Cities

A city in Civilization 4 works the land in its "fat cross", the city tile and the 20 around it, and turns that land into food, production and commerce: one citizen per population point works one tile, every citizen eats 2 food, and the city grows when the food left over fills its Food Bar, says the base game's manual (pp. 60, 147). Growth is held back by two limits, happiness and health, both set by the difficulty level and raised by buildings, resources, religion and civics. Culture pushes a city's borders out, and specialists, building queues and hurrying let a player shape what each city does. The land itself is covered on Terrain and Improvements and Resources.

Quick facts

Source: Civilization IV manual, pp. 46, 55, 60, 146-157, 167; Warlords manual, p. 102; Beyond the Sword manual, p. 18.

Founding a city

A Settler founds a city with its "build city" action, and the first city becomes the capital, with a Palace built in it automatically. The base manual (pp. 45-46) sets three limits: no city within two tiles of another, none on impassable tiles and none inside another civilization's borders.

The manual's own list of good sites is short: near resources, on or near rivers, on the coast (best at a river mouth or near sea resources), near a mix of hills and grassland, and "about 4 to 5 spaces" from existing cities so their radii barely overlap, per the base manual (p. 46). It also suggests founding cities simply to block a rival, since foreign units cannot cross borders without permission. A city founded beside fresh water gets +2 health, per the base manual's terrain rules. The order of the first builds is on Early Game Strategy.

Soren Johnson, the lead designer, tied city sites to resources on purpose. In his afterword in the base manual (p. 178) he explains that a farm on wheat gives +4 food rather than +1 each, so the land around a site gives each city a "flavor": production, trade or specialists.

The fat cross

A new city works its own tile and the 8 around it; when its culture first expands its borders, the worked area grows one tile in each direction except the corners, into the "fat cross", and a city's citizens never work beyond it however far its borders spread, says the base manual (pp. 60-62). That makes 21 tiles. Tiles under a neighbor's culture are not part of the radius and cannot be worked.

The governor assigns citizens to tiles on its own, aiming for a balance of food, production and commerce. A player can pick tiles by hand on the City Map, or tell the governor to emphasize food, production, commerce, research or Great People, or to avoid growth, combining the buttons if needed, per the base manual (pp. 152-153).

Growth and food

Each citizen eats 2 food, and the surplus fills the Food Bar; when it is full the city gains one population point, and when food runs short the bar empties and the city starves, per the base manual (p. 147). Farms, food resources and clearing jungle raise the surplus; a Granary keeps half the food after each growth, per the Warlords manual's building chart.

A city building a Worker or a Settler does not grow: its surplus food goes into the unit along with its production, per the base manual (p. 59). Johnson wrote in the afterword (p. 176) that this replaced an older trap in which finished units waited for a city to grow big enough. Overflow is kept too: production beyond what an item needs carries over to the next.

Happiness

Every population point adds one unhappy face, and long wars and foreign citizens add more; each unhappy face beyond the city's happy faces makes one citizen refuse to work while still eating 2 food, according to the base manual (p. 149). Its example: a city with 7 happy faces and 9 unhappy ones has 2 unhappy citizens. The manual advises against letting a city pass its happiness limit even when it has the food.

The starting limit depends on difficulty: Chieftain cities start with 6 happy faces and Deity cities with 3, per the base manual (p. 167). Happiness then comes from a religion in the city (+1 more in cities with the State Religion), Temples, Colosseums and other buildings, luxury resources such as furs or dyes (traded ones count), civics such as Hereditary Rule, and the culture slider: once Drama is known, every 10% of commerce put into culture adds a happy face in every city, per the base manual (pp. 26, 79, 149).

Riots are gone. Johnson's afterword (p. 176) says angry citizens who simply refuse to work give the same balance as Civ III's riots without the per-turn micromanagement.

Health

Health works like happiness but costs food: every population point adds one unhealthy face, and each one over the city's health costs 1 extra food per turn, says the base manual (p. 148). Its example is a size-10 city that needs 20 food, or 22 with two unhealthy faces too many. A city that is unhealthy enough starves.

Health starts at 3 on Chieftain and 1 on Deity, per the base manual (p. 167), and comes from fresh water, buildings such as the Aqueduct (+2) and the Hospital (+3) and food resources such as wheat, cows and fish. Jungle (-0.25) and floodplains (-0.4) near a city take health away, and forests give +0.5 inside the radius since patch 1.61, per the Warlords manual (p. 105); Forges and Factories each cost 1. The health system replaced Civ III's pollution, which Johnson's afterword (p. 176) says players hated cleaning up.

Culture and borders

A city's culture expands its borders at 10, 100, 500, 5,000 and 50,000 points at Normal speed, per the Warlords manual (p. 102), and the other speeds use other amounts. Its level reads Poor, Fledgling, Developing, Refined, Dominant and Legendary, and each level gives units defending the city a 20% bonus, though walls and culture do not add up: units get the higher of the two, per the base manual (pp. 49, 154). Three Legendary cities win a cultural victory, covered on Victory Conditions.

Borders compete. A tile between two cities usually goes to the one with more culture, and a city that starts producing culture early is harder to dislodge, according to the base manual (p. 64). A city that loses its tiles to a neighbor's culture can starve, go into resistance and even flip to the other civilization; a city is more likely to flip when it follows the other side's State Religion and not its owner's.

Specialists

A citizen taken off the land becomes a specialist, and every specialist except the plain Citizen also earns 3 Great Person points per turn toward its own kind of Great Person. The yields in the base manual (p. 56):

Source: Civilization IV manual, pp. 56, 151; Beyond the Sword manual, p. 18.

Specialist slots come from buildings: a Library allows 2 Scientists and a Temple a Priest, and the Caste System civic allows any number of Artists, Merchants and Scientists, per the base manual (p. 150). Specialists still eat 2 food each, so food-rich cities run the most. Choosing between worked tiles and specialists is the subject of Cottages and Specialists; what the points buy is on Great People.

Building, queues and hurrying

The City Build menu lists every unit, building and wonder a city can make, with the turns each will take; shift-clicking items builds a queue that the city works through in order, per the base manual (pp. 58, 154). Grayed-out items are unlocked but missing a requirement, which the tooltip names. What to build is on Buildings.

Hurrying depends on civics. The left hurry button needs Slavery and spends population, the right one needs Universal Suffrage and spends gold, and the Draft button needs Nationhood and turns population into a unit at a cost in happiness, according to the base manual (p. 152). Population hurrying and forest chopping are explained on Slavery and Chopping.

Maintenance and We Love the King Day

Every city but the capital costs gold each turn, more the farther it is from the Palace and the more cities the empire has; Courthouses halve a city's cost, per the base manual (p. 156). The full rules, and why Firaxis chose this over Civ III's corruption, are on Economy.

A city larger than size 7 with no angry citizens and no food lost to bad health may celebrate a "We Love the King" day at random, and pays no maintenance that turn, says the base manual (p. 55).

Capturing a city

A captured city can be razed or kept; a city of size 1, or one with no culture, is razed automatically, according to the base manual (pp. 47-48). A kept city usually goes into resistance for some turns: it produces no food, production or commerce, has no cultural radius and no culture defense bonus. Resistance is shorter when the city shares your religion or has felt your culture, and longer for a large, old city of another faith.

A captured city also loses all its earlier culture and makes none until resistance ends, per the base manual (p. 64). A Great Artist's Great Work ends resistance at once, at the cost of the Artist. Capturing a city gives you its world wonders, but its national wonders are destroyed.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make cities happy in Civ 4? In Civilization 4, happiness comes from religions in the city, buildings such as the Temple and Colosseum, luxury resources (your own or traded), civics such as Hereditary Rule and the culture slider, where each 10% gives every city one happy face. Each unhappy face over the happy ones makes one citizen stop working, per the base manual.

What does unhealthiness do in Civ 4? In Civilization 4, each unhealthy face over a city's health costs 1 extra food per turn, so a size-10 city that needs 20 food needs 22 with two faces too many, per the base manual. Fresh water, Aqueducts, Hospitals and food resources add health.

How many tiles can a city work in Civ 4? A Civilization 4 city works at most the 21 tiles of its fat cross, the 5-by-5 square around it without the corners, once its borders have grown past the first ring, according to the base manual. Its citizens never work beyond it.

How close can cities be in Civ 4? In Civilization 4 a city cannot be founded within two tiles of another, so there must be at least two empty tiles between them. The base manual suggests 4 to 5 tiles apart so radii barely overlap.

How do borders grow in Civ 4? A Civilization 4 city's borders expand when its culture reaches 10, 100, 500, 5,000 and 50,000 points at Normal speed, per the Warlords manual. Culture comes from buildings, religions, wonders, Artists and the culture slider.

Why is my city not growing in Civ 4? A Civilization 4 city does not grow while it builds a Worker or a Settler, because its surplus food goes into the unit. It also stops when food runs short, often because of unhealthy faces, which cost 1 food each.

What happens when you capture a city in Civ 4? In Civilization 4 you may raze or keep a captured city; a kept one usually resists for some turns, producing nothing, and loses all its old culture. A Great Artist's Great Work ends the resistance at once, per the base manual.

Sources

• Sid Meier's Civilization IV manual (with Soren Johnson's "Afterwords"), 2K Games and Firaxis Games, 2005, read Oct 21, 2026
• Civilization IV: Warlords manual, 2K Games and Firaxis Games, 2006, read Oct 21, 2026
• Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword manual, 2K Games and Firaxis Games, 2007, read Oct 21, 2026