What is the most proficient ways to place cities?

[Jboy2000000]

So, I just got Civ 5 and BNW for Christmas, and Id think that placing cities 6 tiles apart from each other so all tiles could be worked by the empire. Is this a good idea, or is there a better way to do it?

 

[YourHarry]

There are of course many factors you should take into account. Placing them 6 tiles apart is one such consideration, but keep in mind that the need for "all" workable tiles won't come into play until much later in the game. Also, tiles with low yield won't be ever worked anyway.

Other considerations:
-Next to river or not. Including defense bonus against melee units. Gardens and hydroplants.
-Next to a mountain. Being able to build observatory and some cool wonders depends on this (or being 1 tile from a mountain)
-Luxury, production, food resources.
-What pantheon and religion are you planning on founding? What culture tree are you planning on opening?
-Jungle. Good for science.
-Defense. Jungle? Mountains? Marsh? Hills?
-Distance from the capital. Both important when building roads or defending.
-Distance from AIs. Important for diplomacy and defense.
-Overall space limitations. Sometimes, when you lack places on the map to found cities.
-Coastal or not.

 

[PrimoXanthous]

So, I just got Civ 5 and BNW for Christmas, and Id think that placing cities 6 tiles apart from each other so all tiles could be worked by the empire. Is this a good idea, or is there a better way to do it?

Welcome to CFC!
well yeah, but that also means you must give your 6 GPT for just road maintenance, Especially on your first few turns in which gold is very important. If you got all your gold in maintenance you might get low Science output, and you might stuck on History while every one else are already in Gun units. I think it would be Better if just 4 tiles away. Also you can't work all those tiles on Early Eras anyway. But If your playing as Civs(like Aztecs or India) which got bonuses on Growth that might be a good idea.

 

[Jboy2000000]

So, depeanding on which civ you play and how you play, it depends? Well guess it wouldn't have been as black and white as CivRev. What would anyone suggest if you play as a warmongering Germany?

 

[PrimoXanthous]

So, depeanding on which civ you play and how you play, it depends? Well guess it wouldn't have been as black and white as CivRev. What would anyone suggest if you play as a warmongering Germany?

I don't think Germany is best for warmongering. Maybe on Modern era with Panzer comes out. One good thing with Germany is its Hanse Builidng, give germany a lots of gold.
I suggest Khan, Atilla or Shakky or the Ottomans.

BTW. do you have the 2 Expansions?

 

[Jboy2000000]

No, just BNW, most of the important stuff from G&K is in BNW anyway.

Also, as a personal preference, Shaka can burn in hell, so I doubt Ill ever play as him.

 

[Barghaest]

I tend to use 4-5 tiles apart depending on resources. I like to maximize the bonuses one city will get (and variety for trade routes) and I don't like leaving unworkable areas if I can help it on the chance a later game strategic resource will be there (yes, you can still connect it beyond 3 tiles but they tend to give good production bonuses).

I also tend to favor coastal placement above all else since coastal cities have great room for expansion (plenty of food to get large cities and coastal trade routes are twice as effective as caravans).

Other than that it all varies depending on my civilization and the map and other factors (YourHarry listed quite a few). I also theme my cities based on Great People - every three cities one is dedicated to Merchant, one to Scientist and one to Engineer and I place them with this in mind (no hill for Engineer so it can build a Windmill for the extra specialist, near a mountain or lots of jungle for Scientist to boost science output more, places with good Gold for Merchant, good spot for a Wonder that compliments the theme such as a Merchant city within 2 tiles of a mountain to build Machu Picchu or near coast to build Colossus, etc.)

 

[xxblackdog]

Just a point; it sounds like you're thinking of doing a grid-spread thing (6 tiles, city, 6 tiles, city). In Civ 5 I've found you can be successful with just a few cities, even one in some cases, just one. There are also penalties associated with larger empires. Take all that with a grain of salt however: I'm just starting out too, but its what I've take from fellow civ fanatics, haha.

 

[Barghaest]

The penalties associated with going wide don't offset the benefits in my opinion. 3% research cost increase per city compared to being able to increase your research output by over 10% even after 16+ cities for example.... and science accumulates faster for wide empires because many smaller cities grow significantly faster than fewer large ones.

Plus the way the Espionage system works, a tall empire is far more vulnerable late game compared to a wide... if my highest pop city is 24 it's going to take someone 100+ turns to steal a tech from me with police stations where a pop 30+ city will be significantly faster (as low as 30 turns depending on era because of the increasing bonus from population with later science buildings) to steal from.

 

[Ll1442]

It all depends on your play style, and of course how the map is shaped. I too prefer 6 tiles, but I also often play with Shoshone. Cultural civs also grow faster, allowing you to grab more land and thus placing them further apart, and ofc with the Growth-focused civs large cities are also exceptional. And the roads you might not need at the very beginning, and by then, they even out the gold cost.
But ofc remember that if you wish tall cities with high population, u need to place them far apart.

 

[CaptainPatch]

I try to accommodate two preferred conditions. Because I focus on Production maximization for my long-term strategy, I try for 1) adjacent to a river (allows building a Water Wheel) and a 2) flatland city (allows for building a Windmill). Whenever possible, I try to place cities with six intervening tiles, which permits both cities to maximize their potential area of workable tiles. (3-tile radius.)

 

[Talcove]

There are of course many factors you should take into account. Placing them 6 tiles apart is one such consideration, but keep in mind that the need for "all" workable tiles won't come into play until much later in the game. Also, tiles with low yield won't be ever worked anyway.

Other considerations:
-Next to river or not. Including defense bonus against melee units. Gardens and hydroplants.
-Next to a mountain. Being able to build observatory and some cool wonders depends on this (or being 1 tile from a mountain)
-Luxury, production, food resources.
-What pantheon and religion are you planning on founding? What culture tree are you planning on opening?
-Jungle. Good for science.
-Defense. Jungle? Mountains? Marsh? Hills?
-Distance from the capital. Both important when building roads or defending.
-Distance from AIs. Important for diplomacy and defense.
-Overall space limitations. Sometimes, when you lack places on the map to found cities.
-Coastal or not.

^ What he said.
There really is no perfect formula for city placement that applies to every map. It's something you have to decide on in the moment, every game, using considerations such as the ones above. I just about always go tall, and 5-6 tiles apart works for me. From what I've been told by wide players, 3-4 tiles apart is better for them.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

I used to place cities 6 tiles apart with an autistic obsession... but they never grew big enough to use all those tiles so I decided, "meh".

 

[GKShaman]

Maybe Im just crazy or its India's UA but I always place cities preferably to grab two new luxuries. Its a minimum for a city to have:

1 NEW luxury and a secondary repeat (for lump sum, gpt, pantheon)
Horses and Stone can be considered a secondary luxury for stone works and circus.
Also preferably a faith inducing location (pantheon, natural wonder, etc.)

THEN When I have the general area I want to settle I settle on high ground versus low ground (early warfare) after cannons though a hill wont help much. so then its river for trade, coast for sea trade, etc.

 

[Illinus]

I almost always start my first (and usually second) city on a hill, even if I have to move my settler at the start of game. By doing so you get the production yield from that tile by default. Can make a huge difference in the first 50 turns or so at the beginning of a game. Then I'll allow the city to get to two pop (to work another tile) and set citizen focus to production. The hill position is also a great defensive position with a ranged garrison for early game barb repulsion.

Luxury resource proximity is most critical for your first two or three cities.