City allocation(Basic strategy)...Help

[nosoup4crr]

Alright...I've been looking in the war academy for a while now, trying to find a tutorial on how exactly to approach a problem I have. Even though I've been playing for about 2 years or so, and consistently play on Monarch, I still consider myself a beginner, and humble myself to the knowledge base that I can find here. My question involves strategic allocation of cities to purposes. It seems that whenever I play, all of my cities are basically the same. All of them have almost every city improvement(barring granaries and collosseums). It goes temple, courthouse, barracks, library, marketplace, cathedral, bank, etc. This is true in most circumstances...now, if a city can't reach a higher population than say...8, of course I won't build a cathedral...but you see my point. I know this isn't how the game is to be played, and furthermore, i'm sure it's not the most effective way.

So how should I decide what purpose my cities will take on? How should I build in them? What are the basic types of cities? I realize that if you have a city built almost primarily for military land output...it doesn't necessarily need a bank or cathedral. However, I find myself saying "Well...if it has a bank or cathedral, it will increase the overall effectiveness of the city." Help me out...lately, I've been getting bored with how I build my civilizations...and furthermore, I want to improve my play.

Also, if there does exist a guide on such a question, could you direct me there?

Thanks.

 

[bingen]

There are many ways too play the game, that's part of the charm.

I think that many will say that you only need 12 tiles per city as hospitals come so late in the game. Personally, I build my cities a bit looser, mainly because I like it that way. Mostly my pattern will resemble XOOOX where the Xs represent city center tiles. Indivdual placement is heavily influenced by fresh water, coast, etc..

I also like too build many improvements. Colliseums have very low priority, barrracks only in major cities other cities build bombardment units if more military is neede, temples and cathedrals might not be needed if you have many luxuries. Granaries may not be needed in most cities but are very needed in the early settler producers. I usually have at least one city continuously building workers at a 2 turn rate (at least when playing Sid where I feel the slightly distasteful tactic of growing cities through worker merging is warranted). Mostly coastal cities might require some help with cashrushing key buildings.

 

[citizen001]

You should really learn to specialise. High shield producing cities should be allocated to unit building early on. those types of cities don't need anything except a barracks. High food producing cities should be allocated to settler/worker building early on. those types of cities don't need anything except a granary. then you have variation cities later on in the game where you build a combination of improvements.

 

[nosoup4crr]

I do what you've said in early game...although, sometimes, i find myself building temples for border control...However, what are these mix-and-match cities you build later in the game? could you elaborate on a few of the common types that are built?