I was wondering how much value you all put on population? That is to say how willing are you to use thing like Slavery, Nationhood, and Specialists which all take away from your population or growth. For example I have a hard time using specialists since I keep thinking about how the city isn't growing fast enough.

It's hard to give a decent answer to such a broad question. :undecide:

Obviously population is the lifeblood of your empire, so there are few reasons why you should discourage pushing cities up to their http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif limit, or to a slightly lesser extent their http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/civ4/yuck.gif limit.

Perhaps the most compelling reason would be in order to keep city running costs under control - a smaller population will lessen the maintenance costs of a city. It depends upon what tiles you might be missing however (e.g. a worked gold mine may more than pay for itself in maintainence cost).

When I use the City Governor, I tend to use the 'Emphasise :food:' button to get the population to its greatest working potential before the http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif kicks in, and from there I allocate citizens to maximise their :hammers: or :commerce: or http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/civ4/greatperson.gif - depending upon the role or specialisation of the city (which is where your concern about specialists is relevant).

I use the whip a fair bit in the early game - especially to use the 31:hammers: to 39:hammers: exploit that Zombie69 has outlined in his Micromanagement Strategy Article (which I am taking as the Gospel Truth). I'm also a bit liberal with the whip when building Granaries, Courthouses, Theatres, The Globe Theatre, and Temples.

170 views 1 post I guess the question is a little overly vague. It just seems that compared to previous Civ games where in most cases you wanted to get as high a population as soon as possible and anything that slowed that down was bad, now there are an enourmous number of option which limit population growth. From whipping, which was touched on below, to nationhood, to specalists, I'm just not sure how to balance all this. OK how bout this as a more specific question: At what city size do you start assigning specalists so as not to limit the growth of the city?

An illustration.

http://www.andrsib.com/transp/Civ4ScreenShot0052.JPG

But what would happen if you worked the four bread two hammer spot in the bottom right

No point to grow any bigger, since I have 2 angry citizens already. Also, I need some commerce to stay afloat, too. I would switch to it when like 3-4 pop before the happiness cap.

An illustration.

+9http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif for your cruel oppression! :devil:

It will be a dynamite :gp: Farm once the Globe Theatre's up. :goodjob:

OK how bout this as a more specific question: At what city size do you start assigning specalists so as not to limit the growth of the city?

Again it will be dependent upon the role of the city and a host of complicating factors (leader traits, threat of war, technology history and future, built Wonders, envisaged victory type, civic options, and on and on).

For me, I generally ramp up :food: until the http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif or :yuck: cap, and look at whipping select structures (as outlined in Post #2). If :yuck: is more of a factor than http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif, I would rather run a Specialist or take out the whip than waste food on an unhealthy citizen.

+9http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/icons/icon8.gif for your cruel oppression! :devil:
Actually, I don't fully understand how it happened. It's Epic speed, so I had to whip 9 units in the last 15 turns. I don't think so. 6 or 7 max. I did not need more Frigates anyway. :)

BTW, Globe was built shortly before I won this game by Domination in 1842. Greately overrated wonder. :)

Actually, I don't fully understand how it happened. It's Epic speed, so I had to whip 9 units in the last 15 turns. I don't think so. 6 or 7 max. I did not need more Frigates anyway. :)


The whip can cause more than 1 pop point to get unhappy and will inform you of the number when you roll over the whip button. So, you could get 9 unhappy with only 4 or 5 whips under many circumstances.

The whip can cause more than 1 pop point to get unhappy and will inform you of the number when you roll over the whip button. So, you could get 9 unhappy with only 4 or 5 whips under many circumstances.
That's what I thought, too. But what sort of circumstances it could be? Too frequent? Or difficulty (it's Immortal)?

Isnt it sweetly ironic to whip a Globe Theater? ;)

"what? 39 :mad: for the next 145 turns? Ok, i dont mind, whip those fellas!"... :D

The whip can cause more than 1 pop point to get unhappy and will inform you of the number when you roll over the whip button. So, you could get 9 unhappy with only 4 or 5 whips under many circumstances.
are you sure?
i haven't done much research on the subject, but i just did a worldbuilder test where i whipped 16 items, including several big-ticket items, on the same turn on diety, yielding 16 unhappy faces. the # of turns increased by 30 per whip (marathon), but it was still 1 unhappy per whip. so the pyramids was first, it said 1 unhappy for 30 turns. notre dame was second, it added one unhappy for 60 turns. a settler was third, it added 1 unhappy for 90 turns, then chichen itza added 1 unhappy for 120 turns.