Elder Realms
Player Guide · English
Build Dawnshire, raise an army and capture the three rival capitals.
Rules checked 3 October 2026
1 Getting started
Chinese interface reference: the capital, nearby buildings and fog of war.
This is a single-player, turn-based conquest campaign. Room and lord names vary, but all three rivals are computer-controlled, not online players. Capture all three enemy capitals to win. Losing your own capital ends the campaign in defeat.
Choose a language on the loading screen or follow the system language; you can change it later in Settings. Fog of war is on in a new game. Drag to pan, pinch or use the zoom buttons, and use the home button to return to your capital.
You begin with 32 food, 24 wood, 12 ore and 18 gold; meat and weapons start at zero. Your force contains a scout, a swordsman and a spearman. You also have a town, farm, lumber camp and mine. Secure a food surplus before expanding the army.
About the images: these are existing in-game captures of the Chinese interface, some from earlier builds. Use the current values in this guide; the screenshots illustrate map features and visual feedback.
2 Movement and combat
Chinese interface reference: selection beam, movement boundary and a route preview.
Select a friendly unit, then select a destination to preview the route. Movement happens only after confirmation. Scouts and wolves have 2 movement per turn; other units have 1. Rough ground costs more movement. Water, mountains, unexplored tiles and occupied tiles cannot be entered directly.
Use the tile actions to move, attack, build or inspect. A selected unit keeps its light beam. Sleep, Defend and Skip manage individual orders; End Turn advances construction, training and research, and lets the rivals act.
An attack or ability spends the unit's action and remaining movement. A unit that has only moved can still attack. Ranged units reach 2 tiles and need a clear line of sight. Attacks from distance 2 avoid melee retaliation; close combat may trigger a counterattack.
Forests and hills add 2 defence; the Defend order adds 4. Put swordsmen in front, spearmen against wolves and archers behind them. With adequate supplies, sleeping, defending or building-garrisoned units recover 6 health per turn.
3 Economy and construction
Select suitable land inside your territory and open construction. Available buildings appear first; grey entries explain missing resources, town level, terrain or prerequisites. Choose a building and appearance, then confirm. A successful order closes the window.
The conquest campaign uses resource costs and construction time, unlike the earlier free building test. Costs are paid when ordered. A new building first produces at the turn settlement after completion. Upgrades take place on the existing building, which keeps working during construction.
Claim adjoining land for 2 wood and 2 gold, at most once per turn. Mines require ore deposits, berry plantations require berry bushes, and sheep pastures require sheep tiles. You may have at most two berry plantations and two sheep pastures.
| Early building | Cost | Turns | Base output per turn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farm I | 8 W 3 F | 2 | 4 F |
| Lumber camp | 6 W 3 F | 2 | 4 W |
| Mine I | 8 W 3 F | 2 | 3 O |
| Berry plantation | 10 W 3 F | 2 | 5 F |
| Sheep pasture | 12 W 4 F | 2 | 3 F 2 M |
| Market I | 14 W 4 O | 2 | 4 G |
| Barracks I | 10 W 4 O 4 F | 2 | Training access |
| Town II | 18 W 8 O 8 F 8 G | 3 | 5 F 2 W 1 O 4 G |
Base values exclude research and talents. F = food, W = wood, O = ore, G = gold, M = meat. Town upgrades require the preceding town level.
Most troops consume 1 food per turn; battlemages consume 2. Meat covers food shortages first. If supplies still fall short, every unit loses 5 health, never below 1. Check the income forecast before recruiting. A market lets you exchange 5 gold for 8 food.
4 Army and abilities
| Unit | HP | Atk / Def | Range | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scout | 24 | 6 / 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Swordsman | 42 | 12 / 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Spearman | 36 | 14 / 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Archer | 27 | 11 / 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Battlemage | 28 | 18 / 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Priest | 30 | 5 / 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Unit | Recruitment cost | Turns | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scout | 6 F 5 G | 2 | Town |
| Swordsman | 9 F 5 O 6 G | 2 | Barracks |
| Spearman | 8 F 5 W 5 G | 2 | Barracks |
| Archer | 8 F 7 W 7 G | 3 | Barracks |
| Battlemage | 12 F 18 G 3 weapons | 4 | Church; town III |
| Priest | 10 F 14 G | 3 | Church; town III |
Select an owned town, barracks or church and recruit through realm management. Town levels allow 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24 troops, including trainees. Leave a passable, friendly empty tile near the recruiting site; completed training waits if no spawn position is available.
Abilities and formations
Scouts reveal terrain within 5 tiles, without extending continuous vision. Swordsmen gain +4 defence; spearmen add +6 to one attack; archers add +4 to one attack.
Battlemages add +3 to one attack and, when targeting a unit, deal 6 splash damage to adjacent enemies. Priests heal themselves and adjacent allies for 8, without resurrection. Mage cooldown: 4 turns; other listed abilities: 3. Priests also have a separate adjacent single-target heal for 10.
Spearmen deal +6 damage to wolves; priests deal +8 to skeletons. Protect ranged troops and healers instead of duelling with scouts. Barracks II / III cut training by 1 turn, IV by 2, with a minimum of 1 turn.
5 Research and events
Queue research through realm management. Pay up front; each faction can research only one technology at a time. Start with farming for stability or forging when fighting is imminent.
| Research | Cost and time | Requirements and benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Crop Rotation | 12 W 8 G · 3 turns | Town I; +2 food per food producer |
| Logistics | 12 F 12 W 10 G · 3 | Town II + Crop Rotation; army cap +2, training −1 |
| Iron Forging | 12 O 10 G · 3 | Town I; army attack +2 |
| Riveted Armour | 18 O 14 G · 4 | Town II + Forging; army defence +2 |
| Scholars' Council | 18 W 20 G · 4 | Town II + Crop Rotation; later research −1 turn, event rewards +25% |
| Siege Engineering | 24 W 18 O 20 G · 4 | Town III + Forging; building damage +5 |
Landmarks and lord progression
Approach within one tile of a neutral or special site to handle its event. Clear guards first where required, then follow the event prompt. Each site pays out once; refreshing does not reset it or reroll the outcome.
Safe exploration gives the base reward for no extra cost. Risky exploration has a 65% chance of double rewards; failure gives nothing and costs 8 health, stopping at 1. Aid costs 6 gold and 4 food for guaranteed double rewards.
Base rewards by site: exploration, 8 food / 5 wood / 8 gold; neutral, 10 food / 12 gold; hostile, 8 ore / 16 gold; wonder, 25 gold / 4 weapons. Scholars' Council adds 25%, rounded down.
Kills, captures, successful events and research grant lord experience. Spend level-up points on Stewardship (+1 food and gold per turn per rank), Command (+1 army attack per rank) or Recovery (+2 healing per rank). Each talent has up to 3 ranks.
6 Campaign plan and help
Chinese interface reference: a sheep resource tile beside its developed pasture.
Opening turns: scout nearby while the main force guards the capital. Add food production and a barracks, keeping resources for recruits. Train archers behind swordsmen and spearmen. Avoid investing in every upgrade at once.
The easy, normal and hard rivals may begin proactive expeditions from turns 20, 14 and 10 respectively, but can defend earlier when threatened. Have a garrison before turn 10. A nearby rival with a short front is often the best first target.
Before a capital assault, regroup, heal and research siege engineering. All units must stand adjacent to attack buildings, including ranged units, whose base attack is reduced against structures. Capturing a capital eliminates that faction; you do not need to hunt every remaining troop.
Settings and common problems
Cannot build? Read the grey card's reason. Select the existing structure for upgrades and the matching resource tile for special buildings. Cannot recruit? Check town level, recruiting building, resources, army capacity and nearby spawn space.
No action available? Check whether the unit has already attacked or used an ability, whether the target is reachable and whether the campaign has ended. Scout before advancing into fog; old sightings are not current positions.
Settings contain language, music and sound-effect toggles and volume. Saves are stored automatically in this browser's local site data. Other browsers or site addresses do not share them, and clearing site data removes them. Starting a new world resets the campaign.
Rules are based on the current campaign, building, unit, research and event configuration. Suggested strategies are recommendations, not mandatory quest steps.