Expansive - a misnomer?

[MrCynical]

I'm playing monarch at the moment and I'm still not finding health the limiting factor in growth. Unhappiness always seems to kick in earlier unless it's surrounded by jungle and floodplain. I avoid jungle like the plague, and floodplain cities generally have enough food that the health penalty isn't a major problem. I find the cheap granaries far more useful, and is the only reason I rank it (just) above organized.

 

[Phyr_Negator]

Peter:
Expansive+Philosophic=tonz of GP's

 

[Astax]

Well this isnt a game of what was as much as what could be. Maybe those leaders did one thing to which you can apply the trait. Maybe they built one big city or built a city where no one else thought a big city might be possible. Or maybe whe just needed a different trait mix.

 

[Padmewan]

"Fecund" might be a better term for it. But I will say one way that Expansive truly IS expansive is that because of the +2 health, you can chop down 5 forests and still be on an even plane with your competitors in the early game, helping to fuel quick warrior/settler land grabs... to the point where you also have to be Organized or start dipping into the red... hence the Romans are the most "expansive," if they start with lotsa forests nearby.

 

[Ray Patterson]

OK, been experimenting with it and I don't like the results. Say you want a city to grow really fast, such as this one:

then you can see what's happening, right? because of the +2 health bonus, health is indeed not yet a problem, but happiness soon is. The difference is already pretty big. But: if I connect the pigs & corn, I get another +3 health (1 extra because of the granary)! So, build a city next to more luxury resources you'd say. Yes but here's the thing: luxury resources provide little or no food bonus. So in the early game, expansive is not going to help your cities grow much.

edit: okay, except for floodplains.

 

[Hypnotoad]

I play on Emperor and generally go for cultural victories (so I have a lot of temples) and health is always my limiting factor, even when I'm not around flood plains or jungles.

 

[RoddyVR]

i've never had happyness be a problem before health after i research calendar. there are so many happy resourses that open up once you have calendar, and then there's the markets and forges that make most of the happy resourses double their effectiveness, and temples are always an easy sourse of a few extra happy faces. then once i get drama, happyness is never an issue. if too many cities are bordering on unhappyness i just dump another 10% into culture, and all my cities gain another 2 or 3 happy faces (1 from the culture, 1 from theatre and sometimes one from colloseum)

happiness and health both become an issue at about 25 population for me. but by that time, its only realy GP specializing cities that need to grow any more and the drama national wonder takes care of happiness probelms for one city completely, and who'd realy want more then one super GP city.