New Player Guide

Starting off in Delenda Est can be somewhat daunting. For a new player, there is an awful lot of numbers you need to pay attention to and this can be off putting for a new player. Fortunately, this guide is here to help you with the first 24 hours of your Outpost management and to teach you the basics of the game.

The Gameplay
Delenda Est is a tick-based game. Everything occurs (roughly) on the hour, with some deviation due to the server's time zone. This means that no matter how many times you log in to the game, you're going to be getting your money, troops and resources at the same rate as if you logged in only once a day. The advantage to frequent logging in is simply a more efficient usage of the time available.

For example, your troops will continue to produce until you hit your maximum capacity. If you don't log in frequently enough to use your troops up, you'll eventually stop gaining any. Similarly, with the way Logistics works in the game, it's much more useful to log in several times a day to make sure you get the most out of your logistics. The same goes for training Special Operations, constructing Superweapons and research.

The First 24 Hours
Upon creating your account you'll be given your first Outpost. The first 24-36 hours are some of the most important for a starting Outpost. It's critical that you get your economy up and running as quickly as you can so you can start helping your faction. This is where the Mercantile 5% income bonus is a huge advantage, since it allows them to get new Outposts up and running faster than the other factions.

Take a look at the main Outpost page. Most of the information there is pretty self-explanatory, but what you'll really want to focus on for the first 24 hours is that top panel. Your population, happiness, and tax rate are the most critical parts of getting your economy started. First things first, go ahead and change your tax rate to 25%. The other tax rates, while they give you a better happiness, result in a lower income and you should really only use them if you've forgotten to build amenities and your population is seriously unhappy.

Now go to the "Manage" link, and take a look at the first list of buildings available to you. The Districts. These are the core of your Outpost, and you find out more about them here. Spend every last bit of your starting funds on getting your population as high as you can, while making sure to keep them entirely covered by your Healthcare, Law and Educational amenities. The ratio of Residential:Education:Law:Healthcare districts is 6:5:4:4, so keep that in mind while building. Don't spend all your money on these right off the bat. It's a good idea to build your Residential Districts in pairs so you can make sure to afford a Commercial District. While taxes are your main source of income, Commercial Districts are crucial to having a thriving economy. Remember you can only have one Commercial District for every 2 Residential districts you have constructed.

For your first 24 hours, you're going to want to build nothing but Economic Buildings. Don't build anything else until you have at least 1 million population (I personally like powering on to 1.8 million, but that's just a preference). Once you hit that point, you'll have enough of an income to support the next phase of your Outpost expansion.

Contributing to the War
There are 3 main ways to contribute to the war directly, and several ways to contribute indirectly. You can build Superweapons, train Special Forces or just deploy the standard 'troops' of the game. While the battles in Delenda Est take place in deep space, in orbit and on the surface of planets, everything is assumed to be represented by one of these three things. Both a starship and an infantry batallion are covered under 'troops', for example.

The main buildings for direct combat are all constructed under the "Military" page.
 * The Training Grounds (Construction Yard for the Authority) produce troops.
 * Operations Centres allow you to train Special Forces
 * War Factories produce Superweapons
 * Barracks/Warehouses allow for the storage of larger numbers of troops.

Indirectly, you can contribute to the faction in other ways. Use the markets to provide cheap resources to those who need it, or research technologies to provide faction wide benefits. Or just act as a bank handing out free money to your allies. It's entirely up to you. You'll need to decide what method best suits your abilities. Somebody who is new to the game might not understand the complexities of Special Operations, where certain mission combinations work better than others. Somebody who can only login infrequently might be better off sticking to research or resource harvesting than active combat. Browse through the wiki and ask your faction mates for advice, and don't be afraid to try something new.

While it is possible to win the war using only one form of combat, it's incredibly difficult to do so. So try and fill a gap. if you think your faction is falling behind in research or superweapon production, do your best to try and help in that department if you think you will enjoy it.

To find out precisely how combat works, or how star systems are captured, check out the War Guide.