🟢 Level: Beginner → Intermediate
⏱️ Reading time: ~10 min
Cities are at the heart of Million Lords.
They make up your territory, contribute to your production, hold your troops, and serve as starting points for your offensives.
It can therefore be tempting to think that the best strategy is simply to:
own as many cities as possible and upgrade all of them as much as possible.
In reality, things are much more subtle.
A well-positioned and properly developed city can become an essential part of your kingdom.
Another may simply be a temporary conquest that you will lose a few hours later.
Learning to tell the difference is an important step toward becoming a better Million Lords player.
🖼️ [ILLUSTRATION — Several cities of different levels within a kingdom]
1. What Are Your Cities For?
Your kingdom consists of all the cities you control.
They serve several purposes.
💰 Producing Resources
Your cities contribute to your gold and troop production.
As your kingdom develops, this production helps fund upgrades and replenish your armies.
⚔️ Holding Your Troops
Your armies are distributed among your cities.
You can move troops from one city to another to prepare an attack or reinforce a threatened position.
🗺️ Expanding Your Territory
Every new city changes your presence on the map.
A conquest can bring you closer to an opponent, help you reach your clan, or simply open new opportunities for expansion.
🛡️ Creating Defensive Positions
A city's level directly contributes to its defense.
A developed city can therefore become much harder to conquer than a newly acquired one.
💡 Tip
Don't think of a city only as a source of production.
Its position on the map can be just as important as its level.
2. Understanding City Levels
Every city has a level.
You can invest gold to upgrade it.
As its level increases, the city becomes more valuable in terms of production and defense.
However, development also becomes increasingly expensive.
This creates your first real strategic choice:
Where should you invest your gold?
You could spread your resources across every city.
Or you could concentrate your investment on a few important cities.
The right answer depends on your situation.
⚠️ Common mistake
Don't automatically hit the upgrade button simply because you have enough gold.
First ask yourself whether you actually intend to keep that city.
3. City Levels Increase Defense
Each city level currently provides +3% city defense.
This means high-level cities provide a significant defensive advantage to the troops stationed inside them.
For example:
Level 10 city → +30% defense
Level 50 city → +150% defense
Level 100 city → +300% defense
This bonus strengthens the troops defending the city and can combine with other defensive factors.
A highly developed city containing a large army can therefore require dramatically more power to conquer than a small, undeveloped city.
🖼️ [ILLUSTRATION — Comparison between a small weakly defended city and a fortified high-level city]
However:
high defense does not make a city invincible.
A sufficiently powerful, well-prepared opponent can still attempt to conquer it.
4. A Conquered City Loses Value
An important mechanic to understand is that a city loses two levels whenever it changes ownership.
A level 50 city captured by an opponent therefore becomes level 48.
If you take it back, it loses another two levels.
Repeated captures and recaptures can therefore gradually reduce the city's level.
This is particularly important when deciding whether to defend or retake a developed city.
💡 Tip
Think carefully before exposing a highly developed city to repeated captures and recaptures.
That doesn't mean you must defend it at all costs.
It simply means that losing it has a greater cost than losing a small city you just captured.
5. Your Cities and Troop Production
Your cities directly contribute to your ability to produce new troops.
Your total troop production depends notably on two components:
City production + Recruiter bonus production
The contribution from your cities is based on their VP.
As your kingdom develops, this base production can become increasingly important.
The Recruiter skill then adds additional production.
💡 Tip
Think of production as a kingdom-wide system.
A city's value isn't limited to the troops currently stationed there. What it contributes over time also matters.
We'll explore the calculations in detail in Understanding Troop Production.
6. Your Cities and Gold
Gold is essential for developing your kingdom.
Among other things, it allows you to upgrade your cities.
This creates an important cycle:
Produce gold → Invest in cities → Develop your kingdom → Produce more
You will also encounter skills and equipment that can improve your economy.
However, accumulating gold is not an objective by itself.
Gold becomes truly useful when it is invested in the right place at the right time.
⚠️ Common mistake
Having enough gold to upgrade a city doesn't necessarily mean that upgrading it is your best possible investment.
7. Should You Own Lots of Cities?
Million Lords is a conquest game.
Naturally, you'll want to expand your kingdom.
And controlling more cities offers many advantages.
But there is a difference between:
expanding
and
expanding intelligently.
Imagine two kingdoms.
The first controls many cities spread across several directions and located far away from one another.
The second controls fewer cities, but they are grouped within a coherent area.
The first kingdom is larger.
But the second may be much easier to manage.
🖼️ [ILLUSTRATION — Comparison between a compact kingdom and a scattered kingdom]
A scattered territory can lead to:
- longer troop movements;
- more borders to monitor;
- isolated cities that are difficult to reinforce;
- more opportunities for your opponents.
🔥 Remember
The number of cities you own is only one part of your kingdom's strength.
Their position matters just as much.
8. Not Every City Deserves the Same Investment
As you progress, try to mentally classify your cities according to their importance.
👑 Your Main City
Your main city naturally holds a special place within your kingdom.
🏰 Important Cities
Some cities may be valuable because they are:
- highly developed;
- located at the heart of your territory;
- close to your allies;
- useful for quickly deploying armies;
- positioned in strategically important locations.
These cities may justify greater investment.
⚔️ Frontline Cities
These are located near opponents or within contested areas.
They can be extremely useful for launching attacks.
But they are also exposed.
Investing heavily in a frontline city therefore requires careful consideration.
🏳️ Temporary Cities
Some cities are captured simply to progress, gain XP, or continue moving across the map.
You may already know that they won't remain part of your kingdom for long.
If so, why invest huge amounts of gold into them?
💡 Tip
Before heavily upgrading a city, ask yourself:
"Do I still want to own this city tomorrow?"
9. Building a Coherent Kingdom
At first, you will probably capture whichever cities look most attractive without thinking too much about their position.
That's perfectly normal.
But gradually, start paying attention to the shape of your territory.
Are your important cities close together?
Can you quickly move troops between them?
Are you close to your clan members?
Do you have a city completely isolated inside enemy territory?
Where are your borders?
These questions become increasingly important as you progress.
🖼️ [ILLUSTRATION — An organized kingdom built around a territorial core with several frontline cities]
A coherent kingdom makes troop movement and defensive reactions much easier.
Speed-up consumables can accelerate transfers between your own cities, but good positioning remains extremely valuable.
10. Should You Defend This City?
An enemy attacks one of your cities.
Your first instinct might be:
"I have to defend it!"
Not necessarily.
Before sending reinforcements, ask yourself a few questions.
How Valuable Is the City?
Is it highly developed?
Is it important to your territory?
Where Is It Located?
Is it at the heart of your kingdom or completely isolated?
How Many Troops Will You Need?
A small city may not be worth sacrificing a large part of your army.
Can You Actually Win the Defense?
Reinforcing a doomed city may simply increase your losses.
What Could You Do Elsewhere?
While your opponent is attacking this city, another opportunity may appear.
🔥 Build this habit
Don't just ask:
"Can I defend this city?"
Also ask:
"Is defending this city worth it?"
11. Knowing When to Let a City Go
This may sound strange in a conquest game.
But learning not to defend is part of strategy.
A city may be:
- too isolated;
- too weak;
- too exposed;
- poorly developed;
- strategically unimportant.
In some situations, allowing your opponent to capture it lets you preserve your army.
Those troops can then be used to defend a much more important position or launch an offensive somewhere else.
💡 Tip
Losing a city doesn't automatically mean losing the strategic battle.
Sometimes preserving your army is far more important than preserving a city.
12. Common Mistakes
❌ Upgrading Every City
Not every city you control deserves the same investment.
❌ Investing Heavily in an Exposed City
The more you invest, the more expensive losing it becomes.
❌ Defending Automatically
A pointless defense may cost far more than the city itself.
❌ Looking Only at City Level
A high-level city in a poor location may be less strategically valuable than a lower-level city located exactly where you need it.
❌ Ignoring Distance
The time required to move troops can determine the outcome of an attack or defense.
❌ Conquering Without Looking at the Map
Before capturing a city, consider what it adds to the shape of your territory.
❌ Confusing Size With Strength
A huge kingdom that is impossible to support can be much more vulnerable than it appears.
13. A Simple Way to Evaluate a City
Whenever you're unsure whether a city deserves investment, ask yourself five questions:
1. Is it well positioned?
2. Do I intend to keep it?
3. Can I reinforce it easily?
4. Does developing it genuinely improve my kingdom?
5. What will I lose if an opponent captures it?
The more positive answers you have, the more likely the city deserves your attention.
With experience, this analysis will become almost automatic.
14. What's Next?
You now know how to think strategically about developing your cities.
The following guides will explore each aspect in greater depth.
📚 Recommended Guides
⚔️ Understanding How Battles Work
Learn how attack, defense, walls, troops, and skills determine the outcome of a battle.
🛡️ Defending Your Cities Effectively
Learn which cities are worth defending and how to use your troops efficiently.
⚔️ Understanding Troop Production
Learn exactly how your cities and Recruiter contribute to troop production.
💰 Understanding Gold and Your Economy
Learn how to build an economy suited to your strategy.
🗺️ Building and Organizing Your Territory
Positioning, borders, frontline cities, and staying close to your clan.
🎯 How to Choose a Good Target
Learn why choosing a city to attack involves much more than simply looking at its defense.
📌 Key Takeaways
- Not every city has the same value.
- Each city level increases its defense.
- Your cities directly contribute to your production.
- A city loses one level when it changes ownership.
- Don't automatically upgrade every city you capture.
- A city's position can be just as important as its level.
- Not every city is worth defending.
- Gradually build a coherent territory rather than simply collecting cities.
And most importantly:
A good city isn't simply a high-level city.
It's a city that serves your strategy.