I shoved this up on steam, but I thought some people might be interested here as well



I think I found my new favourite race, the Roving Clans. They look really weak on paper, but they are actually one of the more powerful and fun races I played. They are probably also the most flexible. First things I should say I’m a turtler and builder, but they should also be fine for a bit of fun with the mercenary, privateer armies. Here’s a short guide of some of the strategies I used. Apologies for any names I got wrong. I'm not in front of the game at the minute.



For the initial start you need to try find a nice balanced area. The Clans are a mid/late game race, and you need to get your first city up and running quickly. You’ll need to buy a hero quickly, so cash is vital. Science, food and production are all required as well. The usual river-based enchanted forest is ideal! But anything else with a good balance is great.



The quest is very much worth following. It gives you perks and buildings that will help you win. After the first couple of quests, you get an item that boosts production. You have to equip it to a Wind Walkers hero and make a one-off building. This is why you need the gold, to buy the hero quite quickly. If you played a bit of the game you’ll know the Wind Walkers are the production race, and the hero gets nice boosts to production all through the skill tree. Keep going with the quest, it gives you a few more skills that help your trade. It’s worth going all the way to the end.



The Wild Walkers hero will be your builder throughout the game. With the quest item and a few perks the hero can knock up a city in no time. Plant a new city near some forest, assign the WW hero and watch the buildings shoot up almost every turn. Have a look at the region and what it is good for, make the buildings and then shift the city to the optimal location for its specialisation. I thought the moving city skill was a waste. It’s not, it’s very useful. One thing to be VERY careful about is that when you pack the city up, the region goes neutral while you move and the AI can slip a settler in and steal the area. Never move in winter as it takes more turns, and try plan your end position before you begin so you make the least possible moves. If there are two industrial areas that you can choose to incubate and one is slightly worse than the other, but closer to the river/sea/other area you finally plan to settle, then it would probably be best to chose the closer one.



The other heros you’ll probably need are the Clan ones for trade and other ranged heros for your armies, since you’ll rely on your horse archers a lot. I watched a video guide for the Roving Clans and the narrator said the Clan hero was the worst ever city governors. That may be true for other races, but for the Clan they are awesome. Let them sit in the city and boost your income by an amount that would make a Broken Lord blush. They boost your trade routes and let you trade with cold war enemies. By mid game you are rolling in cash. Obviously the ideal skill is Imperial Highways to open up trade. Give this skill away to your enemies to open up external trade routes. The perks you want here are the one that lets you trade during cold war (Black market I think it's called) and the one that negates winter penalties (I'm going to test if this works with trade next game and update). Both are at the top of the skill tree, so try drop some Red Sang from the market to boost the XP.



Next we have mercenary armies. These are great for defending the realm with their double hit points. A good ranged hero helps them with extra damage and attack through skills and items. Is another race beating you? Drop the hero, slip on privateer masks and melt one or more of their cities. Even though I’m primarily a builder, it’s incredibly fun, and you get an achievement if you destroy a friendly city.



The reason I say they are the most flexible is that you can win any way you want. Conquest? Send in the mercenary armies. Science, cash? Place your cities in the optimal locations and get earning/researching. You can even wait to see what resources you are landed with before choosing. Just build generic all-round cities till mid game and then if you have a lot of titanium it will be easy to hit the science route, glassteel for economic victory etc. Best of all, the wonder..just get your biggest city in a region with a large forest, assign your Wind Walkers production monster and move the city to the best production location available, activate some dragon bones luxury and watch it shoot up.



Missing anything? Well once the trade routes are up you are rolling in cash. Just buy what you need. For lux, redsang is nice to get your heros along the skill tree. Anything that boosts trade, cash or science works just as well. In fact, I don’t think there’s a booster that doesn’t help one way or another.



I hope you found this interesting. Tips or abuse welcome

timally wrote:
I shoved this up on steam, but I thought some people might be interested here as well



I think I found my new favourite race, the Roving Clans. They look really weak on paper, but they are actually one of the more powerful and fun races I played. They are probably also the most flexible. First things I should say I’m a turtler and builder, but they should also be fine for a bit of fun with the mercenary, privateer armies. Here’s a short guide of some of the strategies I used. Apologies for any names I got wrong. I'm not in front of the game at the minute.



For the initial start you need to try find a nice balanced area. The Clans are a mid/late game race, and you need to get your first city up and running quickly. You’ll need to buy a hero quickly, so cash is vital. Science, food and production are all required as well. The usual river-based enchanted forest is ideal! But anything else with a good balance is great.



The quest is very much worth following. It gives you perks and buildings that will help you win. After the first couple of quests, you get an item that boosts production. You have to equip it to a Wind Walkers hero and make a one-off building. This is why you need the gold, to buy the hero quite quickly. If you played a bit of the game you’ll know the Wind Walkers are the production race, and the hero gets nice boosts to production all through the skill tree. Keep going with the quest, it gives you a few more skills that help your trade. It’s worth going all the way to the end.



The Wild Walkers hero will be your builder throughout the game. With the quest item and a few perks the hero can knock up a city in no time. Plant a new city near some forest, assign the WW hero and watch the buildings shoot up almost every turn. Have a look at the region and what it is good for, make the buildings and then shift the city to the optimal location for its specialisation. I thought the moving city skill was a waste. It’s not, it’s very useful.



The other heros you’ll probably need are the Clan ones for trade and other ranged heros for your armies, since you’ll rely on your horse archers a lot. I watched a video guide for the Roving Clans and the narrator said the Clan hero was the worst ever city governors. That may be true for other races, but for the Clan they are awesome. Let them sit in the city and boost your income by an amount that would make a Dust Lord blush. They boost your trade routes and let you trade with cold war enemies. By mid game you are rolling in cash. Obviously the ideal skill is the one that gives you roads and trade routes. Give this skill away to your enemies to open up trade routes to them.



Next we have mercenary armies. These are great for defending the realm with their double hit points. A good ranged hero helps them with extra damage and attack through skills and items. Is another race beating you? Drop the hero, slip on privateer masks and melt one or more of their cities. Even though I’m primarily a builder, it’s incredibly fun, and you get an achievement if you destroy a friendly city.



The reason I say they are the most flexible is that you can win any way you want. Conquest? Send in the mercenary armies. Science, cash? Place your cities in the optimal locations and get earning/researching. You can even wait to see what resources you are landed with before choosing. Just build generic all-round cities till mid game and then if you have a lot of titanium it will be easy to hit the science route, glassteel for economic victory etc. Best of all, the wonder..just get your biggest city in a region with a large forest, assign your Wind Walkers production monster and move the city to the best production location available, activate some dragon bones luxury and watch it shoot up.



Missing anything? Well once the trade routes are up you are rolling in cash. Just buy what you need. For lux, redsang is nice to get your heros along the skill tree. Anything that boosts trade, cash or science works just as well. In fact, I don’t think there’s a booster that doesn’t help one way or another.



I hope you found this interesting. Tips or abuse welcome

Thanks for the guide. I'll be trying the Roving Clans for the first time for my next game (after I finish my current first attempt with the Broken Lords). I'll definitely be re-reading your guide then.

Thanks for this, there isn't enough discussion on the Roving Clans!



I guess a lot of people are put off from playing them because they can't start wars, but you just have to find other ways to go on the offense. There's nothing more hilarious (and evil) as having a vision agreement with someone, and tearing through their territory with a strong privateer army. The vision agreement lets you see whenever they are sending big forces towards you, and lets you just run away to attack other things.

tsjb wrote:
Thanks for this, there isn't enough discussion on the Roving Clans!



I guess a lot of people are put off from playing them because they can't start wars, but you just have to find other ways to go on the offense. There's nothing more hilarious (and evil) as having a vision agreement with someone, and tearing through their territory with a strong privateer army. The vision agreement lets you see whenever they are sending big forces towards you, and lets you just run away to attack other things.

No problems. They were one of the last ones I tried as I thought they looked boring. I was looking for a guide myself before I played, and there were none around, so I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts. Had some feedback on Steam, so going to edit a bit

JetJaguar wrote:
Thanks for the guide. I'll be trying the Roving Clans for the first time for my next game (after I finish my current first attempt with the Broken Lords). I'll definitely be re-reading your guide then.

I'm making a couple changes. Let me know how you do?

Thank you for your detailed guide, timally! But could you please explain 2 more things to me?

timally wrote:
This is why you need the gold, to buy the hero quite quickly.

When I was playing for Clans, I had no Wild Walker hero in the Market for dozens of turns. Is there any possibility to refresh the list of proposed heroes?

timally wrote:
they should also be fine for a bit of fun with the mercenary, privateer armies.

The same thing as in previous question. By ~200th turn I managed to by only 1 (!) mercenary because of empty Units Marked. How could I attract mercenaries there?



Thanks in advance

Celeir wrote:
Thank you for your detailed guide, timally! But could you please explain 2 more things to me?





When I was playing for Clans, I had no Wild Walker hero in the Market for dozens of turns. Is there any possibility to refresh the list of proposed heroes?





The same thing as in previous question. By ~200th turn I managed to by only 1 (!) mercenary because of empty Units Marked. How could I attract mercenaries there?



Thanks in advance

Hi, sorry I been off the internet for a bit and forgot about this. I can't answer your questions either. Sometimes the game just screws you over. I've noticed it happens to the clans more than anyone else because you need to get a new early hero and you need mercs. I'm not sure what drives the mechanic for mercenaries. I've a feeling it may be to do with villages..maybe destroyed villages dump their troops there? I don't know.