Is there a word for a group of villages? Like "metroplex" but small?

To all Dallasites: That is not a word that people take seriously beyond DFW and surrounds; and "villages" is not a word normally used in that area. Metroplex is really only a marketing term come up with in Dallas because the big shots there couldn't stand to admit that FW and other areas were catching up and getting ahead, or were preferable as places to live and do business...so why not, they thought, just make every thing part of the Dallas metroplex (instead of just saying "metropolitan area" like the other normal big cities. So your problem is that in most big cities and metro areas people are not so self conscious and have no clue, or merely groan or laugh when they hear people saying "metroplex." (Yes, I had to learn the hard way, too, when I left that area for bigger horizons (while yankee people were moving into Dallas to be paid higher than Dallasites. Now, the answer to you question could vary depending upon what region you are talking about and to, which means there is no simple or pat answer. And, most of the time that word village (which means little or nothing to a typical Metroplex-ite) is not easy to define in terms of size, and mostly applies to isolated, very small towns or even unincorporated gatherings of homesteads. In California, just about all the major cities are actually large grouping of smaller towns that, that were once small enough to be called villages but are too large now, or have themselves become cities. So, there is not any word other that the words you used already. Oh, and sorry about the 'boys. Maybe next year, again.