Expeditions

An expedition is an adventure on a separate map divided into nine stages. It is led by one of your important characters — the commander — with real troops from their village. The rewards are resources, gold, mercenaries and artifacts.

Setting out

• One expedition runs at a time, including the way there and back.
• The commander takes combat troops from their village (no settlers). How many units they can lead depends on their rarity — the units' strength does not matter.
• The journey there and back takes 30 minutes each way. If you turn back on the way, the return takes as long as the force has already walked.
• During an expedition the commander gives the village none of their bonuses, and the home village keeps paying the upkeep of the force and the commander.
• The force's bonuses — smithy, war artifact, alliance bonus and the commander's attack bonus — are fixed at the moment of departure.
• If the home village is conquered, the commander and the whole expedition force die, even on the way.

Map and energy

• You move to neighbouring, revealed tiles. Each move costs 1 energy.
• Energy: 5 for every 8 hours (counted in UTC). Unused energy is lost at the end of the window. A camp gives +2 energy, once per map.
• Ordinary tiles give small amounts of resources and gold. Other tiles are a camp, a clue, deserters, bandits, a guarded artifact, a fortress and the stage goal.
• You can open the stage goal only after finding the clue. Taking the goal permanently unlocks the next stage; you can return to a cleared map after it renews.
• Bandits, artifacts, fortresses and goals have crews, so entering such a tile means a battle (rules as in Army and combat). A crew you do not wipe out stays weakened for the next attempt.
• A fortress needs siege equipment: each assault uses one piece, even a lost one. A captured fortress reveals the area or opens a tunnel — going through a tunnel costs 2 energy.
• Deserters join for 150 gold. They are random mercenaries who go straight to the village, not to the force.
• When the force is defeated, the commander returns home. An unfinished map remembers the last position — the next force starts from there.

Rewards

• Resources go to the commander's village stash, and gold to your gold in this world.
• An artifact goes to the village treasury. If the treasury is full, the artifact is lost — upgrade the treasury before setting out. Types, rarity and selling: Artifacts.

Equipment

A force has two equipment slots. You buy ropes, a scout kit and a medic bag for gold for the current week. Siege equipment is produced by the Siege Workshop — it stays in the village's stock, and the whole stock you take uses one slot. Unused pieces come back with the commander.

The expedition week

• Maps, discoveries and rewards renew every week, on Monday at 00:00 UTC. Unlocked stages stay.
• A day before the week ends the game warns you, and at the end the force sets off home by itself.
• In faster worlds journeys are shorter and energy and maps renew more often.