Citybuilding, how far apart?

[GoodSarmatian]

Depends on your style and the terrain. I usualy got all and try to avoid building cities less than five tiles apart, but a little overlap doesn't bother me that much, especially if you have useless or almost useless tiles like mountains, tundra and desert. There are more important factors for city placement than distance, like access to resources and building enabling features.

 

[GoStu]

Distance isn't usually the governing factor for me, it's usually resource placement and claiming land before others. I don't pay much attention to the "ideal" six tile spacing: cities have 47 "jobs" a citizen could have, counting all specialist slots, and even the max overlap only cuts off nine, and the nine are still workable by one or the other

 

[Johnpecan]

There are WAY too many factors to this question to give a standard answer. Depending on early social policies, geography, resource distribution, AI city placement, difficulty, desired victory path etc etc.

 

[PaleJackal]

I used to do 6+ tiles, to prevent overlap, but especially if you're playing wide, this is probably overkill. Now, I am much more willing to found cities closer together. I occasionally found cities FAR away, if there's a reason, like a natural wonder, but man, road maintenance costs can be a killer.

Founding cities close together is pretty reasonable, especially if you're playing a Civ with + Happiness uniques or have faith buildings like Pagodas, and even more so if you're playing on a Huge map to minimize science and culture penalties.

 

[robincox]

I almost always go 5 tiles, but now with all your great tips I'll try closer and further

 

[Lights]

I place the cities depending on the resources and sometimes I overlap 1 resource, more than 1 I try to avoid it. Even if u overlap 2 cities radius with the capital the other 2 cities will work the sides that don't overlap.

 

[Dogmouth]

It really depends on where the goodies are. I try to plop my second and third cities directly on top of a new lux or right next to it. Early game happiness is more important than making sure that you have the perfect setup for a size 35 city. Also, early game food is key. A city with low food in its first two rings will wilt on the vine even if its third ring is incredible.

 

[PaleJackal]

A city with low food in its first two rings will wilt on the vine even if its third ring is incredible.

I've found that even if there's a bunch of good stuff in the second ring, it can be painful getting to that second ring unless you've got culture accelerators (Honor garrison policy or religious buildings.)

Still, I probably settle cities too far away, since I generally want a luxury resource nearby unless I've got Pagodas/Mosques/happiness unique buildings.

 

[Peng Qi]

I've found that even if there's a bunch of good stuff in the second ring, it can be painful getting to that second ring unless you've got culture accelerators (Honor garrison policy or religious buildings.)

Still, I probably settle cities too far away, since I generally want a luxury resource nearby unless I've got Pagodas/Mosques/happiness unique buildings.

...or gold.

 

[PreLynMax]

I keep it at a minimum at 4 tiles unless I see a resource I want.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Now that my capital can run so many specialists, I rarely find it necessary to get more than 3-4 tiles between my cities. Back in G&K where landmarks where still necessary for CV that was a bit different, but in BNW I had never, ever a city in that was able to use all its tiles.

 

[njmfff]

Too much luxuries or strategics can be just as painful start as no luxuries\strategics, especially if it's several different luxuries of different tech path.

I once got monopoly on marble\stone start, and while I could sell like crazy and have enough production to snag a few wonders even on deity, I need to spend three sea trade routes to keep my capital growing. By the time AIs had 25-30 pop capital, mine was 15-20 pop.

anyway, where to settle cities also depends on civ I am playing. If it's coastal civ like England, of course I want to grab few coastal cities. If it's pure warmongering civ like Zulus, Huns, and even France, I want to grab as much land as possible, and would prefer "landlocked" start (I can always grab coastal locations later).

More land= more strategics, more luxuries. In other words, more gpt to keep my armies maintained. Coastal cities can have amazing growth, but they tend to have same type of luxuries (there's what, three sea luxs?) and most of the civs will have those anyway, so sale is not ensured.