Got the 1 reign

[Madifier]

So about the game. Read at your own risk of exposure to spoiling.
I seen some bugs that weren't game breaking, but there were a few problems that were adjustable. A fun one was loading up an island and watching an archer walk across the sky. He was running toward the tower I set up next to the dock because I didn't know how the lighthouse worked at the time.

The Plan:
Island 1, leave ASAP. Like day 5.
Island 2, unlock stone and prep island by destroying mini gates and dock side. Take 6 gems.
Island 3, get Builder's blessing and Chef and prep island. Take 6 gems.
Go back to island 1 to get Archer's blessing and Griffon. Prep island and destroy dock side.
Island 4, unlock Brick and get Veteran. Set up defences on dock side and target Cliff portal.
Island 1,2,3 Destory Cliff.
Island 5 Set up defences on dock side and target Cliff portal.

Would not recommend beating 4, 5, then returning to 1,2,or 3. A few runs ended up slaughtering me upon returning to the lesser islands. Like 20 tanks raid on day 2 kind of hammering.

Ended up finishing 1,2,3 in the day 20-30s and 4,5 were in the 40s. Couple days short of CL as a whole.
Didn't get the achievement, so I'm curious what triggers it. The equestrian achievement triggered when I mounted the 4th in the same campaign, not the same island.

Good to know: destoying the Cliff causes the remaining gates to be empty, so there is no threat to finish them off. Probably saved me 10-20 days on island 4 and 5. Not sure if intended, but the Greed realm had much faster units at the time I left gates active on dock side of 4. They were normal speed on island 5 despite ignoring dock side. Would recommend making it a thing, if not.
The Tanks or Spawners can throw boulders at the towers and knock archers out. Watch out for that. My tower happened to be just outside the wall and in the arc of the throw; they don't actually target them.

Picked up all the hermits and mounts, but didn't bother with a couple statues.
Archer's and Builder's blessings were crucial. Farmer's and Knight's blessing are optional and not needed at this time.
The hermits, that were important to me were the Chef, Veteran, Horn, but they were optional.
What I mean is, the Chef would have been important if the Crown chaser became active; the Veteran would have been important if my extra units I brought with me were defeated or bugged out; and if the waves were overwhelming I'd prep my walls with the Horns, but this last run didn't feel dangerous. Might have been the two towers on both sides. Could have been destroying gates in an odd order. Or the advantage of starting island 5 out fresh, which meant fewer enemies to start with. Did use the Chef on island 5; the homeless were buried behind several gates.
Why do we need the Naturalist? For those people that like to change their mounts frequently?
Robin Hood isn't as good as the Level 2 Brick Towers; Flyer's are a bane to me.

Fun to know: there was a teensy miscalculation on my part. I basically started Island 4 and 5 during winter. Few days in and BOOM, snow. Pikes are the MVP and the Griffon kept me going. He eats mice not grass, so yeah, that's cool. Played around with pushing greed back while escorting units home. Basically you need to get to stone immediately, or rather the center and one side need to be stone, on account that the farmer's stall spawns with wood walls. Always keep enough money to buy more pikes the next day and you'll be fine. Herding deer can be challenging with their rubber banding back to where they spawn.

If I could nerf something, it would be the rabbits. Like being in Scrooge's vault, there's so much money from rabbits. Pikes are probably balanced with their fishing, and the farmers are in need of a buff.
There's enough gems for what you need and more. Could probably cut back on that.
The boat needs some adjustment. Once the boat is in the water, I need at least 5 Knights before attacking Cliff side. 3, sometimes 4, Knights jump in the boat instead of attacking the gates and portals. Hence why the Veteran is needed sometimes for those extra banners.
Could program the Knights on the safe side to jump in the boat. Just sayin.

This has been an enjoyable challenge, although I find New Lands to be more replayable with it's shorter campaigns.

[Epleskront]

Originally posted by Aegis Matt:

"Beat the game quickly on 1 reign."

Impressive! That's a whole lot quicker than I expected possible. I see I have to become more efficient in my plays.

Originally posted by Aegis Matt:

If I could nerf something, it would be the rabbits. Like being in Scrooge's vault, there's so much money from rabbits. Pikes are probably balanced with their fishing, and the farmers are in need of a buff.

Yeah, and I think they are working on these things. Regarding balance, as it stands now, archers are too powerful because they are your best defence and your best income machines, all at the same time. They need to lose a lot of economic value, so that spamming only them becomes less viable.

[Starfisher]

A good load of archers is still needed for proper defense against Bloodmoon hordes. And there are only two other continous income source: the farm and the pikemen (and in Japan only farm!). But there are often very few farm spots, which are usually in a bad place, too far away or only capable of sustaining less then 4 farmers. And as for defense - archers are better than pikemen. So you will recruit much fewer pikemen, and they seem in their fishing much slower than the archers in their hunting. Also they just drop the gold onto the ground. Of course there are the banker, the bear and the unicorn, but they cannot replace these normal income sources. So archer nerf is only acceptable if the farms or the pikemen get buffed.

[Epleskront]

Originally posted by Starfisher:

A good load of archers is still needed for proper defense against Bloodmoon hordes. And there are only two other continous income source: the farm and the pikemen (and in Japan only farm!). But there are often very few farm spots, which are usually in a bad place, too far away or only capable of sustaining less then 4 farmers. And as for defense - archers are better than pikemen. So you will recruit much fewer pikemen, and they seem in their fishing much slower than the archers in their hunting. Also they just drop the gold onto the ground. Of course there are the banker, the bear and the unicorn, but they cannot replace these normal income sources. So archer nerf is only acceptable if the farms or the pikemen get buffed.

The biggest problem with farmers is, as you mentioned, the unreliable access to farming spots.

[artofwar]

I took a different approach and my fastest one reign victory is around day 95.

I do many things similar to OP, but I rush to island 5 to get the unicorn before the first winter (after doubling back to island 1 for griffon and archer statue). Then I stockpile as much money as possible quickly before winter, then switch back to the griffon once winter comes. From there I clear island 5, wait for winter to end, then leave with the unicorn.

If possible, I destroy 0 portals leading to the docks in the entire run (although sometimes it makes sense to destroy a portal to get better archer hunter grounds).

The only hermit I care about is the baker, and then I only use her when camps are far away. I never build towers. I never build farms. I never build pikeman (well, if I miscalculate and am running low on money during winter I'll build some, but their income generation seems really inconsistent when I use them).

The biggest danger is in returning to previous islands, as OP pointed out. It took some getting used to, but if I plan ahead with good walls and a good population before I leave an island, I can survive the first wave by quickly rebuilding walls and spamming as many archers as I can afford.

But still no 1 reign achievement :/

[strange]

Originally posted by artofwar:

I took a different approach and my fastest one reign victory is around day 95.

I do many things similar to OP, but I rush to island 5 to get the unicorn before the first winter (after doubling back to island 1 for griffon and archer statue). Then I stockpile as much money as possible quickly before winter, then switch back to the griffon once winter comes. From there I clear island 5, wait for winter to end, then leave with the unicorn.

My approach has been a mix of this and the OP's -- I've been going 1, 2, 3, back to 1 for the upgrades and then RUSH out again, 4, 5, and then back in reverse order. Islands 1 and 2 are tough to come back to, but no tougher than arriving at island 5 for the first time if the day counter is past the 100s, so I don't know if there's any advantage to leaving it for last or not. Archer spam and rushing defenses is key either way.

Ignoring portals on the dock side and just setting up defenses is a huge help. Saves time and ensures that blood moons stay manageable throughout the game.

[Madifier]

Originally posted by artofwar:

I took a different approach and my fastest one reign victory is around day 95.

I do many things similar to OP, but I rush to island 5 to get the unicorn before the first winter (after doubling back to island 1 for griffon and archer statue). Then I stockpile as much money as possible quickly before winter, then switch back to the griffon once winter comes. From there I clear island 5, wait for winter to end, then leave with the unicorn.

If possible, I destroy 0 portals leading to the docks in the entire run (although sometimes it makes sense to destroy a portal to get better archer hunter grounds).

The only hermit I care about is the baker, and then I only use her when camps are far away. I never build towers. I never build farms. I never build pikeman (well, if I miscalculate and am running low on money during winter I'll build some, but their income generation seems really inconsistent when I use them).

The biggest danger is in returning to previous islands, as OP pointed out. It took some getting used to, but if I plan ahead with good walls and a good population before I leave an island, I can survive the first wave by quickly rebuilding walls and spamming as many archers as I can afford.

But still no 1 reign achievement :/

No dock side? I can see that. As long as you have a good source of income, it doesn't take long to rebuild the boat. Level 2 Brick Towers usually take a 2-3 days to build each. With fewer gates broken, the counter attack isn't as violent. Faster the better. Had a run where I was stuck on island 5 for 80 days. Was jumping the gun too many times and getting punished for it. Saved the island, but yeah, going back to island 1.... They took vengence pretty seriously.

[Epleskront]

Building lighthouses is not advisable right now. I did that in my current game, and because I returned to island 2 in an intact ship, my soldiers run to the boat rather than destroying portals, so I can't progress on that island.

[Crusher Von Splattenheim]

I think smashing dock side portals on Islands 1 and 2 are probably worth it as it's only a net 3 extra portals to break. It helps when returning much later in the campaign IME.

Island 3's dock side portals I'm still iffy on.

[Kenkadolf™]

Farm does need a buff. Too many disadvantages with less advantages.

[IAmSquidget]

Grats! Welcome to the unofficial 1-reign club. Yes, the achievement is bugged (0% achievement on global stats).

My basic approach has evolved to: only pick up archer shrine, builder shrine, Griffon, and pretty much nothing else. I didn't even bother with hermits on my last run. I recruited the Knight and Horn hermit, but didn't use them.

I think I only built farms on island 2 last run. And it was really for boredom.

I don't attack anything on the dock side, and don't build lighthouses until the cliff is closed.

My island order is 1,2,1,3,4,5,3,2,1.

Edit: I also don't bother with Ninjas. I haven't tried one-reign with default biome yet, but I figure I'll make some pikemen. maybe? shrug.

[artofwar]

Just got "No Greater Ruler than Thou" on the beta branch on day LXXXV. So I can confirm that the achievement will now unlock, at least under some circumstances.

Only major weird thing I noticed on the beta branch is that the Greed continue to spawn after you destroy the main portal, including immediately after you blow it up. Which means that your crown may be at risk as soon as you blow up the cave, and that the Greed can instantly snatch back any Hermits that were freed (at which point I don't think you can recover them ever, though I didn't try).

[Mawdesty]

Originally posted by IAmSquidget:

Grats! Welcome to the unofficial 1-reign club. Yes, the achievement is bugged (0% achievement on global stats).

My basic approach has evolved to: only pick up archer shrine, builder shrine, Griffon, and pretty much nothing else. I didn't even bother with hermits on my last run. I recruited the Knight and Horn hermit, but didn't use them.

I think I only built farms on island 2 last run. And it was really for boredom.

I don't attack anything on the dock side, and don't build lighthouses until the cliff is closed.

My island order is 1,2,1,3,4,5,3,2,1.

Edit: I also don't bother with Ninjas. I haven't tried one-reign with default biome yet, but I figure I'll make some pikemen. maybe? shrug.

Most of this is pretty much what I'd recommend. Archer and builder shrine are must haves. Stag lord is also OP mount so that's who I use and would advise others do as well. Farmer shrine, stable lord and baker are quality of life that I barely used.

I would say save island 5 for last. When you first visit an island you are given a rough 5 day grace period where the greed waves are much smaller than they would normally be for the day count. Can quickly build up your base even if your day count is high. And on day 1 and maybe 2 of the final island the greed waves are small enough that one could potentially pay a side off for agressive expansion but it's a bit risky. So finish island 4 first followed by 1,2, and 3 before going to 5.

Also, agreed dock side is a waste of time and resources on every island. Never destroy portals that way. No clue on the pikemen. I didn't use them at all. Actually only had 1 farmer on the last island as I recall.

[Mawdesty]

Originally posted by Crusher Von Splattenheim:

I think smashing dock side portals on Islands 1 and 2 are probably worth it as it's only a net 3 extra portals to break. It helps when returning much later in the campaign IME.

Island 3's dock side portals I'm still iffy on.

Why break island 1's dock portal at all? The boat drops all pieces on payment. 10 coins to build and 2 to put it in the water. Breaking the dock monster and building a light house has some cost of time and money and the wood light house costs 6 coins alone so not really saving much by building it.

[AuroraBorealisNo]

This walkthrough relies on pikemen. Im playing Shogun so there arent pikemen but its still easy, as long as you have a sh*tton of archers.

Farmers never have been this useless before in this series. even worse is they ste glitched, as they sometimes never start farming but keep roaming instead.

[Mawdesty]

You don't need pikemen or farmers. As long as you have archers. Archers for days. But yeah, farmers be glitched. Some times would need to wait days for farmers to get to a farm. Once they waited in town so long 4 of the 6 scythes I bought got tossed like trash. Sometimes they would even switch land plots. Have a crop halfway to harvest and just start farming a new patch of land letting the plants wither and die.