How many cities?

[GoToParaguay]

Just wondering how many cities you guys think is good to build in a game? Is it the same as civ3 where you can never have too many?

 

[siff]

I go for as many as I can, as long as there is land to use. It's quite hard to expand in Civ IV compared to civ III, that is because it's so expensive. What I generally do is spread religion as fast as I can and convert my opponents in order to get income, it is also nice to see what is going on in theyr cities.

The key is to spread religion and build courthouses, grocers, markets and banks as soon as possible.

Siff

 

[Rhymes]

it depends what kind of win you aim for... For Conquest or domination I,de say build as much as possible (except if you only have like 3 oponents on a huge map)

For a cultural victory I'de build something like 6 or 7 cities... depending on how large your map is.

 

[GoToParaguay]

what benefits does spreading religion do? Half my empire is jewish, a quarter hindu and another quarter something else, is that a problem? I founded both judaism and hinduism, and recently i researched atheism.

All this stuff with religions confuses me

 

[Rhymes]

what benefits does spreading religion do? Half my empire is jewish, a quarter hindu and another quarter something else, is that a problem? I founded both judaism and hinduism, and recently i researched atheism.

All this stuff with religions confuses me

It depends on your state religion, in the upper right corner of the screen there is a small prayer Icon, when you click on it you'll se what is your state religion, if your state religion is Jewism, all of your cities that are converted to jewism will receive a bonus to cultur, and to something else depending on your religious civic.

 

[Gufnork]

Most importantly, all cities of your state religion receives +1 happiness. You can also build a temple and a monastery for each religion a city has, so the more religions the better.

As long as each city is profitable, they're worth having. A size two city is a waste, but pretty much all coastal cities are worth having.

 

[Multiplicity]

what benefits does spreading religion do? Half my empire is jewish, a quarter hindu and another quarter something else, is that a problem? I founded both judaism and hinduism, and recently i researched atheism.

All this stuff with religions confuses me

Other than getting better relations with your neighbors, if you had a great prophet build its special building in your holy city, all cities that have your religion spread to will earn +1 gold each. I find that to be rather significant.

 

[khumak]

Just wondering how many cities you guys think is good to build in a game? Is it the same as civ3 where you can never have too many?

It mainly depends on money and map size. I tend to expand out to about 6-12 cities early in the game on a huge map and then build up my infrasctructure til I have enough money coming in to raise my research percentage back up to 80-100%. By that time the AI has usually grabbed all the rest of the available land that doesn't require ships to get to so then it's time for conquest.

Later in the game money isn't a problem so I conquer all the civs that don't like me and trade with the ones that do. In my current game it's almost 1900 and I have around 40 cities and have around 800 gold per turn coming in with my research set at 70% and culture at 20%.