Hey everyone, well i want to know how many cities should i have in early age and do i have the new city to specialize in production,wealth,science city if so how?. What are the starting techs to choose to make a good start for offense and defense
New Start
- Thread starter Gamer1291
- Start date
Hey thanx for replying here is the save as u asked played till 025 AD
So took a look at your save for a second and here are a couple of things. Note: I didn't look at your tech choices or your buildings, I probably should have.
1) Only 4 cities is definitely not desirable, even though the land isn't the best.
2) Not sure why a couple of the cities are placed where they are, 1 off the coast is generally bad. Also that city with the flood plains probably should have been moved somehow to work that silver. The early happy and research boost is very nice.
3) Certain worker improvement choices and timing are odd. You've cottaged plains that wont be worked for a long time, if ever (not enough food), and farmed, in a different city, a plains that won't be worked for equally as long, as that town has lots of food already. Now these wouldn't be bad necessarily except that you have some grassland without improvements in your capitol.
4) But most important... why did I put the most important thing last? I don't know. Your scouting of the land needs to be better so you can expand towards the AI and grab those juicy spots. Just looking at the point of the save you still have scouted just beyond your border to the NW with what looks like some good city spots (at least fish IIRC).
Hope this helps.
1) Only 4 cities is definitely not desirable, even though the land isn't the best.
2) Not sure why a couple of the cities are placed where they are, 1 off the coast is generally bad. Also that city with the flood plains probably should have been moved somehow to work that silver. The early happy and research boost is very nice.
3) Certain worker improvement choices and timing are odd. You've cottaged plains that wont be worked for a long time, if ever (not enough food), and farmed, in a different city, a plains that won't be worked for equally as long, as that town has lots of food already. Now these wouldn't be bad necessarily except that you have some grassland without improvements in your capitol.
4) But most important... why did I put the most important thing last? I don't know. Your scouting of the land needs to be better so you can expand towards the AI and grab those juicy spots. Just looking at the point of the save you still have scouted just beyond your border to the NW with what looks like some good city spots (at least fish IIRC).
Hope this helps.
Thanx raxid it really helped me. Actually i just followed the blue circles to build my cities i know its not good to follow that. So how many cities should i build and how do i specialize a city for commerce,science,military and production for a good start? any tips guys?
A couple things I notices right off the bat is you built the Pyramids and didn't change civics to Representation. Second thing is your in caste system but aren't running any specialists. Also had you settled Ankara 1 tile north you would have been mining the silver and gold. Also so many defenders. You only need a lot of defenders if your neighbor seems like they are getting ready for war or your running monarchy for happiness bonus. Other wise most games people only have a warrior, archer or axeman defending a city. Next thing always build at least 6 cities. Also always have at least 1.5 workers a city.
How many you build is really dependent on the situation. In this case your economy could've easily supported a couple more by now and that is without a real science city.
I took another look and am confused as to why the SE town has no improvements but there are roads everywhere else? A good rule is to try and never let a city work an unimproved tile. If you find your towns are ending up doing that you either need more workers or your workers are doing the wrong things.
As for specialization, the way your towns are now I'd probably let NW do production (mine that grass hill) along with the capitol. Then i'd have Anakara probably do hybrid for a while, as it can feed its 4 mines even with some cottages. Last I'd cottage up that SE town (all the grass). The roles of the first three cities might change over time when you decide to take other peoples land.
I took another look and am confused as to why the SE town has no improvements but there are roads everywhere else? A good rule is to try and never let a city work an unimproved tile. If you find your towns are ending up doing that you either need more workers or your workers are doing the wrong things.
As for specialization, the way your towns are now I'd probably let NW do production (mine that grass hill) along with the capitol. Then i'd have Anakara probably do hybrid for a while, as it can feed its 4 mines even with some cottages. Last I'd cottage up that SE town (all the grass). The roles of the first three cities might change over time when you decide to take other peoples land.
Ok thanx but ur saying i built many defenders well thats coz i didnt have any choice on wat to build i was still researching techs so cant just build wonders and all other stuff wen not required right and still my second part of question remains unanswered how do i specialize a city for commerce,science,military and production for a good start
Well a production city is just a city with a lot of hammers. Commerce is usually a flood plain city with just cottages and the only thing you want to build here is gold multipliers and science multipliers like a library, Military city is a city with a lot of hammers and the Heroic Epic a barracks a stable and settle your great generals here after making a super medic.
Ok thanx that clears my questions and just one more thing what are the best bee lining in early game and wat techs to give high priority?
Some random observations, although I'm not that good of a player...
- Edirne is one tile off the coast. It means it cannot benefit from coastal trade routes (especially if you had the great lighthouse, but you don't) and cannot build lighthouse, harbour, naval units and so on, but it does have some poor water in its BFC instead of land. It does get you the sheep though, and this city does need food, so I don't know.
- Brousse could have been one south to get the clams and lose a desert tile. It would lose its only two hills though, so you would need to whip buildings there, so I don't know either
- Brousse (again) has a lot of unimproved tiles; bring your workers there as soon as possible.
- Ankara would definitely be better one north, to work silver and let go of a desert tile.
- Ankara has one unhappy citizen. You could work the remaining mine instead of one of the farms, letting the city lose one population. But you have to remember to rearrange tiles after that. Or, you could use the whip, but you're not using slavery. Or, instead of the mine, you could run a specialist. Or, see below.
- The wonders you built are good ones (stonehedge, oracle, pyramids and great library). It might explain why you have only four cities, though.
- Your tech path seems globally nice.
- Your neighbour Zara Yacoub is not generally peaceful, so you might want to try and please him. I see you refused to help him once. Do not hesitate to gift techs when they ask, except for strategic ones (i.e. the most advanced military techs, or if you plan on building the wonder unlocked by the tech).
- 4 cities by 1AD is not very impressive Try to have one city (generally the capital at the beginning of the game) dedicated to pumping settlers and workers.
- You built the pyramids, but you're not actually using it! Change your civic as soon as possible! It would also solve the unhappiness problem of Ankara.
- You are using caste system as a civic, but you have no workshop and are running no specialist.
- Don't build a courthouse in your capital, especially at this difficulty level. The main point of courthouses is to reduce upkeep, and the capital has the least upkeep as it's, well, the closest city to the capital Actually, at this difficulty level, with only four cities so close to the capital, you don't need any courthouse at all. Espionnage points are not that important.
- Try to specialize your cities. Ankara has farms and mines, so it should be a production city. But you built a library in it, as if it was a science city. In fact you also built the great library in it. Instead, build a barracks. Brousse, on the other hand, has a barracks, but has mostly green flat land so it would be better as a commerce and science city, i.e. with a library.
- Edirne is one tile off the coast. It means it cannot benefit from coastal trade routes (especially if you had the great lighthouse, but you don't) and cannot build lighthouse, harbour, naval units and so on, but it does have some poor water in its BFC instead of land. It does get you the sheep though, and this city does need food, so I don't know.
- Brousse could have been one south to get the clams and lose a desert tile. It would lose its only two hills though, so you would need to whip buildings there, so I don't know either
- Brousse (again) has a lot of unimproved tiles; bring your workers there as soon as possible.
- Ankara would definitely be better one north, to work silver and let go of a desert tile.
- Ankara has one unhappy citizen. You could work the remaining mine instead of one of the farms, letting the city lose one population. But you have to remember to rearrange tiles after that. Or, you could use the whip, but you're not using slavery. Or, instead of the mine, you could run a specialist. Or, see below.
- The wonders you built are good ones (stonehedge, oracle, pyramids and great library). It might explain why you have only four cities, though.
- Your tech path seems globally nice.
- Your neighbour Zara Yacoub is not generally peaceful, so you might want to try and please him. I see you refused to help him once. Do not hesitate to gift techs when they ask, except for strategic ones (i.e. the most advanced military techs, or if you plan on building the wonder unlocked by the tech).
- 4 cities by 1AD is not very impressive
Try to have one city (generally the capital at the beginning of the game) dedicated to pumping settlers and workers.- You built the pyramids, but you're not actually using it! Change your civic as soon as possible! It would also solve the unhappiness problem of Ankara.
- You are using caste system as a civic, but you have no workshop and are running no specialist.
- Don't build a courthouse in your capital, especially at this difficulty level. The main point of courthouses is to reduce upkeep, and the capital has the least upkeep as it's, well, the closest city to the capital
Actually, at this difficulty level, with only four cities so close to the capital, you don't need any courthouse at all. Espionnage points are not that important.- Try to specialize your cities. Ankara has farms and mines, so it should be a production city. But you built a library in it, as if it was a science city. In fact you also built the great library in it. Instead, build a barracks. Brousse, on the other hand, has a barracks, but has mostly green flat land so it would be better as a commerce and science city, i.e. with a library.
First, research the immediately needed techs, i.e. the ones your first worker will need to improve your land around your capital. It depends on your available resources. Then, usually bronze working is beelined for slavery, to know where copper is, and to be able to chop forests. Then (or before bronze working, depending on your needs) writing is nice to build libraries and maybe run scientist specialists. Take pottery on the way to build cottages, unless you are really in a hurry. Writing will also allow you to open borders with your neighbours for trade routes and religion spreading. Finally, you will want the economic techs: alphabet to trade techs and build commerce when you don't know what else to build, currency for more trade routes and to build wealth instead of commerce, code of laws for courthouses if upkeep is becoming too important. Many other techs are useful or even important but this is a good start.
Some random observations, although I'm not that good of a player...
- Edirne is one tile off the coast. It means it cannot benefit from coastal trade routes (especially if you had the great lighthouse, but you don't) and cannot build lighthouse, harbour, naval units and so on, but it does have some poor water in its BFC instead of land. It does get you the sheep though, and this city does need food, so I don't know.
- Brousse could have been one south to get the clams and lose a desert tile. It would lose its only two hills though, so you would need to whip buildings there, so I don't know either
- Brousse (again) has a lot of unimproved tiles; bring your workers there as soon as possible.
- Ankara would definitely be better one north, to work silver and let go of a desert tile.
- Ankara has one unhappy citizen. You could work the remaining mine instead of one of the farms, letting the city lose one population. But you have to remember to rearrange tiles after that. Or, you could use the whip, but you're not using slavery. Or, instead of the mine, you could run a specialist. Or, see below.
- The wonders you built are good ones (stonehedge, oracle, pyramids and great library). It might explain why you have only four cities, though.
- Your tech path seems globally nice.
- Your neighbour Zara Yacoub is not generally peaceful, so you might want to try and please him. I see you refused to help him once. Do not hesitate to gift techs when they ask, except for strategic ones (i.e. the most advanced military techs, or if you plan on building the wonder unlocked by the tech).
- 4 cities by 1AD is not very impressive
- You built the pyramids, but you're not actually using it! Change your civic as soon as possible! It would also solve the unhappiness problem of Ankara.
- You are using caste system as a civic, but you have no workshop and are running no specialist.
- Don't build a courthouse in your capital, especially at this difficulty level. The main point of courthouses is to reduce upkeep, and the capital has the least upkeep as it's, well, the closest city to the capital
- Try to specialize your cities. Ankara has farms and mines, so it should be a production city. But you built a library in it, as if it was a science city. In fact you also built the great library in it. Instead, build a barracks. Brousse, on the other hand, has a barracks, but has mostly green flat land so it would be better as a commerce and science city, i.e. with a library.
Hey thanx a lot for ur tips actually i thought of making Ankara as science city from start thats y i built great library in it coz ankara has most farms and can grow large thats y i made it science city wat r ur suggestions for starting techs?
Well, you can still use Ankara as a science city if you replace some of those farms with cottages and mines with windmills. But you have not enough workers to do that right now. Maybe later. For starting techs, see my cross-post above
Oh ok thanx but i have a question on specialists do i really have to put 2 citizens for science specialist in every city,doesnt that make 2 less citizens to work on the tiles what is the necessity of having specialist in the city or when should i keep a specialist?Well, you can still use Ankara as a science city if you replace some of those farms with cottages and mines with windmills. But you have not enough workers to do that right now. Maybe later. For starting techs, see my cross-post above
You don't have to run specialists at all. In fact, in your game you don't have a city with enough food to run a lot of specialists. However, a trick I like to do is: to run one or two scientists in a city until they get me a great scientist, which I can use to build an academia. However, it is much easier to do at the beginning of the game (with writing). The first great person is given at 100gpp (great person points). With 2 scientists, this is 17 turns. But the next one needs 200 more gpp. Moreover, your capital already has a lot of gpp (from wonders) which will likely spawn a great prophet instead. So, it's too late for this game.
Ok thanx and u said 4 cities are not enough at 1 AD so how many do u suggest? i didnt build more than 4 coz of city maintenance my wealth will go to 0 and my science research % drops to 60 or less
On my current game on monarch, I had about 8-9 cities at 1AD. Maintenance was somewhere between 3 and 7 gold per city, depending on the distance. My science slider dropped to about 20%. And yet, I was and still am the tech leader. By far. And yet I was dragged into three wars already (at 1000AD), which does not help with the economy.
So, do not be afraid if your slider is below 100%. What's important is the number of beakers per turn (bpt). In fact, the slider is only the percentage of commerce
which gets converted to beakers 
. This means that it's better to have 100 with a slider at 10%, resulting in 10 , than 10 with a slider at 90%, resulting in 9 .Commerce
is not wealth 
.A normal slider percentage at 1AD would be something like 50% or something. My 20% was because I used a lot of specialists in this game, so my beakers
did not really came from commerce .Try to get about 6 cities at 1AD, it's a good start.
On my current game on monarch, I had about 8-9 cities at 1AD. Maintenance was somewhere between 3 and 7 gold per city, depending on the distance. My science slider dropped to about 20%. And yet, I was and still am the tech leader. By far. And yet I was dragged into three wars already (at 1000AD), which does not help with the economy.
So, do not be afraid if your slider is below 100%. What's important is the number of beakers per turn (bpt). In fact, the slider is only the percentage of commerce
Commerce
A normal slider percentage at 1AD would be something like 50% or something. My 20% was because I used a lot of specialists in this game, so my beakers
Try to get about 6 cities at 1AD, it's a good start.
Ok i will try but how do u manage ur specialist coz u need caste system to have unlimited specialist thats right but still u need library in each city to make scientists in cities wats ur strategy
Library allows 2 scientists. Caste allows unlimited scientists, merchants or priests. So if you want way more than 2 scientists you may consider caste, otherwise libraries are enough.
However, it might be easier not to use specialists at all at the beginning. Try cottage spamming instead. Put cottages on green flat land. For now, only use specialists when you have too much food and you don't know what to do with it.
However, it might be easier not to use specialists at all at the beginning. Try cottage spamming instead. Put cottages on green flat land. For now, only use specialists when you have too much food and you don't know what to do with it.
