city improvements...When and why?

[nosoup4crr]

Alright...I'm only in my second game. I played Civ3 a bit, but never reached the level I would've liked to. I wouldl ike to progress my play as much as possible. I've only just finished a game at noble difficulty, and am planning to go up a level. In this light, I thought it would be a good idea to find out from you guys how to specialize cities.

So...what is the necessity level of each city improvement. What improvements should all cities have? What improvements should only boarder cities have? Do you setup cultural centers in your civ, and if so, how do you build them? Do you have factory cities/missionary relious cities/beauracratic cities? And if so, what role do each of the city improvements play.


P.S. I also have two other quick questions, if you could help. First, how do you upgrade a unit. And secondly, how do you rush production?

 

[Rabbit_Alex]

To rush production of a unit: go into your city view and in the lower-right box where you can set preferences for food, production, etc, there is a button to use your gold to hurry the production of the unit. Hope that makes sense.

You should build cottages on every tile that your city is working. It brings in lots of gold that you can use to rush production.

 

[Byrath]

"You should build cottages on every tile that your city is working. It brings in lots of gold that you can use to rush production."

Most of your cities will stay very small if you only build cottages, and never farms. Rushing with gold is only available if you are using the 'Universal Suffrage' gov't civic I think.

I'm still in the midst of my first game on 'settler', hehe, so I wont try to give advice otherwise

 

[Lord Chambers]

You should build cottages on every tile that your city is working. It brings in lots of gold that you can use to rush production.

Well, I'm a veteran, so it is with some authority that I say this is terrible advice.

Unless it's part of some leet all-cottage strategy, it is a terrible idea that will only serve to make you terrible and lose terribly.

 

[ritterpa]

You need a lot of farms early to get your population up, especially if you are doing a strategy that involves GPP. You'll want to use some cottages, yes, especially as you are approacing getting the biology tech (which increases farm output).