Buildings
Buildings in Dawn of Embers house your population, store your resources, train your army and defend your territory. All buildings are constructed by Villagers.
Categories
The build menu groups buildings into four tabs:
- Economy: housing, resource drop-off camps, the Town Hall, the Trading Hub and the Fishing Docks.
- Military: buildings that train soldiers, siege engines and warships.
- Defensive: walls, gates and towers.
- Unique: the Stronghold.
Farm Plots are not in the build menu; they are built from a finished Farmers Camp. Machicolations is currently disabled.
All buildings
Numbers are the base values from the game's balance sheet. Build time is for one villager; see Construction for how more builders speed it up.
| Building | Category | HP | Wood | Stone | Gold | Build time (s) | Population | Drop-off for | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town Hall | Economy | 600 | 275 | 100 | 0 | 90 | +30 | Wood, Stone, Gold, berries/farm Food, game | Villagers |
| House | Economy | 300 | 200 | 0 | 0 | 25 | +25 | – | – |
| Woodcutters Camp | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Wood | – |
| Mining Camp | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Gold, Stone | – |
| Hunters Camp | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Game | – |
| Farmers Camp | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Berries/farm Food | – (builds Farm Plots) |
| Gatherers Camp | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Berries/farm Food | – |
| Farm Plot | Economy | 250 | 200 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | – (400-Food field) | – |
| Sifting Station | Economy | 250 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | – | Gold | – (panning) |
| Trading Hub | Economy | 350 | 175 | 0 | 50 | 45 | – | – | Trade Cart |
| Fishing Docks | Economy | 250 | 150 | 0 | 0 | 40 | – | Fish | Fishing Ship, Trade Ship |
| Archers Training Grounds | Military | 400 | 175 | 0 | 0 | 45 | – | – | Shortbowman, Longbowman, Crossbowman |
| Infantry Training Grounds | Military | 400 | 175 | 0 | 0 | 50 | – | – | Swordsman, Spearman |
| Stable | Military | 400 | 175 | 0 | 0 | 50 | – | – | Knight, Lancer, Cavalry Archer |
| Siege Workshop | Military | 450 | 200 | 0 | 100 | 60 | – | – | Battering Ram, Catapult, Trebuchet, Ballista |
| Wizards Training Grounds | Military | 400 | 175 | 50 | 100 | 60 | – | – | Fire, Water, Earth and Lightning Mages |
| Military Docks | Military | 400 | 200 | 0 | 50 | 50 | – | – | Transport Ship, War Galley, Cannon Ship |
| Walls - Wood | Defensive | 200 per segment | 5 per segment | 0 | 0 | 8 per segment | – | – | – |
| Walls - Stone | Defensive | 500 per segment | 0 | 5 per segment | 0 | 12 per segment | – | – | – |
| Gate - Wood | Defensive | 300 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 20 | – | – | – |
| Gate - Stone | Defensive | 600 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 26 | – | – | – |
| Archers Keep | Defensive | 500 | 25 | 125 | 0 | 50 | – | – | – (shoots arrows) |
| Cannon Tower | Defensive | 500 | 0 | 125 | 100 | 50 | – | – | – (fires cannon) |
| Stronghold | Unique | 1200 | 300 | 600 | 200 | 240 | – | – | Captain, Warden |
| Machicolations (disabled) | Defensive | 350 | 0 | 75 | 0 | 30 | – | – | – |
No building costs Food.
Starting buildings
In a skirmish each player starts with a finished Town Hall and 5 villagers.
Placement
Choose a building from the build menu and click to place it. The placement preview turns invalid, and the server refuses the order, when:
- you cannot afford it;
- the site overlaps another building, a tree or another obstacle;
- the ground is too steep (it may drop by at most 1.5 m across the building's footprint);
- any part of the site is in ground you have never explored;
- a dock is not on a shore with deep water in front of it (see Naval);
- a Sifting Station is not on a shore, or no villager of yours could walk to its shore;
- a Farm Plot is more than 24 m from your nearest finished Farmers Camp.
Walls are placed by dragging a line; see Walls - Wood.
Construction
- The cost is paid when you place the building. If the site turns out to be blocked when it is placed, the cost is refunded.
- Villagers build the site. The listed build time is for one villager.
- More builders work faster, with diminishing returns. Each extra villager adds half the speed of the first, up to a maximum of five times the speed of one villager (reached with 9 builders).
| Builders | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 1× | 1.5× | 2× | 2.5× | 3× | 5× |
| House (25 s) | 25 s | 16.7 s | 12.5 s | 10 s | 8.3 s | 5 s |
- Build-speed upgrades and Callings shorten every build time on top of this.
- The site shows three construction stages as it goes up (at roughly a quarter, half and three quarters).
- A building provides population, accepts drop-offs and offers its training buttons only once it is finished.
Training units
- Up to 5 units can be queued at a building. The cost is paid when a unit is queued; cancelling it refunds the full cost.
- Queued units reserve population. If a unit would take you over your cap, you see: "Population limit reached (used/cap) - build more houses."
- Only buildings that can train units have a rally point.
Damage and repair
- A building shows visible damage at two stages: at two thirds of its hit points and below, and at one third and below. Damaged buildings smoke.
- At 0 hit points it collapses into rubble.
- Repair: villagers can repair a finished, damaged building. A repair costs a share of the building's original cost equal to the share of hit points restored (repairing a House that has lost half its hit points costs about 100 Wood). It is paid as the repair goes, at the same speed as construction. If you run out of resources, the repair pauses and resumes when you can pay.
- Rubble cannot be repaired; place the building again.
Deleting buildings
You can delete a finished building of your own. The game asks for confirmation. There is no refund. During a story mission the Town Hall cannot be deleted.
Garrisoning
Units cannot garrison inside buildings. Defensive towers and the Stronghold shoot on their own.