1. If a city has more than 100k troops, you can not (generally) attack it with a single wave and smash its defenses. So, you spam it with repeated waves of fast troops (e.g., scouts or pikes) to kill a few tens of thousands of archers in each attack. Eventually, you can smash the defenses.

2. Another option to attack a very strong city is to join that player's alliance and reinforce their city, then drop out of their alliance and join an alliance at war with them. I've seen a city attacked with 1 million troops (10 reinforcements of 100k troops) this way. This is why you can uncheck the box to accept troops from alliance members.

3. If you've seen big clumps of NPC5s and NPC10s, there's a trick to getting NPC5s and NPC10s. Generally, the level of the flat determines the level of the city. The level of the flat advances one level (10s go back to 1s) at each server maintenance. (if they are unowned by players)

4. A new player (on a server) should get help from an experienced player. The new player can get resources from his/her alliance, and build a few barracks. The new player builds a few troops. The experienced player conquers a NPC10, pulls out all defenses, and sets the tax rate to 100%. The new player conquers it as a knight, abandons his/her first city, and repeats for a second NPC10. The experienced player gives the newbie resources to get a start. This is not a replacement for learning the game, but it is a way to get your roommate on your server.

5. A 250 attack (level 190?) hero will cut troop build times to 1/3 what they are with a low level hero. As a new player, I overlooked my heros.

6. Medals are different on every server. (Evony wants their money)

7. Build NPCs, Farm the NPCs with (4k each) ballistas & transports, upgrade your heros, sell the food and buy lumber / iron. Build lots of archers. With this formula, I've seen a player stay in the top 100 on a server, with a single city. He didn't have time for the other cities.

8. Every time you scout a NPC, the mayor changes. Just repeat the scouting until you get a hero you like. You can attack a NPC 50 times, and always know you will get a level 1 hero in the city, though I just like something under level 10.

9. The market swings wildly every day. Watch that, and buy at the lows / sell at the highs.

10. The hero upgrading is nonsensical. You can attack with a politics hero (and be guaranteed to win via ballistas vs. low-level NPCs) then upgrade his politics. The same goes for intelligence heros. This is as good a reason to farm NPCs as the resources.

11. Each city should produce only 1 resources out of: food, iron, lumber, and stone. That's so you can make the best use of valleys.