Roads and plot layout
Why roads come first in Build and Conquer: how buildings snap to the road grid, how to lay a layout that can grow to level 5, and the drag trick that speeds.
Build roads first: housing, shops and industry all place along them. Lay a grid with room to expand instead of one perfect street, and use click-and-drag to place whole rows of buildings at once.
Roads are the first thing you should build in Build and Conquer and the thing you will regret getting wrong. Buildings snap to roads, traffic — including the trucks that carry your steel — moves along them, and the shape of your road grid decides how big your city can grow before it chokes.
What roads do
| Function | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Placement grid | Housing, shops and industry only place against a road |
| Logistics | Trucks move steel and materials between your buildings |
| Growth room | A grid can be extended; a single street cannot |
Layouts that work
- Start with a cross, then fill blocks. Two main roads and short spurs give you four districts to develop — one for housing, one for shops, one for industry, one for utilities.
- Leave gaps for expansion. The level 5 push needs a lot of housing; a grid with empty blocks beside roads takes it without demoliton.
- Keep industry on its own spur. Factories, refineries and steel works draw power and make traffic; mixing them into housing districts is how cities get stuck.
- Use the drag. Placement snaps and queues automatically when you hold and drag — rows of roads and rows of buildings go down in one motion.
The mistake to avoid
New players build a beautiful single street of houses, run out of road, and then have to tear the city apart to grow. Build for the level 5 city on day one: the roads are cheap, and the alternative is a rebuild.
Compare with the starting plot page for how much room you actually have, and the city levels guide for what you are building toward.
