My Fortress — guide

Getting started

In this game you build your own stronghold. You gather wood and stone, build houses and train an army. Then you defend the valley from Goblin King Goldwhisker. There is no blood in the game. Defeated units wave a white flag and run home.

The first minutes

At the top of the screen you see your supplies: wood, stone, grain and bread. You also see the number of townsfolk, for example 14/18. That means you have 14 townsfolk and there is room for 18. At the bottom is the build bar with two tabs: Economy and Army.

Do this:

1. Select your peasants. They are your workers.
2. Point at the forest. The peasants cut trees and carry the wood to the town hall.
3. When you have plenty of wood, send a few peasants to the rocks for stone.
4. When you run out of room, build a hut.

Controls on a computer

• The left mouse button selects a unit.
• Hold Ctrl and drag the mouse. You draw a box and select many units at once.
• The right mouse button gives an order: go, gather, build or attack.
• Move the camera with the arrow keys or by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen.
• The mouse wheel zooms in and out. Q and E turn the view.
• Key A is attack-move. Soldiers walk and fight on the way.
• Key S is stop, and C trains a unit in the selected building.

Controls on a phone

• One finger moves the view. Two fingers zoom and turn it.
• A tap selects a unit or gives an order.
• Hold and drag your finger to draw a selection box.
• Building: pick a building from the bar, tap a spot on the map and press Build here.
• Tap the small map in the corner to move the camera.

How it works

Wood and stone

Wood and stone are the basics. Almost everything costs one or both. A peasant carries 10 pieces at a time.

• Build a Sawmill (120 wood) near the forest. The peasants have a shorter walk.
• Build a Stonemason (120 wood and 30 stone) near the rocks.
• Felled trees vanish, but the forest slowly grows back.
• Rocks run out. Do not waste stone.

Room in the stronghold

Every townsperson takes one place. The town hall gives 6 places. Each Hut (70 wood) gives 4 places. A stronghold holds at most 60 townsfolk. If you see “No room”, build a hut. Nothing is wrong, this happens a lot.

Bread for the army

Soldiers get hungry. Each one eats one loaf of bread every 45 seconds. A hungry soldier walks slower and hits weaker. So you need bread.

Bread is made in three steps:

1. The Mill (100 wood and 20 stone) grinds grain into flour.
2. You build a Field (30 wood) right next to the mill. Grain grows in the field.
3. The Bakery (90 wood and 40 stone) bakes the flour into bread.

Then give people jobs. Select a peasant and click a field. The peasant becomes a reaper and carries grain to the mill. Select another peasant and click the bakery. That one becomes a baker. Every 10 grains give you 10 loaves. If you select the mill, a field or the bakery, you see a card with numbers: how much grain there is and how many workers.

Army and fighting buildings

Military buildings have requirements. A button with a padlock means: a building you need first is missing.

• Barracks (200 wood and 50 stone) train clubmen and pikemen.
• The Archery range (180 wood) trains archers. It needs barracks.
• The Smithy (150 wood and 100 stone) upgrades weapons and armour. It needs barracks.
• The Stable (220 wood and 60 stone) trains pony knights. It needs a smithy.
• The Siege workshop trains catapults and scout balloons. It needs a smithy and a keep.
• The Mage tower trains mages. It needs a castle.

Pikemen need a smithy too. To train: select the building and press the Train button or key C.

Who is strong against whom

Every unit is strong against some and weak against others. It is good to know this.

• Archers are good against pikemen and balloons. They shoot from far away.
• Pikemen are great at stopping pony knights.
• Pony knights quickly catch archers and catapults.
• Catapults break buildings. They do not like close fights.
• Clubmen are strong against archers and mages.

Mix your army. Put pikemen in front and archers behind them. The scout balloon does not fight, but it sees very far.

Town hall, keep and castle

You can upgrade the town hall. First to a Keep, then to a Castle. You get more room and more toughness. The keep needs barracks, and the castle needs a smithy. This also opens new buildings.

Good tips

When your stronghold stands, make it better.

• Put things close together. A sawmill by the forest and a stonemason by the rocks shorten the walk. Workers gather faster.
• Build many huts at once. No room stops training.
• Watch the bread. When bread runs low, add a reaper or a baker. Fields grow back, but someone has to harvest them.
• Save groups. Ctrl and a number from 1 to 9 save the selected units. Pressing the number selects the group. Press it twice and the camera flies to the group. On a phone there are Group 1–5 buttons.
• The smithy upgrades the whole army at once. Weapons and armour have 3 levels each. Higher levels cost more and take longer. The first weapon upgrade costs 100 wood and 60 stone.
• If you start building and change your mind, cancel the construction. You get 75 percent of the price back.
• Repair buildings. Select a peasant and point at a damaged building. Repairs cost only part of the building price.

Fog and the small map

The map has three kinds of squares. Black is not discovered yet. Grey is discovered, but you cannot see it now. Coloured squares are in sight. Send a scout balloon and it uncovers a lot of land. When someone attacks you, an alert flashes on the small map. Press Space and the camera jumps there.

Tips for pros

• Wall and tower. A wall (needs barracks) costs 15 stone per piece. Pieces side by side make a wall. A tower (needs a smithy, 80 wood and 120 stone) shoots by itself within about 6 tiles. Build it at the entrance of your stronghold and put archers behind the wall. Your opponent can build like that too.
• Mages. A mage has magic energy. The maximum is 100 and 1 comes back every second. The Chicken spell costs 35 energy. An enemy hit by the spell turns into a chicken for 6 seconds. The Dragon spell uses all the energy. Point at a spot (key D) and the dragon flies in for 15 seconds, puffs a swirl of air with sparkles and flies away. It is a fairy-tale puff, with no fire.
• The hero. In campaign missions a hero leads you. Select the hero with F2. The hero earns levels from 1 to 10. There are two abilities. Rally cry! (key O) makes soldiers nearby faster and braver for 10 seconds. It recharges in 45 seconds. To me! (key R) calls the army from the area to the hero. It recharges in 30 seconds.
• The hero comes back. When the hero is defeated, they wave a white flag. After 60 seconds they are in the town hall again.
• Catapults against buildings. A catapult hits buildings three times harder than normal soldiers. But it has a blind spot close to itself. Keep defenders next to it.

The Night Folk

In a skirmish you can play the monsters. They are called The Goblin King’s Night Folk. They are fairy-tale friendly.

• The workers are goblins. The army is werewolves, ghosts, goblin spearmen, vampires and necromancers.
• Roles and numbers are the same as for the humans. Only the look and names change. The town hall is the Great Burrow. The hut is the Goblin hut.
• Monsters have no bread. They have gold instead. Goblins dig it from veins and carry it to the Great Burrow or to the Goblin treasury (120 wood and 40 stone). Build a treasury near the veins.
• Wages are paid in gold. When it runs out, the army gets grumpy: slower and weaker.
• Monsters have no mill and no fields. They do not need them.
• The necromancer summons a skeleton, a zombie or an ogre. The ogre is the counterpart of the dragon. Summons vanish in a ring of runes after their time.

New game → pick your side. Your opponent will be the other one.

Campaign

Choose it in the menu → Campaign. There are two campaigns of 10 missions each. One is for the humans. The other is for the monsters and is full of humour. Winning unlocks the next mission. At the end, both campaigns finish with a shared fair.

Each mission has a main goal and one or two extra goals. For the extra goals you get stars, up to three. The goals list is on the left of the screen. The characters talk in speech bubbles. Press Next to keep reading.

The human campaign

1. The New Castellan. Build a second hut and barracks, and train three clubmen. Chase the goblins off the field.
2. Bread for the Hold. Build a mill, fields and a bakery. Gather 140 loaves and chase the goblins from the harvest.
3. Retaking the Mill. Build an archery range and train four archers. Retake the mill across the river.
4. The Bread Wagon. You cannot build here. Bring the wagon to the village and gently chase off the ghosts.
5. The River Ford. Train pikemen and pony knights. Scatter the watchposts at the ford.
6. Mist over the Marsh. Train a scout balloon and find the three signal towers.
7. Siege of the Gloomy Manor. Build a siege workshop and three catapults.
8. The Small Squad. You cannot build here either. You have the castellan and six companions. Free the sheep from the camps.
9. Goldwhisker Strikes Back. Hold out for 15 minutes of waves.
10. The Spooky Castle. A great battle on a big map against three enemy strongholds.

The monster campaign

Here you play Goblin King Goldwhisker. The first mission is Gold Fever: dig up 150 gold and train three werewolves. Later you will meet The Treasury, Ghosts of the Mist, The Great Pumpkin Heist, The Necromancer, Siege of Green Hold and The Great Battle for the Valley, among others.

Skirmish

In the menu New game → Skirmish you pick one of 6 maps. They are: Valley, Two Rivers, Islands with Fords, Forest Maze, Hills and Great Plain. You also pick your side and 1 to 3 opponents.

• A Gentle opponent gathers slower. The first wave arrives after 8 minutes and leaves the peasants alone.
• A Normal opponent plays fair.
• A Fierce opponent has a faster economy and defends cleverly.

You win when the enemy loses all buildings. With three opponents you can play in teams of two against two.

Watch out

Nothing is wrong if these happen to you. Everyone started like that.

• Too few huts. The stronghold fills up and you cannot train anyone new. Build huts earlier.
• An army without bread. Soldiers walk slower and hit weaker. Build a mill, fields and a bakery before you march out.
• All peasants at the forest. Stone matters too. Send some to the rocks.
• Only one kind of soldier. Clubmen alone lose to archers from far away. Mix your units.
• Catapults without guards. They are slow and weak up close. Always keep defenders next to them.

Questions and answers