Ok, I played my first game just a few minutes ago and I came away with 2 unanswered questions...

First, on the Empire side of the screen, my communities have a series of red and blue boxes next to them.  I am guessing red is bad (a shortage of some type) while blue is good (a surplus of some sort, perhaps).  Anyhow, what do they represent? 

I also never got around to casting a strategic spell, largely because I was low on mana.  That aside, it was not clear to me how I would have casted a strategic spell.  How do you do that?

Thanks!

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