I've been doing research, mostly on here such a good site =), on how to improve my Civ V game and it seems I need to figure out how to specialize and/or micromanage cities. However I can't find much info on getting started on this. So I ask for some wonderful help in getting started to learn this technique =) Thanks in advance.
How to specialize/micromanage cities
- Thread starter Calicea
- Start date
woodshadows
King
not sure that's necessary for this game
Capt Ajax
Warlord
I agree: I place cities where I can get the most resources and / or for stratigic importace. In a small empire there are perks to having a wonder in each city but generally the only city I use for specialization is one to build units from.
carbontaxes
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2011
- Messages
- 36
I'm not sure that I follow the sentiment of the replies here.
Often times I need gold when, like early on before Currency and my economy is failing for whatever reason (be it my poor expansion decisions, or military necessity, or anything). So at this time I might set a city with a possible gold tile like furs, gold/silver mine, sugar, whatever to "Gold Focus". Maybe late game when I need to pump up the science, I set my city that might have the most science specialist buildings or Great Scientist tile improvements or whatever to "Science Focus".
All these "Gold/Science/Culture/Production Focus" options that you see in your city screen are really just commands that tell the game to place a specialist in each Gold (Bank,Market,Stock Exchange) specialist building, or a specialist in each Science (Library, University, Public School) specialist building, or a specialist in each Culture building (Museum and I forgot the other buildings for Culture) specialist building. Or "production focus" to put specialist in each Production (Workshop, Factory, Windmill(?)) specialist building.
Go into your city screen and play around with any "specialist buildings" you might have built in it. Watch how it affects your food, your production, and your money in that city and you will start to get the idea.
Often times I need gold when, like early on before Currency and my economy is failing for whatever reason (be it my poor expansion decisions, or military necessity, or anything). So at this time I might set a city with a possible gold tile like furs, gold/silver mine, sugar, whatever to "Gold Focus". Maybe late game when I need to pump up the science, I set my city that might have the most science specialist buildings or Great Scientist tile improvements or whatever to "Science Focus".
All these "Gold/Science/Culture/Production Focus" options that you see in your city screen are really just commands that tell the game to place a specialist in each Gold (Bank,Market,Stock Exchange) specialist building, or a specialist in each Science (Library, University, Public School) specialist building, or a specialist in each Culture building (Museum and I forgot the other buildings for Culture) specialist building. Or "production focus" to put specialist in each Production (Workshop, Factory, Windmill(?)) specialist building.
Go into your city screen and play around with any "specialist buildings" you might have built in it. Watch how it affects your food, your production, and your money in that city and you will start to get the idea.
General Awesome
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2011
- Messages
- 19
Actaully it changes what tiles are worked too (for ex. "
focus" trading posts vs. " 
focus" mines).And btw if its mid-late game I wouldnt recommend building GS improvments.
carbontaxes
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2011
- Messages
- 36
GreatScientist, GE=GreatEngineer, and so forth.
Can you clarify what you mean by specialization and micromanagement? Are you referring to setting your citizens
to work specific tiles to focus on production, food, gold (and assigning specialists as applicable)?I don't know how common / necessary city specialization really is in Civ5 these days, or how much manual tweaking the automatic citizen allocation takes, given that I've been pretty out of touch for the last 9-10 months. In general, if I do specialize a city, it's generally because the surrounding terrain supports a certain focus. (E.g. a city founded on hills with several iron or coal deposits is obviously suited to production specialization.)
Optimal play will definitely involve the micromanagement of citizens, both tile workers and specialists. Why would you have every city working every kind of specialist when you could specialize and pump out different kinds of Great People at an overall faster rate?
Tile mico is very important. When you need a building fast, but growth isn't as important, you can switch your workers to production tiles. When you aren't building anything crucial, but you need to expand your population, work more growth tiles.
Depending on the checkbox settings can be problematic some of the time. The default focus works fine for a balanced but sub-optimal approach. I don't hesitate to use it when no aspect of the game seems crucial.
Tile mico is very important. When you need a building fast, but growth isn't as important, you can switch your workers to production tiles. When you aren't building anything crucial, but you need to expand your population, work more growth tiles.
Depending on the checkbox settings can be problematic some of the time. The default focus works fine for a balanced but sub-optimal approach. I don't hesitate to use it when no aspect of the game seems crucial.
I think it all depends on where you place your national wonders. There's a +50% science/culture output, right?
So ideally you'd want to build the science one in a city with jungles and a mountain (for observatory) and a culture one in...uh... a cultury city *shrugs*
As far as I can remember those are the only scaling buildings, where the rest are static +8 bonusses.
So ideally you'd want to build the science one in a city with jungles and a mountain (for observatory) and a culture one in...uh... a cultury city *shrugs*
As far as I can remember those are the only scaling buildings, where the rest are static +8 bonusses.
Can you clarify what you mean by specialization and micromanagement? Are you referring to setting your citizens
I don't know how common / necessary city specialization really is in Civ5 these days, or how much manual tweaking the automatic citizen allocation takes, given that I've been pretty out of touch for the last 9-10 months. In general, if I do specialize a city, it's generally because the surrounding terrain supports a certain focus. (E.g. a city founded on hills with several iron or coal deposits is obviously suited to production specialization.)
Yes that is what I meant by micromanagement. Taking manual control of my citizens.
builer680
eats too much Taco Bell
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2010
- Messages
- 525
Sometimes I fully control cities, sometimes I only partially do. It depends what's really necessary. I find that as far as GP are concerned, you really only need to worry about 1 or 2 cities and not make any in others. Typically the only ones I focus are either GE's or GS's.
In any case, there is a mod that can help with manual citizen control. By default, the game stops notifying you of population growth over 5 or so. You can make it notify you of new citizens forever with Custom Notifications. Granted, you don't need it... you can watch every city every turn for growth if you want... but this is an option if you find that tedious. You can also set it to alert you of new cultural tile acquisitions. Very handy when you're in the mood to REALLY control every aspect of your cities. My only gripe with it is that upon loading save games, you get a bazillion notifications of every tile you've acquired in that game so far, but if you clear all messages before saving, then you can safely ignore the ones at loading and go to the next turn, at which point they'll disappear.
In any case, there is a mod that can help with manual citizen control. By default, the game stops notifying you of population growth over 5 or so. You can make it notify you of new citizens forever with Custom Notifications. Granted, you don't need it... you can watch every city every turn for growth if you want... but this is an option if you find that tedious. You can also set it to alert you of new cultural tile acquisitions. Very handy when you're in the mood to REALLY control every aspect of your cities. My only gripe with it is that upon loading save games, you get a bazillion notifications of every tile you've acquired in that game so far, but if you clear all messages before saving, then you can safely ignore the ones at loading and go to the next turn, at which point they'll disappear.
That does sound pretty nice I might look into it, but I leave my info window to city view and only flip it to research or resource etc for a moment to look. The new tile thing would be nice to have though.
The Pilgrim
Deity
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Take your time and watch some of the 'Let's play' videos. There is no better way to learn than watching more experienced players applying theories in real games.How i specilize my cities.
They usually fall into 3 categories, Production, science and gold.
Generally i won't bother so much initially and simply plant cities in desired locations to grab resources, prime city spots or a strong strategic position.
In the early part of the game you have little choice in buildings to build and your population is small so all cities tend to be a bit generic apart from really poor city spots that have been grabbed for a specific purpose other than the 3 stated categories then that will always have the aim of being a gold city.
Once i start to develop my cities and gain access to more choices of buildings i start to look at what a city will become.
The first task is to check each city and work out its maximum possible production output. I then usually pick the top 3 as my production cities whos main focus will be production and military so will focus on growing as large as possible, building production buildings and military buildings.
Food buildings are usually first priority as growth equals more production, then production buildings and then military buildings and finally science. Military buildings move up the list dependent on the likelyhood to need to build military units.
Specialists will always be placed in the engineer spots first and then scientists.
I will then look for science cities. These will tend to be mid production cities as later game science buildings cost a lot of hammers, preferably next to a mountain and/or jungles.
Food buildings again are usually first priority as growth equals more science and production to build the science buildings faster, then science buildings, then production buildings.
Once all science buildings have been built i will tend to TP all the production tiles while building gold buildings and then sell off the production buildings. Works best with the Free Thought SP as TPs produce science.
Specialists are placed primarily in scientist slots, then engineer slots. Later science then gold once converted.
Any other city is simply a gold city. Most tiles get TP'd although i do try to keep some population growth at least until they are happiness neutral then their growth will be shut down completely. I will build some low level production buildings as these are keep and effective to use but will prioritise science then gold buildings.
Puppets are obviously gold cities and will be carpeted in TPs with an emphasis on shutting down growth if possible to stop any uncontrolled unhappiness so i will try to pillage and special food tiles before capturing the city.
I micromanage growth quite a bit, mostly based around happiness. As a general guide, if i have 10+ happiness i will allow all cities to grow, 1-10 i will shut down my gold cities, 0-minus5 i will shut down my science cities, minus 5 i will shut down all growth to leave a buffer for puppets to grow.
If shutting down cities i use the 'turn off growth' option and will tend to leave my citizen on food tiles until the city reaches 1 turn to growth (which it will be locked at if you use turn off growth) and then i will switch my citizens to other, more useful tiles.
I also micromanage citizens and anytime a city grows i will go check it and place the new citizen where i want it and make sure it is locked.
Where i place citizens is dependant on the situation but a general rule is to prioritise growth is the city is growing, if it is shut down it will prioritise tiles based on it type. If i really need to build something.e.g. a wonder or more military i will heavily prioritse production tiles in those cities even if they are growing.
In regard to wonders i try to build these in appropriate city types but this is not always practical, a good example are gold/GM based wonders as gold cities often have very poor production and even trying to rush with a GE can leave a large number of turns left to finish building it.
They usually fall into 3 categories, Production, science and gold.
Generally i won't bother so much initially and simply plant cities in desired locations to grab resources, prime city spots or a strong strategic position.
In the early part of the game you have little choice in buildings to build and your population is small so all cities tend to be a bit generic apart from really poor city spots that have been grabbed for a specific purpose other than the 3 stated categories then that will always have the aim of being a gold city.
Once i start to develop my cities and gain access to more choices of buildings i start to look at what a city will become.
The first task is to check each city and work out its maximum possible production output. I then usually pick the top 3 as my production cities whos main focus will be production and military so will focus on growing as large as possible, building production buildings and military buildings.
Food buildings are usually first priority as growth equals more production, then production buildings and then military buildings and finally science. Military buildings move up the list dependent on the likelyhood to need to build military units.
Specialists will always be placed in the engineer spots first and then scientists.
I will then look for science cities. These will tend to be mid production cities as later game science buildings cost a lot of hammers, preferably next to a mountain and/or jungles.
Food buildings again are usually first priority as growth equals more science and production to build the science buildings faster, then science buildings, then production buildings.
Once all science buildings have been built i will tend to TP all the production tiles while building gold buildings and then sell off the production buildings. Works best with the Free Thought SP as TPs produce science.
Specialists are placed primarily in scientist slots, then engineer slots. Later science then gold once converted.
Any other city is simply a gold city. Most tiles get TP'd although i do try to keep some population growth at least until they are happiness neutral then their growth will be shut down completely. I will build some low level production buildings as these are keep and effective to use but will prioritise science then gold buildings.
Puppets are obviously gold cities and will be carpeted in TPs with an emphasis on shutting down growth if possible to stop any uncontrolled unhappiness so i will try to pillage and special food tiles before capturing the city.
I micromanage growth quite a bit, mostly based around happiness. As a general guide, if i have 10+ happiness i will allow all cities to grow, 1-10 i will shut down my gold cities, 0-minus5 i will shut down my science cities, minus 5 i will shut down all growth to leave a buffer for puppets to grow.
If shutting down cities i use the 'turn off growth' option and will tend to leave my citizen on food tiles until the city reaches 1 turn to growth (which it will be locked at if you use turn off growth) and then i will switch my citizens to other, more useful tiles.
I also micromanage citizens and anytime a city grows i will go check it and place the new citizen where i want it and make sure it is locked.
Where i place citizens is dependant on the situation but a general rule is to prioritise growth is the city is growing, if it is shut down it will prioritise tiles based on it type. If i really need to build something.e.g. a wonder or more military i will heavily prioritse production tiles in those cities even if they are growing.
In regard to wonders i try to build these in appropriate city types but this is not always practical, a good example are gold/GM based wonders as gold cities often have very poor production and even trying to rush with a GE can leave a large number of turns left to finish building it.
You build "money" cities near river tiles because they give you gold.
IF its a city that doesn't have much natural gold from rivers or luxuries, don't bother building markets and such for them.
When you "specialize" you have to make a balance between available tiles and food. every specialist you use is not producing stuff from the terrain. The tradeoff is that you get great person points which will give you a great person when you get enough points. However, most of this is useless unless you put social policy points into the proper one. Like obtaining freedom so that the perks of specialist are improved.
I find that its not necessary to do all this specialization if you are playing a map with more land on it. As you can get better results from simply using the terrain.
Only in the cases where you have a surplus of food and have a factory and workshop and you want to build faster. Thats when you send some citizens to operate the workshop and factory to get more production.
IF its a city that doesn't have much natural gold from rivers or luxuries, don't bother building markets and such for them.
When you "specialize" you have to make a balance between available tiles and food. every specialist you use is not producing stuff from the terrain. The tradeoff is that you get great person points which will give you a great person when you get enough points. However, most of this is useless unless you put social policy points into the proper one. Like obtaining freedom so that the perks of specialist are improved.
I find that its not necessary to do all this specialization if you are playing a map with more land on it. As you can get better results from simply using the terrain.
Only in the cases where you have a surplus of food and have a factory and workshop and you want to build faster. Thats when you send some citizens to operate the workshop and factory to get more production.
turtlefang
Warlord
- Joined
- May 9, 2011
- Messages
- 155
Actually, I try to build markets & all in every city, I just don't make it a priority in city with a low money potential. Since markets don't have a maintenance cost, building them if I don't have another building to put in the production line does make the city more productive. Same for other buildings without a maintenance cost.
Otherwise, you look to place cities - or build buildings - to maximize a particular resource - gold, science or production.
I usually try to have about six to eight cities eventually.
- 1 science city that will produce about 25% to 33% of all my science points. It will be located by a mountain, ideally by a river, and have all the science buildings in it. Sometimes I end up with two as the capital ends up doubling as a science/production city.
- 2 or 3 production cities. These are the muscle that will produce the military units/workers that are needed. I try to have one on the coast if possible. Look for cities that can have three to five hills - even better, all plains hexes if by a river. Build out anything that helps improve production.
- 3 to 5 gold or general cities. These should be placed near multiple lux hexes, with a lot of river hexes, coastal, or gold/silver mines. Max gold production.
Ideally, these should all cluster around each other to provide mutual support. However, this virtually never happens and they end up spread out. The cities usually get build - or captured - in two waves. The first wave is three cities get build early in the game, then the next three get built or captured in the next wave. After that, additional cities really depend on whether you want to go the puppet route or the great empire route. And you have to decide your strategy, SP, etc.. to go with your play before you make those decisions.
Otherwise, you look to place cities - or build buildings - to maximize a particular resource - gold, science or production.
I usually try to have about six to eight cities eventually.
- 1 science city that will produce about 25% to 33% of all my science points. It will be located by a mountain, ideally by a river, and have all the science buildings in it. Sometimes I end up with two as the capital ends up doubling as a science/production city.
- 2 or 3 production cities. These are the muscle that will produce the military units/workers that are needed. I try to have one on the coast if possible. Look for cities that can have three to five hills - even better, all plains hexes if by a river. Build out anything that helps improve production.
- 3 to 5 gold or general cities. These should be placed near multiple lux hexes, with a lot of river hexes, coastal, or gold/silver mines. Max gold production.
Ideally, these should all cluster around each other to provide mutual support. However, this virtually never happens and they end up spread out. The cities usually get build - or captured - in two waves. The first wave is three cities get build early in the game, then the next three get built or captured in the next wave. After that, additional cities really depend on whether you want to go the puppet route or the great empire route. And you have to decide your strategy, SP, etc.. to go with your play before you make those decisions.
Yeah. It still pays off to build the +science, +culture and +happiness buildings in all cities.
