Let's Talk About Cities Part 2

There is a lot to be said about choosing what type of city you want, and this dictates the type of buildings that go inside it. Creating a well balanced city, geared towards a specific task takes a long time, but the reward is an efficient city that produces optimal amounts of whatever you chose.
To that end, allow me to give some templates:

The Single Troop City
Creating a city that only has a single troop type in it is a very desirable thing and is something that we strongly recommend. To that end, you should conentrate on the following:
1. All resource plots and farms to 20
2. All advanced resource buildings that create the goods needed to make the troops, to level 20 (For example, Tannery and Fletcher for a Longbow city)
3. Barracks, Library, Marketplace to 20, Consulate to 19, and Mage Tower to 15.
4. Chancery of Estates to 20 (For a 5 food city), or 7 (for a 7 food city). Leveling them higher, or building a 2nd one may be necessary.
5. The percentile buildings (Flourmill, Kiln, Foundry, Carpentry, Stonemason). Flourmill should always go to 20. After that, build the others only to 5, allowing you to conduct more research that may be needed for further buildings to be unlocked. Then, remove all but one of them, depending on what type of troop you are making. For example: If you are planning on making a Spear city, you will be building several T2 reduction buildings (Spearman's Billets), which use a lot of clay. Therefore, level your Kiln to 20. But you won't need Carpentry, Foundry, or Stonemason.
6. After all of this is done, and you have met all these requirements, build 3 level 20 T2 Reduction buildings for the type of troop you are supporting. If possible, and resources permitting, you may even be able to support a 4th.
7. When all of this is done, you will find that you now have a very nice city, capable of fielding a powerful and large army.
All cities, regardless of type or function must have 20 Sov tiles, all level 2 or 3, and the Allembine Research discovery, with a 65 per cent tax rate.


The Production/Crafting City
This city will be able to produce vast amounts of all, or most, advanced resources and craftable gear.
1. In the Single Troop City template above, follow steps 1 through 6.
2. You will likely not be able to support any T2 Unit Upkeep Reduction buildings, so feel free to use the slots to create more advanced resource buildings, or better yet, crafting buildings.
3. Any spare spots can also be used to create the Guild buildngs, such as Herbalist, but there must be rare herbs or minerals near your city to justify this, so try and make Skinner buildings instead, unless you already control, or have access to, rare herbs/minerals. This gives you some self-sufficiency when crafting.
4. Since you won't have a large army, you can make a choice at this stage. Either produce as many thieves as you can support, to protect your goods, OR create as many T2 Spear or Ranged units as you can support.

The Diplo City
This city is fundamentally the same as the Single Troop city, but will produce and maintain diplomats, rather than troops.

Essentially, folllow the steps for the Single Troop template, and you won't go wrong.
What we have listed above is a set of guidelines that we have been using for a long time now. Trust me when I tell you that we are able to field massive armies, produce large amounts of goods, and use diplomats effectively.

Too many people who play this game are afraid of their tax slider. For some crazy reason, they are convinced that they need massive amounts of gold income and basic resource production. You don't. Trust me, when your city is built in this manner, you won't find yourself dying for want of anything, and even if you do, you have more than one city, which can make up for it. Several cities have very low clay production. Others do not, for example.

If you set your slider to 65 early on, by the time your city is done, and your armies/diplos made, you should have a vast sum saved up.
As always, feel free to ask us any questions that you might have.

One last thing, I promise:
This confederation is successful because we support each other. Everyone here will pitch in, if you ask. Never think of it as you taking from someone, because one day they might ask of you the same thing. And for those of you who are in crafting remember to not neglect your armies. Even though you are traders by definition, we are a military confederation, and may need those troops for defense of our homes, or for Blockades. I know some of us don't care for fighting, but we try and look at it as taking the good with the bad. Let us also get into the habit of contacting our Leaders for help and advice, as they are there to support you.

Victory to the Dominion!