Noob questions. How do I make enough money?

[Crossfire]

Ok, the game runs great for me and I have had no crashes in 10 hours of playing. This is my 1st civ game ever but I was a strong MTW player so I am not stupid.

I build the hut things that are supposed to advance in 10 years, 20 years, etc. but when I mouse over them they say something about only advancing when my city is working. What the heck is that supposed to mean?

Is there some basic concept on when to start a new city?

Some basic concepts that aren't at all clear in the manual are the 2 bars at the top of the city screen. How do I interpret them (the growth bar and the one below it)?

Thanks for any help you can offer. Or point me to the appropriate source, I am not afraid to read.

[vmxa1]

What is meant is that you have tiles in your city view. These tiles are either worked or not. They are worked if a citizen in on that tile and is represented by a white circle.

So if you have a town/village or cottage on a given tile and it does not have any pop (citizen) on that tile, it yields nothing in term of that tile.

[Solver]

In the city screen, look at the central part, where the map is shown. Some squares around the city are circled with a white circle and their yield is shown. These squares are said to be "worked". A city can only work as many squares as it has population. A tile that has a cottage has to be thus worked for the cottage to work.

The growth bar is how many turns until the city grows - gains a population point. The bottom bar is how many turns until the city completes whatever it's currently building.

[vmxa1]

Note I should mention that resources/lux are provided if they have the required improvement (pasture/mine/quarry/plantation).

That is differentiated from any food/hammers/commerce gained by working the tile.

As to the bars, I am not sure what you refer to, is it the divided health for any units?

If so, it shows (in dark green on the left) the health and the bar on the right (maybe be in shadow) is a representation of any bonus that may be employed, if the unit is on the proper terrain or action.

[Crossfire]

So do farms each take one pop or just mines and hamlets?

This would mean that in the beginning I should concentrate on things that will increase the rate of pop expansion rather than workers?

If I build a worker or military unit does it take away from my pop?

Is the civopedia the place to figure all this out cause the manual is pretty brief?

[Solver]

Have you tried the tutorial? It gives a good grasp on some of the basic concepts such as that.

Farms contribute to your growth rate, mines contribute to production. In the beggining, I would say concentrate on farms more, you're going to start near river / freshwater like anyway. One Worker is enough early on. Don't forget to build your second city.

You don't lose population by building stuff. Pop is only lost during starvation (less food that is needed to feed your pop) or nuclear attacks.

[vmxa1]

I have not looked at the Pedia, but it cannot hurt.

No making a troop has not effect on growth/pop.

You do want to grow, but at first you have neither workers nor tech to improve tiles. So at some point you will want a worker.

When is the tricky part. It makes little sense to make a worker before you have the ability to make pastures or mines. Then I would suggest you start the worker and later settler, right after the town grows. You do not want to start either if you are a turn or two from growing to the next pop size.

As to concentrate on growth, not sure yet. Of farm on a river tile is a good plan for an early worker action.

Farms and mines or cottages do not require a pop form the city size, if that is the question. It needs a pop to work the tile only.

So if you are at size 4, open the view and see 4 white circles. That is the tiles being worked now. You can elect to move one or more from one tile to another (or even to specialist). This does not alter the size of the town, only the tiles and what is coming in from them.

[Crossfire]

Thanks. It is pretty apparent I really need to rtfm all the way thru. Just skimming isn't going to work. I am missing half of what I am supposed to know/see. I am in 1st/2nd place in my game on Noble in 1200s but I am going into debt and not keeping my research at 100% doing it and I know I will get killed in the end. So maybe my expansion rate was pretty good but I don't think my pop growth and culture growth was fast enough.

Sure is fun and addicting, though I do miss controlling the battles ala MTW. I suspect that I need to pay more attention to who in the stack is attacking when though (if that is possible).

Thanks for the help.

[Solver]

Actually, not running at 100% doesn't mean you're in a bad situation.

Civ games, though, are pretty deep. You do really need to read the manual, play the tutorial and take a look in the Pedia now and then to fully understand the game.

[Crossfire]

I played the tutorial and sort of read parts of the manual but I missed the 'white circle' bit that shows what squares are 'being worked' and what exactly that means. I think I concentrated a little too much on expansion and not enough on religion and culture but this is only my second ever civ game so I am not too worried. But I am tired as the 'one more turn' syndrome is always pretty hard for me to overcome and last night was a late night.

At least I have learned not to take barbarians too lightly and did take over 2 of their cities. I am assuming that if they are well located it is best to govern them and not sack them?

[vmxa1]

I am not sure if it makes much sense to govern them. It is not really worth risking units to get the little XP, especially since you can get enough with barracks and civics.

I also am not sure if the doc says anything abou the circles, I was familiar with III, so I just tried them and saw that is what it was about.