feeding citizens

[FakePlasticLove]

I am a fairly new civ player, (test of time) and have a quick question. How do i improve my cities so that i don't end up with starving citizens and eventually famine? Is there any other way apart from granaries? I know that the Pyramids are a good help, but is there anything else I should know?

 

[Sodak]

Do you irrigate the land tiles your citizens work on? That's the first thing that comes to mind. You can only starve with a negative food intake - you'll need a 3+ food tile to make up for a mountain (0 food) or a 2+ tile to make up for a hill.

Build harbors if you work ocean squares.

If your starving city is an exception, send it a food caravan from a city with a surplus of wheatsheaves.

Switching from monarchy to republic (or higher) gov't causes settlers and engineers to consume 2 sheaves instead of 1. This could send a city into the hole if you don't pay attention.

 

[Sevorak]

Hmm, so if I understand correctly, your problem is that you eventually end up with starving citizens and famine? Granaries won't help that - all Granaries really do is help your city grow faster through foodbox filling - and that isn't exactly the most common form of pop growth

In Civilization, a city generally won't grow to the point where it has famine until late in the game, when everything's all farmed out and it's a hunger of 1 which can be easily fixed with 1 food caravan. Usually, city growth stops when the food runs out. The only things I can think of that you might be doing that cause early hunger and famine would be:

1) Building a lot of settlers (not a bad thing!) but switching to Republic, Communism, Fundamentalism, or Democracy before sufficent terrain improvement has been done. That kind of switch will instantly double food upkeep for settlers, which can hit a city hard if it's not ready. Even one settler in these governments can slap a size 1 or size 2 city into instant hunger if the city's not built on a grassland or 3+ food special, or doesn't have a 3+ food special within easy reach.

2) Building cities on mountains or other bad terrain. Don't do this. Making cities on Swamps, Jungle, or Forest is slightly less bad, since a settler can change the terrain within a reasonable amount of time. Stay off Tundra, Desert, and Mountain - it's not worth it, you won't be able to change the terrain until Explosives and engineers. Mountain particularly, since it'll only be good after 50 engineer-turns of transformation.

3) Sending too many food caravans to another city. I don't know why you might do this, but it is a possible reason.

If you're talking about late game and those size 38-40 cities with one hunger, just don't farm one square or patch it up with a food caravan from a city that also has 1 hunger. The sending city will get hunger 2, eventually lose a citizen and stabilize at no surplus, while the receiving city will get one food and stabilize as well.

-Sev

 

[starlifter]

How do i improve my cities so that i don't end up with starving citizens and eventually famine?

In addition to what has been discussed:

1. Early game - Get into Monarch ASAP. You Grassland & Plains (& Hills/Tundra) cities will gain one food from Irrigation.

2. Rearrange your settlers... if one city has a surplus of +4 in Monarchy, ye another is -1 with 2 settlers, move the 2 settlers to the +4 city.

3. Found cities. If settlers are sucking your food, found some cities to stop the food loss.

3. Join settlers. If you want to increase a city size, join the setter to a city. This works up to size 8. If you have unused irrigated grassland (because your city is not large enough to use it yet), the increased food will be +1 when you join.

4. Rearrange your citizens. I assume you know about this, though.

 

[SINISTER1974]

And if your city is starving really bad and it will be some time before you can help the city out--just build a caravan and keep pumping them into the city every 2 or 3 rds--1 caravan will do--dont send 4 or 5 per round or it will be a waste. But some times when i am caught up in battles or having problems in my civ i dont have time to fix them all ( i play a lot of mp games) so i used 1-3 cities to do nothing but pump out caravans-they help build cities faster, build wonders, trade, and to help a starving city out for awhile. But never leave the city alone just because u use caravans--always do land imprvements----or better yet-dont allow your cities to grow past a certain pop----keep them at 12 till u can make sure you have enough food for the people:crazyeyes

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by Sevorak
2) Building cities on mountains or other bad terrain. Don't do this. Making cities on Swamps, Jungle, or Forest is slightly less bad, since a settler can change the terrain within a reasonable amount of time. Stay off Tundra, Desert, and Mountain...

Actually, this should be clarified. This is good practice in some circumstances, particularly if you build on a food special - bananas, spice, pheasant, ox, oasis. Spice also provides hefty trade, that's my favorite. Also, most of the rough terrains provide better defense (not desert or tundra or ice). Even the specials that don't give good food production can be good city spots provided they have good food squares within the city radius.

 

[starlifter]

Even the specials that don't give good food production can be good city spots provided they have good food squares within the city radius.

Good point! In fact, under Demcracy/Republic, all that is necessary in a size 3 city is the extra food (+1, assuming the happiness is met).... then the city will grow and grow (build improvements as necessary, of course). A harbor is an easy way to do this! Then, later on, the city can have it's lousy terrain transformed. And in the meanwhile, the city has been a powerhouse, even on a +1 food diet!