Dwarves	Fairies	Orcs & Goblins	Woodelves	Sorcerers & Dragons
Haflings	Elementals	Amuni	Constructs	The Elvenar

‘Guest Races’ refers to chapters VI – XIV collectively.

This page will provide an overview of common questions and strategies that apply to all guest races as a whole. For help with a specific chapter, be sure to refer to that chapter’s guide.

SUMMARY

• What are guest races?
• Preparing for a new guest race chapter
• Objectives during a guest race chapter
• Finishing a guest race chapter
• High-level overview of each guest race

WHAT ARE GUEST RACES?

Guest races are all chapters past chapter V, starting with the ‘Dwarves.’

During guest race chapters, a new type of race or being visits our cities and gives us some new knowledge that helps us grow more powerful, if we meet their challenges.

The new guests arrive through a portal, which we will build for each chapter.

They will also require us to build some new buildings, and produce some special goods, but only while they are with us, for the duration of the chapter.

PREPARING FOR A NEW RACE

Each guest race will challenge us in a new and different way, but there are some basic preparation steps that each has in common.

SPACE

One of the first preparations is making space. Guest races are very demanding; we will want to allocate roughly 15-20% of our total city space to the guest race and their settlement in order to progress through each one at a reasonable rate.

This doesn’t mean, however, that we need to have this much space free before we even start the chapter. We will earn some more space as we go to help accommodate the settlement, but we do want to keep this in mind as we design and balance our city from here on out.

As we do get more expansions from completing provinces or research from now on, we’ll want to plan to reserve a good amount of it to be allocated to guest race settlements.

CITY BALANCE & UPGRADES

Each new race will give us new levels for our residences, workshops, and Main Hall, among several other buildings.

Before entering each new chapter, in general, we’ll want all of our buildings already upgraded to their maximum level.

While this can be a subjective statement, and perhaps debatable, each chapter is generally balanced around an assumption that we are using our space as efficiently as possible, which means having the most powerful, highest level buildings available.

In order to take advantage of the new levels offered, we’ll want to be caught up and ready with the buildings we already have.

KNOWLEDGE!

The easiest and perhaps most important way to prepare is to get a sense of what new challenges lie ahead by reviewing the buildings, goods, and research requirements of the new chapter before beginning.

Refer to the wiki, information in the game, and of course the Gems of Knowledge guest race guide for each applicable chapter.

PATIENCE

(Or many Portal Profit instants and Speed Boosts!)

Each new chapter is a marathon, not a sprint! Take your time thinking through and planning your strategy; it is normal and expected that it will take a couple of months to complete each chapter.

Around 3-4 is about average, 2 or fewer is possible, but rather speedy, and will take a very well balanced city and a lot of careful planning and time to play each day.

Don’t be surprised to encounter some times where you will be a little stuck, waiting for resources in order to move forward in research. These are great times to invest more Knowledge Points in upgrading Ancient Wonders!

OBJECTIVES

Each chapter presents its own unique challenges, but there are some objectives every guest race chapter has in common. Included here are those objectives, though it is certainly not an exhaustive list.

Challenges that will be encountered by all players in order to get through the chapter, regardless of game choices and preferences:

• Build a portal (and upgrade it to the maximum level)
• Build new production buildings
• Learn how to balance a new type of goods production
• Master producing a lot of the new goods to complete the research
• Re-shape your city to accommodate the changing sizes and shapes of various buildings

Optional challenges:

• Complete a challenging line of story quests
• Master using new or upgraded unit type(s) in battle
• Upgrade to more efficient roads

PORTAL & PRODUCTION BUILDINGS

Every guest race chapter brings a unique portal and set of production buildings. They will work in different ways, but some things that are always true are:

• There will be a portal.
  • It will need a road connection to the Main Hall.
  • It will have limited capacity, which we will need to manage and plan around.
  • It will need to be upgraded to the maximum level in order to store the goods required.
  • Upgrades will be expensive, but they will be worth it, as they provide:
    • Higher capacity for storing research goods
    • Production bonus for guest production buildings
  • Upgrading the portal as quickly as possible will be key for every guest race chapter.
• There will be unique production buildings; at least two, and often more.
  • They will need to be connected to the portal; usually with a special type of road.
  • Upgrades may not be as critical as portal upgrades.
  • Upgrades won’t change their size or shape.
• You will be challenged to choose between 1) building and upgrading your settlement or 2) progressing in research. It is almost always more strategic to focus on the first before the second for faster overall progression.

RE-SHAPING THE CITY

Every guest race chapter forces us to examine our city layout in order to upgrade our buildings to their new more powerful, and usually larger and reshaped, levels as we unlock them.

Some chapters will require more significant changes than others, but a high degree of shifting and reshaping is to be expected during each one.

RESIDENCES & WORKSHOPS

For each chapter following Dwarves, the residences or the workshops will change in size and/or shape (both change or grow during Dwarves). Which of the two will evolve alternates every other chapter.

Some chapters completely change the shape and orientation, really forcing a new layout approach.

QUESTS

Every chapter will come with a set of quests which we cannot decline. These quests will help to guide us through how to complete the chapter, as well as tell the story of the new race and their dealings with the Elvenar.

Completing these quests is not required in order to progress through the game, and so some players might choose not to make them a priority.

If we do wish to complete them, however, it will be important to focus on them from the beginning and not take too long on any particular one. We don’t want our progress through the chapter to get out of sync with our progress through the quests.

If it does, we can get caught in situations where the quests are asking us to repeat tasks that we may not want or need to do any longer, distracting and frustrating further advancement.

The full list of story quests for each chapter is available under “Quests” in the main menu. You can also click here.

ROADS

Near the end of each chapter, we will unlock new type of street which will be more valuable than the last.

Though it may seem odd to call out among all the other items that we’ll have a chance to upgrade each chapter, it’s worth mentioning as it tends to present a unique challenge all by itself, and a significant benefit often overlooked.

Upgrading to the new road will be very expensive, and require a good amount of the guest race resources as well as basic resources in order to upgrade. For this reason, it may not feel worth upgrading especially when each tile, placed over a previously most valuable road, only adds a few culture.

Keep in mind however, it’s not just culture you’re buying, but highly efficient culture that can go into space you HAVE to use, and can’t be made more useful in any other way. With proper planning, the costs can easily be managed.

It is highly recommended to include in your goals for each chapter to upgrade all your roads by the time the chapter is complete (or as you’re working on the first early parts of research in the next chapter) in order to make the most of every tile of space in your city.

From Woodelves on, the roads will no longer require the special guest race goods to place, they will require Mana instead.

FINISHING A GUEST RACE

At the end of every chapter, players often have a lot of questions about what to do with their buildings.

The special production buildings and portal will always be sold at the end of every chapter, the question only comes down to when. Here are some considerations to help you decide when it’s the right time for you.

QUEST TO SELL PORTAL

Nearly every guest race chapter past Dwarves, but not all, has a quest very early on to sell the portal from the previous chapter.

Some chapters’ version of this quest gives credit for a previous sale, and is worded as “Have no portal.” Others are worded in way where only having and selling the portal will meet the requirement.

What is true for all instances for this type of quest exists however, is it will be optional (include a ‘decline’ button.)

For this reason, it may or may not matter much in terms of when is a good time to sell your portal. The rewards may not be worth it depending on how far away the quest is and how quickly you are anxious to sell the portal to regain some space, coins and supplies.

CHAPTER QUESTS PROGRESS

A more important consideration having to do with quests is whether you have indeed finished all of the quests for the chapter. You may want to check against the chapter quest lists before selling the settlement buildings.

Once you complete the first research for the next chapter, any story quests left undone will gain a decline button, but you may still prefer to complete any quests which require settlement buildings so that you may claim their rewards.

ROADS

As already mentioned, it is very strategic to upgrade all of your roads before concluding a chapter. Before selling your settlement buildings and portal, make sure you have enough of the required portal goods to build however many you need.

HINT: Use elvenstats.com or your city imported from elvenstats.com to elvenarchitect.com to see how many road tiles are in your city so you can calculate how many goods you will need.

SELL!

Once you no longer need to produce any more guest race goods in order to satisfy your goals, feel free to sell! There is no need for these buildings after you complete the last research; their goods won’t be needed for any future chapters.

If you still have any guest race goods when you sell the portal, you won’t lose them, but you may lose visibility to how many you have once you finish the first research to the next chapter.

Enjoy the space, coins and supplies you will gain! Be careful not to fill up that space too quickly, however, you will need it for the next guest race’s settlement….

OVERVIEW OF GUEST RACES

Here is a summary of the types of requirements added with each guest race.

Note how every guest race has a unique type of special good that lasts for only the duration of that chapter, and some add a new resource that becomes a part of the game from that point forward.

(Hover over any icon for a description of that icon.)

Ch.	Types of Resources Required						Prov. Req’d	Other Important Points
							100	Need to dedicate 15-20% of space for guest settlements going forward.
							130	Watch your province count, don’t go too far over 200! You don’t want to encounter Orcs being required for negotiation too soon.
							160
							190	Most culture will need to be mana producing, now.
							220
							250	Need to have a decent amount of total Ancient Wonder levels in order to produce enough seeds.
							280	New 1st tier boost. Add at least one manufactory of T1 boost +1
							320	New 2nd tier boost. Add at least one manufactory of T2 boost +1
							360	New 3rd tier boost. Add at least one manufactory of T3 boost +1

CONCLUSION

Each guest race chapter will change the look and feel of our cities in unique ways, and present new challenges which can be both delightful and frustrating at once.

We hope you found this overview helpful in understanding more about guest races, and how to successfully prepare for and meet their demands!

~Good luck, and happy gaming!~

Dwarves	Fairies	Orcs & Goblins	Woodelves	Sorcerers & Dragons
Haflings	Elementals	Amuni	Constructs	The Elvenar