early over expansion

some games I fall into the trap of over expanding, others, I underexpand.

What's the optimum number of cities to have around Bc1000?

Before CoL 3 to 5 cities.
After CoL and currency 12 cities.
My aim for 1000BC is 3 cities, with 2 others already in the making, to be founded for 1AD. ussually in time with the advent of CoL and/or currency

I think it depends on the lay of the land and a number of other factors. I'm trying to overexpand more in my games since I think it's more advantageous in the long run. You have to remember that even if your science output slips to 50%, that's 50% of more possible commerce. Granted maintenance will get you, but you can quickly recover if you start pumping out workers like they're going out of style.

Workers and cottages, are most important. If you don't know what to build, build an extra worker. (up to a degree)

1000 BC isn't a very good benchmark. Sometimes you want to tech peacefully with 3-4 cities until around 0 AD and then unleash your rush(swords/axes even catas). But i would say that 10-12 cities after getting Currency and CoL as mentioned is a good goal to aim for.

I've had one time where i around 500 BC had 10+ cities while crawling my way to CoL. (love sea squares and financial) I was behind in tech for a while, but i caught up fast afterwards. As long as you aren't in strike and stagnating anything goes

no. of cities depends on more then just what techs are available.
Map size and game speed have an influence just aswell.
Better placed cities are better then more cities unlike in CIV3 where City spam was the way to win.
Keeping that in mind and you should be good, keep an eye on your research slider and try keeping it above 70% without running -GPT.

If you're the Zulu you expand a little more because the Zulu barracks is a mini courthouse

60% science slider positive income is my rule-of-thumb. It's usually about 4 cities. That usually holds me until about 0AD which is around when I'm usually getting CoL and Currency, and also coincidently starting to conquest some of my neighbours.

But rules are made to broken.

Awaken, awaken, awaken, awaken, take the land the must be taken.


Just don't go on strike, then you're good. Everything will sort itself eventually, if you aren't playing on Deity.

i made a terrible mistake in my current game. luckily, i'm not even playing on noble! easy game this time. anyway, i built up a decent army around 800 B.C. to grab the only Chinese city (which i had blocked onto a small peninsula) after losing a bunch of soldiers at the Chinese city walls, i finally took the city... and then tokugawa declared on me! bad idea since his army consisted of a few axemen and mostly archers (no iron, i had it haha!) anywho, needless to say, i sent my entire stack and was able to take all 5 of toku's cities in a relatively short war. Oops shoulda razed some. i'm now at 20% research barely staying afloat. i'm on top of the score and power charts, but i might be in trouble with science! help!!!!

Depends on teh game speed also I play marathon games when I dont have to work. And on days I work its epic speed games. I never really cared for the "normal" speed they used in civ 4 didnt stay in each age long enough to really get the use I wanted from my stuff.

I usually try to get 6 cities up as fast as I can, in the best locations. Strategic resources are the most important to get claims on (Easier if you're Creative/have built Stonehenge; also, they provide HAMMERS. :3). After that, I try to get food resources, and Libraries, if there is no one close-by to conquer. I launch early wars, keeping maybe one or two of my enemies cities at the max.

By Currency/CoL, I usually have 10-15 cities. One time I had 25, and my science rate was 0%, and I had negative GPT. This was around AD900, and I had JUST gotten Currency (I was playing as Rome, okay, so I HAD to go kill everyone). Not a good idea. I whipped courthouses, but I had no science. At all. And the ever-present war weariness.

So, yes, try to stay under 7 cities pre-CoL/Currency, under 15 post-CoL. If you're financial and have coastal cities, then you can sneak one or two extra cities in.