Building and training
The build bar, laying a building, rally points, demolishing, and the Pirate Cannon.
Building in motion
- The build bar. F2 swaps the bottom-left bar for the build bar; a key takes a building in hand. The ghost is green where it may go and red where it may not: land that is not yours, or another building’s yard.
- Laying it. Click to lay it. Two pawns walk out of the castle to build it (ten times faster when the opening build capital pays); Shift keeps another in hand. Right click or Esc drops it.
- Training. It trains from the moment it stands: its roles in turn, one after another while the gold lasts. Click it: its panel switches a role off (early: its gold comes back). Right click sets the rally point, where recruits gather.
- Demolish. Del with a building picked starts a countdown (again: call it off). Down it comes, with 50 % of its cost back, and its rubble fades.
The build bar
F2 (or Build, bottom left beside the bar) swaps the bottom-left bar for the build bar; F1 (Command) brings the command bar back. With the build bar shown, a key takes a building in hand. A green rim means the build capital covers it and it will go up 10 times faster.
Laying it
The ghost is green where the building may go. Click to lay it (Shift keeps another in hand); right click or Esc drops it. By touch, drag the ghost and press ✓.
A building may go in a forest: the ghost crosses out the trees that fall first. Never on a gold mine, on water or over a monster's lair.
The builders
A building laid is only a foundation. The castle sends 2 pawns out of its door to raise it: they walk there with timber and hammer, and the building goes up over its build time only while one of them is at work (more do not build faster), 10 times faster when the build capital paid for it. The walk counts: a site far from the castle stands later. Once it stands, they walk back in, except at a House: there they stay on as its first miners.
A site laid in a forest is felled first: the builders chop its trees, and those on its doorstep, 3 s a tree while one of them is at work (the build capital does not speed it), and only then hammer. The trees fall one by one, for good, on both players' maps.
Builders are pawns: the rival can kill them, and the site waits. The castle sends another every 5 s, but none while it is under attack (struck in the last 5 s). They are not army: no upkeep, no army cap, and you do not command them.
Your buildings
| Click your building (double click: every one of its kind) | Pick it: its panel shows its state and the roles it trains. |
|---|---|
| Click a role in the panel | Switch it on or off. Switched off before half its training, the unit’s gold comes back. |
| Right click with buildings picked | Their rally point, where recruits gather. |
| Del with buildings picked | Demolish: a 3 s countdown (again: call it off), 50 % of the cost back. |
| Your cannon, then K | Aim the Pirate Cannon (below). |
The Pirate Cannon
The Pirate Cannon is the one building that attacks, one shot at a time. It is laid like any other (Y), but gold alone pays for it (1,000 gold; the build capital never does), so it always goes up as a foundation, over 120 s, and a side has at most 3 at a time.
- Raise it. Y on the build bar. Gold only: the capital never pays for it, so a foundation goes up and takes its time. Finished, it holds one shot. Up to 3 at a time.
- Aim. Click the cannon, then K (or Fire on its panel). The band is its range: too near is grey, and a click does nothing there. The arc follows the cursor; the red ring is the blast.
- Fire!. Click: the ball flies for 4 seconds, and the cannon cools down 20 s, then loads the next shot 70 s. The rival sees the ring closing in and can walk out. Everything left inside, of both sides, takes the blow: buildings too.
| Pick the cannon, then K (or Fire on its panel) | The range shows as a band round the cannon: the ball lands between 450 and 1,800 away, in the fog too. Too near is grey, and a click there does nothing. |
|---|---|
| Move the cursor | The arc follows it and a red ring marks the blast: radius 180 in every direction (the ring is only drawn flattened). By touch, drag the aim. |
| Click (or Fire!) | The shot leaves. The cannon cools down for 20 s, then loads the next shot for 70 s: its panel counts both down. |
| The flight (4 s) | The ball lights the fog under it for you. The rival sees a red ring closing in where it will land, and has that long to walk out of it. |
| The blast | Everything inside the ring, of both sides, takes 1,200 damage at the centre down to 250 at the edge, and is thrown back. A castle keeps 1 hit point: troops must finish it. |
| Right click, Esc or K while aiming | Stops aiming; the shot is kept. |
Tip: Aim at what cannot walk away: buildings, a siege at your walls, a crowd locked in a fight. Keep your own troops out of the ring.