Forge of Empires Early to Mid Game Guide

This guide was written for anyone just starting out or who is having difficulty being effective for a give play style. This guide walks through play options leading from the first quest to the early middle ages.

PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS WHOLE POST! It is very long and most the section are pretty redundant with only the variation needed to accommodate different play styles.

Introduction: The Babblings of a Deranged Mind

Despite having been an avid gamer since the original Warcraft, yes I am THAT old, this is the first guide I have ever written. So, I beg you indulgence as I labor through what I hope will be a very useful guide. I know this guide seems very long, but it is NOT meant to be read in its entirety. You should look over the first three sections and then pick only the one section between Section Four A and Section Six B that you are interested in and then proceed toSection Seven.

I do not wish to “bash” any other guide but it seams that are all skipping to their favorite parts and leaving out critical steps in the road. I will attempt to give as complete a walk through for various play styles as I can. This guide will be formatted something like an old Choose-your-own-adventure book.

Section One: In the Beginning

At the very beginning it is best to simply follow the bread crumb quest line. It will guide you to make your first couple of buildings and perform your first few battles. Think of this as a warm-up as you will soon have to make decisions about your game style preferences. In this early stages try to conserve your resources. Do not over build as you will get stalled out and run out of resource. If you do stall out don’t panic, just start another empire of one of the other servers while you wait for resources. These early quest are nicely balanced and the rewards provided you with the resources needed to continue your empire’s expansion. Follow this method and only build what you need to carry on until you complete the quest to take over the entire second zone and receive your stone thrower. NOW THE FUN BEGINS as you have two major game style choices to make!

By the end of this section you should have zero remaining forge points and have fully researched Still Houses, Pottery, and Spears. You should also have a pair of Still houses, a pottery, and a one barracks built.

Section Two: Till Death Do Us Part or A Casual Fling

You must first first figure out how committed you are to building the greatest empire your server has ever known. Are you willing to be chained to your computer to unload houses every fifteen minutes? If so you will be able to grow rapidly. If not you will grow more slowly. The most efficient way to grow is to be on all the time and take the short duration houses. However, you must not over estimate your long term commitment to the growth of your empire. The efficiency of the short term house is terrible if you start only logging on a couple of times a day.

The houses you research and build will determine your play style. All the other resource producing units can be tuned to fit the house class you settle on. There are three general house turnover durations 15 minute, 1 hours, and 4 hours. Although in my humble opinion the one hour houses are a waste of time. If you can be on every hour you will often be on more often or less often. If you are usually on more often you should lean toward the fast track houses. If it will often take you more then an hour to be on you should look at the longer turn around time houses.

• If you want the fastest possible growth you will focus on 15 minute houses and head to one of the Section Four guides.
• If you want the fastest growth you can but know your schedule will not allow you to be perpetually logged in you will focus on 4 hour houses and head to one of the Section Five guides.
• If you want the the most freedom from logging in without losing all hope of growth you will also focus on 4 hour houses, but head to one of the Section Six guides.

Section Three: “The Art of War” or “The Economist”

After determining how often you will be hitting the log in button you must make another major play style decision. Will you focus on carving a bloody path through the known world? Or will your empire be a booming metropolis of commerce and trade? Many would probably instantly reply both and I have no doubt in mid to end game that you can have your cake and eat it too. However, in the early to mid game you are going to have to focus your resources one a primary pursuit. I must insert a disclaimer here and note that I have a heavy bias toward the economic route and as such the following guides favor this approach.

• If you want to literally own the world and will focus having a booming economy, Head to one of the A guide subsections.
• If your empire will expand by the sword or not at all and you will focus having building an army that would have Sparta wetting themselves, Head to one of the B guide subsections.

Section Four A: The Speedy Merchant

In my opinion this is the best option, although I will attempt to give a fair and accurate report in the subsequent sections.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:To maximize population and gold generations Stilt Houses should be you primary or only house time until the Iron age when you will research and build Roof Tile House. Roof Tile House will last through the the Iron age until the Early middle ages. At this point you will probably upgrade to Frame Houses which have a slight drop in gold generations for a great increase in population size. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. In my experience when you schedule permits you to be on for every house collection time it is best to do the supply option that matches your house completion times. This may not always be the most efficient option but it is the most convenient. If you know you will not be back in time to collect when your houses are ready pick a longer time for your supplies. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay. On the other hand the longer the build time the less efficient the yield. The moral of the story is pick a supply build time that is closes to when you foresee being back online.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. To have the most efficient production at these buildings always select one of the first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options.. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency.

Military Buildings
As this guild focuses on advancement through a booming economy it is not necessary to have a vast army. You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units. This will let you always maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I would suggest one spear and one sling barracks until you get more advanced and/or desire more combat.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (4)The Wheel, (5)Construction, (6)Cultivation, (7)Thatched Houses, (8)Smithery, (9)Slingshots, (10)Chalets, (11)Horseback Riding, (12)Phalanx, (13)Paths, (14)Siege Weapons, (16)Teaching, (17)Brewing, (23)Manuring

Iron Age
(15)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Architecture, (19)Processions, (20)Stock Breeding, (21)Cottage, (22)Butchery, (24)Militia, (25)Processing, (26)Archery, (27)Fortification, (28)Military Tactics, (29)Thermae, (30)Mathematics

Early Middle Ages
(31)Frame Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Four B: The Lightning Fast War Lord

As blood lust is not my preferred play style this guide may not be as accurate as the others. However as this play style can be fun I am in the process of testing it out. This section was included for completeness sake and is likely yo be edited many times.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:To maximize population and gold generations Stilt Houses should be you primary or only house time until the Iron age when you will research and build Roof Tile House. Roof Tile House will last through the the Iron age until the Early middle ages. At this point you will probably upgrade to Frame Houses which have a slight drop in gold generations for a great increase in population size. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. In my experience when you schedule permits you to be on for every house collection time it is best to do the supply option that matches your house completion times. This may not always be the most efficient option but it is the most convenient. If you know you will not be back in time to collect when your houses are ready pick a longer time for your supplies. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay. On the other hand the longer the build time the less efficient the yield. The moral of the story is pick a supply build time that is closes to when you foresee being back online.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. To have the most efficient production at these buildings always select one of the first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options.. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency.

Military Buildings
You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units ASAP. This will give you a max size army as quickly as possible. I would build a second spear barracks as soon as the resources are available. I would suggest a standard army of four spear and four sling until you get more advanced troops. I would also build a second Sling Barracks as soon as the resources permit. If used correctly the sling throwers will be one of your best combatants until Archers and long range siege weapons. It is also best to have at least double the size army you are using. All troops, except spear-men, take a long time to replace when they die. Having troops waiting will increase you combat readiness. When ever possible maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I often put my wounded troops from my attacking army into my defensive army to rest up.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (3)The Wheel, (4)Slingshots, (5)Chalets, (6)Horseback Riding, (7)Construction, (8)Cultivation, (9)Thatched Houses, (10)Phalanx, (11)Smithery, (12)Siege Weapons, (13)Paths, (15)Teaching, (16)Manuring (17)Brewing

Iron Age
(14)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Militia, (19)Architecture, (20)Processions, (21)Processing, (22)Archery, (23)Stock Breeding, (24)Cottage, (25)Military Tactics, (26)Fortification, (27)Chain of Command, (28)Butchery, (29)Mathematics, (31)Thermae

Early Middle Ages
(30)Tanning, (32)Frame Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Five A: The Absentee Landlord

In my opinion this is a very good path, although not as fast or efficient as “The Speedy Merchant”.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:You will have to use Stilt Houses at first and accept some loss in revenue. In order to get you empire on the time line you desire you should make researching and building Chalets your primary goal. These will be your primary or only houses until the middle of the Iron Age when you will want to research and upgrade to Cottages Cottages will carry you into the Early Middle Ages. At which point you will research and upgrade to Multistory Houses. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. In my experience when you schedule permits you to be on for every house collection time it is best to do the supply option that matches your house completion times. This may not always be the most efficient option but it is the most convenient. If you know you will not be back in time to collect when your houses are ready pick a longer time for your supplies. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay. On the other hand the longer the build time the less efficient the yield. The moral of the story is pick a supply build time that is closes to when you foresee being back online.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. To have the most efficient production at these buildings always select one of the first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options.. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency.

Military Buildings
As this guild focuses on advancement through a booming economy it is not necessary to have a vast army. You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units. This will let you always maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I would suggest one spear and one sling barracks until you get more advanced and/or desire more combat.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (4)Chalets, (5)The Wheel, (6)Construction, (7)Cultivation, (8)Thatched Houses, (9)Smithery, (10)Slingshots, (11)Horseback Riding, (12)Phalanx, (13)Paths, (14)Siege Weapons, (16)Teaching, (17)Brewing, (23)Manuring

Iron Age
(15)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Architecture, (19)Processions, (20)Stock Breeding, (21)Cottage, (22)Butchery, (24)Militia, (25)Processing, (26)Archery, (27)Fortification, (28)Chain of Command

Early Middle Ages
(29)Multistory Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Five B: The Careful Combatant

As blood lust is not my preferred play style this guide may not be as accurate as the others. However as this play style can be fun I am in the process of testing it out. This section was included for completeness sake and is likely yo be edited many times.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:You will have to use Stilt Houses at first and accept some loss in revenue. In order to get you empire on the time line you desire you should make researching and building Chalets your primary goal. These will be your primary or only houses until the middle of the Iron Age when you will want to research and upgrade to Cottages Cottages will carry you into the Early Middle Ages. At which point you will research and upgrade to Multistory Houses. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. In my experience when you schedule permits you to be on for every house collection time it is best to do the supply option that matches your house completion times. This may not always be the most efficient option but it is the most convenient. If you know you will not be back in time to collect when your houses are ready pick a longer time for your supplies. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay. On the other hand the longer the build time the less efficient the yield. The moral of the story is pick a supply build time that is closes to when you foresee being back online.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. To have the most efficient production at these buildings always select one of the first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options.. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency.

Military Buildings
You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units ASAP. This will give you a max size army as quickly as possible. I would build a second spear barracks as soon as the resources are available. I would suggest a standard army of four spear and four sling until you get more advanced troops. I would also build a second Sling Barracks as soon as the resources permit. If used correctly the sling throwers will be one of your best combatants until Archers and long range siege weapons. It is also best to have at least double the size army you are using. All troops, except spear-men, take a long time to replace when they die. Having troops waiting will increase you combat readiness. When ever possible maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I often put my wounded troops from my attacking army into my defensive army to rest up.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (3)The Wheel, (4)Slingshots, (5)Chalets, (6)Horseback Riding, (7)Construction, (8)Cultivation, (9)Thatched Houses, (10)Phalanx, (11)Smithery, (12)Siege Weapons, (13)Paths, (15)Teaching, (16)Manuring (17)Brewing

Iron Age
(14)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Militia, (19)Architecture, (20)Processions, (21)Processing, (22)Archery, (23)Stock Breeding, (24)Cottage, (25)Military Tactics, (26)Fortification, (27)Chain of Command, (29)Butchery, (30)Mathematics, (32)Thermae

Early Middle Ages
(28)Multistory Houses, (31)Tanning, (33)Frame Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Six A: The Long Term Investor

A much slower journey then “The Speedy Merchant” or “The Absentee Landlord” this is still an economy based approach that I strongly endorse.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:You will have to use Stilt Houses at first and accept some loss in revenue. In order to get you empire on the time line you desire you should make researching and building Chalets your primary goal. These will be your primary or only houses until the middle of the Iron Age when you will want to research and upgrade to Cottages Cottages will carry you into the Early Middle Ages. At which point you will research and upgrade to Multistory Houses. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses. If you are are logging on twice a day or less, this is the best housing option but you will have a substantial decrease in gold generation.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. If you are are logging on twice a day or less you will always want to select the longest duration for supply builds. This is the least efficient option but will maximize your supply generation for your play style. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. The most efficient production at these buildings is always first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency but if you are only going to be one once a day or less they will provide a higher over all yield.

Military Buildings
As this guild focuses on advancement through a booming economy it is not necessary to have a vast army. You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units. This will let you always maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I would suggest one spear and one sling barracks until you get more advanced and/or desire more combat.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (4)Chalets, (5)The Wheel, (6)Construction, (7)Cultivation, (8)Thatched Houses, (9)Smithery, (10)Slingshots, (11)Horseback Riding, (12)Phalanx, (13)Paths, (14)Siege Weapons, (16)Teaching, (17)Brewing, (23)Manuring

Iron Age
(15)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Architecture, (19)Processions, (20)Stock Breeding, (21)Cottage, (22)Butchery, (24)Militia, (25)Processing, (26)Archery, (27)Fortification, (28)Chain of Command

Early Middle Ages
(29)Multistory Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Six B: Death By Old Age

As blood lust is not my preferred play style this guide may not be as accurate as the others. However as this play style can be fun I am in the process of testing it out. This section was included for completeness sake and is likely yo be edited many times.

The following is a list of the building types you should focus on as you progress under this play style.

Primary Resource Generators
Gold:You will have to use Stilt Houses at first and accept some loss in revenue. In order to get you empire on the time line you desire you should make researching and building Chalets your primary goal. These will be your primary or only houses until the middle of the Iron Age when you will want to research and upgrade to Cottages Cottages will carry you into the Early Middle Ages. At which point you will research and upgrade to Multistory Houses. You will want to build A LOT of houses! Empires are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to expand. Typically about a third of my city is covered in houses. If you are are logging on twice a day or less, this is the best housing option but you will have a substantial decrease in gold generation.

Supplies:Start by building SEVERAL potteries. I initially go for three as soon as possible and expand to six when resources and space allow. these should be your primary supply generators until late in the bronze age when you will research Blacksmiths. Then as resources allow replace the potteries with blacksmith and build more. I suggest sticking with Blacksmiths until late in the iron age until you research Butchery. Many may argue, not with out validity, that there are more efficient options in between. I do not feel that these upgrades are worth the effort. They are costly and bulky. They require a lot of city moving and do not provided enough of an increase to be worth the effort in my opinion. I typically have about one forth of my city devoted to supply generating buildings. If you are are logging on twice a day or less you will always want to select the longest duration for supply builds. This is the least efficient option but will maximize your supply generation for your play style. Supplies that are created and not collected soon enough WILL DECAY. The decay time also seems to correspond to the build time, a longer build time give a longer window of time before decay.

Secondary Resource Generators
Things like like vineyards and lumber mills are something I am still working out. I currently have one of each building that I have trained. This is because on my server there is no one else to trade resources with and the NPC rate of 10/1 is horrible. You may not find it necessary to build one of each but I would suggest that you figure out which ones you will need. At the very least build one for each of the resources the your regions provide you bonuses on. Also look ahead and researches that you will want to train and look at the cost to complete them after they have all the forge points. The most efficient production at these buildings is always first two options, 4 or 8 hours, from a cost and production view point there is no difference between these two options. The longer ones have significant drops in efficiency but if you are only going to be one once a day or less they will provide a higher over all yield.

Military Buildings
You will want to have at least two barracks of some kind that are upgraded to hold four units ASAP. This will give you a max size army as quickly as possible. I would build a second spear barracks as soon as the resources are available. I would suggest a standard army of four spear and four sling until you get more advanced troops. I would also build a second Sling Barracks as soon as the resources permit. If used correctly the sling throwers will be one of your best combatants until Archers and long range siege weapons. It is also best to have at least double the size army you are using. All troops, except spear-men, take a long time to replace when they die. Having troops waiting will increase you combat readiness. When ever possible maintain eight units in your defensive army. A defensive army reduces the risk of your buildings being plundered. You can take your defensive army out to do some small battles. I often put my wounded troops from my attacking army into my defensive army to rest up.

Happiness Generators
I suggest primarily using Obelisks and Trees to generate your happiness at first because they are cheap and fit anywhere. Although I have used a stone circle when space was limited and I need more happiness. ALWAYS make sure your people are enthusiastic before you “harvest” your resources. This happiness level gives you 20% higher yields. One nice thing it ONLY matters what the happiness level is when you hit the building to collect. So if your happiness is too low build a few more trees before collecting resources. Avoid at all cost collecting resources if your population is unhappy, you will receive 50% less resources. When you advance a bit an space gets tighter I suggest building school houses and only upgrading to Taverns if you must.

The following is a suggested research order.

Bronze Age
(1) Stilt Houses, (2)Pottery, (3)Spears, (3)The Wheel, (4)Slingshots, (5)Chalets, (6)Horseback Riding, (7)Construction, (8)Cultivation, (9)Thatched Houses, (10)Phalanx, (11)Smithery, (12)Siege Weapons, (13)Paths, (15)Teaching, (16)Manuring (17)Brewing

Iron Age
(14)Roof Tile Houses, (18)Militia, (19)Architecture, (20)Processions, (21)Processing, (22)Archery, (23)Stock Breeding, (24)Cottage, (25)Military Tactics, (26)Fortification, (27)Chain of Command, (29)Butchery, (30)Mathematics, (32)Thermae

Early Middle Ages
(28)Multistory Houses, (31)Tanning, (33)Frame Houses

I would suggest picking up expansion and production researches along the way as they fit in or while waiting on the resources to unlock a research.

Section Seven: The Inevitable Conclusion

I do not have a terribly coherent conclusion to offer. I just always found it interesting when several different choose-your-own-adventure story lines ended on the same page. I would like to thank you for your time and hope that this provided some useful information. I would greatly appreciate feedback, be gentle it is my first time