Settling Guide
- Thread starter evanjl4
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Aim for a new luxury you don't currently have access to. This is the most important part, as it helps offset the happiness you're going to lose by settling that city.
After that, take into account what you can get 3 tiles in any direction, because that's going to dictate how the city functions. Is there a lot of wheat, deer, or river tiles? Those mean you're going to be growing at a good clip. Is it all flatland plains? Those are generally very poor production cities, because you've got nowhere to build mines. You're looking for a good mix of food and hills. If you have to lean one direction, lead towards food. More food counters everything, but you can't get production without food.
After that, you take into consideration the other bonuses available. Can you get this city next to a river for a water mill + hydro plant? Can you settle next to a mountain for an observatory? Is it coastal so you can run a cargo ship at double the efficiency of a caravan? People lean different directions on all of these, and it's all personal preference.
After that, I'd consider strategic resources. They're generally pretty easy to get from city states, so I don't value them too highly. But I'd guess most people would follow a similar checklist regarding city placement, even if some things are switched around a little based upon playstyle and personal experience.
After that, take into account what you can get 3 tiles in any direction, because that's going to dictate how the city functions. Is there a lot of wheat, deer, or river tiles? Those mean you're going to be growing at a good clip. Is it all flatland plains? Those are generally very poor production cities, because you've got nowhere to build mines. You're looking for a good mix of food and hills. If you have to lean one direction, lead towards food. More food counters everything, but you can't get production without food.
After that, you take into consideration the other bonuses available. Can you get this city next to a river for a water mill + hydro plant? Can you settle next to a mountain for an observatory? Is it coastal so you can run a cargo ship at double the efficiency of a caravan? People lean different directions on all of these, and it's all personal preference.
After that, I'd consider strategic resources. They're generally pretty easy to get from city states, so I don't value them too highly. But I'd guess most people would follow a similar checklist regarding city placement, even if some things are switched around a little based upon playstyle and personal experience.
Sherlock
Just one more turn...
A big question.... what resource and map territory am I DENYING to another Civ if I settle here?
If you settle too close you may end up with a war pretty soon. If you go too far away it's expensive and time consuming to connect your cities with roads.
If you settle too close you may end up with a war pretty soon. If you go too far away it's expensive and time consuming to connect your cities with roads.
It's a good idea to turn on tile yields and the hex grid if you're new to the game, so it's easier to count what's available. Happiness is often an issue early game so grabbing a luxury you don't have access to yet is important, as the last poster mentioned. After that i want special tiles like sheep, deer, stone etc. to boost production.
But the number one thing for me is the defensibility of the location. The AI is more peaceful thanks to recent patches, and far less dangerous than in G&K/Vanilla. Even so new cities are often a target. They are necessarily small and weak to begin with and closer to the enemy capital then your own.
The first thing i want to know is
Can an archer garrisoned in the city hit all tiles around the city to two hexes?
Forest/Jungle block line of sight to the tiles behind, unless the city is on higher ground than the tress. If in doubt, chop them!
Hills block line of sight to tiles behind unless the city itself is on a hill
Rivers put a 33% penalty on attacks across one. Together with food yields from farms with access to fresh water, water mills, gardens and hydro plants, river cities are great.
Mountains are impassible and so reduce the number of axes the enemy can attack from.
Finally, distance. I am reluctant to settle more than 6 tiles away because connecting the city with a road becomes expensive and without that, it takes too long to bring reinforcements if attacked. Also, if you're settling that far from your own cap, the chances are you're forward settling another civ, even if you haven't met them yet. And that makes them mad!
If you have a defensible location, you can beat any attack with two units. Do the opposite, and put a city on flat plains surrounded by hills because this spot brings the highest number of luxes/specials within 3 hexes, and you'll need a serious military presence to hold it. Garrisons within the city wont be able to hit enemy units because their line of sight is blocked, which means you need ranged units on the surrounding hills, which are outside the city and going to take subtantial damage - so you need melee units to protect them, and spares.
But the number one thing for me is the defensibility of the location. The AI is more peaceful thanks to recent patches, and far less dangerous than in G&K/Vanilla. Even so new cities are often a target. They are necessarily small and weak to begin with and closer to the enemy capital then your own.
The first thing i want to know is
Can an archer garrisoned in the city hit all tiles around the city to two hexes?
Forest/Jungle block line of sight to the tiles behind, unless the city is on higher ground than the tress. If in doubt, chop them!
Hills block line of sight to tiles behind unless the city itself is on a hill
Rivers put a 33% penalty on attacks across one. Together with food yields from farms with access to fresh water, water mills, gardens and hydro plants, river cities are great.
Mountains are impassible and so reduce the number of axes the enemy can attack from.
Finally, distance. I am reluctant to settle more than 6 tiles away because connecting the city with a road becomes expensive and without that, it takes too long to bring reinforcements if attacked. Also, if you're settling that far from your own cap, the chances are you're forward settling another civ, even if you haven't met them yet. And that makes them mad!
If you have a defensible location, you can beat any attack with two units. Do the opposite, and put a city on flat plains surrounded by hills because this spot brings the highest number of luxes/specials within 3 hexes, and you'll need a serious military presence to hold it. Garrisons within the city wont be able to hit enemy units because their line of sight is blocked, which means you need ranged units on the surrounding hills, which are outside the city and going to take subtantial damage - so you need melee units to protect them, and spares.
I wouldn't focus too much on defensiveness unless I border a warlike or a backstabby civ, especially if you play below immortal difficulty level. You must remember that focus on something will decrease your effectiveness in other fields so if you move your city a little to get better defense, you'll more likely deprive it of some good food or production tiles. Also, if you really need to worry about being jumped by your neighbor, it's not someone who you could fend off with 2 defensive units. 2 vs unlimited number is not a good battle forecast.
As with everything in Civ, it comes to the difficulty setting. If you are playing on king or below, just focus on food and access to at least one new luxury resource. On emperor, make also sure that there will be some production available. On immortal, your city should be in a position you can defend, i.e. you are able to limit the number of units that can approach your city in the same time. AI uses brute force rather than even the simplest tactics, so you need to be able to hurt them from afar and fortify yourself in some sweet spots. Deity is similar to immortal, though you'll have much less time to settle your desired plots and if you start near Poland, Hiawatha, Kacapy or Shaka, you can just restart your game
>Edit<
Oh, maybe three more general things.
1. River is always better than no river. Also, mountain-neighboring tiles are very useful for the 50% science bonus from observatories but remember that observatories come pretty late and you also need to build them. On one hand, if mountain would be the only benefit from a certain location, it's not worth it, especially not in early game. On the other, if you combine NC and observatory in one city, you'll get huge boost for your specialists and academies.
2. Coasts in BNW are extremely important for trade routes. If these are also rivers next o the plot you settle, you'll be getting 25% bonus to trade routes value. Regardless, two early cities connected with naval food routes will grow faster than sand people population in Europe. Especially useful for cities with guilds.
3. I forgot what I wanted to talk about here. Maybe it'll come to me later.
As with everything in Civ, it comes to the difficulty setting. If you are playing on king or below, just focus on food and access to at least one new luxury resource. On emperor, make also sure that there will be some production available. On immortal, your city should be in a position you can defend, i.e. you are able to limit the number of units that can approach your city in the same time. AI uses brute force rather than even the simplest tactics, so you need to be able to hurt them from afar and fortify yourself in some sweet spots. Deity is similar to immortal, though you'll have much less time to settle your desired plots and if you start near Poland, Hiawatha, Kacapy or Shaka, you can just restart your game
>Edit<
Oh, maybe three more general things.
1. River is always better than no river. Also, mountain-neighboring tiles are very useful for the 50% science bonus from observatories but remember that observatories come pretty late and you also need to build them. On one hand, if mountain would be the only benefit from a certain location, it's not worth it, especially not in early game. On the other, if you combine NC and observatory in one city, you'll get huge boost for your specialists and academies.
2. Coasts in BNW are extremely important for trade routes. If these are also rivers next o the plot you settle, you'll be getting 25% bonus to trade routes value. Regardless, two early cities connected with naval food routes will grow faster than sand people population in Europe. Especially useful for cities with guilds.
3. I forgot what I wanted to talk about here. Maybe it'll come to me later.
I wouldn't focus too much on defensiveness unless I border a warlike or a backstabby civ, especially if you play below immortal difficulty level. You must remember that focus on something will decrease your effectiveness in other fields so if you move your city a little to get better defense, you'll more likely deprive it of some good food or production tiles. Also, if you really need to worry about being jumped by your neighbor, it's not someone who you could fend off with 2 defensive units. 2 vs unlimited number is not a good battle forecast.
As with everything in Civ, it comes to the difficulty setting. If you are playing on king or below, just focus on food and access to at least one new luxury resource. On emperor, make also sure that there will be some production available. On immortal, your city should be in a position you can defend, i.e. you are able to limit the number of units that can approach your city in the same time. AI uses brute force rather than even the simplest tactics, so you need to be able to hurt them from afar and fortify yourself in some sweet spots. Deity is similar to immortal, though you'll have much less time to settle your desired plots and if you start near Poland, Hiawatha, Kacapy or Shaka, you can just restart your game
>Edit<
Oh, maybe three more general things.
1. River is always better than no river. Also, mountain-neighboring tiles are very useful for the 50% science bonus from observatories but remember that observatories come pretty late and you also need to build them. On one hand, if mountain would be the only benefit from a certain location, it's not worth it, especially not in early game. On the other, if you combine NC and observatory in one city, you'll get huge boost for your specialists and academies.
2. Coasts in BNW are extremely important for trade routes. If these are also rivers next o the plot you settle, you'll be getting 25% bonus to trade routes value. Regardless, two early cities connected with naval food routes will grow faster than sand people population in Europe. Especially useful for cities with guilds.
3. I forgot what I wanted to talk about here. Maybe it'll come to me later.
Well, my general recommendation was on a hill next to a river which isn't a bad location from an economic POV. Next to a mountain as well if possible, which is also good for science.
You need to use terrain to your advantage because you can't hope to out-produce the AI.
I remember a G&K game as China, i was going science, had monty and atilla for neighbours. Got my GL and NC then both DoWed. Had a city on a hill, next to a river and mountain range and it was a superb chokepoint. With faith healers pantheon and a fort, was able to keep a melee unit alive next to the city (getting healed by 50% every turn thanks to pantheon) and one composite bow against an endless carpet of doom.
They never took the city and both units got a huge number of promotions, but i was unable to expand and neither of them would make peace because numbers were hugely on their side. Which flips it round to the best form of defence is to have such a big army no one dares attack you, even if your cities are very vulnerably located. The trouble is , you need to be really good at engineering a high gold per turn to pay upkeep on that force, which i am not. My cities are more geared towards food and hammers...
Wow. Thanks for all of the good advice guys. One more question:
Should I settle away from the jungle? I have 3 cities in the jungle and there is nothing besides citrus, bananas, and the occasional fish. Civs are few and far between on my continent, as well.
Should I settle away from the jungle? I have 3 cities in the jungle and there is nothing besides citrus, bananas, and the occasional fish. Civs are few and far between on my continent, as well.
Primacide
Settler
Well, you're going to love those jungles for the +2 science with universities, but you are going to hate the trip there. Jungles just don't give you any production. Use your trade routes to send hammers between cities to compensate and you'll be okay.
Trade routes for hammers is probably the worst thing you can do with them.
Grow bigger - more pop to work more hills and more specialist spots. More gold - buy more buildings to make up for the fact that you produce less. Send hammers -- well, that's just really one dimensional. Not a fan of it at all.
I thought it was a good idea once upon a time too, until I found the magic of food, and I'll never send another production caravan again.
I do it initially, until the city has managed to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. When i found a new city the first thing i build is production buildings - workshop, stables, water mill etc. Once those are up caravans go back to trade and city works on culture science food happiness etc buildings. Of course if i'm flush with cash i'll rush buy those instead, but i usually rush buy my settlers to save impacting pop growth so i seldom have spare money. I usually save my last 400 to rush buy some walls if the new city gets attacked.
It takes longer to get jungle cities up and running for sure. No hammer boost from chopping jungle, unlike forest, which doesn't make sense really. However, under that jungle are regular plains, i always chop the jungle in the first ring at least to disadvantage attackers.
jlim201
King
I find Rivers are most important. Rivers provide more food, which eventually ends up being more production.
Always get at least
at least 1 lux
at least a few Bonus resources (wheat/cattle are best)
Try to get
Hill
River
Coast
Mountain (adjacent, dont settle near a huge mountain range bcause your city lacks tiles)
Natural Wonder (if you find one early, rush settle within 3 tiles of it)
Forest (for chopping)
Jungle
Avoid
Marsh (unless Dutch)
Raw, empty desert
Tundra
Snow
Another civ's borders (unless you plan to attack them)
Always get at least
at least 1 lux
at least a few Bonus resources (wheat/cattle are best)
Try to get
Hill
River
Coast
Mountain (adjacent, dont settle near a huge mountain range bcause your city lacks tiles)
Natural Wonder (if you find one early, rush settle within 3 tiles of it)
Forest (for chopping)
Jungle
Avoid
Marsh (unless Dutch)
Raw, empty desert
Tundra
Snow
Another civ's borders (unless you plan to attack them)
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