How Many Tiles Between Cities is Recommended?

[reddishrecue]

Depending on the sp start you do whether it is liberty or tradition placing cities near luxurious resources is more important because of the extra happiness you can get by having different resources. Place cities near luxurious resources that you already have to add more of the same resource to your resources so that you can trade with other civilizations in exchange for gold or other resources for more happiness.

 

[Quineloe]

I've had cities within the minimum distance of 4 tiles work out really well. It absolutely depends on the terrain. Obviously tundra / snow / desert / coastal cities with multiple unworkable tiles in their 6x6 hex grid shouldn't have to compete with other cities for work tiles, however if it's plains without fresh water, ie cities that won't grow very tall anyways, can easily be closely together. Such empires are also much harder to attack because you can't surround a city easily when you have to walk your army through another city's combat range.

 

[Barghaest]

For the most part I like my cities with 4-5 tiles between them (just counting the tiles BETWEEN cities not either city tile itself) to maximize workable area of each city. Not just assuming each city will work every tile (that seldom happens even in my long games) but to prevent competition over important tiles. I don't like wasted space so I might adjust distance or direction to eliminate any unworkable tiles on the off-chance there's a later game resource there. It all depends on optimum placement for each specific city... unlike the AI I don't poop a city right next to every luxury, I will plan a city to maximize it's potential and they often end with multiple resources in ring 2 or even 3 (2 is preferred since I can purchase those quickly and fairly cheaply if AI attempts to settle nearby to cut them off from me) and this carries over extremely well into BNW since multiple resources increases the trade route value of a city.

 

[Civilmyzation]

for me I like to give a city a 4-5 tile space, but if there is some awesome resources at that 4-5 or wonders etc, I will gladly build close and take it for the 2nd city. from my experience though, building too close leads to a city with a low pop, and I play science based.