Festivals & Zodiac Bonuses

Pecunia has provided detailed information on Festivals & Zodiac bonuses.

New Year’s Festival

Every year, in the February game month, if your population is bigger than 100 people, you have the option to hold a New Year’s Festival. This festival is pretty important to your people. They will be happier if you hold it, and will become unhappier when you prohibit them to celebrate the new year.

A New Year’s festival costs you money and food, how much of both depends on your population.
The formula:

cash: (population + 10) / 5
round down to the nearest multiple of 100
food: rounded cash * 2

Example: if you have a city of 4200:
cash: (4200 + 10) / 5 = 842, round down to 800
food: 800 * 2 = 1600

Below a table for populations up to 5490:

PopulationCashFood
0-100n/an/a
100-490100200
490-990200400
990-1490300600
1490-1990400800
1990-24905001000
2490-29906001200
2990-34907001400
3490-39908001600
3990-44909001800
4490-499010002000
4990-549011002200

Zodiac Bonus

If you hold a festival when the year of your zodiac animal starts, you receive a bonus. You can choose which bonus you want to have: a gift, reduced building cost, improved yield/production, or a defensive military bonus. What you get depends on the element of that year: wood, fire, earth, metal or water.

Gift

You get a gift of one of the listed goods based on the element, plus you get an animal for your menagerie if you have built your palace.

Elementloads

Possible gift

Wood8wood, lacquerware, lacquer, wheat
Fire7bean curd, weapons, meat, bronzeware
Earth5clay, ceramics, stone, millet
Metal9bronze, iron, steel, hemp
Water6millet, salt, fish, tea

Reduced building cost

When you build one of the structures listed for the element of that year, you only pay one quarter of the normal cost.

ElementBuilding cost reduced to 1/4 for …
Woodlogging shed, catapult fort, mulberry & lacquer trees, lacquerware maker, flowering tree, wheat field
Fireinfantry fort, chariot fort, crossbow fort, weaponsmith, soybean field
Earthkiln, clay pit, stoneworks, walls, laborers’ camp, millet field
Metalmint, cavalry fort, bronzeware maker, smelters & steel furnace, hemp field
Waterwell, salt mine, irrigation pump & ditch, ferry, pond, millet field

Improved Yield/Production

You get double productions from the buildings listed below associated with the element of that year.

Element

Production increased for …

Woodmulberry tree, lacquer tree, logging shed, wheat field
Fireweaponsmith, soybean field
Earthkiln, clay pit, stoneworks, millet field
Metalsmelters & steel furnace, hemp field
Waterall wells evolve, salt mine, all field and orchard tiles 100% fertile, millet field

Defensive Military Bonus

You get a military benefit on your map only for that year.

ElementYour troops

Enemy troops

Wood+30% bonus to moraleattack value lowered 20%
Fire+30% bonus to speedlose morale 30% faster
Earth+20% bonus to hit pointsbattering & catapult attacks 50% less effective
Metal+20% bonus to attack valuesspeed reduced 30%
Water+20% bonus to armor values50% harder to torch buildings