#cottages per city: Anyone have rule of thumb?

[Bocelli]

With CivIII I allways put workers on auto. Now with 4, I'm taking a more proactive approach, controlling them myself.

One thing I'm sort of stuck on is how many cottages per city should I plan on having?

 

[oopsy poopsy]

I don't think you can look at it like that at all. What you want to do is balance growth of the city with commerce. If the city has a lot of shield production available you may not want any cottages because you will want to maximize population so you can utilize the shield, build wonders, run specialists, and create great people. If a city is shield poor then what I try to do is maximize the city to have just enough food to use all the squares it can (20 - any overlap with other cities). Then build enough farms to create enough food to sustain that population and build cottages everywhere you don't need farms. Hopefully, you can still create enough shields to get the necessary improvements for health and science and commerce to maximize your return on the commerce generated by the cottages. I think the best way to make cities work is to tailor their responsibilities to the terrain they're on, not trying to find an overall strategy for how to improve all your cities the same.

 

[DaveMcW]

In the early game when there are no buildings multiplying your commerce, build cottages anywhere there is extra food. Flood plains and non-freshwater grassland is best.

In the mid-late game, some cities will have +beaker buildings that make cottages there more valuable. So try to give those cities more cottages (up to 20!), while building military and wonders in other cities.

 

[Gufnork]

Enough farms to support max pop, windmills on hills and the rest cottages. The more, the better.

 

[Rhandom]

With CivIII I allways put workers on auto. Now with 4, I'm taking a more proactive approach, controlling them myself.

One thing I'm sort of stuck on is how many cottages per city should I plan on having?

I tend to specialize my tiles. If I want growth, I want a lot of growth. When I stop wanting growth, I want cash, shiny-happy people, or production.

So I build cottages on low food areas, as early as is feasible. They get better over time (towns), so get them built early. I put farms on high food areas. If I can feed my size 10 city on 5 tiles, that gives me 5 more for cash or production (and probably extra food), or a bunch of specialists. But even if you aren't using your cottages now, build them so they will be towns when you want them. You can always replace them if you need to, but it is a lot better to replace towns with farms or windmills than to replace farms with cottages.

 

[e_a_olson]

But even if you aren't using your cottages now, build them so they will be towns when you want them.

This is not a true statement. Cottages do not get promoted to hamlets, villages, and towns unless the are being worked by citizens.

 

[dh_epic]

It depends.

On traits:
Financial civs will want to go more cottage heavy (big money).
Philosophical civs will want to go more food heavy (support lots of specialists and generate lots of great people).

On civics:
Cottages go great with Universal Sufferage, Emancipation, and Free Speech.
Representation, Pacifism, and Mercantilism are perfect for a food / great person strategy.

On wonders:
The parthenon, great library, and statue of liberty are killer for someone trying to emphasize great people.

On the whole, you should never be totally exclusive cottages or food. But you might go heavy on one or the other, depending on what you're trying.

 

[Youri]

I prefer to have atleast 2 food in all tiles, with the exception of tiles with special recources. So that means cottages on grass, farms on plains, windmills on hills. Also, if possible a watermill near a river.

 

[Astax]

From 4-6, sometimes goes up to 8. THat's what I usualy have.

 

[weimingshi]

It depends.

On traits:
Financial civs will want to go more cottage heavy (big money).
Philosophical civs will want to go more food heavy (support lots of specialists and generate lots of great people).

.

This is a wrong concept, Financial traite doesn't neccessarily mean cottage heavy, the trait gives +1 bonus on any tile with 2 commerce, thats include watermill, windmill, costal, resource tile and river tiles, cottage or not you get the benefits.

As for great people, every player should dedecated 1 city to produce great people. preferably this city is both food rich and has most of your wonders built there, and in this city all you build is +food improvements to max out great people point. AND you only need one such city, anymore is a waste of great peopele points. even for philosophical civ, you don't need 2 cities to produce great people.


As for cottages, I only really start pumping them out in late middle age, building them early does more harm then good to your civ. my rule is simple, plant a cottage on any square you can't build a watermill and a mine.

 

[anton_z1]

The importance of cottages hevily depends on what you want to do with the city. If you want great people production or lots of military, this is not good. Hovewer if you only need science, here is the strat to have a heavy cottage city: 1) Build 2-3 farms in the beginning, then build mines, finally put cottages everywhere else. If you have plenty of workers, build more farms and change them later to cottages. Do not put cottages near a river !!!!!

If you are a financial and you have coastal cities, build the maximum number of farns you can to get max pop. Then get either mines or workshops to get you all the money increasing buildings.

 

[gakkun]

Depends on the city really. If it's close to enemy borders then I'd say build more production improvements as you want to be able to produce military units in the case of a war and you can also prevent your rival making money by pillaging your cottages/towns.

 

[Heroes]

The importance of cottages hevily depends on what you want to do with the city. If you want great people production or lots of military, this is not good. Hovewer if you only need science, here is the strat to have a heavy cottage city: 1) Build 2-3 farms in the beginning, then build mines, finally put cottages everywhere else. If you have plenty of workers, build more farms and change them later to cottages. Do not put cottages near a river !!!!!

If you are a financial and you have coastal cities, build the maximum number of farns you can to get max pop. Then get either mines or workshops to get you all the money increasing buildings.

Why not build cottage near river, if you can't make watermill yet?

 

[fung3]

Can someone explain how to max the generation of Great People?

I don't understand how if works at all, please help

 

[Skirmisher]

Can someone explain how to max the generation of Great People?

I don't understand how if works at all, please help

You have to choose a philosophical civ. (+100% great People generation)

I usually focus only on great engineers in the beginning, so build the pyramids in my capital (+2 great engineer generation), then forge (allows one engineer specialist +3 great engineer generation), then Hanging gardens (+2). Then the Hagia Sophia (+2 again)

The great thing about these wonders is that they will also help towards growth (representation civic, ekstra health and faster workers) which is very important in generating great people, because then more specialists can be assigned.

There are certain wonders which will boost great people generation, such as the Parthenon (+50%) and National epic (100%). There is however a small chance that this will corrupt the great engineer generation, and give you other kinds of great people. But they should be built anyway ASAP.

The civic Pacifism increases great people generation by 100%

All these are cumulative. (350%)

Use the engineers to rush the Wonders giving you more great people points. What type of great people you want depends on your strategy for winning.

The civic Caste System will also greatly help in generating great persons, since an unlimited amount of people (except engineers) can be assigned to great people generation.

Also note that there are three techs which will give you a Great Person if you are the first to discover. Music - Great Artist. Physics - Great Scientist. Corporation - Great Merchant.

 

[Gufnork]

There are a few more than three techs that gives them, but the rest of them are in the Modern era. And Caste systems does not allow unlimited priests either. But you don't want Prophets anyway, after you've built all your shrines.