First of all, this base setup can be done in normal or Iron man mode. Iron man mode I died many many times. I will talk about setting up your base then slowly expanding it to the end game base. Crafting table setups with storage. Animal pen set up for sheep and cows. The base setup is what I won all 3 victories on iron man mode on the same game.

Steam Achievements %

Military Victory (iron man) 0.1%

Science Victory (iron man) 0.2%

Economy Victory (iron man) 0.2%

Picking your spot

Starting off your game. Trying to find everything in the middle, saves on travel time and losing peasants from be attacked and killed. Try to keep everything close just not on top of everything. Have some open spaces to add buildings for mid to late game.

Middle the best. Sides can be dangerous from being too close to enemy spawns.

The terrain is not very important as what the game has for the green starting area. If you building your base and going to put buildings on a dry or semi-dry or green ground. It does not matter. Only for animals pen area which should have all green areas if not would need lots of straw making it hard early on.

Mud areas for bonus growing, some maps will have a lot while others have a few. Some might 1/8 of the map. These areas can be painful but depend on how big the area for growing.

Mountains you need a good area. The basic mine is 2 squares with 1 mountain (stone only). Ore mine (from stone works) is 3 squares and 2 in the mountain (all ore types and stone, depends on pick type). Iron quarry (steel tree) is 4 squares and 3 in the mountain (mostly iron but less of other types). Most mountains can be hard to find 3 thick areas which is very important. I found many areas to be 2 thick, good for the first 2 mines just not iron and will not able to build. Mountain thickness for mines is the black squares of the mine.

Trees can always be cut down and later on replanted in the same or different place. For the Dryads need them around the base for happiness and movement. Trees can put where every.

Water: Lakes/Rivers These provide mud areas for growing farms, gathering water, washing dishes, and catching fish. If the red angles touch the ground by these rivers or lakes, the enemies can spawn there. They can do lots of damage to your base and chance to cut your peasants off to weapons. They might seem good for defense but more like a death trap.

Starting your base

Once you put down your town square and get the cart. Put both as woodcutters peasants. Have the player (you) equip shield for space then remove axe, open cart up. Put axe in cart, take hammer with hide and wool.

For town square leave 2 squares thick all the way around it for roads, light, and decorations.

For buildings do the same, 2 squares thick.

woodcutter/mover

woodcutter/hunter

Build 2 sleep bags and crafting tables as the wood comes in. Do not focus on all crafting tables as you will run out of chest space. By the time that is done, new peasant shows up. Build a mine and put new peasant mining. The player (you) be builder/crafter for items and tools. The first science you need to take is stone working. The miner should have enough stone to make ore mine and table. With other helpful items also first light source for your peasants. The goal is get wood buildings fast.

With the next peasant coming up. Look at peasants, who ever have the highest Int stat make them the weapon smith/artisan. If you running low on hide/wool just change a woodcutter to hunter….hunter/woodcutter.

Farmer/shepherded…need seed table and slaughter table.

Seeds I put 30 until iron/steel age then move to 40 each seed type. Hold off in making items with flax and flowers until you get a good supply. if not, you have issues trying to grow them.

Builder peasants I wait for few ages before allowing one.

Image 1 is beginning plans build in parts

The reason why you want to push for wood buildings. Is for the chest and beat the first rain/lightning. 1 per rain storm (always have lightning unless it is snow storm) can destroy 1 storage box. This is not limited to wooden chest, barrels, or cellars. Later you can build iron chest and barrels that protect against lightning. Build you wood walls with door(s) first for storage. It sucks to lose everything from the lightning strike.

Wall—chest—path—chest–wall each is a square. So total of 10 (5 per side is good for now). Need 1 barrel for straw for now.

Then build your sleeping area. I suggest building plank floor first 5 squares in a line then the walls to avoid moving stuff around which waste time. Sleep area should be small, later on you can expand it. Once you have building up, you can add the rest of the flooring without moving anything. You will be burning through a lot of stamina.

Wall—-door—wall—-wall—-wall

Wall—-path—-bed—-bed—-wall The second square for bed by wall is were you want to put plank flooring down first. Do this for the first 3 sleep bags then add obelisk and a bonfire. Flooring will not burn. Then last sleep bag for now.

Doing the housing in parts is the best way. In the past I try to as one, had too many issues, then 2 parts which was little better but still had issues. Finally did it in 3 parts which was the best. In image 1 shows base plans. Then once you get stone buildings. Add a wood wall down to desired space. For the outer wall add stone idea on the right side that I show above. Add another door. This time add stone flooring and few beds. Leave the sleeping bags until almost end game. Unless you have mats to do so. The last part is solid stone wall with flooring (again flooring can be done a little at a time).

Stone buildings might be nice but tools are more important.

Image 2 is end game. Cellars was for healing items. Shows bed set up with storage.

Kitchen and storage

Making a good size kitchen is not only good but can be tricky early on for placement and area. It is easy to start building then run out of space by poor setup. The best thing is to pause the game and try different ideas. Also filling the right space of items. In your kitchen…just a stove or 2, mill, well or cheese maker, cellars, or caskets. How about all that I listed, sure just need the space.

Basic set up is tricky at first but gets easier. Pause is great thing for building setups. Your kitchen is going to take many steps to build. The center will be exposed and can be destroyed by lightning. Had it happen to me. Under roof is protected, exposed in any way can be hit. You take it in many steps. You can start be figuring out space with craft benches for size and spacing. Kitchen stoves are 2 x 1 squares, same for food dryer. Mills are 1 x 1 square also wells. Cheese makers are 3 x 1 squares, same as caskets. Cellars are 2 x 2 squares. I will do this north and south.

Wall—stove–stove—path–mill–space—stove—stove—path—wall

So path, mill, space (for future item), and stove will be exposed. Do not build anything unless you want the lightning to destroy it.

I do 12 cellars or more for end game. Mid game is 12 cellars. slowly build them as they get protected under a roof. I start on the left side and slowly build as a good for cellars as they will be protected from wood wall roof. 3 rows of 4 I do.

From wood walls to stone walls and finally brick walls that everything under the roof.

The rest is for you to play around.

Mining

For mining the 3 different mines will produce different types of ore also with stone and clay.

1. Stone mine only for stone

2. Ore mine which gives stone (less amount), clay, copper, tin, and iron ore (need bronze pick or higher).

3. Iron quarry which gives more stone than other types, less stone, clay, copper, and tin.

Mountain thickness for mines is the black squares. All mines need normal squares…2, 3, or 4 squares. The thickness or black squares are 1, 2, or 3 which can make game bit harder if your peasants have to travel far or not enough space. This can limit amount of mines you can put for end game. Takes a lot of iron ore for iron/steel items.

Walling around mines give happiness bonus and protection from the elements. Add some bonfires and monuments. Even total space is 2 squares wide. They work better than faster.

I have all 3 mines…The iron quarry I have out to show the black squares that need to be completely covered before you can build or move it.

Animals and pen

In the past you could do many pens to make good amount of animals. Now with upgrades, you no longer need to do it. Make sure you have the animals penned up so wild animals or enemies do not attack them and can kill them. A feeder can do everything or put a second one for science points and size. Also with upgrades can make the animals use less straw and have more off spring.

When you do a pen, make sure it is in the green area and big enough. After using rope to lead back to the area, the green pattern is where the animal will roam. In the beginning it is too from from the feeder. Pick up and lead it closer to the feeder. You use the same rope. Do this early on. You start with sheep then later get cows.

For herd size, I do 2 males and 3 females also look for younger age. Older ones can be a waste by not allowing off spring or dying off before anything happens which need to get more animals and waste time. Only the play can catch animals and put them in a pen.

You can set up pen walls and slowly build them, add some door(s) and road way. 1 or 2 feeders up to you. For the slaughter bench, have light source and monument for happiness. Other walls can work too but can be a pain to build. Fortress walls can help out too. Natural walls, side of the mountain. Large area you need not tiny.

The image is too big to show everything. 2 sides have mountains, 1 side has fortress wall, other is pen fence by water. I have iron bonfires for darkness and people can still work.

Crafting buildings and Crafting

You will need many crafting buildings and expand them with different wall types. Different buildings will house different crafting benches as time goes on. Some benches will go with others, so having connect in the same way can help out. You will need plenty of storage. The storage picture from housing is nothing for what I have the rest of my base. Some crafting benches has limited space Like mills and wells which have 3 spots while others is depend on number of squares. Most benches should be left open space for small windmills that can help increase speed of crafting items. The diamond in the upper left side has a number which tells the current crafting speed. Wells are the only thing that has speed 50% while the dock is 100%

For some crafting table or cooking stove, I like have 2 tables. That way 2 people can work on them.

For stoves I break down basic cooked items (include fish) and soups/stews. Then another one for mill or end game food like pies, cakes, juice, and dessert items. Same goes for caskets.

Crafting that is on timers can be part of different groups.

For fish, cheese, and honey only 1 recipe with a timer

For iron/steel or dried meat/fruit has 2 recipes. Meaning you make group 1 only iron while group 2 only do steel. Same for dry meat and fruit

Caskets have 5 different recipes so 5 different groups to make items.

The drill/smelter/mint has many recipes that is one timer too. You would need units for different recipes.

Have some type of storage near by so when peasants bring too much, they can drop off the extra which can save picking up and carrying to the bench.

For group item crafting understanding. Lets do iron/steel from the blooms…Default is group 1 and you a*sign it to iron. Group 2 is steel. Instead player build it, say a peasant builds it. Say you wanted it for steel. When it is done building, what ever you have set to, it will copy the active recipe. So if you have iron to set for group 1 then have to wait for the timer end before switching it steel or you lose the items. Other timer crafting is usually group – .

Now back to building the area for crafting. Again plan it out. Make sure you can walk around and drop items off. Have room for light source and monuments also small or mini windmills for speed enhancement. Figure if you are planing out using barrels and/or chests. Using chest for smaller items being made is better than barrels. Start small and expand. Not only using walls with exposed building areas but also use pillars to free up space and get more effects.

Weapons and Armor benches can use 1 chest to store bars and parts in. Another chest to store items in.

Trade tents corrected to barn to sell off your resources that you have too much of. Barns need to be covered or lightning will destroy it.

Well with a barrel for all those clean wooden bowls you will get while chest for dirty bowls and jugs.

Crafting buildings change from map to map for me. They might be similar but depends on the landscape.

Filters for chests/cart

I have read that some people are confused about this. While most game filters do not work at the this time. You can still do custom filters which easy to do. As time goes on in game, and more storage items from barrels or barns, you slowly clean up chest space. Yes it is pain that small chest, big chest, and iron chests lose there filters when being replace but understanding how to use the filters makes everything easy in the game.

Chests and the carts can be filtered. At the end of my iron man game, I had the cart completely empty. You made a few barrels to handle wood, stone, hide, and wool. Once drop off items to those barrels or set the filter. Go over to the chest and start moving items. Once the chest does not have those items. Click on filter, find the items and click on them. Wood from a chest should be white not yellow. Yellow is allowed while white are not allowed, click on save. You are done with that chest, move to the next. A lot of clicking in the but you slowly keep you items in one place without hunting them down. Peasants loves dropping everything in chest with no filters to show how lazy they are.

What about allow all and disable all. Does not matter what filter is selected. Disable all, then save to make sure if the game is not paused to stop those lazy peasants drop stuff in the chest.

Example of lazy peasants, made an iron chest and before changing filters on it. I got boards, iron bars, tree sapling, and a pumpkin in the chest. All other chests had filters on them.

Bench input and output is handy too. Just disable all, click on input or output or both, edit then save. Now you crafting bench will only allow those items.

Once you get cellars, then turn off all food in chests/cart. Cellars spoil more slowly than chests/cart.

For crafting benches, figure out space what you want to be storage in them.

Ideas for filters for chests. For big chests and then iron chests not small chests.

Big chest for seeds (later on when you push to 40 of each seeds, need 2 big chests). Disable all, click on seeds then save. Tree saplings I put in barns since you slowly get more and more and not waste chest spaces.

Tools only, end game need 2 chests. 2 ways to do this. Disable all, filter drop down select tools, then save. Or disable all then click on tools, save.

Now on weapons, I split up melee and range. Chest only for bows/arrows. Chest only for melee items. Both next to the Tools only chest. For call to arms, one area to switch items and faster on the battle field.

Craft bench….Carpenter’s bench. Barrel for wood. Big chest for planks, lac planks, and flax oil. Use other chests for wooden stick, wooden parts, fishing parts, and bee frames. Second bench for better filtering.

Tips, battles, events….iron man mode tips.

Keep playing normal games to try new ideas and get used to the different fractions. Understand the game. For iron man mode, I dead many times before winning it.

If you get a battle around season change, wait the 4 hours so you can see what is going on and not get lost in darkness.

Build you base in different parts and over time as you get move resources. I usually have stone/wood walls after I unlock brick. Slowly upgrade from there.

Never destroy a wall during a rain storm with storage so lightning cannot hit it. If it starting rain throw a wall up to protect it. The wall need to connect to the building block the hole to be under roof.

Example: wall—–wall—wall wall—hole—wall wall–hole–wall

wall—wall— under roof —- wall— wall only, exposed

Make sure you have plenty of weapons, so you can handle fights. Lack of weapons means lack of fighters and more likely death or peasants loss. Normal games can reload last save game while iron man, you die means reset the game.

Takes about 1 year game time to unlock iron. That is moving at a good speed.

Once you have roomy place for sleeping, move the throne (if you have one) inside housing area. You get better bonus to happiness and you are out of rain/snow.

Upgrade for to increase happiness over pop size (tier 5) and all bonuses I was around 92% to 94% happiness on villagers screen. Pop was 21 or 22 all the way to pop 24. Pop 25 drop to 90%

Bears and wolves, usually attack right after enter then map unless you have druids that can be friend them. Have the ma*s group behind you. Hit the animal once and run. The animal will charge you while peasants can take a good enough hp off before changing targets.

For the Barbarians in the North Clan, this is a no no for iron man. These bears can kill the lord in seconds which is game over in iron man. Let the bears come to you. Mix melee, archers, and bears.

For Archer Clan, stay back as the can do tons of damage. Dangerous in iron man but low armor is the weakness. range only

Siege Clan is mix of melee and archers, immune to traps

Oak Shield Clan is melee only.

Pick 2 of the 4 clans you want 1 on 1 battle for the first 2 picked then the other 2 will be at the same time. You can also wait for the following year to take them on. Last 2 will always be in the same fight.

For iron man mode…..take your time building your base, let your peasants do most of the fighting. You can fight just hang back, you can pick off the runners. Running sometimes in front of fleeing enemy might make them stop to attack you. End game, try to have the best armor on.

Katana you have to get from merchant or trade tent. not cheap..about 40K for poor one.

For enemy caravans, if too stronger, let them pa*s.

Rare events, there is events I have gotten a few times to only once.

1. Trade Guild offering money, feast (with a new peasant without timer), one or 2 other things.

2. Got this once. Take on Brigands but died on iron man doing so. allied nations asked for help.

Military Victory can be hard, especially on iron man mode. Not impossible just need to learn better.

Science Victory It is all about research and building items for upgrade points. Pop 20 and pop 22 for last 2 lord traits.

Economy Victory is the easy, once you have mint, craft gold. Gears too $$$, buy once per year and sell plate armor for the money. Also 1 trait makes super easy to do.

Suggestion Bronze knights for iron man mode. While you can get a good amount of gold, can be deadly with 5 or more up again not impossible. For iron man, only do 5. 1 statues gives 1k gold per kill, so 5 gives 5k per kill times 11 to 14 people, lots of money but can be quick death too.

I only built these for points then destroyed them.

Disclaimer

The disclaimer. Might wrong in some of the events. Also the game can still be changed. This to help out others. No using of cheats or mods. Plus end game winning details, you have to figure out. Base layouts I used.

I hope you enjoy the Base and animal setup guide – First Feudal guide. This is all for now! If you have something to add to this guide or forget to add some information, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually!