How many cities do you like to have?

[aimlessgun]

I guess this is mostly a question for builders, since on a conquest route the answer is "All of the cities, everywhere."

How many cities do you prefer to have in your empire? Not just in terms of what you think is most effective, but what is most fun for you.

Since I started playing Civ I've always liked having 7-9 cities. It seems like a good number. It's few enough that I can remember the names of all of them and what their characteristics are, and I can make up some local history and stories for all of them I also like the level of micromanagement, not too much but not too little to do.

More than 10 cities, things start to get a bit anonymous, I'll get a request to choose production and completely space out on what city that is. I'll forget to put workers on the right tiles because there are too many cities for me to bother. etc. Too few cities, and I don't feel like I have enough to do. Also, it's hard to keep up with the AI with fewer cities.

Share your thoughts!

 

[Sonereal]

I voted 2 to 4. I find that my first three or four cities always end up being more core cities and therefore my "build" cities. St. Petersburg, size 44. Moscow, size 36, Rostov, size 28 but that's ok because Rostov is cool too. After that number, I usually end up neglecting cities. Even if I just took the city and it has a lot of damaged improvements and fallout around it.

 

[blac]

I normally just build 5 cities and puppet other stuff. At that point anyways there normally isn't that many good spots left to build cities on

 

[apocalypse105]

I found only new cities if i get new luxury resources or if i really need a strategic resource...

As result i dont have that many cities but well developed cities... (And most of the time my cities pay their existence(unhappiness from number of cities) because of the luxury resources

My maximum cities in games are : 5. My cities are allways at high population...

Having fewer cities has it advantages:

-I allways have high happiness so if i want to go for domination or if i am at war i dont get many happiness problems...

-I get verry more social policies and faster because i expand slowly as result i get more bonusses

-My empire is easy to defend because my military can easy move from one place to an other.

My only problem I have sometimes in the beginning of the game is my gold... But when the game is halve way i have a good economy even better then people with more cities...

 

[wcbarney]

I almost always build 3 core cities -- sometimes 4. Then I puppet everything else, sometimes several dozen. Of course, I'm still finding my way post-patch, what with the happiness issue.

 

[Lichgate]

2-4 cities is usually plenty for a good core where you can build National Wonders and units as needed...keeps policy cost low as well. I puppet everything past 3-4 cities.

Also, with the new patch, happiness with a vast puppet empire is easily controlled by taking the honor tree. Picking up the last policy where you get +1 happiness for every wall, castle, and arsenal is HUGE. Anyone thats played a decent amount of Civ5 knows how much the computer likes to build the three previously mentioned buildings...and at Zero gold upkeep? Plus all the happiness buildings that will eventually come?

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Within reach of Culture, Science, Diplomatic and Time victories post-v1332 - that's between 5-7 under any conditions. No matter how fast.

 

[aimlessgun]

Interesting, people seem to like smaller empires than I expected Easy defense and low policy costs are definitely nice. But I'm not a huge fan of puppets, I like my cities to be mine

Within reach of Culture, Science, Diplomatic and Time victories post-v1332 - that's between 5-7 under any conditions. No matter how fast.

Not sure what you mean by this?

 

[babinro]

For all victory conditions but military conquest, 3 cities is my magic number.

I'd imagine a more successful science victory is accomplished by having more cities...but I'm simply not good at handling larger empires. In fact, my toughest win condition by far is military when its more than 1 on 1.

 

[bhavv]

4-7 for me.

I always rex 4 cities to make use of legalism and 4 free temples, then if I have any more really nice spaces I settle 2 or 3 more.

 

[SirSaab]

I prefer more cities (I answered 12-16) because I, a) like to deny the AI suitable city sites, and, b) can't help myself, I'm an uncontrollable expansionist! It's really hard for me to control myself for a cultural victory... :/