4 cities... how important is it?

For the Tradition tree there are multiple policies that say "first 4 cities" ie free culture building/aqueduct.

My question is just how important is it to make those 4 cities asap, and the consensus on whether or not 4 cities are even needed (ie if losing the free bonus is bad).

I often times only manage to make 3 cities before the AI powers/city states claim the rest of the good land around me, even when I'm going as fast as possible.

Thank you!

This assumes either Vanilla or G&K as no version specified:

Depends upon what victory condition you are after.

If you are after the cultural victory, 3 self founded cities is actually better in many ways than 4 self founded cities. (In Vanilla & GK; the cultural victory requires completing 5 trees)

But for science victory, it's a handicap compared to 4 cities (unless playing Austria where you marry at least one city state; and if you marry before completing Tradition you don't even lose out on the free aquaduct; still it is unlikely you'd be able to marry before getting Legalism so you'd lose a free cultural building; but the aquaduct is more powerful.)

BNW: Everybody that had been using the AIs gold to found settlers has been greatly slowed down. But with science being much more important in new cultural victory, it would be a handicap if you never expanded past three.

Thank you very much for your answer. I apologize for not giving the version (it's G&K, still haven't gotten around to buying BNW).

So I'm guessing you want to found these cities asap? Is there a general consensus of which turn one should have their max cities up by? (assuming standard or epic pace, as these are the modes I play on).

Also, should I prioritize building settlers over other things, or go for the "buy settlers" route and use Liberty for my free/quicker settlers instead?

It isn't important at all, way too much emphasis on plopping 4 cities early here.

Watch the pro's LPs. Many will go 2-city NC and conquer the rest.
Of course if you have space and resources it's more efficient to plop 4, but it isn't required.
Actually going 4-city where you shouldn't is detrimental, as the risk involved isn't worth it.

The 4 city opening, was partly because tradition gives bonus to the first 4 cities, and also because you could sell/trade/hustle your way to enough gold to rushbuy settlers and libraries fast enough to not delay the National College. So it was 4 cities because it could be done, more or less.

In BNW, you can't rushbuy very much, and I have found myself utterly stuck sometimes when a new city can't produce and holds the capital back.

Tabarnak, who formulated the 4 city opening, has a post about a 3 city opening now, so BNW has changed things.

Several factors play in now, on any given map. Deciding if you can build 2 or 3 cities without delaying National College. Sometimes you should just race to it in your capital even.

tachiKC said:

Thank you very much for your answer. I apologize for not giving the version (it's G&K, still haven't gotten around to buying BNW).

So I'm guessing you want to found these cities asap? Is there a general consensus of which turn one should have their max cities up by? (assuming standard or epic pace, as these are the modes I play on).

Also, should I prioritize building settlers over other things, or go for the "buy settlers" route and use Liberty for my free/quicker settlers instead?

Click to expand...

Not quite: It's almost always better to build NC while you have only two cities. The usual AI gold trick (now obsolete with BNW but works in G&K) involves cash building the settler for that 3rd city a few turns before NC completes to start moving it to the new location and found the turn that NC completes.
(Or if you've built GL, then normally NC is the next build while still at one city and again settler cash rushed right before and founded right after.)

Either way right after NC completes, then you expand to 4 cities as quickly as happiness & production & gold allows. This is very situation dependent on turn #; and in BNW that turn is going to be higher.

For all versions: If planning on self-building 7+ cities : This is what Liberty is designed for.
If never planning on self-building more than 4 cities: This is what Tradition is designed for.

5 self built cities can work with Tradition, but (at least in G&K) I find that 5th city must be really good to be worth it; and is often a site that if I'd known about earlier would have been my 3rd or 4th city and one of those others not built. (In this case, you cash rush the aquaduct in that 5th city right after the rest of your empire has gotten them for free)

But I find 6 self built cities to be no mans land. (Too many for Tradition & not quite enough for Liberty)

Conquering (with Tradition) : Several of the AIs cities are junk: Raze those to avoid happiness issues. Puppet initially the ones you are planning on keeping. If its a capital, you might want to annex it after it comes out of resistance, otherwise its probably best left as a puppet to keep from increasing your social policy cost.