Optimum City Layout[]
The total number of buildings you can have is limited by your town hall's level which itself cannot go above ten. After taking into account your requirements for non-production buildings, you have to use your remaining allowance of buildings to get the right balance of wood, stone, iron and food production.
Your layout consists of:
Production buildings:
All buildings occupy one square, with the exception that empty green spaces next to a farm turn into grassland.
See also Resources
- Forest (for Woodcutter's Hut)
- Stone (for Quarry)
- Iron (for Iron Mine)
- Grassland and Lake (for Farm)
Processing buildings:
- Sawmill (for Woodcutter's Hut)
- Stonemason (for Quarry)
- Foundry (for Iron Mine)
- Mill (for Farm)
- Cottages (all production)
A production building gets the following production increases for neighbouring level-ten buildings. These factors are multiplied together with the base production to give the building's final production.
- 75 from the first processing and nothing for additional processing.
- 50 for the first resource node and 40 for each additional resource.
- 50 for the first grassland and 40 for each additional grassland (Farm).
- 50 for each lake (Farm).
- 30 from each cottage.
Resources and processing give the same benefit to all neighbouring production buildings so it is good to arrange that they are shared by as many production buildings as possible, e.g. by placing a stonemason next to three quarries.
h1. Example 1: The single bonus:
"Example 1 layout":http://bit.ly/b3bzt0
A level-ten quarry (base production 300) with one stone resource node (bonus 50), one level-ten stonemason (bonus 75) and one level-ten cottage (30 bonus).
300 x 150 x 175 x 130 = 1024 stone per hour
h1. Example 2: The cumulative effect:
"Example 2 layout":http://bit.ly/ctLL49
As for Example 1 but with two more stone nodes and two more cottages. (Additional stonemasons would have no effect).
The bonus for three resources is 50 + 40 + 40 = 130 and the processing provides another 75. Three cottages give 30 each, for a total of 90.
300 x 230 x 175 x 190 = 2294 stone per hour
h1. Example 3: Farms with Cottages
Imagine a farm surrounded by a mill, a lake and six grassland (all buildings level 10). If one of the +40 grasslands were converted to a cottage it would only yield a 30 bonus, seemingly less production. However, because of how the bonuses are calculated the cottage increase is more significant than the grassland decrease.
With 6 grasslands and no cottage:
300 x 350 x 175 x 150 x 100 = 2756 food per hour
With 5 grasslands and 1 level 10 (+30) cottage:
300 x 310 x 175 x 150 x 130 = 3174 food per hour
There is a point of diminishing returns for adding cottages to farms. With a farm, mill and one lake, total production values would be:
6 grassland, 0 cottage = 2756 food/h
5 grassland, 1 cottage = 3174 food/h
4 grassland, 2 cottage = 3402 food/h
3 grassland, 3 cottage = 3441 food/h
2 grassland, 4 cottage = 3292 food/h
1 grassland, 5 cottage = 2953 food/h
Thus the best balance is three grassland and three cottages.
Other buildings[]
1. Military buildings: This is a first city layout designed for the new player in mind. As such, military is not that useful. What is required is a level-10 Moonglow Tower to purify resources, a level-10 Trinsic Temple to recruit a baron and a barracks to house the baron.
If you are worried about defence, the Trinsic Temple and a level-10 barracks will hold 1000 troops. Remember to leave a space for a baron though, as you need a baron to build a new city or to capture an opponent's city.
2. Warehouses are an optional component of a new city. I include two. Notice that they are beside processing for wood and stone (sawmill, stonemason) as theey amplify the capacity of warehouses.
3. Gold/transport: Because your transport buildings (harbors/markets) are the boosters for your gold producing townhouses, it is optimal to include townhouses wherever you have transportation buildings. The builds are slightly different depending on whether or not you have a harbor. For simplicity, I used the same number of buildings for each.
4. On balance: Simply said, everything you build requires wood and stone. Wood and stone needs to be a primary focus at the start.
Generic First City[]
I started a new game and used the resource layout for this sample city. Fortunately for instructional purposes, it has a nice blend of every resource.
You will see the following rules implemented:
- The generic cluster was 3 production buildings lined up right beside 3 resource nodes, with a booster building put beside the middle production building. Generic Cluster
- I placed wood and stone first. Food 3rd. Iron last.
- Sometimes resources get in the way. Occasionally you need to delete a node to make way for the generic cluster.
- Cottages were then put beside the boosters unless there was a beneficial resource node. The key is to try and link as many cottages as possible with a minimum construction speed of 1500 (14 cottages). Personally I wouldn't want a city with less than 2000 (19 cottages)
- If you look carefully you'll see that I added a building here, or a cottage there. If you want to learn more about city design, see this thread in the forums. It will help you pick out a city also. Advanced City Design and Placement