Jbuck
Chieftain
My cities never really grow. Are trade caravans good with your own city. I know you can only have 3 routes. What is the best terrain to put a city near or on. why does it always say famine is feared.
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Best place for city
- Thread starter Jbuck
- Start date
When you say "never really grow", what do you mean? Do you mean they don't get beyond size 10 or some smaller number perhaps? Or that they don't reach size 20?
Do you understand the mechanics of city growth? You get an extra population point when the food box fills, therefore to make it grow you need surplus food. Therefore you'll need to irrigate the land around the city. Therefore the city will have to have decent land around it. And every time you make a settler it goes does by one point - which also takes away food bonuses.
And you don't say what level you're playing on. It's harder to grow at higher levels simply because you have a greater tendency for civil disorder. I prefer lots of smaller cities to begin with at Emperor.
Granaries help your cities grow faster as you only need to fill the second half of the food box up to create another population point. But granaries can be a pain at Emperor level because your cities will then grow TOO quickly and fall into disorder. And your cities cannot grow above size 10 unless they have aqueducts.
Make sure you chnage to food efficient governments as quickly as possible. Monarchy means that grassland is at full potential food production (it reduces under despotism - which is how you start - negating the effects of any irrigation).
Where to place cities? Depends on why you're putting the city there. Sometimes it isn't just for growth, it's to hold a stategically important point like on an isthmus. But assuming you simply want a big city then you'll do best on grassland. I like to build my first cities on ordinary grassland (NOT grassland with an extra shield - there's no advantage to that), next to the sea, with one or more 'special' land or sea tiles inside the city radius, with plenty of good grass, shield grass or plains around and some woods too. A tactical city point may be better on terrain which gives you a defence bonus (which grass doesn't) but for many cities that isn't important.
You'll get a message about famine if you're not growing your food inside the food box and it's dimishing close to zero. At that point you'll get a population point taken away. So you must have bonus food - that's slightly separate to the right of your food line on the city screen. If you've got a deficit the sheaves turn black! So you must improve the land to give you more food as your city grows, which usually means that your city will have to build a settler at sometime to do that instead of bulding a new city (but not too many as settlers take away food from the rest of the city).
Don't forget that if you can move your population around the city area to give you more trade, more shields or more food. And of course to create entertainers at times of unrest though this takes aware your production capacity.
Lastly, if your government is Republic or Democracy you can put your cities into "We love the President Day" (no unhappy people and at least half happy) and grow by one population point per turn if the food is available!
And read your Civ manual from page 61 onwards.
bvd
Gasbag
Well, Juize, I will fully outline MY strategy to large population growth and how it leads to an extremely high score:
Each citizen consumes two food [units] per turn. Meanwhile, the city intrinsically generates food on the terrain it is placed upon. More importantly, up to 24 citizens can individually tap into food resources on surrounding tiles. Location is key.
When the city's food storage, indicated by the lower left-hand box in the city window, is full a citizen is added. Initially, only twenty food is needed for population growth; each additional citizen adds ten food to the stipulation. A granary cuts those numbers in half.
Do the math: when you first found a city, it only needs two food to subsist. Any less and "famine is feared": the city's only citizen dies. Since it has two tiles to work from, this shouldn't happen unless it is placed really poorly. On the other hand, if there is a surplus (more than two), it is stockpiled in the storage box, allowing another citizen to be put to work. With the addition, the city needs four to subsist and five to grow.
We now see the importance of planning ahead. For food considerations, the best tiles are:
Desert with oasis: 2 food
Forest with game: 2 food
Grassland (any type): 2 food
Ocean with fish: 2 food
Tundra with game: 2 food
At the outset your government is despotic, and your tiles won't produce much food. Focus on trade, which will be allocated towards science at your behest (you can control trade allocation in the Game Menu; the defaults are: 50% science, 50% income and 0% luxuries). Research Monarchy (prerequisites: Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial and Code of Laws) first, perhaps after Bronze Working (for the Colossus, a trade wonder) and Horseback Riding/The Wheel (for exploration).
Start a revolution using the Game menu. Monarchy will increase the food production of the tiles I mentioned, excluding grassland. Trade will also increase.
Meanwhile, you should focus on expansion; six cities is a preferable start (but make sure they are four tiles apart). Cities high in food should produce settlers followed by temples. Those high in production yet low in food should build Cavalry and Chariots to explore the continent and gain sole access to it [units deduct production shields from your city, so you must plan ahead]. Build the Colossus in your capitol before you finish early expansion.
Settlers can improve tiles in three ways: irrigation, for food, mining, for production and roads for trade. Build roads sparingly on surrounding tiles as they depart to found new cities. Once the six-city total is attained, focus on irrigating grassland, plains and desert tiles and mining hills/mountains with special resources. Link your cities with roads, research trade and build caravans for trade.
As you expand to other continents, the value of trade routes will grow; make sure that only the distant routes link your capitol; each city is restricted to three. In your Capitol, build a library, the Copernicus Observatory, Shakespeare's Theatre, a university and Isaac Newton's College. Caravans from nearby cities can enter the capitol to expedite wonder production. In all other cities, build libraries and universities if they are producing six light bulbs and marketplaces and banks if producing six coins.
Do not start wars and demand no tribute. Become very specialized in one area of technology and neglect others, trading techs to compensate for the latter. Build Michelangelos Chapel, J.S. Bachs Cathedral and become a Republic (further enhancing food/trade production). Upgrade roads to railroads when possible, and, if you know how, build them on ocean tiles. Make every tile as productive as possible. From there, either continue building every possible wonder and ultimately the spaceship - or, preferably, build Woman's Suffrage, research the Labor Union and Robotics and systematically wipe out every other civilization using their railroads.
For the highest possible score, avoid using nukes and leave one enemy city untouched. Free from the menace of the other civs, disband all excess units requiring support. Set your luxury rate to the highest level, observe "We Love the President Day", which automatically increases population if there is enough food, and, if enough time remains, build the spaceship. Otherwise, capture the last enemy city.
[EDIT: I've been bored recently, and decided to edit a slight error in my post...]
Each citizen consumes two food [units] per turn. Meanwhile, the city intrinsically generates food on the terrain it is placed upon. More importantly, up to 24 citizens can individually tap into food resources on surrounding tiles. Location is key.
When the city's food storage, indicated by the lower left-hand box in the city window, is full a citizen is added. Initially, only twenty food is needed for population growth; each additional citizen adds ten food to the stipulation. A granary cuts those numbers in half.
Do the math: when you first found a city, it only needs two food to subsist. Any less and "famine is feared": the city's only citizen dies. Since it has two tiles to work from, this shouldn't happen unless it is placed really poorly. On the other hand, if there is a surplus (more than two), it is stockpiled in the storage box, allowing another citizen to be put to work. With the addition, the city needs four to subsist and five to grow.
We now see the importance of planning ahead. For food considerations, the best tiles are:
Desert with oasis: 2 food
Forest with game: 2 food
Grassland (any type): 2 food
Ocean with fish: 2 food
Tundra with game: 2 food
At the outset your government is despotic, and your tiles won't produce much food. Focus on trade, which will be allocated towards science at your behest (you can control trade allocation in the Game Menu; the defaults are: 50% science, 50% income and 0% luxuries). Research Monarchy (prerequisites: Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial and Code of Laws) first, perhaps after Bronze Working (for the Colossus, a trade wonder) and Horseback Riding/The Wheel (for exploration).
Start a revolution using the Game menu. Monarchy will increase the food production of the tiles I mentioned, excluding grassland. Trade will also increase.
Meanwhile, you should focus on expansion; six cities is a preferable start (but make sure they are four tiles apart). Cities high in food should produce settlers followed by temples. Those high in production yet low in food should build Cavalry and Chariots to explore the continent and gain sole access to it [units deduct production shields from your city, so you must plan ahead]. Build the Colossus in your capitol before you finish early expansion.
Settlers can improve tiles in three ways: irrigation, for food, mining, for production and roads for trade. Build roads sparingly on surrounding tiles as they depart to found new cities. Once the six-city total is attained, focus on irrigating grassland, plains and desert tiles and mining hills/mountains with special resources. Link your cities with roads, research trade and build caravans for trade.
As you expand to other continents, the value of trade routes will grow; make sure that only the distant routes link your capitol; each city is restricted to three. In your Capitol, build a library, the Copernicus Observatory, Shakespeare's Theatre, a university and Isaac Newton's College. Caravans from nearby cities can enter the capitol to expedite wonder production. In all other cities, build libraries and universities if they are producing six light bulbs and marketplaces and banks if producing six coins.
Do not start wars and demand no tribute. Become very specialized in one area of technology and neglect others, trading techs to compensate for the latter. Build Michelangelos Chapel, J.S. Bachs Cathedral and become a Republic (further enhancing food/trade production). Upgrade roads to railroads when possible, and, if you know how, build them on ocean tiles. Make every tile as productive as possible. From there, either continue building every possible wonder and ultimately the spaceship - or, preferably, build Woman's Suffrage, research the Labor Union and Robotics and systematically wipe out every other civilization using their railroads.
For the highest possible score, avoid using nukes and leave one enemy city untouched. Free from the menace of the other civs, disband all excess units requiring support. Set your luxury rate to the highest level, observe "We Love the President Day", which automatically increases population if there is enough food, and, if enough time remains, build the spaceship. Otherwise, capture the last enemy city.
[EDIT: I've been bored recently, and decided to edit a slight error in my post...]
