Before we begin there are a few basics I assume the reader already knows 1. how to view the various toolbars displaying what workers are allocated to what, how much of each resource the tribe has and etc. I also assume the reader knows how to allocate workers to groups and manage assigning crafting jobs as well as how to freeze work on a building. And how to assign workers to make buildings as well as how to build. So I assume the reader already knows the basics of how to play the game but they're interested in understanding the mechanics on a beneath the surface level.

When you begin the game you will undoubtedly be wondering what to do to begin with. Thats easy find water and settle next to it.

Next, build your first animal skin hut, craft some spears and start fishing along with making a fire and having a stick depot next to your fireplace. You will want around 100-200 sticks stored at any time so that you can make fine sticks which you can use for making your hut as well as making spears.

In addition in the very beginning after you have your first fishermen and your very first fireplace with a hut next to it you will want to start making bifaces, but you'll need to gather the special types of rocks use to make bifaces first then you can assign workers to make bifaces.

Why are bifaces important? Because everyone excluding fishermen use bifaces in their craft. Craftsmen use bifaces to make spears faster. Gatherers use bifaces to crop edible roots as well as crop plant material used to make rope. So if you're having rope shortages make sure that you have enough bifaces and enough people gathering plant fiber.

In the beginning of the game it is highly likely that you will not be able to gather plant fiber if you settle next to the shore so my advice is to gather some fish like 40-50 fish and then dismantle your hut and then move to land next to the shore that is flat and has no water in it. You can easily gather plant fiber there but in the early game you have to be careful because you will run out of food very quickly. Thus even in the far north you can get plant fiber early game but you have to manage it.

Second, when you are in a water area you will want to expand where your fishermen can fish. The easiest way to do that is by making food pens and assigning food slots to areas in the pen that way your fishermen will store fish there. In addition you will have to make a fireplace as well as a stick depot or an area for storing sticks next to it. And viola you have a site away from your main base. This process we will call remote site expansion. In the early game you might want 2-3 remote sites on a map by the shore but that's all.

Make sure that they aren't too far apart or too close together. Too close together and it defeats the purpose of a remote site. Too far apart and you will learn as I did that the game will punish you by having your craftsmen workers go to different sites and spend half a day in travel thus killing your producitivity. Its like your craftsmen will work on site A and the gatherers will drop resources off at site B, because site B is closer to the gatherers than site A. I have no clue why the craftsmen want to work at site A but they do sometimes. So in order to figure out how to solve this problem you will have to look at how far out the fishermen go when they're fishing and start making food pens first. Then fill out the food pen with food slots and after that then make a campfire with a storage area or what I call a 'stick depot' which is basically an assigned storage area for your sticks. It will take a few days to make a remote site so plan accordingly for that and don't rush it. Once you have the site then you can relax because your food count will go higher and you can stay in the area.

If you can do that then you can stay in an area longer than normal which allows you to then have more time to tan leather hides from animals which then allows you to make more tents. The most difficult part of the early game is learning how to make food depots or food pens filled with food slots. That requires as mentioned before knowledge of how far apart your fishermen are from your main base provided you moved your main base to the shore, along with slowly building your remote site.

The fun part about this game is that you get to choose where to build the remote site. Later on when you're semi nomadic this skill set will pay off. That and dismantling your leather huts before you move to the next area, that will save you alot of leather which you can then use to remake huts. In addition, for advanced learners knowing how to move to a forest area and gather plant fiber and make rope before moving back to the shore will allow you to get plant fiber within the first ingame year or so in the game not the first historical year in the game as the historical years go way too fast for gameplay to time things by historical year alone to the dot.

Do all this and make sure you accept all new migrants unless they already have the same skills you have and are 50+ or old people. Make sure when you accept new migrants with new skills that you give them a chance to practice new skills so that your workers can retain the knowledge. Do that and you will be ready for the next part of the guide, 9000-8000 BC.

Between 9000-8000 BC you should receive a migrant if not before 9000 BC that has knowledge of food preservation. Accept that migrant because it takes forever to get another one and start making food preservation racks.

In all honesty, in 9000-8000 BC it is easier than the first 1000 years in the game because more plant life will be available and you can harvest berries, nuts and edible roots and thus actually stay in the forest area without running out of food for at least a few days. Also bigger wildlife becomes more abundant and you can hunt bigger animals which yields bigger meat. Everything becomes easier.

All of this is in preparation for the eventuality where you will see rival tribes trying to take your food, trade and other new content the game will take in. In the early game it is more logical to have many remote sites spread out so that you dont over farm an area but later in the game it makes you more of a target for future raids and you will need to centralize your city all over again. But for now that is not a problem.

If you made plenty of bifaces and then some along with plenty of spears and have gatherers gathering plant fiber en mass along with rope creation then you're doing amazing. You will have zero complaints. You might want to make one remote site when you're along the shore but that's all and it's good to make that remote site further inland so that hunters and berry/root gatherers can gather more food quicker. That's all I've done.

I made a mistake where I moved on from an area without dismantling my huts first but that was clearly a stupid idea and I recovered miraculously from it by settling in a forest area and having gatherers gather berries, nuts, and hunters hunting big game.

I'm currently in the process of going from 8000 BC to 7000 BC. At which point the game will really start to pick up. Although from what I gather it's really 7000-6000 BC where you start seeing neolithic people join your tribe and what not and by 5000 BC I'm hoping to see a neolithic early tribe.

Due to the lack of raiders and trade availabilities in this game as of yet and no animal husbandry, the late game is a bit lame in my opinion compared to the roughness of the early game. I'm hoping to see that improve prior to the release date.