How fast do you grow?

[TallNSturdy]

I am trying to figure out how to spread my empire early without running into major happiness problems. How fast do most people expand their empire? I play Emperor\Standard Map\Standard time.

I usually will grow my first city to 3 then arrange the tiles worked so the most hammers are available and growth is at stagnant or very far off. After that I will get the first settler from SP to get the settler build boost in the capital then pump out a couple more settlers (maybe some warriors in between if I fear an early war heading my way). I try to keep all these other cities around 2 until I can build coliseums\ally a CS\trade for some lux.

Am I expanding to fast? Should I aim for only 3 cities until coliseum to get more growth in those 3 cities? I am more comfortable with a 3 - 4 city empire s growth out instead of up is taking some adjustment for me.

How many cities do people usually have around turn 25, 50, 75, 100, 150? Below is what I am aiming for.

25 - 1
50 - 2
75 - 4
100 - 5 (hopefully got my first captured one by thenish)
150 - 5-8 + some puppets

[Tabarnak]

Originally Posted by TallNSturdy

25 - 1
50 - 2
75 - 4
100 - 5 (hopefully got my first captured one by thenish)
150 - 5-8 + some puppets

25-2
50-4

Now...it depends.

Domination :

75- 5,6+
100- a large number(puppets included)
150- a very large number(puppets included)

Others :

Rarely over 5 from my own + 0 or a few puppets

[budweiser]

I play standard emperor as well. I dont usually ever go above 4. I tend to keep to just 1 or 2 until I get the NC up and running. I dont like to waste early growth turns building settlers. Then, I will usually build number 3 and 4 fast after that if there is good land. Sometimes I just keep 3. I will have these in place by late medieval/early renaissance.

Not optimal I know, but it keeps total playtime more manageable and in theory you can win any game with just the land in your starting area. War is not required to win.

[TallNSturdy]

Originally Posted by Tabarnak

25-2
50-4

Do you find that happiness slows down the growth of the cities if I go for 4 before 50? If not how do you counter act the unhappiness? I been trying that but when I look at the AI cities they are always a few pop higher then me even if they have more cities faster then me. I always settle next to lux. for the 2nd and 3rd city if I can and 4th is reserved for a strategic resource if I can. I been thinking of trying to add an early caravel to find the other continent earlier to trade lux. with but it is usually to far off my tech path to justify going back that way early.

[apocalypse105]

Originally Posted by TallNSturdy

Do you find that happiness slows down the growth of the cities if I go for 4 before 50? If not how do you counter act the unhappiness? I been trying that but when I look at the AI cities they are always a few pop higher then me even if they have more cities faster then me. I always settle next to lux. for the 2nd and 3rd city if I can and 4th is reserved for a strategic resource if I can. I been thinking of trying to add an early caravel to find the other continent earlier to trade lux. with but it is usually to far off my tech path to justify going back that way early.

If you want to expand more then 5 cities I usaly go this way with my tech choose:


Early luxuries if mines mining

other wise pottery then calender.

Plant new cities on new luxuries. And make sure I got the proper tech to connect it.

PIck archery for defence

go straight to construction and start building colosseums and rush buying them.

[The Pilgrim]

t25: 2 (Liberty)

Domination:
t50: 2/3/4 on rare occasions (depends on strategics availability)
Then these plus whatever AI settled for puppetting.

Science:
t40-50: 4 (depends on culture ruins)
t100: 5-6

Don't play other VC's.

@OP: Early expansion does slow the growth, but if you settle on horses/ivory/stone/marble you should build stoneworks/circuses and of course tech and improve luxes asap. You can actually settle on lux so you won't have to wait for worker to improve it. Scouting is also very important. 1-2 early national wonders make a difference so early. Usually after hooking up all luxes and finishing circuses/stoneworks I'm not unhappy even with 4 early cities. When they grow to size 3-4 and capital to size ~6 the problems begin. And by that time you can start constructing coliseums.

[Tabarnak]

Some players are afraid to go under -1 happiness. But the fact is that earlier you plant a city, sooner you can build monuments/granaries and sooner you can improve your land. Then when you get out of unhappiness you will grow fast enough to fill out the science gap created from a delay of NC.

[joncnunn]

It depends.

But I don't think in terms of turn #. (Actually a good thing for comparison since I always play at Epic speed instead of normal.)

My first settler is Liberty induced.

I then usually do the 2 City National College.

Shortly after it finishes, I usually build 2 more settlers.

Unless there's more really good city spots (such as taking in unique luxuries or resources) I'll stop there until I build Circus Maximums.

Following that, I build the other decent city spots (if there are any). Marginal spots won't get built at all unless a late game resource shows up in the area.

I'm also noting that even when going a science victory, there comes a point at which any more cities built from scratch hurt more than they help. (Because they delay Oxford)

[askia53]

25-2 (I always get the liberty settler)
50-2 (I mainly improve cities at this point)
75-2 (Still improving cities)
100-4 (I get 2 cities within 5-10 turns of each other here, both near luxuries if possible)
150-5 (I'll take one more here)
I'll end up with a max of 9-12, if I have enough happiness, 6-8 if only a little happiness available.

[Buccaneer]

I very rarely have more than 4 cities of my own, regardless of victory condition. However, I usually have a lot of puppets unless strictly defensive cultural.

[budweiser]

I NEVER settle on a resource. My game would probably improve if I did.

[regeneration64]

Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster!

I have a habit of always settling on luxury resources. As coal, oil and aluminium become visible I settle on those too.

Usually ends up something like this:

25: 1
50: 2
75: 3
100: 3
150: 5

After 200 I usually have enough happiness (and money to buy settlers and buildings) to settle more quickly and have anything from 10-20 cities by the end game. I enjoy the rush for late game resources and prefer to have a wide empire as opposed to a tall one. I also usually have a have a few "major" cities (15 pop+) for building wonders, troops with experience and defence and more smaller cities (less than 10 pop) for those resources.

Only problem is when there are few resources or a small number of civs have all of them. I struggle with happiness then.

[duxup]

I don't tend to count turns closely but I rarely go over 4 or 5 of my own cities.

How fast I move depends on available luxuries, happiness and how soon I'm getting happiness modifiers either from city states, luxuries, policies.

[TallNSturdy]

Thanks everyone, gave me some confidence to add more towns even when happiness is low or below zero and build back up from there.

Tried my first 6 cities before 100 last night and ran into a dogpile from rome and greece. Greece took my capital while I was off trying to keep the romans at bay and I had to rush home to get it back. Ended up going from 7pop or so to 2 in the capital by the time I retook it (had lots of free happiness to expand if I wanted too lol). Now I just have to learn how to defend a larger empire while I am off waging my own war.

[treck]

I always group units behind some of my outer cities with roads leading to the most likely place of an attack plus I always make an alamo whitch is a city surrounded by as many mountains as I can find and with all defensive structures, saved me more than a handful of times