How Many Cities!

[shad0wassassin]

I just bought CivVI and i luv it. But the problem is i either build too many cities and my economy crumbles or i build to little and dont get enuf land or reasourses. So what is a ideal number of cities to build?

 

[Willem]

As many as your economy can support.

 

[shad0wassassin]

that doesnt really help much

 

[Bezhukov]

I usually settle 3-5, then try to conquer a couple more, usually barb cities. I stop when research rate goes to 50%, at which point I'll turn one city into a scientist colony to keep research going and to generate a great scientist for an academy in the capital. Once I get currency, I'll return the sci city to normal development and make a merchant city to raise my research rate, and then use the great merchant to run deficit research. This is usually sufficient to make it through the crunch (until cottages mature/markets complete).

 

[KingCruz]

If you want to build less cities,to get more land, expand your culture...

Also if you can improve your land as fast as you can take it, you're going good

 

[Willem]

that doesnt really help much

Well it's the only correct answer. The more cities you have the better off you are in the long run, but you have to balance expansion with your research and military production. So you just build as many as you think you can afford without sacrificing in other areas. There's no magic number to be reached, it all depends on the game. If you're playing a Financial and/or Organized civ you might be able to squeeze out a few more. Or you might have scads of money producing resources in your territory. It all depends on your situation at the time.

 

[Xerhid]

ON PRINCE, I am usually only able to get out about 4-5 cities before all of the land is taken. After that my strategy geared toward eating up my closest neighbor's cities. Rinse, repeat until the end game. By the end, I'll end up with 20+ cities. This is the only way I've ever won. Having 10 or fewer cities just hasn't worked well for me on Prince, or Noble for that matter.

 

[sgrig]

I usually build about 5-6 cities pretty well spaced from each other, and then in the middle ages annex one of my neighbours, which usually doubles my city count to 10-12. Then through rennaissance/early industrial age, I may build another few cities within my existing territory, to make use of unused tiles. So I try to enter the modern age with about 14-15 more or less productive cities. This usually enables me to leap ahead in science and peoduction in the modern age, and build the spaceship. Cities added during the modern age have no impact on the outcome for me. This has worked on Prince and Monarch. On Noble I could still win with my original 6 cities, but on Prince and above I always had to crush some neighbour early on in order to win.

 

[niamor]

Do not found/conquer 3 or more cities at the same time. Wait for the last one to be at ~3 pop before founding a new one.
In all cases, cottages ar your friends!

 

[petey]

I used to like the city spam and it can work well. It crashes your research at the beginning, but if you can survive to mid-game, you're in a powerful position.

Then I started playing some OCCs and found out how much you can get done with just one city and began playing with just a few cities. It works just as well. The reduced maintenance costs let you tech up quicker in the beginning and then you can take over the AI cities as you can afford it.

So, the poster who said that it depends was correct. You can win with a lot of early cities and you can win with just a few. You can also lose easily with either strategy.

 

[Zombie69]

In my current Emperor game with a Financial civ, i'm somewhere around 500 AD and already have over 20 cities. I never really stopped building and capturing them. Sure, my research has been at 0% for most of the game, only affording to send it up to 100% for a turn or two to research a tech. I don't even have Code of Laws yet. But who cares, i'm winning! My production is so high that no other civ can stand a chance against me in a war, even if they have slightly superior units.

You can never have too many cities, unless it completely bankrupts you and makes you lose units to strikes.

 

[Moonsinger]

I just bought CivVI and i luv it. But the problem is i either build too many cities and my economy crumbles or i build to little and dont get enuf land or reasourses. So what is a ideal number of cities to build?

Just build about 7 cities along some rivers and focus strictly on your research to reach Communism, then go with the State Property and build and expand like crazy. Since each city will cost exactly 5 gold for upkeep, you shall never have to worry about having too many cities. On a standard map, you could easily make over 2000 gold per turn.

 

[walkerjks]

The key is to find ways to either:

1) Increase your commerce significantly, allowing you have more cities while maintaining a decent science slider

The typical way for #1 is to aggresively build cottages, though trade is also a nice way to give a boost to your economy. Prioritize pottery early to get cottages going, and pick up currency reasonably early for the bonus trade route. Keep open borders agreements with at least some AIs in order to have the more valuable foreign trade routes.

2) Decrease your costs significantly

Courthouses are about the only way to accomplish this. Code of Laws should be a priority in any rapid expansion scheme.

3) Increase your gold income from sources other than the sliders

There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to build a holy shrine and aggresively spread a religion. Another way is to use merchant specialists (each merchant specialist gives +3 gold). Merchant specialists are particularly effective when you have The Pyramids and are running under Representation due to the science bonus. Again, Code of Laws should be a priority for this, though you can use limited merchants with currency/markets.

 

[benjai]

I just bought CivVI and i luv it. But the problem is i either build too many cities and my economy crumbles or i build to little and dont get enuf land or reasourses. So what is a ideal number of cities to build?

Interesting and I'm surprised no one's picked this up...you just bought Civ 6?! Tell us more about it please...

 

[Ben Music]

I think it's important to mention that you need at least 6 cities with specific buildings to build some of the national wonders. For example you need 6 univeristies before you can build the Oxford University national wonder.

 

[Moonsinger]

Oh, I almost forget. With Code of Laws and State Property, each city will cost exactly 2 gold for upkeep regardless of city size and number.

 

[shad0wassassin]

Interesting and I'm surprised no one's picked this up...you just bought Civ 6?! Tell us more about it please...

yes i have civ 6 arn't u jealous

 

[StevenJoyce]

Oh, I almost forget. With Code of Laws and State Property, each city will cost exactly 2 gold for upkeep regardless of city size and number.

Is there something I'm missing, or is this only true for settler and chieften levels? According to Civ4HandicapInfo.xml, iMaxNumCitiesMaintenance equals 4 at settler and cheiften, 5 at warlord and noble, 6 at prince and monarch, 7 at emperor and immortal, and 8 at deity. That would mean that, with State Property and courthouses, each city at deity will cost you 4 gpt (or less, if you don't have enough cities to each the maximum, which according to my notes, you hit with 27 cities on a standard-sized map at deity).

 

[Moonsinger]

Is there something I'm missing, or is this only true for settler and chieften levels? According to Civ4HandicapInfo.xml, iMaxNumCitiesMaintenance equals 4 at settler and cheiften, 5 at warlord and noble, 6 at prince and monarch, 7 at emperor and immortal, and 8 at deity. That would mean that, with State Property and courthouses, each city at deity will cost you 4 gpt (or less, if you don't have enough cities to each the maximum, which according to my notes, you hit with 27 cities on a standard-sized map at deity).

You are right, of course. My number is based on Noble level. With the Courthouse, 5 div 2 = 2 gold per city upkeep on Noble level. Of course, it would cost 8 at deity level.

FYI: From the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", when a stranger out of nowhere said "I'm a professional". Naturally, someone needs to follow up with "Professional of what?". Sorry, my bad...I was just trying to see if anyone was paying attention to what I was talking about.