What I normally do

[TLI-Inferno]

Keep in mind that I made up this strategy and it may not be the best, having been made up by me and is not a collection of ideas built to strength over time as most strategies are, but it works good for me.
You know that circle with one entrance on the top-mid of the map? That's one contestant for building if you get rid of most of the trees you'll have a lot of room, but I normally build my empire in the spot to the left, and often make my nuclear power plants there.
If you build on the left, the best thing to do is get rid of all but about 10 trees or so close to your town hall, and get rid of the trees behind those and all of the others. If it is small farms, you can put farms behind those trees and in the top-left corner of the base, after tree removal. Get rid of all trees other than those used for lumber-gathering, as they are 1: easily ungrown by offenders who may want to break in, and 2: waste valuable buildings space. Do this no matter where you build.
After walling the top way in (diagonally), only 1 or 2 gates needed, this is an emergency exit, build a few towers there with another builder while also making a wall on the bottom portion and towering it. Don't both upgrading the towers too much on the top portion; if you make Anti-hero towers (and cannons later on) on left and bottom cliff and short-range behind walls (for melee attackers to get slaughtered), then the AI attackers will always go for the bottom portion. Make sure you have 20% in research (at least) at all times, and another 20% wherever else you see fit, and have growth buildings in your town, citizens will grow fast that way. And another tip that can help you a lot, campfires grow your people too. Whenever you have a road intersection, make the middle road segment a campfire and upgrade it, as roads can connect diagonally. The town layout that I normally use is:
(f=farm, F=fire, G=growth foundation, H=house, = or []=road, C=campfire, R=research building) and P=safe power plant, needing only a few for starting and the real power from dangerous ones build in a protected base to the right [make sure to keep the best power plants and destroy the weaker ones and replace with better ones, and once you have a separate base filled with nuclear power plants, you may replace the safe ones with more houses])
f f f f f f f f f f f f f
f f f f f f f f f f f f f
f f f f f f f f f f f f f
f f f f f f f f f f f f f
f f f f f f f f f f f f f
f f f f f f f f f f f f f(if small farms, or)TOWN HALL

f f f f
f f f f
f f f f (if big farms)TOWN HALL
. HHHHHH[]HHHHHH
. P[]======C======[]P
. P[]HHHHHF[]GHHHHH[]P
. P[]HHFHHG[]GHFHHH[]P
. P[]======C======[]P
. F[]HHHHFG[]GFHHHH[]F
. P[]HHHHHR[]HHHHHH[]P
. P[]======C======[]P
. P[]HHHHHF[]HHHFHH[]P

Note that this is not the precise amount of buildings, its the basics of how to position the buildings, growth with low range closest to center, growth with high range closer to edges, fires on every other intersection and in the middle of every other side.

For the top defense, something like (actually count of objects may be different, just count the pattern) [C-Concussion, F-Flak, T-normal tower)
........................WT
.....................W T
..................WT
...............G F
............G
........W C
....W T
.WT

Because it is diagonal, you can repair across the corner of it, even with a tower behind every wall, don't listen to the every other wall have a tower strategy, if it's diagonal you can repair through it.
Also, even though you have concussions on the cliff, its important to have one behind the wall as well, just in case.
And because they normally don't attack the top wall, you don't need too much defense.
For the bottom wall, it should look something like...
(E-Cannon,T-normal tower, then replace with the best Tesla coils)

.WE
....WT
.......WT
..........WC
.............G
...............GF
.................WT
....................WT
.......................WE


On the left and bottom cliffs, simply put a few concussion towers on them, and cannons when you can, then, finally, Tesla coils as well.

For the power base to the right, wall it as shown:
........................C.GC
......................TW..WT
..................TW.........WT
..............TW................WT
..........FW.......................WF
......EW..............................WE
..CW....................................WC
.W..........................................W

This awkward v-shape is not only good for a funnel, having the higher-ranged towers closer to the edges and shorter in middle of the sides, longest back to the center, needing long range to reach troops at the front walls.

Once all of your defense is set, you may feel that it is time for some more farms outside.

You see that really long tunnel to the left, cliffs for such a long distance, almost to the trade camp? That provides plenty of easily defended space for farms.

Simply build a campfire on the path between bottom defense and top defense around the outer side of the mid-cliff so that nothing spawns there, then make an additional wall and towers using the first strategy shown if at a diagonal position, or a V-shaped wall if at a horizontal or vertical position from one cliff to another. Once that wall is built, preferable as far down the path as possible, clear out all trees in the area for more space. Next, build campfires on edges of the space until the entire space is revealed, so that nothing will spawn there. Once Flak Towers are positioned on the bottom cliff of the space, you are ready to fill it up with farms. The more farms you have, the more farms there are for grain upgrades to effect. Now you can raise your tax/rations to a very high ratio, such as 50/100 if you have a lot of farms and grain upgrades, but if you do housing upgrades as well and have a lot of citizens and growth buildings as I said to do, you would probably be safe when having a ratio of 12/25. Once this is done, keep upgrading housing. Because your food stocks will grow very quickly at first, you will have plenty of food left over if you get too many people, and then all you have to do is research grain again. Remember to upgrade defense and other things as well, and always upgrade range when available.

Note that I thought all of this up on my first game of playing, and that until I practice another strategy this may not be the best. Please don't be mad.

[Royce13]

I just hire a hero at 100% and then have them save my butt every time im attacked

[Royce13]

and when Im playing with final i dont even have to hire him he saves me bcuz he loves me but i do hire him anyways

[arnaudb]

Hiring is useless if you're a good empire, I generally only hire heroes out of good will. Otherwise any good empire can create an (almost) impassable defense. This is even more true in Rising.

In 7.3 the best was to rush to renaissance, then spawn musketeers while upgrading them. (6 barrack minimum)

In Rising, with only towers it's possible thought I prefer mixing units + towers. For tower make 4 guards on front behind wall, then 4 cannon to fire of the groups then 2/3 anti hero to wipe those out. Eventually spawn ballista anti air to avoid a mass farm killing by dragon.

well of course, this technique will have to be improved when difficulty increase...

[Royce13]

You are a bad empire if dont hire someone... you only get like 1 gold per tick at the start

[FinalLegacy]

Gotta agree with Royce there.
As empire, its very useful for both to boost the hero to level 20 on a 100% income rate. The hero will be far ahead and the empire will barely notice the difference (which the hero definately compensates when needed)

[arnaudb]

Well... in general it takes me 5/6 minutes to get an income over 20 gold so...

Beside in God Play, you do need gold. I seem to do a better when I don't hire hero than when I hire

Btw found cavalery lot more useful since they're tank units ^^ a good support to catapult (and excellent to kill obelisk)
-> of course bad vs air

On that note in 7.3 they are infantry units if I remember right, which made infantry profile even more overpowered.

And you get 5 gold at beginning, which when you've 600 citizens with 7 tax and 20% commercial begin to be a lot more.

I personally managed a few times to have over 50 gold (ex : 53) income at the end of grace.
(I admit it's a feast that I don't realize everytime ^^')

[TLI-Inferno]

My newest strategy is to simply get as much money as I ever could and completely spoil the hero. I do essentially the same thing, but now, I wall off in different areas, as the entire top of the map is one line, allowing for a huge easily protected area for money. I then OP my hero and get them level 800 in the time it takes most heroes to get around level 40. This allows my hero to either kill Kalenden early and piss everyone off, or kill everyone else and piss everyone off, or just to backstab me and piss me off badly but make everyone else lol.

[arnaudb]

On that note, since heroes will be better on future version, shouldn't the maximum % of hiring be lowered ?

I thought of two ways :
1)Giving a maximum % limit of 50% of payment, 100% seem an abuse to me as the empire doesn't get resource while he is paying at 100%
2)Using an upgrade or using the Ages so that the amount is limited to 5/10% early on and increase as the empire evolve.

For PvP purpose too, I thought I might add an explosive item that would be used by heroes to take down walls and towers of empires easily, so that they do have a chance to take down empires. Also it would force empires to rely more on unit and less and towers.
(->Remember that future version will make towers cost food.)

[TLI-Inferno]

There is nothing wrong with the %. If an empire wants to pay 100% they are welcome to, as that will limit their expansion. And also. If heroes could insta-blow up walls and towers, then they could target the base. And heroes actually do have a chance against empires. If an empire backs a hero (and the empire is good at economy, eliminating most empires), then the hero can do it. It's all about the skill of the players in the game.