The first 50 to 100 turns in Ara History Untold are extremely important. If you’re like me, you might struggle to get off to a good start due to the many aspects of the game that are, well, not explained very thoroughly, even in the tutorial. Luckily for you, we here at The Game Haus have learned through trial by fire and are excited to bring you our top tips and a beginner’s guide to help you through the early game. We’ve split these tips into three sections: Your City, The Tech Tree, and War & Prestige. Here’s our Ara History Untold Beginners Guide.
Some of these tips may loosely overlap, so keep that in mind as you follow along. Before we dive in, we hope you’ll consider liking and subscribing, as we’re constantly putting out more sports, esports, gaming, and Ara History Untold content for you to enjoy. Also, check out our Ara History Untold Let’s Play to see how we struggled to arrive at these tips. That will be linked in the description below. Now, let’s hop into the first section of tips about your city.
[Related: Is Ara History Untold Multiplayer?]
Your City
The first tip in this Ara History Untold Beginners Guide is to gather as much food as possible. This is critical at the beginning of the game. In the tutorial, you’re advised to build a farm first, and that’s great advice. You need to get at least one farm right away, and even with your first expansion, consider adding one or two more. Food depletes quickly as new cities and armies come into play (we’ll discuss this more in the army section). All of these will consume food at a faster rate than you might expect.
Workshop
Afterward, I recommend building a workshop. It’s important when you’re trying to craft some of the early tools that can help with farming, thereby increasing your food production. Finally, build a dwelling for your city. While some might suggest waiting, it’s not a bad idea to do this early on, so you won’t be forced to build one later when you might need to focus on other tasks, like creating an army. Dwellings allow your city to expand naturally without being capped at five units. This expansion brings it up to 10, which I highly suggest.
Scouts
When you get your scout (you should have one at the start of the game), prioritize finding caches. Scouting is good, and working through open borders with other civs or nations is useful, but caches provide valuable materials, crafting items, gold, and sometimes upgrades for certain units—similar to what you’d find in Civilization. Gather these first before exploring the rest of the map. Also, try to get a settler as soon as possible once you find a good location for your second city.
Settlers
You may like the area where you started, but other nations will too, and they’ll settle there quickly. An early settler helps you not only expand your empire but also improves your armies and food supply, which is especially helpful in the early game. We highly recommend building a settler within the first 50 to 75 turns.
Expansion
When expanding, focus on regions with resources and more than three improvement spaces. Also, use your early resources and crafts for tribes, as they’ll help expand your city. These tips may overlap, but improving your regions is key. Regions not only provide resources like furs or early metal, but also more tile improvements. Regions with only two or three improvement spaces are useful for blocking other nations or filling in spaces as a last resort. But in the early game, aim for regions with at least four or five spaces.
You’ll want to give resources to tribes as well. They can provide stories and citizens—sometimes 1,500 to 2,000 new population—helping your city expand quickly.
The Tech Tree
Now, onto the tech tree. You might be tempted to research techs from top to bottom, but that’s not always the best strategy. Keep in mind that your nation or leader might influence your tech choices, so adjust accordingly. These are general early tips for most leaders.
Prestige Techs
The first tip is to prioritize researching techs with prestige. These are some of the best techs within their respective eras. We recommend rushing archers as your very first tech. While the granary tech is also helpful for food (as we mentioned earlier), archers provide a strong early game unit that gives you an edge in battles. We’ll elaborate more on this in the War & Prestige section.
Bronze Age or No?
Don’t skip any early techs. While you might be tempted to rush into the Bronze Age, doing so can cost you later on. Many early techs serve as building blocks that you’ll need, and most nations will take their time progressing, so you should too. They won’t rush through the ages, and neither should you. Take your time to gather improvements, crafts, and buildings that will benefit you later on.
War & Prestige
Now, let’s dive into the War & Prestige section of this Ara History Untold Beginners Guide. These two go hand in hand. While it’s possible to win a game of Ara History Untold without engaging in too much warfare, the aggressive AI makes it nearly impossible to avoid war entirely.
Early Spearman
Start by building one spearman. You don’t need more than that at the beginning. This unit should be enough to defeat wildlife or defend your territory, but after that, focus on battalions. You may even want to disband the spearman after about 75 turns, as tribes will often request this unit, and giving it up can help you gain favor with them, which boosts your tribe relations and population.
The Wedge
When it comes to armies, you want to aim for a wedge formation—one spearman and two archers. This will give you your first real army to defend yourself, as many nations, like Joan of Arc, will want to go to war with you early on. Joan, in particular, has been a thorn in our side in many games, often declaring war within the first 100 turns. Be prepared by having at least one, possibly two, battalions.
A small note: You can queue multiple projects at once. Once you decide to build battalions, queue up the spearman and archers together to get that wedge formation as soon as possible.
Food and Army Size
Keep in mind that armies require a lot of food. The moment you start building battalions, your food supply will deplete quickly, so make sure to follow the food-gathering tips we covered earlier.
To increase your army’s size, you’ll need more cities with populations over four. This is another reason why it’s crucial to get that early settler to build a second city, giving you an additional battalion slot to continue expanding your forces.
Prestige & Triumphs
Winning battles, wars, and taking cities will grant you prestige, which is important in the early game. As you progress through the four different ages, you’ll enter the second act, and you don’t want to be at the bottom. If you fall behind in prestige, it’s game over. To boost your prestige, engage in skirmishes, defend your territory, and try to drag out wars to defeat as many units as possible.
Finally, triumphs. Triumphs are worth a ton of prestige—some are worth 100 in the early game, which can significantly change your standing. Completing triumphs can elevate you from the forgettable tier to the top tiers, giving you a massive advantage. When possible, save regions with fewer slots for triumphs, so they don’t consume valuable space in more developed regions.
If we missed anything, let us know in the comments. Maybe your advice can help someone else gain an advantage as a beginner in Ara History Untold. We hope this guide helps you navigate your early turns and sets you on the path to victory.
For more on Ara History Untold and other games, keep it here at The Game Haus.
Stay Connected
You can find more pieces like “Ara History Untold Guide” and you can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Robert!
“From Our Haus to Yours”