Loyalty is the remainder from the tax out of the total 100% (ie. 20% tax = 80 loyalty.)
Best tax set to have is 20%, you can raise it higher during the day to gain more money hourly, but you will lose the number of idle workers. If you do this, remember to lower your tax to 20% overnight.
Idle population means the number of people within your population that are not working.
Click here to see an example of a developed level 4 city
Click here to see an example of a developed level 8 city resource field
Speedups
For buildings under 5 minutes there is a free speedup option.
For buildings between 5 - 15 minutes, use beginner guidelines
For buildings up to 1 hour, use primary guidelines (sometimes its better to not waste it on something that takes 20 minutes as you may need to use the guidelines on a 1 hour project)
For buildings up to 2.5 hours, use intermediate guidelines
For buildings up to 8 hours, use senior guidelines
For buildings between 10 - 30 hours, use master guidelines
To reduce research or production time by 30% use the ultimate guidelines
For mayors that have high politics, it will increase the building speeds, sometimes you'll notice the build time might be under 5 times but it will not let you speed up. This is because it is based off of the original time it takes for the building to be built, rather than the speed at which is determined by the mayor.
Stacking
You can only build one building
You can however stack the various options, for example: while building something, research in your academy, build up your troops and build up your wall defenses
Heroes
More than 1 hero is fine
Heroes salary means that amount of money being deducted from the tax revenue for the hero to be in your city
Mayors
Heroes with high politics = faster upgrading/building time
Heroes with high intelligence = faster academy research
Heroes with high attack = faster training of troops and fortified units
Building
The higher the level, the longer it takes
Follow the quests to get yourself established
Focus on production camps
Don't forget research, it is important as it bolsters any of the abilities you get within building
Claim the newbie package, click on the orange present in the top left hand corner of the screen
Cottages
9 to 10 cottages will be fine for population, upgrade as needed
Townhalls
These give you more resource fields, and a higher number of valleys/flats to conquer
Within beginner protection, do not upgrade your townhall to level 5 (unless you are ready) as this will immediately move you out of BP
When your townhall reaches level three, claim your package for lords
The higher the level of the town hall, the higher the enemy informatics needs to be to find out what you have
Resources
The green numbers next to your resources tell you how much of that resource you are producing hourly
Farms
These are guidelines, they are not to be strictly adhered to. As you continue on building up your town hall, you will gain more resource fields to allocate camps to:
Town Hall level 1 = 4 farm camps
Town Hall level 2 = 4 farm camps
Town Hall level 3 = 6 farm camps
Farms should be upgraded to level 7 minimum during during beginner protection, this should give you enough resources to build troops, handle troop upkeep and other building and upgrading.
Wood
These are guidelines, they are not to be strictly adhered to. As you continue on building up your town hall, you will gain more resource fields to allocate camps to:
Town Hall level 1 = 4 wood camps
Town Hall level 2 = 4 wood camps
Town Hall level 3 = 5 wood camps
Wood should be upgraded to level 7 minimum during during beginner protection, this should give you enough resources to build troops, building and upgrading. Wood is used in everything, so make sure you pay attention to the hourly production rate, many players have been caught out with losing lumber quickly.
Stone
These are guidelines, they are not to be strictly adhered to. As you continue on building up your town hall, you will gain more resource fields to allocate camps to:
Town Hall level 1 = 3 stone camps
Town Hall level 2 = 4 stone camps
Town Hall level 3 = 4 stone camps
Stone should be upgraded to level 7 minimum during during beginner protection, this should give you enough resources to build troops, building and upgrading. Stone is used in everything, so make sure you pay attention to the hourly production rate, many players have been caught out with losing lumber quickly.
Be especially careful that when upgrading your walls, you do not cut yourself short as they will take up the major bulk of your stone produced.
Iron
These are guidelines, they are not to be strictly adhered to. As you continue on building up your town hall, you will gain more resource fields to allocate camps to:
Town Hall level 1 = 2 iron camps
Town Hall level 2 = 4 iron camps
Town Hall level 3 = 4 iron camps
Iron is used in a lot of production, however it is recommended to not build more than 5 iron camps, as iron is not used in such high numbers as that of food, wood or stone. Within the 5 camps, upgrade them to level 7 at a minimum and do the research, this should gather you a fairly strong hourly rate.
Barracks
You will need 9-11 barracks
Troop production can be divided up between all barracks, thus giving faster training (click on the box at the bottom left hand corner of the troop production screen)
Focus on building up your barracks at around the 5th day of Beginner Protection, this ensures that you will have something to protect your city once you leave
Army
Workers are solely for logistical purposes (ie. transporting goods, carrying goods from raids etc)
Warriors can make up the bulk of your army, they are cheap and quick to train, and can do damage in large quantities
Scouts are important for surveillance and infiltration of enemy camps, barbarian cities and valleys/flats
Pikemen are strong against cavalry, however they are not particularly useful when it comes to infantry attack
Swordsmen are the strongest of the foot soldiers, they are good for infantry attack
Archers are the best of your army, they have a long ranged attack and can be used effectively in a wave and rainbow attack.
Cavalry are best at the quick plunder style attacks and against archers. They die easily, so when you send in cavalry, expect some losses.
Cataphracts are the strongest of the cavalry, they are designed to be stronger against infantry, however they are expensive.
Fortified Units
Transporters are important for added load when raiding/plundering cities or transporting goods between yours and allied cities.
Ballistas are good for attacking archers towers and walls, they are time consuming to build, however they are strong and effective.
Walls
The higher your walls, the higher the amount of resources needed.
The time for building walls takes a long time, so be prepared to have them building when you have nothing else to do.
The more you upgrade, the more available slots you have for adding in the defensive units listed below.
Traps
Strong against infantry, while they are not a continual presence (as they are destroyed after being used) they are effective enough in damaging infantry forces, however ineffective when you have more than one wave of infantry.
Abatis
These are strong against cavalry, and like traps, you need to rebuild whatever you lose. However these are ineffective when you have more than 1 wave of cavalry
Archers Towers
These are very effective for defense, they have a long range. The ratio for archers to destroy archers towers is 5:1. They are not overly expensive. Unlike the traps, abatis, rolling logs and defensive trebuchets, these do not need to be rebuilt unless destroyed. Effective against multiple wave attacks
Rolling Logs
These are very expensive when it comes to your lumber. They are like traps, abatis and defensive trebuchets in that they need to be rebuilt after 1 has been used.Ineffective against multiple waves.
Defensive Trebuchets
These are effective enough for fortified units (ie. battering ram/catapults/ballistas) however they are expensive and need to be rebuilt after each use. Ineffective against multiple waves.
Troops
1 barrack will let you train/create
If 20 archers takes 30 minutes (hypothetically), then two barracks will build the same amount in half the time (15 minutes)
If you have 9 Barracks (suggested) then divide 30 by 9 and you will see how little time it takes to build trooops.
Be sure to check the box that says "share production to all barracks"
In the long run, this is much more efficient
Training/Exercise
Sometimes this can be inaccurate due to the games design.
Once you know the amount of troops within a valley/flat city, go to your rally point and select "exercise"
Enter the details of the enemy in the defense area. Then add the details of what you want to send to fight (attack)
Click ok, this will give you an idea if you will win or lose and how many troops will be most in the fight.
Scouts
For every level of city/flat/valley it is best to scout first. This will give you an indication of the resources/fortifications (for city) and the number of troops stationed in that area
In the long run, the more scouts the better.
In order to protect yourself from being scouted outside of beginner protection, it is good to have a minimum of 1000 scouts. These will engage any enemy scouts and hopefully kill them.
To gain scouts, you need informatics from the academy, the higher the informatics, the stronger the information you will receive.
Level 1 informatics is okay for a level 1 city/flat/valley. As a city/flat/valley goes up in level you will need to have an equal to or higher level of informatics to get the required information.
Select the land on the map you wish to scout, then click "scout". Select the amount of scouts you wish to send. A hero is not essential to scout, however a hero with high intelligence (who is not a mayor) can assist with gaining better information about the target.
