10 Beginner Mistakes & How to Avoid Them


 * Keep you units properly fed: Units will resupply themselves automatically when they leave a supply area (coloured area on the map around the player's cities etc. Player can force units to resupply themselves by a button in the unit control panel.


 * Never send civilian units to ressource nodes etc. without proper protection by a military unit lest they fall victim to raiders. Civilian units cannot fight.


 * Expand cities as they are ready. Cities ready for expansion will have a special icon above the city icon on the strategy map. Not expanding cities will result in the city not growing anymore. This is especially true for cities of one's own faction. Expansion of other faction cities may be delayed on purpose to control rebellion levels.


 * Do not undertake big campaigns during winter. During winter food is scarce: production is limited and units outside one's territory will consume more food than normal. Units leaving for a campaign will take food with them, leaving your cities with less food. Having not enough food in your cities might lead to rebellion. It's better to just do some raids during winters.


 * Shorten the distance between a units area of operations and its home city. Each unit has a home city from which it draws recruits and to which it returns if it loses a battle. The home city can be changed to one that is nearer to the area of operations so that it takes less time to send the unit back to the front. This can be done by clicking on the unit then on the new home city and chose the action in the decision wheel. This can only be done if the new city has the required upgrades for the unit (such as a stable for a horse archer unit). Unit faction and city faction must be the same.


 * Do not rely too much on your capital city. On the one hand, this makes sense, since it will be in the center of one's empire. However, the resources of the capital city are limited. Try to spread recruitment of units among all cities of your native faction.


 * Do not overextend yourself. If you do not have the resources, then wait and let resources accrue until ready for a campaign.


 * Do not just defend your cities, but keep an overview of the map and look out for river-crossings and mountain-passes. Garrison these with troops so that enemies do not have a chance to intrude into your territory and raid your ressource nodes.


 * Use camps and bridges to your advantage: they deny enemies territory, they supply your troops and they can be fortified by walls. They also allow to store ressources.


 * Do not leave rebel camps alone too long. Better take them over so they cannot annoy you later and raid your buildings and cities. They will also not be able to re-spawn as long as there's no fog of war. Camps and bridges will limit fog of war.

Based on the Tutorial video by Horath Drak: