The Blessings of the Elders have arrived!

In the heart of a mystical forest, the Jorn Elders awaken from their slumber and sense an impending danger to their tribe.

The Elders call upon a select few, the Foresters, to embark on a quest to restore the land.

The Foresters must now venture deep into the woods and master the ancient art of forestry, away from their nurseries.

They mean to grow trees to turn them into life-giving coal, the fuel that powers the fight against the cold.

Let's celebrate the Blessings of the Elders!

The Settlers: New Allies team has heard the voices of our fans, old and new, to choose the additions and reworks for this update.

Available today and on all platforms, the content update offers a new map, a new production chain, and plenty of fixes and changes to impact every corner of the game.

Here's a list of highlights!

Content

New Skirmish Map: Elder's Tomb (1v1)

This new 1v1 has a particular configuration to spice up your encounters: The population limit is doubled.

New infrastructure options, new military tactics and new economic growth are all possible within this map.

We're excited to hear your feedback about it!

New Play mode: Sandbox Mode

The purpose of this mode is to give players the opportunity to play the game the way they want without any pressure.

Select any map, in any size, and enjoy to your leisure without any opposition. Try out new builds, or simply decorate the entire island for viewing pleasure.

There's no time limit, and no opponent to stop you. Enjoy!

New Building: Charring Kiln

The Charring Kiln adds a new production chain, allowing you to produce Coal out of Logs.

This new interaction can propel Military Industry to a new level, opening up more strategies at any point in the game.

Feed the workers with Bread for more efficiency!

Reworked Building: Forester

As a time-known classic would have, we were able to rework how Foresters work to their preferred behaviour.

The new Forester is able to plant trees in nearby clear non-mountain hexes, where woodcutters still have the job of cutting it down.

Their price has also been reworked to be more in line with the new demands for logs.

These trees also count for all research purposes that count proximity to trees!

New Feature: Skirmish Map Selection

While Map Preferences still work as before, it's now also possible to launch into a matchmaking queue or a game with a preferred selected map.

This will make it a lot easier to practice a specific map, to prepare a lobby where the party leader can select the map they choose to play in, or simply to Sandbox your heart out.

Map Selection takes priority over Preferences, but in matchmaking situations it can have the parameters expanded if no match is found after some time.

New Hardcore Missions: Elder's Tomb and Widow's Peak

Two new hardcore Missions are added into the rotation for challenge and fun.

Test out your limits with them!

Additional Patch Notes

Balancing:

• Reduced the construction costs of Coachmakers
  • Costs in Lumber/Stone/Tools:
  • Elari & Maru: 7/7/2 → 6/5/2
  • Jorn: 3/3/2 → 3/2/2
• Donkey Carts can now transport stacks as small as 5 construction goods to construction sites (down from 6)

Bugfixes:

• Various fixes for reliable save-game loading
• Various fixes for better reconnecting to online matches
• Various UI fixes
• Various Map art and Functionality fixes.
• Various localization fixes
• Various AI improvements
• Various balancing changes
• Rebalanced Widow's Peak starting locations, fixed fish deposit not being reachable

We hope you enjoy the new additions that we bring with the Blessings of the Elders.

Enjoy the holiday season!

The Settlers DEV-Team