The first several days of an incursion are spent getting the settlement up to speed; until then you subsist on the starting goods and troops you were given, so try to keep them alive!  See the fighting tips thread in the guild messages for tips on making your troops last longer, or head to the page with troop advice on the website.

STARTING GOODS

You get 20 of each (x5 kinds) at the start of each incursion.  If you have Ascended buildings in your main city which give +10 quantum goods, this 10 goods means 2 of each (x5 kinds.)  So, if you have 5 Ascended buildings giving +10 QI goods each, don't expect to see 50 QI goods at the start, it gives 10 more of each good (x5 kinds) so the default of 20 goods + 10 each from the boost, you will start with 30 of each good.

STARTING TROOPS

You get 8 of each troop (light, heavy, fast, ranged and artillery) at the start of each incursion.  If you have Ascended buildings that give +5 QI troops, that's 1 of each kind of troops.  If you have 2 Ascended buildings giving +5 QI troops each, again don't expect that this is adding 10 of each troop, its adding 2 of each troop (x5 kinds.)  So the 8 default troops plus 2 more of each from the boost, you will start with 10 of each QI troops.

2025 updates, there are a couple of tweaks to strategy.

1 HOUR builds don't complete: This was a change unannounced in early 2025, the 1 hour buildings now don't complete and start producing until you load up your settlement again, if you can pop back into the settlement 1 hour later it will make sure they're ready to collect in 10 hours.

Always collect at 150% happiness: In the first 2 days when we can't build enough happiness, collect from the smallest houses first and sell them 1 by 1 (they can be rebuilt instantly later and are cheap) in order to lower population and increase happiness, and/or make space to build a quick culture building to get the happiness up to 150% boost before collecting the rest of the settlement. 

Always produce the largest amount of goods or units possible, 10 units or 20 goods is a significant savings in cost over any lesser amounts.

Overall, Middle Ages QI is easier than Iron Age was.  Much easier.  You just have to get past all the red herrings and too many choices.

For houses and production buildings: keep a balance of 6/3/5 between EMA/HMA/LMA versions of whatever tier you can afford to build, (5s, 1 hr, 10 hr) and just keep swapping up to the next better tier as you get enough resources and space.  Balancing between the ones that produce more (EMA) and the 10% and 20% boost versions from HMA and LMA is the key to maximizing output.  Otherwise, it's the same upgrading progression idea as iron age was.  The sooner you can get to the 10 hr versions of everything, the better.

The ratio of houses/productions from all 3 eras is key, the EMA makes the most, but you need the boost from HMA and LMA too; you want slightly more of EMA than LMA, and use about half as many from HMA (and the HMA farm not at all because it's huge.)

Goods is the same idea as before, you pick the 3 smallest, honey gunpowder and ropes, use starting honey and gunpowder + make some if needed for the first 2 land expansions, then use rope for everything thereafter because it's the smallest. Donate the rest on goods nodes.

Troops: You can do everything with Artillery (catapults to start, then trebuchets or cannons) and imperial guards (LMA heavy) plus starting troops (fill in with ema catapults, 5s build when needed.)

Euphoria: you only ever need HMA Church in the beginning, then either the Gallows or the Pillory, both 2x2 from EMA.  Upgrade to pillory as much as you can, it also boosts action points. Ignore everything else, they are not as efficient as Church, Gallows, Pillory.

Decos: you only ever need Gargoyles 1x1 for Blue boost or Signpost 1x1 for Red boost, whichever one is your specialty.  Ignore all the other choices**, they are less efficient.

**If you have plenty of resources from your settlement and 400-500% base red and blue QI boost from your main city, you can try going for equal red and blue to be able to do all nodes by building nautical statues; those have the power of 4 gargoyle/signpost and still only 1x1.  I build nautical statues now until the last day when there's no time to wait for 10 hour builds, then switch back to gargoyle/signpost for the last 24-36 hours of the season.

These are the primary sources of QI boost, except for decorations in your Quantum Settlement.  Every new Event released since QI was added also includes a limited-time ascended building that provides some boosts for QI, or the Gold League reward in each event typically provides 25% of red or blue boost for QI.

Excluding event buildings, the total possible QI boost is 175% for both red and blue.

Red Boosts (175% of both attack and defense)

• Forgotten temple (from GE level 5) - 50% both

• Tourney ground (from Battlegrounds) - 25% both

Settlement rewards, they split red defense/attack, adds to 100/100% of both.

• Egypt Royal Bathhouse - 20% both

• Viking Yggdrasil - 0%/50%

• Aztec Sun Temple - 50%/0%

• Polynesia Hut of the Sacred Instruments - 30% both

Blue Boosts (175% of both attack and defense)

• Forgotten temple (from GE level 5) - 50% both

• Tourney ground (from Battlegrounds) - 25% both

Settlement rewards, they split blue defense/attack, adds to 100/100% of both.

• Egypt Royal Bathhouse - 20%/60%

• Japan Shinto temple - 20%/40%

• Mughal's temple - 60%/0%

If you're going to pick a settlement to complete for QI boost, do Egypt first, because the Royal Bathhouse gives far more QI boosts than any other settlement reward.  Japan was an enjoyable settlement to do, I would do that 2nd.  Polynesia was not too bad to play, do that one 3rd.  Aztec was slightly more interesting because of the mini-game that is like minesweeper, but it was still quite painful to complete, do that 4th.  God help you on the Vikings and the Mughals, best of luck, I never wanted to see them again after I survived those settlements.  

Each settlement takes approximately 6 months to play through 10-13 times for the final upgraded reward building.  So if you're starting these for QI boosts and didn't play then in the original release order, I would recommend this order:

1. Egypt

2. Japan

3. Polynesia

4. Aztec

5. Viking

6. Mughal