What happens to a resource when I build a city on its tile?

Question

What happens to a resource when I build a city on its tile? For example if I build a city on top of sheep is the sheep lost?

Answer 1

Advantages:

• you get access to that resource if you have the right tech (so it can be a good idea to build a city on strategically important resources like iron, oil, etc. - they will be better protected from spies and enemy units).

• you don't need to wait several turns until the worker builds the improvement.

• in fact resources DO give some kind of tile bonus if you build a city on them. This means +1 Commerce for Commerce Resources (Dye, Gold, etc.), +1 Food for Food Resources (Pig, Wheat, etc., but only on plain terrain, not hills), +1 Hammer for Production Resources (Iron, Ivory, etc. BUT +2 on hills). Even though these numbers seem to be small, in the beginning it can still be a big boost to a new city.

Disadvantages:

• you cannot build improvements on the resource, so in the long run you lose the huge hammer/commerce/food bonuses that would result from the improvement.

Answer 2

You get the resource (assuming you have the technology to get it), but you don't get the bonus food/production/money that you would normally get from building its associated improvement.