The Oath is a relatively open-ended first episode with some challenging goals. In general, your first priority should be to develop a well-evolved common housing block, and start exporting goods for profit. Put off the wheat and wine production goals until the end.
Build a housing block near the immigrant entrance at the middle of the lower edge of the playing area. This spot is near the meadow and trade routes, and ensures that newly evolved houses get filled quickly with immigrants.
Next, build five or six Wheat Farms on the meadow plateau to the right. You can also set up Fishing Docks for faster food production, but since wheat production is a goal, it's probably better to focus on that. Your allies will send you some food gifts soon as well. Provide your people with a Gymnasium and aesthetics in conjunction with food to boost your housing evolution.
By now, you should begin receiving gifts from your allies. Set up granaries and storehouses near the housing block to store these and to collect the goods you will produce.
Next, set up fleece and olive oil industries. You can export a ton of both these products, especially fleece, so feel free to produce a lot.
Build your palace on the plateau to the left, to make it easier to defend. Build a Tax Office in your housing block to increase revenues.
Finally, build trading posts and docks to export your excess fleece and olive oil.
By this point, you will have a thriving city with enough highly evolved housing and money-generating capacity to fulfill the later two goals. Now build your wine industry. A winery can produce about five amphorae per year, so you will need at least three wineries fully stocked with grapes to meet the wine production goal. Develop the grape industry first, and store a bunch of grapes. Then in December, build four or five wineries. Build a wine storage yard nearby to keep production maximized. This will ensure you meet the goal in the following year. Start exporting the wine right away.
When you are ready, you can go for the wheat production goal. You will need 13 wheat farms at full employment starting in July to produce 64 sheaves the following year. Remember to use the Industry Full Report to adjust labor priorities and shut down unnecessary industries if needed.
Note that in this episode you are free to build any of the Sanctuaries available to you. All of the necessary goods are available from allies, and you may receive some as gifts. The Hermes Sanctuary can be a particularly useful one to build early on, since it speeds up all of your cart-pushers.
At the end of the year that you meet all of the production goals, you will win! Make sure to listen to the episode introduction in the next episode. It's worth it.
Episode two is dedicated to preparing you for the subsequent colony mission. You should be able to meet the fleece, olive oil, and wheat goals fairly quickly. If you need to, set the goods in a trading building to "not selling" in order to be able to set them aside for the colony.
Continue to export fleece, olive oil, and wine to get your treasury up to 15,000. You may need to import wood or request it from an ally. You will need to do the same for bronze, which you can fashion into armor at an armory.
When you have set aside all the goods, and your treasury reaches 15,000 Drachmas, you will be ready to advance to the colony mission. You will have a choice between two colonies: Tenedos and Pergamum. Hints and tips are provided for each below. For the easiest path, play Pergamum first. For the challenge of a lifetime, try Tenedos first. If you choose Tenedos, however, you will probably want to stockpile at least 25,000 Drachmas before proceeding. The more money you take with you the better your chances will be to survive.
Build a common housing block off to upper-left side of the raised plateau, near the immigrant and trader entry point. This will ensure that you leave plenty of land for the huge sanctuaries you need to construct. Next build enough storage facilities to handle the gift goods you will receive from Aulis (two granaries and three storehouses should do).
The gifts from Aulis will allow you to evolve your housing and immediately build up a large population. While this is happening, move quickly to set up permanent distribution chains for food, fleece, and olive oil. You can grow wheat for food, and build carding sheds for sheep. Set up a trading post to import a small but steady flow of olive oil. Once your housing is built and well supplied, you should have enough people to support the large trade and sanctuary construction industries you will need, and also to meet the population goal of 2,000 people.
Begin importing marble and wood immediately. Sanctuaries should be built one at a time. You can choose which sanctuary to build first, depending on which God you want to have wandering your city while you build the second one. Athena's Sanctuary is probably the best one to start with; it is easier to build than Zeus' sanctuary, provides olives and olive oil, and you will get to watch Athena kick the living booty out of any subsequent invaders.
Set up your wheat, fleece, and bronze industries. You should make sculpture for the sanctuaries. Also, you can make a fortune exporting armor while you build the sanctuaries.
When Athena's Sanctuary is completed, you can harvest olives from her sacred grove. If you pray to her, she will fill your storehouses with olive oil and olives. Make sure you have storehouses set to accept both goods before you pray, with room for at least 16 of each. Now it will be time build the greatest building of all - Zeus' Sanctuary! It'll take up a lot of time and materials, but you know the big guy will appreciate your effort.
When the Zeus Sanctuary is completed, you are ready to return to Aulis and start building a serious army!
Now back in Aulis, your goals are to convince Odysseus to join the war effort, and to set aside goods for the final colony mission. However, also use this episode to build and strengthen your empire, setting the stage for the final confrontation with Troy. The Tenedos colony following this episode is probably the hardest episode in the entire game of Zeus. You can help ease the way by conquering a few key rivals during this episode.
First, make sure that you have all your trade routes up and running. Some of your trade partners probably have ditched you by this point, but there are still plenty of opportunities to make money. Also, begin stockpiling armor as soon as possible. You can import armor from your allies or vassals and/or request it in the form of gifts.
Your next goal will be to develop a large elite housing block. To do this, you may also have to expand your common housing, in order to ensure that you can adequately staff all the new cultural and storage and distribution buildings.
Build an elite housing district and supply it with all the goods and services it requires. Because horses are not available in Aulis during this adventure, you are restricted to developing hoplites. But with a large enough hoplite army, plus the hero Odysseus, you should be able to do some serious damage to your enemies. You may also wish to develop a few triremes at this point. Triremes are very valuable for carting away stolen goods during a raid. However, they take up a lot of employees.
Odysseus is one of the easier heroes to attract. You can place the Hall anywhere you like, as long as it has some road access. Then right-click on the Hall to see which of the requirements you still need to fulfill. You can boost your popularity by lowering taxes and raising wages. If your health is low, use the health overlay to see who isn't getting healer access. The 8 elite houses do not need to be very highly evolved, but they do need residents in them.
If you are eager to move on to the next colony episode, you should be able to do so at this point. However, it is definitely worth your while to postpone doing so until you have conquered several of your overseas rivals. Miletos, Cyme, and Ethiopia all buy and sell goods that will be important to your success in Tenedos. Also, they will be able to provide military support should you need it. Don't bother trying to conquer Troy or Lyrnessus since their strong defenses will make doing so all but impossible at this point. Store up as much money as possible before moving on. You will need it!
When you are ready, set aside the goods required, fulfill the quest, and get ready to rumble!
Tenedos is considered one of the, if not the, hardest episodes in Zeus. The land provides no natural resources - not even food! There are very limited opportunities for exporting anything. And finally, you will suffer from countless invasions by powerful rivals, angry gods, mythical warriors, and Trojan super-heroes.
Success in Tenedos depends in large part on your level of preparation. If you were able to conquer some or all of Miletos, Cyme, and Ethiopia in the prior episode, you will have a much easier time. A massive horde of Drachmas would help as well. Even so, you are probably in for a serious challenge.
As mentioned, Tenedos is completely devoid of natural resources. However, you will soon receive the goods set aside in the prior episode. You can also request goods from your allies. But the surest way to receive the steady flow of food, fleece, olive oil, armor, and wine you will need is to set up trade routes with your allies who can provide these goods. The lack of any exports provides another problem. How can you make any money if there is nothing to export?
This is where the preparation part comes in. Cyme and Miletos sell bronze, which can be converted to armor and then exported for a hefty profit. Miletos buys wine and Ethiopia buys wine and olive oil. These can be manufactured with grapes and olives bought from Aulis or your allies. Without the help of at least one of these cities, there are no immediate opportunities for export in Tenedos, making it hard to raise the money needed to buy all the goods your people will demand. Also, building Hephaestus' Forge early in the episode will provide you with a source of bronze, not to mention a man of bronze (Talos) to defend your city.
Start by building a housing block on the lower plateau near the immigrant entrance on the southern edge of the playing area. Troy will be furious that you are building this colony in its vicinity, and won't hesitate to launch large invasions to try to stop you. These invasions will originate on the highland plateau along the right-hand edge of the playing area, so avoid building your city over there.
When your houses start to fill with people, set up storage facilities to take in the goods sent from Aulis. Then build trade facilities along the coast. Import the goods you need for your people, as well as raw materials for manufactured goods that you are able to export. Start taxing your people right away. Money is the key to this episode, and you don't want to run out before you have set up your exports. Evolve your houses as high as possible. This provides several advantages: it increases tax revenues, provides you with more rabble units for defense, and ensures a more efficient use of space and resources.
Next, set up an elite housing block to get your elite military up and running. This is especially important if you need to conquer any of the three cities that help you develop trade. Regardless, elite housing will be important for defense, and also for increasing your tax income. The availability of horse ranches means you can evolve your elite houses to their maximum level (estate), creating powerful cavalry units and a wealthy tax base.
Another potential source of military power and needed materials is a fleet of triremes. Triremes can accompany your troops on overseas invasions, and can be used in raids to cart away enormous quantities of goods. Try raiding Cyme and Miletos for goods you need or can export. When you raid, make sure to specify which goods you want your troops to loot.
Any gifts of wood or marble can be exported to raise money, but it's wiser to use them to build the Arbor of Athena. With the Arbor, you get much needed help defending the city, and lots of help with olives and olive oil production. You could also get started on the Forge of Hephaestus.
Don't hope for a quick victory. You will have to wait six or seven years for Hector's invasion and the quest to become available. During this time, survival depends on following a sound strategy. You may wish to build defensive fortifications between your city and the invasion points to the east. Build walls and towers along the ravine. Make sure there are roads connecting your towers to the palace. You can place rabble units behind the walls to pummel your attackers while they try to break through. Rabble must be set to "attack" mode to fire through walls.
If you can meet these requirements before the quest is announced, you will be able to summon Achilles in no time. This is important, because the vicious Trojan hero Hector will shortly invade your city and he will do major damage until Achilles appears.
With Hector slain, the military power of Lyrnessus will decline, and you will be able to conquer them. By this point, you should be ready to move onto the final episode.
Depending on your military success in the prior episodes, you may already have accomplished a number of these goals. If you haven't already, build up your military and start invading! Your enemies will probably launch a number of counter-invasions against you, so be ready to defend your city. Athena's Arbor is again recommended for this purpose.
You can get allies to help you in your attacks if your relations are strong enough. If you haven't already, you need to conquer the cities above in quick succession. Once you begin, they will come to each other's aid, retaking cities you recently conquered. This episode will take all your best military and diplomatic skills to overcome.
Troy will remain invincible until you receive official notice that Odysseus' plan has weakened their defenses. At that point, you can launch an all-out attack and win the war!