Well, I seem to be a bit late to the party again. Anyway here's my plan, which is similar to the bandwagon with a few differences. Shepherding definitely makes good sense, and makes best use of our terrain.
Trade and Build Actions
[X] Sell 1 Lebethron (Market Price)
[X] Buy 2 Stone (Market Price-1)
[X] Build a Stone Residential District (-5 Gold, -2 Stone, +2 Housing)
--[X] Corral wild sheep and start shepherding (-2 Gold, +2 Food, +1 Income)
[X] Small Stone Mercantile District (-5 Gold, -2 Stone, +2 Taxes, +1 Prestige)
[X] Small Stone Civic District (-5 Gold, -2 Stone, +1 Prestige)
----[X] Establish Houses of Healing (-2 Gold, +2 Prosperity)
[X] Build an Inner Wall (-5 Gold. -4 Wood)
--[X] Add one or two subdivisions and multiple gates to begin moving from a tiered defensive scheme into a more cellular structure.
Special Actions
-[X] Send messengers to Imladris and to the Havens, letting them know of our survival and how we fare now, and asking if they have any new tidings of the Enemy. Thank them for their aid against the Witch King.
-[X] Put together a small picked band of men from our Militia and the Chieftain's retinue. These will be the first of our rangers, and they will roam far and wide watching our borders.
Reasoning
- Our Prosperity is still low right now, and one assumes that has a bearing on both general public happiness, and also our rate of population growth. Growth is crucial right now and so getting basic medical services simply makes good sense. It also helps to regain the spirit of our lost civilised culture before people start to forget it.
- On top of that, we don't urgently need a Barracks right now. The only enemy we had close enough for us to know about it have been wiped out. With our militia of Dunedain veterans, it was an utterly one-sided fight. The Misty Mountains are far away from us and so are the Dunlendings. We will undoubtedly face challenges in future. But right now, whilst we have breathing room, it's the right time to invest in future growth. A wall makes sense, but we don't need a more powerful military right this instant, we have nothing for it to do and our people are still impoverished. Ensuring growth now will allow us to build a much more potent army later on.
- A force of rangers is a common-sense hedge against there being any threats we don't know about currently. When the time does come to invest more in military development, it can expand into a small but potent expeditionary, border watch and reconnaissance force.
- Sending messages to Rivendell and the Havens also makes good sense. They're the only friends we have locally who might actually be able to help us in some kind of force if things go bad, or share useful information. Keeping lines of communication open with them is just good sense, as well as being the friendly thing to do.
- A tiered system of defensive walls similar to that in Minas Anor makes no sense for an economic hub built on a river. The seven walls and seven gates were fantastic for Minas Anor because: i) it was a strategic redoubt rather than an economic centre so the massive inconvenience to trade from one gate per wall wasn't an issue ii) it was built into a mountainside which forced any enemy to take each wall iii) it was built into a mountainside, which meant stone was readily and cheaply available. None of these things are true for us. Our backs are to a river, which even if defended, will always provide and alternate and more attractive route of ingress to going through multiple defended strong points . Our city is intended to be an economic hub, which makes having only one large gate per wall incredibly inconvenient for commerce and transit. Last of all, stone is at a premium for us. Right now we're importing the stuff at great expense. Our location makes it much scarcer to quarry locally. A defensive schema which will eventually call for multiple stone walls is going to be incredibly costly for a city in our location, on top of all the other problems. A single strong outer wall, riverward defences and a cell-structure of wooden or smaller stone inner walls and strongpoints will provide equal or better protection, be more affordable, and pose far less hindrance to trade. Much like real estate, city defence is all location, location, location.
