Acts & Chapters

### Introduction

Each game in the Age of Dynasties series is structured in chapters and acts. The chapters divide the game's story into challenges and plot. The game acts contain primary and secondary objectives which if achieved award bonus points at the end of the game.

### Chapters

When you start your Age of Dynasties adventure it will be like reading a book structured into chapters. Each chapter tells a story in which the protagonist will be your dynasty. In addition to this, some chapters will contain a challenge or a reward.

#### Chapter I: Royal Palace

The first chapter of the game will see the construction of your massive **royal palace** which will later become the hub of your kingdom. As soon as the royal palace is built, you will be able to enter it to complete daily missions, purchase powerful family heirlooms and noble titles for your descendants, and hire famous people who can help you manage the kingdom.

#### Plot chapters

After the first chapter there will be 15 chapters. Each chapter will contain a challenge to face. Challenges will often involve you needing certain kingdom indicators for a long time. To find out which chapters are present in each Age of Dynasties game and which indicators you will need, you can visit the "Series" section.

### Game acts

The game acts add new elements to the challenges in the game: the management of **cities**, **armies**, and **diplomatic relations**. Each game act also has a main and a secondary objective. Completion of a game acts results in a higher score at the end of the game.

#### Principal objective & secondary objective

The game is divided into acts. In each act, you will have the principal objective of conquering and controlling a certain number of cities before the act comes to an end, and a secondary objective to conquer all the territories. To do this, you'll need to manage your cities, your armies, and your relationships with other factions as well as you can.

#### Conquest modalities

To conquer the cities in each of the territories, you can use the **military strength** of your armies or the **cultural influence** of your kingdom. It will be up to you to decide which strategy to adapt to wrest control of the cities from the opposing factions in each act of the game.

##### Military conquest

Before starting an expansionist military campaign it is always a good idea to analyse the size of the enemy armies deployed in defence of the territory in which the cities you intend to conquer are located. Once you have enlisted enough soldiers, you can start the war and lay siege to the cities you want to conquer. The besieged cities, if not saved by their allied armies, will fall within a certain number of turns and will be conquered by your army.

##### Cultural conquest

In each act of the game, every city has a percentage of cultural influence that represents how much your empire is admired by that city. All enemy cities that have a level of over 100% will automatically be annexed to your majestic empire. To increase your cultural influence in enemy cities, you can hire spies to buy the support of influential people or build majestic buildings in the cities that will allow you to stage impressive spectacles.

#### Strategic map

You can view your progress in the game act by viewing the strategic map, which is among the actions available to the sovereign before concluding a turn of the game. On the strategic map you can also manage your cities, your armies, and your diplomatic missions to other factions. Try to avoid waging too many wars simultaneously, or your empire will fall.

##### Defending cities

On the strategic map you can view your armies deployed in each territory. The ideal is always to have at least one army deployed in the defence of a territory in which your cities are located. The armies deployed in defence of the territory are the first to engage any invading armies in battle. If a city in your possession is more important to you than others, you can also order an army to stay to defend the city. You can manage your armies through military operations.

##### Military operations

You can deploy the army in defence of a city, an entire territory, or move it to besiege enemy cities. Before starting any offensive or defensive military operations, it is recommended that you consult the strategic map and increase the size of your army according to your strategic objectives and the particular situation you will face.

###### The Cost Of Maintaining An Army

You can have a lot of armies, but pay attention to their maintenance costs. The bigger your army, the more expensive it will be to maintain. Your cities can fully absorb the  cost of the army if their number and size are sufficient. If you exceed the capacity of the cities to provide resources you will have to make up the difference from your kingdom's treasury.

#### City management

You can see the cities within each territory on the strategic map. In your cities you can decide what to produce, and the demographic expansion of the city itself. The increase in the size of a city, in addition to increasing the resources available to the army, also allows you to construct new buildings. Buildings are useful for increasing the city's production of resources and for unlocking certain functions. Is there anything else you want to know?

#### Faction management

You can view the factions you have to face in each territory on the strategic map. At the beginning of each act of the game, you are in a state of truce with every faction except the anarchists, who are always at war with everyone. Anarchists are not initially a threat, but their armies grow in strength as rebellions expand throughout the kingdoms. You can change the diplomatic truce status using diplomatic missions.

##### Foreign policy

Each faction acts according to its own foreign policy ideology.

###### Isolationist

A faction with an isolationist foreign policy is not interested in acquiring new territories. It prefers to invest its resources on defence and on increasing the prosperity of its kingdom.

###### Well-balanced

A faction with a well-balanced foreign policy uses its resources to acquire new territories and to make its kingdom prosper.

###### Expansionist

A faction with an expansionist foreign policy uses its resources primarily to expand its borders.

##### Diplomatic missions

diplomatic missions allow you to manage your relationship with each faction. The missions available depend on your current diplomatic status. During a truce one can declare war, demand a tribute, offer a gift or, propose a peace treaty. During the peace you will be able to make agreements that are advantageous to both parties and arrange royal weddings between your family and the faction's family. Finally, during a war you will be able to discuss how to bring hostilities to an end.

#### Functionary Management

the internal council will be close to you and will help you make the right decisions. You'll also be able to hire officials to help you manage your cities, armies, and relationships with other factions. Your relatives will also be helpful to you and can play any role. There are different types of officials: mayors of cities, generals of armies, ambassadors, and spies.

#### Faction defeated!

when the last city belonging to a faction is conquered by your armies or through your cultural influence, the faction is defeated. All the faction's armies are disbanded, and it is no longer possible to open relations with the faction until the act is completed. Subsequently, the faction could return, led by a new dynasty.

#### Conclusion Of An Act

when an act ends the characteristics of your kingdom will be assigned a score, which will be positive if you manage to conquer all the strategic cities of the main objective and negative otherwise. Continuing to conquer non-strategic cities allows you to increase the score that will be assigned to you at the conclusion of the act.

#### Strategic Cities

Strategic cities are of paramount importance not only for the completion of your principal objective but also because they are the only cities that remain active in all acts of the game. This means that any improvements made to the city will be maintained. On the other hand, secondary cities will not be available in the next act. Conquering and upgrading the strategic cities is of fundamental importance in order for you to be in a better position to face the increasingly difficult challenges you will meet in the other acts of the game.

### Tips

#### Chapter challenges

* when a new chapter begins check which kingdom indicators you will need for a long time and set the production of your cities so that they can help you meet this demand. You can do this with the accumulation plan and trade routes
* In case you are having troubles with kingdom indicators, speed up city production in your major cities by assigning an officer
* in desperate situations you can also declare a state of emergency in your cities. Declaring a state of emergency in a city is useful when you need to improve the performance of an indicator that has reached a critically low level. A state of emergency allows you to receive help from the city to raise the lowest indicator in the empire at the cost of reducing public order or the cultural influence in the city.
* assigns noble titles and family heirlooms in the royal palace that increase the power skill to your most loyal and loyal relatives. They will help you to better deal with any crisis with some indicators of the kingdom

#### Game acts: military conquest

If you decide to conquer the target cities in the game act by military force here are some tips for you

* For a detailed explanation on how to best face battles and lead your armies, consult the guide dedicated to the Guides section.
* Before starting a war against another faction make sure you have at least one army deployed in defense of your territory and an army ready to be sent for conquest.
* When you send an army to take over an opposing city it is likely that your army will have to face several battles before it can besiege the city. You will surely be defeated after several battles but you must not despair. Restore your army by ordering it to camp and once it has recovered resume the war.
* You can greatly increase the chances of victory by having the ruler join the battle. To prevent him from running the risk of dying in battle, he increases his defensive ability by assigning him an heirloom and a noble title.
* You can increase the chance of victory in battle by inviting certain guests of honor to the court

#### Game acts: cultural conquest

* If you decide to conquer opposing cities with cultural influence you will need to make extensive use of spies. Hiring spies costs experience points but remember, your relatives will work for you for free. Also, you could use your relatives as spies who have a low chance of having positive traits if they were to ascend the throne so that if they were to die, it wouldn't be a big loss.
* Try to improve the competence of the skills you want to send on a mission. By improving their proficiency you will greatly increase their chances of winning
* Factions will be able to restore their cultural influence in their cities. Don't let it get you down when they do, restoring cultural influence costs them a lot of resources. They won't be able to do it for long.
* Try to build a building capable of culturally influencing the entire territory in each of your territories
* Royal weddings with factions are great tools for growing your cultural influence across their cities
* Some guests of honor that you can invite to court allow you to improve the results you can get when you want to culturally influence the opposing cities