this will be a somewhat detailed guide covering most of the game.
1.dock development and expansion
it is very important to develop your dock early in the game. first develop your shipyard and academy , and then warehouse and dockyard, defence/bar and weapon smith follows. it is not necessary to build a HQ and future early in the game. as soon at it fills up, upgrade the dock square. always have your dock busy upgrading until it hit level5+, even then you should always be upgrading the academy and shipyard.your other docks should be built as soon as you find the need to. the first 1-3 docks should be trading docks, to add ships without going back to the main dock. you can also expand them into a naval dock as you find the need to.a trading dock should be placed in the middle of a few other ports, the more ports it have access to, the better. the goods of the nearby ports also matters.when you hit Baron in honor (will be expained later) you should start considering positioning a naval base.a naval base will have to be level 5+in order to support the logistics of the fleet. having a good defense is also necessary. 5 mil of defense spending is a good start if you position your base in hostile or contested area.for naval base, the first one should be placed in home area as a safeguard against attacks and as a production factory, the rest should be placed close to war area. and should be able to withstand all types of attacks. and should be able to produce high level warships. so that your fleet don't have to go back to home base to refit, it can also act as a trade base if placed in a good spot.if necessary. you can also put a small level 5 dock inside war area, as a advance base, to increase the speed of attacks if you wish to attack multiply times. it should not be anymore than a small dock, defense is not necessary for this type of dock.
2.trading
trading is VERY VERY IMPORTANT(duh)
as it is the easiest and fastest way to get money (exapt for wheel), you should always have 2+ trading fleet. this is the recommended order for getting fleets.
knight: 1 trade, 1 exploration
baronet: 2 trade, 1 exploration
baron: 2 trade, 1 exploration, 1 navy
viscount; 3 trade, 1 exploration, 1 navy
earl: 3 trade (or 4), 1 exploration, 1 navy (or 2)
a trading fleet should be fast and be able to carry a large load. so the 2 most effective and recommended merchant ships are sloop lv 2 and pinzon merchant ship. sloop lv 2 is better for short - mid range trading. and pinzon is better for mid-long range trading. you should always buy the most expensive good you can find, and sail a good 20-40 minute away and sell the item for 3-5x of the original price, if the price is lower, however, just sail to another nearby port and sell it there. don't trade at the same port for too long, go in a circle in between few ports! you should always have your fleet on the move! and they should be upgraded ASAP, when your hero level up.
3. exploration of new lands
exploration is very important in this game, as you only start with a few ports your country owns, so as to extend your reach and to get access to new trading area, and to reach a distant enemy, you will need to explore. Seeker exploration ship will be good enough for the first week, then you should start building 5 discoverer exploration ship, the more ships you have, the higher the chance!!!! with only one seeker, even 2 hour exploration won't likely get you a new port.
when you have 5+ discoverer, you should do 15 minute exploration to save time and strength. the last exploration ship is unnecessary. a hero with exploration as his/her minor/major is preferred, but not necessary, just have enough ships. the first thing you should aim for is to establish a good trading area and then extend your reach. exploration also gives exp and 200 honor, so it's a easy way to get honor if you are good at it.
4.honor
Honor is very very important in this game, having a higher royalty status can give you access to better technology, which in terms let you build stronger ships, control more fleet, have more docks, go faster, have more bonus in battle, and just about everything, so honor is very important!
here are the status/fleet limit and ship type unlocked from baronet+
baronet and below: 3 fleet, attack ship class unlocked.
baron: 20k honor required to rank up, 4 fleets, frigate class ships unlocked.
viscount: 60k honor required to rank up, 5 fleets, cruisers class ships unlocked
earl: 150k honor required to rank up, 6 fleets, sail battleship class unlocked
marquis: 7 fleets, Ironclad class Battleship unlocked.
to get honor, you can invest using guild hall, which will give you honor based on the rank of the item you invested it. it will be 50 times the level of the good that you invested in:
ex: I invest in a level 6 good,
50 x 6 = 300,
I get 300 honor from that investment.
*please note that investments gets very expensive as it levels up, don't keep relying on investments for honor.
both types of exploration gives lots of honor, port exploration gives 200 honor for a successful discovery, and land exploration gives honor according to the level of the discovery.
buying certain goods will also gives a small amount of honor, but remember! it will stack up if you keep it up, don't underestimate the small amount of honor it gives!
quests gives the most honor! so finish as much quests as you possibly can!
5. guild
having a guild is important in this game, it let you get organized against a common enemy. or have more protection in groups. A guild costs 1 mil to start, and you have to at least a baronet. to develop a guild you have to put cash in, at level one it takes 1 mil gold to level up and takes 100 hours, it takes a hour to develop 10k gold worth of development. you can also get combine fleet permit from the guild, and if you are the master then you can get declaration of war and guild fleet permit, however, they cost a ton, so spend wisely! the minimum you can donate at once is 100k, the absolute max is 5 mil.
Coming from Sadow
Many Thanks to Sadow from AGE OF OCEAN OPERATION TEAM
