To have successful Military Missions in Foundation you need to build an Army. First you must have a Keep so villagers can train to become soldiers and knights. Here are some helpful tips for soldiers and military missions in Foundation.
Building Your Keep
The Keep can be purchased with influence when you have 10 Serfs from the Kingdom Estate [F5]. When you reach 20 Commoners and 15 Kingdom Splendor the decorative pieces for the Keep can be unlocked as well.
The Keep requires 1 core piece and 1 door. When you have access to Cloth, add Training Dummies so your Novice soldiers can learn to fight.
Soldiers can live in the Keep Dorm (or nearby houses), you can extend the size of the Keep and add more dorm occupancy as needed.
The Treasury can also be expanded with extensions at the Keep and the Great Hall can be hosted here as well, if you don’t want to have it at the Lord Manor.
Assign Villagers as Soldiers
Click on your Keep and select the Assign Soldiers option, you can choose from any villagers, unemployed Newcomers or Citizens.
Equip Soldiers With Weapons
Go to the Army panel [F6] and equip each soldier with a weapon. They will begin their training if you have Training Dummies placed around your Keep. Soldiers will be training when they are in the “I am Working” status.
Where to Get Weapons for Soldiers
Villagers can craft Swords at the Weaponsmith, a building that is unlocked from the Kingdom Estate. They can also be purchased from Traders if you have the Davenport trader enabled.
Spears are awarded from successful Military Missions and are stronger than swords.
How to Promote a Soldier to Knight
When a Soldier reaches level 6 they can be promoted to Knight as long as there are 5 Soldiers. For every 1 Knight there must be 5 Soldiers. Knights are stronger and have higher need fulfillment than other Soldiers. You will need Luxury and Goods near the Keep for their Happiness.
How to Complete a Military Mission
Once you accept a Military Mission quest from the Opportunities list you can send your soldiers off on quests to help the King. They are offered in Easy, Difficult, and Extremely Difficult options.
Press F6 to view the Army panel, under Missions select the Prepare Troops button and choose as many soldiers that are trained or fully trained for the mission. Add enough soldiers until you are satisfied with the outcome, I like to go for Extreme success chance.
The quests act as a chain-series, after the quest begins you will be presented with a pop-up to continue and let the soldiers stay with the King or return them home. Your success chance will be displayed here when you hover over the options.
You will be rewarded for your effort, so the longer you stay with the King and the more successful you are each time, the higher reward when your soldiers return home.
The quests can bring back a lot of gold coins and lucrative resources like wine, jewelry, spears, iron bars and Unknown Blueprints.
Soldiers Panel [F6]
The Soldier section of your Army panel [F6] displays stats about your soldiers and allows a weapon to be equipped. You can select from a sword or spear. Spears are earned from successful missions.
The Condition will show the soldiers training status and whether they are wounded or not.
STR is the soldiers strength, save your strongest soldiers for the harder quests.
Battle History [F6]
The more soldiers you have trained the more successful your missions will be. You can check your Battle History [F6] and see the outcomes whether they were Victory or Failure and if you had any casualties or wounded.
Wounded Soldiers
Soldiers can come back from missions wounded, they will heal by using Training Dummies at the Keep and heal 2.0 faster if you have the Officinal Garden Masterpiece.
Soldier Deaths
Soldiers can die in combat missions, if you follow the path near the edge of the map you will find a tombstone. Clicking on this tombstone will let you see some parting words from your lost villagers.
A Legend Is Born
Promote a soldier to Knight is the objective for this Foundation Steam Achievement, you need 5 Soldiers to make a Knight. The soldier that is promoted to Knight must be level 6. Promotions are done monthly on the first week of the month.
Sound The Trumpets!
Successfully complete a military campaign and the Sound the Trumpets Foundation Steam Achievement will be completed.
We Band of Brothers
The Foundation Steam Achievement, We Band of Brothers is completed by doing all military campaigns. This means completing them all the way through to succession, when the pop-up comes back that you need to keep the troops with the Kings army, do this successfully each time and you will get the achievement.
