City

Cities are the hubs around which Nations revolve. Each City is a production hub, defensive outpost, and patch of territory that allows its Nation to further expand its influence and exploit the land. Each City must be founded a Settler at a City Site. Upon founding, the City must be assigned to a Family, granting the City bonuses depending on the Family chosen. Each City provides three major benefits. The first is that a City adds the land around its City Site to its Nation's territory upon founding, allowing this land to be exploited by Improvements built by Workers, generating additional Yields for its Nation. The second is that each City has a build queue which allows it to work on a single Unit, Specialist, or Project at a time by dedicating all Yields of a certain type to that production until its cost has been paid. Finally, each City is worth Victory Points based on its Culture Level, meaning that control and development of Cities is crucial for a Points Victory.

City Production

Each City can and must work on one Unit, Specialist, or Project at a time. While the City is building something, one of its three production Yields— Growth, Training, or Civics—will be dedicated to that item until finished, instead of going to the global stockpile (in the case of Training or Civics) or towards Population growth (in the case of Growth). For example, a Slinger costs 60 , so a City with a base Yield of 8 /Turn will take 8 (60/8 rounded up) turns to build a Slinger, during which time the City's Training output will be dedicated to producing the Slinger and will not go to the global stockpile. All Cities start with a base yield of 8 Growth, Training and Civics per turn, so even a newly-founded City will immediately contribute to the larger empire.

Rushing Production

Production in a City can be rushed, immediately reducing the remaining build time on an item to one turn, if certain conditions are met. Different Yields can be used to rush, with different conditions for each Yield—for instance, Civics can be used to rush if the City has a Culture Level of Developing or higher, while Orders can be used to rush if the Orthodoxy Law has been adopted. Each time City production is rushed, rush costs increase and the City gains a one-time boost to Discontent.

Culture

Culture is a Yield produced and accumulated in each City. As a City produces Culture each turn, its Culture bar fills. Once the bar is full, the City gains a Culture level, which increases its Victory Point value by 1, triggers a Culture Event, and allows higher-level Urban Improvements and Wonders to be built in that City. The Culture Levels are Weak, Developing, Strong, and Legendary, with additional levels numbered as Legendary II, Legendary III, and so on.

Population

As accumulates, the City gains Population, which may be trained into Specialists. Each Specialist requires an idle Citizen to train.

Discontent

As Discontent accumulates, the City gains Discontent levels. Each level of Discontent reduces Science output, reduces Growth, and increases Maintenance. Discontent buildup can be slowed and eventually reversed by sources of Happiness, with each point of Happiness cancelling one point of Discontent.