On November 17th a new Forge of Empire historical questline starts. It is about two Montgolfier brothers – Joseph and Étienne – who made one of the most important inventions of XVIII century and started history of hot air balloons. Read full announcement here.
Finish all 11 quests by November 24th and you will be rewarded with unique portraits of the brothers and a beautiful cultural building Balloon site.
You must do it if you never flown hot air balloon in real life.
Here is full Montgolfier brothers quest line with tips:
| Quest # | Quest line, tasks and tips |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boarding Now. Joseph-Michel and Jasques-Etienne Montgoldfier were two brothers from France whose creativity and genius lifted civilization to another level. Come fly with us and listen to their story. |
| Gather 1700 supplies – do some quick 5-minutes production or build and sell a building which will return you 1700 or more supplies | |
| Build 2 Decorations – age doesn’t matter | |
| 2 | Sixteen. The Montgolfier brothers were born into a family of paper manufacturers in Annonay, France. They stood out from their fourteen siblings, Joseph as an inventor, Étienne as a business man |
| Build 3 residential buildings from your age or 5 from the previous age | |
| Spend 12 Forge points | |
| 3 | Montgolfier Gas. Joseph came up with the idea in the late 1770’s, when he observed laundry drying over a fire. the hot air pockets that formed raised the laundry upwards, so he started theorizing that smoke had a special gas: “Montgolfier Gas” |
| In production building, finish a 5 minute production 12 times – build as many Hunters 3×3 (stone age) as you can to finish this task faster | |
| In a production building, finish a 24 hour production 1 times | |
| 4 | High Spirits. In November 1782, Joseph built a small box chamber out of light wood and covered it with lightweight cloth. After lighting a fire underneath, it quickly lifted, hitting the ceiling. He invited his brother Étienne to help him build a bigger one. |
| Gather 15 goods – you can make a trade for any age 15 goods on market | |
| Pay 3000 supplies | |
| 5 | Come Back! The second contraption was three times as big! In fact, the lifting force was so strong that they lost control of it on its very first test flight on 14 December 1782. Still, it flew for about 10 minutes and landed over 2km away. |
| Gather 1782 coins – build and sell any building to get 1782 coins | |
| Scout 1 province | |
| 6 | First Balloon. For the first public demonstration, they built a globe-shaped balloon of sackcloth with three thin layers of paper inside. The four large pieces were held together by 1800 buttons and a cord fishnet covered the outside. The total weight was 225kg! |
| Make people enthusiastic | |
| Spend 12 Forge Points | |
| 7 | Public Demonstration. On June 4th 1783, it took flight at their first public demonstration in front of a group of dignitaries from the États province, at Annonay. Its flight covered 2km, lasted 10 minutes, and had an estimated altitude of about 2km. |
| Build a building from your current age or 4 from the previous age – it can be road or decoration | |
| Finish 10 productions in production buildings – build couple Hunters 3×3 (stone age) and finish 5-minute production 10 times | |
| 8 | Passengers. At this time, nobody knew what the effects of flying into the upper atmosphere would be on living creatures. Could they run out of air? the King proposed to launch two convicted criminals, but the offer was declined. |
| Research a technology | |
| Gain 200 total population – build 10 Stilt houses from Bronze Age. It works even if you have space only for one Stilt house – build and sell it, build and sell it, repeat it 10 times | |
| 9 | Flying Animals. the first flight with passengers took place on the Court of Versailles on the 19th of September 1783. Louis XVI, Maker Antoinette and the French court watched as a sheep, a duck and a rooster were airborne for eight minutes. |
| Acquire 2 sectors | |
| Motivate or polish 25 buildings | |
| 10 | Liftoff! Motivated by the previous demonstration they started building a bigger balloon for human flight. On October 15, 1783, Polatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes were the first human passengers on Montgolfier balloon! They flew for 25 minutes. |
| Delete 4 unites from your age or 6 units from the previous age | |
| Spend 12 Forge Points | |
| 11 | Legacy. Their creativity and perseverance had a great impact on the way we travel. Their balloons paved the way for other airborne vehicles such as planes, helicopters and eventually space shuttles! |
| Have 250 population available | |
| Gain control over a province |
That’s it.