TakeAChanceOnMe

Orc Male

Not affiliated with an Alliance

 

Player Profile

#/Player/Profile/388384

Alliance Overview

 

This guide will be about how to specialise your cities to do certain tasks efficiently.

Throughout this guide, I'm going to be going off of the assumption that your city is located on a 7 food square. There are some arguments for a 5/6 food, but that's all addressed on the alliance forum, under the city location guide. 

If you're not using a 7 food spot, your city format will look a bit different from the ideas I give in this guide, but hopefully you'll get an idea of the principles to keep in mind when shaping a city anyways.

Keep in mind as well that this guide will be heavily shaped by my own playstyle, and the style of city building below will revolve around prioritising things such as population growth, balancing resource consumption, building and sustaining armies, trade, gathering and so on. The goal of playing a game is to enjoy it, and not all people enjoy spreadsheeting and optimising. The only real "correct" way to play illyriad is to do what you have fun doing. If you'd get more enjoyment from building a nomadic city of cotters, build a nomadic city of cotters.

THE BASIS OF A CITY

To start with, there are several buildings that every city has, and there are several buildings that are useful to the point that they are more or less essential for every city.

These buildings are not demolishable, and come with every city:

• Resource plots. They produce resources. 25 of them in total, 37 population from each at level 20 for a total population of 925.
• Common Ground. Makes cows. 1497 population at level 20.
• Paddock. Makes horses. Pop: 1497  
• Wall. Gives your troops a defensive bonus when defending inside the city. 0 population. 

(Tip: upgrade this to level 1 at least shortly after acquiring a new city. Walled cities have a different texture on the world map from unwalled, so even if it's only at level 1 the different texture will make your city look a little more defensive).   

 

With these buildings, you have a starting total of 3919 population, and 23 empty build slots to create your city with.

ESSENTIALS 

These are the buildings so useful that they should be in every city you build. Every player has their own preferences when it comes to this, and I'd recommend drawing up your own list. Here are some ideas: 

• Warehouse. With a warehouse, you can store all the resources needed to build every building (apart from the Wall) to level 20. Pop: 370.
• Storehouse. This is useful, but has less storage capacity than the warehouse, so it's not quite critical. Many players like to demolish theirs after building their wall to level 20, but many others like to keep it, as the increased storage capacity is convenient. Pop: 37.
• Barracks. This is needed to produce military units. Regardless of how peaceful a player you may be, maintaining an army is important for both your sake, and your alliance's. An armed target is less attractive than an unarmed, and keep in mind that we are a landclaim alliance. Of all alliances in Illyriad, we claim the most land for ourselves, the implication being that we will defend our claim with force if needed. Even if you have no intent on starting conflict, do not neglect your ability to defend against it. It's very much possible to prioritise gathering and trade, while still maintaining a large military force. Information on military troops can be found on the alliance forums. Pop: 37.
• Mage Tower. This grants the ability to cast spells such as runes, which defend your city from hostile units, along with many others which grant bonuses/debuffs to whatever your target is. It also generates mana, which can be used to maintain spells, sold on the market, or used to make magical essences to create high end crafted gucci gear with. Pop: 1497.
• Library. This is necessary not only for researching new technologies, but also generating research points. You need research points to maintain sovereignty, so you can't delete your library after finishing all research. It is always a vital building that every city needs. Pop: 37.
• Flourmill. This grants a 2% food bonus per level, totalling 40% at level 20. This is a massive bonus which allows you to sustain high population cities, or to run higher taxes on lower population cities. Pop: 16.
• Marketplace. This allows the training of trade units, and grants a +20 movement speed buff to caravans at level 20. Pop: 37.
• Consulate. This is used to increase your diplomatic visibility (the range around your city within which you can see diplomats move), and to train your own diplomatic troops. Pop: 1497.

 

 Those are some suggestions. I use those buildings in all of my cities with the exception of the storehouse. You could also argue the usefulness of the marketplace, as caravans can always be sped using prestige if you need them to get somewhere fast. I like to keep the ability to train trade units though. I wouldn't recommend trying to go without the Warehouse, Library, Flourmill, Barracks, Consulate or Mage Tower. 
 

As an example, my own list is as follows:

Warehouse, Marketplace, Library, Flourmill, Barracks, Consulate, Mage Tower.

These take up 7 build slots, and give a total of 3491 population. Combined with the 3919 population from undemolishable buildings, this gives me a total of 7410 population and 16 spare building slots.  

SPECIALISATION

After having made your own basis for your cities, you'll know exactly how many slots you'll have left to work with. The question then is what to do with them. Here are some common ways to specialise a city:

• Trade. A single trade city is useful to all players, as it allows them to place buy/sell orders on the markets and have greater access to goods. A single trade city is enough to allow players to keep over 100 buy/sell orders concurrently, so I would advise no more than one per account, or even per player. 
• Troops, Military/Diplomatic. Every city should be specialised in 1 troop type. The reasons for this are that even if you don't plan on building many troops, having the capacity to do so quickly and maintain them efficiently (meaning at reduced costs) makes you more flexible as a player, and capable of projecting power, because you will have the groundwork done if you ever do decide to build large amounts of troops. Again though, I would urge all our players to build and maintain troops, as it makes both you and the alliance stronger and better defended. Wars do happen, we were in a small one very recently. Someday, we may find ourselves in a larger one. We are not a landclaim alliance, and again, it's best to be prepared.   
• Guilds for Hunting/Gathering. A lot of players, myself included, enjoy gathering. It can be a profitable activity, and you could probably make an argument for skinner guilds in most cities, as a lot of animal parts are either useful, or marketable. Most herbs/minerals are not so useful, so scout your surrounding area before deciding on either of those. 
• Crafting. Crafted items can imbue commanders/elite divisions/garrisons/armies with powerful bonuses, or can alternatively be sold on the market for what will hopefully but not always be a profit. Much crafted gear is useless, but some is useful and it can be worth having the buildings needed to produce your own supply of them. Info on crafted items can be found on the alliance forums.
• Geomancer. A Geomancer town is a town with multiple Geomancer's Retreats. These are buildings that buff the power of Geomancy spells, the first building by 100% the spells effect, the second by 50% and so on. It can be worth having one of these in your cluster to buff the food spells you can place on your nearby cities/nearby allied cities from an 8% food bonus to 20%+. If you have allies in the area you're looking to build a Geomancer city though, you might considere first checking to see if any have their own, and would be willing to cast their spells on you. 

I would divide these specialisations into 2 separate groups. There are "Major" Specialisations, and then there are "Minor" ones. The Major require a large number of buildings and a resource upkeep to support the Specialisation, and the Minor require little to none. Of the specialisations listed above, the Major would be troop, trade and geomancer.

As an example of this, if you were to specialise a city in cavalry, you would likely want Cavalry Parade Grounds to reduce cavalry upkeep. Those buildings require a lot of clay, so you would then need a Kiln to raise clay production. To produce cavalry, you need troop materiel (horses, saddles, chainmail, spears, and unless you're an elf, plate armour). This means you would need a Saddlemaker, a Blacksmith, a Spearmaker, and a Forge (again, unless you're an elf, in which case you can skip the Forge). 

As an example of a Minor Specialisation, if you wanted to craft advanced spears, you would need a spearmaker and a spearsmith. If you wanted to craft spears faster, you would want multiple spearsmiths. As another example, if you wanted to gather rare herbs, you would need a herbalists guild. Simple, no resource upkeep or supporting buildings needed. 

 

RESOURCE BALANCING

Every Major Specialisation requires a certain amount of basic resources as upkeep. Assuming your city is settled on a plot with 7 food, you will have only 3 plots of either wood, clay, iron or stone. You don't want to put any additional strain on whatever resource you only have 3 plots of, as it will be your bottleneck for how much military sov potential you have (mil sov costing large amounts of basic resources as upkeep) and potentially limit the tax you can run without incurring an hourly resource deficit.

Hourly deficits to clay, wood, iron, stone, food should be avoided at all costs. Even if you maintain a large store of the resource, a thief attack could wipe your storage. If you run dry on a deficit, your buildings will delevel. 

As an example, if your city is on a 3 clay tile, don't specialise in cavalry. The upkeep building costs clay to run, so it'd tighten your resource bottleneck. Specialise in a troop type which doesn't cost clay, such as archers or infantry.

You can even run multiple Major Specialisations in your city. The important thing is that you only specialise in one troop type, and that you don't create a new resource bottleneck by running specialisations that use the resource you only have 3 plots of/putting too much stress on one of your other resource plots. 

Here are the buildings required for some specialisations, what they cost in basic resource upkeep, and which resource distribution you want for each specialisation.  
For starters though, it's best to build either a kiln/carpentry/stonemason/foundry, depending on what resource you only have 3 plots of. That resource will be your bottleneck, so it's good to raise the amount you have of it. All of the above give 1497 population, so you can tack that population on to the total from your essential build list, and remove one build slot. Using mine as an example, it'd be 7410 population + 1497 from the res boosting building, and 1 slot less for a total of 15, down from 16. 

CAVALRY CITY -7 food and 3 stone or 3 iron.

• Cavalry Parade Ground (1-3 depending on preference. 1 at level 20 is 30% upkeep reduction. 2 is 45%, 3 is 52.5%). Costs Pop: 1796 Res: 2700 Clay, 1100 Wood.
• Kiln, to make up for the large amount of clay you lose to Cavalry Parade Grounds. Pop: 1497.
• Blacksmith. Pop: 1497.
• Saddlemaker. Pop: 1497.
• Spearmaker. Pop: 1497.
• Forge (unless elf). Pop: 1497.
• Brewery (if human). Pop: 40.
• Stonemason/Foundry. Pop: 1497.

SPEAR CITY - 7 food and 3 wood or 3 stone.

• Spearmans Billets, again 1-3. Pop: 1796. Res: 2700 Clay, 1100 Iron.
• Spearmaker. Pop: 1497.
• Tannery. Pop: 1497.
• Blacksmith. Pop: 1497.
• Brewery (If you're an orc). Pop: 40.
• Kiln. Pop: 1497.
• Carpentry/Stonemason. Pop: 1497.

BOW CITY - 7 food, 3 stone or 3 clay.

• Archers Fields. Pop: 1796. Res: 2700 Wood, 1100 Iron.
• Fletcher. Pop: 1497.
• Tannery. Pop: 1497.
• Brewery (If you're an elf). Pop: 40.
• Carpentry. Pop: 1497.
• Stonemason/Kiln. Pop: 1497.

INFANTRY CITY - 7 food, 3 wood or 3 clay.

• Infantry Quarters. Pop: 1796. Res: 2700 Stone, 1100 Iron.
• Blacksmith. Pop: 1497.
• Forge (if not an elf). Pop: 1497.
• Brewery (if dwarf). Pop: 40.
• Stonemason. Pop: 1497.
• Carpentry/Kiln. Pop: 1497

THIEF CITY - 7 food 3 stone.

• Thieves Den. Pop: 898. Res: Wood 1700, Clay 1100, Iron 1700.
• Saddlemaker. Pop: 1497.
• Bookbinder. Pop: 1497.
• Stonemason. Pop: 1497.
• Resource boosting buildings, depending on how many Thieves Dens you want to run. It can be worthwhile running 3 Thieves Dens, as the upkeep on a serious thief stack can get very high. In that case, you'll certainly want a Carpentry and Foundry, and possibly a Kiln as well. All give 1497 Pop.

TRADE CITY - 7 food 3 iron.

• Trade Office. Only one is needed. Pop: 2000. Res: 2850 Wood, 690 Clay, 1610 Stone. 
• Merchants Guild. (Can technically be demolished after traders are all trained, provided you never send your traders home again. If you do, they will disappear as they will no longer have accomodation. Pop: 1510.
• Foundry. Pop: 1497.
• Resource boosters, dependent on which troop specialisation you run with your trade city. Cavalry tends to work well with trade, as neither require an upkeep of iron.

GEOMANCER CITY - 7 food 3 iron.

• Geomancer's Retreat. The more you build, the stronger your bonus will be. The first doubles the effect of geomancy, all subsequent half in effectiveness. If your spell grants an 8% food bonus, for example, the first will boost it to 16%. The second will raise it an additional 4% to 20%. The third will raise it 2% to 22%. Pop: 898. Res: Wood 700. Clay 2300. Stone 1500. 
• Foundry. Pop: 1497.
• Resource boosters, dependent on which troop you pair with your geomancer. As with trade, cavalry works well with this one. 

 

So going off of this list, as well as our essentials, lets say I have a city on a 3 iron plot that I want to specialise in cavalry.

• For starters, I have my list of essential buildings that I've listed above. These leave me at 7410 population, and with 16 empty build slots.
• I will then add a foundry to the list, as I only have 3 iron slots. 1497 pop + 7410: 8907. 15 Build slots remaining.
• Next up are the cavalry parade grounds. 2-3 are usually fine, in this case we'll say 3. This will give me a higher population than 2 or 1, cost me more resources to maintain, and give me a high discount on cavalry maintenance (52.5%). The higher population comes with its own problems, but for my own circumstances it works, as I want to obtain a large number of cities, and to do that I will need to hit high population requirements. Everyones circumstances are different, and cities are highly customisable. See what works best for you. 1796 pop x 3: 5388. 5388 + 8907: 14295. 12 slots remaining.
• I then need a kiln, to help with the clay upkeep on cavalry parade grounds. 1497 pop + 14295: 15792. 11 slots remaining.
• Blacksmith, spearsmaker, saddlemaker. 1497 pop each for a total of 4491. 4491 + 15792: 20283.

I now have a city with a planned population of 20238 population and my specialisation complete, but I still have 8 slots left. Time for the Minor Specialisation

MINOR SPECIALISATION

Some options on what to use to fill the last slots include guilds for gathering, T2 resource production buildings (bookbinder, brewery etc) and crafting buildings. As for what is most worthwhile as a secondary city focus... it depends. Here are some tips:

• Breweries are very helpful to orcs and elves, as both races need large quantities of beer. The downside is that they have low population, which can make it harder to obtain more cities if you are not done growing.
• Skinners guilds are generally worthwhile, if you have the energy to hunt, as many animals have valuable parts.
• Herbalists and Minerals will depend on what you have in your area. Keep in mind that not all rare herbs and minerals are valuable. Most aren't. Don't settle cities just because you see many rare icons, scout them first. If you don't know which are valuable, ask your alliance mates. For herbs: Dyallum Gall is valuable, and Spidertree Leaves are alright too. Larken Wood is purely speculative, but might be useful someday. For minerals: Iceheart, Silversteel and Arterium are good. All Silversteel mines are currently claimed, Iceheart is only found at the poles, Arterium is monopolised. You probably won't just stumble upon them. Scout first, and then make your plans for herbalist/mining guilds.
• It's usually not a good idea to have both a tannery and a saddlemaker in the same city. Both require cows, and both use cows faster than you can make them.
• Siege workshops are useless at the moment, as the market value of siege blocks is lower than the cost of the ingredients required to make them. What's more, they're not a resource you need a steady supply of. It's easier to buy a stockpile than produce.
• Don't grow your city too big, or you'll be forced to run low taxes to sustain your bloated population.
• Do what you enjoy in the game. Whether that's crafting, hunting, or anything else. 

 

 

POPULATION

All of those buildings above under Minor Specialisation (with the exception of the humble brewery) give 1497 population. 1497 x 8 is 11976, and this tacked on to a population of 20283 equals 32259. A permanent population that high would make your city an absolute nightmare to feed, and force you to run low taxes for the sake of not running a food deficit. Cities at 30k plus are good for when you want to hit the population limit for new cities, but permanently it's not fun to have cities that bloated.

A good way to lower this number is by reserving some of your population for cotters, as they only give 4 population each. If you do decide you want to raise your pop to gain more cities, simply demolish your cottages and build temporary trade offices. Another way to lower the number is by skimming off the top of buildings, leaving them at level 18 or so instead of 20.

Because of the issue of keeping population down, of the 8 or so remaining build slots I would reserve some spaces for cotters. Even with cotters taking up space, you're still left with space for guilds, craft buildings, more T2 res or whatever it is you'd like. To finish off my starting example, the city would look something a little like this:

BASIS of 7410 Pop:

• Warehouse 370
• Resource Plots 925
• Wall 0
• Paddock 1497
• Common Ground 1497
• Marketplace 37
• Barracks 37
• Consulate 1497
• Mage Tower 1497
• Flourmill 16
• Library 37

For a total of 7410 Pop, 16 build slots left.

Then the Specialisation, in this case cavalry:

• 3 Cav Parade 5388
• Kiln 1497
• Foundry 1497
• Blacksmith, Spearmaker, Saddlemaker 4491

For a total of 20283 Pop, 8 build slots left.

Lets say I want to make it a hunting city with my remaining slots.

• 4 Skinners Guilds 5988
• 4 Cotters 16

My total pop is 26287 in my completed city, it can sustain cavalry well. It doesn't consume any iron as upkeep because it only has 3 iron plots, this way it can still run decent military sov. It can also be used to hunt with as a background focus. So, it can accomplish all that's desired from it. 

 

CONCLUDE

All right, that's about it. Of course there are plenty of ways to plan a city, and that's just one example. Every player has a different way of playing, but hopefully the ideas in the guide will at least be helpful to you, whatever path you go down. The example I gave isn't a rule, and you can mess around all you want with it to design the city you want for yourself. This was a bit of a monster guide, so good job if you made it all the way down here. Feel free to message me about any questions