Hi, I am posting this guide to relate my first 7 days of Caesary life as a newcomer guide for those who would like to have a successful entrance into this new and strange world without become a tributary city. I will post suggestions and recommendations in a numbered fashion. Also, this guide is best used once you have started the tutorial. It is a good reference for when you started playing a bit and would like a good starting strategy.

1. Join a league. I know this might seem like a few steps ahead, but if the first thing you do in world chat is ask for a league to adopt you and teach you how to play, I guarantee your success in the game. Make sure the league is a good ranked one and that they don’t ask you to give resources or become a tributary. The benefit of a league is that the elders will automatically start training you and answer your questions for their benefit. They want a strong member who will be able to stand with them.

2. DO NOT, upgrade your rectorate to level 5 before your New gamer protection time has expired. (upper left corner, an icon displays how long you are protected for, and what that protection does)

3. Follow the Tutorial from the nice lady. She will show you how buildings work, and how to start collecting resources and do quests. Take your time and make sure you understand every aspect.

4. A good rule of thumb for what to build is to have 1 of each utility building (ie: barracks, market, warehouse, etc…), and then fill the rest up with cottages. I have 13 in each expanded city. You will start off with 9 or 10, and then expand your city (it’s a quest, that’s how you learn it).

5. Once you have done as many quests as you can without resorting to a level 5 rectorate, you should by now be mostly independent and able to play the game on your own. You should have 2 cities with buildings upgraded to level 4 or 5(cottages), and maybe even level 8 warehouse/amphitheatre. It is now time to build your army.

6. Throughout your 7 days of basic protection, you will have started forming small armies. You should use these to collect grey aglets (25/day, see daily barter quest) and then, when you have 500+ Hastatus/Sagittarius per hero, start collecting Yellow aglets (25/day, again see daily barter quest). I recommend not using the Principes and ballistae you gain through medium captive packs and start to concentrate them onto your city consuls as a defensive praetorian force.

7. You should have by day 7 over 30k prestige, somewhere over 10k army units, a fully upgraded city (max level 4 rectorate) and be ready to go out in the world.

8. When using your newcomer packs, you will come across scrolls of moving. These allow you to choose a continent or region to move your cities to. My guild moved together to a continent to be together. I recommend you do the same with your guild, or at least move out of Italia (The starting region) as to not incur the wrath of stronger players (Italia is a zoo).

9. Remember that your allegiance is proportionate to your tax level. If you have 30% taxes, only 70% of your maximum possible population will stay. Furthermore, The lower your allegiance, the easier it is for you to be colonized (You don’t want that). Once you are built, keep your taxes at 20% to generate some revenue without starving for sesterces. If you have many idle workers (green population), you may increase taxes to 30% to capitalise on the freeloaders.

10. If something bad happens, a Temple may help you recover (ie: instant crops, lower grievance). Grievance is a kind of penalty point that keeps you from having your max of population or taxes. Eliminate it.
Signed: Insane. You can ask me for help in game if you would like more details. Thanks for reading my guide.