My Lands: Black Gem Hunting

Introduction
Most of players do not thinks about what they will construct in their cities untill Magister rank. Or even do not thinks about it at all. This is not a big mistake, but specialized cities more efficient then "universal" ones.
For example if your foe have 100 counterspies in his city and you have 4 cities with 100 spies in each - it would be very difficult to get 4-th level of report. But if you have 1 city with 400 spies - this task becomes much easier.
Keep in mind that exact number of buildings in the city depends of many conditions such as playing style, number of friends and foes near the city, Architecture, Science Specialisatoin etc. Also you definately can combine sity types. For example build Spy + Science or Military + Visionary city.
Necessary buildings
It would be good if Resurrector, Dungeon, Market and some Merchant Guilds will be in all types of cities. In the Capital there also must be Vault and Temple, and may be Diplomatic Corps, Tavern and Colonisation Centre.

So, in my opinion there may be such basic types of cities:

Farm city
This type of city serves as army base. And must have maximum protection from any type of intrusion.
Terrain
I think best terrain for this type of city - is native land because of bonus +25 defence (Magic Forest for Elves, Cursed Forest for Drow, Holy Land for Knights and Deadland for Demons). I think this is the best type of city for the Capital.
Inside the walls in such cities better to build
- many Counterspy Guild (necessary)
- some Warehouse (not necessary)
- some Cottages (not necessary) to train Counterspies or Mirrors
? you can build some Expeditionary Corps in the city, but since the Gates in such cities are closed most of time - Explorers will stay inside the walls.
Defence
- 2 Magic tower or 1 tower + 1 Magic tower
- 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level5 + 1 Fortification of level 6.
Villages
- Mirrors in all villages

Gold city
This type of city produces gold. I have heard that you can reach up to 40k gold per hour producing level. The Gates in this city type are open almost always. Sometimes players build this type of city as a Capital. In this case Gold production can be huge, but i think it ig not a good practice because of low defence level of such city.
Terrain
You can build this type of city in the Desert because of bonus of +70% gold production, or in the Native Land.
Inside the walls in such cities after a building necessary buildings such as Market and Resurrector you can build:
- many Cottages (necessary). In fact - all cells that is not occpated by other necessary buildings must be occupated by the Cottages.
- Mercenary Orders (not necessary). This type of city is very suitable for Mercenary construction because Mercenaries needs only gold and free population to build.
? Trading Posts. Some calculation show that if there is some Trading Posts inside the walls - production of gold rate will be higher.
Defence
- 2 Magic tower or 1 tower + 1 Magic tower. Since in such cities usually located many Mercenaries - the (2 magic towers) variant looks qite nice. But it will not protect you from several attack "waves".
? 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level5 + 1 Fortification of level 6. If Golden City has been founded in the Desert - Fortifications losts much part of their sense because defemce rate will not be on the maximum.
Villages
- Trading Posts in all villages

Military city
This city is made to train army. You will have to move resources to this city from the Farm city, and also you will have to move here people from Gold City. You can keep the Gates of such city closed since there is no required buildings in the Villages.
Terrain
Almost any terrain fits to this City type, but Native Land will be the best choice in my opinion. You also can build this City type in the Steppe if there are many Grain cells in the Villages.
Inside the walls
- Military buildings (necessary) - almost all types except the Mercenary Order.
- some Cottages (desirable) - free population will be necessary to build the barracks and to train units.
Defence
- 1 Tower + 1 Magic tower or 2 Towers. Usually there almost no army in such cities. So Magic tower are usually not necessary. But you can move here some quantity of Merenaries to prevent fmall armies attacks. In this case Magic Tower can help you.
? 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level 5 + 1 Fortification of level 6. Like in the Golden City - this type of defence is not very efficient if city has been found on any terrain except the Native Land.
Villages
There is no requirements to villages in this city type. You can build there Alchemist Labs or Visionary Towers, or some Trading Posts on your choice.

Spy city
Sooner or later players faces the situation when quantity of their Spies is not enough to get report about enemy city. This type of sity is going to fix this problem. You can keep Gates of such Cities closed almost all the time because Spies do not need it to be open.
Terrain
Any type of terrain.
Inside the walls
- Spy Guild (necessary). The more Spy Guilds you build - the more Spies you train.
- some Cottages (not necessary) - free population will be necessary to train Spies that was killed in missions. But you definately can transfer free population from other cities.
Defence
- 1 Tower + 1 Magic tower or 2 Towers.
? Fortifications if needed.
Villages
There is no requirements to villages in this city type. You can build there Alchemist Labs or Visionary Towers.
Visionary Towers is most popular choice for this type of city.

Visionary city
If you dont know the missions of enemy - you can lost all your army because of Assistance mission, sent to the city by your enemy's Allies. You will not be able to send Visionary mission if the Gates are closed. So - it must be opened almost all the time.
Terrain
Any type of terrain.
Inside the walls
There is no requirements to the buildings inside city walls. But you can build some Cottages because free population will be necessary to train Visionaries that was killed in missions. You can also transfer free population from other cities.
Defence
- 1 Tower + 1 Magic tower or 2 Towers.
? Fortifications if needed.
Villages
- Visionary towers in all Villages.

Science city
Science is needed at any level of player. Moreover - the higher this level - the more Science you will need. So some players build specialised Science cities. If you does not build Labs in the Villages you can keep the Gates in such city closed.
Terrain
Any type of terrain.
Inside the walls
- Alchemist Labs (necessary)
- Cottages (desirable). Every Alchemist Lab needs some population to work there. So - if your Architecture level in this city do not fit this requirements - you will have to build Cottages.
Defence
- 1 Tower + 1 Magic tower or 2 Towers.
? Fortifications if needed.
Villages
- Alchemist Labs.

Resource city
Sometimes people build specialised city in order to gain some type of resource. Usually on higher progress levels, buildings in such city became to be destroyed and city obtains other specialisation.
Terrain
Such cities usually are founded on terrains with bonus to production resources:
- Mountines for Stone with at least 9 (12 is maximum) stone cells in the Villages and at least 7 stone cells inside the walls
- Forests for Wood
- Steppe for Grains with at least 5 Grains sells in the Villages (8 is maximum)
- Desert for Iron with at least 3 Iron sells in the Villages (4 is maximum)
Inside the walls
- Resource producing buildings
- Other buildings that suits further specialisation of this city
Defence
- Defencive buildings that suits further specialisation of this city
Villages
- Resource producing buildings
- Other buildings that suits further specialisation of this city

Well done Onym

My only additional would be a 'Slave city' or 'Slave pit' - Which should be all cottages save for defences + merchant guilds to move the slaves to your miltary cities.

Many of these will be combined together. Classic combinations are :

Spies + Visionaries
Gold city + Slaves providor
Science + Military

kingkano wrote:My only additional would be a 'Slave city' or 'Slave pit' - Which should be all cottages save for defences + merchant guilds to move the slaves to your miltary cities.

Thanks .
In fact, Gold city can serve as Slave city too because of many Cottages inside the walls.
But if you need only slaves - you can build Labs or Visionaries in the Villages. In this case it will be Slave-Science or Slave-Visionary city.

Onym wrote: Gold city
This type of city produces gold. I have heard that you can reach up to 40k gold per hour producing level. The Gates in this city type are open almost always. Sometimes players build this type of city as a Capital. In this case Gold production can be huge, but i think it ig not a good practice because of low defence level of such city.
Terrain
You can build this type of city in the Desert because of bonus of +70% gold production, or in the Native Land.
Inside the walls in such cities after a building necessary buildings such as Market and Resurrector you can build:
- many Cottages (necessary). In fact - all cells that is not occpated by other necessary buildings must be occupated by the Cottages.
- Mercenary Orders (not necessary). This type of city is very suitable for Mercenary construction because Mercenaries needs only gold and free population to build.
? Trading Posts. Some calculation show that if there is some Trading Posts inside the walls - production of gold rate will be higher.
Defence
- 2 Magic tower or 1 tower + 1 Magic tower. Since in such cities usually located many Mercenaries - the (2 magic towers) variant looks qite nice. But it will not protect you from several attack "waves".
? 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level5 + 1 Fortification of level 6. If Golden City has been founded in the Desert - Fortifications losts much part of their sense because defemce rate will not be on the maximum.
Villages
- Trading Posts in all villages

1 - The type of land is necessary only for knights. All other races will have the same production of gold and +25 defence in home terrain. This is because you need to take off all people from trading posts to get more income. Biggest part of income in gold city is tax from posts. Not its production. Even in desert bonus from tax from additional free people will be better than producing gold by posts itself. Only knight have enoung bonus to keep posts full.
2 - market and resurrector = -2 cottages = -200 population = lower tax in town that will not prpeared to fight usually (there is no army). 3-4 fortification = -3-4 cottages...
3 - gold city without trader specialisation is bad.
4 - mercenary buildings need to build not many. Need to number how much gold will be there in income.

Onym wrote: Military city
This city is made to train army. You will have to move resources to this city from the Farm city, and also you will have to move here people from Gold City. You can keep the Gates of such city closed since there is no required buildings in the Villages.
Terrain
Almost any terrain fits to this City type, but Native Land will be the best choice in my opinion. You also can build this City type in the Steppe if there are many Grain cells in the Villages.
Inside the walls
- Military buildings (necessary) - almost all types except the Mercenary Order.
- some Cottages (desirable) - free population will be necessary to build the barracks and to train units.
Defence
- 1 Tower + 1 Magic tower or 2 Towers. Usually there almost no army in such cities. So Magic tower are usually not necessary. But you can move here some quantity of Merenaries to prevent fmall armies attacks. In this case Magic Tower can help you.
? 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level 5 + 1 Fortification of level 6. Like in the Golden City - this type of defence is not very efficient if city has been found on any terrain except the Native Land.
Villages
There is no requirements to villages in this city type. You can build there Alchemist Labs or Visionary Towers, or some Trading Posts on your choice.

All military buildings? usually need to chose quantity of army and choose what buildings you need.
defense? For what? If here are mercs only in defense, why do you need to lost 3-4 squares?
Population from gold city? And what your gold city will produce after it?
Better idea in military town - to number how much population it grows in hour and build only buildings for using it or some more. Then you will can just put auto train of your army in it.
Or it can be town with really many military buildings and you need to keep here your governour with some scrolls on him.

About Gold city:

Ozyr wrote: 1 - The type of land is necessary only for knights. All other races will have the same production of gold and +25 defence in home terrain. This is because you need to take off all people from trading posts to get more income.

This depends on Trading Posts quantity. But generally you are right - Almost all people in such cities are idle. I think it will be good idea if someone writes a separate guide about Gold City with calculations and explanations.

Ozyr wrote: 2 - market and resurrector = -2 cottages = -200 population = lower tax in town that will not prpeared to fight usually (there is no army). 3-4 fortification = -3-4 cottages...

I think that resurrector and market is better to have in every city. But i am not insist on this opinion. If you need more gold - you definitely can sacrifice this buildings.
About fortifications: question mark in this line means that this type of buildings is not necessary and players should decide to build them or not at their own opinion.

Ozyr wrote:3 - gold city without trader specialisation is bad.

It just will produce less gold if player will have another specialisation. But you are right - in this case such city type loses much of it's sense. By the way - don't you think that Benefactor specialisation can also give some advantages?

Ozyr wrote:4 - mercenary buildings need to build not many. Need to number how much gold will be there in income.

The number of such buildings is one of the questions on which the player have to answer by himself.

About military city:

Ozyr wrote: All military buildings? usually need to chose quantity of army and choose what buildings you need.

I have never said that player need all types of military buildings. My words was "Almost all" . Of course player have to build only buildings that he need.

Ozyr wrote:defense? For what?

As i said before you don't have to build defense in this type of city. On your own risk.

Ozyr wrote:Population from gold city? And what your gold city will produce after it?

Gold cities have quite big population growth level. I think it will not be a big problem if you will transfer some slaves into military city sometimes.

Ozyr wrote:Better idea in military town - to number how much population it grows in hour and build only buildings for using it or some more. Then you will can just put auto train of your army in it.

You are right. For this purpose i wrote about cottages.

Ozyr wrote:Or it can be town with really many military buildings and you need to keep here your governour with some scrolls on him.

This is also one of good ideas.

This guide don't tells about "how many buildings i have to have in my cities" but about "what types of buildings i have to have".

Anyway - thank you for the answers. I hope it will be useful for some players.

Onym wrote:About Gold city:
Gold cities have quite big population growth level. I think it will not be a big problem if you will transfer some slaves into military city sometimes.

Good developed military city will eat all of your slaves and ask for more.
You can collect info from this topic and make a good guide. Some time ago i thought about creating some guids, but i have enough time for it. So i only can sometimes look and help somebody in creating it.

I found this quite useful, as a new player.

But i`m wondering which types of cities u build first?

Turn ur capital into military from start and ur second be a farm? or
Capital into science with some farm and ur second as farm then 3rd military? But wouldnt that make u weak and easy to be picked?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

At the beginning need as more science as you can get.
Capital is protected by monsters defense.
Farm city usually is a capital - as most protected town.

Anyway - all this types of towns starts its good work at 5-7 lvl buildings. So It need to use it on suzerain.

my idea for a military city is on steppe or native land

steppe= crop advantage

healers suck up your crops fastly

400 per healer

also put 2 villages trading posts and 1 of them mirror+visionary

and the last 1 is a science part..

that makes gold, science, and visionary possible

This town will be terrible.
Good town for train healers "eat" 100k-400k crops a day. Its impossible to grow so much.
On suzerain almost all (or all) resourses need to have from ruins.

I'm new to the game and trying to collect as much info as i can.
I have a mentor advicing me already,but since there is this topic here and i want to specialize my cities from early lvls I'd like to ask some questions in this thread.

First of all I'd like to ask how many cottages are necessary in each city.
Moreover when you refer to a city do you also refer to the villages surrounding it?And what should be done with resources found on villages?Should I build the proper building on them or just ignore and keep my specialization?
Which kind of buildings are a MUST and should be in every type of city?
In a military city how many buildings of each type should I build?I mean should 1 marauder cage,1 graveyard,1 terrosaur yard etc etc (for demons) be enough or I should have more depending on the troop production I desire to have most?

These are some of my questions for now.Any answers will be welcome.
Thanks for your time reading and as I said earlier, forgive any silly questions or missunderstandings since I'm totally new.

In what way does having the maximum city hall change all this? And by "maximum city hall" I mean the 1000 gems thingy. Seems it's the same as 4 lvl 7 cotages, 1 lvl 6 + 1 lvl7 warehouse. (and it's instant, no more normal resources, and you need to pay 30 gems for each lvl 7 cotage anyway)

This might be a stupid question but why do people separate farm and military cities? Isnt it possible or better to have one city that produces army and thats where you keep your units too?

Farm city
This type of city serves as army base. And must have maximum protection from any type of intrusion.
Terrain
I think best terrain for this type of city - is native land because of bonus +25 defence (Magic Forest for Elves, Cursed Forest for Drow, Holy Land for Knights and Deadland for Demons). I think this is the best type of city for the Capital.
Inside the walls in such cities better to build
- many Counterspy Guild (necessary)
- some Warehouse (not necessary)
- some Cottages (not necessary) to train Counterspies or Mirrors
? you can build some Expeditionary Corps in the city, but since the Gates in such cities are closed most of time - Explorers will stay inside the walls.
Defence
- 2 Magic tower or 1 tower + 1 Magic tower
- 3 Fortifications of level 7 (gives 49 defence on Native Land) or 3 Fortifications of level5 + 1 Fortification of level 6.
Villages
- Mirrors in all villages

Look at the green thingies. There isn't enough room for a good amount of (counter)spy buildings AND loads of army producing buildings. An army build city doesn't have just one carrier building, one soldier building, on cavalry building and so on, but alot of them. So it's hard to combine that.
An army build city will be able to use it's villages for other things, like produce gold, wood, research... You could keep your army there, but then you won't be able to produce a massive amount of (couter)spy's to keep your army size a secret or spy for good targets to attack.

This guide seems to be for the strongest of suzarians, which play and pay very active. If you are still building up your city's and/or army, this guide should be a guideline. Try to implement some of it's features to your city's, and look what works best for you.

I have for example an research city, which is fairly dedicated. But it does have some buildings which should not be in a research city. Why do I have them? Because I need them because I am to weak to have a 100% dedicated city, and I am still working on my research/quests/resource gathering.

It's not a training city; it's a city to hold an army. It doesn't have any training buildings.

That did not answer the question of fairywing. He/she wanted to know why not combine them. You didn't give an answer to that.

I wasn't answering fairywing; I was responding to you.

The answer to fairywing is that you can't have everything in one city; you want the city with your army to be stuffed with counterspies (and mirrors), so that there's little or no room for troop-training buildings.

Thx everyone. I think i see the advantages separating the two later on.