GamePlay.tips article : HUMANKIND - Where and When to Build Your Cities

[The_J]

I just stumbled upon this article on Twitter: https://gameplay.tips/guides/12328-humankind.html
It's not very deep, sounds all kinda obvious. Do the experienced people here still think that a beginner should read it?

 

[fortydayweekend]

It's a bit vague.

I think the key points are
- get 2 outposts in Neolithic, and 15+ tribes. If there are lots of mammoths to hunt (20 inf each) you may want to linger even longer (edited)
- 2 adjacent on the best territories (prioritise rivers and early FI expansion)
- 3rd outpost should be forward placement towards nearest neighbour / good resources / horse /copper. You want 1 of horse or copper to be in one of your claimed territories or next door - but wait until ancient before placing the outpost because it costs 20 if adjacent to your city territories, instead of 60 (edited).
- go to ancient and found capital, and immediately attach the adjacent territory. Settle scouts if needed to max out your industry pops and enough food for positive growth (but nothing else - settled pops eat more than they produce!) Growth comes from buildings at this stage, not from working farmers.
- found the 2nd city as soon as you have enough influence. Then keep claiming and attaching territories as you can
- build pottery workshop in both cities, then food and industry buildings
- 3rd city ideally by taking over an independent (to save influence)
- being 1 over the city cap is ideal (10 inf cost and cities generate much more than that)
- claim any nearby territory that has good tiles and key resources
- attach territories to the nearest city as you can (enough influence and 100% stability)
- don't worry about attaching the perfect territories to each city, you can detach and adjust later. Attach the closest if possible as it's cheaper.
- ignore civics unless they are immediately useful. 50% off founding outposts is useful, then switch to 20% off attaching
- in practice most of my cities are captured from indys or neighbours so you can't always choose placement and have to adapt to what you're given. Assimilating comes a lot later but you can swap territories around in late Medieval after you've finished expanding
- beeline +1 city cap techs if you see an opportunity to add a city, or go Persia in Classical if you have too many opportunities

 

[sic_kapkan]

- get 3 outposts in Neolithic

5+20+60=85 influence used.
2 outposts in neo, then city and can build 3rd outpost next to city for 20 influence.
85-45=40 -so much infl you save.

 

[fortydayweekend]

5+20+60=85 influence used.
2 outposts in neo, then city and can build 3rd outpost next to city for 20 influence.
85-45=40 -so much infl you save.

40 influence is 2 mammoths though

If there's enough mammoths you can have enough influence to found 2 cities with an extra territory each around turn 18-20. You might get a similar result with capital and pottery, but you'll have 4 pop instead of 20.

Edit: Sorry, I've just realised what you mean, and you're right - wait until ancient to found the outposts and they're only 20 influence instead of 60. You lose a few turns of food and industry but influence is the main bottleneck so it's worth saving.