How many Citys?

[RedCoat1985]

I was just wondering how many city’s people tend to build per game. I usually keep it at about 8 on average. I find if you build any after industrialisation has begun, they tend to populate too quickly, and have low shield production, so you can't keep up with city improvements and they become havens for civil disorder.

That been said, I'm no expert at Civ 2, I've only just recently got the PC version, after buying Civ 4. (Had the playstation version of 2, for years, but I now know that it's more condensed and considerably easier).

My strategy seems to be the same every time - build about 5 city’s in the first few turns, and set my capital to building wonders very early (I usually go for Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, and Great wall) and then I build the Great Library in my second city and have a revolution to Monarchy. Build a few more city’s, improvements and wonders - then depending when money starts running out, transfer over to Republic. I'm sure this is flawed though, half the time I find myself having to reduce the science rate just to keep my head above water financially.

It seems to work great at first, I usually have Gunpowder before BC is over. But things tend to slow down later, building city’s gets much slower, civil disorders happen a lot and I usually loose patience and start a new game. Lol and so it goes on...

 

[Magic_gorter]

The amount of cities varies with the style of playing. If I'm playing early landing game I will build at least 24 cities. Sometimes I try to play a combination of early landing and power democracy. In that case I try to build the max. of 255/256 cities. I do not often play early conquest. There are others who know better how much cities they build with this style.

To keep the science up you can build a super science city (Colossus/Copernicus/Shakespeare/Isaac Newton in combination with school/university/superhighway). Also trade is very important. Each delivery gives you money and extra science beakers. With the money from the trade deliveries you can buy city improvements (which can handle the hapinessproblems like market, bank, etc.). Don't try to buy any wonder, but use the caravans/freights to build them. There are some wonders to control hapiness (Hanging Gardens (till railroad), Bach, etc. Build them asap.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Welcome to CFC RedCoat. The answer to your question is all over the spectrum, believe it or not. Start reading the forums and you will be surprised by both the depth of the material here and its spread as all of us were when we first joined.

Depending on the strategy people play, and win, with 1 city all the way to 254 cities (maximum allowable cities in the game is 255 and there has to be one other than yours for the game to go on).

I have even heard of people attempting to play with zero cities but I do not know if anyone has actually won that way.

 

[RedCoat1985]

Welcome to CFC RedCoat. The answer to your question is all over the spectrum, believe it or not. Start reading the forums and you will be surprised by both the depth of the material here and its spread as all of us were when we first joined.

Depending on the strategy people play, and win, with 1 city all the way to 254 cities (maximum allowable cities in the game is 255 and there has to be one other than yours for the game to go on).

I have even heard of people attempting to play with zero cities but I do not know if anyone has actually won that way.

Thanks a lot Ali

Yeah I've just been reading round, it was a bit of a generalised question really wasn't it

I'm gona have a go at an early space landing game, found a guide from a link on here

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Thanks a lot Ali

You are welcome. You may also want to check out the GOTMs (Game Of The Month). It is a great way to learn new things and see how others approach the same game. We all start with the same saved game and compare notes as we play. GOTM 71 will be posted this weekend.

 

[RedCoat1985]

You are welcome. You may also want to check out the GOTMs (Game Of The Month). It is a great way to learn new things and see how others approach the same game. We all start with the same saved game and compare notes as we play. GOTM 71 will be posted this weekend.

Cool, yep I'll be sure to av a go at that

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I have even heard of people attempting to play with zero cities but I do not know if anyone has actually won that way.

How is it possible to win without having any cities? Do you mean that the player relies on finding mercenaries to conquer enemy cities and the player never builds any of his/her own? Or is this just a "settler wanders around the world for 6000 years and hopes not to get killed" scenario?

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

How is it possible to win without having any cities? Do you mean that the player relies on finding mercenaries to conquer enemy cities and the player never builds any of his/her own? Or is this just a "settler wanders around the world for 6000 years and hopes not to get killed" scenario?

I think it refers to a Conquest victory using hut-units and making sure cities are razed, not captured.

You need a Pangaea with a lot of land to get enough huts, you need luck to get enough attacking units from those huts, and probably some rivers to speed navigation to get the huts quickly and move from civ to civ before they build up enough to withstand your attacks.

I could be completely wrong on this, but I seem to recall Smash being one who tried this.

 

[ElephantU]

I've done it too, but not in a shared game. All the civs need to be on one continent, and the map should be large enough that there are decent spaces between civs and numbers of huts. At first you use your one or two settlers to enter huts; since there is no city yet the Barb results are suppressed. As you get more mercenaries you spread them out looking for other civs and more huts; once you find a civ you concentrate your mercenaries to kill it as quickly as possible. At least one of the settlers must be protected at all costs, but early in the game the AI rarely goes exploring with significant military units. NoCityChallenge is a race against time and distance.

 

[EquinoxOmega]

i always build as may cities as possible => 255 - cities of enemies.

 

[Peaster]

I've done it too, but not in a shared game. All the civs need to be on one continent...

Cool! My memory on this is fuzzy; IIRC a pioneer of this kind of play was "Vic", or maybe "TraderVic", about 5 years ago. Then DaveV picked it up, and it seems a few GOTM players have used it, But I wasn't sure anyone had finished without even one city (what if a hut gives you an advanced tribe?).

My 2 cents on number of cities: The more you build, the easier it is to make Wonders, conquer enemies, trade, do research, construct a ship, etc. I'd recommend building at least 40-50, unless you just hate managing so many, or you are racing against time. Civil unrest should not be a problem if you build a few happiness wonders - which should be easy to do with all your van-producing cities! Nothing wrong with making more than 50 cities, especially if you are playing for a high score, but there aren't many other reasons to make more.

 

[The Judge]

My 2 cents on number of cities: The more you build, the easier it is to make Wonders, conquer enemies, trade, do research, construct a ship, etc. I'd recommend building at least 40-50, unless you just hate managing so many, or you are racing against time. Civil unrest should not be a problem if you build a few happiness wonders - which should be easy to do with all your van-producing cities! Nothing wrong with making more than 50 cities, especially if you are playing for a high score, but there aren't many other reasons to make more.

I agree with Peaster, because this is how I play. I have tried OCC (playing with just one city) but I find it extremely difficult. Also in the past I have won games with just 6x cities or so but I find co-ordinating the necessary freight/ships/city improvements/wonders so much easier with a vast empire and the micro-management can be fun too!

 

[tomsnowman123]

I build as many cities as possible as often as possible, to get to the max. ICS is my only strategy.