Expansion Guide

How does expansion work?

Expansion works in three layers: camps become cities, cities spread through foundations, and districts are built on top of foundations. Every city you will ever grow follows that order.

Camps first. Outside your capital, new cities start as camps. Upgrading a camp into a city costs Influence, and its City Hall is the new city's first district. Attach the camp to an existing city instead and it becomes a Ministry: a secondary city center you can build districts around, funneling the new region's resources into that city instead of running a separate one.

Then foundations. A Foundation goes on a land tile adjacent to your City Hall, your Ministry, or an existing district. It costs Influence and is created instantly, with no build time, and it keeps the yields of the land tile underneath it.

Districts sit on top. Every district is built on a foundation, and the district keeps those yields in turn. So a foundation tile matters twice: once for its position in the city, and once for what its land produces. Pick foundation tiles for their land, not just their position. The District Guide lists what every district adds on top.

Why do the Kin of Sheredyn stay under the city cap?

The Kin of Sheredyn are the exception to normal expansion: they gain bonuses for staying under their city cap, so they expand by developing the cities they have instead of founding more. Their trait As Was Ordained rewards a tall, developed empire over a wide one.

Every empire has a city cap, and most factions treat it as a limit to push against. The Kin treat staying under it as the strategy itself, and their early game is built around that: stay under your city cap, fortify early, and let districts and tiers do the growing. Their troops even recover faster in their own territory, so a compact, developed empire is also the easier one to defend.

The trade is real. The Kin are less rewarded for rapid wide expansion than other factions, and sprawling wide is their most common mistake: they are rewarded for tall, developed empires, not sprawl. Found a new city when a region is worth more than the cap bonus you give up, and when you mainly want a region's resources, attach its camp as a Ministry to a city you already hold.

For the full faction picture, see the Kin of Sheredyn faction guide. To plan the tall build itself, lay your districts out in the District & City Planner before you spend the Influence.

Housing or industry: which does your city need?

Build Communal Habitations when your city cannot house its growth, and build Works districts when it cannot build fast enough. Housing and industry solve different problems, and building the wrong one stalls a city either way.

Communal Habitations need no technology, so they are your housing from the first turn. They house population and carry no flat yield of their own; their job is room to grow. A city that cannot house its growth cannot grow, so build them before you need them. The line levels up by neighbors like every district: Communal Habitations, then Advanced Habitations, then Grand Habitations.

The Works is the standard industry district: Industry +3 at Tier 1, plus a terrain bonus on matching land. Unlike housing, it sits behind research: the Workshop technology in Era 1 unlocks it. Industry buys build speed for everything else in the queue, districts included.

Read your city before you build. If population is waiting with nowhere to live, the city is housing-gated: build Habitations. If housing sits empty while the build queue crawls, the city is production-gated: build Works, and put future foundations on industry land. The District Guide shows both lines side by side.

Necrophage: housing that levels itself

Necrophage Communal Habitations need no tech either, and they level up with a single neighboring district instead of four. Hive cities fill up fast, so plan housing before the growth wave hits, not after.

Severed Claws: housing that feeds growth

Severed Claws' Habitations work differently: no population slots, but faster growth, and that population then adds slots and cuts district costs. Rebuild pacified villages to feed the engine.

How do districts level up?

Districts level up by being surrounded: a Tier 1 district with 4 adjacent districts rises to Tier 2, and a Tier 2 district with 6 adjacent districts rises to Tier 3. No technology unlocks a higher tier; surrounding the district is the only path up.

Necrophage districts break the rule. A single adjacent district levels them up, an instant path granted by Matriarch's Eye, and their city center, Matriarch's Lair, works the same way.

What this means for foundation placement: plan the cluster before you place foundations. A district on the edge of a cluster can gather the 4 neighbors Tier 2 needs, but only an interior district can gather all 6 for Tier 3, so the districts you care about most belong in the middle, with the block filled in around them. A straight line of districts is the worst shape: each tile touches at most two others, so nothing in the line levels up at all. The District & City Planner highlights districts as they hit the 4 and 6 thresholds while you lay a city out.

Frequently asked questions

As Kin of Sheredyn, how do you expand?

You expand tall, not wide. The Kin of Sheredyn gain bonuses for staying under their city cap through As Was Ordained, so growth means developing the cities you already hold: more foundations, more districts, higher district tiers. Found a new city only when a region is worth more than the cap bonus you give up. When you mainly want a region's resources, attach its camp to an existing city as a Ministry instead of founding another city.

How do I expand a city foundation?

You place a new foundation on a land tile adjacent to your City Hall, your Ministry, or an existing district, then build a district on top of it. Foundations cost Influence and are created instantly. A foundation keeps the yields of the land tile underneath it, and the district built on it keeps them too, so pick tiles for their land yields, not just their position.

Communal Habitations or industry districts: which should I build?

Build Communal Habitations when your city cannot house its population, and industry districts when it cannot build fast enough. Communal Habitations need no technology and are available from the first turn, but they only house population. The Works district produces Industry +3 at Tier 1, plus a terrain bonus, and needs the Workshop technology from Era 1. If population is waiting unhoused, you are housing-gated; if housing is free and the build queue crawls, you are production-gated.

Why can't I place a foundation?

A foundation fails when the tile breaks a placement rule. The tile must be adjacent to your City Hall, Ministry, or an existing district, in a territory attached to your city, and explored. Foundations cannot go on mountains, rivers, water, anomalies, or natural wonders, and not on a tile held by an enemy army. Pick a legal land tile next to your city and the placement works.

How do districts level up?

Districts level up by being surrounded. A Tier 1 district with 4 adjacent districts rises to Tier 2, and a Tier 2 district with 6 adjacent districts rises to Tier 3. Necrophage districts are the exception: a single adjacent district levels them up, thanks to Matriarch's Eye. Higher tiers increase yields, but the exact Tier 2 and Tier 3 numbers are not in the game data.

About this data

Every rule on this page comes from the v1.0 game files we parsed ourselves: placement and level-up rules from the game's district data, Tier-1 yields from descriptor effects, and faction notes from our own faction guides.

What we do not show, on purpose. The exact city cap numbers and how the cap scales are not in the extracted data, so this guide states the rule and skips the figures. The foundation Influence cost formula is not in the data either: foundations cost Influence, and no honest amount exists to print. Tier 2 and Tier 3 yield scaling is likewise absent; higher tiers produce more, and that is all the data supports.

Found a number that looks off in-game? Tell us. The pipeline re-runs every patch, and corrections ship with the next data import.