any governors feel slightly overwhelmed when facing the stark emptiness of a new province, and don't know quite how to begin. It is tempting to rush into a new city and build some of the finer structures first. Sadly, this can make citizens unhappy. They much prefer their governors to build carefully, starting with basic needs. In addition to some areas of housing, I recommend the following order of priorities as the key to solid, long-lasting cities:

Always make sure there is plenty of food around. Check how full your granaries are regularly; if they look empty, you are probably eating more than you are growing, which suggests that you should build more farms or import some more food. It is easy to forget about food once your city starts to take shape and grow rapidly, but your people won't let you forget it for long.

Security: Build plenty of prefectures as you expand; cities face all sorts of pressures with rapid growth, and most governors I know sleep much better knowing that there are plenty of prefects around to put out fires and take care of any signs of crime before they get out of hand.

Unemployment: Try not to let the unemployment rate rise much above 15 percent, and then only for a short time. In the early months of a new city, just a few workers can represent a large percentage of the workforce; if unemployment is high, add a new farm, and kill two birds with one stone.

Water: Since reservoirs and fountains do not need road access to their labor, it is easy to forget that they need workers to function. Think ahead about the routes your aqueducts will need to follow to carry water from its natural source (a river, or lake, say) to the expensive residential areas that will need it.

Religion: Try to keep the gods happy. Happy gods can be of help to you, while angry gods can do you more damage than you care to know about. Beware their wrath!

Money: Don't worry about how much money you're spending until your population nears 1,000. By then, your city should be stable enough for you to consider raising taxes, making sure everyone is paying their taxes (use the Tax Overlay to help you do this). And then you should start to consider setting up some trade to provide more income.

Defence: In some of the more dangerous provinces, defence is an important consideration. You don't need to think about it much before you get the basics up and running, and in many provinces you won't need to worry about it at all. But in those dangerous provinces, scan the map first of all to see where you may want to build some defensive walls, or place some forts, taking into account where your farmland, water sources and other important locations are.

The Rest: there are many other structures to build and issues to consider, but it is hard to go far wrong if you get the basics right first.