Early Game Happy Cap & City Specialization

[SteelCityBlade]

Happy Cap

In the early game cities have very low Happy Caps, around the 4 or 5 mark. Other than Gold and a Religion, how to people go about increasing the happy cap of their cities. I can cope with the unhappy citizens due to whipping because they go after a few turns, but there is no point (as far as I can see) in letting your cities grow to be unhappy cities as the unhappy people might as well not be there. You just end up with slave revolts and losing gold.

So, for example in my current game I have a Happy Cap of 5 in my capital with ocean, grassland a 4 food tiles (corn, pigs, crab, clam). This seems to be a good GP Farm site. Would I be best growing to 5 and then churning out workers & settlers, or build a Library and run a couple of scientists to get an early tech boost. Being quite new to the game I have never attempted to run a SE and as I am only playing at Noble I think that the CE should be more than good enough match for the AI. Is it a case of beeline to HR and spamming units in your cities so that you can work more tiles/run more specialists? What do I do when I switch out of HR later in the game and my happy cap tanks?? There are so few buildings in the early game that allow happiness.

City Specialization

I really struggle with creating Production Cities. I know to be looking out for Hills, but you very rarely get enough food to work all of the mines. How do people build up Production Powerhouses????

Cheers

Steve

 

[Bostock]

You can beeline to HR, or you can build the Pyramids and run Representation. That only raises the cap by 3 (and only for the x biggest cities, x depends on map size), but that's enough for early on when all you have is a library anyway. Meanwhile, representation gives you 3 extra beakers per specialist, including settled great people.

To make a good early (pre-bio, preferably pre-CS) production city, just be sure to get that extra little bit of food into the bfc, that's all there is to it.

 

[kossin]

Happy Cap

In the early game cities have very low Happy Caps, around the 4 or 5 mark. Other than Gold and a Religion, how to people go about increasing the happy cap of their cities. I can cope with the unhappy citizens due to whipping because they go after a few turns, but there is no point (as far as I can see) in letting your cities grow to be unhappy cities as the unhappy people might as well not be there. You just end up with slave revolts and losing gold.

If you are near jungle, there might always be ivory or gems - although you might need iron working for the latter. If you are further north, furs or silver is handy.
Do not grow unhappy citizens. Either work specialists, work mines (low food), build workers&settlers or whip 'em.

So, for example in my current game I have a Happy Cap of 5 in my capital with ocean, grassland a 4 food tiles (corn, pigs, crab, clam). This seems to be a good GP Farm site. Would I be best growing to 5 and then churning out workers & settlers, or build a Library and run a couple of scientists to get an early tech boost. Being quite new to the game I have never attempted to run a SE and as I am only playing at Noble I think that the CE should be more than good enough match for the AI. Is it a case of beeline to HR and spamming units in your cities so that you can work more tiles/run more specialists? What do I do when I switch out of HR later in the game and my happy cap tanks?? There are so few buildings in the early game that allow happiness.

The Pyramids are also a good way out. Running 2 scientists in early cities (BC) to gain several early Great Scientists is a very good idea. Gets you an early Academy for cottaging and prepares you for lightbulbing through Liberalism. On Noble, it depends. If you have a lot of calendar ressources, you might want to take that detour instead. Otherwise beelining monarchy as you say is imprtant for vertical growth.
Don't forget to check trades. AIs will trade their happy ressources for your health ressources.

City Specialization

I really struggle with creating Production Cities. I know to be looking out for Hills, but you very rarely get enough food to work all of the mines. How do people build up Production Powerhouses????

Cheers

Steve

Select a site with food ressources and several hills. Build 0 cottage there. Only farms and mines. Avoid plains until you can workshop (guild/chemistry/Caste System for +3) and watermills alongside rivers when you hit replaceable parts/State Property.
Just farm every grassland as a last resort.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Whip it.

Whip it good.

 

[Ultimocrat]

Using the Oracle to grab HR can be a good move if you really want to get there fast. Either build cheap units (archers, warriors) as happy garrisons, or build units that will be useful for an upcoming war (cats, swords, axes).

By the mid-game, you need to have at least conquered some happy resources -- together with happiness buildings like coliseums, theaters, temples, cathedrals, markets, etc, and a civic like rep or nationhood, you should be all right to switch out of HR.

 

[v8_mark]

Monarchy's not a long way down the tech tree, so if I'm struggling for happiness resources I'll often head there, sometimes even picking up the Oracle on the way.

There's usually at least one early happiness resource in easy reach though. If not - go into HR and spam warriors.

 

[mirthadir]

Your best shots are:
Gems/Au/Ag (scout the tundra as well)
Ivory/furs
Mids
HR
Paya (FR)
Forges
Markets

Normally you will need to use one of those to get the happy cap higher; alternatively you go for some type of ICS economy (normally using the whip) and find ways to make it profitable (GLH helps; as does taking out an AI or three.

Remember also that while you may lack happy resources, the AI likely has one or two that they will trade for surplus health ones. Be wise about your trades, but those can be lifesavers.

Very, very rarely, it is worth it for an early calendar shot (and then almost always for a MoM/Astro shot).

 

[futurehermit]

Search for my thread on city specialization. I think you might find it helpful.

If you need HR for early (which is often the case) then you will likely need to stay in it until you unlock more around midgame. Usually this comes around the time of astronomy, where you can trade for overseas resources. At this time you will likely also have the infrastructure in place (forge, market, theatre, etc.). By the midgame, you could also afford to run the culture slider at 10-20% if really necessary to cope with after switching out of HR.

"Fortunately" (i.e., game design), there are not any alternatives to HR until around the time that I am describing (Rep->Constitution, PS->Fascism, US->Democracy)

 

[Nissin]

If you're still new stick to CE and eventually plan one of your cities to be a GPF too. Stick to settlers/workers while teching to HR.

 

[BarrageQueen]

Gold, silver, gems, fur, ivory.

All these resources are readily utilized with little research. Settle early with these in mind. I sometimes get a "junk" city online early as a happy cap solution. If you can get a fur and gold in your resource network early even if you can't work the extra commerce they bring due to them being in a food poor city, the benefits of being able to work additional tiles in your other food rich cities can be very worthwhile.

 

[FidelZandro]

I guess whipping is the answer if you have lots of food but no happyness-resources.
HR is the way to go in that case.