Villages

The village is where players produce resources, food, banquet goods and weapons. Resources such as wood, stone and iron are stored in the *Stockpile*, as are weapons. Food: apples, cheese and meat etc. are stored in the *Granary*, while ale is stored at the *Inn*. At the centre of all villages sits the *Village Hall*, where banquet goods are stored. The closer a building is to where its particular good type is stored, the more efficient it is. All villages are separate from other villages even if they belong to the same user. As such, each has its own resources, storage buildings, armies and castles.

Other buildings which do not produce any goods can be affected by their distance to the village hall. For example, a hovel which is closer to the hall will be able to house more peasants; this is represented by the number shown above the building before it is placed. As a player advances, it is essential to reevaluate and reposition buildings to optimize their value!

Certain buildings may only be built in specific village types; the default village with which all players begin is a *lowland* type. Please see the Village Table for more details.

## Peasants

The village is run by peasants, and almost every building requires a peasant for it to function. The number of peasants is determined by the number of hovels placed in the village. The closer to the village hall the hovel is, the more space will be available to house peasants. Researching housing capacity (within the education tab of the research tree) will increase each hovel's capacity and upgrade its appearance. At the beginning of the game, before any hovels have been built, the village hall initially provides eight (8) spaces for peasants.

**TIP:** The speed at which peasants migrate to the village is affected by the overall popularity.

**TIP:** When a building is complete, a spare peasant will automatically be assigned to it.

**TIP:** The number of peasants, which are available for work, are shown in the interface toolbar at the top of the screen.

## Peacetime

When starting in a new world for the first time, players will start with 3 days peacetime. Players in peacetime cannot be attacked, although the AI can attack them. Peacetime can be cancelled at any time. To cancel peacetime, simply attack any player in the game. Peacetime for re-spawning/old players is 3 days.

## Popularity

Popularity is one of the determining factors in how fast peasants arrive and leave your village. It is also is a major factor in how much honour a village will produce per day.

The popularity of the village is displayed on the right of the screen in the *village user interface*. The number displayed at the top shows the overall popularity. This represents the total of the numbers listed below it. The higher the total, the faster peasants arrive, providing there is hovel space for them.

Click here for a full breakdown of Popularity.

## Buildings

Without buildings, your villages will not function. Most buildings require stone and wood for them to be placed, while some also require gold. The cost in wood/stone/gold for each building type increases with the number placed in your village. It is therefore essential that you place both stone quarries and woodcutters' huts as your first buildings. When placing buildings, a proximity arrow points to the building which it is needs to be close to in order for it to be most effective/efficient.

You can delete all buildings except the Hall, Stockpile, Granary and Inn. You can move all buildings except the Hall if you have a Premium token in play. Holding the Shift key while hovering over buildings will make them transparent, allowing you to see and click on any building hidden behind it.

At low ranks you will have very simple buildings which can be placed; however, through research, this can be expanded.

Each building you place will take longer to build than the previous one. The base building time follows the relationship

# T
0.03

x
3

1.5

x
2

3.5
x
12

{\displaystyle T = 0.03 x^3 + 1.5 x^2 + 3.5 x + 12}

 where

T

{\displaystyle T}

 is building time in seconds and

x

{\displaystyle x}

 is the number of the building placed not including the stockpile, granary, or village hall. For example, the 12th building after the stockpile and granary will take a base time of 5 minutes and 22 seconds to build. Village building times can be reduced by researching Architecture.

An icon floats up from buildings when workers drop goods at the storage building. The floating icon shows the number of goods dropped and if a card is in play the bonus is shown. This option can be switched off in the Options & Settings Menu.

Some buildings require different village types for them to be placed. Please see the Village Table for more details.

Click here for a full breakdown of all village Buildings.

## Gold

Gold can be made in a number of ways; taxing peasants, selling excess goods to a capital’s stock exchange and playing a *gold find card*. Gold is used for a variety of things; troops, units, honour buildings, research points and more.

The amount of gold you have accumulated in total is displayed in the top-left of the *user interface*. The amount of gold is linked to the player and not their villages.

**TIP:** Player to player trading with gold is not available in **Stronghold Kingdoms™**.

## Additional Villages

Every player starts out with one village. Once a player reaches Rank 12 the Research branch "Leadership" becomes available in the Military Tab of the Research Tree, enabling a player to own two villages. After the first level of "Leadership" is researched, the sub-branch "Captains" is unlocked. Once the player finishes researching the first level of "Captains", the captain must be recruited. The captain can then be sent out to purchase or capture a new village as long as he is stationed in the barracks and not the castle.

To gain additional villages (up to a maximum of 25), a player must reach certain ranks, and complete further research in Leadership and Captains.

Villages may be gained by either attacking another player using the *capture* command, or by buying village charters. The price of a new village is determined by several factors including the current number of villages owned by the player and the distance of the target village from the captain's point of origin.

When you launch a captain to buy a charter, you are then able to choose its type (lowland, highland, river, etc.) from the drop-down list in the toolbar at the top of the screen (click *settings*). Please see the village table for details of village types.

The costs listed below are for village charters based within the same parish:

When a world enters The Third Age Crown Princes are able to obtain an additional five villages, with no extra research required. The honor cost for these villages is 35,000,000.