Civ 5 'Improving Cities' tutorial walkthrough

The tutorial 'Improving Cities' is a special Civilization 5 scenario dedicated to teach a novice how to construct roads and improvements. Unlike the first or second tutorials, there is no map exploring with exciting discoveries and surprises here. Instead, routine (but not boring) actions with some micromanagement are the way this tutorial should be walked through.

The scenario features and limitations:

• There are three cities already built from the beginning.
• All units except workers are disabled.
• All buildings are enabled except Harbors (to prevent connecting cities without roads).
• Pottery tech is available from the beginning (just to make things faster).
• The land part of the map is already explored.
• Social Policies are disabled.
• No rivals or barbarians.

Let's start this tutorial (Single Player > Tutorial > Improving Cities) and see what will happen there.

Augustus Caesar of Roman Empire is on the greeting screen. The special ability of the civilization (The Glory of Rome) can be used this time, but actually, as will be seen, there is not enough time for this. Therefore, like in the previous tutorials, the special ability can be ignored.

The scenario starts with already built three cities and three workers standing near each of the cities. The goal of this scenario is written at the top of the screen: connect cities with roads and build required number of farms, mines, and resource improvements.

Although the general strategy is quite straightforward here, let's try to finish this scenario as fast as possible, monitoring the production in the cities, as well as worker movements and actions, in the most rational way: some kind of challenge for an experienced player.

By quick glance at the map, it is seen that all tiles, where the required improvements can be constructed, are already in our territory: 6 empty plain tiles for farms (one more than needed), 4 hills for mines (however one that is near Mediolanum is covered by forest), and 4 tiles with resources (Ivory, Cattle, Sheep, Cotton). One another hill tile near Mediolanum is occupied by sheep and cannot be used for mines. In addition, roads of the total length of 10 tiles have to be constructed.

Next let's look at the technology tree.

One can see that all the worker actions except constructing farms are unavailable yet and the corresponding technologies should be researched. There is nothing else to do with the workers at this moment other than order them to construct farms on the tiles where they are.

So which technology should be researched first? The important thing, if we want to finish the game faster, is not to let workers stay without work. For this the technologies that enable the most required and laborious actions, such as mines (we need a lot of them), pastures (takes longer to construct), and so on, should be researched first.

On the other hand, rushing to The Wheel (to enable roads) directly takes too long and also requires Archery that doesn't give any new abilities for workers. Also notice that constructing roads takes only half the time comparing with other improvements. Therefore it is a good idea to leave The Wheel to the end. Just after The Wheel is researched, we can quickly construct all the roads with a lot of workers that should be prepared by that time.

Yes, producing as many workers as possible is another part of the strategy here. Set the production of all cities to Workers and do some citizens rearrangements to optimize the growth and production.

Rome. The city is growing fast because one of the citizens works on the tile with cattle. No citizen management is required until a new citizen will be born (in 5 turns).

Mediolanum. The only citizen works on the tile with cotton that yields extra gold, but neither extra food nor extra production. This is not rational because gold is generally useless in this scenario. Setting citizen focus to production makes the citizen to work on the hill tile with sheep that is much better.

Antium. Similarly to Mediolanum, set the citizen focus to production until a farm is constructed.

Nothing happened. Every workers are busy for this and the following 4 turns.

A new citizen was born in Rome and starts working on a useless empty tile near the city. Setting the citizen focus to production moves the new citizen to a more productive hill tile.

Mining technology is finished (enables mines). Start researching Animal Husbandry that will enable constructing pastures.

Meanwhile all workers finished constructing farms and waiting for orders. Although 2 farms are still required, I decided to move all workers to the nearest hill tiles to construct mines. This will improve the production in the cities and speed up creating new workers. Remaining farms can be constructed later.

Citizens that previously were forced to work on hills can be moved to the newly constructed farms now: just set the production focus in all cities back to normal.

Workers near Rome and Mediolanum can start constructing mines this turn. Notice that the forest on the hill near Mediolanum should be removed before that. This slows down constructing mine but gives extra lump of production to the city instead.

The worker near Antium starts constructing mine. He is one turn slower than others because he had to cross the river before climbing the hill.

A new citizen was born in Mediolanum and automatically starts working on the tile with cotton. Like earlier, set the citizen focus to production again.

Animal Husbandry technology is finished (enables pastures). Start researching Calendar to enable constructing plantations.

A new citizen was born in Antium and automatically starts working on a useless unimproved tile on the river. Set the citizen focus to production again.

Rome has 3 citizens now! The population is large enough now so we can focus on production and forget about growth.

Mine is constructed near Rome making it even more productive (see the screenshot above). Move the worker to the nearest plain tile to construct a farm on it.

Mine near Antium is constructed. The worker moves to the neighbouring hill tile to construct another mine (the last in this game).

A new worker was born in Rome. The production in Rome is quite high so probably one another worker can be built here before the game ends. By the way, in usual game there is no need to have so many workers like here (and in several turns there will be another three workers!). Even the economical advisor warns me: Stop making workers!

The newly born worker starts constructing a cattle pasture near Rome.

Worker near Antium starts constructing a new mine.

Calendar technology is finished. Now it is already enough technologies to enable all required worker actions except constructing roads. It is time to research technology tree for The Wheel (through Archery) at last!

Mine on the tile which was originally covered with forest is constructed near Mediolanum. The worker goes to the neighboring hill to construct a sheep pasture.

A new worker was born in Mediolanum. Order him to construct a cotton plantation nearby. The city production can be switched to anything you like, because the game will probably end before something new can be built in the city.

Archery is finished. Useless but required chain in the technology tree on the way to The Wheel.

4th farm was constructed near Rome. The worker moves south to construct a horse pasture.

The last mine was constructed near Antium! The worker goes across the river to construct the last required farm.

The worker near Rome has finished the cattle pasture. Searching what to construct next... Wait! All required improvements except roads have been finished or are under construction already. It is time for the road now! Move the worker to the neighboring hill tile with marble and wait for The Wheel technology.

The worker near Mediolanum has finished the cotton plantation and moves to the forest tile on the way to Rome to construct the road. Waiting for The Wheel technology.

The worker on the marble tile near Rome skip this turn because The Wheel technology has not been researched yet. This is the only time in this game when a worker has to stand idle.

Researching The Wheel is finished! At last the final stage of the game has come. The two workers between Rome and Mediolanum, which were waiting for The Wheel, can start constructing the road now.

Meanwhile a new worker was born in Antium. Move him to the next tile towards Rome across the river for road construction. The city production can be switched to anything you like, because the game will end very soon.

The sheep pasture is constructed near Mediolanum. The worker moves east to start constructing the road to Rome from the next turn.

A new worker was born in Rome. This is the last worker we have built. The production in Rome can be switched to anything, because the game is about to end. The new worker starts constructing the road to the south of the capital.

The horse pasture was constructed near Rome: this is the last required resource improvement. The worker starts constructing the road on the same tile.

The last farm was constructed near Antium. The worker moves to the nearest tile to construct road.

Most roads are already completed and the two workers between Rome and Antium that have finished road constructing have nothing to do and can be safely removed from the game.

One another worker near Rome has finished the road and can also be deleted. Roads on only two tiles are still under construction, so the next turn will be the last one.

The last all roads was constructed providing trade routes between Rome and other cities. Game is over.