There are 3 things which define a really good nation. Isolated position, fertile plains, and navigable rivers. If you find yourself in one of these you can exploit it to the fullest

Isolated position allows you to set up a very sizable city network without spending money on defense. War is quite unprofitable with walled cities easily fending off armies. Wars are also quite taxing on your land as they will plunder your farms. Having raiders turn up is devastating as it can push a city into starvation.

Fertile plains are by far the best and easiest thing to farm. You can develop farms twice as fast on plains then on gentle hills and 8x as efficient as irrigation. If you want to go irrigation you can massively compress cities. This allows you to develop the farms much quicker and get an overall population higher quicker. A compressed empire is also much better for defense. Being able to have multiple cities within a turns march makes it very easy to fend off invasions.

Naval trade is by far the easiest to set up and is very efficient. You can have one hub city support quite a large empire with a higher trade modifier. If you are new to the game it’s very simple to set up a naval trade system to be very efficient.

Shu
Shu starts surrounded by mountains with a interconnected river system. This allows you to turtle while farming quite efficently. They have a lot of flat land which are the best at being farmed. You only have one real neighbor who you can bully. However thought is a very important catagory so you will feel their penalty but craft is equally as important so kind of equal.

Wu

Wu have a bonus to navy, bladed weapons, but weaker cavalry and chariots. Cavalry hurts you quite a bit but eventually you will depend less on nobles and more on trained.

A very nice position as it has a very large plains to the north. Unlike shu its not interconnected which can greatly slow down movement. To the south their is a wide river, forested, and mountinous region. Which is a very poor to colonize. Quite a nice position as the north is very nice to colonize.

They only have one neighbor which is quite far away due to the forests. But the north is contested between multiple nations.

Shang
They start with a navagatable river nearby but not close enough to immediatly port. Still a very good start.

1 authoirty means more city and power is a important tech especially early.

Zhou
Better chariots which can be recruited at any city with nobles. Nearby river is not navagatable.

Han
Start with a navagatable river nearby but they cannot immediatly port it. Very flat allows for good farming.

Chu
Start with a navigable river

Qin
River is not navigable. Start in a mountainous region will be much harder to farm. Qin mixed foot are quite powerful mixing halberds, long spears, and crossbows all into one. But they have an upkeep of 35 where normal are 30, and they don't have the increased armor of spear men. This makes them the upkeep as guard units and nobles. This strong hybrid unit and increased combat efficiency allows their army to be extremely powerful.

Min Yue
Navigable river and access to the ocean is a plus. But it’s very forested making farming harder. Isolated position is a plus.
The forest should not be too big a problem once you get past the early game. Once you get the land ownership food boost you easily have enough excess workers to clear the forest.

Ba
They got the same system as Shu but in the mountainous part to the east. Combat efficiency and no thought reduction is a big bonus. If you are playing as Ba I would take out Shu as quickly as possible. Then you have the entire plains to yourself.

Power technologies are some of the most important in the game especially early. This contains trade, farming, and army.
Bronze age
Flood control should always be your first pick. It unlocks grain tax which is a very good source of income.

Roads are very helpful to speed up movement. Without a good road network it will be very hard to deal with bandits in time or to move soldiers around.

Irrigation and terrace farming are worse than regular farms but have specific purposes. Terrance farming is important inside hilly regions as it allows you to farm hills. Irrigation requires freshwater in the form of rivers and is far the worst option. Irrigation is most useful inside a very concentrated region. If you plan on going irrigation strategy you will compact cities very close to each other. Irrigation is also more labor efficient which does not matter once you get private land ownership.

Light chariots are a powerful upgrade which unlocks chariots and stables. However chariots get replaced with cavalry in the Warring states. Stables are not really needed as you can always depend on your nobility. Unless I need the immediate change in power I would skip chariots.

Signally unlocks barracks. Barracks is not that important early game as your militia and nobles are good but become essential mid game. Barracks unlocks trained which are very powerful and useful inside suppression. Revolts and unrest will happen and trained are your best method to keep this under control.

Coinage is essential for trade especially land. Caravansary allows resources to be imported and exported. Without that you will only be trading with your primary city or have to be inefficient. If you are doing naval trade it’s not as important as your primary city can affect quite a big region. Salt tax requires bureaucracy so is unlocked latter and kind of meh.

The food techs are quite powerful. The more food the more people the more tax, trade, and militia. Getting 10% food is a very easy

Walls are not super important. You can do without them and depend on your army for defense. Armies pillaging farms are devastating so you want to prevent it.
Warring state
Spear/crossbow allows for a hybrid unit which is quite useful. As ranged units tend to be engaged in melee and destroyed easily in small battles. So this mixture allows you to bring range units without that crippling downside.
Appoint strategist just gives you a commander so not super important.
Craft has a lot of very important techs. From trade, stability, and military it does quite a lot. The vast majority of techs are all useful.
Bronze Age
Bronze making allows you to clear forests, get a trade good, and unlocks very important techs. It’s one of the techs I unlock first as clearing forests is very helpful.
Silk and pottery are both trade goods and luxury goods. Having these in your trade network will make nobles happy while making a good profit.
Advanced bronze casting gives you authority, more trade income, weapons smith, and the ability to unlock powerful trade techs
Bronze armor unlocks armory which is one of the best ways to strengthen your army.

Bamboo stripes unlock one of the most essential edicts in the game bureaucracy. However its expensive costing 500 a turn in upkeep and unlocks more edicts which cost quite a lot. If your empire is sufficiently big and can afford get this ASAP. It’s easily the most essential thing in the game.

Boatyard will allow you to make boats. Some rivers can only be crossed with boats. However I have not found boats super useful so far.

Warring state

New trade goods are a significant increase in profit. Iron replaces bronze so you will need a second city producing it. I would get these first as the profit is huge.

One of the most important techs is iron armor and coat of plates. The armor upgrades makes a big difference in your ability to fight. It also unlocks guard halbers from the palace slot which are superior to professionals. You need tier 3 settlements for iron armor so it’s much harder to outfit but they are extremely powerful.

Swords unlocks the sword smith. In the warring state era this is highly situational. I would highly consider skipping until imperial. You unlock a single palace unit who is manuverable (5 speed and ignores marsh penalty) and good in rough terrain. They are the easiest to get palace troop which could have its own uses. Its very strong in forests and marshes having a bonus. But I would not get it the unit is not the greatest. In imperial state era you get a anti cavalry unit again palace.

One of the most important tech groups in the game. It primarily gives authority, culture, and edicts which improve the stability of your realm. Without a high investment in thought you won’t be able to build a big empire. A lot of the techs are interconnected so you will be researching quite a lot.
Bronze age
Priest kings gives you the edict relocate nobles. It gives a permeant authority boost (+2) at the cost of some temporary noble unrest. This makes priest kings a +4 authority boost. I get this tech first as allows me to spam colonies.

Logographic script is a gate to bureaucracy and many other powerful techs. I work towards this after I get priest kings. As by that time my empire is sufficient to handle the cost.

Mohism is in my opinion the most useful temple (outside of Buddhist). Confucianism and legalism are also good and their techs unlock more than just a temple.

Warring state
Legalism unlocks good edicts. Standardize weights for more trade income, multiple stability edicts, and a good temple to top it off.

Cannon of wisdom speeds up thought and gives imperial university which gives you more tax income and stability.

Some edicts like civil service exemption are harder to unlock.

Imperial era
Buddhist is the strongest temple in the game but late game.

This is in my opinion the worst tech group. It just does not have the same impact as the other techs. Disaster mitigation is very useful as its one of the biggest causes for revolts. But losing a few dozen to disease while but is not empire changing levels.
Bronze age
Horse archery is a must as it unlocks noble cavalry. It’s extremely powerful and peasants cannot stand up to their charge. However you need to be in the warring states to utilize it.
Calendar and Astronomy is pretty good and what I unlock first. The extra authority allows me to expand more and prevents a disaster. You need to wait for warring states to use horse archery so may as well get this first
Warring states
Crossbows are quite good especially with mixed units. Bows really don't cut it against armored troops.

Peasant Chu-ko-nu I won’t really consider important. It better then peasant bows but it’s the same weaknesses. Your city which can produce these units can also produce quite powerful other units like trained or halberds.

This section is mostly to show the different units. So you know what you are buying ahead of time.

Herding also use these until the cavalry tier. Their is clearly 3 different tiers of nobles you advance slowly. Nobles are a extreamly powerful elite fighting force of your empire. They can be recruited for free, replenished from anywhere and are quite powerful. For the majority of the game these will be a major component of your army.

Infantry tier:
Axemen
Number 30
Attack 10
Defense 14
Armor 9
Movement 4
Morale 4

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5

Archers
Number 30
Attack 8
Range 5
Defense 11
Armor 7
Movement 4
Morale 4

Can fire flaming ammunition

Chariot
Light chariot:
Number:4
Attack: 13
Range: 13
Defense: 38
Armor: 33
Movement: 6
Morale: 4

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Major penalty forests, marshes, and steep hills
Movement very slow in forests and marshes

Heavy chariots:
Number 3
Attack 16
Range: 13
Defense: 43
Armor: 38
Movement: 6
Morale: 4

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Major penalty forests, marshes, and steep hills
Movement very slow in forests and marshes

Four horse:
Number: 3
Attack 26
Range 13
Defense 52
Armor 47
Movement: 6
Morale 4

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Spear: x2 attacking cavalry or chariots
Major penalty forests, marshes, and steep hills
Movement very slow in forests and marshes

I often skip the chariot tier. Unless I need to fight early. You don't have to advance to cavalry if you won't want to.

Mounted
Cavalry:
Number 18
Attack: 13
Defense: 28
Armor: 21
Movement 6
Morale: 4

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Anti foot: x1.5 attacking foot
Major penalty forests, marshes
Minor penalty in steep hills
Movement slow in forests and marshes


Nomads of the cavlary tier use horse archers instead of melee cavalry

Noble horse archers:
Needs bowery, tech, and edict
Upkeep 30
Number 24
Attack: 8
Range: 8
Defense 25
Armor 21
Movement 6
Morale 4

Noble armored horse archers:
Needs bowery, tech, edict, and armor works

Trained cavalry come inside 6 file where nobles only come in 4. So you do get more combined attack power using trained. You will also get more armor as nobles are capped. Nobles can be recruited from almost anywhere and reinforced anywhere. Trianed also have access to more options like horse archers.

Trained cavalry
Number 24
Attack: 11
Defense: 19
Armor: 13
Movement 6
Morale: 3
Upkeep: 40

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Anti foot: x1.5 attacking foot
Major penalty forests, marshes
Minor penalty in steep hills
Movement slow in forests and marshes

Heavy horse archers
Number 24
Attack 6
Range 6
Defense 24
Armor 21
Movement 6
Morale 3

Major penalty forests, marshes
Minor penalty in steep hills
Movement slow in forests and marshes
When dismounted fires flaming ammunition that can burn down wooden pallisade walls and any towers, or gates.
Does not get full armor benefits of other units.

Light horse archers
Number 24
Attack 6
Range 6
Defense 16
Armor 13
Movement 8
Morale 3
Upkeep 35

Major penalty forests, marshes
Minor penalty in steep hills
Movement slow in forests and marshes
When dismounted fires flaming ammunition that can burn down wooden pallisade walls and any towers, or gates.

Cavalry crossbows
Number 24
Attack 6
Range 6
Defense 16
Armor 13
Movement 6
Morale 3
Upkeep 40

Major penalty forests, marshes
Minor penalty in steep hills
Movement slow in forests and marshes
Shots ignore half of enemy armor rating

Trained 4 horse chariots
Does not exist in the imperial era
Number 3
Attack: 21
Range 12
Defense: 51
Armor: 47
Movement 6
Morale: 3

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Major penalty forests, marshes and steep hills
Movement very slow in forests and marshes


Tribes are used by herders. Generally things which say peasant don't apply but tribal are stronger then peasants. Example peasant halberds or dagger axes.

Tribal light spear:
Number: 60
Attack: 6
Defense 9
Armor: 5
Movement 4
Morale 2

Tribal light archers:
Needs bowery
Number 60
Attack: 6
Range: 4
Defense 5
Armor: 3
Movement: 4
Morale: 2

Can fire flaming ammo

Tribal horse archers:
Needs bowery and tech
Upkeep 30
Number: 24
Attack: 6
Range: 7
Defense: 15
Armor: 13
Movement: 8
Moral: 2

Major penalty in forest and marsh
Minor penalty steep hills
Can dismount and fire flaming ammo
Move slowly in forest and marshes

These are a special unit type recrited from the prision. They cannot suppress and are effectivly peasants from a different recruitment slot. Banning weapons will halve their numbers as they are like peasant. Says its unlocked with the court but you need the slots from the prision.

Do or die convicts
Needs weapon smith
Number 60
Attack: 9
Defense: 7
Armor: 5
Movement 4
Morale: 4
Upkeep 15

Armor piercing: Opponent armor modifier by 0.5
Don't get armor upgrades


Peasant comes in units of 60 with a upkeep of 15. They can form up a cheap battle line. However they cannot suppress and can defect to rebels. Their low stats also make them subpar in combat. A cavalry charge is capable of completly destroying peasant units instantly. But their low cost and ready avaiblity make them essential to the defense of your empire.

Peasant light spear
Attack: 4
Defense: 8
Armor: 5
Movement 4
Morale: 2

Peasant long spearmen
Attack: 3
Defense 10
Movement 4
Morale 2
x2 attack against cavalry or chariots
x4 defense against cavalry or chariots

Major combat penalty in forests and steep hills
Moderate penalty in marshes.
Goes away in warring states. No replacement

Peasant dagger axemen
Requires weapon smith
Attack 6
Defense 7
Armor 5
Movement 4
Morale 2

Armor piercing melee attack. Opponent's armor modifier by 0.5.
Replaced by halberds in warring state

Peasant halberds
Attack 6
Defense 6
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 2

Armor piercing melee attack. Opponent's armor modifier by 0.5.
Defense x2 against cavlary or chariots
Moderate penalty in marshes forests, and steep hills

Peasant light archers
Attack 4
Ranged Attack 3
Fire Damage 1
Defense 4
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 2

Trained cost 30 upkeep each and come in units of 60 unless otherwise noted. They are highly capable units capable of crushing all those in thier path. One of their biggest strengths are their armor as they get better armor then nobles and militia. Plus they are loyal to you so can suppress peasants and nobles. However they can only be replenished in a place which can recruit trained (has barracks).

They are very strong units which are definently worth the cost compared to peasants. Their stats are deceptivly low as even heavy spearmen are capable of crushing peasants. I have had trained archers charge into melee and slaughter peasant light spear.

Warring states and above
Attack 6
Defense 14
Armor 7
Movement 4
Morale 3

x2 attack against cavarly or chariots
x4 defense against cavlary or chariots
Moderate combat penalty in marshes, fortests, and steep hills

Trained archers:
Needs bower
Attack 6
Range 4
Defense 6
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 3

Can fire flaming ammunition

Warring states and above
Needs weapon smith
Attack 8
Defense 8
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 3
Armor piercing opponents armor modifier by 0.5
Defense x2 against cavalry or chariots
Moderate combat penalty in marshes, forests and steep hills

Replaced by army halberds in warring state
Needs weapon smith
Attack 8
Defense 9
Armor 5
Movement 4
Morale 3
Armor piercing opponents armor modifier by 0.5

Crossbow/spear
Needs crossbows
Upkeep 35
Attack 6
Range 5
Defense 14
Armor 7
Movement 4
Morale 3

Mixed unit
x2 attack against cavarly or chariots
x4 defense against cavlary or chariots
Moderate combat penalty in marshes, fortests, and steep hills
Shots ignore half of enemy armor rating

Trained crossbow
Needs crossbow
Attack 6
Range 5
Defense 8
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 3
Shots ignore half of enemy armor rating

Qin mixed troops
Needs crossbow
Upkeep 35
Attack 8
Range 5
Defense 12
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 3

Mixed unit
Armor piercing melee attacks opponents armor modifier by 0.5
Shots ignore half of enemy armor rating
x2 attack against cavarly or chariots
x4 defense against cavlary or chariots
Moderate combat penalty in marshes forests and steep hills

Replaces normal crossbows/spears.

These contain some of the most elite and specilized troops. They cost 35 in maintenence. They normally don't get armor benefits (often needing iron) unless otherwise noted. All swordsmen fall into this group.

One of the important things to note is they are harder to recruit enmass. Palaces are expensive and have less recruitment slots. But its easier to replenish as any one with a palace can replenish them. Palaces being required to unlock some buildings like barracks.

picked swordsmen
Requires swordsmen and armory
5 movement
Not slowed down by marsh
25% combat penalty in forests and marsh

Picked zhan Ma Dao
Imperial era sword unit
Number 40
Attack 7
Defense 9
Armor 3
Movement 4
Morale 4

Gets armor benefits

Armor piercing opponents armor modifier by 0.5
Attack x3 against cavalry or chariots
Defense x2 against cavalry and chariots

Guard halberds
Requires iron armor and weapon smith

Peasants are a plentiful but low strength unit. A noble cavalry charge can instantly destroy and break a peasant light spear. Even trained archers will slaughter peasants in melee. A stack comprossed of half or more militia, tribal, or convict units may join the rebels. All 3 are basically the same catagory as even banning weapons will effect convicts. So you can use at most 3 of these as support.

That being said their low cost and high avaibility make them a great option for any army. One of their best uses is defense. A few peasants can hold off a siege for multiple turns. You don't need to have 2 professionals stationed for 8 turns on defense when you can have 16 peasants raised the instant you need them.

Nobles are a very powerful force which can summoned for nothing. They made a solid backbone in the early game and as a cavalry support latter. They can be easily recruited making them excelent against bandits and in defense. They can be used as a standing army as they can suppress and replenished anywhere. I greatly delay researching stables as noble cavalry able to fill the role perfectly.

You can choice to not issue the edict and use chariots instead. This can be especially useful for nations with chariot benefits.

Trained cavalry when compared to nobles are better but not for their cost. Trained have 66 combined attack due to having 6 file (columns) instead of 4. Making it 66 vs 52. But they are much more expensive to recruit and in maintenence. They can only be refreshed in those with stables where nobles are anywhere. However trained cavalry have access to more specilized troops, better armor, cataphracts, and guard cavalry.

This makes trained better in the late game. But you can easily never use trained cavalry and just depend on your nobility. Nobility where a very powerful force in this era. This is demonstrated in the game pretty well.

One of the ways to use nobles and militia for defense is in the pool. A palace cost 40 maintanance and will allow you to recruit a extra noble (35) and militia (15). So your force you are able to muster has not changed just you are paying less. Other buildings like a bowery, weapon smith, and armor production all increase the power of militia/nobles and ammount of militia. Second tier armor will give it to militia which increases theirs from 3 to 5. This is stronger the closer your cities are as they can back eachother up.

Archers are capable of burning down gates. Even stone walls are vulnerable to archers. Crossbows are good against armor units and hybrid are not vulnerable inside melee. So archers are still extreamly useful late game as siege units.

You will need 4 units to defend a city properly. With less then 4 they can enter from a unguarded entrance and

Boats are capable of suppression. and assisting land battles. Their is 4 units per stack. Archers on boats will also join in.

Boats are one of the only way to cross some thick rivers. Their speed is good allowing you to travel quite far quick distances. The south of the map is mostly uninhabited so you can use boats to colonize it.

Its best to place a shipyard on the coast as if you put it in the river you won't be able to use large junks.

River boat
29 guys total
10 archers
Attack 6
range 5
fire 3
Defense 150
Armor 150
Movement 6
Morale 3
Upkeep 55

Can carry 1 infantry
Cannot enter sea or ocean moves slowly (3) in costal

War junk
Requires shipyard
33 total
10 archers
Attack 6
range 5
fire 3
Defense 350
Armor 350
Movement 6
Morale 3
Upkeep 55

Can transport 1 of any unit
Cannot enter sea or ocean moves slowly (3) in costal


Junk
19 guys total
10 guys with bows
Attack 6
range 5
fire 3
Defense 150
Armor 150
Movement 6
Morale 3
Upkeep 70

Can carry 1 infantry
Cannot enter ocean moves slowly in river

Large sailing junk
Requires shipyard
26 total
22 archers
Attack 6
range 5
fire 3
Defense 350
Armor 350
Movement 8
Morale 3
Upkeep 85

Can carry 1 of anything
Cannot enter rivers

Buddist
15% peasant happiness
5% noble happiness
10% thought development
50 upkeep

Late game temple. If I unlock budism and have not build a temple I will build this. But every temple anysis would be assuing you don't have this.

Taoist temple:
10/15/20% peasant happiness
-10/15/20% noble happiness
15/22/30% knoladge development
35/60/100 upkeep
1/2/4 Culture VP

This one actually gives a net positive on technology. Except its in the worst catagory knoladge. Noble happiness down is only bad should your empire be larger then authority. If you are bellow authority its really easy to keep nobles under control. Should you be a smaller sized "tall" empire you won't suffer as much.

Confusisist temple:
10/15/20% peasant happiness
15/22/30% noble happiness
-10/15/20% knoladge
-10/15/20% thought
65/120/180 upkeep
1/2/4 Culture VP

Spamming this will allow your empire to be larger due to noble happiness. As 15% noble happiness is enough for 1.5 cities. Or just gives you a larger buffer as unrest can be a killer. Its main downside is reduced thought development. This one is pretty powerful lategame as you can control more cities without revolts. Lossing thought development early could cause you to loss more authority in the lategame.

Legalist
5/10/15% peasant happiness
15/25/35% extra tax
-10/15/20% thought
0/0/5 power
70/100/130 upkeep
1/2/4 Culture VP

I would not build it but its marginal. To break even at tier 2 you will need a city in the 133 pop range. The main reason why I would not is I compare it to mohist. Move then double happiness, better net technology, and militia to top it off.

mohist
15/22/30% peasant happiness
15/22/30% craft
-10/15/20% thought
-10/15/20% power
40/70/120upkeep
1/2/4 Culture VP
0/1/2 militia slot

I would put it as the best temple besides buddist for general purpose. Good to keep large cities happy and continue their development. Craft I would put only slightly bellow thought but still useful. It gives the highest peasant happiness which is a big problem for cities. Being able to develop bigger farms and build more buildings. The technology net is only -5/8/10 which is pretty good and only outmatched by taoist/buddist. Militia is alright, and upkeep is lower then others.

Each city has fixed demand for each city. Example it will import 30 money of silk, 30 money of specilists, and 100 money of bronze. So having more cities will just split the goods shipping between them.

So to optimize it set up one city as the primary one. This city will produce all the goods and it will feed other cities. When you need to expand your network designate a city as a branch. The branch has a caravaner and work as a extention of the primary. You may also need to set up branches to feed some resources like horses or copper into your network.


Naval trade is much more efficent and profitable. If you have access to a river or coast set up naval trade. Each city needs either a market or a port not both. The effects won't stack and you will get nothing out of it.


Your cities will trade with your neighbors should you be friendly. This can be beneficial for you and your neighbor. You could set up trade hubs specifically to trade with your neighbors. However it can easily be one sided especially if you are using naval. Checking the diplomacy map and trade balance regularly to see if its profitable to trade with them. If its not embargo will prevent all trade pushing it back into your pockets. They won't like it but you can spend this new money on a army.

In this example I found I was lossing 2092 trade to 2 nations and only getting 95 back. My total trade income was only 2660 so it was crippling my economy. Once I embargoed I was making good money again.

Every city is 2 tile radius (3 in total across). This is their physical size and only 8 units can be stationed here. If you want to have more soldiers defending a city they need to be outside.

Units don't seem to be crossing

Its best to specilize cities. That reduces cost and results inside stronger cities.

Trade hubs/center
The difference between these 2 is one produces the other does not. A trade center is where you produce all your goods. A trade center will need to be a tier 3 city as they need. This makes it best as one of your starting cities as they will generally be bigger quicker. It will need a brazer and caravan even if you are using naval trade. As once you start producing iron you will need to import bronze (military cities produce bronze)

Trade hubs are where you export to make profits and import resources into your trade network. It depends on if you are land trade, maritine, or crossing over. All trade hubs will need a brazer and a caravan even if doing naval. The brazer won't actually effect the naval but gates caravans.

Military
Military requires a lot of expensive buildings to work. On the boarder they serve as a fortress city. Any army which threatens it will face armored, armed, and more militia, nobles, and trained raised instantly. But they will need to be tier 3 for the best armor. So your core settlements with their higher population will be better.

Other
These cities don't need much buildings save your money and leave them empty. If you want to defend you can build some minimal military buildings like palace and weapons. But you are best leaving these barren.

Granaries are very important. Bandits, and disasters can cause a tempoary food shortage. This can be disasterous and cause the easily cause the city to revolt. A granary is essential to prevent random losses due to minor food loss.

Cities can farm a region of 5 tiles in each direction. So spacing them 10 tiles apart will maximize their ability to farm. They can build external buildings farther then their farming distance. But building a maximum sized city will take 180 turns to put farms on each tile. This can create quite a lot of unrest.

A alternative is placing cities close to eachother. This has a lot of advantages. One of the advantages is this city has time to develop more. This gives you time to build irrigation getting 50% more food from your farms. Your cities being closer can muster more nobility to defend eachother (particularly good early game). Being closer to each other will mean you need less trade hubs to connect your empire.

However irigation is a very inefficent form of farming being 1/8 the speed compared to farming. But doing this allows you to use your land to the fullest.


Every city has 4 entrences north, east, west, south. When building roads you should have them facilitating these entrences. It seems like units don't enter cities when crossing it. So you should position your roads for units to go around cities.