Always have problems with growing cities

[j_mie6]

Hello,

It seems as no matter how many farms I build, my cities only ever seem to reach size 7 . (that is the capital, the rest are size 5) And the AI has cities of size 20. I just can't seem to grow them correctly. All resources are improved, flatland -> farms (more so on river) and hills become mostly mines with the exception of riverside hills

what am I doing wrong here?

 

[Sun Wukong]

Are you building granaries, water mills and aqueducts? Adopting Tradition? Setting up some internal trade routes to deliver food around? Are you setting your cities to work tiles manually? It's the best way to do it, but go growth if that's what you want and you can't be bothered with the management.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

Get Tradition, build stuff like Granary, Water Mill, Hanging Gardens or Artemis can help if you get them, right beliefs also improve your growth.

After Granary, use Food Cargo Ships/Caravans to your capital. It's always worth it (if Tradition). Other cities may also get a food caravan or two if you need them to grow/are Venice and don't care.

 

[Js_9001]

The thread is labeled G+K, so I don't think they can do trade routes for food/be Venice yet. The rest of what was said is good though, also some techs you get, for example Fertilizer, will increase the effectiveness of your farms. It's especially important to get a Granary early.

 

[joshua43214]

What you are not doing is manually controlling your citizens and letting the AI control them instead.

Click on your city, click on "citizen management" in the top right corner, manually select "production focus," now manually click on your best food tiles. Each time the city grows, open the window and select the best available food tile.

Once I hit ~6 pop I will sometimes let my city work a hammer tile, more commonly I will select a food/hammer tile such as sheep. This should be the first thing you do when you settle a city. Pushing hard for 4 or 5 pop right away will get your science going a bit faster and let you build settlers faster.

Also, you can not starve when you build a settler. When you build a settler, manually select all the best production tiles even if you are negative food as a result

 

[Ninakoru]

Fast granary + tradition usually solves it.

 

[Atinuviel]

Just making sure, but you're not Unhappy are you? If your Civilization's happiness dips into the negatives, your food production is cut to a quarter of what it is, making growth extremely difficult even if you're working river wheat and whatnot.

 

[j_mie6]

I was unhappy for some of the time but that was later on in the game, my cities had slowed right down before the unhappiness stuck. Thanks for all your suggestions, I will try it out in my next game and see where I can get! I will post here my results

 

[Walter R]

What you are not doing is manually controlling your citizens and letting the AI control them instead.

Click on your city, click on "citizen management" in the top right corner, manually select "production focus," now manually click on your best food tiles. Each time the city grows, open the window and select the best available food tile.

Once I hit ~6 pop I will sometimes let my city work a hammer tile, more commonly I will select a food/hammer tile such as sheep. This should be the first thing you do when you settle a city. Pushing hard for 4 or 5 pop right away will get your science going a bit faster and let you build settlers faster.

Also, you can not starve when you build a settler. When you build a settler, manually select all the best production tiles even if you are negative food as a result

I have found that managing the citizens yourself is incredibly important! I used to let the 'mayor' sort it out, wondered why my cities never got that big, read some stuff on the forum and now my cities get huge! I'm still learning the finer details but boy it's made a difference...but watch the happiness.

 

[danaphanous]

I've found the prioritization is pretty good too. Sometimes they neglect a combination I'd want if it's a hybrid like production/growth at the same time but if I simply want growth, clicking the food emphasis usually works. BTW, bananas and cotton give you a ton right off the bat. If it's a water city build lighthouse immediately and of course do granary and aqueduct quickly as they facilitate fast beginning growth.