Im really new to this. How important are roads? When should I start making them? Should I put a worker on auto build trade network?

In civ3, roads were important because they generated commerce. In civ4 roads to not generate commerce so they are less important. Use roads to hook up your resources to your cities, and your cities to your other cities. Some resources are more important to hook up than others, however. Copper lets you build axemen, so you should hook it up asap. Resources that give you +1 Health are not as important to hook up early on, since you do not hit the health cap until later.

You should not use auto build trade network until you improve all the land you are working (cottages, mines, etc.). This is far more important than having roads in every square. At the start you should build roads manually, when necessary.

If a farm or cottage or whatever is a few tiles away from a city and not connected by a road, does it give a benefit?

If a farm or cottage or whatever is a few tiles away from a city and not connected by a road, does it give a benefit?

Yes they do

A few? More than two? No. Only tiles that are within two plots of your cities are worked, even with a road.

You can still gain the benefit of a resource connected by a road (ex: Copper granting Axemen), so long as it is within your cultural borders.

Really? Just 2 plots? So its not worth upgrading any tiles beyond 2 squares from your city?

http://www.civfanatics.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=837&c=2

Here is an example of the 'fat cross' or city radius outlined by the culture borders. Every tile within can be used by the population of that city and should be prioritized by your workers. Even when your cultural borders expand past this the additional tiles won't be usable by THAT city.

Resources within your cultural borders but outside of your city radius are still a major benefit for your empire. You just don't gain the extra benefit of working that tile.

Should I put a worker on auto build trade network?

I don't usually do this until I have an abundance of workers (captured, usually) and would like them to simply hook up the additional resources within my borders for trading or establish roadways to far flung civs that I wouldn't consider paving to. It is more important to have them focusing on improving your lands around the cities first and getting them as productive as possible quickly.

Are you a big Total Recall fan or is that your name? :)

what is the bonus difference for a worked improved tile and an unworked one?

I took the name from Kindergarten Cop. I love pretty much all the old cheesy Arnie movies, they are hilarious. Commando is my fav.

what is the bonus difference for a worked improved tile and an unworked one?

I took the name from Kindergarten Cop. I love pretty much all the old cheesy Arnie movies, they are hilarious. Commando is my fav.

The population of your cities can either work the tiles surrounding the city or become specialists.

A city with a population of two points can assign those two population points to work two tiles within the city's "fat cross." So, worked tiles are those tiles that the city's population is assigned to. Unworked tiles do not provide food, production, or commerce, even if they are improved. A tile must be worked by the city's population to generate any food, production, or commerce.

Ooops... wrong Arnie movie. :) I knew it was one of his roles. "Id's nod a tumah!"

what is the bonus difference for a worked improved tile and an unworked one?

Not sure I understand the question. Tiles only are 'worked' if they are within the city radius or 'fat cross'. For each # of Population on your city you can work the same number of tiles surrounding THAT city(or hire Specialists, whom are covered extensively in other threads). If you have a size 9 city, you can work 10 tiles - the center city tile (by default) and 9 surrounding ones.

Your workers will prioritize the highest value tiles first with the largest yields. Tiles can be worked if they are improved or not. Typically you want to 'improve' the highest value tiles to gain even bigger benefits since they are already being worked. Usually the bonus resource tiles, assuming you have the right techs to work it!

You can open the City Screen to see which are the highest yields, but I prefer to use the 'Auto-Manage buttons' to have the computer allocate what I need that city to focus on: Food/Hammers/Commerce/etc.