How many cities??

[Dilly]

Hey guys,

I play on normal and am having problems expanding fast enough to be competitive with the AIs. I have even turned off barbs but still can only get about 3 cities before I'm basically surrounded. I play on a small map btw since my computer is not the greatest. When I read your build orders having couple of defenders and such, how do you guys find the time to even build settlers? How many cities do u guys have at the beginning? When I expand more than 3, I fall back in tech race (at least for a while), but when I stick with 3 or can not expand more than 3 I can't generate enough of anything to match the AIs..

Thanks!

 

[Tech Step]

learn how to chop trees. You can pump out buildings and settlers at a fantastic rate.

 

[Andrei_V]

Build more cottages asap, and set the pop to work on them. This will generate more commerce to cover the maintenance costs of the new cities, as well as to speed up science.

 

[Archbob]

learn how to chop trees. You can pump out buildings and settlers at a fantastic rate.

Yeah, chop rushing is key.

 

[Matthevv]

Chop rushing settlers and workers is silly. You don't need to out-expand the AI to compete. Trees are worth up to 9 hammers each later, +1 health for each two forests. Don't waste them on a pointless rush to plant as many cities as you can as early as you can. Focus on getting ahead in tech, and just have a few cities, in excellent locations, and controlling the essential resources. Cottages are good, but planting so many cities so that you have to put all your citizens on cottages just to support them isn't the best approach. Your cities will be painfully slow growing, slow to build essential buildings such as libraries, and won't support any specialists so you get no great persons. Research axe/sword technology and then use slavery whipping and selective chopping to build an army to take out a neighbour early in the game, when their cities are still weakly defended. Don't keep too many of their cities. If you try and expand fast, you will end up behind in tech. You won't out-expand the AI, because it has bonuses that you don't. Use its strengths against it, let it expand, leaving it with an overstretched and indefensible empire that you can take out with half a dozen swordsmen.

 

[Zombie69]

Chop rushing has been mathematically proven to be the way to go in the early game. Learn to love it and abuse it.

 

[TCGTRF]

Hey guys,

I play on normal and am having problems expanding fast enough to be competitive with the AIs. I have even turned off barbs but still can only get about 3 cities before I'm basically surrounded. I play on a small map btw since my computer is not the greatest. When I read your build orders having couple of defenders and such, how do you guys find the time to even build settlers? How many cities do u guys have at the beginning? When I expand more than 3, I fall back in tech race (at least for a while), but when I stick with 3 or can not expand more than 3 I can't generate enough of anything to match the AIs..

Thanks!

On a small map, at normal difficulty, you don't need more than 4 cities to start with, anyway.

Try this:

Create your first city on a river or on the coast if you can. Research Mining and Bronze working. When you get to size 2, create a worker, then chop the trees nearby to make another worker to use as you will. When you get to size 3, make three settlers and enough troops to defend them (use chopping if you have to). Send them to the best available city sites--preferably ones with resources like copper or stone. Make sure they have fresh water, if you can.

Part of your problem is that you've turned off barbarians. If you have barbarians around, they put the damper on competing Civs much more than they do you, since you're smarter than a mere computer. In addition, in many games, you might have been able, using Axemen or Swordsmen, to take a city away from the barbarians once it reached size 2 and have yourself a fourth city.

In any case, you're not going to need more than 4 cities up to about 550AD on a map that small. Once you've got them established, you can begin your nefarious plans for world domination.

Tom

 

[Mahatmajon]

I agree that chop rushing is proven. I'm not a big fan of lots of cottages & going for tech lead.

My choice would be option #3: Build 3-4 cities, make sure one has copper, then use Axemen to conquer a well placed AI or at least take 50%+ of their cities. Voila! Now you have 6-8 cities. If you get a capital it's usually in a great spot, too.

Then grow your little empire until you get catapults. Catapults = more cities with a little help from the AI.