Expansion vs Infrastructure

[Artifex1]

Do you expand with settlers non stop until there is no more land to expand to or is it good to take break to build infrastructure? How many cities is good before you stop and start building more units and districts?

 

[OranHarken]

I spam settlers until there is nowhere for the AI to forward settle anywhere near me. When I can start smacking down industrial and commerce districts I can easily catch up.

 

[Roxlimn]

In general, I expand to 5-7 cities preferentially, if the dirt is good. That means I have the Amenities and there's fresh water around. Making a Settler early only to have a permanently small city only makes sense if you're Germany and even then the cost could be too much. I simply don't have the patience to manage more than 10-12 cities so my second wave usually takes me to that number of cities.

 

[JosephC]

I expand in waves, alternating Settler production policy with Builder production policy or something like urban planning. So between expansion waves I build up a little bit of infrastructure or military if there's going to be someone in my way for my next expansion wave..

As soon as my latest towns could build a settler in a reasonable amount of time, I switch back to expansion. Building a settler from nearly every city once I switch the civic. It becomes a little mini-game to time my civic "research" with my expansion rate, or the other way around.

 

[PendragonWRB]

Every game I have played so far I have completely taken out AIs as I didn't want to have multiple fronts to deal with. The problem is without puppet cities in the game, it gets more and more tedious. My last game I finally went for a science victory which I found even more tedious than a religious victory. I could not even make all the traders to fill all the trader slots I had and every turn it took SO many clicks just to get SOMETHING building in all the cities and keep all the traders running. And I only play on small.

My question is, how far do you need to expand to assure victory and does that change with what victory condition you are going for? I enjoy the beginning of the game, but they seem to take forever to finish, and I play on quick speed.

 

[Atwork]

I try to get a core three cities established as early as possible, by expansion or conquest. in those cities, I try to develop their strengths right away. Then, once my core is on its way, I turn my attention to the next round of expansion. Depending on the situation, after my core is established, I generally won't expand more than two cities at a time, since I generally focus a lot of resources (gold purchases, builders and traders) on getting new cities up and running as quickly as possible.

 

[WileyWilson]

Do you expand with settlers non stop until there is no more land to expand to or is it good to take break to build infrastructure? How many cities is good before you stop and start building more units and districts?

TL : DR
As a rough guide, in cycles of 1-3 cities. I won't expand until I have enough military to defend all my existing cities, and I won't expand again until I have additional military to protect the next set of cities.

Longer version
It'll depend on the map, your Civ and starting position. A few thoughts from my last 3 Emperor / Standard map / Marathon games

1. With aggressive AI and barb camps spawning left, right and centre, I don't create another settler unless I have at least 1 melee and 1 ranged to defend it.
2. Sometimes I go perma-war after building 2-3 cities and take out AI in Ancient/Classical era on my continent before I meet AI on the other continent. All cities produce military and I forego infrastructure until the continent is mine
3. Sometimes I turtle with 2-3 cities, build infrastructure and see how it pans out

My current fav civ is Aztecs, as it allows me to go full military but still capture builders for improvements / district building.

• Eagle Warriors last until Muskets; no need for swordsman/iron. Zero upkeep cost, so you don't need to worry about gold
• EW strength scales +1 with every unique luxury gained
• EW capture builders (~67%) chance
• Builders can build any district in 5 turns - doesn't matter what era, what civics you've learned or how many techs you've got (micromanagement is a pain though)