If you want to be a dominant player once you finish rookie protection you will need resources. A lot of resources. If you build them yourself you will have options other players will not have. This guide will present a balanced self-sustaining city model. Many good players have other strategies that will work equally as well, if not better.
In the production section of your city build resource fields. A goal for a finished city could be 4-5 rare metal fields, as many food fields as you can fit, 11 oil fields, 5-6 steel fields, with all fields at level 9. Build evenly at first, it will become obvious what you need more of as you progress through the game. The higher the level of the field the more productive it is. For the first couple of days in the game this should be your primary focus. You will always be running short on something. If you want to upgrade the level of a steel field and find you need more rare metal, you should think about upgrading the rare metal plant first. Every upgrade now will pay interest to you for the rest of the game. Upgrading a field is always a better option that adding another lower level field. (Exception: Buxton4980 had an excellent point-- when you are using mass mobilization you want to take full advantage of it while it lasts, you can start a number of lower level fields and buildings and get them up to lvl3 or higher fairly quickly. But I would still recommend taking one or two fairly high level fields and making them higher, while using your remaining construction points to get the quick hits moving. Why? Because one level 9 field produces more than three level 5 fields and more than 44 level 1 fields.) Once you have your resource fields to a decent level one good recommendation I have heard is to use one production factor to improve a field and the other to improve your buildings (of course, always choosing the most effective use of your labor -- upgrading an arms plant fm lvl 7 to lvl 8 doesn\'t yield you any immediate benefit, unless you already have a coastal city).
