How do you pick sites for Cities?

[Esperr]

For real citys its basically production. I rarely settle just for a lux, you get plenty passivly. Good campus or CH spots help, but production is key or else its going to be slow. Food isnt that important, as most citys hit the cap pretty early anyway amd a granary always gets them to 5. Settling on good housing it good for the first citys but starts becoming irrelevant pretty fast.

 

[halfhalfharp]

Very civ dependent, although there are some general features to mind. But I suppose the above posts listed better than me.

I am listing some specific civs that need careful placements.

For civs that need river bonus (Egypt, France, Germany for the commercial hub): settle on luxury resources near river to save the space of river banks.

For civ that needs sea resources (Indonesia): Ofc, as many sea resources as possible, and remember to settle on luxury to save land space.

America(national park dependent): click 3, and view the appeals on each tile. Decide where you will place the national park and settle the city near it.

Japan: Dun mind the resources, try to put your districts together to boost the bonuses.

Nubia: Deserts and mine resources, very essential. If you cant have both, choose deserts and plant the pyramids around your districts.

 

[Mozzington]

There's a recently released video about this on YouTube. I found it interesting. Never really considered settling on luxuries but it's made clear here why it can be a good idea and it's changed my opening settlements that's for sure.

 

[Sherlock]

Here's how you know you suck at placing cities - after you've placed a city and you have to pick something to build and you have no idea if it's going to take 12 turns or 30 to build something until you look.

 

[Sherlock]

There's a recently released video about this on YouTube. I found it interesting. Never really considered settling on luxuries but it's made clear here why it can be a good idea and it's changed my opening settlements that's for sure.

Thanks for the recommendation, that's the best 'how to play CiVI' video I've ever seen.

 

[Zenstrive]

With Cree's Mekewap, the civ can settle anywhere there is bonus or luxury resources, nice to get few era points of settling on deserts and tundras, which are mostly disregarded by the AIs.
But I mostly try to find stones for stonehenges and stone circles for faith generations, and woods, and some luxury and resources. Plain hills are great starting city spot, but try to get close to river or lake or coast first.
As Cree, I tend to chop woods and rainforests too now. They can be replaced by mekewaps and mines later.

 

[Scaramanga]

There are a lot of variables but some playthroughs I like to find harbor spots with two sea resources.

 

[Karpius]

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

Not sure I understand this. I have played a number of games without conquest but always managed to generate plenty of both to satisfy either the culture or science victory conditions.

I always start my first city right where the settler starts - no matter what. After that it is generally situational without any regard to 'future' things the citizens would have no knowledge of yet. It is hardly optimal play gamewise, but more immersive for me.

Historically, city growth tended to be a haphazard affair based on the needs and desires of the current population. So yes, I generally follow a haphazard pattern as well.

I am sure anyone reviewing my city placement and subsequent district placement would think I was as bad as the AI.

 

[BenitoChavez]

I saw a really good tutorial on youtube the other day about city placements. The video is specifically about starting locations but I think a lot of it is applicable to all cities. It is kind of long so I'll summarize the main points here, but I recommend watching the whole thing because he explains it much better than I ever could.

• Housing is important. Settling by fresh water (rivers, lakes) is best followed by salt water.
• When you settle on a tile, the minimum yield you get from the city center tile is 2 food, 1 prod. If the tile has any yields beyond that those get added to your city center tile's yield. For example settling on a flatlands plains (1 food, 1 prod) yields 2 food, 1 prod after settling. Settling on a plains hill (1 food, 2 prod) yields 2 food, 2 prod after settling.
• It's generally best to settle on a plains hill or a luxury for the reason above. You get more yields out of your city center tile. Settling on a luxury has the additional bonuses of applying amenities right away, or you can sell it to an AI, and frees up a tile in your city that can be used for districts, wonders, etc.
• Look at the terrain in the first two rings around your city. The third ring takes too long for your borders to expand to so you won't get a lot of value out of those tiles for a long time.
• Hills and forests/rainforest are good for production and chops. Tundra and Desert are really bad because of the lower yields.

Edit: @Mozzington already posted this video. That's what I get for not reading the thread.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I saw a really good tutorial on youtube the other day about city placements. The video is specifically about starting locations but I think a lot of it is applicable to all cities. It is kind of long so I'll summarize the main points here, but I recommend watching the whole thing because he explains it much better than I ever could.

• Housing is important. Settling by fresh water (rivers, lakes) is best followed by salt water.
• When you settle on a tile, the minimum yield you get from the city center tile is 2 food, 1 prod. If the tile has any yields beyond that those get added to your city center tile's yield. For example settling on a flatlands plains (1 food, 1 prod) yields 2 food, 1 prod after settling. Settling on a plains hill (1 food, 2 prod) yields 2 food, 2 prod after settling.
• It's generally best to settle on a plains hill or a luxury for the reason above. You get more yields out of your city center tile. Settling on a luxury has the additional bonuses of applying amenities right away, or you can sell it to an AI, and frees up a tile in your city that can be used for districts, wonders, etc.
• Look at the terrain in the first two rings around your city. The third ring takes too long for your borders to expand to so you won't get a lot of value out of those tiles for a long time.
• Hills and forests/rainforest are good for production and chops. Tundra and Desert are really bad because of the lower yields.

Edit: @Mozzington already posted this video. That's what I get for not reading the thread.

This was a great video. I'd note, though, that while he did talk about settling by water, he was also focused on analyzing the best position for your starting city.

After the first two cities, which you want to grow quickly to get the boost for Early Empire, I don't find water to be particularly important. In practice, I seem to do better fitting an extra city into the available space, say by getting 5 cities into an area where I could only fit 4 if I worried about water access.

I haven't completed a lot of games post R&F, and getting a city up to a population of 10 is more important now with the updated Rationalism card. Also, if you're trying to Loyalty-flip, you want higher pop cities on your borders. So the developers have taken a couple of steps in the right direction towards encouraging higher pop cities. More cities still seem to be better than big cities, however.