Amount of cities

[Chronicles]

Hello all,

One thing I really don't like about Civ5 was the fact that the optimal strategy is to build only a few cities. VP seems to solve this but I find that I want to plop down cities everywhere, also I like my empire to fill the map and dislike borders not touching (either with my own cities or other civs). My question is, how great an effect has this on policies?

Do you have guidelines how to decide whether settling a new city is worth it?

 

[Minh Le]

The later in the game, the less valuable a new city is. Like settling a new city in Modern Era is pointless unless you want to secure strategic resources/wonders/locations.
Early on the only downside of settling more cities are happiness and your ability to defend yourself.

 

[CrazyG]

Here is my default plan.

Tradition- 4 cities. 3 is okay if there isn't enough land.
Progress- 8 to 10, but you can win with fewer.
Authority- Just depends on the land. I'll probably settle 1-3 more cities, then try to conquer some more. I'll settle more if the land is there and no one else takes it.

Its always okay to put down an extra city if its important to stop someone else from settling there (happens with tradition).
More cities generally has the advantage of more faith, but less culture/science in the short term.

 

[Stalker0]

Tradition- 4 cities. 3 is okay if there isn't enough land.

I tend to go 5 with tradition myself, I don't feel like I have enough production to keep up my defenses, unless my terrain is just defensively amazing.

 

[Minh Le]

3 is minimum because guilds, but 9 cities Tradition can be amazingly strong too.

 

[Chronicles]

Thanks for the replies! I’ll experiment a few games but 8-10 cities sounds good!

 

[tu_79]

Beware happiness if you go too wide. You have to control how fast you grow. You can settle up to 9 cities confidently if you focus them on production or anything that helps not growing.