Cities

Cities are the centers of population, production and power. When founded or captured, a city is assigned to a Family.

City sites

City sites are the only locations where Settlers can found new Cities. A city site can be claimed by a Nation as long as a unit is located on it.

Barbarians

Barbarians occupy City-States like other Tribes, but they are in a permanent state of War with all Nations. They have a number of special units: Marauders, Skirmishers, Elite Marauders and Elite Skirmishers.

Culture level

Each city has a culture level, which is increased each time the Culture bar fills. Culture level provides increasing bonuses to the city but also increasing costs per population.

Culture Level	Projects Tier	Hamlet Limit	Victory Points	Governor XP/Year	Can Hurry Production	Population Upkeep	Improvements
Weak	I	1	+1	+4	No	1 Food
Developing	II	2	+2	+6	Yes	2 Food 1 Iron
Strong	III	3	+3	+8	Yes	3 Food 1 Iron 1 Stone
Legendary	IV	4	+4	+10	Yes	4 Food 1 Iron 1 Stone 1 Wood

Improvements

Improvements can be used to grand various bonuses to a City. There are two types of improvements: rural and urban. If a Worker is selected the game will suggest the tile where each improvement is most effective.

Improvements without a Specialist will increase the City's Maintenance.

Rural improvements

Rural improvements may be built on any non-urban tile. Specialists working on a rural improvement cannot be upgraded.

Improvement	Yearly output	Cost	Terrain	Required technology
Farm	+5 Food	20 Wood 1 Orders for 3 years	Lush, Temperate, Arid, Wheat, Barley, Sorghum, Marsh (requires Centralization law)	None
Mine	+5 Iron	20 Wood 1 Orders for 3 years	Lush, Temperate, Arid, Hill, Ore, Salt, Gems, Gold, Silver	None
Nets	Various	20 Wood 1 Orders for 3 years	Dyes, Pearls, Fish, Crabs	None
Fort	+50% Defense if Friendly/Neutral Territory +2 Unit Vision Can Heal in Neutral Territory Destroyed when Pillaged	40 Stone 1 Orders	Lush, Temperate, Arid	Stonecutting
Quarry	+5 Stone	20 Iron 1 Orders for 3 years	Lush, Temperate, Arid, Marble, Adjacent Mountain, Adjacent Volcano	Stonecutting
Granary	+2 Growth -1 Wood	40 Wood 1 Orders for 4 years	Lush, Temperate, Arid	Administration

Urban improvements

Urban improvements expand the urban area of a city by transforming the terrain underneath to urban. Most urban improvements need to be constructed next to two urban tiles, or one if the tile is coastal. Specialists working on a rural improvement can be upgraded.

Improvement	Output	Cost	Consumption per year	Terrain	Required technology
Odeon	3 Culture	40 Stone 1 Orders for 4 years	2 Stone	Urban, lush, Temperate, Arid	Drama

Hamlets

Hamlets may be built anywhere. In 20 turns it will grow into a Village, and in another 20 turns it will grow into a Town. Only one Hamlet may be built for each Culture Level of a City.

Shrines

Shrines may be built anywhere and gain various bonuses depending on their location and the Nation's Religion. They may not be built next to each other.

Projects

Projects are permanent City enhancements.