Cities (Should you have more than one city?)

This has recently come up among the chat.When we get hit hard by a big alliance like OUTCASTS, it is all our smaller members who have been get hit and end up losing their main city and all the progress they thought they were making in getting built up to run with the big boys.
I know it is nice having two cities because then researching sciences goes much faster, but it is not always the best thing to do.
If you want to have a city that does just research then make it a city that has nothing in it but what is needed and produces nothing. Send over resources for what is required to do the research and start the research as soon as the supplies land.
Make sure though that this will not be a city that you will regret losing if taken or if needed to be dropped because your main is under siege.
This should only be done though if you know what you are doing and are being smart about it. We have no problem helping you get resources and defending your city, but if you have 2-3 cities and only have the troops to defend 1 and they are all spread out what is the point of having all the cities?
Focus on building up a main city, get the walls and town hall up as high as you can, get your barracks built up and make sure you have an army, if you need help with that there are guides on the forum to help with that. Also feel free to ask for help of the alliance, as previously stated we have no problem helping build you up and protect just as long as we aren't wasting our troops and resources on one of your secondary cities that could easily be dropped.
I am sure this will be expanded upon at a later time, but for the time being the overall lesson of this post is this. If you don't have the ability to protect a single city, do not start or take a second city until you have the ability to protect two cities. It will leave you vulnerable to have your main taken from you and all the time and resources put into it just makes you frustrated when it is taken from you.