Build orders for best starting economy for all factions and difficulties

The goal of this guide is to help AoD players have a very strong and fast initial start, thus making the whole survival experience much easier. Applicable to all difficulties.
Now also has build orders for Multiplayer.

The goal of early game build orders

The goal of an early game build order is to have a very fast and powerful start, that can snowball the whole game and make playing Age of Darkness (AoD) much more pleasant.
To achieve that we will be aiming to build certain buildings and get certain upgrades as soon as possible.
Here is what we are aiming for:

• Early wood workshop to unlock tier 2 houses.
  
• Early keep upgrade to get more storage space and +100 gold income.
  
• Early tier 2 houses to boost gold income as much as possible

In best case scenario we should have everything by the end of 2nd day, however not every map and starting area allows for the optimal build order.

Minimal requirements for optimal build order

To achieve the build order goal, we need to have at least:

• 10 or more stone income from the 1st stone quarry.
  
• 32 or more combined wood income from 1st and 2nd woodcutters.

To have 10 or more stone income you need to scout and clear a stone area that has at least 5 tiles of stone. (1 tile of stone is worth 2 stone income)
And to have 32 or more wood income you need to have either 2 woodcutters worth 16 wood, or one worth 20 wood and another worth 12 wood or... You get the idea.

It is easier to find stone if you scout for it as soon as possible, exploring around the starting area in all directions.
To get enough wood it is best to try and look for wood lines.
An example of a wood line:

The differences in build order based on difficulty and faction

Currently in the game there are 5 base difficulties:
Easy, Normal, Veteran, Horrific, Nightmare.
There is no economic difference between them, however players can increase the base difficulty further with hardships.
Out of all the hardships, only Heroless and Veil Bond have an impact on economy.

• Heroless - you play without commanding a hero, you have additional +10 gold income from the start, because heroes have 10 gold upkeep.
  
• Veil Bond - you start with both heroes from a faction with their levels capped at level 6. Due to an additional hero you have -10 gold income from the start.

At the moment there are 3 playable factions:
The Order, The Rebellion, The Volatists.

Order has a stable and basic build order, not much room for variation.

Rebellion has 3 rogues as a starting units and rogues gain gold upon killing nightmares. This allows for variation in build orders, based on how many kills the starting rogues can get.

Volatists have 8 starting units worth 8 population, while other factions have 6 starting units worth 6 population. This means you start the game with 2 less population and because of it some build orders require you to kill off some of your starting units.

Basic build order. Any faction. No hardships affecting economy

This build order works for any base difficulty and with hardships, as long as you do not use Heroless or Veil Bond hardships.

1. House
   
2. Woodcutter
   
3. House
   
4. Woodcutter
   
5. House
   
6. Stone quarry
   
7. House
   
8. Food hut
   
9. House (+House if Volatist faction)
   
10. Wood workshop
    
11. House
    
12. Food hut
    
13. House (if you have enough wood and food for keep after)
    
14. Upgrade the keep
    
15. Research lodge (unlock tier 2 houses)

While the Lodge (tier 2 houses) is being researched, you want to build Food huts and Woodcutters (as needed). Never build any more tier 1 houses and upgrade the already built tier 1 houses immediately.

Example video of 32+ wood build as The Order:

Example video of 32+ wood build as The Rebellion:

Example video of 32+ wood build as The Volatists:

MP ONLY | Order faction | 33+ Wood

This is a very nice build order, that is simple to use.
The hardest part is remembering to build houses as fast as you can.
Must get 33 combined wood income from 1st and 2nd woodcutters.
Must get 10 stone from the 1st Stone quarry
The Build Order:
1. House
2. House
3. Woodcutter
4. Woodcutter
5. House
6. Stone quarry
7. House
8. Wood workshop
9. House + House
10. Research lodge (unlock tier 2 houses)
11. Upgrade the keep

MP ONLY | Volatists faction | 33+ Wood

This is a very nice build order, that is simple to use.
The hardest part is remembering to build houses as fast as you can.
Must get 33 combined wood income from 1st and 2nd woodcutters.
Must get 10 stone from the 1st Stone quarry
The Build Order:
1. House
2. House + House
3. Woodcutter
4. Woodcutter
5. House
6. Stone quarry
7. Wood workshop
8. House
9. Research lodge (unlock tier 2 houses)
10. Upgrade the keep

Build order for Heroless and Veil Bond hardships. Faction specific

To be added

Troubleshooting issues with build orders

Some issues you might run into, and how to solve them:

• I don't have enough wood to place the 1st stone quarry!
  You need to place the 2nd woodcutter faster, so it can be built before the wood income ticks.
  
• I don't have enough gold to place the 1st stone quarry!
  You need to place the initial 3 houses faster, so they can be built faster and add to your income. Doing it too slow costs you some gold.
  
• The build order makes me waste/overcap on resources!
  Sometimes it is unavoidable and a sacrifice must be made, don't stress over it. Also try to see if you can improve the build order yourself!
  
• I didn't have enough food to upgrade the keep!
  Make sure to get as much food as possible from the food huts you place. In some build order you just need to not build the last house if you have less than 9 food.

[Bembis_Miške]

An important note about MP build orders. While they should pretty much always work, timing for wood placement can be tight, because:
Wood, stone, iron and gold mine ticks all tick at the same time for both players, but the initial timing of them is set by the player who is the 1st to place a wood/stone/iron/gold gatherers.
That means someone going for a house -> wood -> house -> wood order will start the wood tick earlier. It doesn't break the MP build orders but makes the timing of placing wood cutters a lot tighter.

[FaDoPeZz]

@#KallorDidNothingWrong Ressources got a bit less over time, but its still possible to get a 10+ stone early on. Also tbh I dont think I ever played a map where I only got wood places under 14 nearby and Im at around 500 hours in the game right now.

[#KallorDidNothingWrong]

Did they reduce the resources at starting locations? I can't say I've ever seen a quarry with 8+, usually they are at 6, and woods rarely go beyond 10, with a maximum of 14 once.

Seems tempo is super dependent on a good map seed, which is a bit of a bummer.

[Noble]

Thank you!

Looking forward to Order multiplayer update!

[Bembis_Miške]

I've added a build order for Multiplayer, for the Volatists faction.
Hope you guys like it. Will add Rebellion and Order later.

[TheLatiKing]

This was nice to have and hope there will be more guides in the future~

[Nezteb]

Awesome guide! I play exclusively multiplayer and used this guide as a starting point for my own build order/strat. If I find the time I'll post a similar guide purely for multiplayer!

[KFCeusk]

damm

[Vain glory]

Nice guide, I will try it out!

[Bembis_Miške]

Hey, thanks for kind words. The basic build order should work perfectly well for Multiplayer too, but you don't really need food huts early - you can skip those for houses, or a 3rd wood cutter, as in MP it seems wood is usually an issue.