Getting started

In Otenos you start with a single holding and spend an Age of 28 days turning it into a kingdom. This chapter covers your first hours and first days: from creating your account to your first raid, your first bid and your first alliance. Every topic has its own chapter for the details, and each section links to your next step.

Otenos at a glance

Every world opens on an empty map and closes with a chronicle. In between, you grow your holding, raise an army, send your caravans down the roads, hold the ancient altars and bid at the auction for the legendary buildings of the Age. On the last day, the player at the top of the rankings takes the throne, everyone's story is written into the chronicle and a new Age begins.

  • Holding and economy: four resources, 12 buildings, and a specialization you choose for each building as it matures. More in Resources and Buildings.
  • Army and warfare: 15 units, marches, raids, sieges and conquest. More in Army and Combat.
  • Altars: ancient sites scattered across the map; whoever holds one during its rite earns Tender. More in Altars.
  • Auction: some buildings change hands only here, by sealed bid. More in Auction and Tender.
  • Alliances and trade: you form alliances with your neighbors, haul goods by caravan and trade at the market. More in Alliances and Trade.

Your account and joining a world

You create your account with your email address. To found a holding in a world, you only need to verify your email; logging in and browsing the site don't require it. Your account follows you from Age to Age: your profile, your chronicle and your titles live there.

To join, you pick one of the open worlds. Each world has 200 holdings, and a world stays open to new players for the first 11.2 days of the Age. When you join, you choose your house, and it stays with you for the whole Age (Houses).

You can play in several worlds at once with the same account. You can't leave a world by choice: you're a player in that world until the Age ends or your last holding falls.

Your holding's first day

Your holding starts with 400 timber, 400 stone, 300 iron and 400 grain, and your Palace already stands at level 1. Your account receives a starting balance of 300 Tender.

In the first hours, this order works best:

  1. Upgrade your resource buildings: Sawmill, Quarry, Foundry and Farm. Production is the key to everything.
  2. Grow your Storehouse: once it's full, anything more goes to waste (Storehouse).
  3. Build Barracks and train your first spearmen: holding an altar and raiding both take soldiers.
  4. Keep your queue full: your build queue holds 8 jobs; fill it before you log off and your holding keeps growing while you're away.

Protected start

For 48 hours after you join a world, no raid can reach your holding, and you can't raid anyone either. The protection applies between holdings: you can still scout, march on altars, and fight at an altar.

On top of that, the first 7 days of the Age are the Founding phase, when no one can raid a holding. If you join during Founding, your protection carries on after Founding ends, for whatever time it has left (Ages and phases).

Your first week

  • Founding (days 1-7): build your economy, grow your Storehouse, raise the core of your army. Only Instant lots close at the auction; your starting balance lets you try your first bids.
  • Contest (days 8-21): the altars begin their rites, Rare and Common lots close, and raids between holdings begin. This is the time to join an alliance and secure your borders.
  • Reign (days 22-28): the final act. Even a player's last holding can now be taken; the biggest moves for the throne are made here.

The game, screen by screen

  • Map: holdings, ruins, altars, and the armies and caravans on the road. Distances are shown in kilometers.
  • City: your buildings, your build queue, your specializations and sending resources.
  • Barracks, Stable, Workshop, Shipyard: unit training and training queues.
  • Auction: the closing schedule, open lots, your bids and your deeds.
  • Alliance: members, their distances, declarations of war and pacts.
  • Reports: battle, scouting, auction and altar news.
  • Charter: your rank, your total score and what you've done this Age.

Common sticking points

  • Storehouse full: production doesn't stop, but the excess is lost. Grow your Storehouse along with your production.
  • Grain went negative: your army and buildings eat grain. If grain runs out, production drops by half and your soldiers desert (Grain).
  • I can't send a raid: it may be the Founding phase, your protection, a missing declaration of war or no raid charges left (Raid requirements).
  • My bid was rejected: it may be below the minimum bid or more than your available Tender (Placing a bid).