The administrative buildings: Palace, Residence and Command Center are special buildings that allow you to expand beyond your starting village. A village may only have one of these buildings, and you may only have one Palace overall. Command Center is a special building of Huns and other tribes cannot build it.
The administrative buildings serve two core functions:
They provide expansion slots, required to settle allowing you to found new villages or conquer existing ones, and they allow training units that can do that - settlers or administrators
They protect the village from being conquered and they generate loyalty
Additionally, Palace allows you to set the village as a new capital.
All these buildings unlock expansion slots and allow you to train the units needed for expansion. You may only have one such building in a village, so you have to decide which one it will be. The critical difference lies in how many of each you can have and what else they do:
| Palace | Residence | Command Center |
Limit per avatar | One only | One per village | Only Huns, one per village |
Expansion slots | 3: at level 10, 15 and 20 | 2: at level 10 and 20 | 3: at level 10, 15 and 20 |
Trains settlers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trains administrators | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Capital relocation | Building it in a new village allows you to move capital there | Cannot move your capital | Cannot move your capital |
Costs | High | Lower than Palace | Lower than Palace |
Building duration | Very long | Shorter | Medium |
Best used for | When more slots are needed, and to move capital | For most villages, also when construction time time and costs are critical | Great option for Huns |
The Palace and Command Center provide more expansion slots, which is critical especially for conquering villages. Residence is much cheaper and faster to build, which is especially important in early game, to get the second village as fast as possible. Command Center combines the best of the other 2 buildings, but only Huns can build it.
Keep in mind that while you may only have one Palace overall, you could build it first in one village, then demolish it and build it in some other village. The capital is not moved automatically, so you may have your Palace in a village that is not your capital.
Expansion slots are what allow you to add new villages to your empire. Each slot represents the ability to either found a new village by sending settlers, or conquer an existing one by sending administrators. You need an open slot to train 3 settlers or one administrative unit. Expansion Slots
Settlers are used to found a brand new village on an unoccupied tile. You train three settlers and send them to an empty valley on the map — once they arrive, a new village is established in your name. Each founded village takes up one expansion slot. Settling Villages
Administrators are special units that can conquer villages. They have different names depending on their tribe: Senator (Romans), Chief (Teutons), Chieftain (Gauls), Nomarch (Egyptians), Logades (Huns), Ephor (Spartans) and Jarl (Vikings). They reduce the loyalty of a target village over successive attacks until conquest becomes possible. Conquering Villages
Palace is required to move your capital. The capital village is crucial, as it can never be conquered and it allows the development of resource fields to the highest levels. Capital Village
