Question about food shortage on city

[shaosc3]

Hi, I am not sure how it works in this game, as it seems to work differently compared to other games / not explained very well either.

I have a huge food surplus and positive food income across my nation. However, on one particular city, due to not building any farm, I'm negative on food for that city. The city growth section shows a red bar, showing "food shortage" when I hover my mouse over it.

How do I ship food from my global stockpile to that city, so that city can continue to grow?

[Fast Pooper]

Amenities. That is the only thing you can use.

[Red Warrior]

Or build farms

[archonsod]

Originally posted by shaosc3:

Hi, I am not sure how it works in this game, as it seems to work differently compared to other games / not explained very well either.

Food requirement is set according to city tier. If you hover over the tier it'll break down exactly what it needs, what it gives and what you want to go up to the next tier. It's the main difference from other 4X games; food requirements aren't directly tied to population (it's indirect; food consumption is tied to city tier, city tier is tied to population).

How do I ship food from my global stockpile to that city, so that city can continue to grow?

You don't. A city can only grow if it's local food supply is in surplus. If it's in the red but the global stockpile is still available it takes enough food to stop it starving (and therefore shrinking), but it won't grow. In order to grow the city you need to either build/upgrade/improve farms, or utilise consumable amenities like stored grain, bread or feasts (which give a flat amount of food, and quite often additional bonuses to health, happiness or growth rate).

[Fenris]

other tips:
- place plows and later fertilizer on your most producing farms
- assign experts on farms
- use 5 tiles regions with ideally 4 food and put 4 farms and either a granary or a water well

[Doppelier]

A city automatically usues your empire-wide surplus of food when its production is negative.

That, however, only prevents the city's population from dropping, it doesn't make it grow.

For a city's population to grow, the city itself must have a food production equal to or higher than zero.

A few ideas would be:
- Have at least 1 tile as a dedicated farm tile, preferably with 3 or 4 slots and 3+ base food production
- Use grain stores and gourmet meals as amenities