food and crop yield mechanics

[brutusrox]

so heres my question, in the early game, lets say around 2700BC when your getting your first settler off, since your not growing while building the settler. it would seem smart to priorities hammers over food. however for example when i switch from a farmed corn with 5 to a unworked forest with 2 1 ... i lose turns on my settler. so the only explanation is that provides some ? if thats true then my my next question is can i hypotheticly have a city later in the game with so much and still have a ton of without working workshops or mines?

 

[Izuul]

Surplus food counts as hammers only when building workers and settlers.

 

[Ecori]

When building a settler any excess food the city produces (total food minus 2*citicen count minus excess polution) as well as hammers goes into building the settler. Food is "converted" to hammers so that 1 food = 1 hammer. A dry Rice (4F yield) is therefore the same as a grasshill mine (1F + 3H). Note that the Imp trait only buffs the hammers that goes into building the settler. This is the same for Workers.

As to your second question mines, WS and water mills is the principal way to get hammers. However, there are several ways to buff production. Running the US civic with lots of towns, riverside land gets +1H with a levee, AP buildings give 2H each. Priests and Engineer specs gives hammers etc. Forests with LM+RR gives quite a few hammers aswell

Edit: Izuul beat me to it

 

[landy]

Read the in-game Civilopedia first.
Or look at your city screen more carefully.