Last knights Forum

New player quick start guide
Revision 1 - Current as of Age 339

This guide assumes you know nothing about the game and is designed to make you somewhat competent and useful pretty much immediately.
Detailed explanations are outside the scope of this guide - if you want some grounding and further detail please read through the Reference Guide (https://lastknights.com/Reference), the FAQ (https://lastknights.com/FAQ) and talk to your countrymen!
If you have any comments, suggestions or corrections please feel free to post them in this thread.

CONTENTS

1. Getting Started
   • 1.1 - Quick notes
   • 1.2 - Selecting a country
     - Terrain Bonus
   • 1.3 - Profile / Settings / Nobility
     - Female Ranks
     - Safe Mode
     - TLK Development
     - Nobility
   • 1.4 - Telegram
   • 1.5 - Initial recruiting & Army composition
     - Barracks
     - Encampment
     - Terrain Bonus
2. Phase 1: Initial Ranking
   • 2.1 - Private - Lance Corporal
     - Market
   • 2.2 - First Hero
     - Armory
     - Tournament Field (Nobility)
   • 2.3 - Hospital
     - Heal Turns (Nobility)
   • 2.4 - Lance Corporal - Ensign
   • 2.5 - Ensign - Brigadier-General
     - Castle
     - Plains / Beach / Border
   • 2.6 - Moving to meet Main
   • 2.7 - Brigadier-General & up
     - Headquarters
   • 2.8 - Merchant Skill
3. Phase 2: Strike Force / Main Force
   • 3.1 - Move Points
   • 3.2 - Collector
   • 3.3 - Joining a SF/MF
   • 3.4 - Leading a SF/MF
   • 3.5 - Driving Main
4. Player v.s. Player (PVP) combat coming soon
   • 4.1 Spying coming soon
   • 4.2 Wars coming soon
5. Planning coming soon
6. Change Log

Appendix

1. Hero Builds
2. Army Compositions

1 - Getting Started
A few quick notes before you dive in:

1. TLK is a 'tick' based game. Each tick is 30 minutes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turns,_ro ... and_rounds)
2. TLK is played 'Ages' - Ages last 3-22 days. After each Age the game resets and starts again after a 24 hour break.
3. You are a commander of an army in a country. If your country is defeated, you can continue playing as a commander in another country.
4. There are multiple 'maps' that TLK is played on, one map per age (naturally), the next map is decided by the players through a voting system in game.
5. There are three game modes - Random, Free Joining and Event. The first two game modes alternate one after the other all year, until Christmas when an Event game mode is played.
   • During the Random game mode you cannot pick which country you play in. You will be randomly assigned a country and given two free Heal Turns (You'll learn about these later).
   • During the Free Joining game mode you can pick which country you play in, provided there is still space available. This is also known as a "Stack Age".
   • During an Event game mode you will receive a description and instructions prior to the start, however historically these have been called "Pandemic" and comprise of players v.s. an aggressive AI that has it's own armies, cities & commanders.
   1.2 - Selecting a country
   When you log in for the first time you will be presented with some dialogue and a drop-down menu to select your country.
   If you pick Random, instead of a specific country (see quick note #5), you will get 2 free Healing Turns (HT's). I'll get into what that means later.
   Each country has specific "terrain bonuses" and a specific unit set available. You can find this information here (https://lastknights.com/Reference/countryterrain) however the advantages and disadvantages of specific countries is outside the scope of this guide.
   
   1.3 - Profile / Settings / Nobility
   - Female Ranks
   All rank names are masculine by default. If you would like to change these to the feminine variant this can be done in settings->profile.
   - Safe Mode
   By default a new account starts in "Safe Mode". This prevents you from losing everything and having to start again if killed, but also prevents you from earning any recognition in the form of medals. I recommend you leave this turned ON for at least the first age you play.
   If you wish to turn it off, you can do so in settings->profile. Never switch the modes during an age, as it will reset your account back to the start, always switch between ages if desired.
   - TLK Development
   If you want to test features, styles of play, army compositions etc. you can do so in the dev version of the game. Anything you do there will not impact the real game.
   If you wish to sign up for the dev version, you can do so in settings->profile->TLK Development
   - Nobility
   TLK is free to play, however if you wish to support the game you can purchase a 'Duke' account. This gives you a few small advantages worth considering. The most significant are:
   • Your commander has 100 HP more
   • You gain Heal Turns over time
   • Let your heroes participate in the hero tournaments - this allows you to try and win a hero medal - cosmetic only
   You can read up on them here (https://lastknights.com/VIP)
   
   1.4 - Telegram
   Telegram is a cross-platform communications application and is almost essential to successfully playing and enjoying TLK.
   Most in-game communication is handled through telegram and that is where you will get instructions from your countrymen.
   Many of the critical game functions can be carried out from within the chat room of the country you are playing in.
   Visit the Country->Chat page for further information, how to register for Telegram if you don't already have it, and how to link your TLK account.
   Parts of this guide will directly reference telegram.
   
   1.5 - Initial recruiting & Army composition
   Before you start progressing in the game you need to recruit a few soldiers into your Army.
   There are many different army compositions possible however this guide will use a fairly basic but effective composition.
   - Barracks
   In the barracks you will notice that you have 30,000 Gold & 450 Authority. Each solider you recruit will cost a set amount of gold and consume a set amount of your Authority.
   For the purposes of this guide you are going to build full single-unit infantry army. Until you are more experienced it is recommended that you stick to single-unit type builds.
   Hire as many "Fighter" or "Footman" (availability will depend on location) as you can.
   - Encampment
   Once you have hired some soldiers, you can visit the Encampment.
   Here you will see a list of your soldiers and this is where you will come to promote them later.
   An important detail on this page is your "Average terrain bonus". These values are how effective your soldiers are on the different terrains. This will become more important later.

2 - Phase 1: Initial Ranking
2.1 - Private - Lance Corporal
- Market
Now that you have the beginnings of your army, you can visit the Market to put them to the test and gain some experience.
When you click on the market, you will be given some dialogue and two options - the first being to pursue and probably fight, the second being to ignore or run away.
At this stage of the game you really want to pursue/fight all the time, the dialogue becomes more important later when it might hint at a very large and devastating force awaiting you.
You will notice as you win fights that you gain experience, you may also gain some gold if you managed to capture any of the enemy (captured enemies are automatically sold/ransomed back)
If any of your soldiers are injured during this process they will be sent to the hospital and will not be available in the next battle unless you heal them - (see 2.3 - Hospital below for how to heal your troops if required.)
For now, keep patrolling until you get a message saying "You have been promoted! Visit the Barracks or the Encampment to improve your army!"

Each time you are promoted, you will gain an amount of Authority which will allow you to recruit more soldiers or promote existing soldiers.
Higher ranked soldiers take longer (or cost more) to heal than lower ranked soldiers. It is unlikely that any of your soldiers are ready for promotion anyway, but in case they are - don't promote them yet! Reminder - you can promote your soldiers in the Encampment. Just don't do it yet!

Head back to the Barracks and recruit as many more Fighters or Footman as you can.
You will notice that you can hire a Hero now too - Hero's don't cost you any gold or authority and are pretty much essential to your success so make sure you hire him!

2.2 - First Hero
- Armory
Now that you have your first hero you can visit the Armory.
In the armory you can manage the Skills and Equipment of your Hero - it is worth noting now that you will get two more heroes in the coming ranks.
For the purposes of this guide, you will skill your first hero to be a duellist, the second to be a merchant and the third to be a healer.
You won't have enough points to learn any useful skills yet and don't bother buying him any additional equipment yet either, however your hero will gain points for every battle he fights in, so check back often and up skill him as per the build (see appendix i).
It is worth noting that Heroes take much longer or cost much more gold to heal if injured, so getting them some armor early is advisable.

- Tournament Field (Nobility)
Once your Hero is level 5, if you have Nobility (Duke account), you can enter your Hero(s) into Tournaments.
You can read more about that on the Tournament Field page. It will appear once your hero reaches level 5.

2.3 - Hospital
The Hospital is where you, your heroes and your soldiers will be sent if injured.
Injured personnel heal automatically in the noted amount of "ticks left".
If you don't want to wait, and have enough gold, you can heal them instantly.
If you have a Duke Account (see 1.2 - Nobility), you will receive 1 healing turn after 12 ticks, and another after 6 ticks, provided you do not initiate an attack that is not a city battle. The timer will reset when patrolling or initiating a PvP battle. It doesn't reset on a city battle or if you are the victim of PvP.

2.4 Lance Corporal - Ensign
During the training process your Hero will also gain levels. You should head to the Armory and increase his skills according to the Hero build(see appendix (i))
Keep patrolling the market, recruiting more of the same soldiers, not promoting any soldiers, healing any injured troops with gold immediately and increasing the skills of your hero until you reach rank Ensign.
Tier 1 (T1) units on apprentice level cost the same to buy as they do to heal and continue to gain experience even when they're ready for a promotion, so never dismiss and re-buy! That's also the reason why you don't want to promote them. If you promote them, the cost to heal them will increase as well because healing cost per hp damaged is dependent on the tier/level of the unit.

2.5 - Ensign - Brigadier-General
At rank Ensign you can recruit your second Hero in the Barracks. While you're there make sure you recruit as many Fighter/Footman as possible.
Head to the Armory to skill up your second Hero as per the build.
You should have about 38 Infantry now, plus your two Heroes.

- Castle
With the rank of Ensign and up you can visit the Castle. At the castle you can view all the armies of your country, join armies that are nearby and create armies yourself once you are a higher rank.
For now, go to the Castle and check if there are any active armies and if there are, join them or note down what city they are in. If you have joined mid-age, there will likely already be an army called "Main" or some variant of that. You will need to move your army to meet up with the Main army as soon as possible. See section 2.6 for more detail.

- Plains / Beach / Mountains / Snow / Jungle / Forest / Border
You can no longer access the Market, so you will have to train on the terrain of the city you are currently in, or on the Border (note - beach is only available if you are on the coast, border only available if you border an enemy territory!).
Check your Encampment to see your terrain bonus - you will want to train on the terrain that you have the best bonus on. (note - beach is bonus-neutral)
Keep patrolling the the terrain, beach or border, recruiting more soldiers, not promoting any soldiers, healing any injured troops with gold immediately, and increasing the skills of your hero until you reach 45 fighters or 62 footman.

If you're recruiting Fighters, you should be rank Lieutenant when you reach 45 soldiers - You can now start promoting your soldiers in the Encampment. Use all your remaining Authority promoting your soldiers and continue training.
Promote all the lowest ranked soldiers first.

Repeat the process until you reach rank Brigadier-General.

2.6 - Moving to meet Main
If you have started mid-age, you may need to travel to meet up with the main army.
If the main army is right next to you (in a city immediately adjacent to yours), you can click join on the town center page. This will automatically move you to that city and join the army.
If the main army is not right next to you, open up the map and find out where it is in relation to you.
You will then need to decide how you will get to the main army, preferably as soon as possible. It is a really good idea to be in contact with the rest of your team at this point, because the main army is likely moving around often.
On the map you can see how many cities away the main is, and start moving towards it or otherwise at the instruction of your fellow countrymen.

2.7 - Brigadier-General onward
From Brigadier-General onward the game starts to really open up and you become useful to your country.
- Headquarters
You can now access the headquarters. Read through the Explanation tab in the headquarters for more information - the use of the headquarters is outside the scope of this guide - except that you need to do as your leaders tell you.

2.8 - Merchant Skill
You will be skilling your second Hero into the Merchant Skill. You can find more information about this in the Armory, but long story short - every 12 ticks you get to sell an item he returns to you. This is a great way of getting gold to buy your heroes better equipment and heal up your army as you need to.

3 - Phase 2: Strike Force / Main Force
The organising and coordination of SF/MF's is usually handled by a single member of your team called a "Planner".
If you're lucky there will be several skilled planners in your team who can lighten the burden of planning throughout the day and night.
Most coordination and instruction is given in the country channel on Telegram, so ensure you are part of the chat!

3.1 - Move Points
One of the critical game mechanics you need to know about is Move Points (MP). Every tick (30 minutes) you gain 1 MP. MP's accumulate up to a maximum of 3.
- Each map move or attack YOU initiate consumes move points and you will arrive at the destination*.
- Each map move or attack the commander of an army you are part of initiates consumes move points and you will arrive at the destination*
- If you have 0 MP, you can still move or attack as part of an army - as long as the commander of the army who initiates the move has MP. If it is an attack, you fight the battle but will not arrive at the destination.
*If you are attacking, you will only arrive at the destination if you had enough MP and were victorious in the battle.

This will make more sense and be referenced in the following sections.

3.2 - Collector
When it is approaching time to initiate strike forces (approximately every 3-4 ticks), your planner will create (or instruct someone to create) an army called "Collector" or something similar.
The purpose of this army is to see who is online and available for the coming SF's - so if you are available, ensure you join the Collector army in the Castle.
A quick note - you can only join an army whose commander is of the same or higher rank than your own.

3.3 - Joining a SF/MF
SF = Strike Force - an army set up with the intention of striking an enemy city
MF = Main Follows - exactly like a SF, except with the intention of the Main army following usually immediately after
If you are asked to join a SF/MF you will need to leave the Collector army and join the SF/MF that you have been told to join. It'll likely be named something like "SF1".
It is critical that you do not join SF/MF's unless instructed to - if you are unsure please ask in Telegram.
Once an appropriate amount of commanders are in the strike force army, the leader of that army will be instructed to strike an enemy border.
You will receive a battle report letting you know how it went, hopefully you were victorious!

NOTE: In your countries telegram chat you can use the command "/j" to see what armies are available to join. To join one of the armies simply click on the one you want to join.

Important - This is the first instance that knowing how many MP you have really matters. If you had MP when the attack was initiated, and the attack was successful, you will have arrived at the target destination.
A good planner will have known this in advance and will have instructed the SF leader on what to do next - if you only had 1 MP the SF leader should be instructed to set a new army called "taxi" to bring you back (you won't have any MP left to move back yourself). So join the Taxi army and wait to be shuttled home.
If you are instructed to "walk back", this means to manually move your army back to the city you were in before to join the next strike force or main force.
The easiest way to 'walk back' is via the Town Wall function on the main screen.
You need to act fast in these cases because the enemy territory you just captured may be taken back by the enemy, and you do NOT want to be there without backup when that happens, and you certainly don't want to be responsible for holding up a taxi and getting everyone kicked or killed! These are called a Counter Strike Force (CSF) and are one of the many beauties of the game. It's thrilling and dangerous, a major reason not to slack when you participate in a wheel!
A few key definitions to understand:
Kick/Kicked: If you defeat enemy commanders in a city battle, the enemy commanders are "kicked" back to their capital.
Slack/Slacker: Somebody who isn't paying attention or is slow to react e.g. slow to re-join an army.
Wheel: A typically pre-planned series of SF/MF to capture enemy cities.

3.4 - Leading a SF/MF
If you are asked to lead a SF/MF you'll need to create an army as instructed. For example if you are asked to "set SF1", go to the Castle and create a new army called "SF1". Note that you will need to leave any army you are currently in to see the option to create a new army.
When the time comes, the planner will instruct you to hit a target. This instruction will be something along the lines of "target [NAME] and [ACTION]"
[NAME] will probably be one of the following:
- The name of a village/city you are bordering e.g. Warsaw
- The size of a village/city you are bordering e.g. Small, Medium or Large
- Simply the words "border" or "pick any" e.g. if "border" there is probably only one place left to target, or if "pick any" it doesn't matter which border you strike.
[ACTION] will probably be one of the following:
- "back" - This means to manually move back to where you came from (or where instructed)
- "taxi back" - this means to set a new army on arrival called "taxi". You then need to wait for your teammates to re-join your army before moving back where you came from (or where instructed).
- "hold" - this means to set a new army on arrival called "hold" and wait for further instructions.
- "scout border" - this means to check if there are any hostile enemies on your border and communicate this back to the planner.
To initiate the attack, you must visit the Border page and click Attack on the enemy city desired. You will receive a confirmation before striking.
You may also be instructed to move somewhere first e.g. "move [NAME] then target [NAME] and [ACTION]". This is pretty self explanatory.

NOTE: In your countries telegram chat you can use the command "/set" to create a new army. You do not need to leave the army you are already in first. You can also use this to rename your current army. E.g. "/set SF1"
You can check if there are any commanders not currently in the same army as you by using the "/slackers" command.
You can scout the border without actually looking yourself by using the "/scout" command.
To see all the telegram bot commands, type /help to see a short summary of the commands with their functions.

3.5 - Driving Main
You might be asked to drive main at some point. This means you wont be participating in the SF/MF attacks, but your role is still critical.
You will be given 2ic of the main army and be instructed to move the main army to particular destinations, typically immediately after a MF.
DO NOT MOVE unless instructed to. If you are given this responsibility, pay attention and be prepared to move instantly if asked to - the lives of your fellow commanders may depend on it!

4 - Player v.s. Player (PVP) combat
4.1 Spying
4.2 Wars

Coming soon.

5 - Planning

Coming soon.

6 - Change Log

23/01/2020 - Age 339: Initial guide submission
24/01/2020 - Age 339: Tiralan's initial comments and corrections
24/01/2020 - Age 339: Hero build updated with foleor's advice

APPENDIX (i) - Hero Builds

BUILD 1 - NEW STARTER GUIDE by ProtonTorpedo @ Age 338 Amended with advice from foleor 24/01/20
This is a basic Hero build designed to keep you alive and help you out with additional gold!
Hero #1 - Duellist
Skill into Resilience, Agility & Parry in that order constantly
As soon as you can afford it buy the best foot weapon and armor/helmet/shield you can
Once at around 25/25/25 resil/agil/parry, skill Duellist up to 28 and get the first 10 points in Leadership.
Once BRIGADIER-GENERAL - Continue upgrading weapons and armor as you can afford it
If you ever have free capacity, fill it with the best healing item(s) you can afford.

Hero #2 - Support 1
Skill 100% into Healing until 30 then;
Skill 100% into Merchant until 30.
As soon as you can afford it buy the following items in order:
1. Basic armor/helmet/shield
2. Healing items
3. Banner
From here on, how you skill your Support Hero is up to you - I suggest increasing Leadership and a small amount into Trainer.

Hero #3 - Support 2
Skill 100% into Healing until 30 then;
Skill 100% into Merchant until 30.
As soon as you can afford it buy the following items in order:
1. Basic armor/helmet/shield
2. Healing items
3. Banner
From here on, how you skill your Support Hero is up to you - I suggest increasing Leadership and a small amount into Trainer.

BUILD 2 - ??? by ??? @ Age ???
Submit your hero build to be featured!

APPENDIX (ii) - Army Compositions

COMPOSITION 1 - NEW STARTER GUIDE by ProtonTorpedo @ Age 338
This is a very basic ranking army composition designed to get you into the good stuff quickly and teach you about the game!

Step 1.) Recruit up to 65 footman or 45 fighter without promoting any soldiers.
Step 2.) Once you have the soldier numbers, start promoting them up, make sure you don't leave any of them on low ranks or they'll be more likely to be killed.
Step 3.) If any of your soldiers are killed, recruit a replacement from the barracks.

COMPOSITION 2 - ??? by ??? @ Age ???
Submit your army composition to be featured!