Controls
Camera, selecting, groups and the keys you actually use.
Camera#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Move | W A S D, the arrow keys, or push the mouse against the screen edge |
| Zoom | Scroll wheel |
| Drag the map | Hold the mouse wheel and drag |
| Jump to your town center | Home |
| Jump to the last attack | Space |
| Jump anywhere | Click the minimap |
| Turn the view a quarter | Ctrl + Q / Ctrl + E, handy to look behind buildings and walls (the minimap turns along) |
| Zoom the minimap | Scroll over the minimap (can be switched off in Settings) |
Selecting#
Click a unit, or drag a box to take several. Double-clicking takes every unit of that type on screen. Right-click is the general order: on ground it means move, on a resource it means gather, on an enemy it means attack, on a damaged building of yours it means repair. Clicking a unit or building of another player shows what it is, who owns it and how many hit points it has left; towers and forts also show their range.
With a mixed group selected, the side panel shows a button for each kind of unit, with how many you have. Click one to keep only that kind; Shift + click drops that kind from the selection. Tab steps through the kinds one by one.
Groups#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Make a group | Ctrl + 23 … 9 |
| Select the group | 1 … 9 |
| Camera to the group | press the number twice |
Orders#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Attack-move | Q, then click where they should go |
| Build | R, then pick the building |
| Set a rally point | Select the building, right-click where new units should go |
| Train | The button in the side panel, or the shortcut printed next to it |
| Train five / ten at once | Shift / Ctrl + click on the button |
The letters belong to the slot in the panel, not to the building or the order. The grid is three columns wide and the default keys run through it as
Q E R / F G H / Z X C / V B N / T Y U / I O K. With soldiers selected Q is attack-move; inside the build menu that same Q is the town center, E the mill, R the farm plot, F the lumber camp, G the mining camp, H the barracks, and so on down to the gate on U and the market on I. Buildings your people never gets have no slot, so for them the rest moves up.All eighteen slots can be rebound in Settings → Game → Hotkeys. Your choice is saved, so this is a one-time job. The key is always printed in the slot itself, and follows your keyboard layout (on AZERTY you see ZQSD instead of WASD), so there is nothing to memorise.
With several buildings of the same kind selected, a new unit or research goes to the building where it will be done first, so the waiting time is spread over all of them.
At the market, Shift + click buys or sells 500 at once and Ctrl + click 1000. While you hold the key, you see the full price of that click.
Building#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Place a building | Pick it and click where it should go |
| Place several, one by one | Hold Shift while clicking |
| A whole row in one go | Pick the building and drag across the map |
| Change the gap in a row | Scroll while dragging (0 to 5 tiles; two by default) |
| A full block | Drag diagonally |
Buildings you can't pay for turn red and are simply left out of the row. You can build on top of your own units and your allies' units: they step aside by themselves. Only enemy units are in the way.
Your workers know what to do when they're done. Whoever builds a lumber camp or mining camp starts chopping or mining right away. Builders of a mill each lay out a farm plot next to it, and whoever finishes a farm plot starts working it. After other buildings they help with whatever else is being built nearby, so a row of walls gets finished.
Walls#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Draw a wall | Pick the wall and drag: a straight line, snapped to the nearest of eight directions (straight or diagonal) |
| Wall in a ring | Hold Ctrl while dragging: a ring around the point where you started |
| Gate | Place it in the wall; a gate always stays straight, also in a diagonal wall |
Walls, gates and towers can be built on hills, so you can close a pass right up against the rock. Every other building still needs flat ground, and nothing can be built on mountains.
Measuring and display#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Performance overlay | F3 |
| Detailed measurement | F4 |
| Switch interface theme | F6 |
| Fullscreen | F11 |
| Interface size | Settings → Interface → Interface size (automatic: 125% on 1440p, 200% on 4K) |
| Scoreboard | F2 |
| Player overview (multiplayer) | F1 |
| Pause (in multiplayer: three times per player, up to a minute each) | P |
| Diplomacy: send resources, alliances | F7 |
| Cancel a mode or selection | Esc |
And the rest#
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Jump to an idle worker | . |
| Select every idle worker | Ctrl + . |
| Demolish the selection | Delete or Backspace |
| Queue an order behind the others | Shift while ordering |
| Chat / team chat | Enter / Shift + Enter |
| Talk to your team / to everyone (hold) | Page Up / Page Down (can be changed) |
| Ping the map for your team | Click the mouse wheel, or Alt + click |
| Menu for a player (profile, mute, report) | Right-click their name or picture |
| Mute | M |