Civ 5 specializations

[seanm1211]

I just purchased this game yesterday and I have been reading on this forum that it is best to specialize your cities. On my game yesterday I did not do this I just bought every building and I was always almost out of gold. I dont know if this is because of repair costs or what. My question is how should I specialize my cities? For example how should my first citie (Capital) be specialized?

Thanks

 

[Varayan]

In general, I like to specialize my capital to be the science city--since as far as I can tell only two factors affect a city's long-term potential science output:

1) Amount of food (every citizen in a city makes beakers, and libraries have the biggest impact on large cities)

2) Proximity to a mountain--if you're beside a mountain you can build an observatory (+50% sci) later in the game.

-EDIT-
3) Jungles in nearby hexes--your universities will cause jungles to increase their yield by two beakers.

In my opinion the potential size of the city is the strongest of these factors, and the simplest and least-context dependent to prioritize.

So, since the maritime city states buff your capital the strongest, and your capital is therefore your easiest city to grow to a large population, I believe your capital is generally best suited to be your science city. What does this mean in terms of improvements?

1) Farms rather than trading posts. After civil service and later fertilizer you will have a tremendous amount of food always coming into the capital to keep its population high.

2) Settling your scientists (as academy tile improvements) is of debatable value--generally speaking a great scientist will bulb a tech in one turn even late into the game, so I generally use my scientists to bulb techs. However, you could settle him into an academy if you're still pretty early in the game as the long term beakers may be worth it. This will be map- and situation-dependent.

3) Buildings in the capital: anything that produces food, anything that produces beakers (library, university, observatory, research lab, national college if possible), and later in the game you want your hospital and medical lab in the capital as well to keep the population growth going.


Hope this is at least a place to get started.

 

[Jharii]

In general, I like to specialize my capital to be the science city--since as far as I can tell only two factors affect a city's long-term potential science output:

1) Amount of food (every citizen in a city makes beakers, and libraries have the biggest impact on large cities)

2) Proximity to a mountain--if you're beside a mountain you can build an observatory (+50% sci) later in the game.

-EDIT-
3) Jungles in nearby hexes--your universities will cause jungles to increase their yield by two beakers.

In my opinion the potential size of the city is the strongest of these factors, and the simplest and least-context dependent to prioritize.

So, since the maritime city states buff your capital the strongest, and your capital is therefore your easiest city to grow to a large population, I believe your capital is generally best suited to be your science city. What does this mean in terms of improvements?

1) Farms rather than trading posts. After civil service and later fertilizer you will have a tremendous amount of food always coming into the capital to keep its population high.

2) Settling your scientists (as academy tile improvements) is of debatable value--generally speaking a great scientist will bulb a tech in one turn even late into the game, so I generally use my scientists to bulb techs. However, you could settle him into an academy if you're still pretty early in the game as the long term beakers may be worth it. This will be map- and situation-dependent.

3) Buildings in the capital: anything that produces food, anything that produces beakers (library, university, observatory, research lab, national college if possible), and later in the game you want your hospital and medical lab in the capital as well to keep the population growth going.


Hope this is at least a place to get started.

Don't forget - Trading Posts + Policy that grants 1 beaker/Trading Post.

 

[iamflatline]

@ Jharii - that SP can be very powerful, but I tend to build enough TPs in my other cities/puppets. I try to focus entirely on food in the capital. Mass farms!

Aside from a science city, you can also have production cities (near hills/forests, lumbermill/mine everything, build workshop, windmill, hydro plant and barracks/armory/etc if you're gearing it for military production specifically).

Usually, the rest of your cities will be gold cities. Spam TPs everywhere and get market/bank/mint.

 

[OMG Hexes]

1 Science city is enough, but all cities should at least get libraries.

you need at least 2 production cities

 

[Lyoncet]

1 Science city is enough, but all cities should at least get libraries.

Doubly so, as 1) they're cheap enough that the cost/reward is probably the highest of any building and 2) you need a library everywhere for National College, which is a mandatory building for your designated science city.

 

[Rathelon]

Captial isnt necessarily always your largest city. In my current game, my capital has been on production focus since the beginning since it's centered on a plains river with strategic mines. I'm now in the 1700's and Moscow is still just size 8, while I have other cities that are size 18.

 

[Sumendar]

Don't forget that the capital can not get the railroad +50% production bonus, which is pretty much crucial in a mid-late game production city.

Btw, looks like the "economy overview" is bugging a bit and doesn't include this bonus, nor do the production choice lists. It does get added to the production correctly, so it's just a display bug.