Health

[doolally]

Can anyone describe the effects of the 'Health' rating that terrain squares have? I can't find it in the manual, except to say that a square may have a health rating of 0 (normal) or a health rating of 2 (adjacent to fresh water). what effect does this have on my city?

[Dominae]

Tiles either have access to "fresh water" or they do not. If you build a city on a tile that does, it's Health threshold will increase by +2. So that city will be able to grow bigger without running into unhealthiness problems (but you might still have to worry about unhappiness).

Think of it as a free Aqueduct!

Fresh water tiles are those adjacent to:

1. An inland (fresh water) lake
2. A river
3. An Oasis

There are other terrain features that affect the Health threshold in a city:

a. Flood Plains (-1 Health per instance, I believe)
b. Forest (+0.4 Health per instance)

[John-SJ]

I've also noticed that farm animals, cattle and pigs for example, carry a +1 health. To reap the benefit of this +health does a city need to be adjacent to the animals or is a connected pasture all that is needed? Thanks.

[Dominae]

Resources are different.

What I was describing above are Health bonuses that you get simply from having a city in one spot rather than in another. City next to Oasis? Automatic +2 Health. 3 Forests in city radius? Automatic +1 Health.

Health resources like Cow, Wheat, Fish, etc. need some work to reap their associated Health benefits.

Land-based resources require special terrain improvements, which are built by Workers. These improvements require certain techs to "unlock":

Cow - Pasture, Animal Husbandry
Rice - Farm, Agriculture
Banana - Plantation, Calendar

Water-based resources (Crab, etc.) also require special improvements, but these are built by Work Boats, not Workers. Note that each of these improvements "consumes" the Work Boat, unlike Workers which stick around.

Finally, resources must be connected to your cities in order for you to gain the associated benefits (Health and Happiness). So if you just put a Pasture on that Cow, you will also need to build Roads back to your city. Rivers act as "free" Roads in this respect.

Water-based resources are connected to coastal cities "for free" (and then via Roads to your land-locked cities).

[doolally]

I didn't phrase my question properly. Is 'Health' another Population state that we have to manage now, like 'Happiness'?

Is there a 'Health' rating that rises or drops depending on what tiles with health-giving bonuses the city has access to, or what health-giving buildings the city has constructed?

[PBN]

short answer: yes

longer answer: it's a balance, like most other things. Unhealthy people require more food than healthy people. This could cause a drain on growth, and even lead to starvation. One thing I enjoy about this go-around is that neither unhappiness, nor unhealthiness will grind your city to a halt. The effects will, however, be felt, nonetheless. If you want to keep your city running optimally, you'll best keep the health and happiness even, at least.

[Dominae]

Yes!

There are now two limitors to city growth: Health and Happiness. Both are "soft caps": you can go over them (unlike the population caps in Civ3) but it's not a good idea.

As cities grow, they become more unhealthy and more unhappy. Other things negatively affect unhealthiness (Factories) and unhappiness (War Weariness), too.

For every point of unhealthiness in a city (a yucky green face) that city loses 1 Food per turn. So eventually it will stop growing entirely and might even begin to starve.

For every point of unhappiness in a city (a angry red face) that city loses one laborer's worth of production. If, for example, a city grows from size 6 to size 7 but in doing so surpasses its unahppiness threshold, that city is still operating as a size 6 city.

As you can see, unhealthiness is "better" in the sense of being more forgiving than unhappiness. In general, try to keep your cities as big as possible within the confines of unhealthiness and unhappiness.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by doolally
Is there a 'Health' rating that rises or drops depending on what tiles with health-giving bonuses the city has access to, or what health-giving buildings the city has constructed?

Go into the city screen of any city (double-clikc): somewhere near the top right you will get information regarding that city's Health and Happiness.

[doolally]

Glorious! Thanks all for the insight

[Ellestar]

Originally posted by John-SJ
I've also noticed that farm animals, cattle and pigs for example, carry a +1 health. To reap the benefit of this +health does a city need to be adjacent to the animals or is a connected pasture all that is needed? Thanks.

You need a connected pasture on your country's territory. As long as this city is connected to a City Network, you get a resource bonus to health or happiness.

[alva]

Notice though, while having several forests in your radius (the more the better) increases your health, having acces to several tiles with fresh water does not.
You don't get a +2 for each.

Confused me at first.

[jam3]

Each 1 health over cost you one additional food to support the population, its in the manual p.148.

Also resources can provide its benefits to ANY city connected to it via a trade route roads/rivers within your culture border, but the effect is not cumulative. So if you have 4 crabs and all cities are connected to it via trade all your cities recieve + health. This makes trade very intersting as you can trade for something you don't have to give you the bonus!

Terrain that +/- health is typically (as far as ive seen) .5 and rounds up so one forest adjacent to your city gives you +1 health, 3 is +2 etc.

Basically you want to use your city screen and manage your cities growth to stay within your +happy and +health region, then again there's always slavery to use that extra population!