Guide #1 - Building Your City

These are your most important buildings- and the level you should attempt to get them to as fast as you can (this is the recommendations without having a divine inspiration to get a level 10). Also, everything listed should be built in both cities, if there is special information about a second city I’ve listed it – except for the market (if you are in the same province as first city) and the tavern.

Castle: The higher your castle level the more resource fields you have, and the more wildernesses you can conquer. Get your castle to level 9. Just remember, if you are still under Beginner Protection, once you level your castle to 5 you lose BP even if you have days left!!

Alchemy Lab: Research is integral to every part of the game, so get your alchemy lab up in levels as soon as you can, as you can only research at the level of your alchemy lab. Get it to level 9.
(You need a lab in your second city as well, leveled up so that you can research in both cities at the same time. Your research counts for both cities so you are researching TWICE as fast which is helpful in all areas.)

Wall: Up your wall level in order to get a higher level of castle but DON’T worry about training defenses while you are starting out, as there is no need to protect if your army is in sanctuary and your resources are protected by a storehouse. Your resources are better spent at building army than defenses right now. Get it to level 7.

Workshop: Needed for building your wall. Get it to level 6.

Barracks: The more barracks you have the faster you can train your troops, so build as many barracks as you can – even as many as 8 or 9 will be of great help to troop building, but at least 5-6 barracks. One barrack can be leveled up to at least level 6, and the others can remain at level 1 until you no longer have anything else to upgrade and then you can upgrade them, as each upgrade allows you to build 10% faster.

Storehouse: Your storehouse is VERY important, it protects your resources (wood, food, ore, stone) from attackers. Every level protects 100,000 of your resources, plus if you research shrinking powder in the alchemy lab that also raises your protection. Get it up to level 9 eventually, but keep it at the level of resources you own at the beginning (i.e. if you continually have around 300k of resources make sure it's level 3).


Knight's Hall: The knight’s hall is very important, and the higher level it is, the quicker your knights can level up. You should have assigned knights in your knight’s hall, players that play the game get a special boost. You need four knights assigned to duties, and at least four or more idle unassigned knights to lead your troops. Regularly check to level them up.
(You do need a knight’s hall in your second city to enable you to at the very least, hunt barbs and conquer wildernesses, and even more if you are going to attack anyone from this city. You can even assign leveled up knights from one city to your next by reassigning them.)

Cottage: Cottages increase population, and population increases your gold income. They also increase your might as higher population increases might. A good number of cottages is at least 9 or 10 of them. You also need pop to build troops.

Market: You need a market in your city as you can both buy resources as well as sell extra resources in the market. It is especially helpful if you have your cities in different provinces, to have a market in both to allow you access to two different markets.
(If both of your cities are in the same province, a market in your second city isn’t necessary.)

Embassy: The higher level of your embassy, the more troops your alliance can send to help you out if you are being attacked, so the level is just up to you.
(Needed in your second city to house troops if that city is attacked, up to you.)

Rally Point: This controls how many attacks you can send out, and how many troops you can send out at one time, so the higher levels are going to help you take higher level wilds and barbarians not to mention those you attack.

Relief Station: Necessary to increase the speed of sending resources and troops between your alliance members and your own cities, the higher level – the faster your troops move, so level this up to your liking, the higher the better of course.

Watch Tower: This allows you to know when you are being attacked and other information about who is attacking you. Level 8 works until you just don’t have anything else to level up.
(Needed in second city as well, to tell you if it’s being attacked.)

Taverns: These are truly not necessary, as you should set your taxes as low as possible to cover the cost of the knights you’ve assigned. I keep mine at 5%. After all, if you are not a very high level of might and city, if you have extra gold in your city attackers can take it as it’s not protected by the storehouse. So only tax as much as you need if you want to buy resources in the market. I never buy anything in the market if it’s over 2 each, maybe 3 for ore if I really need it as you can find it cheap or put in an order for cheaper and usually have it filled pretty quickly.
(Not necessary in first or second city - build a cottage or barracks instead).

Resource Fields: Absolutely necessary, and get them as high level as possible. Every level of castle you go up, gains you more resource fields. This is how I build fields:

Quarries - 1 or 2 because stone is usually cheap on the market, and I usually get gold built up so I need to spend it. I get away with 1 quarry personally.
[Option: Build your 3 quarries to get your quest, then smash them.]

Farms - Your most important field, because you HAVE to continually have food to build and feed your troops among other things. Around 50% or so of my fields are farms. Level them up.

Mines & Sawmills - Both important to building and training troops. I build around the same amount of each, as ore and wood are usually very expensive on the market. I also farm barbarians to get resources such as ore and wood regularly. Just keep a watch on your levels, if you're always low on wood, build more sawmills or level up your sawmills.