how many number of cities are ideal...
- Thread starter tipsy09
- Start date
This is a good question - I've read that the "optimal" number of cities is 4 - 6. But in the game that I'm playing now, I think that I have about 8 cities, and my economy is heating up so that I can support more expansion.
For a domination victory I've got to crush all other Civs, correct?
johnny_rico
one more turn addict
Here is a rule of thumb: If you science slider is higher than 50%, you need to expand (more cities) and if lower than 40%, you need to bring in more bacon (grow economy with the cities you have). These numbers will fluctuate as you get more comfortable with establishing an economy.
It's not uncommon to take control of an entire continent where you might wind up with 20+ cities. Land = power but you need a strong economy to support the territory.
It's not uncommon to take control of an entire continent where you might wind up with 20+ cities. Land = power but you need a strong economy to support the territory.
There is no simple optimal number of cities. For most parts I'd say the more the better, but there's always the maintenance expense, so sometimes it's worth it to stop expanding and build workers and infrastructure. And workers. There's never too many workers.
For domination victory you need some 65% or so land and population. That doesn't require killing off everyone - just expanding to cover most of the land there is. Usually this happens by killing off most of the others.. Conquest is where no other civ is left standing. Or in Warlords, no other civ is left standing as a free civ (you can win conquest by vassalling the others).
Then there is ther percentage issue.. Often it's said that at 60% you want to expand and at 40% you want to consolidate (percentages may wary depending on person). However, it all comes down to how many beakers and gold you can get total. If you can get 60% out of 100 commerce while breaking even, it's not really any better than 30% out of 200 commerce - both will give you 60 beakers. But at 30% you probably have more chances at improving the land and cities, taking the slider up to 40% soon, already better than 60 beakers.
I'm trying to learn to expand and wage war more. And in trying to learn this, I've had slider at 20% while building more maces, slider at 10% while taking more cities, but eventually slider at 0% and I end up having to stop. Or at least stop before I run out of gold.. At times it's better to push forward until you really run out of steam.
For domination victory you need some 65% or so land and population. That doesn't require killing off everyone - just expanding to cover most of the land there is. Usually this happens by killing off most of the others.. Conquest is where no other civ is left standing. Or in Warlords, no other civ is left standing as a free civ (you can win conquest by vassalling the others).
Then there is ther percentage issue.. Often it's said that at 60% you want to expand and at 40% you want to consolidate (percentages may wary depending on person). However, it all comes down to how many beakers and gold you can get total. If you can get 60% out of 100 commerce while breaking even, it's not really any better than 30% out of 200 commerce - both will give you 60 beakers. But at 30% you probably have more chances at improving the land and cities, taking the slider up to 40% soon, already better than 60 beakers.
I'm trying to learn to expand and wage war more. And in trying to learn this, I've had slider at 20% while building more maces, slider at 10% while taking more cities, but eventually slider at 0% and I end up having to stop. Or at least stop before I run out of gold.. At times it's better to push forward until you really run out of steam.
i thought the percentage of commerce going to beakers needed to be higher to produce buildings quickly and acquire techs faster..and to produce units per city etc...
how does a lower percent of commerce going to beakers not make a difference in concern to producing buildings, units, etc...
and how come wheneveri put a workers on a sea tile with food and commerce...the production of the unit or building goes down drastically...
how does a lower percent of commerce going to beakers not make a difference in concern to producing buildings, units, etc...
and how come wheneveri put a workers on a sea tile with food and commerce...the production of the unit or building goes down drastically...
marioflag
History Addict
It depends on your settings.Usually i try to build as much cities as it allows me to build national wonders.
In my marathon games, huge maps i try always to build 8 cities in this way i will satisfy the requirements of some national wonders like Oxford University,Forbidden Palace.I can build more cities but only if i need some resources, i never build less than 8 cities.
In my marathon games, huge maps i try always to build 8 cities in this way i will satisfy the requirements of some national wonders like Oxford University,Forbidden Palace.I can build more cities but only if i need some resources, i never build less than 8 cities.
The commerce sliders do not have any effect at all regarding speed of building - that's about hammers, not commerce, and hammers are completely separate issue.
The commerce sliders are only used to distribute your commerce into beakers, gold, and culture. The first of the three enhances research, second brings in gold, third adds happiness and culture. Usually you want as much research as possible, with just enough gold to live by, culture only when you're going for cultural victory or need something to counter unhappiness (often due to war).
The commerce sliders are only used to distribute your commerce into beakers, gold, and culture. The first of the three enhances research, second brings in gold, third adds happiness and culture. Usually you want as much research as possible, with just enough gold to live by, culture only when you're going for cultural victory or need something to counter unhappiness (often due to war).
KMadCandy
giggling permanoob
for a VERY extreme case of how to milk population for score see how to get there and the reason for going for max pop but not domination for info about this in an extreme case (136 cities!!!!!!!!)
please do NOT take this as advice for optimizing development in the early game
borrowing from the 2nd thread, the factors that control score are:
Pop = 5000
Land = 2000
Wonders = 1000
Tech = 2000
please do NOT take this as advice for optimizing development in the early game
borrowing from the 2nd thread, the factors that control score are:
Pop = 5000
Land = 2000
Wonders = 1000
Tech = 2000
Early game you probably have slider at 100% research. Maybe you get a bit of gold from huts and can keep it there with your second city causing some maintenance. Maybe you got lots of gold from huts and can keep it there when your third city jumps the maintenance still. But at some point it will come down from 100%.
The question is not really about the very early game - the time when you're founding your second and third cities. The question is about how many cities you can and should go for before consolidating, which to some degree relates to slider position: should you expand only so much that you can keep the slider at say 60% without bleeding (of course you keep it at 100% until your hutgold runs out)? Or should you expand more, maybe until your slider is at 30%?
The question is not really about the very early game - the time when you're founding your second and third cities. The question is about how many cities you can and should go for before consolidating, which to some degree relates to slider position: should you expand only so much that you can keep the slider at say 60% without bleeding (of course you keep it at 100% until your hutgold runs out)? Or should you expand more, maybe until your slider is at 30%?
Canadian Bacon
Chieftain
I tend to found around 5-6 cities (including capital) on a standard size map. Once my economy stabilizes and I feel I'm in a good position, I will usually start a war with a neighbour, taking probably 3 or 4 more cities. A couple more might come into my empire later through war or culture switching. I find that this is usually good enough for non-domination style victories (space race or whatever). However, I also like to dominate my continent (I like to play continent maps), so once I feel that I can do so safely (both military-wise and maintenance costs), I will do so.
Pinstar
Ringtailed Regent
You also want to be careful about having your science slider dip into the 40s before you have Code of Laws. That 26 or so turn march to code of laws can put you quite far back. I tend to build cities until my slider reaches about 70, then hold off on building more until I hit code of laws, then go ahead and city up until I hit 40.
uncarved block
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2006
- Messages
- 351
I think the matter is less about numbers than placement, and the competition. Plunking down your third city in the tundra just to get a Fish and/or Fur resource is a bad move, but may make sense for a seventh city. If your land doesn't show much potential for growth, then taking over a neighbor may be needed-- especially if they have a cottaged a lot of flood plains for you already. (And it's better to eliminate an AI totally, IME, as if you leave them with enough cities, they'll build tons of units and try to get the land back later. This is even more true post patch Warlords, where the AI will skimp on offensive units for most of the game.) For the most part, on Noble, I find you'll need to at least match the largest "teching" civ (or one less) in number of cities to remain competitive all the way through a space race. YMMV.
Actually plunking the third city in the tundra is just fine if you get fish and fur. Fur is a happiness resource available with just hunting, allowing your cities to grow one point higher, and the fish allows you to hire two scientists and work even ice-fur for added commerce.
After playing some starts with no happiness resources available, I've started valuing the early happiness a lot. If my cities can grow to size 5 instead of 4, they can achieve a lot more.
After playing some starts with no happiness resources available, I've started valuing the early happiness a lot. If my cities can grow to size 5 instead of 4, they can achieve a lot more.
