Getting left behind on Prince. Suggestions?

[Cadarn]

Urban Ranger:

Agree with the pain of replacing cottages with farms later in the game, but early on - when money is tight and you don't have the tech to build markets etc, you need income from somewhere

When I have enough resources to expand city population caps into the teens, I usually still have land I can farm within city radii. Civil Service is usually the catalyst for big farming drives unless I need to work plains/hills mines and lack food resources in that city.

Perhaps I should have said "Slap down as many cottages as you can work within your pop limits whilst retaining some clear land for later farming."

[Urban Ranger]

You can build courthouses (CoL) to cut down the maintenance costs. Build seaports for trade $. Found a religion or two plus the holy shrines for a nice constant stream of $. Locate your cities so you get lots of gold, gems, etc. specials in the fat crosses. Spawn more scouts during the very early stages to pop those tribal villages.

I try to be very careful with where I build cottages, so I don't have to remove them later. *cringe*

[couerdelion]

I think the most important thing in this game is to master the economics (income and expenditure). Once you understand this you can work towards optimising your research output. In the early game this will be a matter of increasing commerce and this will probably be at the expense of tile production. The lower production is not serious if you have plenty of food since you can use slavery to give you those extra hammers.

As the game progresses you'll then need to learn how to master costs and generate gold. Once you find your costs start to creep up, you should start looking for ways of paying for this. Probably the best escape is through a religious shrine but in the absence of the you’ll be looking for commerce (including trade) and some multipliers in your bigger cities coupled with courthouses in your smaller cities to reduce costs.

Taking enemy cities is a just a short term solution to costs since you will acquire extra costs from each new city you take – and these will be more than the “City Maintenance” figure that you see on the City Manager screen.

As a rule, once you are into the Mediaeval period, you should probably have 70% research an be able to break even on costs. Anything lower and you need to find ways of making gold or reducing costs

[Vinnnch]

About costs and commerce, I have a very dumb question...
Hum...
What is the effect of resource trading, and of cities "trade lines" ?
In the beginning, I expected, each time I traded a resource with another civ (wine for ivory, for example), that my cashflow would change. But I never saw any change. The same is for trade routes. Each time I buid a port, forexample, a new trade route is created in the city, I think ? But I never noticed any change in the cash flow.
Am I blind, or is there anything I don't understand ?...

[fed1943]

Trading resources can change happiness, heath or build ability, not commerce. Trade routes increase commerce.
Best regards,

[couerdelion]

When you say "port" I assume you mean a harbour. If that is the case then building a harbour will not give you any extra trade routes but will increase the value of those you have. That city will get extra commerce which will be translated into beakers or gold.

[Vinnnch]

Oh, sorry, Harbour, yes, myneuro-translater must have missed something...
As well as my eyes seem to often miss, since I never saw the effects of a harbour. All right for me, then, I will pay more attention. Thank you !!

[CerberusIV]

Harbours may not make much difference early on or for small cities. They really pay when the city grows and gets good foreign trade routes.