Coastal cities overrated?

[Renata]

Basically cities are cities and you take what you can get.

That's the bottom line, that is.

Renata

 

[Colle]

of course you take what you can get, but
-if you have to chose between a inland city and a coastal city... -
and I dont use naval military: this is useless to win much of the time

 

[Tomoyo]

Here's my general rule:

As many coastal cities as possible, as long as I don't waste any land tiles. That gives me the most worked tiles.

 

[Mordack]

It's the cities one tile away from the coast that bother me. They can't build harbours to get the extra food from the ocean.

Exactly....

 

[Lord Parkin]

Here's my general rule:

As many coastal cities as possible, as long as I don't waste any land tiles. That gives me the most worked tiles.

That rule pretty much sums it up for me as well.

 

[Pounder]

Coastal towns require less workers, less pollution later in the game as water tiles don't get hit by pollution.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Uh... no, actually. Pollution is still EXACTLY the same for coastal cities. (Well, unless you count the fact that after 10 or 12 or whatever squares are polluted there's no tiles left for a coastal city, whereas an inland city can still get polluted up to 20 squares... but who the heck leaves pollution to get THAT bad...???!!!

 

[Pounder]

If you get nuked only have half the clean-up.

I was just making the point that there are less tiles for workers to work on coastal towns.

 

[Xerol]

Yeah, if you're a militaristic civ, 40 shields to get 6 tiles generating 2 gpt each with no work needing to be done isn't bad, and 80 shields for a non-mil isn't that bad either. You can get a good average 9-10 tiles out of most coastal cities, and then either settle them next to a river or spring for an aqueduct(hey, it might as well be building something) and you've got a gold factory. Jump to Republic and with harbor + aqueduct your coastal cities are generating 30+ raw gpt with no worker intervention(except for the obvious connecting to trade network/working land tiles). Not to mention a good number of coastal cities is needed for an archi map(not many other places to settle anyway) and still quite a few is needed if you wanna take over on continents.

I especially like the power of them in tundra areas, pack them in like sardines along the coast and then build harbors in all of them and temples or libraries in every other one(the expansions overlap), each can work 4-6 tiles depending on the coast shape, giving anywhere from 9 to 13(or even more) gpt. Even if corrupt they still bring in something, although you might want to forego harbors and just let them sit at pop 2 bringing in 1-2 gpt.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I think Coastal Cities are widely underrated. Especially for SEA Civs (which happens to be my favorite trait anyway).
In general, commerce (whether it ends as cash or beakers) is surprisingly underrated.
The reason why many playres just don't notice it is the minimum research time - on any level below Deity, you will hit this cap already with lousy commerce management once you have at least a couple of universities. And most players don't part-rush to effectively turn gold into shields as well.
But, play a Deity game with a SEA Civ (especially England and Byz, of course), and go for self research. Yes, full speed self-research; exactly what is pretty futile before RR on Deity usually...
Or, play a mod with a lower minimum research time (like RaR).

 

[mastertyguy]

Coastal cities give lots of gold, continental more shields. fishing towns are interresting. I build what I can.

 

[#1 Person]

I think they are better than contental cities, Since the Sea is just as important as the land, so it is good to have a massive waterfront so you can build lots of ships. Also they are good because you can transport resources around that via water.

 

[Colle]

I think they are better than contental cities, Since the Sea is just as important as the land, so it is good to have a massive waterfront so you can build lots of ships. Also they are good because you can transport resources around that via water.

build 8 turns battleships in your 7 coastal cities and i'll build 4 turns modern armors in my 7 continental cities. we'll see if coastal cities are as important as continental cities in 20 turns


ok more seriously
after reading the replies, I loaded my current game and popped some settlers to get more gold with sea squares

thanks everyone!

 

[GorfTheWanderer]

Coastal cities are good if you are playing on a relatively hilly/mountainous terrain.... the sea gives you the food and the mountains/hills give you the shields.... otherwise they are only really good for me if I play a seafairing and/or comercial civ.... if not I usually don't settle many on the coast....

 

[Frostyboy]

With Mil or Seafaring civs they are pretty good since you get a harbour for 30.
With high corruption towns, they are as good as other cities.

 

[YNCS]

But between a city with 21 squares on flood plains, moutain w/ gold or iron, grass and several bonus ressources, and a coastal city, everyone take the first one

But between an inland city sitting in the middle of a jungle or marsh and an coastal city next to a mountain with gold or iron, grass and several bonus resources, everyone would take the second one.

 

[GorfTheWanderer]

Holy coastal cities batman! Try playing England on an Arch map... Talk about rolling in the money minimum of +3 commerce in the city center on every costal city! +6 comerce when you get over size 6! Rollin in the dough!
comercial/seafairing combo makes coastal cities awesome!

 

[Lord Parkin]

Are you sure it's THAT much of a difference? Seafaring only gives +1 gold in the city centre, and Commercial doesn't start affecting much until the city is quite big... I think that in general, coastal cities can be gold mines for ANYONE.

 

[Colle]

But between an inland city sitting in the middle of a jungle or marsh and an coastal city next to a mountain with gold or iron, grass and several bonus resources, everyone would take the second one.

you're right

 

[GorfTheWanderer]

Are you sure it's THAT much of a difference? Seafaring only gives +1 gold in the city centre, and Commercial doesn't start affecting much until the city is quite big... I think that in general, coastal cities can be gold mines for ANYONE.

This is probably because I got the republic slingshot and looked at my cities in republic.... in despot it doesn'tgive as much of a bounus (+2 gpt/costal city) but I tell you that on a map with lots of coast England can buy almost anything.... I've been buying 2nd turn rushes in most of my new cities 2-3 times per turn unless I want to save my cash due to impending war or mass upgrade.