Excuse my extreme ignorance, but could someone explain FOOD

[rhfmatt]

This is probably a really retarded question. I've played a few games, and I'm not bad as I've won twice on King difficulty. However, after searching through the instructions, it never really gives you a grasp on food.

I know food increases a population in a city, but what good is an increased population. Is culture multiplied per population or something? Do you get more workers? I haven't really noticed its effect in game.

Thanks

[FadingBeano]

The more food a city is working then the faster the population grows. Each population point is a worker. The more population/workers you have then the more tiles you can work and therefore produce more hammers/research/gold. If all the tile are being worked then the extra population works in the city itself and normally provide 1 hammer and 1 research/gold.

So the higher the population of the city, the more productive it will be. A max city with a population of 31 will have a crazy amount of output as compared to a city of size 10.

Does that makes sense?

You can also think of it this way. Putting workers on food is a long term investment. As you are not getting any research, gold or hammers from the food tiles (unless there is a bonus). Having your workers on food makes the city rather useless when it gets started but it will be much more effective in the late game.

As opposed to a city being effective early game (not working many food tiles) but that will cause it to be weak late game as it will not have gained the population required to compete. (Like making full use of a courthouse)

It is a tricky balance, but I normally play tech victory and therefore I work the food tiles like crazy with a new city so I may tap the long term gain.

[rhfmatt]

Yes that makes sense, thank you.

[FadingBeano]

Your welcome. And don't feel bad about not understanding fully about the food concept. It is tricky to understand for new players as there is no 'Quantity' of food like there is gold and it is hard to see the benefit of food because it is a slow process.

P.S I did edit my post to try and improve on my description just now.

[rhfmatt]

I think if there's one thing in this game that kind of fails to be explained it's the food thing. It's not in the manual or anything.

Also, does the population size of the city determine how big the city looks on the map?

[saints10]

wish i could find a pic of a roman pop 31 megacity with wonders oh wait Searches on youtube or imageshack or photobucket

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NkxL9qhrFl8

found in 10 seconds might not be the best example and also . its really a tutorial though u could skip it just to see the End Product note this is not me lol