Desert Cities

[outootus]

Hello,

I was basically wondering if it is generally a good or bad idea to found a city in the middle of a desert?
My other cities were in quite good locations, but I did not want to leave the big stretch of desert untouched for other civilizations to take, so I built a city there - but now I am having problems because of lack of food it cannot grow past size 4/5.
Also it does not have many hammers so it takes ages to produce things.

What do you usually do with desert cities? Just leave them to be or something else?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

If a desert has oil in it, an oasis (3), and/or maybe 1 more food source, I'll settle in the desert. That's in the middle of a larger spread.

However, settling on a desert tile that has a decent amount of improvable tiles around it is superior IMO. A desert has a tile yield of NOTHING to start. When you settle a city on a desert tile, you automatically get 2 1 and 1 which is a significant increase from NOTHING . So, my advice is that if you can nab a resource or improve a decent amount (5+) tiles in the BFC as well as seal off an AI from settling, then do it.

 

[Birdman6]

but I did not want to leave the big stretch of desert untouched for other civilizations to take

Let the enemy have the bad location. The city won't grow, won't produce much, and the maintenance will drag down his economy, especially if it's far from his capital. Without growth it'll be an easy target when you eventually go to war with him.

 

[noto2]

why would you build a city just to claim desert land? I wouldn't. It's not worth the maintenance. As previously said, however, if there are at least some good tiles then go for it. You'll get all the per city bonuses.

 

[mi6agent]

make 2-3 all desert city and "liberate" it to your neighbour AI

 

[mirthadir]

Early game, let it rot. The AI is not too keen on settling worthless land; even islands in the midst of decent coastal tiles with no resources tend not to get settled by the AI. Once SciMeth is out of the bag, you might reconsider if you think oil might be dicey. Much better is to just pump more culture (unless the desert is huge) and close it off that way. If there are useful resources, then all bets are off.

Late game corps can turn any city into something respectable. Dropping in Mining and Sushi will let you get up basic infra pretty quick (particularly with slavery) and you can use the place to make fighters, infantry or arty.