Mechanics
The production queue
Every city has its own queue. You put units or buildings in it; the store of the item at the head fills each turn and the item leaves the queue when it completes. Research is not in this queue: nodes are bought instantly with Science Points (Research and the tech tree).
How production reaches a city
At the start of each turn the empire's production is collected in a single pool and cities draw from that pool in identity order (deterministically). The pool is not a stock but a flow, built within the turn and spent by the draw: production that is not drawn (apart from a remainder too small for one gold) is not carried over to the next turn, it turns into gold (see "The empty queue" below).
The draw cap: a city draws at most as much as it produces per turn. The cap belongs to the turn, not to the item, and is computed from the city as it stands at the start of the turn: if the head item's remaining cost is below the cap, the city finishes it and carries the spare cap on to the next item. A queue of cheap items lined up back to back can therefore complete several items in the same turn. If the pool runs out, the cities later in the order get no production that turn; this happens in the rare turns when the pool falls short of the sum of the cities' caps — for example when a negative event multiplier lowers gross production.
The draw stops for the turn in four cases:
- The item is not finished — the cap or the pool ran out.
- The item is waiting for a strategic resource (see "The strategic resource prerequisite" below).
- There is no free neighbouring tile for the finished unit to appear on.
- The queue is finished.
Tabs. Under the queue the city panel has two tabs: Units (the unit options) and Buildings (the building options). The panel opens on the Units tab; the queue and the finish estimate sit above the tabs and stay in place on every tab.
Info icon. On the web version, a small "i" icon sits in the top right corner of every unit and building card listed as an option; it works while the card is locked, too. The icon is separate from the card itself, and pressing it adds nothing to the queue. On hover or keyboard focus a short summary of the item opens: for a unit, a one-sentence role plus its attack, defense and move values; for a building, its effects. If a research unlocks the item, a "Requires research" line is also written (even once you know that research), and if a unit needs a strategic resource, a "Requires resource" line. Esc closes an open summary. On click (a tap on touch screens) the in-game guide opens on that item's page; when you close it you return to the same city panel, on the same tab. The numbers in the summary are read from the same place as the guide's, the balance data. The mobile app does not have this icon yet.
Estimated finish. In the city panel every queued item, and every option you are about to add, carries "about N turns". This is an estimate, defined as: if this turn's share stays the same, ceil(remaining production / share). A queue row also counts the remainder of the items ahead of it (items finish in order). The share comes from the same function as the panel's draw forecast; there is no separate calculation. A rival move, a revolt or a blocked exit tile can change the share — so the number always carries the "about" label. If the share is zero (a city in revolt, an empty pool) or the head item is waiting for a strategic resource, nothing advances and the panel prints no number. While the queue is empty, the estimate for an option you are about to add uses the city's per-turn draw cap, even if the pool is short.
The empty queue: undrawn production turns into gold
A city with an empty queue draws nothing, but its production is not wasted either. The production left in the pool after the cities have finished drawing — the share of cities with empty queues and the cap that cities with full queues leave unused — turns into gold at the start of the turn: 6 production = 1 gold. A remainder too small for one gold does not convert; it joins the next turn's pool.
The conversion is a single division at the empire level; gold is not calculated city by city. Event multipliers reach gold along the same path: when an event gives a production reward or raises production income (Travelling masters), the surplus turns into gold, because cities cannot draw more than their caps. A multiplier that lowers production income (Plague) first eats the remainder that would have converted; if no remainder is left, it cuts the cities' draw.
In the breakdown that opens when you tap the Gold cell in the header, the conversion appears as a separate "From idle production" line; the turn report writes it as the "Idle X production → G gold" line. The Production cell in the header shows that turn's production, not a stock. While the queue is empty, the city panel says that production will turn into gold at the start of the turn, and gives the rate; it does not give a gold figure per city, because the conversion is calculated once over the whole empire's remainder.
A city with an empty queue is listed as unfinished business in the "End turn" box: even though its production turns into gold, a unit or building you choose is usually worth more (The turn cycle). Gold is spent through the gates on the Economy page.
A building finished mid-turn does not change that turn's cap (a Workshop counts from next turn); the item behind it, however, benefits from the building the same turn — a unit born after a Barracks finished that turn is born with the experience it grants. The draw line in the city panel forecasts the draw expected at the start of next turn and how many items will finish, using the engine's own function; rival moves in between (a revolt, a blocked exit tile) can change the outcome.
A city in revolt draws nothing at all (Victory conditions): you may queue items, even fund them with gold, but nothing completes until the revolt is over.
Reordering the queue
You can change the priority of queued items and cancel one. In both cases the accumulated production stays with the city: the store belongs to the city, not to the item.
This cannot be exploited, because the store never exceeds the cost of the item at the head of the queue — saving up for an expensive item and then promoting a cheap one does not refund the excess, it burns it.
Cancelling a building gives its slot back in the city's building budget.
The building budget
A city holds at most 3 buildings. A city whose population reaches 3 raises that limit to 4 — the same threshold that grows its region (Cities and population). Once the limit is full, no new building can enter the queue; buildings waiting in the queue hold a slot too.
If the population later drops below the threshold, no building is demolished: the city keeps it, and only new buildings are refused until the population climbs back to the threshold. A city builds each building once; a copy waiting in the queue counts too. A dynasty's variant building (Yurt, Citadel, Inn) counts as the same building as its base: a city never holds both, and while one waits in the queue the other cannot enter. The variant rows in the table are for that dynasty's seat only; any other seat that asks for the same base building gets the base building in the queue.
A second limit belongs to the Monument alone: you may build one per empire. If one of your cities already has it — or merely has one waiting in its queue — a second cannot enter any city's queue.
The limit is a building limit: a Monument that arrives by conquest is not demolished and its score is not swallowed. Raise your own and then take a rival's Monument city and you hold two, and both score (Territory and score); the only thing closed is the right to build a third. It cuts the other way too: conquering a Monument city blocks you from building one even if you never raised your own.
| Name | Cost | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Farm | 5 |
|
| Workshop | 5 |
|
| Market | 5 |
|
| Walls | 8 |
|
| Monument | 15 |
|
| Madrasa | 6 |
|
| Guild | 6 |
|
| Caravanserai | 7 |
|
| Almshouse | 10 |
|
| Bedesten | 9 |
|
| Divan | 14 |
|
| Hospital | 7 |
|
| Barracks | 6 |
|
| Mill | 6 |
|
| Watchtower | 6 |
|
| Foundry | 7 |
|
| Land Registry | 9 |
|
| Observatory | 50 | |
| Yurt | 7 |
|
| Citadel | 10 |
|
| Inn | 7 |
|
The strategic resource prerequisite
Some units can only be built if you own a piece of the map:
| Unit | Resource required |
|---|---|
| Raider | Horse pasture |
| Siege | Iron deposit |
Three rules apply at once:
- The prerequisite is empire-wide. If any of your cities has the resource in its region, you may build the unit in every city. There is no "which city can raise an army" bookkeeping.
- The rejection happens when the item enters the queue. Without the resource the button is disabled and the engine rejects the command with an explicit reason — an item never slips into the queue to stall silently.
- Losing the resource while the item waits does not delete it. The item waits: production does not flow into it, the stored production stays put, and the panel states the reason. The turn you take the land back, the item continues from where it stopped.
A waiting item blocks the queue: production only flows into the head of the queue (see above), so the items behind it stop too. You can reorder the queue to push the waiting item back — stored production stays with the city, so reordering costs you nothing.
Units without a prerequisite are exempt, and deliberately so: the Spearman is the unit that holds a front, and gating it on a tile would leave a player defenceless on an unlucky seed.
What to build
| Name | Cost | Upkeep | Move | Attack | Defense | HP | Vision | Attack vs. city | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneer | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 1 | — |
| Spearman | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 2 | — |
| Raider | 6 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 2 | Horse pasture |
| Siege | 8 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 6 | Iron deposit |
| Scout | 2 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 0 | — |
| Standard-bearer | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Physician | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 0 | — |
| Janissary | 10 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 4 | 1 | Iron deposit |
| Archer | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Sipahi | 9 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 14 | 4 | 2 | Horse pasture |
| Artillery | 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 9 | Iron deposit |
| Forlorn Hope | 9 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 2 | — |
In the city panel every unit option also shows its attack and defence, so you can compare two units without leaving the panel. The numbers are the unit catalogue itself.
Roughly: Pioneer in the early turns, Spearman when a border tightens, Raider to clear the field, Siege to take a city. The last two depend on the map: take the resource first, then the unit.
The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.