Expert's Corner (by ThE_HyDrA)

The Academy town requires a lot of ore for its dwellings, especially in the early levels, where all of the first 5 dwellings need at least 5 ore each (12 of Academy's 14 dwellings require ore). Therefore, ore pits should always be targeted before sawmills when playing as the academy. There's almost 3x as much ore required as wood in the dwellings alone (95 vs 35). The focus in the Academy is ore and gems, and a small mixture of all the other precious resources, while wood is only required at the higher levels.

The other major factor in the Academy dwellings' cost is the gold. The Manufactory is a very expensive first level dwelling in this respect. While the Mage Tower has escalated in cost with the addition of 10 sulfur, along with gems and ore as resources in addition to the 2500 gold. The Mage Tower is also required for the Library, (which is in turn required for the Silver Pavillion) so the Magi and Mage Guilds go hand in hand. The only other dwelling that is needed for a special building is the Pinnacle of Wishes, which, at 3000 gold for a level 5 dwelling, and considering the reduction in Gems, is very attainable.

At the two highest levels, the costs for the Academy begin to increase. The gold cost is comparative to that of the counterpart buildings from the Haven town, but it is the resource cost that causes difficulty, particularly with the Silver Pavillion. All precious resources must be hoarded, and they take a serious hit when it comes to these levels (apart from Mercury, which is depleted at level 5). Try to minimise costs and prioritise by determining whether you'd like Rakshasa Rani/Rajas or Colossi. The latter is advocated due to severely reduced resource costs.