How to expand quicker

I seem to struggle expanding. My goal is always to get 8 cities or so, but I always only manage to get 4 before the land is taken. What should I do to make sure I snatch up the good spots?

play larger maps with less than default number of civs

If you don't want to tinker with the default number of Civs and CSs then you could try low sea level.

On all-standard settings you'll have to go to war and conquer in order to get that amount of cities (in useful spots), most of the time at least.

However, if you want to get as many cities as possible without conquering, you shouldn't only concentrate on your build order but also keep your neighbors away/in check:
- Declare war on your direct neighbor the second you see him, try to keep him small, kill his units if possible and make sure he doesn't sneak out a settler.
- Send your units out and try to intercept settlers that other Civs might send in your direction. The AI is stupid, you can often intercept and lock down settlers without even declaring war - remember: Civilians cannot move through your military units.

Large and huge maps can also make this easier to achieve. There always seems to be more space between civ's on the larger maps.

1. Scout scout scout. Draw a mental map of the land you want to grab
2. Get your first settler really early (3 pop). Don't wait for collective rule.
3. Build first cities at choke points.
4. Rush buy army and steal workers. Your army will help blocking enemy settlers or declare war in case they get close.
5. Focus on production and don't grow so fast. Only grow your capital. Tech key happiness buildings first.

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settling on top of luxuries helps expand faster because you don't have to wait to build an improvement to get the happiness.

This guy has asked a question and has been given numerous responses and yet to respond!! Maybe he is a very hard working and busy chap and will look into the responses when he has time on his hands!!

Depending on what level he is playing at and what speed he is playing, there is always the option of taking out your immediate neighbour straight away.

I must be doing something wrong. I can't have more than 4 cities and keep positive happiness if i grow them until Renaissance Era happiness techs - by which time all the land is taken. I've certainly finished a game with 8+ before - thanks to war.

Tried playing as Celts to get a happiness religion going early, but still bumped into the 4 city limit. Same with Poland too i think..

You should have at least one lux per city. It is not hard to grab 5 unit luxes with your first four cities. The rest of the happiness will depend on lux trades, mercantile city states, and happiness buildings. Another thing is, you shouldn't grow too fast. You will have to focus on gold and production tiles in some of your cities. Only grow your capital and 2 or 3 other core cities.

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Sorry for not replying guys, I've been caught up in other things, and vacation as well.

As for large & huge maps, those are almost always a no go for me. Computer can't handle them. Recently I have been building settlers faster, but the early production focus i like, will definitely try it out. I also like the idea of blocking settlers, thanks Ryika.

Thanks for all of the responses everyone.

Archipelago maps are good for lots of cities. Well I only play on large and huge but there's usually lots of land untaken by end-game.

If you can get on the water quicker than everyone else you can settle a lot. However I've been playing against civs with less than half my cities and they have kept up in tech for most of the game. That said I don't play on high difficulties.

Frontier map. It is big and open and usually gives you enough space to get more cities in then most maps.

Declaring war on your immediate neighbor as soon as you meet him will lead to a pointless and drawn out protracted siege of all your cities, gimping your science and culture while the other civs who are at peace leave you in the dust.

Build up your infrastructure until you have enough gpt to support the units it will take to conquer land, secure the land and still have enough beef left over to get the civ to beg for peace.

Unless you're playing on chieftain difficulty, the ai will actually "fight back" when you're trying to steam roll it.

Humantorch said:

Declaring war on your immediate neighbor as soon as you meet him will lead to a pointless and drawn out protracted siege of all your cities, gimping your science and culture while the other civs who are at peace leave you in the dust.

Build up your infrastructure until you have enough gpt to support the units it will take to conquer land, secure the land and still have enough beef left over to get the civ to beg for peace.

Unless you're playing on chieftain difficulty, the ai will actually "fight back" when you're trying to steam roll it.

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Thanks. I won't. It sounds like it would be pretty devastating.

Humantorch said:

Declaring war on your immediate neighbor as soon as you meet him will lead to a pointless and drawn out protracted siege of all your cities, gimping your science and culture while the other civs who are at peace leave you in the dust.

Build up your infrastructure until you have enough gpt to support the units it will take to conquer land, secure the land and still have enough beef left over to get the civ to beg for peace.

Unless you're playing on chieftain difficulty, the ai will actually "fight back" when you're trying to steam roll it.

Click to expand...

That's nonsense. You can keep the AI in check on any difficulty below deity just by using the units that you're building anyway (+1-2 Archers maybe), if you have some basic knowledge in how to abuse the stupid combat AI.

Sounds like the key to having a lot of cities, in reasonably decent locations, is to intentionally limit growth and keep the population down till Renaissance or even Industrial. It's one thing i've never tried, I always try to grow each city as much as possible. I also need to overcome my fear of AI agression and spread further afield, rather than always thinking of defensibility.

Yep, good points. I have tried to do this as well and it is a tight balance on Civ V as the AI get happiness bonuses you don't. Some pointers:

1. Play huge maps, cities cost just 2 happiness upon founding
2. Go liberty and build very early settlers
3. Nerf growth throughout most of the early game except in a city or two where you build your wonders/stay competitive
4. Reduce CS numbers, reduce AI numbers, or lower sea level to make more land
5. Nerf AI early. Since improvements take so long, rushing for AI capitol and stealing a few early workers/settlers along with some pillaging can set them back YEARS. Do this before you meet anyone else. (declare war on first contact) then steal your workers from them. You will need to divert from the early tech path to keep a decent military but just focus on running away and hurting their economy. They will invest little effort in finding you if they don't know where you are! Also, putting AI on the defensive is a must for rapid early expansion as many neighbors will declare war on you as they see this as aggressive and threatening. You want to take the battle to them.
6. Play small or fractal-continents. Less AI to contend with near you and easier to trap off areas for settling.
7. Space cities tighter. If you are going wide then your cities will be lower pop most of the game and you won't really have problems with overlapping borders till the very end. Spacing like you are going tall is a mistake AND a waste often.
8. Pick a civ that will generate extra happiness as this is the main barrier to early expansion: either a guaranteed religion or a extra building like Celts or Egypt
9. Settle luxes, horses, and stone sites for the extra faces from luxes, circus, and stone works. Works well on huge as often all you need is a circus to get a new city to 3 pop and make it worth it.
10. Rush for colosseums--and buy/build them where needed. As this tech also gives comps it is a double worth-it
11. Check AI every turn for duplicate luxes (they trade them away quick) and buy them if needed. making city connections between closely-packed cities is easy and pays off giving you the gold to do this. Also, invest in early trade routes.
12. Have your troops out in the territory you plan to settle. They can intercept incoming settlers, put down barbs, and will be ready to complete CS barb quests and occasionally get you an early ally with extra luxes! Barbs are a problem for sprawling empires and a barb horseman can wreck tons of improvements. Keep barbs away by having an outward screen as stated...it doubles as a deterrent to AI settlers and allows you to gently "herd" them away, or just capture them if you are at war.

This strategy works well, but I wouldn't advise doing the early war thing with someone you cannot put on the defensive easily (shaka) as it can just as easily turn into them putting you on the defensive and nerfing you. Discretion is advised and I've had the best success striking early when they are 1 city. By stealing all the workers they produce you are wasting about 12 turns for them AND depriving them of improvements. By stealing settlers you are doing worse as they couldn't even grow as they produced it. The AI will be outstripped in tech and fall way behind. You can finish them off later but the point was to just keep them from expanding so all that territory will be yours. As long as you declared war before you met anyone else no one cares as long as you don't capture any cities.

I consider Celts to be the best for this as they get a guaranteed religion for extra happiness, faith from killing with their unique spearmen, and a bonus for fighting in foreign lands. Just get 4-5 of these guys up and keep them near the AI capitol. Killing and rushing in to pillage on and off. They also have an opera house UB with a LOT of extra happiness. If you are careful and make sure to sit on hills/retreat as needed you will eventually get an elite force for later conquests or defense if you want, with sweet cover and city-taking promotions.