How do you pick sites for Cities?

[Sherlock]

Time for me to back up here and try to get better at the basics. I'm thinking I could be a lot better at deciding where to put cities.

Right now I tend to put a lot of weight on 'how many resources are three tiles away'. But of course those resources that are far away can't be had till your either grow or buy your way into them. In other words.... that's a 'nice thing to have in the future' but it doesn't do you much good when your city is younger.

I'm thinking of quitting my current game because I have one decent city and a fair amount of trash cities.

So... what factors do you consider when deciding where to put your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, cities?

 

[bonafide11]

I am curious to see the responses of this too. I could probably do better at my city placement at times.

I find the recommended city locations annoying because they seem to be not ideal spots usually, but I still can't help but put some weight into them. I think "Well clearly their algorithim knows what I should be looking for so this must be a good city spot", even though it's often not a great spot. Plus half the time I move my settler to the recommended location, and when he gets there, the spot has changed to a different location. I sort of wish I could just turn that option off (maybe I can and I don't know it).

 

[greggbert]

First few cities A river spot with access to as many resources as possible is usually as complicated as I get. Mouth of a river is even better. Make sure you have a good early source of hammers like a hill or forest. In the early game your city center is more important. Once you hit 3-4 cities you want to found your cities based on the districts you will build. Avoid swamp and jungle areas unless you're settler has a builder or two backing him up.

The second consideration is what kind of city you need and where the districts would go. So for example if you need an industrial city, look for a tile with a bunch of adjacent hills then mark that as your industrial zone then from there try to pick a city center that's adjacent to that one, on a river if you can.

If you're looking for religious, then find a mountain, find where your holy site will be and then try to find a river tile adjacent to that. For a new CIV6 player it's really hard to project your districts but once you play a few games it will become automatic.

And yes, the recommendations from the AI Stink just ignore that.

 

[chazzycat]

Mainly I am looking for balanced food & production potential, i.e. good farmland and hills in the same location. Most other factors are secondary.

However when I say food & production, this includes choppable features and harvestable resources. Especially with Magnus, this might be the #1 thing to look for. Chopping is just so good.

 

[OneMoreTurnPerTile]

The algorithm for suggesting city placement is curious to be sure...

I'm also interested to see what others say.

A few factors I use:

* Are there two, or more amenities with 3 tiles?
* If I'm forward settling into a negative loyalty space, will I be attacking the Civ in question soon?
* Is there a strategic resource I can Denny the AI?
* I play exclusively continents and always want at least one port with decent production.
* If I'm not trying for domination, I want a city on the outskirts of my empire where the choke points are.

 

[aguliondew]

1. Spots with water access
2. Unique luxuries resources within 1-2 tiles of the city
3. Forward settle the AI so I can lock them out of some of the land on my side of the map. I will place my first city up to 8 space from my capital just to lock out the rest of the land for myself.
4. Normally place cities 3-4 spaces apart.
5. If it is a late game city I look for strategic resources.

Do not worry about district placements until you have cities. Its easy to lose a good city spot to the AI on emperor plus difficulties because you do not build settlers fast enough.

 

[Rotomagus]

things to look for
1. resources
2. fresh water or
3. aquaeduct range
4. strategic placing
5. wonder/district placing
in no particular order

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

First three or four cities, priority (in order) is:

1. grassland hills
2. forests/stone
3. as close as possible to the nearest ai (claim as much territory as feasible)
4. either a mountain (for campus placement) or river (for early commercial hub)


After that:

1. as close as possible to the nearest ai (claim as much territory as feasible)
2. whatever position maximizes the number of cities I can pack into my available territory
3. if in a brand new area (new island or unclaimed tundra as examples), then any new strategic or luxury resources I don't already have

 

[Disgustipated]

I like a good mix of production and food. I never understood focusing on solely on one or the other. I like my cities to be able to build things. Like the OP I look for resources, but I also look for future sources of production. Luxury resources I most definitely look for to keep happiness decent. Unless settling a city just for a strategic resources, I also look for sources of food. I admit I don't plan wonder or district placing at this stage, perhaps I should. I base what wonders and districts I build based on what type of cities I have. I usually have a large enough assortment of cities I can get what I want.

 

[BrotherInJah]

First City usually looking for lux or two, good food tile that frees my other citizens for hammers (cogs).

Second i'm usually trying to block other civ with semi-forward settling, but still with reasonable food/production output and at least one lux plus some mountains for adjacency bonus for districts.

Third should come almost at the same time (one settler build one bought/stolen). District placement, strategic resources.

And what applies for first three and all next, looking for civ specific traits, avoiding settling 3 tiles away from other cities (usually it's 4 to 6).

I'm not chopping so a lot of forest on riverside is always good.

Then looking for more lux/starteg, NW, just empty spots if i don't want to leave land to other civs.

 

[Stevanovic]

All the above, but chops are also super important, particularly so now that we have Magnus so I also prioritise timber, rainforest, stone and copper and never build my city on top of timber, rainforest or copper.

 

[ChocolateShake]

The first thing I think about after my capital is usually how dense I want my city spacing to be. Sometimes I'm in the mood to have cities that are spread out, other times I like to have a densely packed civ. A big part of this is also if I have great spots for my second and third cities. If that's the case, then I'll settle those first and fill in the civ later.

I'm paying more attention to amenities in rise and fall, and trying to focus more on good spots for entertainment complexes. I like to grow my cities, but I'm also starting to enjoy the charm of quaint towns that aren't huge and have 1 or 2 districts.

The most important thing for me is fresh water. I usually avoid building aqueducts early, except for coastal cities. I have noticed issues with production sometimes, so I'm more careful now to ensure that a city has at least a couple of good sources. I usually just try to have 2 production powerhouse cities, the rest just need enough to sustain themselves.

I find the recommended city locations annoying because they seem to be not ideal spots usually, but I still can't help but put some weight into them. I think "Well clearly their algorithim knows what I should be looking for so this must be a good city spot", even though it's often not a great spot. Plus half the time I move my settler to the recommended location, and when he gets there, the spot has changed to a different location. I sort of wish I could just turn that option off (maybe I can and I don't know it).

Yup I gave up on the settling algorithm a few times after moving to the recommended spot and seeing it no longer highlighted. It seems to undervalue fresh water and overvalue city spots that can support aqueducts. I've been meaning to see how closely the AI follows the algorithm.

 

[MarigoldRan]

1. # of adjacent forests.
2. # of adjacent rain forests.
3. # of harvestable resources.

Magnus Chop, FTW.

Your science and culture come from the cities you conquer, not the ones you settle.

 

[Art Morte]

I usually look mostly at the two-tile radius. It takes forever to reach the third ring without buying tiles, so I try to have good tiles within two.

I'm also not too bothered about having to build an aqueduct to get fresh water. I rather pick the "better" spot over a fresh water spot, if I can get fresh water via an aqueduct.

District placement comes third, I guess.

 

[MooFreaky]

Early on I want my cities close together for defence (both physical and loyalty based defence). What is in the 1st circle is most important (need something to give production immediately. No point having nothing but farmland within the 1st ring in my first couple expansions), 2nd circle is still important, but 3rd is usually irrelevant. Early cities will almost always be overlapping, so I can flip tiles between cities if I ever need to (very rarely happens though). I like to plonk a city down on top of a resource if possible (particularly production granting ones), because early on I am not wasting time getting too many builders, or growing my city too big. So this makes me far more productive as I can basically be working an extra tile. Your cities will rarely work all the productive tiles anyway (especially early) so maximising production early is important, and this is generally give the greatest return over the course of the game.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Initially it's all about production while being able to grow. If you're on a plains hill with a 2h3f tile in the first ring it's a beautiful thing; 2h2f tiles are great for the first couple dozen turns. Remember (especially for your first few expos) that chopping is the way to go once you tech BW. Even if there aren't good tiles to work if you have forest/jungle to chop you can make things happen FAST. That's how you overwhelm your neighbors and out-expand the ai.

 

[acluewithout]

I usually aim for 8 to 12 cities.

Three will be ‘core’ cities that will focus on victory. I look for fresh water (for at least two), good mix of production and food, and ideally a mountain because these are likely to have campuses.

Five are ‘support’ cities. Their main purpose is a trade route, gold, and maybe some luxuries or strategic resources. They don’t need fresh water, indeed I prefer if they’re coastal. They also need enough production to build what I want - so either things to chop or they need a couple of hills. I like one or two to be on a river mouth, so they can get a harbour and ch triangle.

The final four I try to get on foreign continents or otherwise use tactically.

 

[Futumch]

I'll always try to consolidate three or four cities as a core, and then strike out for the closest coast (if inland) or use natural barriers to reduce the spots for good cities. I don't worry too much about luxury positioning until I start hitting tundra and desert. Mine hills, farm flats, set up my first internal trade route to share out city growth. Pretty much the same idea as other posters above.
I will always try to have at least one mostly desert city, because when Aluminium becomes available, it spawns in the desert.

 

[RealHuhn]

In the early game, never settle a city without a good production tile in the first ring. That's the #1 mistake you can make because that city will be utterly useless for like 50 turns or so.
2nd priority should be luxuries and strategic resources. Early luxuries can be sold to boost your expansion.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

The number of Harvestable resources and features within the 1st and 2nd ring.