In this guide I will show you how to get Industrial Age (INA) and a few Progressive Era (PE) units in Colonial Age (CA), and how to do so in a way to get a few days with Progressive Era units against Late Middle Ages (LMA) guild battlegrounds (GBG)! This is a very powerful combo, allowing you to fight to 100+ attrition (to 40-60 semi-auto), even with very low attack boosts! Below you can see a video version of my guide and a video on me fighting with Tanks vs LMA Units!
In total you will be able to get the following higher age units:
To setup this you don't need to do anything too special. You need to have reached the INA continent map (you only need to take CA provinces required for story quests) and you need to be ready with technologies to move to CA (which you will not do until after GBG starts). To do this as quickly as possible you need to have prepared both of the first two CA techs, and you need 90 FPs ready after that to research Arcade Houses. You also need to research one more technology, any random technology, so you need a few more FPs as well, and then you can start on the INA quests!
Update: You can complete all the INA continent map before you move up to CA if you want, I've just finished testing this on beta and it worked without any issues! So an even better strategy would be to follow the exact steps I lay out in this guide, but instead of doing the INA quests while you are taking the map, have the INA provinces taken before you move up to CA (be careful to still negotiate / fight / ignore the correct provinces)! You can also take the first PE province ahead of time and scout the three next ones, but DO NOT take any further sectors of those three provinces before quests ask you to! /Update.
Before entering CA you will be tech blocked by a CA story quest until you age up, so the first thing you need to do is to complete the CA story quests. There are quite a few of them, but none too challenging. Below you can see all the CA story quests I got after (and including) the blocker quest, with my commentary on how I completed them quickly! Before that, though, let's quickly overview the goods, technologies and continent map provinces you'll need!
Goods Required (excluding technologies)
CA Story Quests: 15 Paper
Recommended CA Side Quests (The Auction): 20 Paper, 20 Tar
Negotiating Okahe:
CA Goods: 120 Tar, 120 Wires, 120 Paper
LMA Goods: 200 Gunpowder, 100 Talk
HMA Goods: 84 Rope, 84 Glass, 42 Salt, 42 Herbs
INA Story Quests: 30 Gunpowder, 15 Tar, 15 Wires, 15 Coffee, 15 Paper
Here you can see a quick overview of the technologies you need to unlock! First you have my recommended path, which includes a few more technologies than needed so that you can get the Gambrel Roof Houses, Clockmakers, the Grenadiers or even the Field Gun barracks. The first two are the best house and production buildings and I recommend upgrading your buildings to them, and the second two are two good options for military buildings, unless you need to produce Rogues from your Traz like I ended up doing :P
The numbers indicate which story quest the technology is required for, and the colour indicates for which age. You can see all the story quests in the following chapters.
Alternatively, if you want to do it as quickly as possible I would recommend the following technologies. For PE quest 9 you should unlock the technology with a goods building you can build.
Continent Maps Overview
Below are some quick overviews of the industrial maps. I think they're quite self explanatory. Where it says negotiate you need to negotiate the sectors, where it says fight you need to fight them. Do not take or scout any other provinces than the ones in the path, at least not for now.
Next I've included an overview of how to get 2 PE Tanks. These are not the only options, instead you can either get 2 Conscripts, 2 Snipers or 1 Rapid Fire Cannon. I'm very happy with my Tanks so can definitely recommend them, but if you want any of the other units check out UBERhelp1's guide on the us forums: https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/higher-age-units-guide-v1-22.37109/post-325312
Colonial Age Story Quests (after blocker)
Below you'll find a list of all the CA story quests I got after the tech blocker. I don't think fighting or negotiating should matter, but in any case there are no big hurdles if you negotiate (I faught all CA provinces).
1) You unlock decorations with the first technologies you unlock, so go ahead and build them! You should already have taken Varseilles by now.
2) I prepared for this by not collecting my daily collections that day before getting this quest. You can of course also build/sell a bunch of buildings instead.
3) You need to research Colonies for the first recuirement of this quest. For the second requirement I recommend using the The Auctionside quests. Here you can get up to 5 field guns. Make sure to abort the side quests after "The Auction" until you have both the side quests that give you field guns active at the same time (in two different slots). Then collect both when you get this quest!
4) Easiest way to get houses to build is to research Arcade Houses.
5) Build and sell some buildings (IA Archer Barrack is a good option) and pay 40k coins.
6) Build and sell some buildings (IA Archer Barrack is a good option) and pay 35k supplies.
7) You already unlocked a production building with the first CA techs, place one of those. For the second requirement I recommend the Fashion or Plantation Goods technology, as you need to take those in any case for further technology requirements.
8) Gain 200 happiness. I recommend buying and selling BA Monuments, cheap and quick! Pay 20k coins.
9) Pay 22k supplies.
10) You should already have 4 musketeers from the LMA & CA story quests. If not you can build a musketeer barrack and/or try to get them from GBG/PvP Arena. You've already unlocked a CA decoration, so build and delete 3 of those.
11) You should already have acquired Varseilles.
12) You should already have acquired Varseilles. For the second requirement you can use tavern boost if you don't have an enthusiastic population already.
13) This should already have been scouted.
14) You should already have acquired Haulenois.
15) You should already have acquired Haulenois.
16) You should already have acquired Haulenois. If you don't have the paper you need to trade for it.
17) Buy and sell a bunch of buildings. For the second requirement you can use tavern boost if you don't have an enthusiastic population already.
18) You should have already scouted to the next continent!
Industrial Age Story Quests
Update: I've just completed testing on my beta world (which happened to be in just the right spot to test this!), and you can indeed complete all of the INA provinces ahead of time! It's important you negotiate / fight the right ones, though!
I completed these story quests at the same time as I was doing the continent map. You can complete the marked provinces ahead of time!I do not know if you can do the continent map ahead of time or notI believe it should work fine if you do, but I can not guarantee it. If you have experience of this or if you want to try it yourself, please comment with your experience and if it worked or not, I'd love to know myself!/End Update
Below you will find the story quests you get if you follow my steps. There are other alternative questlines if you deviate at certain points, so I would read through these if you want to get the same quests as me. Reading through will also help with preparation, for example for the quest "Fighting Crime" you need to delete 8 musketeers. You can get these from GBG or PvP Arena, but you might also consider building a musketeer barrack or two to prepare for this. At various points you also need to unlock technologies, so you should also be prepared for these :)
1) Scout the first province! (This should be prepared before you move up to CA).
2) It is important that you negotiate this and ALL other Okahe sectors for this strategy. This will impact which quests you get later on, and is important to avoid triggering the bonus questline and for getting through the INA continent map as quickly as possible.
3)Negotiate another Okahe sector.
4)Negotiate a third Okahe sector and pay 25k coins.
5) Pay 30k supplies
6)Negotiate the last Okahe sectors, pay 30 gunpowder.
7) Scout both provinces, then DO NOT TOUCH Desperation (southern sector) for the rest of this guide. Infiltrate two sectors of New Cragshire.
8) Pay 12 porcelain and 18k supplies.
9) Pay 15 tar and 15 wire. Here you get your first INA unit ... a Rifleman, which you probably won't use :P
10) Pay 15 coffee and 15 paper. Your second and third INA units, this time two units you'll get a lot of use out of! The Jaegers are really nice to fight with manually, especially as you can hide it to prevent losing it on the continent map!
11) Conquer New Cragshire by fighting. For the rest of the INA continent map you need to fight only.
12) Scout the unlocked province (Rantford). Here you get 2 more INA units, though like with the Rifleman you probably won't use your Lancers a lot.
13) Here you need to research a military technology. I wanted to unlock the Gambrel Roof Houses ASAP, so I decided to go for the "Rapid Response" technology, which means you need "Fashion" as well.
14) Pay 35k supplies, for some diamonds!
15)Fight two sectors of Rantford
16)Fight one more Rantford sector.
17) Notice no age is specified, so here you can use Bronze Age buildings if you want! You can gather the supplies through normal productions if you want, or if you want to speed through it you can buy and sell a bunch of buildings, residential buildings are usually best for supplies. I built some LMA buildings from my inventory (Academy for example) and sold them again to gather most of the supplies.
The Howitzer you gain from this quest is another great unit to fight with combined with rogues!
18) Conquer Rantford by fighting the sectors.
19) Here you need to unlock both a residential building and production building from technologies. I recommend saving Plantations and Country Houses for this quest.
20) Scout the province you just unlocked (St. Marque)
21) You've already unlocked Paved Lanes earlier, so place 30 of those and polish 20 buildings.
22) This one can be a bit dependant on luck. You could of course build CA military barracks if you want to and recruit from them, but you can also use GBG or PvP Arena and try to get the units that way. That's what I did. You will still have LMA Guild Expedition at this point, so you can't get the CA units that way. Again, the Lancers you unlock here are nice, but you probaby won't use them a lot (I haven't used them at all). Perhaps put them in your defence? PvP Arena defence?
23) Gather 110k supplies. Like before you can use your regular productions, or you can buy and sell a bunch of buildings.
24) Conquer St. Marque by fighting all sectors. For the second requirement you need to research a technology that unlocks a military building. I would recommend Elite Forces to unlock the Grenadier, and I would also consider placing a barrack or two, they're great units to fight with until you unlock the field guns!
25) Scout the final INA province (that you'll take for now), Garrincton! Once scouted infiltrate two sectors.
26)Fight two sectors of Garrincton.
27) Gather 120k supplies. Same procedure as lsat quest, James!
28) This one is quite funny! Due to your choices earlier on (negotiating Okahe) you get 8 bronze age horsemen when you pay the 30k supplies!
29) This one can be quite tricky. You can't unlock the police station (INA building), so you need to delete 8 musketeers. If you get 5 from GBG or PvP Arena you'll have enough, assuming you haven't lost any from the LMA bonus quests and CA story quests. Alternatively you can build a musketeer barrack (you unlock it first technology) and be ready for this quest. Either through Traz, or recruiting and deleting attached units.
30)Fight the remaining Garrincton sectors! The Breech Loaders are really nice to fight with, they're more or less the same as Field Guns except better in every way :) DO NOT SCOUT any further INA continent map sectors (bonus or regular)
31) Some nice diamonds as well!
32) After taking Garrincton you are now able to scout the next continent map, do so ASAP!
Progressive Era Story Quests
There aren't too many PE story quests to do, and you only need to fully take one PE province, so this should go relatively quickly :)
1) Scout the first province of the map and take 1 sector of it, doesn't matter if you fight or negotiate.
2) Acquire Havre, doesn't matter if you fight and/or negotiate.
3) Pay 40k supplies. Note that you don't have to produce any specific age of units, so place down a Spearfighter barrack or two and quickly produce 6 units ;)
4) Scout the three provinces you unlocked by taking Havre.
5) Pay 50k coins. No age requirement on buildings, so just build some BA buildings.
6) Spend 40 FPs and gather 80k supplies. I timed this with my daily collection, but you can also use saved up FPs + build and sell a bunch of buildings (houses are best for supplies).
7)Negotiate one sector of Kreigreich
8) I would recommend taking (fighting and/or negotiating) saved up sectors from previous era continent maps. If you don't have any then you need to negotiate 4 sectors of Kriegreich.
9) I recommend either Trading Charters or one of the technologies for goods buildings early on in the CA tech tree. You could also use a lower age technology if you have saved up enough for future needs. Pay 20 exlosives.
10)Fight 2 sectors of either Uxrow or Omoien. Gather 120k supplies.
11) Gain population and happiness, you know what to do :)
12) Finally there! You finally have the 2 Tanks! To complete this technology I recommend Clockmakers or Trading Charters, depending on your status. You can also use previous era technology if you want. For the first requirement you can use tavern boost if you don't have an enthusiastic population already.
From here you don't have to advance further if you don't want to yet, but I thought I'd include the remaining quests until the INA tech blocker:
13) Acquire one of the sectors as you please, there are some branching choices based on negotiating or fighting, but with your new Tanks you should definitely give fighting them a go!
14) You could use remaining CA techs for this, or like me you could use the first INA technologies when you decide to move up there. You'll be blocked soon anyways, so no rush completing this.
15) Gather 200k coins.
16) Aaaand here's the big blocker. If you're lucky you can get Police Stations from Events, if not you need to research quite far into the INA tech tree :)
Thank you very much for reading, and good luck on your own adventure!
