Few questions when starting out a game...

[Singing Guy]

1) How long should I spend looking for a suitable starting city location?

2) How much overlap between cities is usually acceptable?

I'm just starting to move up to the higher levels and realizing that I'm having trouble with both. Thanks!

 

[bouncelot]

1) How long should I spend looking for a suitable starting city location?

As little as you can get away with. Don't try to find the perfect city site. Heck, I usually put my first city right on the square I start. Mind you, I play on Deity, where I start with 2 settlers - so my second city is usually very early on.

2) How much overlap between cities is usually acceptable?

Three squares or so makes no real difference in the long run. You won't be able to use all those squares until much later in the game, anyway. If you want lots more cities in the early game, you might want to have much more of an overlap. You can always switch which city is working which squares later in the game to build up some cities into industrial powerhouses and use up the citizens of the other cities as taxmen or scientists. (Note: I've only just thought of this close-build strategy, and haven't tried it).

 

[ElephantU]

1. I use a "rule of thumb" of around 8-12 turns MAX. If a decent "special terrain" is in sight at the beginning or turns up in the first few rounds I'll settle right away. Sometimes you get two settlers at the beginning, so you can explore in two directions at once or settle the first right away and explore with the second for a few rounds. The best "special terrain" is Whales, which gives 2 of food, trade and shields (in Despotism). Your primary goal should be to get city growth going as soon as possible, but not sacrifice for a bad starting point. Note that Barbs do not begin to pop up until the 16th turn, so you can take some risks with undefended cities early on.

2. Once you get used to the way cities develop in Civ2 you will begin to know what a city will probably turn out like even before it is founded. Cities with 4 tiles between them will not share any tiles; 3 tiles between will share outer radius tiles, which are usually only necessary when the city gets above size 10. The extreme is 1 tiles between them (sometimes called ICS - Infinite City Squeeze/Sprawl/Sleaze...), which would force you to keep cities below size 6 but then not require much in the way of infrastructure. The advantage of closeness is easier defense, quicker settling, more cities and less corruption, but you have less choice in terrain.

BTW, welcome to CFC!

 

[Singing Guy]

Okay, sounds great, thanks for the advice!

 

[rrhal]

This is a pattern that has minimal overlap while using all the land squares. Shown here are 3 cities (x, y, and z), o is the overlap square and c stands for center.

_xxx_
xxxxx 
xxcxxzzz
xxxxozzzz
_xxxzzczz
_yyyzzzzz
yyyyyzzz
yycyy
yyyyy
_yyy_

 

[geofelt]

I like to find a good first city site. "found in haste & repent later in the game" It needs the potential to become my super city with both some trade and some production. I like to found other cities with minimal overlap but few gaps. The AI likes to park pesky units in those gaps.

 

[PHSikes]

you could always cheat, as soon as the game starts, save, enable cheat mode and take a quick look around.

I usually go for coastal, grassland and grab an istmus (sp) if possible(save on moving ships later on).

 

[eatstatik]

Personally I plop down my capital wherever I start, provided its not in the middle of a huge swamp or arctic region, then send out a military unit asap to find a better location for your second city... I'm not one of the people that wants the capital to be the best city in my civilization, so it really doesn't matter much where its located.

 

[PHSikes]

And if you don't like the capitol where it is just move it to a more central location.

 

[The Person]

1) I usually put my capital down on the first turn. I don't think so much about location, either, since I try to make it up by building a huge empire.

2) About three squares. Two, if they are straight to the west, north, east or south. I usually try to have every grassland square on my continent inside a city radius, since the AI has an annoying tendency to put it's cities on grassland squares right outside my city radii when they are low on space.

 

[ElephantU]

Early in the game corruption and waste increases the further from your capital city. It helps to have the capital in the center of the group of early cities, rather than off to one side or all by itself. With a little analysis you can figure out where a nearby hut is located, probably even a couple special terrains. Popping a hut before settling your first city gives a 60% chance of an unsupported mercenary unit, which can continue early exploration while you settle in a good spot.