The land that your civilization controls - that is, the land within its "borders" - is determined by the number and cultural strength of your cities. When you first construct a city, its borders usually extend to the squares directly adjacent to it; as the city's cultural value grows, its borders extend to squares farther away, eventually merging with the borders of your other nearby cities.
Seeing Borders[]
Squares within each civilization's borders are lightly tinted different colors. Barbarian-controlled squares are tinted black. If unsure of a square's status, put your mouse on that square and look at the "pop-up help."
Effects of Borders[]
Borders have a number of important effects. Your cities can draw sustenance only from spaces within your borders, and your workers can only "improve" such squares as well (except for roads and railroads, which they can build anywhere). Your units heal faster within your own borders, more slowly in neutral (unclaimed) territory, and even slower when in foreign borders. Further, other civilizations' units (with a few exceptions) cannot enter your territory without declaring war, nor can you enter theirs. Barbarians can enter your territory, but animals cannot.
Clash of Borders[]
When you have a city near another civilization's city, the two will compete for cultural control over the squares between them. Generally, if the square is equidistant from both cities, the city with the highest culture will have control over it. It is important to keep in mind that the earlier a city begins producing culture, the more difficult it will be for a rival city to dislodge the tiles it controls. Cities are not guaranteed to control a certain number of tiles; if one city's culture greatly exceeds the other's, its control may extend to squares closer to the other city and possibly to the squares directly adjacent to it. Since a city can draw sustenance only from squares within its cultural borders, this may greatly limit the city's growth and possibly lead to starvation or even to the city switching sides and changing its allegiance to the encroaching civilization. See culture for more details.
Capturing Enemy Cities[]
When you capture an enemy city, that city must begin producing culture to expand its borders from square one, and this can only take place after "resistance" has ended in that city. It is not unusual for newly captured cities to have control of very few tiles until the conqueror begins producing culture in them.
See also[]
- Borders in other games