My first age in a top 10 kingdom. It has been fun. I thought I would share with you this unbeatable technique:
STEP 1: Make friends with 2 or more kingdoms who are capable of staying in the top 10. (This is pretty easy, even Simians can manage).
STEP 2: Hold positions until 2 weeks before the age ends.
STEP 3: Second to last week get your first allied kingdom to tap your smallest province 8 times to give hostile, then immediately get them to suicide wave on kingdoms above you in the chart. Immediately press the button on your ally to safeguard them from any outside attacks and proceed to farm them. During the farm period your allied kingdom can continue to suicide on other kingdoms above you in the chart. *This may result in your ally being forced into VM for a few hours, but you get to keep the acres anyway. ** Make sure you do it on a Sunday. There is no admin on during Sundays, so you get 24 hours of extra time to have the plan in full effect.
STEP 4: This is the last week of the age. Simply repeat STEP 3 with your second allied kingdom and cruise in eowcf until the age ends.
Rotate who gets to crown once every 3 ages for optimum relations.