A noob without a manual

[npy610]

I know, it's a disaster. Basically, I have a lot of questions that need answering. I appreciate any help given.

1. How many cottages should I build? On my current game, every single tile of my land that can be used for building, has something on it. 95% of those tiles have cottages. When you look at my land, all you see is a huge mess of cottages and roads. there's no empty space. I have a few farms, but no idea if I have enough.

2. How do you see how much of each resource you're bringing in, and how much you need to bring in for your empire? I have no idea if I need more food, more production, more whatever.

3. How does gold income, and food work? I'm bringing in food, but I don't see the food displayed anywhere, and I haven't built any units that cost food. I haven't built and units that cost gold, either. All the resources I'm bringing in don't seem to be used.

4. How do I avoid/get rid of a red angry face in a city?

5. Why does my capital constantly move from city to city? Is it based off of growth?

6. How many workers should I have going?

7. Should I use the automated worker options? If so, which ones? Can you explain what they do in detail?

 

[AnaNg]

1) This sort of depends on your economy and stuff, I'll let better players field this one
2) The F1 key will bring up your domestic advisor which will give you information about your cities. In general you need 2 food for every citizen in your city (specialist or tile worker). You can see individual tile yields by hitting Ctrl+Y
3) Not even touching this one
4) There are several ways - get more happy resources like gems or fur (via trade or expansion) build happy-making buildings, or just whip them away via slavery
5) It sounds like you keep building the palace in different cities. Every time you build it it moves the capital to that city
6) The general rule is AT LEAST one per city
7) Those are frowned upon in general here though if you're just starting out it's not horrible as they'll let you focus on other facets of the game. But you'll want to get used to controlling them yourself. One exception is the build trade network that's not quite as shunned here.

 

[Diamondeye]

Find and read Sisutil's Beginner's Guide under Strategy articles, subforum to this one. You won't need a manual afterwards.

 

[Gamesmaster]

I would suggest reading THE walkthrough by Sulla found here

and the ALC Games by Sisiutil found here

 

[Leventis]

I agree that you should read a few of the beginners guides in here and take a look at some of the things in the war academy section, or even look in the civilopedia (F12), which is basically the entire manual.

Quickly in response to 3): Just to clarify, everything you build (be they units, buildings, etc) cost hammers. No food, no gold. Your food is used to support the citizens in the city (i.e. how many tiles you can work, and or specialists), and you can see how much food each city requires, and what surplus there is at the top of the city screen. The amount of commerce you bring in is used primarily for research, but also for things like unit upgrades, tech trading, and general maintenance of your empire. Once again, check F12 if your unsure of any of the basic game mechanics.