Civilization 4: Choosing resources for your main city

Question

I'm still new in Civilization 4 and had a lot of questions about playing the game. I'm finding the game to be insanely complicated so please keep that in mind while giving your answer. If you use too much game jargon I won't understand. Thanks for your help in advance.

Question: If I double-click on my starting city I come accross a map which shows some white circles. I think those circles are choosing what tiles are being used to calculate my per turn balances. But why aren't all tiles in my territory showing up? What do I do to have more options for the circles?

Answer

White circles denote fields on which the population of a city are working, thus generating food/production/trade (coins) resulting from given squares. You can rearrange the population to suit your needs, so if you would prefer more food or extra trade (coins), you can deactivate worker from active (white circle) field and assign him of her to another.

Each non-capital city starts with culture 0, thus only has access to 9 adjacent tiles. After reaching first level of culture (10 points), its borders expand and it gets full access to all tiles that are max. 2 non-diagonal squares away from the city centre. Note that every city always automatically generates resources from square composing the city centre, without assigning any population there (unless riots occur in the city).

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Civilization 4: Choosing between food and production for the game beginning and later

Question

I'm still new in Civilization 4 and had a lot of questions about playing the game. I'm finding the game to be insanely complicated so please keep that in mind while giving your answer. If you use too much game jargon I won't understand. Thanks for your help in advance.

Question: I can't decide which one to focus on in the beginning - food or production? My choices don't seem to have any clear impact on the game. I have read in tutorials that food is consumed each turn but even if I sit idle and do nothing no one complains that there is no food. It seems there is always enough food. So what should I focus on in the beginning of the game and why?

Answer

Food determines how fast your city grows, at the top of the city screen is a bar that shows how much food is stored. When that bar is full the city grows one population point and the bar is emptied again.

Each population point of your city eats some food, that is subtracted from the total food earned and only the excess food goes towards growing your city.

Each population point means you can work one tile more of the city, that is a considerable bonus. As long as your city is happy, additional population is very helpful. You should try to keep your population below the limit where they are getting unhappy.

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What is the use of gold in Civilization 4?

Question

I'm still new in Civilization 4 and had a lot of questions about playing the game. I'm finding the game to be insanely complicated so please keep that in mind while giving your answer. If you use too much game jargon I won't understand. Thanks for your help in advance.

Question: Coins. I have seen that if I decrease the research I can start saving coins in my treasury. But till now I haven't used them. What is the use of these coins? When do we make use of them really? As beginner should I always keep my researched maxed out (as long as coin consumption is not negative)?

Answer

Coins are your money:

• You can trade them to other civilizations in exchange for anything: technologies, maps, resources, the other civilization going to war for you. (After researching the technology Currency)
• You can spend them to quickly finish new units and buildings. (depending on your civilization's current government)
• You can spend them to upgrade your units which have become obsolete into the newer better units. (But only inside your territory, or maybe even in cities, or in cities you have Barracks in. I can't recall which one sorry!)
• You spend them each turn to pay your units. If you're not earning enough coins each turn to pay your units, and you don't have enough in your treasury to cover the loss, your units will start disbanding. (Deleting themselves)
• You spend them each turn to pay for your cities to run. The more cities you have, and the further they are from your capital, the more they cost.
• You can effectively spend coins you've saved in your treasury on research, by setting your research high enough that you are losing coins. Just watch for your treasury running out!

I'm probably even forgetting a few. Just think of coin as money. What can you do with money? Spend it on things you have to, then spend it on anything you like if you have any left over!

If I've used any terms you're not familiar with, just ask for clarification in a comment.

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