How I built my first Military Academy

So the game just added the whole war part and I wanted to try it, but I had no soldiers and no idea where they come from. Turns out you cannot just click attack, you first need a place to make an army. That place is the Military Academy. I am still a beginner but let me share what I found so you do not waste days like I did. The Military Academy is a building, so you build it in your town the same way you build anything else, from the build menu, and it needs the usual materials. Put it down like any other building. Once it is standing, this is where all your soldiers are trained. The thing that confused me at first is that the academy has levels, and each level unlocks a new type of soldier. At the first level you can train the basic assault soldiers. When you upgrade the academy to the next level, a stronger type opens up, and so on up to level five where the special operations troops become available, and those are the strongest. So the academy is not a one time build, it is something you keep upgrading if you want better troops. There are five soldier types and five academy levels, each one unlocking the next. The order that worked for me was: build the academy, train some basic soldiers to see how it works, and only upgrade it when I actually wanted the next tier. There is no point rushing to level five if you are not going to use elite armies yet, better to spend your materials on your economy early. One BIG mistake I made, and I want to warn you. I trained a bunch of soldiers and then some of them just would not appear. The reason is that soldiers live in your houses. Every soldier takes a room in a house exactly like a normal citizen does. My houses were full of workers, so there was no room for the army. If your housing is full, the academy cannot give you more soldiers. So before you train a big army, build a house or two just for them. I wish somebody had told me this before. Another thing, your soldiers sitting at home are also your town defense. The game adds up the defense of all the soldiers standing in your town, and that is what protects you if somebody attacks. So even if you never plan to attack anybody, building an academy and training a few defenders is a good idea now that war exists, otherwise you are an easy target. Since all of this is brand new, nobody in my country really knew how it works either, we are all learning together. But the academy is clearly step one for everything military. No academy, no soldiers, no attacking and no defending. So if you want to try the new war stuff, go build your Military Academy first, keep a house free for the troops, and train a few. That is honestly as far as I got in my first days, but it is enough to start. I will write more when I actually win a fight, ha.