The council

Every city has a council of the titles it really had: the Iyase and the Ezomo in Benin, the Oyo Mesi in Oyo, commissioners and the police in Lagos today. They read the city for you.

Warnings

Each adviser covers part of the city and speaks up when something needs you: food running low, full stores, idle builders, crowded homes, too few workers, a meter sinking, collectors full, no walls yet, no guild or camp, low morale, high taxes or (in the present day) power cuts and an unbalanced faith map. Most warnings come with a button that takes you straight to the fix.

Decisions

Every five to eleven hours the council brings a decision from the city’s own history and life: a request, a dispute, an opportunity. Each choice has a cost and an effect on resources, meters, soldiers, Heritage or Renown. Take your time; a decision waits until you answer it.

Hazard warnings

When a flood, fire or outbreak is coming, the warning comes through the council with three ways to prepare. Hazards.

Tasks

The tasks above the Build button guide you through the first days and then set longer goals: enter each new age, dig the walls, finish a research, win three raids in a row, build the hero’s palace. Each pays kola.

Names shown for Benin.

The state report

The report (the second button on the rail) shows the meters, what is pushing each one up or down, and a few plain lines on how the city is doing.