Can city blocks be expanded manually?

[dickens]

When culture is accumulated to some point, the city will be expanded by one block automatically. My question is whether we can control which block to be expanded by the culture accumulation (without buying it of course)?

 

[AriochIV]

No. Purchasing tiles is the only option.

 

[ohioastronomy]

When culture is accumulated to some point, the city will be expanded by one block automatically. My question is whether we can control which block to be expanded by the culture accumulation (without buying it of course)?

I think that would be a huge help. Paying cash if you want it quick is fine, but given that we can control everything else eventually, why not the future growth of the city?

This is especially true because the built in AI has strong biases against some terrain, and ironically the things that it's hardest to expand into are the *most expensive*, rather than, say, making the most valuable resources costly.

If you want forests or hills, lots of luck - auto city expander hates them, with less value than tundra or ocean.

Civ has always been about working with different styles - this is one of many examples of a place where different styles would fit in just fine, but are suppressed in the name of "streamlining". At this rate in Civ 6 the workers and cities will autobuild things and you'll have to pay cash to get them to change anything.

 

[Kaar]

I've found that if you change the focus of a city, then the culture will expand out to a hex favoured by that style... Or at least that what it seemed like to me. I'll be honest, I need to experiment with the idea a bit more. But other than buying a tile, I can't think of another way that I've seen to even remotely affect the whims of the city. Darn those citizens not conforming to the Fearless Leader's every whim, eh?

 

[dannythefool]

Regardless of focus, it always seems to prefer terrain with good yield, or tiles with bonuses. (In fact if you buy a tile next to a resource tile farther away, it will likely expand into that resource tile next.)

It never seems to take into account things like that a low-yield tile might be the last one blocking a land bridge or something. That, you have to buy. I can actually live with having to buy them, it makes sense.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Regardless of focus, it always seems to prefer terrain with good yield, or tiles with bonuses.

It prefers (grass) land tiles above everything. Even when it can expand/include a sea food tile, it chooses empty grassland tiles.

 

[dannythefool]

It prefers (grass) land tiles above everything. Even when it can expand/include a sea food tile, it chooses empty grassland tiles.

It prefers food in the early game, which kind of makes sense. I think it doesn't take into account that you can get crazy bonuses on fish tiles.