The Ideal City

There is no such thing as an ideal city. Depending on what kind of world you play, ideal might mean totally different things. In a revolt world and in Hyperborea, for example, walls should be at the maximal level of 25 to keep your defending units safe. In a conquest world walls would be at level 0 to prevent a conqueror to hide behind them. This post is more the opening of a discussion than a definite guide to a perfect city.

The ideal city in Grepolis doesn't exist. Every city is a compromise between what the player wants and what the other players in the game force him to do. The best thing I can do to give you an ideal city is to talk about city types. Because cities can be experts and specialists or general practitioners.

The First City

The first city is a special case. It has to be everything at once, because it is so lonely out there. The best thing you can do is a hybrid defensive and offensive city, you might also call it a mongrel or bastard. The compromise has to do with the buildings you build and level up, the research you do, and the units you recruit from barracks and harbor. First we have a look at the buildings; the information I give here is what works for me; nothing is set in stone.

Following Grepolis logic from the building menu, my working figures are as follows. 

Senate: Build the Senate up to level 24; when everything is built you can demolish it back to 20. The reason lies in building speed (the higher the level, the faster buildings get built). Level 24 is also necessary to build the Thermal Bath (adds 10 % to your population). Once the Thermal Bath is built, the Senate can be reduced.

Timber Camp: Maximal level. To get cities built fast, readily available resources are necessary. They can be transported to other cities to help in the build up.

Farm: Maximal level. Farms give you population. The number of people in your city determines what you can build and how many units you have. Farms don't use population for their levels.

Quarry: Maximal level. To get cities built fast, readily available resources are necessary. They can be transported to other cities to help in the build up.

Warehouse: Maximal level. You need storage for the resources you produce. The Warehouse doesn't use population for its levels.

Silver Mine: Maximal level. To get cities built fast, readily available resources are necessary. They can be transported to other cities to help in the build up.

Barracks: Level 20. This is a compromise between speed in recruiting units (the higher the level, the faster units get recruited) and the use of population to build.

Temple: For Hera, level 10 to recruit Harpy and Medusa; for Zeus, level 15 to recruit Minotaur and Manticore; for Poseidon level 12 for Cyclops, level 22 for Hydra, and level 10 if you don't want to recruit either; for Athena, level 12 to recruit Centaur and Pegasus; for Hades, level 10 to recruit Cerberus and level 16 for Erinys; for Artemis, level 15 to recruit Calydonian Boar and Griffin. Why so complicated? Temples use a lot of resources to build, and population. More levels don't bring that much of an increase in divine favor production as this is NOT cith bound, but a general pool of all your cities. Keeping temples low therefore is a sensible thing to do.

Market Place: Level 20. This is a question of population, again. I personally go for 30 because I move such a lot of resources (I once had a resource relay linking my cities in oceans 24with those in 68, and not going through the center of the map.)

Harbor: Level 20. This is a compromise between speed in recruiting units (the higher the level, the faster units get recruited) and the use of population to build.

Academy: Level 30. This ensures that all necessary research is reachable by academy level and that enough points are there to do it. It also allows you to run festivals on resources, should you wish to do so. One festival gives you one culture point towards a new city slot.

City wall: Level 25 in revolt worlds and in Hyperborea; level 1 for conquest worlds. Level 1 is needed to access the battle statistics accessible in the wall.

Cave: Maximal level. The cave is there to be filled with silver. Silver from the cave pays for spies you send out. Silver in the cave keeps spies from coming into your city. How much silver do you need in the cave? I fill until 250,000 without thinking, aim for 500,000 when the game is a couple of months old, and a million for the end time. But I am paranoid.

Thermal Bath: Special building, no levels available, just build it. Increases overall population by 10 %.

Tower: Special building, no levels available, just build it in revolt worlds and in Hyperborea. Increases the defense value of all units recruited in the barracks by 10 %. You build it in conquest worlds because your walls are too low for that.

Merchant's Shop: Special building, no levels available, just build it in conquest worlds. Increases your market capacity from 500 to 750 per level. You could demolish the market back to 15 once you built it.

The units you recruit in this first city will be a compromise. Go for more hoplites to get a unit that is both offensive and defensive. Otherwise at least 100 swordsmen and 100 archers for defense, and 140 slingers (they can take care of any island quest coming up that needs attacking). In the harbor you should have 35 light ships for attacks and 50 biremes for defense. Don't forget transport ships for the land units. And finally you need 170 free population to build the colony ship.

The next couple of cities will probably follow the same pattern to get you started into becoming a force to be reckoned with. After that, you may want to specialize cities.

Ship and Hydra Nuke Cities

Cities that are intended to build and house naval units only, some changes to the city layout and academy researches can be made. Ship nukes can be light ships for attack, biremes for defense, or triremes for both. Triremes are expensive and use a lot of population, think about that first before you build a city for them. Even fire ships are an option if you want to annoy the enemy.

I walk you through the changes in the buildings first, and then through the list of research in the academy that you need.

To keep Timber Camp, Quarry and Silver Mine lower than maximal is a matter of taste. It depends on how much trading you do.

Barracks at level 5 is enough to build a few land units if you want to.

Temple at level 10.

Harbor at level 30 for speed in building.

The defensive land units to put behind the walls and tower and biremes to put in the harbor can come on loan from cities in a quiet area.

Research in the Academy looks as follows: Archer, Militia, Ceramics, Biremes or Light Ships or Triremes or Fire Ships depending on what you want to build the nuke of. Shipwright, Plow, Phalanx, Mathematics, Battering Ram, and Cartography. Add Slinger if you want to go after island quests that ask for attacking units, but that also means you bind up 140 population for Slingers to deal with that.

For Hydra, the Temple needs to be at level 22 and the Academy at level 31 to allow the Research of Divine Selection. Hydra are expensive in resources and divine favor they need to build one at a time. They are slow. And you need a city or cities with Cyclops to steal favor for them. Think well before you go for it.

Flying Mythicals Nuke Cities

There are changes again to the original build of the city and in the academy and research. I'll walk you through it again.

Barracks go to level 30 for speed in recruiting. Temple has to be at the level appropriate for the flyer. Harbor is sufficient at level 5. Academy goes to level 31. 

The defensive land units to put behind the walls and tower and biremes to put in the harbor can come on loan from cities in a quiet area.

Research in the Academy looks as follows: Archer, Militia, Meteorology, Ceramics, Trainer, Conscription, Plow, Phalanx, Battering Ram, Temple Looting, and Divine Selection. Add Slinger if you want to go after island quests that ask for attacking units, but that also means you bind up 140 population for Slingers to deal with that. If you are playing in a revolt world, you also need to research Conquest.

If you want to disguise your flyer nuke when you send it out, you have possibilities: you can research Fire Ships, Light Ship, and Fast Transport. Build 1 of each plus one Slow Transport and you have 4 slow speeds to hide behind when you send one of the ships with the flying circus. Slow speeds can also help with getting around real life when playing.

Offensive Land Units Nuke

Starting off from the original city plan, I'll take you through the changes in buildings and research.

As you need both the land units as well as the ships to transport and escort them, Barracks and Harbor are of equal importance. The buildings have no change except that the Temple stops at level 10.

Research in the Academy has to be done as follows: Archer, Militia, Ceramics, Trainer, Shipwright, Light Ships, Conscription, Fast Transports, Plow, Bunks, Phalanx, Mathematics, Battering Ram, and Cartography. You only need to research the unit you want to build the nuke of: Slinger, Hoplite, Horsemen or Chariots plus maybe Catapult. If you add the latter, you could add Stone Hail with the Academy at level 31.

If you want to go for a mythical non flying nuke, the Academy goes up to level 31 and the Research of Divine Selection and Temple Looting is added.

As to the nuke, you need 35 Light Ships, the rest of the free population can be split into land units and fast transport ships.

And you could use Hoplites and Chariots as a defensive nuke, too.

Defensive Land Units Nuke

Starting off from the original city plan, I'll take you through the changes in buildings and research.

As you need both the land units as well as the ships to transport them, Barracks and Harbor are of equal importance. The buildings have no change except that the Temple stops at level 10.

Research has to be done as follows: Archer, Militia, Ceramics, Trainer, Shipwright, Conscription, Fast Transports, Plow, Bunks, Phalanx, Mathematics, Battering Ram, and Cartography. Add Slinger if you want to go after island quests that ask for attacking units, but that also means you bind up 140 population for Slingers to deal with that.

If you want to go for a mythical non flying defensive nuke, the Temple has to be at the correct level to build them. The Academy goes up to level 31 and the Research of Divine Selection and Temple Looting is added. Pegasus, which fly, don't need Fast Transport Ships or Temple Looting.

As to the nuke, the free population can be split into land units and fast transport ships.

Helpful reading
Starter guide
Academy