HQ upgrade planning

Use the HQ table under Headquarters to see buildings and resources per level. Note your next HQ target and total wood/food/zent/steel before burning speed-ups — avoid wasting boosts when resources run out mid-upgrade. ■ Why plan High HQ upgrades require several prerequisite buildings at once: HQ, Research Institute, Alliance Center, the three barracks and City Walls (see "Builders and building order"). If you only look at the HQ cost itself, you can easily get stuck halfway because one prerequisite is short on resources. ■ Planning process 1. Choose your next target HQ level. 2. Open the HQ table on this site and see which prerequisite buildings must reach which level. 3. Compare with your current in-game levels and list the buildings still missing. 4. Add up the wood, food, zent and steel for every step. 5. Compare with what you have (both in the warehouse and in boxes). 6. Only start using speed-ups once you are sure you have enough for the whole chain. ■ Count box value too Resource boxes are worth different amounts depending on HQ level (see "Resource value by HQ level"). When checking whether you have enough, count boxes at your current HQ value. If an HQ upgrade is close, box value will rise, so you may keep boxes until after the upgrade. ■ Common mistakes • Burning all speed-ups on HQ, then finding you are short for City Walls or barracks. • Opening resource boxes too early, leaving resources in the warehouse to be plundered. • Not writing down a target, leading to scattered side-building upgrades.