When should I use Stop city growing???

When should i use this option in the city management ???,
what is the advantages and disadvantages?

popsaiky said:

When should i use this option in the city management ???,
what is the advantages and disadvantages?

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Probably never.
The only advantages I have heard of are micro tricks, such as getting around the bug that causes the city governor to do really stupid things when your building Wealth/Research, like working unimproved grass instead of mines....

The disadvantages are that it wastes all excess food once the bar is filled (really bad), and if you forget about and leave it on it will paralyse your cities, possibly making them completely worthless. You can get far better effects by building a worker/settler, or by picking tiles and specialist slots to use yourself when you want to slow growth down.

Never stop city growth because citizens are becoming sick.

need my speed said:

Never stop city growth because citizens are becoming sick.

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If your referring to me read my post again. I said unhappy not unhealthy.

Ghpstage said:

The disadvantages are that it wastes all excess food once the bar is filled (really bad), and if you forget about and leave it on it will paralyse your cities, possibly making them completely worthless. You can get far better effects by building a worker/settler, or by picking tiles and specialist slots to use yourself when you want to slow growth down.

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This is all true. However, I often find myself using the stop growth option because (a) the city in question is building something important that isn't a Settler or a Worker and (b) if I juggle tile assignments to freeze growth then I'll end up in a sub-optimal situation (e.g. cottages not being worked, lower commerce, etc.). Frankly, assigning citizens to low-food tiles to freeze growth poses the same problem as turning on this option: you have to remember to change that to get the city growing again.

The thing to remember is that a city that has grown to its happiness cap and is still producing excess food is a prime candidate for use of the whip (i.e. the Slavery civic). With the food bar full (or filling fast), one of the citizens you whip away will be replaced quickly.

Sisiutil said:

The thing to remember is that a city that has grown to its happiness cap and is still producing excess food is a prime candidate for use of the whip (i.e. the Slavery civic). With the food bar full (or filling fast), one of the citizens you whip away will be replaced quickly.

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This is a key point that Sis brings up. Unhappy citizens = Production. If my city is growing really fast in the early stages, I might even let it grow into 2 or more unhappy citizens so I can 3 or 4 pop whip a key building. That's 90 to 120 hammers right there.

The7Sins said:

If your referring to me read my post again. I said unhappy not unhealthy.

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I know, I was merely replying to the question in the topic title.

EDIT: For some reason, I can't post a new message, so, to popsaiky (below), why not let them starve?

Thank you all guys,,,But i make this option on when i have a city size = 10, so i need at least 20 food, and if don't have this number of food city starve then strike ....
any help for that situation ???? i don't like to make this option on but .....
any help???
what should i do if i don't have the necessary food for growing????? beside i want to make army i can't change tiles ( make all in food as example, these all is food ) no much hummer for making army,,,so any help please?

I go by the limits, happy or healthy limits. When growth hits either limit, I look for a building to whip, with preference given to those buildings that will increase the limit (e.g. a temple for happy limit). If there aren't enough citizens to whip for the building, I let it grow until it's close enough for the whip (even if some go unhappy or unhealthy while the whip is pending). Soon as the building is whippable, bodda bang bodda bing, it's whipped. Post Emancipation I flip specialists to keep the city stagnated at whichever limit the city has hit.

Also if the city has hit a limit again before whip anger has worn off (which will happen in some food-heavy cities) then that city switches to either settler or worker production to put that food to a non-growth use.

Interesting. I find it easier though just to let the cities grow with rarely, if at all, stopping their growth. Thanks for mentioning that ALT+S sticky note shortcut 7Sins. I never knew about that.

I just leave them be, sickness is not a threat to my city, and unhappiness is a somewhat greater, but still not dangerous, threat to cities. However, I don't like to waste, so I prefer to let my cities grow however the governor wishes. The only times I even enter the city screen are to change specialists, check GPP's, and occasionally to change the tiles harvested (the governor can be a bit illogical, choosing a hill with one hammer and one food over a plains w/ farm with one hammer and two food, for example.)

I always settle their cities by resources, not really for the resource benefit, but for the tile yeild benefit. I am guessing this is not a rare strategy... I love it when I spawn by about 4 or 5 seafood tiles; my capitol grows insanely fast, and it helps pump out settlers. When I get those kinds of games, I usually win.

Actually, something I just thought of, a very abstract use for that "no growth" button would be if you had a city that had massive amounts of food, and low hammers, and you wanted to produce settlers, you could use that button to keep the Pop. low, maybe for just one turn, thus having more production for workers. IDK, sounds like it wouldn't work though, just a theory.

Aaaaand... I'm rambling.

I never trust the governor. I MM the city's tile work about every 5 turns or so in a big "tour of the empire". Pays off too, to correct the stupid decisions it makes.

If I'm not running Slavery with Monarchy, then it's whenever a city gets to its happiness cap.

popsaiky said:

When should i use this option in the city management ???,
what is the advantages and disadvantages?

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Almost never.

Advantages

• Citizen is ready immediately once increases
• Increased trade route income
• Increased capacity for free units (saving on maintenance costs for a large army)
• More population for slavery whipping (and others, such as drafting)

Disadvantages

• Increased from certain causes (such as lacking protection, lacking emancipation, war weariness, and fighting with enemy of the same faith, among others)
• Increased civic maintenance costs
• In certain rare circumstances, you might end up growing, causing a negative growth, and if you don't have a granary, might go right back to previous population but at 0 food accumulated
• Decreased total production for workers and settlers (in most cases)

NOT disadvantages

• Angry worker - takes up 2 doing nothing, but that food wasn't getting you anything anyways, so don't worry if you grow past the cap

Can't you just unclick some weak food tiles to make specialists to keep it from going over the limit. Then you are still growing, but slower, and can use the specalists.

Scoottr said:

Can't you just unclick some weak food tiles to make specialists to keep it from going over the limit. Then you are still growing, but slower, and can use the specalists.

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Sometimes it will lead to inferior tile usage (lack of hammers or commerce) and even rarer but still a possibility there is no way to get it to Stagnate. Its either growth or starvation. Its these times that the prevent growth button is useful.

The7Sins said:

Sometimes it will lead to inferior tile usage (lack of hammers or commerce) and even rarer but still a possibility there is no way to get it to Stagnate. Its either growth or starvation. Its these times that the prevent growth button is useful.

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It's useful for what? An angry worker doing nothing but taking up 2 food isn't hurting you. And if your happy cap will increase quite a bit soon, then you'll rather have an angry worker, and then two, and then 2 productive citizens, instead of nothing, and then a productive worker.

In a way the angry worker is a specialist that gives no yield points to the city. It's more efficient to use that food for a specialist that does give such yield points.