Main city after BP

[Grundalizer]

Ok, I'm on my 3rd day and I'm slowly gathering more information from these boards. Some of the guides are ok, but a lot of them seem to lack clear directions. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out the best setup for my Main city after the 7 day beginner protection is up. I don't plan to be taking down LVL 10 NPC's anytime soon.
Here is my city at this very moment in time.



I'm basically just researching as much as I can, and just lost my entire army (About 800 people) stupidly attacking a lvl 6 forest. I havn't spent too much money or resources on an army because I don't need one for another 4 days.



Here is my outside.

I'm trying to figure out if I should be heading towards 9-10 barracks and 9-10 cottages like I hear a lot of people do at their mains.

I also have a second city with about 1800 population and a bunch of random farms/quarries/etc It's just a city to help me make extra resources during BP and also has a 6 academy so I can research two things at once.

So, should I look towards making only lumbermills at my Main city from now on? Should I get at least 2 farms to high levels?

Should I be slowly amassing troops at my main city so I can unleash them once BP is over?
Thanks for any tips, criticism and help is welcome

[Dserker]

Lumber is the way to go. It can be sold for other resources. Build no more cottages, only barracks, and get to work on that army. 4 days isn't long, and you will need it. Beacon needs to be lvl 7 minimum, and inn should be just lvl 1, as the best heroes come from lvl 1 inns.

[greyking]

that is your main city after 7 days the walls could be a higher level the empty spots in the town should be filled with barracks and you need to focus your resources on one specific thing not spread out like it is other wise not to bad

[Dserker]

That's after 3 days greyking.

[KingKovacs]

Continue to push your resource fields up, and all empty places in your city except for one (rally point will go there) should be filled by lvl 4 barracks (to produce archers). The main concern you should focus on is making ATS (archer towers) making archers, and upping your walls/resource fields/barracks..... After that, make sure to upgrade informatics and your beacon tower so you will be able to gauge incoming attacks. Also, it would not be bad to make scout in about an even ratio to archers so it will make it harder for the enemy to scout you.

The best way to learn is trial and error, hell I am still learning and have been playing since about June.

[greyking]

That's after 3 days greyking.

ah ok sorry well keep working the fields and pick one resource to build lumber is easier since it takes less population then iron and get the empty spots filled with barracks other then that just keep leveling the resources up and work on the barracks one at a time till they are level 9 to make ballistas to farm with

[Grundalizer]

Awesome thanks for all the responses. I'll start focusing on Lumber and fill the empty spots inside the walls with Barracks. Do people usually have their 2nd city hold their main attack force...or keep them at their main city but just buy lots of food to last the night.

Are cottages just raised in levels as needed to get more troops?

Also, think its worth it to just keep capping lvl 1-4 valleys while im still in BP to help resources.

And final question...once BP is up, did you all crush your player neighbors or focus on NPCs?

[KingKovacs]

Cottages, yes. That is how I work usually, I increase my cottages as my idle population goes below a thousand or so, because it gets annoying having to play with production and having negative population if you build your resource fields much higher than your idle population can handle.

As of right now, your troops should be equal between cities, or maybe even a few more in your second city because your first city has more wall defenses (I'm assuming).

As far as capturing valleys, stick with 4-5 lvl 4 or 5 valleys (Whatever you manage to take down and whatever your townhall can hold). There is no need to keep attacking those valleys because you won't obtain medals, and the amount of resources you get with each attack are not sufficient.

As far as once BP has ended, stick with raiding people that quit the game or don't have any defense until all our gone within a 15 mile radius, by then you should have made enough NPCS around you to farm and you will have Ballistas.

[Brooke ♥♥]

1.Don't get a second city till the first is well defended....
2.Cottages are used to hole population which is trained to troops, so yes.
3.IMO, No.
4.Depends on how big my neighbors were.........