1.1. Mined resources

There are four resources extracted from mines and their production is mainly dependent on the road connection with cities and blacksmiths (see below).

• Gold is mainly used for soldier’s pay and for the upkeep of your infrastructure.
  
• Coal is mainly used for the running of cities and blacksmiths.
  
• Stone is used for building and improving your cities and other infrastructure.
  
• Iron is used for recruiting new units and their training.

1.2. Land-based resources

Two resources are harvested from the map tiles – Food and Wood. You can only harvest tiles that lie within a city range (white highlighted tiles when you select a city). Tiles outside of a city’s range are not harvested! The city’s range grows with the size of the city so keep this in mind when choosing a location for your new settlement.

• Food - production of Food can be enhanced by building Fields and Farms (see below) and additional Food is used by your population, so a growing citizenry will require more food. Keep in mind that 1/3 of your end-turn reserves will be thrown away every turn as unusable (rotten).
  
• Wood can be obtained by cutting down forested tiles. Note, this will destroy the forest forever.Wood is used for all construction works.

1.3. City-derived resources

Knowledge, Influence, Citizens and partially Slaves are all produced by cities. Larger cities produce more resources and vice versa, it is as simple as that. The best way to grow your cities is to increase the Birth Rate Support, build Temples and to leave the cities idle (they grow faster when you let them be).

• Knowledge is necessary for the research of technologies.
  
• Influence is used to flip tiles, units and cities over to your side without declaring war.
  
• Citizens are necessary for the recruitment of units and for all other building works.
  
• Slaves are a special resource that are partially produced by cities, however, the majority of slaves are obtained from Slave Markets. If you don’t have a Slave Market yourself, you will have to trade for them. You can also enslave citizens of newly conquered cities to boost your Slave population.
  Slaves are not “used” but they affect the production of all other resources (see below).
  
• Happiness is not “produced” but it is calculated based on a number of determinants. The game recognizes Overall Happiness but also Local Happiness (check Resource Usage Map to see Local Happiness levels). Low Local Happiness can lead to unrest, foreign powers can easily convince unhappy cities to change sides (flip), etc.

2.1. Government

Each government type affects the production of resources in its own way, other modifiers affected by government type are Happiness, Army Morale and the ideal Slave to Citizens ratio. Always check that the selected government is the most suitable for your current needs.




2.2. Game difficulty
Higher game difficulties will punish you with production penalties to make the game more challenging. You can see the effect in the Resource usage overview. There is nothing you can do to mitigate this modifier. If you find it too challenging, select a lower difficulty next time.


2.3. Territories
Be mindful of the territories that you occupy and utilize. If you don’t own the whole territory, the production of all resources extracted or mined there will be negatively affected. The penalty is dependent on the portion of the territory you own.
Use the Territory view to check that your conquests are leading in the right direction, not only aiming at strategically important targets, but scooping up all of the tiles of the newly gained territories.
Territories can be disabled at the start of the game in Game Options.


2.4. Corruption
The larger your empire becomes, the higher the corruption rate of your administration. This mechanic is also tied to government type as some state organizations are more prone to corruption than others.
City-states are very corrupt, whereas States administered by the Empire government type have reduced corruption.




2.5. Slaves
In general, the number of slaves affects the production of all other resources, depending on the ratio of Slaves in the population.
Each government type has a slightly different approach to it’s ideal Slave to Citizens ratio.



If your Slave ratio is balanced to the ideal, the resource production will be at it’s maximum (100%). If it drops too low, the resource production is negatively affected. Higher numbers do not affect resource production but can have a negative impact on Happiness.


2.6. Road types and Production Multipliers (Cities, Blacksmiths, Temples)
Roads increase the distance units can move and reduce trading’s overhead costs, more importantly however, they increase the production of mines. It should be one of your first tasks to make sure that your mines are connected with cities and blacksmiths by roads and the better the road, the higher the production.

IMPORTANT: The production bonus only applies when the mine is within a 3-tile range of the city/blacksmith. If there is no city nearby you will need to build one to allow the mine production to reach it’s maximum level.

The basic mine size is 1 and every connection cumulatively increases the size by 0.33, so if the mine is within the 3-tile range, 1+0.33, with a dirt road connection to a city, 1+0.33+0.33 and with a paved road connection to a city, 1+0.33+0.33+0.33 (=2), if the same mine is also connected to a blacksmith via a paved road in the 3-tile range the mine size can reach the maximum possible size of 3.



Example:
A Stone quarry is connected with city x by a surfaced road and with a blacksmith by a dirt road. The size is calculated as follows: basic size (in this case 1.0) + connection to city overland (0.33) + connection to city by dirt road (0.33) + connection to city by surfaced road (0.33) + connection to blacksmith overland (0.33) + connection to blacksmith by dirt road (0.33), giving a total of 2.66.
Temples function in a similar way, they increase the population growth in cities that lie within a 3-tile range of them. Note, Temples do not need to be connected to cities by roads to use the multiplier.


2.7. Fields and Farms
Food is only harvested from tiles that lie within a city’s range (the city range is the area highlighted white when you select the city, it grows with the size of the city). The food production depends on the terrain of the tiles in range. The base values are shown in the table below; the actual values in game can be affected by other modifiers.



To maximize food production cities should be built on plains, grasslands and near shores although the best locations by far are near rivers, here cities will reap the most benefit from production multipliers.
You can further increase food production by building Fields and improving them to Farms, both are revealed as you progress through the Technology Tree. You see their impact on resource production in the table above. Note, Farms are an upgrade of Fields, they have to be built sequentially.


2.8. Birth rate support
You can hardly dream of building a great empire without a population to match, however population growth can be a bit more tricky than it might look at first sight.
Your first step should be to set the Birth Rate Support to maximum. You can regulate this incentive at the State level (global), as well as the city level (local), by using the sliders in the Birth Rate Support window.
However, it is important to keep in mind that Birth Rate Support costs other resources, mainly gold, but also stone and wood which are used as financial and material help to poorer families. If you start to notice the drain on these resources, you can lower the birth rate support to help.


2.9. Improvements
There are number of improvements that can help to manage the resource consumption/production balance.
The Trading improvement reduces the upkeep cost of cities and smaller settlements, they also produce some gold as a benefit.
Thrifty city and Thrifty blacksmith improvements, reduce the maintenance costs of cities and blacksmiths, significantly reducing your resource usage. Both become available as you progress through the Technology Tree.

3.1. General steps you can take to help

• Trade – the first thing you should do is to look for a trading partner who can supply what you lack (affects all resources).
  
• Penalties – use the Resource Usage Map to check if any penalties are hindering your resource production, try to mitigate them (e.g. government type, low number of Slaves, incomplete Territories, etc.).
  
• Government – the type of administration you run affects your resource production, so make sure you have the type of government that best serves your current needs (affects all resources).
  
• Territories – make sure that you extend your ownership over the whole of a territory, it is all under your control you maximize resource production (affects resources obtained from tiles of the territory).
  
• Roads – keep your mines connected by roads to nearby cities and blacksmiths (within the 3-tile range) to maximize your mine production (affects production of Gold, Coal, Stone and Iron).
  
• Blacksmith – build blacksmith(s) in suitable places, ideally including as many resource mines within the 3-tile range as possible, Blacksmiths function as production multipliers for all mine types (affects production of Gold, Coal, Stone and Iron; uses Iron and Coal).
  
• Fields and Farms – build Fields and later Farms on tiles within your cities range to increase Food production (affects Food).
  
• Birth Rate Support – regulate the Birth Rate support at state or city level to mitigate any lack of Gold, Food or Stone (higher population growth requires additional resources for new houses etc.). On the other hand, if you need to boost your numbers of Citizens and you have enough resources, set the Birth Rate Support to maximum (uses Gold, Stone, Food and Wood; increases production of Citizens, Slaves).
  
• Temples – build temples, ideally including as many cities within the 3-tile range as possible, the multiplier affects the population growth of all of the cities in range (uses Gold, increases production of Citizens).
  
• Repair damaged mines, cities and bridges – damaged infrastructure will reduce production output of all affected mines (affects Gold, Coal, Stone and Iron).
  
• Improvements – build key improvements, such as Trading in cities to increase Gold production; Thrifty City and Thrifty Blacksmith to decreases usage of Iron and Coal; Amphitheater to increase Happiness.

3.2. Crisis solutions

• Sell – if you need to drastically reduce your maintenance costs or you need a one off boost to your resources, you can sell units or buildings that are not critical to your State. Keep in mind that if the map item that you are selling is attacked and lost, you will lose the map item and any resources you would have got from the sale of it.
  
• Destroy – same as above but faster, but you receive less resources than selling.
  
• Plunder – you can pillage your own cities, buildings and mines to gain extra resources. This will leave your infrastructure in need of repair and may even lead to its total destruction.
  
• War – target enemy mines or cities, remember that war is an expensive endeavour in itself so consider your steps well.

Always check all the general steps mentioned above.

GOLD

• make sure the mine is within a 3-tile range from a city and a blacksmith, if not, you can build a new city or blacksmith nearby
  
• connect the mine, cities and blacksmith with roads (surfaced roads are better than dirt roads)
  
• build the Trading improvement in your cities
  
• reduce the Birth Rate Support (a growing population requires more resources)
  
• try to complete some of your Objectives as the rewards may bring additional Gold
  
• use the Confiscation State Decision to obtain additional Gold
  
• sell or destroy unnecessary units or buildings

COAL

• make sure the mine is within a 3-tile range from a city and a blacksmith, if not, you can build a new city or blacksmith nearby
  
• connect the mine, cities and blacksmith with roads (surfaced roads are better than dirt roads)
  
• build the Thrifty improvement in cities and blacksmiths to reduce upkeep costs
  
• sell or destroy unnecessary units or buildings

STONE

• make sure the mine is within a 3-tile range from a city and a blacksmith, if not, you can build a new city or blacksmith nearby
  
• connect the mine, cities and blacksmith with roads (surfaced roads are better than dirt roads)
  
• sell or destroy unnecessary units or buildings

IRON

• make sure the mine is within a 3-tile range from a city and a blacksmith, if not, you can build a new city or blacksmith nearby
  
• connect the mine, cities and blacksmith with roads (surfaced roads are better than dirt roads)
  
• sell or destroy unnecessary units or buildings

FOOD

• build Fields and later Farms to increase Food production from tiles within each city’s range
  
• reduce the Birth Rate Support to decrease Food consumption
  
• build new cities in fertile areas (rivers, water, plains and grasslands)
  
• cut woodlands and forests to get arable land

WOOD
Wood is harvested on tiles that lie within city ranges, you should therefore

• build new cities in densely forested areas
  
• cut down woodlands and forests where they are outside of city ranges

Important: by cutting down the forest, you will essentially destroy it forever, the tile terrain will be changed, so use this action carefully




KNOWLEDGE and INFLUENCE
The production of Knowledge and Influence is directly related to the size of your cities, the larger the city, the more Knowledge and Influence it produces.

• increase the Birth Rate Support in your largest cities to maximize the effect
  
• leave your large cities idle (they grow faster when they are not busy)

CITIZENS

• maximize Birth Rate Support
  
• build Temples so that their 3-tile range includes as many cities as possible. Temples double the population growth of cities in range.
  
• keep cities idle (they grow faster when they are not constantly busy)

Important: if you are starting on a new map as an undeveloped faction, make sure you grow your population to above size 10 before you start building any more cities, temples or units. Maximize the Birth Rate support as your first step in growing your population.

SLAVES

• build a Slave Market if your technological development level allows it. Be aware that Slave Markets have high upkeep costs, especially Gold! If your usage of Gold needs controlling, you can temporarily stop production in Slave Markets.
  
• use the Enslave action in newly conquered cities to increase your Slave numbers
  
• use State Decisions – Slave Freedom or Slave Castigation to reduce Slave numbers if necessary

HAPPINESS
State Happiness
Happiness at the State level is affected by government type, the lack or abundance of resources, the size of the army and your success in battles.

Local Happiness
This represents the mood of each city and is calculated separately from State Happiness (above). It is affected by the following factors:

• Army presence – a garrison unit in the city/region will improve local happiness
  
• City Improvements – build cultural or social improvements in the city, e.g. Amphitheater and Civil Service to improve local happiness
  
• Army Morale – your Army Morale towards different States affects the local happiness at borders, improved Army Morale with a particular faction will improve local happiness at your borders with them
  
• Repair works – always repair damaged cities and other infrastructure items