I’m going way beyond the parameters of your question here, but I thought I’d throw in because I tend to end up with relatively large cities by the end of my games, and it’s a Thursday night and I’ve got nothing better to do than yak about it.
I usually play at Prince level, and my general approach is: (i) avoid war (but prepare for attack); (ii) run a specialist economy (I shun cottages); (iii) establish a super dooper wealth-generating capital by founding a religion, establishing a shrine, and raking in cash by spreading my religion all over the place (and settling all my great merchants); (iv) build lots of city improvements and shiny wonders; and (v) play all the way through to the late game (circa 1950-2050), by which time I’ve got a significant tech lead and I can kick the cr*p out of my competitors’ infantry with my mobile artillery and advanced MBTs. Which means that, although I’m not aiming for high populations
per se, I end up with high populations as a result of the fact that I want to run specialists as opposed to cottages. (And I can afford to do that because I have an abundance of health and happiness on account of all the city improvements I’ve built.)
Now – before I get bulldozed - I fully appreciate that: (i) this wouldn’t be a viable strategy on the higher levels; (ii) I would routinely get eaten alive on multiplayer within the first 50 turns (because, whichever leader I play, I’m essentially Gandhi); and (iii) there are plenty of other players here who are physically wincing at the idea of not building cottages, and not whipping their populace into the ground at any given opportunity. But hey, I’m a builder. I like the fact that my people celebrate ‘We love the President Day’ in perpetuity because I’ve given them all hospitals and free broadcast towers. Disparage me all you will (and I can hear you all sharpening your swords and manoeuvring your huge stack of catapults towards my borders), but – y’know what? My people love me. And if you were one of my people, you’d love me too. (Unless of course you’re one of those “It’s too crowded!” whingers. (In which case - frankly - I’m just ignoring you, because you’re outweighed by all those happy idiots who just enjoy life. So there.))
Anyway, I reviewed the end of my last six games and it seems I
average out as follows: (i) my city populations are somewhere between 20-30 (and that’s almost invariably without corporations, which I haven’t really got to grips with); and (ii) my super dooper wealth-generating capital’s population is 30, including 4 settled specialists.
But to answer your question (sort of): Of my last six games, my highest population (as Isabella) was a size 34 capital, including 5 settled great merchants and 1 settled great priest. (And by the end of the game I was gifting conquered cities back to their original owners because I wanted to keep on playing and, for that reason, I didn’t want to cross the domination threshold.) (Yeah, alright, I know. I really should go up a level or two.)
(Point of interest/controversy: my pop 34 capital had a hills pig, but not a
@Plains-Cow. I genuinely am sorry).
