Building sets are also powerful, but you'll typically want most or all of the set to get the full benefit one or two set pieces alone are too weak to build on you own. Daily Challenges also give a chance to win powerful buildings. The Colossus is a very powerful building that offers multiple benefits when motivated, but you'll need to get it to at least level 5 or 6 for it to be worth it. We're in the middle of an event where you can win stronger than normal buildings, the Contestant's Estate is a house that gives an attack bonus, while the Athlete's Living Quarters is another house that boosts you defense and makes goods when motivated. The game's normal buildings are fairly weak and GBs and special buildings will help you overcome those weaknesses.Build up a decent friend list and join an active guild so the buildings you need to make stuff get motivated. You can't be plundered if a building is motivated.Take the time to replace older stuff in your city with more efficient current stuff.

Your needs for coins, supplies, and goods will go up as your city advances through the ages, and you'll have a harder time keeping up with those needs if your city has a lot of outdated buildings. I offered some advise in this post earlier in the thread: Third bottom of hood means you're doing something very suboptimal, like rushing through tech without having enough resources to support the city properly. That's higher than I'm seeing at the upper end of PE hoods which range from around 2-8 million, and CE is a popular comping spot for aggressive players. I don't know what age this is, but I'll take a stab in the dark and guess somewhere around PME or CE with those numbers for the upper end of the hood.

Forge of empires who plundered me