Establishing Cities

[Nonexistant]

I have been playing for about a month now, and I continually start games over and over. I have been playing on chieftain, and have trouble establishing cities. I am trying to only put cities in places with resources, or good terrain. This usually lets the AI settle inside my borders, and leaves my cities cut off from my capital. Does anyone have a good city placement strategy, am I just being to picky? Should you build crappy cities just to keep your borders sealed? What about creating cities just to get resources far from your empire, would an outpost be better? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't played Civilization II, I did play Civ I for a while back when it first came out, but I could easy storm the map with military units, and win early. I never tried playing a slow game, with diplomacy and research. Thanks!

 

[Nonexistant]

One last thing. Does anyone have game settings they use to play frequently. I usually use just the default setup of Standard Map Size, Mid Continents, Roaming BArbarians, and middle everything else. Does playing on the monarch difficulty, make it easier to trade with other civs? What is a good map size to allow me too build the intial 15-20 cities without being harassed by neighbors to early on? I usually run into my neighbors after I have 3-4 cities, and then I begin to run out of room after about 7-8 cities, and end up fighting wars for land, and because my culture is usually 5 to 7 times that of the closest competitor....

 

[Ranges]

I have some suggestions for you;

-keep your cities close.. You dont need that much space between them, and a tightly built empire is a lot easier to defend.

-dont go to war to get new cities, go for a cultural takeover. This will allso give you an intact city.. That helps a lot.

About the map settings;
i usually play on large archipelago maps with a lot of land.
But i like islands..

Most important rule; make sure that everybody on the continent is either dead or small. You dont need big neighbours.

Hope this helps.

Greets,
-Ranges

 

[dizidave]

First, personally i use the Huge map....i just like longer games.

The key in the very start of the game is expand expand expand.

Dont discount locations just because they lack a resource or a luxury.

myself, i like to establish cities anywhere where i either get special things (like resources or lux) or things like food bonuses/commerce bonuses.

More importantly IMHO is balance.....Only establish a city in a 'flat' area if there are great gains(ie loads of special tiles), otherwise youl suffer bigtime on production.

For me, id rather have more hills/mountains in my catchment than flat land, but u must get the balance. 50/50 is fine.(too many hills = no growth, too flat = no production)

If you expand by these rules (ie generally a good city spot) instead of just going for luxuries and resources then you benefit in a few ways.

1) The time it takes to scout the resources some distance away, by this time you could have established a city and it could be size 4 or so.

2) By building in good locations you ensure the cities survival and usefulness as a productive city aswell as providing a bridge between resources etc.

3)there is NO substitute for population, simple as that.


Just remember that in the early days, all those turns wasted on your scouts just exposing the map, or your settler wandering round looking for resources, a city could be well onits way.

 

[Sam_Catchem]

In Monarch you can get boxed in real quick. Taking over with strictly culture is no sure fire way to gain real estate. Taking over with culture does not seem to be a pure science. I recommend switching to a high tax rate..do not worry about science. Build barracks, temples, and a huge military. Find your weakest neighbor with the right resources...and take him down but not out. Sue for peace and get all his tech, money, workers..everything you can get. I think the game in the higher levels make an ancient war more likely. I have been playing monarch for 2-3 weeks now..and I usually end up in an Ancient war..cause the AI spread so quickly and I get boxed in. Territory is a huge factor in this game..huge.

 

[menelaus]

I prefer to play on a huge map, 4 billion years old, warm, wet climate, and large continents.

I love the large continent part later in the game. Once you get those railroads built, you can move across half the world in one turn... all of your cities, in effect, are on the front lines for wars! Just try doing THAT with a navy (wimpy, measly 3-7 space moves/turn at best). Too bad the ships aren't capable of more, or I might play the archipelago and islands more often.

 

[Byzama]

Most of the time I try to build citys in grassland or plains. Also I build citys near hills and mountains. If necesary, I build citys in desert or jungle. One thing that also means much is if there is resource or other bonuses; wines, gems, furs etc.

For the other hand this way you won't have many citys but you just have to make sacrafices.

Dog is men best friend and Doberman understood that. --- Where the hell I get this sentances??
Dunno. --- Answer to that.

 

[Nonexistant]

Thank you all for your help. What I gather is that I should keep the cities as close as possible, and on decent terrain. I will try playing on a large map tonight, Thanks again!