How to build a city ?

[Lunesombre]

Hello guys.
I just started the demo.
AI players are popping new cities, I don't know how to build one myself. Any tip ?

[The Secret Games Company]

Click the food tab and you will see city icons appear in places where they can be built (not next to other cities or enemy territory).

You may also see grey city shapes, which means you don't have enough food to put a city there this turn but it's a valid city spot.

Hope you're enjoying it :)

[Lunesombre]

Thanks for the quick answer. I figured it out almost after posting this
The game is already really nice, good work !

[The Secret Games Company]

Thanks!

[Markly]

the tutorial said open the folder to build a city. what folder? perhaps change to better explain.

[The Secret Games Company]

It refers to the folder tab that you can see in the HUD. You are the second person to mention this though so I am going to change the text to call it a tab rather than a folder - would that have solved your issue? Thanks for the suggestion.

[archmag]

Originally posted by The Secret Games Company:

It refers to the folder tab that you can see in the HUD. You are the second person to mention this though so I am going to change the text to call it a tab rather than a folder - would that have solved your issue? Thanks for the suggestion.

I think saying Click instead of Open would be better because nothing is being opened when you click on food. Science and Wealth open, Food and Power don't. Or maybe even better - Activate (or Switch to) expansion mode (or Food mode). But then I guess this term should be explained earlier then, like "You can activate expansion mode by clicking on Food button" when you first time get access to it. I was confused too when I was going through that part and spent few turns before finally noticing that special new icon appeared on my own territories when I activated Expansion mode by clicking on Food button.

[The Secret Games Company]

Thanks for the feedback, we will change it.

[JB]

I still don't understand how to build a city. I tried to play the story campaign and when the game told me to build a city I was totally lost, I've tried google this and ofcorse tried to click on everything. I can expand my city like crazy but I can't build a new one

[Gilmoy]

To build a city:

0.a) You must have enough Food. Depending on terrain, you'll need 24 - 50 Food.
0.b) You must have enough space in your interior.

1. On the right side, click the Food tab.

The map now changes to the Food map.
+ Tiles adjacent to your regions show their Food cost to flag them.
+ Every existing city shows an icon indicating what its new size will be, if you grow it.
+ If you have enough Food to grow a city, it shows its icon in white.
+ If you lack the Food to grow a city, it shows its icon in gray.

+ Every tile that has no city, but satisfies all of the game rules for a new city,
shows an icon of a 2-building city, indicating that it will create a new city with pop 2.

2. Click on any white city icon to pay its Food cost and grow it by +1 pop.
Or click on any new-city icon to pay its Food cost and create it with 2 pop.

The game rules for new city location are:
C1. within your borders (not in neutral or enemy tiles)
C2. distance 2+ from any existing city (not adjacent)
C3. distance 2+ from any border (not on the border)

If you have no tiles that satisfy all of those conditions, you'll get zero options.
In particular, at start of each game, your empire is radius 1 around 1 city.
Then every tile in your tiny empire fails both rule #C2 and #C3.
Hence, when you click on the Food tab, you see your capital city with the Grow option,
but zero of your tiles have the new-city option.

Go flag some tiles and Get More Space.
Then #C2 and #C3 will become the non-empty set.

[JB]

Thanks Gilmoy! That was really helpful :)