Hi all,
Just wondering what different strategies and thoughts people have about placing blocking cities vs just rexing near your capital. In the last few games I've played on Emperor I've gone quite out of my way to place a blocking city or two, quite often a fair way from my capital. This can lead to sealing a nice bit of land for around 10 cities, but the initial maintenance costs can really hurt if its your 2nd and 3rd cities.
So, I guess my questions are:
1) How far are you willing to go with your 2nd/3rd cities to block out a neighbor and secure land? Will you only block close to your capital or will you travel multiple screens-worth away?
2) Is placing a city covering the best land in an AI's direction generally enough to deter that AI from settling in your direction in the short-term, even if there are gaps in your culture he can get through?
3) Are you willing to accept a crappy early city if it creates a good block? Again, how do you weigh this against its distance and how much land its blocking off? Is a quality site settled in the general direction of an AI better than an ordinary city settled further away which completely blocks him off?
Just wondering what the good players do here, because I've always been an aggressive blocker. I'll settle crappy 2nd and 3rd cities with high maintenance if it blocks off a bunch of land for me. It occurred to be recently that this may not be the best way to go.
Just wondering what different strategies and thoughts people have about placing blocking cities vs just rexing near your capital. In the last few games I've played on Emperor I've gone quite out of my way to place a blocking city or two, quite often a fair way from my capital. This can lead to sealing a nice bit of land for around 10 cities, but the initial maintenance costs can really hurt if its your 2nd and 3rd cities.
So, I guess my questions are:
1) How far are you willing to go with your 2nd/3rd cities to block out a neighbor and secure land? Will you only block close to your capital or will you travel multiple screens-worth away?
2) Is placing a city covering the best land in an AI's direction generally enough to deter that AI from settling in your direction in the short-term, even if there are gaps in your culture he can get through?
3) Are you willing to accept a crappy early city if it creates a good block? Again, how do you weigh this against its distance and how much land its blocking off? Is a quality site settled in the general direction of an AI better than an ordinary city settled further away which completely blocks him off?
Just wondering what the good players do here, because I've always been an aggressive blocker. I'll settle crappy 2nd and 3rd cities with high maintenance if it blocks off a bunch of land for me. It occurred to be recently that this may not be the best way to go.