how often do you change your capital ?

[NKVD]

its that simple... you can say why if you want. I only do it like once every 20 games I think

 

[Molybdeus]

I usually do it for the Bureaucracy bonus rather than the maintenance penalty, which means it happens only once every two or three games.

 

[mechaerik]

Not very often, but I have done it.

 

[mariogreymist]

I only do it when my capital is in a very weak location both in terms of the bureaucracy bonus and for distance penalties. If its okay in one or the other area, it stays...probably once every 25 games.

 

[6K Man]

Never. Which is another way of saying "not often enough", because I'm sure there were times that I should have done so, but didn't think to. My capitals often become GP farms and Bureaucracy is pretty much wasted on a GP farm capital.

I couldn't even tell you how many hammers a Palace costs!

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

I voted every 10 games or more. I don't like moving my Palace. I think that the new city is usually not developed enough by the time I get to Bureaucracy. Working cottages just sucks compared to working villages. OTOH, sometimes moving your capital is necessary.

 

[Camikaze]

I hardly ever change my capital. I think I have, like, twice or thrice, mainly to work around Versailles. But I use State Property a lot anyway, so distance penalties aren't an issue by the stage that I would consider it to be worthy of a capital move anyway.

 

[binhthuy71]

Never, so far. I'm not closed to the idea, it just hasn't seemed necessary to date. Usually my capital is one of the top three production cities before Bureaucracy so it just gets better afterward. I build courthouses as soon as possible after CoL and I run SP as soon as I research Communism - courthouses build espionage points as well as halving maintenance costs and I just haven't had very good results so far with Corporations.

 

[samthedagger]

It depends a lot on whether or not I get Versailles. I always plan on getting into two major wars. One in the pre-classical period and one in the post-industrial period and that usually gives me a fairly large empire to manage. If I am going for Domination and I am not able to keep my capital centralized, I will definitely move it. It can also help add just a little bit of extra culture to that second or third city if you are going for a cultural victory and your original capital is usually guaranteed to hit legendary unless you are doing something very very wrong. I voted once every 3-5 games, as it depends on how I intend to win, how big my empire is, how centralized my capital is, and whether or not I got Versailles.

 

[mushutoku]

Change capital? Is it possible? Or, better, is it thinkable? No.
Many capital cities are in a "not good" position, for the manteinace cost, and are not changed (in the real world). I mean, Washington is in the east coast, far away from California, and no one wants the capital to be moved to, say, Omaha, just because is in the middle of the country.
The same can be said for Moscow, Beijing, or, in a smaller scale, London or Paris.

 

[f35acepilot]

Change capital? Is it possible? Or, better, is it thinkable? No.
Many capital cities are in a "not good" position, for the manteinace cost, and are not changed (in the real world). I mean, Washington is in the east coast, far away from California, and no one wants the capital to be moved to, say, Omaha, just because is in the middle of the country.
The same can be said for Moscow, Beijing, or, in a smaller scale, London or Paris.

This probably has something to do with the fact that there is no clear maintenance penalty in the real world regarding distance.Also, moving the capital to Omaha would be equivalent to moving your civ capital from a 20 pop city to a ten or less pop city.

 

[mushutoku]

It was a joke

Anyway, in Argentina there was a plan to move the governemt to Viedma (a small town in Patagonia) just because is the middle (almost) of the country...

 

[toll_booth]

About every third game or so. Typically, my starting capital tends to be one of my hammer towns, or maybe the GP farm, neither of which are enhanced by the presence of the Palace.

What I try to do is locate the capital near the center of my "older" cities. Once it becomes obvious which direction I'm expanding or conquering, the Forbidden Palace (or Versailles if I'm lucky) goes in the center of that cluster.

It works out quite nicely; since I almost always play as a FIN leader, my late-game research can be 80% or more. At least a fair bit of that comes from low maintenance costs *without* State Property (which I rarely run; I'm much more likely to be running Envir to combat the inevitable surge of )

 

[TheEnforcer]

The only time I changed my capital it was an accident!! When I fiorst started playing I meant to choose a different building and accidently chose to move my capital and didn't realize it until a few turns after my capital had moved.

 

[mechaerik]

The only time I ever do it is before Communism after my continent is mine. I'll move my capitol to a more central location. In a recent game as Russia, I moved my palace to my third(?) city, Rostov. Rostov was more or less in the center of the continent, while Moscow was on the far west coast. By doing so, I saved quite a bit.

 

[Molybdeus]

Anyway, in Argentina there was a plan to move the governemt to Viedma (a small town in Patagonia) just because is the middle (almost) of the country...

I believe Kazakhstan moved its capitol to Astana from Almaty (near the border with Kyrgyzstan) partly for that reason as well.

 

[Canadiansnow]

Quite honestly I have never moved my capital - but this is a concept I will explore

 

[binhthuy71]

I believe Kazakhstan moved its capitol to Astana from Almaty (near the border with Kyrgyzstan) partly for that reason as well.

Brazil moved its capitol from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in 1960. This was done to comply with a circa 1891 article to that nation's constitution calling for the capitol to be moved to a more central location.

 

[Glassfan]

I think China must hold the record. The nationalists got chased out of Beijing and Nanking by the Japanese, then to Taipei on Formosa by the Communists. The Roman capital moved occasionally too, to Ravenna, then Byzantium. There was talk in the 60's to move the American capitol to Denver, a more centralized location, but it was never more than just talk.

In the game, I just hold it as principle that I'm not going to get chased out of my own capitol. And in Civ IV there is less penalty for maintaining a decentralized government.

 

[micbic]

Well, a capital does not only move for central reasons. Eg, the basic reason the modern Greek capital moved to Athens from Nauplio was the fact that Athens was the cultural center of ancient Greece.
BTW, I only move capital in 1/20 cases, lets say.