User Guide

economic development (food, resources, and trade), producing tax revenue,
producing technology research, and producing useful units and improvements.
Stability: Cities that don’t maintain a favorable balance of happy people over
unhappy people go into civil disorder. Cities in civil disorder produce no tax
revenue, technology research, or food surpluses, and the condition suspends
production. A nuclear reactor in a city suffering civil disorder may experience a
meltdown due to lax safety controls (see Nuclear Meltdown). Keeping a city
stable is a very high priority.
Population Growth: Keeping the population
growing is important because each additional person
contributes something to your civilization. Each
new worker brings a new map square under
production. Population growth increases economic
power, and thus, the strength of your civilization.
The size of your population is a major factor in
determining your civilization score, a measure of
how well you have ruled.
Resource Development: The people of the city that work in the surrounding
countryside harness the economic resources of the area. Those resources are
converted by the city into more people, industrial production, money, and
technology research. When managing a city, allocate the people so as to maximize
this development or to meet your needs.
There may be times when increased industrial output is preferred over
population growth. There may be times when increased trade is needed. Shift a
city’s work force around to change the mix of economic development as desired.
Tax Revenue: Most of the improvements that can be built within cities require
money for maintenance. Money is also useful for speeding industrial production (see
Rush Jobs), bribing enemy armies, inciting revolts in enemy cities, and for
negotiating peace with your neighbors. The combined tax revenues of your cities
must exceed their maintenance requirements before cash can accumulate for other
uses. The percentage of your trade that is converted into tax revenues is determined
by the tax rate. See Trade Rates.
Fusion Power
(Nuclear Power &
Superconductor)
Plains, Grasslands, and Deserts produce trade once penetrated by roads, and all
land squares improve in production when Railroads come through.
Proximity Of Cities: Another consideration when
planning new cities is the current or potential
location of other cities. Minimize the economic
radius overlap of your cities as much as possible.
Since a map area may only be used by one city, too
much overlap restricts the potential growth of one
or both cities. When just beginning, explore nearby
lands as soon as possible to begin planning the
placement of future cities to take best advantage of
the terrain. A few large and powerful cities are
usually more useful than several smaller, weaker ones.
Strategic Value: The strategic value of a city’s site is a final consideration.
Because the underlying terrain can increase the defender’s strength when under
attack, in some circumstances the defensive value of terrain may be more
important than economic value. But good defensive terrain (Hills, Mountains) is
generally poor for food production and inhibits the early growth of a city. A good
compromise is to build a city on a River square. This is a good food area and
better than Plains or Grasslands for defense.
Regardless of where a city is built, it is easier to defend than the same terrain
without a city present. In a city you can build the City Walls improvement which
triples the defense factor of armies. Also, in cities only one army at a time is
destroyed in combat. Outside of cities, all armies stacked together are destroyed
when any army in the stack is defeated (Exception: see Fortresses). So, in certain
cases where a continent bottlenecks and a rival is on the other side, the defensive
value of a city site may be more critical than economic value.
Placing at least a few cities on the seacoast gives you access to the ocean. This
allows the launching of ship units to explore the world and transport your units
overseas. With few coastal cities, your sea power is constrained.
City Management
There are several goals for management of a city: keeping it stable (avoiding
civil disorder), keeping its population growing, maximizing a useful mix of
Flight
(Combustion & Physics)
Fighter Unit
a
51
a
50
CIVILIZATION
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CIVILIZATION
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