Some of the points are actually right on the money or at least very close, while others aren't.
But we are digressing. The post was initially about city spacing and with it comes the question of the merits and otherwise of farms/towns/cities/metros. A summary of the debate this far:
CXXC
+ Every tile gets used
- Leads to sub-optimised towns, usually with 8-9 tiles per town, where improvements and wonders take a long time to build
Well, this strikes me as a bit of a strawman. Or, at least, when _I_ think about town placement I never really picture proper CxxC. Rather, I'd think about something like CxxxCxxC. And, I suppose for other people it is hardly any different, that when they say CxxC what they mean is actually thirteen tiles per core city.
Sure, the name CxxC implies that every city would get only 9 tiles to work with, however I think you should cut it some slack. At least so much as you are doing with CxxxxC:
CXXXXC
[...]
+ Each town gets on average 19 tiles
If you did the same for CxxxxC what you did for CxxC, then that would mean that every town gets 25 tiles 4 of which are unusable even with a hospital. However, you are right
, when people say CxxxxC they don't mean proper CxxxxC, but rather "on average 19 tiles" per town.
Secondly, about the wonders and improvements. For the biggest part of the game you are stuck at size twelve anyway. For the whole AA and MA CxxxxC will have absolutely no advantage (exept maybe better tile selection) over CxxC(xxxC)
when it comes to building all those AA and MA wonders and improvements. And it is exactly these improvements and wonders that IMHO are the most important. Libs, Markets, Unis, 'Ducts, Rax and you have about 90% of the bang for the buck improvement wise. Similar for the wonders. Of my favorite wonders only the ToE and the UN are late and could profit from being build in a metro, building-time-wise. The others, Pyramids, GLib, JSBach and Leo's, (if they are going to be build) would have to go up at size 12 one way or the other.
- Requires careful micro-management
Hey, MM is fun at times. Sometimes it is just a necessary evil though.
+ You do not need to build hospitals (or the MTS) and can get away without temples and caths provided you have enough lux
That is absolutely correct with the minor caveat that luxes do not only affect cities, but metros as well.
+ You can use those shields to build units
- You're more vulnerable to war weariness
I am not quite sure I follow the point about the WW here. WW works and strikes your city as a percentage of your population. So, 25% of WW means you get 3 unhappy faces at size 12, while at size 20 you get 5. The same, the other way 'round goes for War Happyness.
If anything at all, I would say, that a city profits/suffers
less from WH/WW.
+ For the same number of towns, you have lower distance corruption
- Your territory will be smaller with less resources
Only true with a major caveat. Space is not an unlimited resource. If for example you start on an island, you are stuck with that island until you can get to another landmass. Likewise, even if you are not on an island, you still are boxed in between Ocean, AI territories and/or simply yucky terrain (jungle, desert ...).
+ The short distances between towns means you can move troops from town to town
- So too can an enemy
+ The advantages kick in early, the disadvantages late
No argument here, just a comment. That last point is the major upside of tighter town placement. It should be bolded, underlined, placed top of the list, a be repeated at least three times.
At the end of going through your list, I think you missed the higher rank corruption though.
+ Great for AW, conquest, domination
+ Many other VC can be played as AW, conquest, domination
- Next to useless for a wonder game unless you plan on capturing the wonders or razing those not your own.
I'll get back to that.
CXXXXC
+ You grab a lot of land and with it a greater chance of resources
- Distance corruption is automatically higher (for the same number of towns/cities)
- You need to build temples or libraries to fill the gaps which intitially may be a drawback
- Units take longer to move from town to town
+ As the do for an enemy, no domino effect here!
+ Each town gets on average 19 tiles
- Seven out of 19 tiles are not worked until Sanitation
+ Every town has a choice of which tiles to work = every town can be optimised
- As metros aren't available until Sanitation, the full advantage comes late
The main comment and disagreements are already named above.
CXXC
[...]
+ Great for AW, conquest, domination
+ Many other VC can be played as AW, conquest, domination
- Next to useless for a wonder game unless you plan on capturing the wonders or razing those not your own.
CXXXXC
[...]
+ Great for Wonder, Culture, Spaceship, domination and diplomatic VC
- Not so good for AW and conquest
CxxxxC placement isn't so good at any of the cultural victory conditions at all.
For a 20K game, the way I see people play it in C3C, what is needed is one super city while the rest of the empire is delegated to mere helper status that supplies troops, workers, settlers etc. That one super city will be a metro (thanks to Shakes) and work 20 tiles as soon as possible, while the rest doesn't matter all that much. And not to forget that the most rewarding and juicy culutural builds all come way before Hopitals are even available.
--> So, it is mostly something like CxxxxC for the wonder city while the rest is place tightly.
In a 100K game, it is not enough to place towns CxxC. No, people in C3C even go and spam as many tiny little hellholes as possible (ICS, AKA CxC) in order to pop-rush the most juicy cultural builds (temples, libs) by the hundreds while in Feudalism. (Absolutely ugly, if you ask me)
--> Maybe some half-hearted CxxC for the core and CxC for the rest.
In a Diplo game what matters is only how fast you research your self through the Ancient, the Middle and the Industrial Age. The tech that enables the UN, Fission, is generally not researched, but simply aquired by playing the tech trick with the (other) scientific Civs. So, all that matters for this type of game really are the first three ages. And the only way Hopitals could even help you would be in researching yourself through the last 2/3 of the IA. You will have to dearly pay for that though in terms of beakers/turns lost with CxxxxC before your metros are running.
--> In my opinion you are definitely better served in this VC by completely ignoring (the optional tech) Sanitation all together and, instead, go the the best size 12 placement that you can come up with.
A Space launch is similar to a Diplo win. There are two differences though. Firstly, the game lasts longer and you'll need to research about 1/3 of the MA techs. Secondly, you can play the game far more ruthless since you don't need anybody's opinion anymore. Overall this means, whatever may cause you problems research-wise late in the game, you can simply solve by playing more ruthless early on.
--> I think that here too you are definitely better served by completely ignoring Sanitation all together and, instead, go the the best size 12 placement that you can come up with. You will need to be a little bit bigger though than when going for the Vote.
The only victory condition where I would see CxxxxC at some advantage is the Histographic win. A territory that is settled and worked by, say, 100 Metroes, as opposed to 150 size 12 towns simply yields a higher score. However, I think that starting out CxxC, and then later on by and by switching to CxxxxC would be the via regia. The best of both worlds, so to speak.