Your first hour

Naija Empires is a city builder across Nigeria’s history. You rule one city from its founding, raise it level by level over real days and weeks, keep its people behind you and hold it against raiders.

1. Pick an era and a city

Open naijaempires.com and tap Play. Choose one of the four eras, then a city. There are 38 in all: ten Era I peoples from the Kingdom of Benin to the Tiv, and present-day cities from Lagos to Aba. See them all.

Every city plays by the same rules, but each has its own names, buildings, heroes, council, raiders, landmarks and history. Your progress in one city does not carry over to another, so you can start several.

While the city loads you meet a figure from its history and a fact worth knowing. The portraits are fictional depictions: made for the game, close to how the person looked where a picture of them survives.

Tap Enter the city. The first screen tells the story of the age you start in.

2. Find your way around

Top: your city card (tap it for the city’s history), then your resources: Food, Materials, Wealth and Knowledge, then people and homes, builders, and kola.

Left: the Approval ring. Tap it for the six meters that make up Approval.

Bottom: the rail with Council, the state report, Budget, Research, Army, Raid, Ladder and History, then the Build button, your tasks, and the shield and drum timers.

The map: drag to move, pinch (or scroll) to zoom, tap a building to select it.

3. Do the first tasks

The tasks above the Build button walk you through the start, and each pays a little kola. In order:

1. Bring in the harvest from the yam farm +3 kola
2. Build a second family compound +3 kola
3. Upgrade the Oba's compound to level 2 +5 kola
4. Build a war camp and train 5 spearmen +5 kola
5. Build the Olokun shrine +3 kola
6. Read what your council says +2 kola
7. Open the budget and set your priorities +2 kola
8. Hold the city against a raid +8 kola
9. Win a raid on a rival city +8 kola
10. Upgrade the Oba's compound to level 3 +6 kola
11. Enter the Kingdom age (town centre level 4) +15 kola

The names are Benin’s; every city has its own.

Build

Tap Build, pick a building, then drag it where you want it and tap Build here. A builder starts work. You begin with two builders, so two jobs can run at once.

The first levels take seconds or minutes. Later ones take hours, then days: that is the game. Set the next jobs going, then come back.

Collect and upgrade

Farms, wood camps, clay pits and markets fill up as they work. When one shows a bubble, tap it to bring the goods into your stores. A building holds six hours of output, then stops filling, so collect when you come back.

Select any building to Upgrade it. Upgrades cost more each level and make the building produce, store or protect more.

Listen to the council

Your council of real titles (or present-day officials) watches the city and tells you when food is low, the builders are idle or people are unhappy, with a button to fix it. Every few hours they also bring you a decision to make. More on the council.

4. Get ready for the first raid

Build a war camp and train a few soldiers. Once you have five, raiders notice you: a small band arrives about a minute later. Your soldiers, your town centre and later your towers and walls fight on their own. After that, raids come every few hours, whether you are watching or not. How raids work.

When the drums sound you have twelve seconds before the fight. Raiders carry off part of your stores, so spend or store your goods before they pile up.

Win, and you earn Renown and a calm spell before the next raid. Lose, and they take a share of what you had lying around; nobody loses buildings for good.

5. Climb the ages

Every city has five ages and 15 town-centre levels: levels 1–3 are the first age, 4–6 the second, 7–9 the third, 10–12 the fourth, 13–15 the fifth. Each town-centre level needs certain buildings at certain levels (and, at some levels, an Approval score), and unlocks new buildings and more room to build. What each level needs.

A new age brings a new chapter of the city’s story, its next hero and new buildings. Eras II and III stop at level 12. A full era takes weeks of real time.

Good habits

• Keep the builders busy. An idle builder is time lost.
• Collect before you leave, and spend what you can: raiders take a share of whatever is waiting.
• Build homes ahead of jobs. Every workplace needs workers, and soldiers come out of the same people.
• Watch Approval. Below 30 for three days and you lose the throne (or office).
• Read the council. It tells you what is wrong before it hurts.