Ages

One of the most exciting parts of “Forge of Empires” is the ability to progress sequentially through different historical times. Below is a list of the different ages, the number of unlockable technologies, the largest-capacity housing, as well as the technology that I find the most intriguing.

Age/Era	Number of Technologies	Largest Housing	Intriguing Technology
Stone Age	1	—	—
Bronze Age	22	Chalet (32)	Siege Weapons
Iron Age	19	Cottage (73)	Chain of Command
Early Middle Ages	21	Clapboard Houses (111)	Monarchy
High Middle Ages	20	Town Houses (156)	Heavy Siege Engines
Late Middle Ages	21	Apartment Houses (205)	Gunpowder
Colonial Age	20	Gambrel Roof Houses (259)	Colonies
Industrial Age	19	Victorian Houses (474)	Law and Order
Progressive Era	22	High-Rises (1087)	Mass Mobilization
Modern Era	18	Suburban Houses (1330)	Autobahns
Postmodern Era	21	Prefabricated High Rise (2120)	Children’s Rights
Contemporary Era	18	Condominiums (2800)	Aerial Fire Support

**Note This is where we currently live. Everything from this point is a bit of futuristic conjecture mingled with some poetic license.**

Tomorrow	18	Capsule Hotel (2400)	Surveillance
The Future	20	Arcologies (8000)	Anti-Gravitation
Arctic Future	31	Mobile Houses (3900)	Regenerative Methods
Oceanic Future	56	Personal Paradise (6500)	Engineered Nuclei, Ocean Colonization
Virtual Future	27	Generational Home (5880)	Codex of Honor 2.0
Space Age Mars	1	—	Spacefaring

Continent Map

Just like any realistic empire, defeating neighboring regions are a key part of “Forge of Empires”.

The first step in conquering areas in the continent map is scouting. The number of coins and the amount of time it takes to scout a region increases as the player progresses through the areas. Not only that, but the regions that the player can scout are highly restricted to a singular pattern: clouds cover the majority of the provinces on the continent map, and any region that is not available to be scouted cannot be clicked or tapped. This would be a wonderful place for a historically-accurate storyline, but that is something that the game designers simply did not take advantage of. The rigidity of the conquest sequence alludes to a secondary meaning, but I have yet to find one.

Once scouted, players have two options when it comes to facing other empires: trade or fight. Each ruler controls 3 or more regions in a specific province; thankfully, even under the same ruler, a trade/war choice with one area does not dictate the options with the other regions. This can really come in handy when one region is protected by a particularly-strong army: if the player can afford the trade, it works as a more pleasant and efficient way to claim the region. As I talked about in the “battling” blog, players have the opportunity to “infiltrate” the enemy: though it costs coins, infiltrating the other army removes one health notch from their total health bar. I have not decided if this makes a large difference in the overall outcome of the battle; the cost of infiltration increases as the armies become more advanced, so it is a lot to exchange for not much benefit.

Each region also yields its own mini-reward, be it coins or supplies. This is especially helpful if the player is missing a small bit of either to complete a research or construct a building. Once all regions controlled by a single ruled have been claimed by the player, either by trade or by war, the player receives a secondary, long-lasting boost towards a certain good production. As discussed briefly in the “currencies” blog, these boosts increase the production of wine, dye, marble, stone, etc.; for example, the production of wine goes from 1 every 4 hours to 5 every four hours after conquering the Hymir region. If you are lucky enough, regions will yield expansions once in a blue moon. 

Once the player conquests an entire province controlled by a single ruler, the player can scout the next region. Now, the process restarts!

Progress Report

Everything is looking a bit less “sticks and stones”! I traded out a few of my older production buildings, specifically my potteries, for two goat farms. Goat farms are from the Iron Age and produce a substantially greater number of supplies in the same amount of time. My supplies are low overall right now, but that is because I am currently converting all of my housing from the Bronze Age into new Iron Age residences. The chalets (Bronze Age) can only hold 32 people; the cottages (Iron Age), on the other hand, can hold 73 in the same 2×2 area! I have four cottages in the lower left of my town, and six in the upper right. I also built a few roof tile houses (Iron Age), which are the 5 residences in the lower left that have the coins on top. These hold fewer people than the cottages, but I needed more population before I had fully researched the cottages. C’est la vie.

With that, though, you will see that I have all but fixed my population need! I now have 466 idle people, waiting for me to expand and build new structures. That comes at a great price, however: in total, I have a population of 1308, which means a lot of demanded happiness! Hence, I built a new triumphant arch (+380 happiness), another city tavern (+280 happiness) (do not confuse this with the tavern that produces tavern silver, however), and multiple new statues and monuments (+21 and +26 happiness, respectively).