Hi real new to Civ4. Was just today beating my Asoka and his space empire!
Trying 2 figure out what I did wrong, I think my problem lies in my cities not being buildt proberly. How do u build a good production city? I had like 30+ and only Capital was able to finish in decent time. But that was used for wonderrs. my other cities took about from 6 - 20 turbs for a tank, while my capital took only 3.

Donno if it is supposed to be like this, but when Asoka suddenly with his wimpy empire of 5 cities rose from the ashes and by 10 turns was a 100 points ahead of me, twice the fast as I and building wonders twice as fast as I... Something sure to be wrong with my play style?

BTW, and city, with 29 hammers and no culture, why is that SO much faster then a city with 40 hammers and huge culture?

If I can understand what you write, then you've built far too many cities to spend time on the appropriate tech buildings (libraries, universities, etc) and wonders for effective research. I bet your maintanence costs were such that the game was automatically lowering the percentage of income devoted to research and raising that spent on basic costs, and you didn't see it. It's easy to miss: the little percentage figure in the upper left corner of the screen. If you run a deficit that takes you down to zero, before you go negative the game automatically adjusts for more income (and less research spending).

Heck no! I had libraries, universities and observatories in every city! THAT was what made my produktion so slow! the city I didten have any in was the best 2 producing units. I had court houses so my maintnence was like -1
- still my income was 100+ and research was set on 90 all the time...

Actually, noticed something cool here. If I put the research down at the last turn of a research, I still get it finished but I get ALOT of money (this dosent effect the next research does it? -research points r not saved right?)

(btw - my Skin is making my fonts white - and on light grey background - so it is hard 2 c what I write :-)

Very odd. Were you trading your techs to other civs? Because they'll sell those same techs, and if Asoka had money, he might have purchased them. Plus, there's the wonder that gives you whatever techs any two other civs have.

For the rest, you get the money back from excess research if you don't need all you spent on a given turn to finish it. That's true. But otherwise, that research goes into a pool and is used to reduce the time spent researching your next tech.

Duh... huh okey. So, how does a good production city look like? Lots of mines and workshops?

Btw, just remembered something. All my cities, in the food supply, said "stagnant"... - I was running abit low on food sometimes, how much does this effect productivity?

I'm afraid there's no hard and fast rule. Each city has its own local terrain conditions, and these affect where you should develop, and what. Well, one rule: place your city within immediate proximity or 1 cultural advance of a resource, and build it, first.

Typically, I try to keep all my cities growing. I chop forests for fast growth to granaries and forges. Be sure to hook up all cities by roads (for trade income). Don't be afraid to stagnate a city's growth if you can't for the moment make it's health and happiness positive. And occasionally, for a few turns, I'll even go into negative growth if I can add in a ton of shields for quick turnaround of a needed building. I won't let it go as far as to lose population, but a little starvation is good for the soul. ;)

When lumberyards come along, I add them to all forests within city reach, and place railroad tracks when those become available (there, and at mines). Go for wonders that increase shield production, too.

A good production city has 10 mines on hills, and 10 farms. No cottages.

If you have the Iron Works or Heroic Epic, that city will build faster.

Forges, Factories, and Power Plants all help production too, and can be built in more than just one city!

Btw, research points do carry over to the next tech, so no need to ajust the research slider everytime a tech is about to finish. Thats how Civ 3 worked, and they changed it for Civ 4 because the micromanagement of the slider was just annoying.