Hi everyone! In this blog post I share with you my Total War Battles: Kingdom achievement of 601 Shipments delivered via the Viking Outpost which got me to #1 rank among other players. And I share with you tips to help you succeed!
First, I share the pictures (proof) of my achievement.
The victory window I got: “The island of Rum has been picked clean of resources and the Outpost there has now been abandoned (aww, I’m gonna miss my hard work :P). Lord DGCOSMOS (that’s me! 🙂 ) has earned the title of Pathfinder.
(click on pictures to enlarge)
Next is the Leaderboard showing that I achieved the top rank among all those players who participated in this event.
Viking Outpost Tips / Discussion
Alright, let’s start with the tips and/or discussion for the Total War Battles: Kingdom Viking Outpost. In no particular order:
Starting Resources
Be careful with your starting resources. Spend them wisely and you will grow very powerfully. But if you start wasting them right and left your growth will be damaged significantly.
This means for example don’t start putting a ton of Dams because they cost 20 silver and wood (wood you have but the silver you do not!).
When you start, do nothing but look and think how you are going to build as efficiently as possible.
Chopping Trees
Don’t just start cutting down all trees! You will not only quickly reach your wood maximum of 4000 but you significantly damage your forests.
You need to select which trees to cut and allow the others to propagate more trees.
In generally you want to chop down first those trees which are blocking your way, or are right next to water (so new ones will grow fast) or take out the Pines allowing the oak trees to propagate.
Don’t take more than you need to and make sure you never reach your maximum 4000 wood limit!
One method for this is to upgrade the level 1 Blacksmith to level 2 using stone and wood which you have (silver you do not) and the only reason for this upgrade is to find a place to spend the wood (the fact that it will give you more silver is actually secondary!). This will reduce your wood by 400 (as shown on the picture below).
Furthemore, use the Master for one of the Woodcutters that you have which gives you 25% chance to get silver instead of wood. Assign this Master to the one which will be chopping the most amount of trees. Then UN-assign before you go to sleep so that you can put it on another Woodcutter on the next day.
Silver and Food
Think about getting silver and food when you start. Wood is aplenty at the beginning (but is the most needed resources at the end) and Stone is gotten quite easily via several Quarries.
The food will start coming in once you get some Farms going.
Silver will be the most difficult at the beginning as only Blacksmiths produce it and you need to man them first before they work.
Re-Prospect
As you need silver more than stone, keep on re-prospecting with your Quarries (assuming you fixed your food income) to find a silver mine. The chance is low to find one so you have to prospect a lot (in average). Finding a silver mine is like getting a free working Blacksmith!
Use the Quarry Master to increase your chances by 50%.
Upgrading Quarry to level 2
This is also why upgrading your Quarry is one of your primary goals. Because a level 2 Quarry will be able to mine 20 silver (and 20 stone) which is like a level 2 Blacksmith + 2 x Level 1 Quarries combined.
Using Slums
Often players don’t think about slums since they have no chance to produce Craftsmen. However, depending on where your Castle is located in your specific Viking Outpost (they are randomly generated each time), it might be interesting to consider building Slums because they only require food – no silver is used!
They will help you populate the Blacksmiths to start generating silver income and with enough Peasants (10) you can even manually convert into Craftsmen.
However, remember that this is just a startup action and as you progress you will most likely need to demolish the Slums and replace them with Houses.
The Farm Master
The Farm has a Master which one of the buildings can use which makes all the land around the Farm “fertile” allowing for the crops to be planted. This sounds great when you first hear it but there is a disadvantage to it.
You see, the crops which are planted right next to the river (any water) grow twice as fast than the “inner” crops. And this Master’s crops grow the slowest all around. So I only recommend using him when there is no other way.
I generally try to bring a river to produce wheat at the fastest rate possible so I will only use him as a last resort when the geography does not allow it.
Trees need water too
The forest looks a bit misleading making you think that if you chop a tree somewhere in the middle it will grow back. In fact, in order for new trees to grow the soil has to be “fertile” which you can see by the water droplet icon in the tile info. So when thinking about wood income you must consider:
- To cut down trees which are by the water and not those which are standing on non-fertile soil.
- Terraform your geography to direct rivers accordingly for both your Farms and Woodcutters.
Houses or Mansions?
When thinking about building Houses or Mansions the answer is very simple:
- If you are very active Houses are better.
- If you are less active or sleeping over night Mansions are better.
- Mansions are also better at producing Craftsmen.
You can also have a mix, but for the best performance you must be active which leans towards Houses.
The Blacksmith Trick
There is a trick with the Blacksmith which gives a one time small-medium advantage, which I don’t know if it is a bug or works as intended.
If you man a level 1 Blacksmith with the required 1 Craftsman and 4 Peasants and upgrade it to Level 2 (which requires 2 Craftsmen and 3 Peasants) the 1st Peasant will automatically become a full health Craftsman! This is a very nice boost in the beginning of the Viking Outpost.
More Castles
If your map allows it or if you can make more space to build more Castles this will greatly help in 2 regards:
- The main reason is actually getting more Markets. Because if you manage to build up to 10 Markets and man them with Craftsmen then you will be able to exchange goods at the very nice rate of 70%.
- The secondary reason is to build more Blacksmiths for silver income, but this pales in comparison to the Markets.
Using Markets
Using the Market is absolutely critical for ranking high in Viking Outpost in Total War Battles: Kingdom! However, using just 1 Market is ineffective because you get only a 30% exchange for your goods. So you must set a goal to build up as many markets as possible and man them ideally with Craftsmen (maximum is 10 Markets).
There are some exceptions where you may be forced to use only 1 Market to convert your initial wood to silver for example, but do your best to avoid it as this rate is very bad.
There is another speedup which can be seen as an exchange whereby you speedup a level 2 Blacksmith with 50 food to get 20 silver. This is 40% which is better than the Market rate, however note that you are also reducing the life of the workers and therefore I find this also ineffective.
Each additional market will give you +2% and each market manned by Craftsmen will give you +2% so 10 Markets = 10 x 2 = 20% moving the 30% to 50% and if you man them all with Craftsmen that’s another 10 x 2% which brings is to the maximum possible level of 70% (screenshot i posted above).
Getting to the 70% is very difficult! But try to make some way in that direction before you start exchanging resources.
What is the point of Gold in Viking Outpost?
I have seen a lot of players ask what is the point of getting 30 gold when you start Viking Outpost or getting Tombs / Gold Mines during it when there is absolutely nothing you can do with gold there.
Well, there is only one place you can spend the gold, but this one place is very significant. Once you gather 5 additional Gold you will have 35 and with that you can change the season!
This allows you to completely skip the Winter season or go back to Spring where the tree and crop growth is very fast!
Can anyone win in Viking Outpost?
Yes and no.
Everyone has the ability to win, but not everyone will put the time and effort to think smart and actively collect resources when they are ready and invest correctly/smartly prioritizing important goals.
Since growth is somewhat exponential a small mistake in the beginning becomes a massive mistake (or slower growth) down the road. So being very active and making the right decisions is very important for the 1st day.
The 2nd and 3rd days are spend on growing from the investments created during the previous day.
And the last days are the least interesting as your only job is to collect the incomes and send shipments.
So to summarize:
- Everyone can win theoretically.
- Making smart decisions is VERY important.
- Being very active is VERY important.
- (and it also depends if you are competing against strong players or medium players).
Last Words
I hope you enjoyed my big article / tips on the Viking Outpost in Total War Battles: Kingdom! I spent a lot of effort to make it nice and useful for you. If you liked it please like/share it and if you have additional tips or feedback then you are welcome to post it in the comment section below.
