The cost of city membership is 1,000 Gold. As soon as you become a member, the city has to make room for you so it will annex 3 nearby flags, turning them black, and giving the previous owner 1,000 Gold each for payment. That's big government for ya.
This newly annexed territory will spawn some new city resources as well, including Oil Wells and Crystal Patches. In fact, in return for your 1,000 Gold membership fee, you will automatically become the proud owner of one of these new Wells. As soon as you become a member of a city, you will instantly travel there to see your newest building.
Your New Oil Claim
One of the first things you'll want to do with your new Well is use it to create some Golems. Just tap it, and select "Grow Golem." Now you'll see a fresh-faced Golem on the map with nothing to do. Since additional Golems will cost Crude Oil, it's a good idea to send your first Golem back to Well to collect some Crude Oil for you. Tap the Golem and select "Gather Crude Oil."The Golem will follow your instructions to the letter (they're so good at that) and immediately go into the Well to start collecting Crude Oil. When it gets there, you'll see a counter begin. Each time the counter reaches 0, you will have 1 more unit of Crude Oil waiting for you at the Well. After you have a couple units waiting for you, feel free to tap the Oil Well and select "Collect Resources." Then your character will walk over to the Well and put the Crude Oil into your inventory.
Oil Wells and Crystal Huts have a limited capacity so you'll want to visit these buildings and collect your resources every once in a while, otherwise those lazy Golems will just sit there and slack off. You can also upgrade the storage capacity of each building by tapping the building and selecting "Upgrade Resource Capacity." This costs Crystal though and you probably don't have any of that yet...
Crystal
Let's get some. First you'll need to find a nearby Crystal Patch. When you find one that suits you, build a Crystal Hut near it. This where your Golems are stationed to gather the Crystal. Once your Hut is built, go back to your Oil Well and Grow a new Golem. Now tap your Golem and tell it to "Gather Crystal." Easy as that. You can have up to 3 Golems working at each Crystal Hut.But you want another Hut so you can gather even more crystal? Well that's advanced technology my friend...
Research
Research allows you to gain more abilities and power within cities. To do research, just build a Research Lab somewhere near your oil well, grow a golem or two, and tell them to "Research Tech." Then your Golem will go to the Research Lab and begin accumulating Research Points. These points are used to unlock improved technological abilities such as:
Increase the max number of Garrison Posts you can build
Increase the number of Crystal Huts you can build
Increase the number of Golems you can controlOnce you have accumulated enough research points, tap your Research Lab and select "Buy Research." As long as you have the needed resources, you'll be able to unlock the next level.
Raiding
Raiding is the preferred method to get ahead in the city by those in the know. Let the other guys do all the work and you just take a slice off the top. Well, it's not quite that easy, but you get the picture.
You can Raid any Crystal Hut and Oil Well in your city. All you have to do is tap the building and select "Raid." Then you will walk up to the building and beginning stealing the resources contained within. Only thing is, it takes a full minute to raid a building and if your Raid is interrupted by anything, you will not succeed. You can only Raid a building once per day and it doesn't matter if you succeed or fail.
With this in mind, if you want to ensure success and a fine load of raided booty, you should clear out all nearby Golems and enemy players. This means Garrison Posts too.
Garrison Posts
Garrison Posts are defensive structures that are built to hold Golems which then defend your nearby buildings from attackers and raiders. Once built, you can tell your military golems to "Garrison." Then they'll go inside and automatically come out if they perceive a threat. Garrison Posts start out with the capacity to hold 1 Golem but can be easily upgraded to hold 3.The main benefit of having a Garrison Post is that when your Golems are stationed inside, they will automatically respawn if they are killed in battle. It takes 20 mins for them to come back but at least they won't be gone forever.
Greasing Golems
As Golems get older, they'll take longer and longer to collect resources for you, up to 6 minutes max. If you find you that you are in dire need of resources fast, you can tap one of your Golems and select "Grease." This costs 10 Refined Oil, and it will renew your Golem to be just as quick as the day you raised it from that sinister black ooze.
Expanding your Horizons - NPC Wells
New Oil Wells that spawn up are first claimed by bloodthirsty NPCs. If you have the strength and resolve, you can attack these wells and claim them for yourself. The NPCs will fight back but you can use some Siege Golems to easily destroy their defenses and their will. Once their Well has stopped burning, you can go ahead and claim it for yourself.