One suspects, for the most part, that Majesty players more often than not simply slap down their buildings wherever there's space, as soon as there's space, or with the most minor consideration for placement. This article will examine a few placement and organisation strategies designed to maximise the efficiency of one’s Kingdom. This essay primarily assumes you're playing a multi-player game of Majesty, although most of the information below can be used in co-op or scenario play.

With regard to economy, the most important buildings you'll place are the marketplaces, inns and guardhouses. Two marketplaces are your best bet in the current state of Majesty. Two marketplaces won't double your income, like they used to, but they will do a couple of things: substantially increase your income and provide a margin for error/safety in the event that one marketplace is torn down. The importance of that safety margin is paramount when you're using a trading-post based economy. If the caravans have no place to travel to, you'll make no money from them. Beyond two markets, the return for your money is substantially reduced, when you consider the time it takes to recoup the initial placement cost and the cost of upgrading to level three, even if you eschew Teleportation Ring research in the final event. So, two markets are a must.

Obviously, the first should be placed as close to the entrance of your Palace as possible. I think this is a universally recognised strategy, which minimises travel time and therefore risk for tax collectors. Where should the second market go? Well, as close to the Palace while still at minimum distance from the first seems to be the usual choice… But I would argue that this isn't necessary. Here are a couple of alternate suggestions. Assuming you've built a Rangers' Guild and have explored a little, why not build your second market a little away from the Palace. Then, as close to the market as possible, on the opposite side from your Palace, build a guardhouse. Why? Because that guardhouse will provide a closer and safer delivery point for the 2nd market's gold.

Also, you want to build this market-guardhouse combination away from the map's side. What you'll then do is surround that guardhouse with inns, usually 4-5, as close as possible to both one another and the guardhouse. This collection has a few advantages, some major and some minor. First, the guardhouse provides a nearby haven for tax collectors, as mentioned. These tax collectors will sally back and forth to your 2nd market as well as these inns. I normally have my collectors set to a minimum pickup of 400 Gold, to reduce the amount of time they spend travelling about with pittances. Using this strategy, which I call Wall Street, I set one tax collector at a minimum/maximum pickup of 200 Gold. This keeps him rather busy circling Wall Street, with only a small distance to travel. Also, many heroes will flee to an Inn if it is closer than to their home Guild. Having these Inns close to a Market makes their return to play (and hunt for Potions) quicker and easier.

The second concept for a cluster around your Market is as a central point for all heroes. Most heroes will go to the market, if only for the Healing Potions. So, consider building a market at least a large guild’s distance from the Palace. Then, you can ring that market with each of the Guilds you intend to build. The Warrior's Guild should go to the upper left of the Market. This means that when you perform a ‘Call to Arms’, the fighters are most-effectively placed when returning. Either wounded heroes will already be closer to a market full of Healing Potions, or defenders of your market are as close as possible to potential foes.

Consider, too, that the market tends to draw Troll and Ratman foes. Having the market ringed by Guilds will not only provide easy access to market for those heroes, but also allow them more frequent chances for combat, close to their homes in case of trouble. The safety factor for that market also increases when heroes are closely housed. And for those of you willing to dig further, keep in mind that most guilds’ entry points are at different relative positions. The Warrior’s Guild entry is at about 4 or 5 o’clock on the guild, whilst the Wizards’ is at 6 and the Priestesses’ at 7. Try to have this entry as close to the market as you can make it.

Something that can be used to great advantage is Follow and Support. This is a characteristic many heroes have, whereby they will ‘attach’ themselves to a hero of another guild. These two (or more) will then travel together, increasing their abilities, safety and power. The most obvious of such combinations involves Healers and just about anyone. But more obscure, yet powerful combinations include Rangers-and/or-Wizards/Barbarians and Wizards/Monks. If you plan to use such Follow and Support combinations, be sure to plan for them in your Guild placement. The chance of a hero taking such an action is increased when he has such a companion close by. So, build Follow and Support compatible Guilds close together, i.e. on the border of their build radii when you first place them down.

There are alternate methods to generating this sort of behaviour. If your placement has not allowed for Follow and Support, or there’s no place to build a Guild where you’d like, think about where the target hero will likely be. If you want Wizards to follow Monks, place their Guild next to an inn. Monks frequent inns a great deal. Place an Agrela Temple near a Blacksmith. Warriors, whom Healers love to follow, are always at the Blacksmith if they can afford a newly-available weapon.

The greatest defensive building you can build, the Dwarven Settlement, also has a best possible placement. This would be at the far edge of your town, closest to your most threatening enemy, i.e. the other player in a 2-player multi-player game. Until around 10th level, most heroes will either Flee in Terror when they come into their sight range of a Dwarven Settlement, or they will certainly flee when hit a few times by Ballistae. The reason for placing the Dwarven Settlement in this position is maximisation of use. The direct line from your enemy’s Town to yours is the one most of his heroes are likely to take. And the range of the Settlement (it can shoot up to 400 game units away, or about it’s own width) pretty much ensures that anyone wandering even a good amount off this centreline will become a target. The benefits are twofold. The Settlement will run off enemy heroes heading for your Town, as well as provide covering fire for your heroes heading home.

There is, of course, no point to spending 1187 Gold on a Dwarven Settlement and then not taking advantage of its satellites: Ballista Towers. The first such tower will cost you 950 Gold, and is certainly well worth it. The second is going to cost you about 2400 Gold, and should be placed with care. A primary target position for the first tower is in a corner, defending a Trading Post. Trading Post-based economies make the Posts themselves extremely important, and building one will surely draw your opponent’s Reward Flags. A Ballista Tower will make such a post virtually untouchable, if the post is nestled into the extreme corner of the map, and the tower is placed adjacent to it.

That second Ballista Tower is problematic. For 2400 Gold, it had better get built. Risk using it to defend a second Trading Post only if certain your enemy can’t get rewards on it before it’s complete. You might, by this time in the game, consider where in your Town it may come in of use. If you’ve expanded your town to or beyond the boundary of your initial Dwarven Settlement, you might have a need of extra defense. Consider the following options: defend an area of your Town that sticks out, or bulges, and can be attacked by enemy reward flags that allow passage into your town without passing by the Dwarven Settlement. (A clever enemy will use the periphery of your town as a staging point to get inside your Town without coming under fire.) Or, place it within about 300 game units (about the width of a marketplace) of your Dwarven Settlement, on the side you judge to be attacked most by enemy heroes. By late in the game there are heroes who can withstand the Ballistae’s pummelling. The only way to prevent loss of your Settlement at this point may be to back it up with a second Tower.

So, we’ve looked at building placement. The initial placement of markets should be examined beyond simply plonking them down wherever there’s space. They can serve either as the cornerstone of a Wall Street, along with 4-5 inns and a guardhouse. Or, they can serve as a central Agora for a grouping of guilds, whose heroes you hope to help with the easy access to Healing Potions and the higher rate of enemy encounter with Ratmen and Trolls. Guilds whose heroes Follow and Support should be grouped so as to take advantage of just that. And, if you can’t find room to do so, place such new guilds in neighbourhoods where supportable heroes are often found. Finally, we looked at the placement of the Dwarven Settlement and its Tower subsidiaries. The great defensive value of these buildings requires proper placement so as to ensure maximisation of their killing and terror effects. With a little foresight and planning (all bets are off in the event Houses, Gambling Halls, Elven Lounges or [shudder] Gnome Hovels arise) the placement of your buildings can mean as much to your Kingdom as the heroes you recruit into it.