[note: having lost this twice, I'm posting it in parts...]
I. Metro-Dreaming
Whether sculptor or conqueror, we have all had visions of a grand empire under our power, a vision of 60 or so metros under our absolute command.
But is that enough? Land area is where the demonstration of true power is at! And the city cap is our nemesis!
This article picks up where bamspeedy's original, Builder's Dream, left off. It assumes you are at least an intermediate kingdom carver. Where bam's article was concerned with minimizing corruption while building the largest cities possible, this article assumes you have moved beyond the trials of corruption, and want your empire to cover the greatest possible land area.
When our grand visions float past our mind's eye, the vast expanse which is our empire is not filled with size 4 cities. We hunger for metros! Well, as you've learned, getting a metro is fairly easy. Like a plant, just give it some water.
Now we just need some space for it to grow...
Unlike in bam's article, I'm going to stress that you do not want your cities close together. Of course, deity level is a bit different, but let's get to that later. For now, let's just start with the basics. Instead of cramming them together, we are going to follow the 7/9 rule.
II. The 7/9 Rule
Our borders are defined by the position of our cities juxtaposed with the position(s) of the other civs' cities. Since we are at least intermediate players, we are not concerned with opposing cities... we can just remove them - and, in fact, to maximize territory, we will have to.
How may squares away from the city square a border lies is defined by the culture in a city, and how many turns the culture has been churning away. Bam's article places the cities closer together to reduce corruption. Under the 7/9 rule, we place them 7 or 9 squares apart, and later 11, to maximize land area within time contraints.
Remember, where your boundary comes within one square of itself, it jumps that square. Thus, two cities 7 squares apart will form a straight line boundary and 'absorb' that one square of no-man's land.
At the beginning of the game, merely for the sake of convenience, I place my cities 7 squares apart. If you want a tighter grouping among the first few, or perhaps play on archipelagoes, you could place them 5 apart. One temple on chieftain and a city will quickly jump to two squares. Three comes quickly enough once you start building infrastructure.
Once your power center is established - those first few cities - you can move out to 9 squares. Don't worry about encroaching enemy cities. For now, just stick to the game plan. You can always destroy a city and rebuild it as you organize your late game empire, but its more efficient to start your cities in permanent spots.
In undesirable places, such as wide mountain ranges or broad marshes, you can spread the cities to 11 squares as filler. Nobody likes a doughnut hole in their mini-map.
Late game, when you are buying all of your city improvements, putting every city 11 squares apart is a must-do. Your only cities at 7/9 are your power base cities and secondary cities, as well as the few cities near your forbidden palace. Even at deity level, at this point you've done away with any archetype cities like defensive cities and trade cities, and are rapidly eating up real estate with 11 square metropolises. Settle them, irrigate them, and buff them with paid for improvements.
I tend to micromanage even with the city cap maxed out, but this isn't necessary. I *do* suggest keeping stables of 10-30 engineers spread out over your territory, for rapid land improvement and removing pollution.
I. Metro-Dreaming
Whether sculptor or conqueror, we have all had visions of a grand empire under our power, a vision of 60 or so metros under our absolute command.
But is that enough? Land area is where the demonstration of true power is at! And the city cap is our nemesis!
This article picks up where bamspeedy's original, Builder's Dream, left off. It assumes you are at least an intermediate kingdom carver. Where bam's article was concerned with minimizing corruption while building the largest cities possible, this article assumes you have moved beyond the trials of corruption, and want your empire to cover the greatest possible land area.
When our grand visions float past our mind's eye, the vast expanse which is our empire is not filled with size 4 cities. We hunger for metros! Well, as you've learned, getting a metro is fairly easy. Like a plant, just give it some water.
Now we just need some space for it to grow...
Unlike in bam's article, I'm going to stress that you do not want your cities close together. Of course, deity level is a bit different, but let's get to that later. For now, let's just start with the basics. Instead of cramming them together, we are going to follow the 7/9 rule.
II. The 7/9 Rule
Our borders are defined by the position of our cities juxtaposed with the position(s) of the other civs' cities. Since we are at least intermediate players, we are not concerned with opposing cities... we can just remove them - and, in fact, to maximize territory, we will have to.
How may squares away from the city square a border lies is defined by the culture in a city, and how many turns the culture has been churning away. Bam's article places the cities closer together to reduce corruption. Under the 7/9 rule, we place them 7 or 9 squares apart, and later 11, to maximize land area within time contraints.
Remember, where your boundary comes within one square of itself, it jumps that square. Thus, two cities 7 squares apart will form a straight line boundary and 'absorb' that one square of no-man's land.
At the beginning of the game, merely for the sake of convenience, I place my cities 7 squares apart. If you want a tighter grouping among the first few, or perhaps play on archipelagoes, you could place them 5 apart. One temple on chieftain and a city will quickly jump to two squares. Three comes quickly enough once you start building infrastructure.
Once your power center is established - those first few cities - you can move out to 9 squares. Don't worry about encroaching enemy cities. For now, just stick to the game plan. You can always destroy a city and rebuild it as you organize your late game empire, but its more efficient to start your cities in permanent spots.
In undesirable places, such as wide mountain ranges or broad marshes, you can spread the cities to 11 squares as filler. Nobody likes a doughnut hole in their mini-map.
Late game, when you are buying all of your city improvements, putting every city 11 squares apart is a must-do. Your only cities at 7/9 are your power base cities and secondary cities, as well as the few cities near your forbidden palace. Even at deity level, at this point you've done away with any archetype cities like defensive cities and trade cities, and are rapidly eating up real estate with 11 square metropolises. Settle them, irrigate them, and buff them with paid for improvements.
I tend to micromanage even with the city cap maxed out, but this isn't necessary. I *do* suggest keeping stables of 10-30 engineers spread out over your territory, for rapid land improvement and removing pollution.
Because you're dreaming of metros! I mean, that is kind of in the thread title, right?
).
