Unless you got lucky with the daily amulets or purchased some from the Shop, you probably don't have a lot of Michelangelo's Scripts. So what buildings would benefit most from lifting them to level 10?
The only five that are worth upgrading to the maximum in my opinion are: Town Hall, Walls, Beacon Tower, Academy, and Barracks (*if you upgrade a Barracks to level 10, you will also need to upgrade a Workshop to level 10 to be able to make Catapults). Anything else is fine at level 9. However, substantial benefit can be gained by upgrading the rally point aswell. This allows you to eventually farm lv 10 barbarian cities; in turn increasing the chances of further drops.
There are a numbers of considerations that play a role in making the decision:
- What type of city do I have? Resource factory or Troop plant?
- How many enemies are close by (within 5 hr attack radius) and how strong are they?
- How many valleys/ NPCs are near me? And what level are they?
- Are Catapults really necessary for my armies?
One of the most useful buildings to spend it on is your Town Hall, because it not only offers 3 extra resource fields, and one extra valley slot, but getting a level 10 barracks, for catapults, you also need metal casting level 10, which requires a workshop level 10, so you need 2 Michelangelo's Scrips to be able to make catapults.
Script Priorities[ | ]
Since this article is made of opinion, I decided to add mine and attempt to substantiate it. Keep in mind that many of your level 10 buildings can be obtained by capturing a level 10 barbarian city (which is explained in another guide.) Some of them are worth building before making that capture, and can make a city worth keeping even after you're able to take level 10's regularly.
1&2. Wall/Rally Point[ | ]
Both of these give you the most for your investment, and both multiply in usefulness as your technology levels increase. Both also give greater potential for prestige gain.
Your Rally Point becomes more powerful offensively the more barracks constructed and the higher your military techs are researched (Military Tradition/Iron Working/Archery/Medicine;) the more powerful and higher volume of units produced, the more valuable the ability to send up to 10 attacks of 100,000 units. To fully maximize the useage one would also have to spend scripts for Military Science, Metal Casting, Horseback Riding, and gather a full Feasthall of attack heroes. But full parties of Warriors alone can reap large amounts of prestige and resources when sent against level 6-8 NPC's.
A fully loaded level 10 Wall is a great deterrent to attack, and provides lasting shelter to allow for interior development. Walls and their fortified units become stronger with Engineering research, and repair with Machinery, two technologies that don't require scripts to max. However, the prestige gain caps out when the wall is completely filled, at least until taking losses from an attack.
Depending on whether your style is offensive or defensive, either the Rally Point or Wall will be top priority, with the other dropping to 2nd in priority. Everything below this is non-essential; you could simply wait until you're able to capture a level 10.
3. Relief Station[ | ]
Absolutely necessary for multiple cities, to send goods and troops quickly, and to set up ambushes in valleys under attack rather than paying the upkeep of reinforcing them. It requires a script to max the Stable and Horseback riding, but those can be taken from a level 10 barbarian city, and then the technology can be applied to build this in any city you wish to keep.
4. Warehouse[ | ]
Warehouse not nesscary at level 10 level 9 will do just fine in making sure if you get zeroed you will have enough to rebuild
Suggestion[ | ]
Warehouse level 10 allows you to research Stockpile level 10, which increases the capacity of your city's resource fields as well. --Knickuh from WN2
5. Feasthall[ | ]
The more room you have for heroes, the more raiding parties can go on attack. Necessary for maximizing a level 10 Rally Point, also good for retaining intelligence heroes, and backup intelligence and politics heroes for future cities in addition to raiding attack heroes.
6. Town Hall[ | ]
The increased resource potential is a good reason to invest in this, but as the server matures, expecting to maximize it with valleys becomes less and less realistic. Most spend their script here simply to make their city look more formidable, and the impression it makes does color potential attacker's perspectives. But the real value of a city is what's inside it, and a level 10 Town Hall alone doesn't make a city a keeper.
but you need it for some promotions so it is a must if you are wanting multiple cities (need it for general with is needed for earl)
7. Resource fields[ | ]
Why would I rank this above Barracks, Forge and Workshop? Because your increased recruitment queues and times aren't going to do much good if you don't have the resource output to keep up with them, which associated technologies can improve. This is still a relative priority, and spending your scripts for them is far less preferable to taking them from a level 10 city.
8&9. Forge/Workshop[ | ]
Both are necessary to maximize Military Science for troops/horsemen or Metalcasting for mechanical units. This choice also depends on whether your strategy is offensive or defensive; troops are better for ranged attacks, mechanics are better for close-range farming and bolstering city defense. But both also become expendable once the technology is maxxed, so it's better to get these from a level 10. Getting the most of these also requires a level 10 Stable, which is...
10. Stable[ | ]
Good for increased travel times for horsemen and mechanical units, in transit and in battle, but the building can also be demolished after researching Horseback Riding to level 10. Again, a level 10 capture will have one of these so you may as well save your script.
11. Academy[ | ]
A level 10 Academy is only good for researching Privateering. At best, Privateering exposes 30% of a defending player's warehouse capacity to raids. This doesn't mean each raid will take 30% away, it means that their warehouse capacity is simply considered to be 30% less, and if warehouses are already at or below 70% capacity, those resources remain in the city. Marginally useful for demoralizing a defender, but a high Storage tech more than compensates for it. If you like the sense of completion of maxing all techs, you'd still be better off getting this from a level 10 city.
13. Barracks[ | ]
Having a recruitment queue 10 deep isn't as impressive as it may sound; you're still limited by resource output and population, and if you've tried to refill a level 9 Barracks after it's idled to empty or near empty you'll find it's a pain enough never to let it get that low. It's not like stacking another group on the queue is going to make them train faster. Still, it's useful for cranking out the catapults, which make excellent defenders in small groups, and devastating raiders in sufficient numbers. You can't produce those without a level 10 Workshop and Metalcasting 10, which can be taken from a level 10 city. Considering the food costs in production and upkeep, one level 10 Barracks is enough for any city.
14. Inn[ | ]
Only marginally useful, a level 10 Inn gives one more potential hero to recruit. Conventional wisdom is that higher level Inns have higher level but less desirable heroes. But your selection is always going to be a crapshoot with a vast majority of losing bets; at least with a larger pool your chances that the RNG will grace you with one worth having increases. Having more heroes here allows you to browse potentials before you need them, instead of futzing with the tedious ham-clickery of recruit-and-release when you need one. I'll agree that this isn't necessary at all, but in order of priority it's still a hair more useful than the following.
Last. All others[ | ]
Only if you have scripts to burn and nowhere to spend them would you ever build level 10 Cottages, Embassies, or Marketplaces. If you've held onto a city long enough to get attached, then you might as well finish it off. The buildings themselves aren't so valuable, but you can take pride in a maxxed out city. Cottages would be higher up the list if you could develop more than one per script, but a single one...not so worth it. Embassies however can be quite useful for hosts for their alliance if they want to have 100 limit. (However, if you have a Ritual of Pact, don't waste your script on the EMBASSY!!!)
==On a note, a level 10 Embassy allows 10 defending missions to enter your city, hence allowing more room for your alliance members to reinforce you in times of wars.
Additional Note[ | ]
Getting level 10 Workshop and level 10 Barracks not only lets you get catapults - once you have 200 catapults you can complete the last Allied Forces Hero Quest. Completion of all these quests gives you FOUR Michelangelo's Scripts, so if you have two scripts to start with, I recommend going with this method. You can also just spend one on a rally point, so you can capture a lvl 10 npc, giving you catapults with no other cost for scripts. After that, you will get 4 more scripts, which you can use for anything you want.