This was a post from another player, not my own:
This is how I start every city I found or conquer with lower research compleeted.
1. Booty is absolutely the first thing researched, with only one exception. Cities on islands without farming villages have no need for it. The 8 hour demand is a must for growing a city. I always do the 5 minute demands while online,but use the 8 hour when logging off.
2.Ceramics I can always use more space in the warehouse!
3. Bireme I like the ability to build biremes in every city I have.
4. Light Ship I also like to be able to build LS in every city, They are a must for escorting attacks and I even like to have them researched in my bireme cities.
5.Colony Ship this takes no points so it automaticlly gets researched in every city!
6+. Plow Every city needs the extra population!
7. Fast Transport This is a must in all cities because the slow transports are so slow!!! Having fast transports gets your attacks and support where it is needed faster.
8. Bunks Cuts the cost and population needed per transport so it is a must!
9. Phalanx Phalanx is specific to every city, so even if you need support and it is sent from someone who has researched it, they will not get the bennifit from researching it because it is not researched in the city they are defending.
10. Battering Ram same as phalanx.
11. Conquest Like Colony ship, conquest uses no points, so I research it in every city!
12. Cartography Every city uses ships either for transpot in attack, attack or defence. They might as well get where they are going as fast as they can!
13. Mathmatics Every city needs ships, this cuts the cost of building them by 10%.
If you follow this research plan you will use 94 of 120 of your research points with a level 30 academy. I research these 13 things in every city, no matter what I plan to use the city for, I then use the remaining points to set the city up for it's desired role. If I plan to use it for a troop nuke city I research everything having to do with troops, ship cities get all naval research, etc., etc.,etc.,... The order of research sometimes varies depending on the intended use of the city as well.
