Cobus J van Wyk said:
So there I was: playing India, six towns and just finnished researching writing and all the other basic techs up to iron working. 3 units in each city and about 6 workers doing their thing, as well as about 10 other units for scouting, defending and raiding purposes. But I could only afford research of about 30%!!!! I had most improvements in all towns... where should I start looking to cut costs in my next attempt at world domination?
Far, far less units. Take a look at your F2 screen and probably units are eating a fair share of your income.
But maybe you're also missing one of the main economic structures the developers put into this game. They wanted to create a game where you could expand some time, but then you had to develop your empire. Build improvements, grow your cities, develop the right buildings in your cities, etc.
After the economy of your empire got a bit more powerful, you would be able to expand further.
In order to do this, they created an upkeep linked to each city. The more cities you build, the faster this upkeep rises. You can see the gold per turn income drop significantly when you build a new city. Not only the costs of this new city are added, but also the costs of the other cities increase. There is however a maxmimum to these costs per city, so you can eventually settle/conquer the whole world, but you'll have to develop your cities to sustain the city upkeep.
Once you know about this game mechanic, it is clear what you have to do. You'll have to build money making improvements around your country (cottages) and work them with the people living in your cities so that they may grow. You develop courthouses and build them in your cities, to decrease the upkeep of these cities. You trade with your neighbours by using open borders so that the trade income of your nation may increase. You develop currency so that you can have more trade routes per city and so that you can build marketplaces in your cities to increase the income part of your economy.
By developing luxury and food resources, you make your cities healthier and happier so that they may sustain a larger population. You can also trade for these resources once you have a connection via roads or sea with other nations. A larger city working more commercially interesting tiles will improve the generation of commerce in your cities.
If you are new to this game, then the biggest mistake is probably that you have build too few cottages and have not developed them by working those tiles with your cities. The cottage is the most used improvement by most players and it is worth it when you develop them.