User Guide

proximity to friendly cities as well as to potential enemies.
Though cities are usually sited to expand one’s borders and to
take the best advantage of local resources, a city may also be
built for purely geopolitical reasons – to obstruct another civ-
ilization’s expansion, for instance.
Where You Can’t Build Cities
Cities cannot be constructed within two spaces of another city.
Cities cannot be constructed in impassable spaces. Cities can-
not be built in another civilization’s territory.
Tips for Finding Good City Sites
Consider building cities in the following locations:
• Near resources.
• On or near rivers.
• On coastlines, especially on the mouths of rivers or near
ocean resources.
• Near a variety of terrain types, including hills and grassland.
• About 4 to 5 spaces away from your existing cities. This
allows each city to access all spaces within their “city radius”
(see below) with little or no overlap.
• To obstruct other civilizations. Other civilizations’ units can-
not pass through your territory without your permission. It’s
often extremely useful to build cities to block their expansion.
YOUR CAPITAL CITY
The first city you construct becomes your civilization’s “capi-
tal” and the heart of your nation. The government of your
nation is here, residing in the “Palace,” a special building that is
built automatically when the capital city appears.
Corruption: The “Distance Penalty”
City governments tend towards corruption, and the problem
grows worse the farther the city is from the capital city. This
effect is called the “distance penalty” and it reduces a city’s
commerce. Cities built near to the capital city suffer little from
corruption, while distant cities suffer greatly.
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COUNTERING CORRUPTION
The distance penalty can be countered in a number of fash-
ions. The “National Property” civic removes the distance
penalty entirely. The “courthouse” building decreases corrup-
tion in the city where it is built. The Versailles and Forbidden
Palace wonders cause their cities to become additional centers
of government, greatly decreasing corruption in themselves
and surrounding cities.
Trade
International trade routes are traced from your capital city to
the other civ’s capital city. If that path is blocked, the two civs
cannot engage in trade. Further, your resources must be con-
nected via trade route to your capital to be able to be traded
with other civs. Likewise, your cities gain the benefit of
resources acquired from trade only if they are connected to the
capital.
Changing Your Capital
You can move your capital from the original city to another by
building a Palace in the new city. Upon completion, the orig-
inal Palace disappears and the new city becomes your nation’s
capital.
Losing Your Capital
If your capital city is captured or destroyed, another city in
your civilization is assigned as your capital and provided with
a Palace.
CAPTURING CITIES
You can capture barbarian cities or cities belonging to civiliza-
tions that you are at war with.To do so you must enter the city
with a military unit; this usually involves destroying the enemy
units defending the city.When you capture an enemy city you
have the option of destroying the city or installing a new gov-
ernor. If you choose to destroy the city, it and everything it
contains is done away with. If you choose to install a new gov-
ernor, the captured city will usually go through several turns of
“resistance” (see following) before joining your civilization. If
the captured city has a population size of 1 or has no cultural
value, you will automatically destroy the city.
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