the cap you can build neither structures nor troops. Raising the Farm alongside your other production buildings is the key to growing without stalling.

Market and trade

The Market building lets you swap resources. Its level decides two things: how many merchants you have and how much they carry. Merchant capacity is five times the market level, and higher for civilisations with a trade bonus.

You post an offer on the market: the resource you give and the resource you want in return. When another player accepts, merchants set out and the goods arrive after a travel time based on distance. If your offer expires, the reserved resources return to you.

Trade is not an alternative to war but a complement to it. Turning surplus wood into iron can pull your siege production forward by weeks.

Economy research

The Economy branch in the Academy raises resource output and storage efficiency. Early levels are cheap and apply to all of your cities at once; there are points where research pays off better than another building level.

Looting

Resources do not only come from production. Raids on barbarian settlements and enemy cities bring back as much as your army can carry. In the early game, barbarian raiding works like a third resource building.