Population Stoppers and Specialization

[DaemonDivinity]

Two part question:

1. While we all know how happiness works (every excess unhappy person over happy person does not get to work a tile or specialize), how does healthiness affect cities exactly? I know you have an innate number, +resources, +techs, -buildings, -population based, but I'm still not sure how it works exactly.

2. How exactly do you best specialize cities? Specifically, I've noticed the population doesn't really heavily impact anything but production, but how do you really attain a good mix to specialize yet not have a micro-city. I know you want almost all cities to have Granaries, Forges, Factories, and other things that allow easy growth and production. Still, don't know how to hit the right size for production and economic caps. Oh, and do you need to have citizens working a cottage to actually reap the rewards, or must it just be in your territory? Like a bit of advice here, I barely pulled through on prince, I'd like a bit more of a comprehensive method of citadel management.

 

[suspendinlight]

1. Are you wondering what the effect of unhealthiness is? When your unhealthiness number is greater than your health number you lose 1 food for each point different between the two. So if your health is 5 and your unhealth is 7 you will be losing -2 food per turn, i.e. if the city produces 10 food per turn and needs 9 food to feed its population, it will be starving because 10-2=8 and you will eventually lose population points.