Your first win, in five decisions

Green began with four small kingdoms of two to four hexes, plus a few lone hexes that belonged to no kingdom. Each kingdom had its own treasury, and two of them held 5 gold, not enough for a 10-gold Villager.

So the opening was about land. Green bought three Villagers in round 1, each straight onto a rival’s hex. Round 2’s first capture joined two of them, and when kingdoms join, their gold goes into one treasury. By round 3 green had a kingdom of 13 hexes, and from round 7 all of its land was one kingdom.

Small kingdoms can’t afford much. Join them, and one treasury pays for everything.

Every hex earns 1 gold a turn, and every unit costs upkeep: 2 for a Villager, 6 for a Spearman, 18 for a Knight, and 54 for a Baron. In round 4 green combined four Villagers into two Spearmen, raising its upkeep from 8 to 12 in a kingdom earning 18.

Then it kept its army small. From round 4 to round 12, green’s land grew from 19 hexes to 40 with never more than five units. Its first Knight came in round 12, from a Spearman and a Villager, when its kingdom earned 40 a turn and had 58 gold saved. It won without ever making a Baron.

At the end of every one of green’s turns, each of its kingdoms earned at least as much as its army cost.

Land first, strength second. A unit your land can’t pay for is a loan, not an army.

Red was the biggest rival from round 2 to round 9. Green left it alone. Of the 27 hexes green took in rounds 4 to 11, 22 came from gray and blue, and red lost just one.

By round 10 green held 32 of the 124 hexes, more than anyone. Only then did it turn on red: in rounds 12 to 14, 16 of the 20 hexes green took were red’s.

Take land where it’s cheap, and fight the strongest rival once you’re bigger.

In round 6 green took gray’s capital. The six hexes it left behind became a new kingdom with 0 gold. One held a palm, which earns nothing, so it earned 5 a turn against its Spearman’s 6. On gray’s turn, the Spearman starved.

Round 14 did the same to red on a bigger scale. When the round began, red’s main kingdom could pay its army. Green’s moves cut it to seven hexes earning 7, against two Spearmen costing 12. On red’s turn, both starved.

Before you attack an army, check whether you can starve it. The cut is often cheaper than the fight.

A capital holds its kingdom’s gold, and capturing it destroys the lot. In round 17 green took yellow’s capital and the 7 gold in it. Yellow’s land got a new capital with 0 gold, so it had to rebuild its treasury from scratch.

Red was out in round 18. Once you hold more than 75% of the land, the computers may offer to surrender. In round 19 green held 98 of 124 hexes, and when it ended its turn they did. You can accept, or say No and play on to take every hex.

The decisions carry over to any map. The targets don’t: on another board the weak neighbour and the hex that holds a kingdom together will be somewhere else.