We all know the drill….you build comfortably through the seven-days-protection period and start gaining might in making troops. But sooner or later, the upkeep in food they need will outnumber what you could possibly produce in your city. Especially for armies over 200k might it is nigh impossible to keep up with the needs, even with a high level hero helping production and wilds to give you bonuses.
Constantly asking alliance members is annoying and impossible, as they will also grow their respective armies. Luckily, there is a caveat in the KoM system to help you out.
Armies are happy to starve
Turns out, your troops will happily survive AND fight for you without them being given food. This presents you with an interesting option: Acquiring a second city and assigning your troops there. While the first city is used for doing research, upgrading buildings and producing resources, your second city will be used as troop-city, where your troops are stationed and from where you primarily attack.
***NOTE: this also indirectly protects your resources from retaliation, as your enemies will get only the coordinates of the troop-city, where no resources are to be found!
I acquired my second city a week ago and did the above. Virtually no buildings are there except for lvl 6 Musterfield and Great Hall, to be able to send out enough armies. Eventually I will build it full of barracks and produce the troops there as well, but right now im still expanding my first city.
Acquiring a second city
Getting your second city can be a pain in the ass, as you have to farm the necessary relics from goblin camps lvl 6 and higher. Conversely, you can buy a second city deed with mithril. I’ll confess I used the latter option. I’m normally against spending real money on these types of games, but as this is virtually the only game I’m currently playing after Diablo 3 turned out to be the pile of shit it is right now, I decided I could spend some money on it. For those of you who do not want to spend money, happy farming!
Update: For a while now, Second City Relics are dropping from Necromancer campaign maps as well. With a pretty high drop rate and little troops losses, this option might be more efficient compared to raiding Goblin camps. You will only need to spend some Stamina refills to do it quickly. Unfortunately, third and fourth city relics can only be found in Goblin camps.
Are there alternatives?
Yes there are alternatives to getting your second city. The first is to station your troops in the city of a friendly city. Upkeep costs will be for the city where the troops are stationed. This is not an option for most players with only one city, but if you know an ally with troop city, ask him/her nicely to park your troops there.
The second option is to farm the food needed for construction and training. However, as big armies can chew to ridiculous amounts of food in no-time, this would practically mean you would have to farm before every building/army construction/training. This is rather time-consuming and wouldn’t work for me personally.
So my advice: Try to acquire a second city asap! It makes life a hell of a lot easier!
Kingdoms of Middle Earth made easy 
Think you are missing loads on this, this is ment to be for noobs im guessing then what about actually telling them that if they send there troops to a friends city and that friend gets attacked you could end up losing ALL of your troops.
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Another alternative to buying or farming a second city from goblin camps is to farm from the necromancer. I got my second city a few weeks ago from farming relics from the necromancer. Campaign uses much less troops and now takes no marching time to attack.
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you are correct, Ill add it in the article. Thanks!
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Hello, thanks for the information. I had already built up my first city with all buildings to level 9, so I decided to feed my troops there then my second city can grow. But I have to destroy all 20 farms I had in my first city… Is that a way to do it too? Or did I do it wrong?
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I did the same. Primarily so I can use my strongest hero (first city) for leading troops into battle. Not so nice is the fact that all the loot ends up in 1st city with a food consumption of 1.8m/h… And needs to be carted away ASAP.
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Yup, I have the same ‘problem’, with troops consuming about 30m/h. Thats why I farm from my second city again, so the food isnt lost immediately. For farming, you dont need high heroes, just a large number of them. When I hit wall or open targets, switch to city 1 and attack with full hero/gear. This works best for me…
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