A Guide to City Specialization and Land Improvements

me again..

It seems to me that the same can be said about all type of specialised cities, as most radical specialisations building come late in the game : industrial age or later, you will need heavy production for them in all your cities, even commerce cities. (I speak of Wall street, laboratory, factory, bank, towers and hospital for health and happy...etc)

Furthermore, a city oriented toward commerce in the classical era that "suddenly" discovers aluminum + oil + coal in it's fat cross... may maybe be* more interesting as a production city, isn't it???

As it is not so specialised before Industrial age, you may still have forge and factory in commerce cities, market and banks in science or production cities...Etc

I think that before the industrial age, there is really only three specialisation :

-Will I make this city a military producer ? ie a future production city. if not, I do not need to build baracks/docks and I can focus on buildings instead of producing units...
-Will I expect my city to have to defend before gunpower? if not, I don't have yet to build walls/castle...etc.
-Is my city a crap city only here for a strategic reason (ressource or position : for forbidding access or occupying terrain).

IMO all other things are not really city-specialisation but only city-orientations that MAY become specialisation in late game.

All early building seems worthwhile to produce if you can afford the time, even a market with only 4gold in city : 2gpt is 2gpt. And if one day I need to rise the gold %, the market will be handy even if the city is prod oriented or science oriented, the slider change will be more efficient...

Maybe it works for me as I am not a so aggressive player, I'd rather build buildings and have a long successful war than build units to have a "short victorious war".

my 2 cents.

EDIT: It may not seems so but I really love this thread, I learned a lot!!! Thanks a lot Excl !!

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*I kinda love this "may maybe be" thing :D
 
Hey everybody im new here (but not to the game)...
As for me, the only specialization that I do is a production city, but I don't go full out on it and usually have it at high levels. The rest of my cities I keep as ultimate hybrids, they do everything-money, commerce, trade, culture, production, you name it. That strategy usually works for me and I have all cities pitching in for every aspect.
I have one question (and I hope it hasn't been asked before): Is there any useful advantage of having a 20+ population in a (growing) city? Can the extra population go towards having more specialists?
Thanks 4 the informative forum ppl.
 
Calavente said:
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While whipping buildings does slow down early GP production, most of my early GPs come from cities with specialized wonders, not my GP farm--the GP farm is for late-game People that a mere 30-40 GPP/turn from wonders (assuming Philosophical/Pacifism) won't generate very quickly.
 
Is there any way to stop the computer changing the tiles that are being worked? I usually find this happening when I improve a tile, and the computer decides to change from an unimproved tile to that now imrpoved one. Nice help in theory, but not when I'm trying to build a barracks and it starts working a farmed wheat square insted of an unimproved forest. I don't really want to have to check my cities all the time to make sure that the computer isn't "doing me a favour".

Also, is there any way to set up a notification every time a city grows in size?

And something unrelated... I sometimes find that the popup info doesn't display when I hover over a tech or unit on the science screen when I'm onto a new tech, or sometimes when trading. Pretty annoying when I'm trying to work out what things cost etc., or what I should be researching next. Is this a known bug? Is there a fix?
 
HectorSpector said:
Is there any way to stop the computer changing the tiles that are being worked? I usually find this happening when I improve a tile, and the computer decides to change from an unimproved tile to that now imrpoved one. Nice help in theory, but not when I'm trying to build a barracks and it starts working a farmed wheat square insted of an unimproved forest. I don't really want to have to check my cities all the time to make sure that the computer isn't "doing me a favour".
Click to expand...
city screen has a box to select the type of automatic city growth that you prefer - food, hammers, coin, or a combo of them.

this is for people like myself who prefer not to micromanage every tile every turn.

Also, is there any way to set up a notification every time a city grows in size?
Click to expand...
not that I am aware of, but that same box has a selection to "avoid city growth" (when it otherwise has enough surplus food to occur).

I have been doing this when a city gets near its unhappiness limit. that way I can turn city growth back on once its happiness has been improved by a building or resource.

(another strategy for a city approaching its unhappiness limit is to whip the city's population down to generate hammers. this requires the use of the SLAVERY civic.)
 
Excl said:
You should never have you gold at 0%, as you would be making every economic building worthless.
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DaveMcW said:
That's a terrible argument. If you have more science buildings than economic buildings, you should be happy if you can afford to set gold to 0%.
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I agree with DaveMcW.

It is a good idea to change the slide when one is near the completion of researching a tech. The number of turns do not change always if one changes the slide; just lower the percentage of science to the point when the number of turns for researching of a tech becomes slightly higher.

Kindly regards,
Kalkas
 
Calavente said:
EDIT: It may not seems so but I really love this thread, I learned a lot!!! Thanks a lot Excl !!
Click to expand...

I can't believe this guide made it to War Academy status. Thanks to everyone who's given their input!

Calavente, to give you a brief answer, it's always helpful to have some squares of production in every city, but don't ignore the main aim of your specialization. I think I mentioned in every city type that it is usefull to have a couple of production tiles available.

But the reason you specialize is because you won't have time to build everything. So you've got to try to stick to your plan. Having a couple of production tiles available is definatly recommended for any city type though, because you WILL want to have production on hand when you need it.

As for the GPP/Globe/Whipping city, I think it's much more efficient to whip and regrow than to try and squeeze production out of your squares. Remember, with all the farmed grassland and resources, you're population is going to explode back in size, and you don't have to change tile improvements to adjust. You can always have a few science (or whatever) specialists added to the population, and you're still going to grow very quickly.

I do like the suggestion though about making cities production cities later on if you suddenly realize that you're sitting on all kinds of resources. In most cases your commerce cities are going to be hybrids anyway, so switching them isn't going to be much of a problem. But this is likely isn't going to happen to more than one city, so it's not much of a balance issue.
 
kalkas said:
I agree with DaveMcW.

It is a good idea to change the slide when one is near the completion of researching a tech. The number of turns do not change always if one changes the slide; just lower the percentage of science to the point when the number of turns for researching of a tech becomes slightly higher.

Kindly regards,
Kalkas
Click to expand...

Again, this is more of a general guide. If you're going par for the course, you're going to have a decent number of cities that do science, and a decent amount that make money. And you will need both to make money and earn research points.

There are of course exceptions. If you discover a religion and get money from other civs with your religion, or if you happen to sell all your resources for "gold per turn", then yes, it's possible to earn enough money to cover your expenses, even when running 100% science.

If you are a cunning salesman and can get a budget surplus by dealing all your resources, then more power to you. You can just build all science buildings in your commerce cities and rake in the resource points. I suppose you could also weild a big stick, and just take money from other Civs, while running a large deficit. All of this is possible, but I would probably classify it as "Advanced Tactics". I couldn't cover every possible angle in my generalized guide. ;)

Generally speaking, if you can't get a budget surplus through diplomatic means, you're going to have to generate it through commerce cities. If you're running 100% science, you're making any banks/grocers that you've built essentially useless.
 
I enjoyed Excel's wonderful guide to city specialization. If I understand correctly, it, and other guides I've browsed on specialization, advise against adding any buildings that do not aid that city's specialty. My question is this: What do you have the city do if there simply is no good choice. For example, in a Great People Farm that has perfect health and happiness and all of the right buildings have been built, and ssay you don't want any more soldiers, then what do you do? It seems that you must do something because the game says, for example, "You have completing building a XXXXXX in this city, what do want to build next?"
Thanks!
 
Flagbag said:
I enjoyed Excel's wonderful guide to city specialization. If I understand correctly, it, and other guides I've browsed on specialization, advise against adding any buildings that do not aid that city's specialty. My question is this: What do you have the city do if there simply is no good choice. For example, in a Great People Farm that has perfect health and happiness and all of the right buildings have been built, and ssay you don't want any more soldiers, then what do you do? It seems that you must do something because the game says, for example, "You have completing building a XXXXXX in this city, what do want to build next?"
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would recommend choosing the "Research" option. Convert those hammers into some added beakers.
 
Excl said:
Feeding your City

This part of the strategy was given to me by Wreck, so I can't take credit for it. I will try and explain it though.

The key to getting your city to thrive is to give it just enough food improvements (farms) to grow to maximum size. Everything else is excess and will take away from the specialization. (The GP Farm is the exception)

Every population point in your city consumes 2 food. Fortunately, every population point (up to 20) provides a new worked space in your city's fat cross (workable area around the city) and that in turn provides more food. When you start a city, you get 2 extra food from the city itself (called +2F) plus whatever food is in the first space highlighted or "worked". Usually that is +2F or +3F as well. Ideally, if every square around your city was +2F (grassland), then your city would grow to full size, because every time your city would grow, a new worked spot would provide +2F to cover the -2F needed for the higher population. You would always have the +2F surplus that's given to you when you start your city. (-2F for a population of one, with a +2F for one worked spot plus the +2F from the city itself)

I hope that makes sense! :D

The problem is, you never have +2F in every square. When you start using areas with only one food (+1F) or no food, then your will start reaching a point where your city no longer grows, because you are eating into that initial +2F surplus you get when you start the city. To get back onto the plus side, you need to use tiles with extra food bonuses, like floodplains or resources ... or build farms (which give +1F on top of your tiles normal production)

But you never want to build more farms than you need, or else you're wasting tiles. Ideally, what you want to aim for is no food surplus when your city hits size 20. That way all tiles are being worked, and you don't have to worry about growing any bigger ... plus you have the maximum amount of tiles are being used for commerce and production. (Note: You will likely have a few cities with unworkable tiles like mountains or ice or worthless tiles like tundra. If this is the case then aim for a city size the is 20 minus how many ever tiles you plan not to work.)

So how to do this ...

The first thing you need to do is count the number of extra food in your fat cross. Remember you get an extra +2F just from the city itself, so count that as well. Any tile that gives you more than 2 food, count as an extra +1F. A floodplain gives you +3F, so that's +1F. Various resources will also give you bonuses. Count the extra amount of food given over 2. Don't count bonuses given by creating a farm. This is just "as-is" bonuses.

Next you need to count the number of spots that have less than 2 food in them. Any Plains spots count as -1F. Deserts, Tundra and Mountains count as -2F. Jungles are a bit tricky, because they take away food bonuses. You should plan on chopping your jungle to make room for a cottage or mill, so count it as if it were normal grassland, hills or plains. (Note: If you are planning for a smaller city because of useless terrain, do not count the terrain you don't plan on improving in your calculations)

Then combine your two numbers. If your number is 0 or greater you are in great shape. If it's below zero, then you will know exactly how many farms you need to add to maximize your land.

So for example, if you have a city built with 6 plains spots, 1 floodplain, and every thing else grassland ... Your extra count would be +2F (city itself) +1F Floodplain for +3F. Your losses would be -1F x 6 (6 Plains) for -6F. Everything else provides 2F, so they don't effect the equation. Add the numbers, and you have a -3F shortage. Build three farms, and you are even. Everything else can go towards specialization.

Building farms on food resources where a farm is needed (corn/wheat/rice) is highly recommended, since it will give +2F on top of it's initial value. That means you have one less farm to build elsewhere. Not to mention you also get the health bonus and resource as well.
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I disagree with one part of this section. You seem to imply that it is optimal to improve tiles such that a city will be in the best shape once it reaches size 20, and will stop growing at that point. You state a cottaged grassland site with a constant +2 food per turn would be an optimal example of such a city.

While I agree that it is fairly pointless to intentionally exceed 20 points of population (except in your Great Person farm, and where the city site naturally has more food than is necessary for 20 population even with everything cottaged/mined), a large portion of the game is NOT spent at those 20 points of population. In fact, you will usually only start reaching these sizes in most of your cities the early to mid Industrial ages.

Thus, I find that it better to organise your cities so that they will get the maximum benefit out of their citizens up to the current available happiness limit. Getting back to the example of the entirely grassland city, personally I would find it more beneficial to farm one or two tiles in the early game, before cottaging the rest. This will give the city +3 or +4 food per turn, which will allow it to grow much faster (especially with a Granary), and thus it will be able to work more cottages, sooner. Once the city reaches its current happiness limit, then those farms can be taken out of use (or even cottaged over). This allows for the maximum (and quickest) use of tiles, providing for more of a benefit than a constant +2 food per turn city. (Of course, normally you will have food resources such that the output of the city is much higher than +2 food per turn, but this is just an example.)

I usually aim to keep a minimum of +3 food per turn in my growing cities which have yet to reach their happiness limits, and preferably +4 or +5 or even higher. This allows me to get to the size to work the maximum amount of tiles under the happiness limit the most quickly, and thus provides the largest and most efficient benefit to my nation.

Anyway, just my two cents. :)
 
I just finished reading this thread and I congratulate you on its merits. I have a better grasp of the essential knowledge about how this game plays compared to CivIII. Thank you very much. :cool:
 
An idea that's worth considering (particularly if you're running a high research game) is that if you've established a shrine city then convert it into a production city (can be done with any city with a combination of mines, workshops and watermills).
1) Shrine city doesn't need any commerce to produce gold (and thus money/research slider is irrelevant)
2)Shrine city needs production to build market, grocer, bank and wall street.
3) It frees up another city to focus on research.

If you're going for HE/WP military city then it may be worth considering building IW and Wall Street in your shrine city because its always useful to have a secondary production city for wonders, missionaries, garrison troops.
 
Hi. I think this thread is great, since city specialization is something I want to work on next.

One thing that would help my understanding, and this thread, is if there were more pictures. Right now, it's hard for me to see just what terrain + improvements works well at various stages in the game. Can you post some examples? It would be great to see: an Ancient/Classical/Medieval/etc... of each type of city.
 
I know, I bumped, but... Niether excl or wreck have been active in quite a while making it highly unlikely that my question would be answered through PM. So my question relating to Feeding your City: What would you do about pastures, do they count as one farm or what? Same with fish and camps.
 
Starkow said:
I know, I bumped, but... Niether excl or wreck have been active in quite a while making it highly unlikely that my question would be answered through PM. So my question relating to Feeding your City: What would you do about pastures, do they count as one farm or what? Same with fish and camps.
Click to expand...

Well I get emailed everytime someone posts in here, so yea ... :D

Anyway, I'd count pastures, fisheries and the like in your initial calculation. Consider that you WILL build a farm or work boat on that spot, and add in the +2/+3 into your initial count. Sort of like how you count a grassland jungle spot as a +2, even though it's a +1, because you will more than likely remove the jungle later.
 
So if a pig pasture would give me 6F I would count that as +4F or eliminate 2 farms from the required amount?
 
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