You start your journey into the AWESOME world of ironfell in your own, safe realm. This is the ONLY realm that no other player can enter.
You start off with an explorer. Use the explorer to build a wood shack. It is from the wood shack that you will make all of your utility units or building and resource acquiring units.
Woodcutters- wood is important and more than likely wood and iron will be your limiting resources early on. In the beginning of the game you are likely going to make more woodcutters than any other unit. Take the woodcutter to a group of trees and right click the woodcutter then press auto gather. The woodcutter will begin cutting down all trees in his reach. It best to put the woodcutter at one side of a line of trees so he goes down the line and doesn't get out of reach of the next tree, this reach is quite long. If you click the unit you can see how far he can move, which is also how far away a tree can be that he will automatically go to once he is done cutting the one he is working on.
Farmer- currently there are only two ways to gather food, building farms and using herring boats to fish. You won't have ships for at least a couple of days due to the requirements so the farmer building farms will be your source of income. You can build a farm on any grassy spot. I personally don't build farms in my home realm as it just clutters it. Build the farms in a trailblazer that you create with the miner. At first however you will need to build a few farms in your home realm to get started.
Miner- The miner is your gateway to the rest of the ironfell universe and also your only source of income for iron. Make a miner immediately and take him over to a ore deposit and build a small mine. There will be a mine in your home realm. To find more mines you will either have to build a risky tunnel or a conquest tunnel. I will go over tunnels later as there is a bit to it.
Carpenter- To start building your army you will need a carpenter to make you a barracks. The carpenter can also build other structures which I will cover more in depth later as well.
Overview> Explorer> Wood shack> woodcutter/miner/farmer/carpenter> resource production and the start of your empire and army.
Buildings and structures[]
Barracks- The barracks is used to produce archers and swordsman, your most basic units and ultimately your go to units.
Stable- The stable is used for making two AWESOME units, the knight(a stronger version of the swordsman) and ponies! Ponies are cute and cuddly but expensive (relatively) for not being able to do anything but be cute and cuddly.
Wood bridge- There are two colors of water, light blue and a somewhat darker blue. The light blue is shallow water, you can build bridges over it. This can help speed transportation of units and in some trailblazer realms is needed to reach more of your precious trees. Bridges can be destroyed by enemies and you can accidentally destroy another players bridge that you mean to cross if you click on the bridge so be careful and click the other side if you are crossing another players bridge.
Wood wall- Exactly what it says. They have decent health and can be used to create choke points or decorate. Like bridges they can be atacked.
Wood tower- it's a wood wall agian! EXCEPT if you take an archer next to it you can right click the building and press armed tower and your archer will enter the tower. This increases the archers range to 4(important to learn that quickly and pay attention when passing towers) and makes the archers health the health of the tower. ALSO the armed tower is currently the only unit in the game that can be set to auto attack. If a unit or building comes within range that is not yours, your armed tower will start shooting at it.
College- You are going to build lots of these, because we all like nerds and being smart Colleges are your only source for knowledge. They work just like farms, you build them and they generate knowledge passively. The more you have the more knowledge you get. Just like with farms I build these in trailblazers or for decoration(see the safe realm where I built the dragon slayer campus) Colleges are also used to build the stonemason, a new unit but very important one.
Farm- generates food over time, build more for more passive generation.
Shipyard- I saved this for one of the last because it's not likely you will be building one for a couple of days unless you pay for resources. Shipyards take your army to the sea. There are a few sea units at present. I will cover them in the next section discussing units.
UNITS![]
Since I already covered the utility units (except the stonemason, herring boat and explorer caraval) This will be focused mainly on the battle units but lets get those other utility units out of the way really quick.
Herring boat- the herring boat can collect a "fish point" which contains 2000 food. This can be incredibly helpful if you lack food, which shouldn't be a problem for very long if it is now. Keep building farms, I have found this unit to be as helpful as ponies so far.
Explorer caraval- Similar to the explorer, sort of. Obviously it can travel on water. Instead of making wood shacks though it creates explorers. Just float up to any shore and make an explorer to start colonizing an island. This unit can also make buoys which are the same thing as the explorers sign post. Also like the knight and prince warrior it can initiate a trade with another player. You can click on any unit or building that another player owns to initiate the trade.
Stonemason- The final utility unit and lets say we saved the best for last. The stonemason creates stone circles, magical stonehenge type structures that act as a teleporter,. You have to link two stone circles together via a keyword that you enter. You can also link your SC to another players SC if they provide you with the keyword. Once two SC's are linked you cannot change the link. SC's are not destroyable at the moment and I do not know if they will be.
Swordsman- this unit is your basic hack and slash unit, melee damage is decent and armor is decent. You need a swordsman to make a knight. Take the swordsman next to a stable then right click the stable and select knight.
Knight- The upgraded swordsman. Their high cost has made them a rare sight except to be used as a trade initiating unit. They can also plan banners which are sign posts that represent your color unit and are less of an eyesore. You can upgrade the knight to a prince warrior at any time.
Prince Warrior- Even stronger knight/swordsman with the same utility skills as the knight(trade and banner) That these units are even more expensive than the knight means that you probably aren't likely to see many of these either. They are new units so I suppose maybe later in the game we will see more prince warriors.
Archer- Your basic ranged unit. It has low health and low damage and a range of 3. Archers are needed to make armed towers, see wooden tower in the previous post.
Woodcutter- Yup, they can be used to attack, wouldn't recommend it however since their attack is pitiful as well as their health.
Naval Cog- I hate this unit because I made a TON of them before I realized, they can only go on shallow water... ? Why? These units are just cheap(compared to the carrack) fodder. They are similar to archers in that they have a range of 3, low health and low attack. About the only thing I can see them being used for is destroying swordsman on the shore, carrak's that are placed on the shore as a defense and fodder. I would suggest just forgetting using them to destroy carraks on the shore as it's simply silly.
Naval Carrack- The mean battleship of the sea. This will be your go to unit when advancing on a shore and fighting naval engagements. They have an incredibly long range of 5, hit hard and have good health. Use them wisely as they are expensive.
Realms[]
There are thousands of realms in ironfell. The only way to get to another realm is to use a tunnel, SC or a whirlpool. Whirlpools are located in the sea.
First lets discuss the realms. There are a couple different types of realms all of which are either safe(no units can attack or be attacked) and PVP(Destroy everything)
Your home realm is a safe realm, the only that no one else can enter.
Safe realms- there are some huge public safe realms that anyone can build in these realms can be identified by their name, Isle will be contained in the name. There are mines, trees, tunnels and whirlpools in these realms. You have to find one of these realms in order to enter a mountain pass pvp realm, covered later. Also, other than someone letting you use their SC you will have to find one of these realms to enter the sea realms via the whirlpools.
There are also many small safe realms that are created when a trailblazer tunnel is built, they can be identified with Vale being in their name. These realms can be used for many things but your main focus for these realms will first be gathering wood from all the trees. There are no mines in these realms. I use these realms to put my farms and colleges.
There are several types of pvp realms, the first being the risky realms. These realms are made when a risky tunnel is built, canyon will be the identifying word in the name. These realms will likely be your main source of iron mines, always containing two small mines.
There are also 'fixed' pvp realms that were created by the game developer and not randomly by building tunnels. You can get to both of these realms via the Isle realms. The first is a mountain pass realm, identified by the word mountain in the name. The second is the sea realms, of which there are eight and you must travel through a whirlpool to land in them. They are identified with the word sea in their name. They are the largest realms and have large mines, 8 mines in each of the eight realms totaling 64 mines. Almost all of the players that have been around for a while scrambled to these realms to explore and claim territory but there are mines left undefended or lightly defended and tons of trees to be had as well. Also if you are about using those herring boats, this is where you will get the biggest return.
Tunnels, Stone Circles and Whirlpools- How to get to all those other realms[]
Tunnels- there are four different tunnels, 2 safe tunnels and 2 pvp tunnels.
Risky tunnel- The risky tunnel will send you to a brand new realm where you will find 2 mines a little bit of wood but can be attacked by other players if they connect a conquest tunnel to your realm. These realms are the canyon realms.
Conquest tunnel- Much cheaper than a risky tunnel it will link you to another players canyon realm or a mountain realm(not sure how to get that effect, I think you have to make a conquest tunnel in an isle realm). You can then steal their mines from them and kill their troops in the realm. You can also use their tunnel as long as it doesn't lead to their home base. Investing in conquest tunnels early and exploring other peoples tunnels, making woodcutters and mines is going to be your quickest way to gain large amounts of resources your first few days.
Trailblazer tunnels- This tunnel will link you to a brand new Vale realm. This realm houses lots of trees for wood and since it's a safe realm is ideal for putting farms and colleges since they can't be destroyed by other players. Other players can however build a safe tunnel that may connect to your vale realm.
Safe tunnels- Safe tunnels can lead to another persons vale realm they can also lead to the isle realms which are LARGE realms. I'm not sure if the destination of the safe tunnel is effected by where you put it, I haven't used but two safe tunnels and both took me to the same realm, an isle realm.
Stone Circles- Stone circles are made by the stone mason and act as a teleporter. They connect to another stone circle via a keyword entered upon their creation. You can link your SC to another persons SC if they give you the keyword and have not yet linked the SC to another. This can be invaluable with moving from realm to realm and coordinating attacks with other players. Be careful though as anyone can move through your SC unless it's to your home realm.
Whirlpool- The isle and sea realms contain whirlpools. The whirlpools in an isle will all send you to the same Sea realm. However, different Isle realms link to different Sea realms. The sea realms go in order 1-8 from left to right. On the left most sea there will only be whirlpools on the right side of the map. on the right most sea only on the left. All the ones inbetween will have whirlpools on both the left and right of the realm. There is several whirlpools all the way up and down the side where there is whirlpools, leading to the next realm in that direction.