Survival Mode Guide: Top Ten Tricks to Triumph in Falle

This guide was made in response to my own request for a guide to beating Falle (Survival Mode) in Kingdoms and Castles. It is written from my own experience and is designed to help players new to this game mode in achieving victory. The contents of this guide are the top ten most useful tools/techniques for beating Falle and claiming the Victory Valkyrie for your own. I include a breakdown of my final stats using these techniques at the end.

Tip No. 1: The Citadel, the Heart of Your Kingdom

1. Make sure you pre-plan your districts, particularly your Citadel District (Keep). I like to make 9x9 city blocks in general, and I like to have internal walls for just my citadel. Bear in mind that you don't want to provoke Ogres by walling in your Treasuries. Ogres will eventually show up in Raids anyway, so I kept one block of my walls open until Ogres began spawning, then I closed the gap. This also proved useful for funneling troops during Raids. I keep my Keep, Hall of War, and all Treasuries in my Citadel district. Beyond that, mix and match to your heart's content.

Tip No. 2: Magical Defenses - Statues & Cathedrals

2. As experienced players in other game modes, I am sure many of you know that the three main statues in Kingdoms and Castles have special abilities within a certain radius. Similarly, Cathedrals have a chance to convert Vikings in their area of effect. Lord Levi grows trees. Queen Barbara protects buildings from being pillaged by Vikings. Lord Nextraztus stops incoming Dragons until they pay homage to his likeness. That said, statues don't appear to give their "magical" bonuses in this mode, so don't bother with them unless you want the happiness boost. Cathedrals will still convert Vikings, and well-placed (and well protected) Cathedrals can help soften Viking Raids in the mid and late games.

Tip No. 3: Vikings in the Early Game

3. Vikings will send raiding parties in the early game no matter what, so don't force yourself to keep your population below 50 to keep from triggering the first raid. It will come anyway. Instead, push hard to grow in the early game to build quarries, your first treasury, and a Hall of War ASAP in order to begin constructing defenses. I tried to have all of these buildings by year 20. I don't recall what year I finished the Hall of War in.

Tip No. 4: Production Limitations - Stone & Iron

4. Pay close attention to Stone and Iron production. Stone Nodes start at 2000/2000 and Iron Nodes start at 1500/1500. You will deplete them. I found that rationing my Stone and Iron by mining multiple sources at once with only a single quarry or mine on each seemed to help prolong the sources. It forced me to operate within additional constraints, which lead to optimizing production by keeping them high in the job priority (for master tradesmen), and smithing tools for increased efficiency. As you deplete each source, make sure that you've located and begun mining the next node before you run out of the previous one. This is vital to protect your kingdom from having low production years.

By the end of my run I was on my last Stone and Iron nodes on the continent. This is where your Docks come in...

Tip No. 5: Building a Capitalist Empire

5. As stated above, you will need Docks. Aim for one in the early game to begin trading ASAP, and build up to 4-5 by the mid-game. I built 4 Docks in sheltered bays around my Kingdom. I generally built them in lakes and then built canals using moats out to the ocean. These canals I then closed off using Sea Gates and built walls surrounding them. Over the Sea Gates I placed at least one Greek Fire Embankment (with a nearby small stockpile to provide charcoal). I would accompany this with two Archer Towers and two Ballista. This ensured that no Vikings survived a trip up the canals and into the heart of my Kingdom. The primary focus for your docks should be to purchase stone and iron in the late game. Make sure you are producing extra resources (I found wheat, wood, charcoal, and apples to be easy ones) in order to sell and keep yourself financially stable. Use the lock feature on the resources in your docks to ensure that you are always ready to make a sale. Finally, keep a look out for special trades to acquire tech advances cheaply.

Tip No. 6: From the Dark Ages to Enlightenment

6. When it comes to technology, there are three you need before any others. 1. Armor Piercing Ballista. This will make killing Ogres and Dragons much easier for you, and are essential in the late game. The same applies to number 2. Armor Piercing Arrows. Number 3. is Improved Construction Technique. Remember, this is about resource management, so improving your efficiency is very valuable. After that, I prioritized Improved Bread Ovens over Stronger Sails, but you pick whichever is best for your play style. You can research tech advances at the Great Library (but be sure it's defended) or through cultural exchange with Merchant vessels. The latter method is not advised as it takes a great deal of luck. That said, stay vigilant in case the opportunity arises to snag a research advancement for less money at the Docks.

Tip No. 7: You Can Buy Happiness

7. Your two most valuable resources in Falle will be your Happiness, and your Money. Once again we go back to pre-planning districts. Build self contained housing districts with manors, a market, a library, a clinic, and 1-2 taverns. Mix in firefighters, churches/cathedrals, noiras and bathhouses, theatres, and jousting arenas as necessary. It is better to plan ahead on these "cultural" buildings to avoid drops in Happiness, and remember that noiras can draw water from moats, so don't restrict your placement based on water sources. Using gardens, and fountains to boost Happiness is valuable as well, and as long as you don't build massive aqueduct systems, you shouldn't have to worry too much about Vikings and Dragons destroying your infrastructure. Make sure you defend your aqueducts though, they will be targeted.

Keeping you population happy means you can maintain a higher tax rate. Higher taxes mean more money. More money means research opportunities and valuable stone and iron in the late game. You will need all of these things to claim victory. Place your food and resource production districts outside of your housing districts. It is better for Vikings to destroy an orchard, a windmill, or a few farms, than your manors, cathedrals, or other expensive buildings.

Tip No. 8: Disposable Defenses

8. Use small 3-stack wooden castle blocks with archer towers on them as pickets for Dragons and Ogres. Placing these sporadically around your kingdom (always covered by ballista towers closer to the heart of your civilization) lets you kill big baddies before they get to the valuable internal structures of your base. It can be daunting to have to rebuild several structures after every Viking Raid (5 years) or Dragon (8 years) but bear in mind that these are wooden structures that are quick and cheap. If it helps, think of them as outposts for the rest of your kingdom.

Tip No. 9: Managing Everyday Life

9. Finally, you will have to stay on top of your Job Priority list. Keep your defensive structures high, but toggle them on and off during times of war/peace. In my run, I kept my ballista manned at all times in order to have highly trained operators. In the early and mid games, I had to toggle my archers and greek firemen on and off for each raid. I would generally toggle them on when the snow began to fall the year before the raid was set to start. This ensured that they were all manned by the time the Vikings/Dragon spawned. For Viking Raids, I used ballista, archer towers, and greek fire embankments. For Dragons you only need ballista and archer towers. Remember these cost money to operate, so in times of peace you will want to shut down the structures you don't need. I did eventually get to the point where I could keep my archer towers manned at all times while still producing 300-400 gold a year, which was quite nice.

Tip No. 10: A Final Note on Raids...

10. As the game progresses, Raids will only get worse. Keep this in mind and build defensive structures throughout your kingdom. Vikings will use roads to speed their advance, and kidnappings can decimate your population (and tax revenue) if you're not careful. I placed wall and moat systems (with drawbridges) around my kingdom in various places to force Vikings to re-route off roads while being shot at by arrows and ballista bolts. Keep this in mind as you build and use the natural rivers/lakes on your map to enhance your defenses.

Final Stats Using these Methods:

Listed below are my stats from my first play-through in Falle using these methods...

Final Stats: Year 250

Seed: LLN1700591256
Total Stone Nodes: 8
Total Iron Nodes: 5

Happiness Score (Peace Time): 100
Happiness Score (War Time): 94-97
Health Score: 99
Building Integrity: 99

Tech Score (Great Library): 5/5
Tax Rate: 40%
Total Population: 1589
Idle Population: 0
Total Housing Space (Beds): 1599

Docks: 4

• 150 Wheat
  
• 180 Wood (Locked)
  
• 150 Charcoal
  
• 150 Fruit (Locked)

Treasuries: 6

Statues: 3

• Lord Nextraztus: 1
  
• Queen Barbara: 2

Cathedrals: 2
Ballista: 25
Archer Towers: 42
Greek Fire Embankments: 9

Ending Notes, Credits, and a Word of Thanks

This Guide began as a Discussion post on Steam which you can find here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/569480/discussions/0/3825284144461740835/. In that post I requested a guide for helping casual players step up their game in order to beat Survival Mode in Kingdoms & Castles. The OP did not get much traffic, however one user (whose response has been marked as the "Answer" to the original discussion) was particularly helpful, providing a tip regarding the limited stone/iron, as well as a tip about small defensive structures. These thoughts were expanded on in this Guide with additional details, and some variations in strategy. That said, my run-through would not have been a success without that player's insight, so if you're reading this, I tip my hat to you!

Listed above are my "Top Ten Tips to Triumph in Falle". Thank you for reading! I do hope they help guide you on your own attempts to build an empire in this unforgiving land. I will eventually circle back around to this Guide to add additional notes to this rather brief reading experience. In the meantime, I wish you all the best. Now, in the words of Edna Mode: "GO! Confront the problem! Fight! Win!" And let me know how you did in the comments below!

~Daowulf