District Confusion

[Sufyan]

I was under the impression that a city must have a population of 3 to build its first district, which is also listed as true on Well of Souls. However, quill18 is starting construction on a campus in the city of Cumae when the city has only a population of 1.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v33g-F9HUNU
Around 8 min, 30 s.

What am I missing?

 

[Hajee]

The 1st district has no PoP requirement, after the 1st then u need 3??

 

[Sufyan]

If that is true then Germany's Free Imperial Cities are a bit less useful than I thought.

 

[AriochIV]

Most likely the rules have changed.

 

[joncnunn]

It looks to me like people were assuming number of districts allowed to be built was floor(pop / 3) when in fact based on the videos it's ceiling (pop / 3). They had previously only said it's pop / 3 without stating how they handled the situation in which the population of the city wasn't evenly divisible by three.
The effect is rather than being able to build a district at 3,6,9,etc as previously assumed it's 1,4,7, etc.

 

[Danzo_87]

Germany still has +1 district capacity though, so they start with 2 districts availability at the start, which is still very good

 

[King Jason]

It looks to me like people were assuming number of districts allowed to be built was floor(pop / 3) when in fact based on the videos it's ceiling (pop / 3). They had previously only said it's pop / 3 without stating how they handled the situation in which the population of the city wasn't evenly divisible by three.
The effect is rather than being able to build a district at 3,6,9,etc as previously assumed it's 1,4,7, etc.

Wait, I thought we always assumed that the "every three pop" rule meant it was 1,4,7, etc.

..what?

 

[Sufyan]

Germany still has +1 district capacity though, so they start with 2 districts availability at the start, which is still very good

I am not so sure about "still very good", as districts take a while to build. Everyone can start building the first one immediately. By the time that's done and the second one is beneficial, the city might already have 4 pop anyway, so everyone can build the second one. Free Imperial Cities then becomes a hypothetical bonus for smaller cities, with practical benefits that are only felt in higher population cities.

Up until now I believed that only the Germans could start building districts immediately, which would have been a constantly present bonus.

 

[Siptah]

I am not so sure about "still very good", as districts take a while to build. Everyone can start building the first one immediately. By the time that's done and the second one is beneficial, the city might already have 4 pop anyway, so everyone can build the second one. Free Imperial Cities then becomes a hypothetical bonus for smaller cities, with practical benefits that are only felt in higher population cities.

Up until now I believed that only the Germans could start building districts immediately, which would have been a constantly present bonus.

The second district may not be that easy to build right when you want it. A settler reduces your population again by 1. I can see Germany's ability being quite good in the capitol and the second city as well because of that. Especially if your starting location isn't the best concerning food (but good on production, like Greece who seems to have a hill starting bias).
I've seen streams where I though 'now is the time for another district' but it wasn't possible due to the population limit. But we'll have to see when we play how often that's the case when we know how to play good and plan ahead.