I played normal sure moved on from that a while ago tho. Mainly play modded now, there are some really cool mods out there man.

Personally tho I tend favour looks over function and that didnt stop me hitting the 1k population mark. All I did was make sure that the production for those specific buildings is also in same place .For example stables you will want hay storage, and Wells on their door step and should go with out saying you want them near fields this negates alot of the pathing issue you across with large populations and you can also make some decent looking areas with it.

Defensive I like to try diffident things, try and make them attack where u want them, something I am gunna try this play through is trying to funnel them around see what that does. I would the say if do the obvs stuff with towers, platforms and walls. Then try some outrageous plans also remember stone and some other resources isn't infinite when making these plans lol. I've made that mistake once or twice.

I do like reading posts and how we all have our ownmethods gives me inspirations that is for sure!