Are cities built on one square islands worth it?

[The Mad Russian]

I used to do this in Civ III just to have a "staging area" for bombers/fighters if I was close enough to an enemy. Same thing as what the U.S. did in WWII. I would always try to populate those small islands if I knew I had a shot to launch attacks within someone else's sphere of influence

 

[elmurcis]

Yes, it's for this very reason I have been wanting to play an archepaligo game with the dutch to see just how good those islands would be... the best it could get is 3, 1, and 2, without wonders... (Willem is financial)

After looking to history I think that Dike for Dutch could be available already at Machinery (they used windmills for fighting with sea long time before Steam shows up).. than every small island would be superb production city

 

[MarcoPollo]

SPI leaders can use these islands better because they can go into caste system to pop the borders and then whip the infrastructure with slavery.

 

[2metraninja]

State Property comes to my mind too. In one pitboss game I tried the State Property for the first time and I liked it. Every settler I settle gives me instant +5 gold per turn. And this is with only size 1 city. Slowly they are growing and become even more productive. Not to mention that sometimes you will want fleet somewhere quickly. And with Universal suffrage and enough money, those 10 1-tile islands can pump 20 battleships in 4 turns. Not bad, eh?

 

[Skallagrimson]

Moai + dyke, yes please! Or just Moai if I'm not Willem.

 

[strijder20]

I would build them if I was Organized (cheap lighthouse) OR Dutch (Dike) OR Financial (+50% commerce boost) OR had good corporations and if there was a seafood/whale nearby for faster growth.

 

[Zechnophobe]

It depends, I will completely settle these if they have fish nearby. Whip out a lighthouse at some point, and just let them grow. If you have GLH, they can even be great early game options since trade routes to and from that city will be worth twice what other domestic trade routes are worth.

Also, if it can get past size 10, it will start becoming an even more valuable trade partner.

Let me explain the trade routes thing if no one has. You get base 1 commerce from each trade route, so all domestic trade routes will be worth 1 for a long time. You then get +100% for 'over seas' trade. That means that your first island city will give you +1 commerce, because it will have a trade route to the newly founded city. This often makes these cities very cheap to found (early game, they may, literally, pay for themselves). If you have the GLH, the island city will have 3 trade routes, 2 commerce each. 1 Commerce in each other city + 6 commerce in the new city is almost always more than it cost to found it.

After you have international trading partners, the effect lessens. This is because you already HAVE good trade partners. If you are a very large empire, though, or have lots of trade routes (GLH again!) you will still benefit, because you can trade only a certain amount with other nations, but infinitely with yourself.

Hope that helps!

 

[aggri1]

I find that with Mining Inc. or Creative one-tile-island cities can do OK. Up until those corporations are available, I find those sort of cities to be pointless, except for the trade route aspect. I find that even a city settled very very early on such an island will still be trying to build its needed infrastructure far too much later for it to have been worth the effort.

Unless it's collecting some resource for me.

 

[Astax]

One of the most startling bonus a one tile island city will give you is a transcontinental traderoute. Combined with great lighthouse it can be awesome boost to research in the ancient era.

Also in mods that have a lot more buildings for such cities, they are really useful. One of my best cities right now in Rise of Mankind is a one tile city that works two mines from an adjacent landmass.

 

[lasombra1984]

i would settle 1 nile island if it is
1. Moai city
2. Has lots of seafood (Sid's Sushi is awesome)
In fact such cities become very powerful when developed. You can freely whip infractructure with so many food

 

[elohssa]

Did a little experiment in my last game. Unfortunately I built the city a little late (at least 100 turns after I got astronomy) and didn't build a great lighhouse or any other useful world-wonder. I also won the game quite early. Nonetheless with Dike, Mining-Inc and Moi Statues it gave me modern armour in just 4 turns. Later on in the game it could of probably went up a lot in population and started giving me 3 turn modern armour. But 4 turns isn't bad. It is actually a 2 tile island but I couldn't find any 1 tile islands for this experiment and the extra tile isn't getting worked on this print-screen. If I were financial and built a market it would of given me extra gold as well. But the OP did say "excluding wonders" so I guess my arguement is somewhat invalid with those moai statues.

Spoiler :

 

[Strikercups]

I would say if there is a resource there (oil, crab, etc) or need that one more city (for forbidden palace, etc) other than that it will most likely get 1 production (possibly growth too) per turn

 

[digitalcraft]

I often do depending. If i have the time its nice to get an island across near territories I might want to conquer to base invasions out of (great for air power) or if it's an island off my coast so the enemy doesn't stockpile units there. Other than that, I think it's usually not worth it.

 

[K.Murx]

I set my threshold at "no other important city sites, reachable by galley, and two sea food or one fish available".
.
Presuming the two seafood, food surplus is +8. Presume Granary, Library, Forge, lighthouse. This means I can run two scientists and an engineer, and whip every 11 turns at size 11 [+2 food, 42-20 food required for growth].
This gives +6 science, +7.9 hammers (+3 engineer, +1.5 city site, 3.4 whipping [37.5 hammers/11 turns]) and +23 commerce per turn (disregarding trade routes). Converting science to commerce, the original 100 hammers for the settler (each worth roughly three commerce) now gain ~17.5 hammers per turn. That is somewhat decent.

Colossus or FIN gives +3 hammers each,
Moai +11 hammers (although usually this goes to another city much earlier).
Representation +9 science (+3 hammers)
No slavery: -3.4 hammers
Trade routes: Depends on empire. Probably something about +6 commerce (+2 hammers) at size 11. Note that the first island city creates more than that, as it enables oversea trading.
Fish means one scientist less, or -1 hammer.

So FIN+Rep+Routes gives about 25.5 hammers. This is pretty good.

I estimate the time needed to arrive at this point is roughly 60 turns (calculating 270 hammers for LH, Forge, Library at 2/3 base production. Actually it is probably faster). Build order is Lib (if seafood not in first ring) -> Forge -> Lighthouse -> Library (if seafood in first ring).

So, playing the game I settle the islands reachable by galley after the situation on the continent is reasonably stable, I have writing, currency and metal casting.
Islands that can be reached only by galleon are settled if I
- plan on mining.inc
- or am FIN and will run slavery for a little while longer
- plan on switching to US somewhat soon (highly unlikely).

However, I have usually much better things to do with my hammers once astronomy comes around.