Knights of Ages: a beginner's guide to Seaease Games strategy RPG

Knights of Ages is a tactical RPG set in an Arthurian fantasy world, where warring factions seek to dominate their rivals across the centuries. Published by Seaease, the game offers a compelling blend of turn-based battle, mercenary commandment, castle building, resource management and even strategic breeding (you don’t want your legacy winding up in the hands of some unworthy sprog, do you?).

Before you make your foray into the land of Galtian, let us equip you with the wisdom of the elders… here are some simple tips on beginning your Knights of Ages conquest.

Story chapters and side-missions

The central story in Knights of Ages is one of hired mercenaries, trying to survive and thrive in the midst of squabbling kingdoms and roads plagued by highwaymen.

There are currently six chapters to work through, but it’s worth spending as much or more of your time completing the regularly refreshed side-missions — this will allow you to strengthen your band of fighters, making the story levels less difficult to complete. Merchant side-missions are good for gaining silver, whilst urgent side-missions are good for other resources.

Recruiting new characters

Unlike in many RPGs, your characters in Knights of Ages have an expiry date. They will grow old, weaken and eventually retire. That’s why you’ll always need new, fighting-fit recruits to continue your legacy.

There are two main ways to add characters to your army of mercenaries: by recruiting the descendants of existing team members (keeping it in the family, mafioso-style), and by headhunting fresh talent in the Tavern. For the first method, you must enlist children before they reach 15 years old. In both cases, you can determine their potential as fighters by their character attributes, bloodline, age and traits.

Choosing character professions

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, including in Knights of Ages. There are six main attributes in the game: strength, vitality, dexterity, perception, will and agility. Most characters have a predisposition towards two or three of these attributes. You should pay attention to individual attributes to help you decide the profession that will best utilise each character’s strengths. For example, a character with high strength and dexterity will be better suited to a longbow, claymore or cavalry role, whilst a character with high perception may be better off as a druid.

There are 20 or so classes spread across three tiers. As they develop, characters progress up the tiers in their profession, but you have the opportunity to switch them to a different profession if you think their skills are better suited for it — providing they meet the minimum threshold of attributes for that new profession.

Character traits

Your characters will have certain innate traits that can influence all sorts of factors in their lives, including their six main attributes, their fertility and their chance of marriage. Some traits are assigned randomly, whereas other traits you can develop through training within your castle.

Traits are typically indicated by tell-tale titles; for example, a character with rickets will be named so-and-so ’The Withered’, whilst a hirsute character will be named so-and-so ‘The Apelike’. These titles vary depending on whether the character is male or female; commoner or nobility. It’s worth paying attention to these titles, especially when looking to recruit within the Tavern.

Marriage & bloodlines

One of the best ways to improve the attributes and traits of your troops is to marry them off to high-quality suitors, with whom they will breed, creating a new generation of potential recruits with improved stats. There are two ways for your characters to get hitched: during the periodic Spring Festival, or at any time within your Castle Hall (buildable once your Castle is at least level three).

In Knights of Ages, there are various royal bloodlines, each weighted towards two or three particular attributes. A character with a high level of a royal bloodline will have a title (Knight, Baron, Earl or Duke/Duchess) and a high score (rankings from S to SSS) in those hereditary attributes. It’s therefore desirable to marry off couples with shared royal bloodlines, then do the same with their children, until you have higher blood purity.

Beware of injuries & low morale

In Knights of Ages, injuries from battle can result in lifelong ailments. If a character is injured in one battle, then injured in the next, there is the potential they will acquire permanent damage to their appearance, attributes and traits, and even have to retire early.

Morale is another important element to pay attention to. Your troops can suffer low morale from losing fights, not fighting enough and not receiving sufficient food. Low morale can result in temporary and even permanent negative, inheritable traits.

Now you’re ready to develop your own formidable band of mercenaries spanning the ages. You can download Knights of Ages for free on iOS and Android.