Whether it's from Scratch, or you are Converting a Level 10 NPC, it is very important to build your cities correctly.
The pictures below show:
A captured Level 10 NPC that has had 13 Cottages, Stable, Forge, and Workshop demolished and has had 16 new Barracks built..
A city built from scratch with all level 10 Barracks.
Remember: You will need your Workshop and Stable to finish your Wall and Relief Station. Also, depending on your troop Training Hero's attack level, you may want to add or subtract a couple cottages for more or less barracks – as your heroes start building troops faster more population is needed for building warriors and scouts because they build so fast.
Note: The cities above DO NOT have Warehouses – if you are prone to defending, you may want to keep at least one Warehouse in each of your cities.
Resource Fields
All cities should have ALL of the same resource fields and valleys as whatever is most expensive at the time. Usually Stone is the most needed/expensive resource to have on a new server when players are building up cities more than anything else, but Lumber and Iron always end up being the most sought after Resources.
So why waste time and resource fields making a Resource that is worth half as much as another? All it takes is 30 minutes to sell your Lumber and buy over Twice as much Food in exchange – plus still have Lumber left over!.
Here you can see the result of choosing one Resource to produce per city as opposed to split, or 50/50, resource cities. It gets even better if your Mayor has higher Politics
Another thing to consider when building the Perfect Evony City is LOCATION.
Try to find a spot with lots of Flats directly next to the Flat you are going to build on or the Level 10 NPC you are capturing. The reason behind this is so that you can fill up the surrounding nearby Flats with Level 10 NPCs to farm, and for the flats that are over 5 miles away with Level 5 NPCs.
This should help you in your endeavours to create the most Productive, Perfect Evony Age 1 city.