Right, I am Rome, have built about 20 different cities, compared to my opponents who have 5 at the most:lol::mischief:

So anyways, I wanna go to war with Russia and I have been preparing but my units keep going on strike. Why?

How do I stop this?

Also how do I train 10 maceman for war? It's one of them stupid Quests.

It means that your economy's in the toilet. You've overexpanded your empire and overbuilt your military to the point that your economy cannot make money even with 100% taxes. Once you run out of money, your units will go on strike and start to disband until you're not losing money anymore.

To fix the problem: Build and work cottage tiles, build Courthouses (probably the best thing you can do), build Markets (or Forums, if it's not Vanilla Civ IV) and Harbors, disband excess military, or make more money via pillaging improvements or burning cities.

I thought it would be something like that.

What is the most amount of cities I should have?

Well, you pretty much said your problem. You have too many cities.

In the early game, you don't want to go above 10 vital cities, or else maintenance costs sap your money. Every city has a maintenance cost, and it can pile up pretty quick. To counter maintenance costs, lower the science slider until you're gaining money. If you have negative money, you can't support your units, and they go on strike.

I'd suggest giving up that game. If you have 20 cities in that stage of the game, it's pretty much unsalvageable.

Okay, I'll give it up and start again. I'll make about 6 cities at the most.

In the future, Lashley, if you want a thread moved from a forum to another, you can report it by clicking the http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/buttons/report.gif button so that you don't have to create a duplicate. Welcome to CFC! :)

If your economy is tanking in wartime STOP WHIPPING (except for courthouses). The additional population increases the supply cap (the number of free units you can support) and pretty much pays for itself. You could also consider pulling back some troops to within your borders to reduce the unit supply cost. If your war is going to end in a few turns you could also make a civ switch - causing anarchy and since there is no maintainence costs while in anarchy there can be no disbanding. Slavery -> caste system is great for this, as you can then convert your food into gold via merchants.

Off Topic: Why does Lashley's post count read 1 when clearly He/She has made 3 posts in this thread alone?

On topic: Here are some quick steps.
Look at your cities. Look at the ones with nice grasslands or floodplains.
1.Now cottage every open grassland tile leaving 2 or 3 for farms. For Floodplains just cottage.
2.Now have all of your cities switch to building a courthouse.
3.Cities producing a lot of wealth, have them build a market after the courthouse.

Some pics would be help us to help you.
Welcome to CFC!

One more tip: Press F2.
The bigger and further away your cities are, the higher your maintenance costs. The more units you have, the higher your unit cost (you get a certain number of units for free first). See which of these costs are crippling your economy, and stop building units/cities accordingly :)

A general rule of thumb most people follow is that if your Gold Slider rises above 40%, STOP EXPANDING!

More specific advice:
* Build coastal cities. You don't have to run a worker over water to get Coins, but it does help to build a lighthouse, and Fishing Boats if you have seafood to exploit.
* Build ON rivers when you can. The extra Coin and trade connectivity from the river are good in the short term, the health benefits and eventual ability to build Levees and Hydro Plants are good in the long term. Also, you can't build Harbors and Customs Houses unless you're on the coast, and these are good trade multipliers once everyone gets big.
* Find resources that, when exploited, give extra Coins. Gold, Silver, and Gems are good to start, then when you get Calendar some more become available. Cottages are NOT strictly required, but a handful of them is useful. (I bulldoze about as many Towns as I build.)
* As soon as you can build Marketplaces, build a few! Courthouses should eventually go in all cities. Grocers and Banks (and later on Marketplaces too) should be reserved for where you need them the most - where they will give you the most return on your investment.
* It's okay to assign Merchant Specialists now and then, especially where you have gold multipliers.
* Get Open Borders as soon as you can with anyone. You can always cancel them later. Sell off your unneeded resources too. For me, these easily make a difference of 10-20% on my sliders in the early part of the game.
* Try to settle as many islands as you have Trade Routes. So if you have 4 Trade Routes (frex Currency and Great Lighthouse) then try to settle 4 different islands. The intercontinental trade bonus is +100%, an easy doubling in the early game. Since you can only have 1 trade route with a given foreign city, the rest get assigned to your cities, and if you've got sufficient islands, then you've got more trade in each of these "leftover" cities.
* Found an early religion if you can, spread it around, and build a Shrine asap. The extra gold will come in handy for a LONG time.
* You need production to build stuff with, so make sure you've got some.

I say don't give up on that game just yet. See if you can rectify the mistakes and get your economy going. It may be a bit aggravating, but I guarantee you'll learn A LOT about how to keep the machine oiled. Don't fret if you get way behind in research - at some point, buying/stealing techs should be easy enough to get you back in the race, and as long as you haven't pissed off everyone, you can probably go for a Diplomatic victory (but be ready with Culture or Domination too).

Good luck and have fun!