I've been trying to improve my game somewhat, and have been reading a number of articles in the strategy guide forum and war academy.
1) The specialist economy (SE) seems like it may be too much for me at this point as I'm not very good at micromanaging my empire once I have more than three or four cities, so cottage economy (CE) it is! Unfortunately, while there are many great articles describing the specialist economy in detail, I haven't been able to find any CE guides.
I guess that's beause it seems fairly straight forward - just build cottages everwhere! But surely there's more to it than that, which technologies should one prioritize other than the obvious (pottery/democracy/etc.), and do you start with farms first, only switching to cottages once your city has grown sufficiently? What about building cottages on tiles that can't support growth such as plains, and how do you balance other tile improvements like workshops, watermills, and lumber mills with cottages?
2) Is it effective to specialize cities with a CE? Cities without a cottage in sight, like a production city made up of nothing but mines and farms, or a great people city made up of nothing but farms, and maybe a couple of mines to switch to when infrastructure needs to be built? If so, how do you balance these cities with cottage cities, and what kind of improvements should you (and should you not) be building in your cottage cities?
I've often heard people say you should only build essential buildings in specialized cities, like a forge/factory in production cities or a library/university/observatory in a science city, but then what do you build the rest of the time? Are you just converting hammers to wealth and research?
3) Which brings me to my last question, is city growth always your first priority? I'd imagine in cottage cities it's be your number one priority, as getting more people working more cottages means more villages and towns sooner, but in your specialized cities are improvements like granaries, aquaducts, grocers, markets, colosseums just as important than libraries, forges, banks, etc.?
I often find myself building infrastructure nonstop, which means my specialized cities aren't really able to dedicate themselves to their specialization (i.e. having to build health/happiness structures in a wealth city, and never being able to just focus on generating wealth). How do I balance this?
1) The specialist economy (SE) seems like it may be too much for me at this point as I'm not very good at micromanaging my empire once I have more than three or four cities, so cottage economy (CE) it is! Unfortunately, while there are many great articles describing the specialist economy in detail, I haven't been able to find any CE guides.
I guess that's beause it seems fairly straight forward - just build cottages everwhere! But surely there's more to it than that, which technologies should one prioritize other than the obvious (pottery/democracy/etc.), and do you start with farms first, only switching to cottages once your city has grown sufficiently? What about building cottages on tiles that can't support growth such as plains, and how do you balance other tile improvements like workshops, watermills, and lumber mills with cottages?
2) Is it effective to specialize cities with a CE? Cities without a cottage in sight, like a production city made up of nothing but mines and farms, or a great people city made up of nothing but farms, and maybe a couple of mines to switch to when infrastructure needs to be built? If so, how do you balance these cities with cottage cities, and what kind of improvements should you (and should you not) be building in your cottage cities?
I've often heard people say you should only build essential buildings in specialized cities, like a forge/factory in production cities or a library/university/observatory in a science city, but then what do you build the rest of the time? Are you just converting hammers to wealth and research?
3) Which brings me to my last question, is city growth always your first priority? I'd imagine in cottage cities it's be your number one priority, as getting more people working more cottages means more villages and towns sooner, but in your specialized cities are improvements like granaries, aquaducts, grocers, markets, colosseums just as important than libraries, forges, banks, etc.?
I often find myself building infrastructure nonstop, which means my specialized cities aren't really able to dedicate themselves to their specialization (i.e. having to build health/happiness structures in a wealth city, and never being able to just focus on generating wealth). How do I balance this?