Do you overlap your cities?

[Superior Man]

At first, I tried to avoid that to be able to max my cities out. Then I built cities near existing ones if there was a special resource. Now I even build them between my towns if there is enough room and only a few tiles overlap at all, like 3-4. Note that I talk about a "regular" playing style, not the Infinite City Sleaze, where the answer is obvious, I guess.

 

[Magic_gorter]

In the beginning I have more overlap then later in the game. I usually play early landing, but when playing early conquest I have a lot more overlap (like 10). Having the cities maxed out will cost more turns in the beginning which I need at the end for a good landing result.

 

[Terrapin]

I play a perfectionist game. My SSC never overlaps. My other cities overlap occasionally. I try to get every square I can reach into a city radius, even the lame ones like desert, swamps and jungle b/c I can fix them up with engineers later.

 

[FoxURA]

I typically only built cities with overlap when I was filling space left open by fully developed late-game cities.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

I do my best to avoid overlap as much as possible. The only time I consider it is when an overseas A.I. will try to sieze productive coast on my continent.

 

[CSDanger]

No never. I want that all of my citys have enough place that every field is free in my city that a citizen can work on it. I think only then you can get big citys because maybe you got a city who is so much overlapped by other citys that your city can´t growing up because your most citizen can´t work because the fields are under control by other citys.

 

[aberwak]

I try my best not to, but if there's a really good location that requires some (up to 3 squares, probably) overlap, I'll build there.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

There are many goals to optimize when it comes to building cities and it is impossible to optimize all of them at the same time; some come at the expense of others.

1. Build as many cities as possible
2. Build cities as quickly as possible
3. Have max number of tiles available in a city (no overlap)
4. Use all available land and as much available water as possible.

Goals 1, 2, and 4 work well together and are the essence of ICS strategy.
Achieving goal 3 detracts from all the others.
It has been shown that ICS beats other strategies most of the time.
Many, myself included, do not enjoy it and rather build big magnificent cities.
Recently, I have been experimenting with the idea of having a mix of both kinds.
Some cities take advantage of all the tiles and are grown to mega cities; while others, from start, are destined to be minor cities. The Early landing strategy advocates a version of this idea as well.

 

[Weird_bug]

I never overlap. I probably would play better if I did.
I do not care.

 

[Ace]

It all depends on what kind of game you are playing. If you are trying for an early conquest, build the cities close together to cut down traval time, besides, you cities won't have time to grow large enough to need all 21 hexes. On the other hand, if your playing for a high score game, you want to space your cities out so that most of them can use all 21 hexes for max food and/or production. This kind of game uses all available turns to grow your civ to highest possible score.

That is the beauty of Civ II, it is very flexible and provides much enjoyable game time for all.

 

[Rayxes]

I try to avoid overlap.
But it is generally unavoidable.
It occurs when
- there are special resources x 3 or 4 that require an overlapped position
- when I need a special location for a Canal between bodies of water
- when I'm filling up open spots after the first cities are fully developed.
- when I'm setting up a special SDI base city to protect several cities.
or
- when I need a buffer to jam an opponents expansion into my territory.

 

[Anithraldur]

Mostly it varies from map to map and how much habitable space is on it. On most random maps this usually isn't a problem. In the cases where it does happen, I tend to give preferences based on the city's role. If I've founded a city at a resource confluence I usually give it precedence. In extreme cases I even assign certain "kinds" of cities unique symbols that I append to their names to signify a kind of "duchy" status; i.e., their only purpose is to act as a buffer or industrial center or food caravan resource for the major centers.

 

[Millman]

Don't have time for conquest and it's not that hard anymore. I never overlapped because I play for highscore. Conquest or something else is when you would 'want' to overlap I guess.

And that's the most appropriate answer I hope.

 

[small lawe]

Generally I don't overlap. Only if there is a resource that I want will I do it. You only lose a few tiles, but that can add up to alot of food, trade etc. so I think you should try overlap in small amounts.
AI players are more than happy to overlap cities and a few times when I wasn't paying attention they snuck a city between mine. Of course the AI city only had about 3 tiles available before I destroyed it.

Can we add this to the list of AI stupidities?

 

[AZA]

Since i play at diety my first few cities generally stay within 3 spaces. Yes they have some overlap but by keeping them close i can quickly move units between them on roads to suppress unrest or reinforce a city during attacks. Once i have chariots i can increase that distance up to 6 spaces. Later with railroads it is no longer a concern.
When choosing a city site i nearly always touch an ocean so i can gain resourses later using harbors and off shore platforms.
AZA

 

[jmassy]

I can't stand any overlap...

 

[Spoonwood]

When I stopped playing civ a while back I didn't have overlap (or very little). When I started playing again, I read about the "smallpox" (ics) strategy and use that in civ 2... with one exception... I use cxxc around my "wonder" city so it can use all the tiles it can get.

 

[neutrino]

I try not to overlap my cities, unless ...

1. There is one or more special resources that will more than compensate for allowing some overlaps.

2. If I am stuck on a smaller or narrow landmass and it is impossible to zone cities to not overlap, or I will end up having too few cities.

I think it is no big deal to allow some overlaps, if you have a large number of cities. (Though specialist cities should avoid overlapping as they should have as much zones as possible to maximize their growth.) On the other hand, captured cities can be pain in the ass as they may have a bit too much overlapping (the AI do not seem to optimize city zoning too well) ... unghhhhhh.

 

[Perfection]

Never. It is an abomination.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I usually have quite a bit of overlap. I don't like wasting land. And in the later game you get more shields from the ocean squares (or sky, if playing ToT), so there is usually enough to compensate.