Let's Talk About Cities Part 1

Greetings!
We wanted to take a few moments to write a thesis-length email regarding city building. These tips can apply to everyone, regardless of branch of service, and are designed to help you and, by extension the alliance, get the most out of your towns. Each section has a lot more information to it, and if you are interested in the details, let us know and we can help you find it.

YOUR FIRST TWO CITIES:

1. Lower your taxes to 0. The reason for this is that you have no need for gold production yet and the lower the taxes you have, the higher your population and resources will grow.

2. Work on raising all resource plots to 12. At level 7, more research is opened up. Raise your Library to 12 and your Storehouse to 15 as soon as possible. But watch your food level! Raising levels generates more population, but more population requires more food. Keep an eye on your food production, and always keep it in the green. Upgrading a food plot every other time is probably a good idea.

3. When the Storehouse level 15 is finished, a Warehouse Research will become available. Research it and build it to level 20. This will open up the Exodus research, start this as soon as possible.

4. Start building 1 settler in your Castle under the Settlers tab. This will take 4 days. Please let Pink Camo know when you have started to build your settler, so that she can start looking for an optimum place on the map to send them to.

MOVING DAY:
1. You should have the new coordinates given to you by now. Find it on the map. and click it. Select ‘Send Settlers’. It will tell you how long it will take for them to arrive.

2. When Exodus is finished in your first city and your second city is settled, open up your Castle window, then the Relocation tab, then Exodus Technology from your new city. type in the coordinates, and make sure your first city is selected in the drop down menu, and send it on its way!

3. Back to your second city that has just settled. You can now use the Tenaril spell to move it anywhere you prefer if the original location is not what you expected. You can raise the levels of everything to 20 and they will remain the same. Only the Tenaril spell does this. Exodus drops everything down to 12, which is why we asked you to only build to 12 from the beginning because we knew you would Exodus that city.

*New player’s first cities always start out on a 5 food plot. We would prefer that you use a 7 food plot. The Tenaril spell takes the properties of the tile with it wherever it lands. So, if you were on a 5 food square, you will still be on a 5 food square. Exodus, however, takes on the new tile’s properties. It will leave behind the old and take on the new. By landing on a 7 food square, you will then get to use that 7 food. I hope that makes sense, we know it can be confusing at first.

BASIC RESOURCES and BASIC RESOURCE BOOSTERS
1. Until you have moved your city to your final location, you will want to get all of your  basic resource plots to 12. After Exodus, you can raise them all to level 20. This allows you to support other members and your own growth.

2. Flourmill should be leveled up to 20, no matter what (after Exodus). Other than sov tiles and farms, this is the only other way to increase food/population. We recommend you level this up towards the end of your city planning.

3. Kiln is one of the most important buildings for almost all city types. Ranged and Infantry cities tend to not need this building, and those cities can skip it, unless, after most of the city is done, you still find yourself short on Clay. Cavalry Parade Ground, Spearman Billets, Chancery of Estates, and many other buildings use clay for their upkeep. If you have a city that does not use a lot of clay, then you likely won't need this.

4. Foundry, Stonemason, and Carpentry follow the same logic as above. If you have enough of whichever resource type the building boosts, then there is no need for these.


ADVANCED RESOURCES
1. Common Ground/Paddock should be level 20 (after Exodus). Many things use Cows and Horses. If you don't use either one, then we suppose you don't need to level them that much, but they are a great source of population.

2. Brewery/Bookbinder/Spearmaker/Blacksmith/Fletcher/Forge/Tannery/Saddlemaker/Siege Workshop. If you build any of these, they should go to level 20. We advise you to build only the ones that go towards your city's purpose. A Knight city, for example, has no need of a Bookbinder.

CRAFTING BUILDINGS
1. Spearsmith/Bowyer/Horse Trainer/Swordsmith/Leather-Plate-Chain Armorer. These are only really useful if leveled to 20.
They can be specialized, and multiple buildings can be made in a city. Whether or not to specialize is a personal choice, trading speed for variety.

MAGIC
1. The Mage Tower does not really need to go higher than 15, unless you plan to use Geomancer Retreats as well, and/or are casting spells on multiple cities. 1 city with a 20 Mage Tower, and 2 Geomancer Retreats can cover about 6-7 nearby cities.

2. Geomancer Retreat and Runemaster's Grounding. We find the Runemaster building a waste, even with the enhanced killing power it can provide. But it can be useful in a storage city. The Geomancer Retreat is the better option, but only really shines when you can cast Nature's Bounty on several cities in range. A 20 percent bonus to food, from 2 level 20 GRs is amazing.

DIPLOMACY BUILDINGS
1. Consulate can go to 19 in most cases, even if you don't use diplomats, but you can level it as high or as low as you want. The building level only affects training speed of diplos, and the range by which you can detect incoming hostile diplomats. But that last part is only of use if you are online to see them coming...

2. Foreign Office - It only works if you are online to catch the incoming diplos.
Diplomat Unit Cost Reduction buildings are a great idea if you have a city geared towards Diplomats. Build at least 3, up to level 20 (or whatever levels you can support) of a single type, to allow you to specialize in that type. NOT recommended for non-Diplomat cities.

STORAGE BUILDINGS
1. Vault - Recent changes to the game has made it more useful. It does add a small amount of extra storage, and it does offer protection to a small degree against thieves. A better option, (if you really need to protect your resources), is to build a trader and store goods in a hub, or to make a Thief City and store the goods there. Vaults protect a pitiful amount of stuff for the cost.

2. Storehouse/Warehouse should always be among the first things you get to 20. However, some people get rid of their Storehouse to make an extra slot available. We do not recommend this, but it is a valid idea.

TRADE BUILDINGS
1. Marketplace should always be 20. With research, you can have 70 caravans, holding 3k goods each, for 210k total capacity. Level also dictates travel speed for Caravans.

2. Trade Office/Merchants Guild are only needed if you plan on storing goods in hubs or doing a lot of trading. You only need one of each in a single city for your entire account. The levels of these buildings determine how many buy  / sell orders you can place at one time, and how much upkeep your trader(s) cost per hour.

3. Herbalist/Miner/Skinner Guilds. These are a bit harder. If you have access to Rare Herbs or Minerals, then building them is worth it, provided that you keep access to those items. But the Skinner's Guild is a great bet, as all you need is an army to kill NPCs with. We recommend Skinner's Guilds in Cavalry or Infantry cities for maximum value. With all research done, the first level 20 Guild gives 60 Gatherers, and each additional level 20 building gives 30 more. These are also good buildings to make if you have free spots and food, as you can always go out and gather.

4. Cottage is an odd building. It only allows you to support 1 cotter per Cottage. What we recommend is build as many as you can when your cities are still small, but leave 1 space empty. The empty space will enable you to view what buildings have been unlocked and ready to build. When the city is done, usually there will be 1-3 plots left over, fill those with Cottages, allowing you to continue gathering Herbs, Minerals, and Hides when you can.

RESEARCH
Library goes to 20, no matter what. It determines how much Sov you can claim. Doing the Human Statue Quest is also crucial, as it gives a level 20 Library an extra 100 research per hour.

MILITARY
1. Barracks to 20, even if you don't use armies. This allows 5 commanders. You can use them to hold down kills, claim rare resources, and lead mighty armies to crush my- I mean our, enemies.
Arctic/Desert/Jungle Colleges. Do not bother with these. The odds that we will fight in these Biomes does not justify the cost.

2. Troop Cost Reduction buildings. Only build these if you are making a military city, and then only build the ones that correlate with the troop type you want in that city. Depending on your city, you can get up to 4 of these at level 20. Sometimes less, but that is hard to tell as many cities are different. But the number of resource plots dictates the type of troop you should build. 5 Clay tiles are for Knight and Spear cities. 5 Wood for Bows, and 5 Stone for Infantry.

OTHER BUILDINGS
1. Chancery of Estates - This is tricky. A 5 food city can use 2 of them, one at 20 and the other to about 15 will allow you to get enough sov tiles and levels to reach 16-18k population. A 7 Food city, only needs 1 Chancery at around level 12-16. Anything more is likely not needed. If you find it is not enough, talk to us about it, and maybe we can solve the issue.

2. Architect's Office is a great bet for smaller cities. Get rid of it when you are done building everything else.

3. Tavern. If you do quests, this can go to level 2-5. Otherwise, don't bother with it. Beyond level 5, there is no benefit.