I played Civilizations 3 & 4 a lot and this games teach player to prefer big cities over small ones if possible. Because of overall upkeep increase with rising number of cities, because of some nice world and national wonders increasing city effect on %-basis which you want to maximize by putting them in largest cities. Even vanilla civ5 penalize players for spamming.
And suddenly i found this manner of thought counterproductive for Vox Populi. There are my points:
1) City central tiles and cities itself ( with flat bonuses from buildings, civics, beliefs ) by far most productive tiles civilization have. So more cities more yields. Pros for small cities +
2) Small cities need much less food to pop-grow investing for fully utilize ceratain territory and having some specialists due to foodcost progression of every new pop. Four 30-pop cities simply need few times more food to grow comparing with eight 15-pop cities.
Practically, every time i want to grow big 50+ pop city ( 30+ on tiles and 20+ like specialists ) i reach a point where it is hard for me to legitimize investments needed for another one pop. If you need like 2k food for another one pop that netting you, say, +5 yields and you have around 300-400 turns before game ends this investment practically pointless. Pros for small cities +
3) Moreover it is meaningless to have all this pops in one big city because of lacking of unique sources %-based boosters like wonders ( or even like governors from civ 6 ). No other strategic benefits for having big cities. There are electric plants that require precious strategic resources and that building definitely worth to have in biggest cities. But it is very late and i never take it into consideration when planning strategy. Pros +
4) Many beliefs have population cap for its effects so meaningless to have more population in city than needed. Pros +
5) Also every city is extremely strong stationary unit itself. So more cities covering each other more tough your defence. Pros +
6) Not sure about this, but i dont feel that approval system penalize me for having many cities. Not so much at least. Pros +
7) More cities more specialist slots more versatility in choosing of what yields you want produce now. Pros +
8) Only disadvantage for having many cities i found is more hammers needed to build all needed city infrastructure. But not so much since many buildings ( at least half ) provide some flat effect or/and specialist slot and must build or not to build regardless of how big is city. Cons -
And suddenly i found this manner of thought counterproductive for Vox Populi. There are my points:
1) City central tiles and cities itself ( with flat bonuses from buildings, civics, beliefs ) by far most productive tiles civilization have. So more cities more yields. Pros for small cities +
2) Small cities need much less food to pop-grow investing for fully utilize ceratain territory and having some specialists due to foodcost progression of every new pop. Four 30-pop cities simply need few times more food to grow comparing with eight 15-pop cities.
Practically, every time i want to grow big 50+ pop city ( 30+ on tiles and 20+ like specialists ) i reach a point where it is hard for me to legitimize investments needed for another one pop. If you need like 2k food for another one pop that netting you, say, +5 yields and you have around 300-400 turns before game ends this investment practically pointless. Pros for small cities +
3) Moreover it is meaningless to have all this pops in one big city because of lacking of unique sources %-based boosters like wonders ( or even like governors from civ 6 ). No other strategic benefits for having big cities. There are electric plants that require precious strategic resources and that building definitely worth to have in biggest cities. But it is very late and i never take it into consideration when planning strategy. Pros +
4) Many beliefs have population cap for its effects so meaningless to have more population in city than needed. Pros +
5) Also every city is extremely strong stationary unit itself. So more cities covering each other more tough your defence. Pros +
6) Not sure about this, but i dont feel that approval system penalize me for having many cities. Not so much at least. Pros +
7) More cities more specialist slots more versatility in choosing of what yields you want produce now. Pros +
8) Only disadvantage for having many cities i found is more hammers needed to build all needed city infrastructure. But not so much since many buildings ( at least half ) provide some flat effect or/and specialist slot and must build or not to build regardless of how big is city. Cons -
