A hero uses gold, not food for one.

For two yes you need to be of certain rank. This is to stop lets say a 50m pres person from making a new account, intentinally lossing a level 1000 hero to them, and then using the hero to instantly jump up high in progress. Think about how much a hero with 1000 politics would help a new city out, or 1000 intel for research.


If effects those not trying to abuse the system, but at least in this instance the system can not be abused.