Shields

[Trekkie Spice]

The city pages show blue shields. On the left it says support and on the right it says production. Can anyone tell me what this means and which side should have the most please.

 

[Sharkbait]

The support shields are how many of your production are being used to support the units the city has produced. How many are here depends both on how many units and the type of government you are in. Here's a summary:

In Anarchy / Despotism - free support for the # units up to the the city size.
Monarchy - free support for up to 3 units. 1 shield/unit over 3 units
Republic - no free support. Each unit requires 1 shield support.
Democracy - no free support. Each unit requires 1 shield support.
Communism - free support for up to 3 units. 1 shield/unit over 3 units
Fundamentalism - each unit requires 1 ushield for support

Re the production, this shows how many shields you are producing (after deducting the unit support shields. So you will likely want to have plenty of these (but depends on the purpose of the city).

Hope this helps

 

[ElephantU]

"Production" is what is used to build new units; "Support" is what keeps existing units in business. Support will start from the city that built the unit, but you can "rehome" a unit in another city (though doing this for caravans and freights is against the rules in some competitions, like GOTM).

Units that are excluded from shield support requirements are Diplomats and Spies, Caravans and Freights, and any unit that says NONE as it's supporting city (usually Nomad Settlers and units that you bribe closer to AI cities than your own).

 

[SVAndrei]

However, be careful about the overproduction of shields in the latter stages of the game, as this causes pollution. Pollution can affect a tile next to your city and modify its properties (food production, etc). One way around this is to build certain city improvements, or try to relocate sme workers as Scientists, Tax Collectors or Entertainers.