Force-grow cities?

[SmartMuffin]

Hey guys, I came to ask about a strategy that I employ but I haven't heard anyone else talk about, which leaves me to assume it's probably stupid.

I almost always have all of my cities emphasize food until they hit the happiness limit. I guess my theory is that regardless of what that city is going to specialize in, higher population helps, and that getting to the highest population possible as quickly as possible will ensure I get the most I can out of this city.

Is this a good idea? Or should I just let the city grow on its own? When are the appropriate times to use the "emphasize" buttons?

 

[Seven05]

Like any strategy I guess it depends on the exact situation. If you were getting rushed by the Romans and still had your cities emphasizing growth you wouldn't be able to build replacement units as fast as you may need them. Or, if few/none of your food producing tiles produced any commerce you may run yourself out of money unless at least one city was running normally.

I do emphasize growth once I have a few core cities up and running if they produce enough food for that to make a difference and they don't need anything critical at the time. But I would never do it just to do it.

Maybe you should test it out once. Play a two-player hotseat game on a balanced or mirrored duel map using the same leader for each team. With one of them try "forced growth" and with the other try a balanced growth and see what happens.

 

[SmartMuffin]

I guess I should have mentioned that I only play SP (still messing around on Noble, will move up when I get better) and not MP...

 

[Seven05]

You don't have to play MP, play a hot-seat game against yourself to test it out. You'll be able to see the results of each method right there as it's happening.

 

[TCGTRF]

Obviously, you don't want to do this while you're making workers, settlers or anything you need quickly in the early game. You're also giving the other Civs a leg up on Research. On the other hand, when you need the cities to be producing something else, they're now ready. It'd probably require a lot of micromanagement on what you have your workers build, but might be interesting combined with an early chop strategy.

WHEN would you figure on doing this?

Oh, and the hotseat mirror map would be a great way to test this.

Tom

 

[DaveMcW]

Emphasize food until the happiness limit is the way to go for long-term success.

Remember to use some of that food to build a worker and improve your tiles.

 

[azzkicar]

I am contempting the same thing (emphasis food to hit happiness limit), so your idea isn't dumb at all (at least to me). I will also try it out and see what happens.

As stated before, obviously don't emphasize food when it's building workers / settlers. And in wartime you may not want to do this either. But other than that, I think it has merits that we should consider.

 

[SmartMuffin]

Why not emphasize food when building workers/settlers? Food still contributes to their production, does it not?

 

[Mordraken]

Why not emphasize food when building workers/settlers? Food still contributes to their production, does it not?

Cities won't grow as you're producing Workers/Settlers, so the benefits of the extra food don't help the city at all.

This is an interesting idea... also it could be good to get the city up to a size (say 5-7) where it will be more productive, then shift the focus to commerce or production.

 

[Oggums]

Yes it does, but an irrigated grassland wont give you the same production as a mined hill, for example. If you want to use the governor, you should turn off all the emphasize buttons while you build settlers/workers.

 

[fornost]

I've thought about this, but never actually tried it. To me anyways, when chopping a settler/worker, it would make sence to emphasize food since you are already bringing in the hammers from the forest. I'm not completely sure if you need an even amount of hammers and food though, because if you didnt, the mine would still be better.

If you did need an even amount of both though, it could be an interesting thing to try in the very early game, but once you start producing other things, you wont have the mine up as quickly, which would be a disadvantage even if your city was growing a bit faster.

 

[Oggums]

I think it's 2 food = 1 hammer for settler/worker, but don't quote me on that.

If I'm chopping, I'll usually emphasize commerce for quicker research.

 

[DangerousMonkey]

Well, enphasizing growth over production is basicly giving up short term productivity for long term productivity. This is a perfectly viable strategy to use in some of your cities. For example, if you have few strong cities that have already reached thier happiness limit you can afford to push growth strongly in a new satalite city and let your established cities pick up the slack. The "heavy growth" option also works great if you have some forests nearby to chop-rush a few important improvements, like a granery or a lighthouse, to help your city get big fast.

I would say this strategy is the best way to go for newly built satalite cities, unless you absolutely need some units right away to fight a defensive war or something. Just remember not to overdo it and let yourself get weak.

 

[Zombie69]

When making settlers/workers, 1 food = 1 hammer