Week 1 Checklist

Buildings
Storehouse, Level 10
3×Lumberjack, Level 7
3×Clay Pit, Level 7
3×Quarry, Level 7 
3×Iron Mine, Level 7
3×Food, Level 7 or higher
Library, Level 10
Architects' Office, Level 10*
Marketplace, Level 5
Mage Tower, Level 3

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Research
City
Timekeeping
Craftsmanship
Agriculture
Milling

Bureaucracy
Safeguard
Architecture
Bookbinding
Pioneering

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Diplomacy
Negotiation

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Quest
Brewing
Bartending

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Magic
Arcana
Runes**
Mark of Seeking
Mark of Slaying

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Military
Militia

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Trade
Haggling
Bartering
Improved Loading
Chain Gang

Cotters
Foraging
Grape Picking

* Discouraged by The_Dude (may he long abide). Fwiw, my own experience is that resources and not time are the limiting factor in growth for a new player's town. See note on Architect's office below.

** The_Dude recommends, "ONLY use Killing Runes: Mark of Slaying, Death Rune, Killing Glyph, and Ward of Destruction." See note on seeking runes below.

For self-defense it is further advantageous to have:

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Buildings
Vault, Level 3
Mage Tower, Level 7

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Research
Magic > Arcana > Runes > Death Rune

Other players recommend using one of the Seeking runes to target Thieves, which are the biggest threat to a new town. If you build spies and scouts, they can look out for their incoming counterparts.

Consider these buildings for the second week. Some veterans argue further that the vault is unnecessary for any beginner. The vault DOES offer a small amount of protection AND more storage for resources.

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Bootstrapping: The "Growing Settlement" Stage

In the very first part of the game your very highest priority should be to build up resource plots and storage space to put your resources. The most important resource is food.1 At this point you're like a babe in the womb or in arms: you just need food to grow, both literal ("food") and figurative (wood, etc.), and 'fat' to store it.

Fortunately the veteran players are very willing to nurse you with resources--be sure to introduce yourself in general chat (GC) and ask good questions, and you'll be showered with resources to the point of straining your storage space. Be polite and say thanks to your benefactors.

You have seven days before you need worry about self-defense, and then the need is mostly theoretical: even then if any big player attacks you, you can seek help on GC from the veterans.

Keep your taxes low (no more than 5%).2 Actually strongly consider 0% taxes for the first week. At this stage of the game, you don't have soldiers or 'diplomats' to support, so you don't need gold. Besides, even if you did have a high tax rate, you'd glean little in taxes and only succeed in depressing what precious little resource production you have.

In some ways even more basic than resources is research: make sure your library is producing enough research points so you can conduct the research for the more specialized buildings.

You marketplace is important to enable caravans that gather resources from outside your city. These gathered resources will make a significant contribution to the resources available for building.

Always: keep your gold and food levels well above zero. You might be able to get away with net gold and food hourly increases negative, but only for a short time: best to keep these positive at all times.

Notes
1. NB: your town's population is equal to the food consumption of your buildings.

2. Taxes: City Map > Castle > Taxes

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Architects' Office Or Not?

Some of the beginners' guides advise building an Architects' Office to speed your building, while others advise against it. So what should you do? The clear answer is that, as a beginner, you should refrain, as I explain below. I also explain the criterion for when the Office becomes useful.

The answer depends on whether the factor limiting your town's construction is time or resources. If you consistently find that in the time it takes you to build a structure you've more than recovered the resources used in the construction, then your limiting factor is time not resources, and you should build up your Architects' Office. Otherwise, don't bother. Keep in mind that the ratio of required resources to time varies from building to building, so you'll need to evaluate this in light of your priorities and plans for the town. Obviously, it also depends on how developed your resource plots are.

As an example of being resource or time limited, let's say I want to upgrade my Storehouse from level 14 to level 15, and the average production rate of my basic resources is 1,000/hr.  Level 15 requires 10,770 of each of the basic resources, which means that, given my resource production rate, it would take a little more than 10 hours to recover the resources expended. The construction process itself takes 19 hours. In that time my res. plots produce 19,000 of each, so I've much more than recovered the construction cost by the time the upgrade is complete. So in this case the construction is time limited. If a preponderance of my upgrades are time limited, then it would pay to have an Architects' Office.

If, on the other hand, my average res. production rate were only 500/hr, then in 19 hours I would produce 9,500 of each res. This is less than the 10,770 consumed in the build, so in this case the build is resource limited. If the greater part of my construction is resource limited, an Architects' Office would not be worthwhile--and I'd want to build up my resource plots more.

In the beginning stages of the game, you're definitely resource limited. When one also factors in the food and resources and building time required for the Architects' Office, it becomes clear that this building would be an albatross for you now.

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Time, the Invisible Resource: Keep Resource Production Going

This section is more appropriate for later, once you're not so much resource-limited.

The most important resource in Illyriad is the one least obvious on your screen: time. But time is like water from a spigot: use it or lose it (also true for life in general).  You only have so many plots in a town and each plot carries an opportunity cost: you could very well have another building on that site. So you want to make sure to make the best use of what you're 'paying' here. It's the same reason movie theaters discount matinees: if they didn't, all that real estate would be vacant for all the daylight hours, wasting its potential.

What this means for Illyriad is that you should have production going at all times for your buildings. I usualy fill out production orders for about 3 days at a time (when I'm not actively building up that plot). So for example, if my paddock production rate is 0.82/h, I order 0.82/h x 72 h = 59 horses. (And of course I can adjust the time so production completes at or just before I can log on and put another order in.)

You have a lot of space to store these production resources (unlimited it seems), so why not stockpile them? Such a strategy allows you eventually, once you've got a surplus and need another resource,  to replace that building with another whose resources you need.

Written by: Jadefae [HOTH]