Farm build order and the Town Center cap
A farm's build order inverts a main's: cap the Town Center at 18, keep your Storehouse at level 1, and upgrade troop training and Embassy alongside Academy. The why behind each rule.
A farm’s build order has two counterintuitive rules that catch nearly every new farm player off-guard:
- Stop at Town Center 18 — there is no good reason to go higher.
- Keep your Storehouse at level 1 — never upgrade it.
Everything else follows from those two. Both feel wrong because they violate the instinct trained by your main account, where “upgrade everything” is the right answer. On a farm, the math inverts.
TL;DR
- TC cap: TC 13 is the cheapest functional stop (3 marches via Command Tactics II); TC 18 is the recommended target (4 marches via Command Tactics III)
- Past TC 18, nothing on the farm benefits from further TC upgrades. Resources spent there are resources that don’t reach your main.
- Storehouse stays at level 1 — every level of Storehouse is protected resources your main can’t plunder back
- Embassy always matches your TC level — it’s a prerequisite for every TC upgrade
- Academy maxes to match your TC — Academy 13 gates Command Tactics II, Academy 18 gates Command Tactics III
- Troop training buildings (Barracks, Archery Range, Lancer Camp) to level 13 for T5 troops — a few million resources total, and worth it for gathering capacity
- Skip the Wall, skip combat research, skip Hospital past basic level
Notes for spenders
Packs and speed-ups compress the setup window from 1–2 weeks to a couple of days, but they don’t change the optimal shape. TC 18 is the cap because Command Tactics III is the last farm-relevant unlock, not because resources are scarce.
Don’t speed-up upgrade past TC 18 “just because you can” — every level past 18 burns resources that should be reaching your main. The output gain from going higher is zero; the cost is real.
Spending on the farm itself burns resources that would otherwise reach the main. Use speed-ups to fast-forward the boring setup phase, then run the farm exactly the way an F2P player would. The daily routine is where spend matters, not the build.
Why TC 18 is the cap
Town Center upgrades gate building tiers and Academy tiers, but they don’t give march slots directly. Marches come from Academy research (Command Tactics I/II/III) and from VIP rank. The three meaningful breakpoints for a farm are:
- Academy 2 → Command Tactics I → +1 march (cheap, get it early)
- Academy 13 → Command Tactics II → +1 march (requires TC 13)
- Academy 18 → Command Tactics III → +1 march (requires TC 18)
That’s the entire reason to upgrade past TC 13. Once Command Tactics III is researched, further TC upgrades unlock nothing the farm uses — late-game buildings, advanced combat research, higher troop tiers, and bigger Storehouse capacity are all things the farm actively doesn’t want.
TC 18 is the final goal. Stop there.
The two valid stopping points
| Cap | What you get | When to stop here |
|---|---|---|
| TC 13 | Academy 13 → Command Tactics II → 3 marches. Cheapest functional farm; minimal investment. | Ultra-lightweight farms, stepping-stone progress, or when you want a working farm fast and can revisit later. |
| TC 18 | Academy 18 → Command Tactics III → 4 marches. The full farm. | The recommended target. With VIP 6 added later (5th march), supports the standard 4 gather + 1 auto-rally loadout. |
There is no good reason to stop between 13 and 18. Either you’ve decided the farm is worth the full investment (go to 18) or you haven’t (stop at 13 and come back later). Stopping at 14, 15, 16, or 17 just delays without unlocking anything.
Anything past TC 18 burns resources for zero return on the farm’s job.
Why the Storehouse stays at level 1
The Storehouse protects resources from being plundered. On your main, this is critical — losing a stockpile to an enemy raid is painful.
On a farm, you want to be plundered, because the plundering is being done by your main. Every resource the Storehouse protects is a resource your main can’t take.
The plunder method for transferring large amounts of resources (covered in Moving resources from farm to main) works by having your main attack the farm and loot whatever isn’t behind the Storehouse cap. A level 1 Storehouse protects almost nothing. A level 30 Storehouse protects a fortune — locked away from your own main.
Keep it at level 1. It feels wrong. It is correct.
Upgrade priority on a farm
Build everything to the minimum needed to unlock march slots and gathering throughput, and no more:
| Priority | Building | Target level | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Town Center | 18 (or 13 if stopping early) | Gates Academy 18 → Command Tactics III |
| 1 | Academy | Match TC (18 at TC 18) | Gates Command Tactics II/III and gathering speed research |
| 1 | Embassy | Match TC | Required prerequisite for every TC upgrade. Don’t fight this — it always upgrades with TC. |
| 2 | Barracks / Archery Range / Lancer Camp | 13 | Unlocks T5 troops. Costs a few million total; pays for itself in gathering capacity. |
| 2 | Farms / Sawmills / Quarries / Iron Mines | Match TC | Building-produced resources are secured — they can’t be plundered, even by your main. Small steady drip on top of gathering. |
| 3 | Watchtower | Minimum to unlock alliance Help / basic tools | Intel Missions are optional on a farm — skip if managing them feels like extra work |
| Skip | Wall | 1 | A high Wall makes you harder to plunder. Bad. |
| Skip | Hospital past basic | 5–10 | Your troops shouldn’t be dying often |
| Skip | Storehouse | 1 | See above — protected resources are resources your main can’t take |
Why T5 troops, not T1
Older farm guides recommend T1 troops only — cheap, fast, expendable. The math has shifted.
T5 troops (unlocked at troop-building level 13) carry significantly more resources per soldier than T1. That means:
- Each march fills capacity with fewer troops — easier to keep all your marches loaded without constantly retraining
- You can AFK train troops in the background and have enough on hand to send all 4 marches out without thinking about it
- Gathering capacity per march is higher — you bring back more per trip, so you can run longer cycles between collections
The cost to get troop buildings to level 13 is a few million resources total — small compared to the gathering throughput gain over the farm’s lifetime. Train T5 troops in bulk.
Skip T6+ — those tiers cost orders of magnitude more for a marginal capacity gain, and the farm doesn’t need them.
Research that matters
Inside the Academy, two trees matter on a farm:
- Growth → Command Tactics I, II, III — unlocks the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th march slots. Command Tactics III (Academy 18) is the final one, and the reason for the TC 18 cap.
- Economy → Gathering speed nodes for each resource type — direct multipliers on farm output. See Daily farm routine for resource priority.
Everything else — combat research, building-output research, defensive research — is skipped entirely on a farm. Output research in particular is a common trap: it boosts passive building production but does nothing for map gathering, which is where the farm’s actual income comes from.
Where to go next
- Farm research priorities — which Academy nodes to chase as the build progresses
- Farm heroes — the four blue gathering heroes that pair with the build
- Daily farm routine — march loadout and twice-a-day cadence once the build is in place
- Moving resources from farm to main — covers the plunder method that justifies the level 1 Storehouse rule