How do I win cities?

I have the troops and a high enough level, but after winning the battle and taking all the resources I still lose the city in the end. What am I missing?

To occupy a city u need to be able to hold one. At a certirn lvl u can do that. 2. It cannot be a main city. 3.u have to hit it 10 times. U can only hit 5 times a day so either get help or attack at daily gift time

I am assuming you meant a sub-city. To steal a sub-city you need to attack it 10 times with-in a small time frame and the last attacker gets the city.

Here is a good guide to start off, for future reference.
Beginner's Guide


Post Note - Lol Agent beat me to it.

A city has loyalty 100, and a win takes away 10 loyalty. It also regains 10 loyalty per hour. You can only attack a player 5 times a day, so to get the or required 10 wins to take a city, you either need the help of a friend or few, or you can make 5 attacks right before 12:00 AM BST, and 5 right after.

Have fun! ^.^

Sometimes it may take more than the minimum 10 attacks. The owner of the city has the ability to refresh their cities loyalty by spending coins. It could also be this that has prevented you from occupying the city. Review the war report to see a city's loyalty level.

So what happens to cities abandoned by people no longer playing the game? Is there a time limit to inactivity? Or does the game map just keep filling up?

It just keeps filling up. I believe during a merge lvl 4 and under who haven't played for a while are deleted.