City placement selection

[DocsDew]

How close can/should I build cities together without ever taking the chance to overlapping them. What has been the best tile space between your cities? I want to get a many cities in as possible without negastivly effecting the growth and or money factor?
Please give me a tip!

 

[Mordack]

you should probably check out Ginger Ale's city placement post in the strategy articles forum

 

[Tomoyo]

Or I could link to it... <-- Link is the smilie

 

[Own]

2 squares inbetween cities, or 3 tiles away. This gives you plenty of cities, with enough tiles to make it to size 7, so lots of size 7 cities means tons of free unit support.

 

[bija_konja]

I like to go 4 tiles in between cities. Max coverage that way. The only issue occurs when there are mountains or water in the way.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

You don't always have to use a 'set' placement, or follow a pattern. Sometimes that will result in inadvertantly doing Ring City Placement (RCP), which in C3C, will increase corruption.

 

[Tomoyo]

Sometimes that will result in inadvertantly doing Ring City Placement (RCP), which in C3C, will increase corruption.

Yeah, I do that a lot subconsciously. In vanilla, I didn't use RCP anyway.

 

[TruePurple]

I put in cities the tightest near nation borders. Sometimes you need to squeeze in a city to expand that border a bit and get this or that precious resource or allow passage way etc. If cities aren't close enough when you do this you risk having the other nation take over your city via culture (rush those culture items best you can in those cities)

Otherwise I plan for minimal overlap. Sometimes I wont necessarily plant cities next to each other, I'll count the squares and plant settlers in sweet spots where I won't have too much over lap when I plant cities inbetween.

I might allow wasted tiles if they are plain mountain or desert,

 

[Desertsnow]

I like my cities 4 or 5 tiles apart, to allow for expansion to the full 21-tile area, but it depends on the terrain, and I've more than once had to plunk down a city just to prevent my settler from getting attacked.

 

[vmxa]

If you plan on using 5 tile spacing, best stick to Monarch or lower levels as it will get much harder after that. You really do not need more than CxxC spacing in most games.

What are you going to do with 21 tiles? If I were to play a conquest game, I may make a couple of hospitals. If I do, I will steal some tiles from the other cities.

Really by the time you could get to hospitals, you have the game in the bag and do not need them. If you even get to Sanitation and don't forget it is an optional tech anyway.

 

[Aegis Shield]

It depends on the amount of war I'm expecting. Generally on Emperor+ I have my core cities(around five) with optimal growth, and then I shrink in to CxxC spacing.

Or, if I'm expecting a lot of war, I'll have CxxC throughout my entire nation for defensive purposes(I.E. any one city can be defended by 1 movement units from 3-5 cities, depending)

 

[mastertyguy]

It depends. I try to use every tile I can. Don't forget, also, that city tiles are better than any other tile, especially when there is not a lot of food (desert, tundra)
It also depends on your objective. For 100K, you are better to have tight placement or ICS.

 

[TruePurple]

I'm trying to lay out cities, but visually telling where city borders are and trying to place cities in any pattern is very difficult. Often Counting down squares using ones hands on the screen trying to visually tell where towns should be and then having to remember latter where you decided to place that town. I lose track and place towns three or five squares apart sometimes, even if I don't using any one of these placement patterns suggested seems nigh impossible. Any programs one could recommend or in game commands so you can see the borders of a town or program to help with putting down towns?

I wish it was like AC where it showed you city borders of placed towns and even when placing new towns it would show you a outline and ask for placement confirmation. (if I remember correctly)

Oh, and hills with gold bonus are sweet spots to put a town.

 

[gmaharriet]

Counting down squares using ones hands on the screen trying to visually tell where towns should be and then having to remember latter where you decided to place that town. I lose track and place towns three or five squares apart sometimes, even if I don't using any one of these placement patterns suggested seems nigh impossible. Any programs one could recommend or in game commands so you can see the borders of a town or program to help with putting down towns?

I wish it was like AC where it showed you city borders of placed towns and even when placing new towns it would show you a outline and ask for placement confirmation. (if I remember correctly)

Have you tried using Ctl-G so that you can actually see the squares on the map? I find I don't need to use my hands or fingers to count something like down 3 and over 1 (or whatever formula I may be using).

Also, when you actually go to build a town with your settler, he will have an outline around him showing which tiles are included.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

If you use a utility like CivAssist II, you can make + save 'dotmaps'.

 

[JuanM]

anyone know how to make the AI only build cities with no overlapping tiles?

 

[TruePurple]

Thanks ginger, I hadn't explored that aspect of civassist, wow. Nice..

Also, when you actually go to build a town with your settler, he will have an outline around him showing which tiles are included.

Not really. Unless you count a 9 square territory box which is not the same thing at all.

 

[Tomoyo]

As you play more and more civ, you will be able to dot map with your mind. Just don't let it get to the point where you are trying to dot-map a tiled floor.

 

[Monkeyd00]

I usually do cxxxc, and I like it that way. Enough room for growth, but not too spread out.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

anyone know how to make the AI only build cities with no overlapping tiles?

There is no way to change its' behavior in this respect.