Here is a list of how to obtain medals on Evony. Early on in the game you will hear a lot of players complaining that they need the extra medals in order to get promoted to Baronet. Otherwise you cannot control more than two cities. Your options are to discover the medals by attacking valleys and NPCs or else buy them with real money at the Evony website.

It appears that early on in the game on new servers, the people running the game at Evony make it exceedingly difficult for you to obtain any medals through means other than buying them with real money at the website. You will hear that this is some kind of bug, but we suspect different.

How To get Cross Medals, Rose Medals, Lion Medals on Evony

Try attacking level 1 through level 4 flats with archers in multiples of fifty.
Attack a level 1 valley with 50 archers.
Attack a level 2 valley with 100 archers.
Attack a level 3 valley with 300 archers.
Attack a level 4 valley with 400 archers.
Attack a level 1 NPC with 50 ballistae.

How To Get Honor Medals on Evony

Try attacking NPC levels 2,3 and 4 with multiples of 100 ballistae.
Attack level 2 NPC city with 200 ballistae
Attack level 3 NPC city with 300 ballistae
Attack level 4 NPC city with 400 ballistae

How to Get Courage Medals Wisdom medals or Freedom Medals on Evony

Attack level 5,6,7 and 8 NPC cities with ballistae
The amount you need to use will depend on the level of your hero and also your archery level and horseback riding level. It also helps to have completed a significant amount of research on military tradition.

How to get Nation Medals on Evony

Send in at least 2 waves of attacks 18 minutes apart against a level 10 NPC. This gives the NPC a chance to partially regenerate before hitting and defeating them with the second wave. Play around with the time in between waves of attacks.

How to get Justice Medals on Evony

The only way I know of to get the Justice medal is to attack level 10 NPC. You will need to attack them with as many archers as possible. Try attacking with 90,000 archers as well as other support troops and a good hero with a high attack rating.