How to specialize this super-city?

[Airefuego]

Strategic planning for national wonders is one of my weak points... I always forget to specialise my cities and end up making last minute decisions.

This time I wanna get it right

Trouble is - I have THIS city. It's so good I don't know what to put there.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

I need ideas please!

- Massive food means it seems an obvious candidate for a GP farm (N Epic)

- On the other hand... it's very strategically positioned near the only galley-friendly crossing to the next continent - and Monty's massive empire And my core cities are a long way away. So I am tempted to go production-heavy to defend my continent - just imagine MOAI STATUES in this monster (15 sea squares!). I could add Heroic epic too I guess, N Epic doesn't make too much sense combined with Moai.

- Or if I'm prepared to wait (and wait and wait) (and probably I'm not) I could try Globe and West Point - I've never set up a draft city but this could be a candidate.

- And wait - it just became the CONFUCIAN HOLY CITY (no shrine yet)... there are those two gold mines, too... AND I am portuguese, meaning my Feitoria UB gives me an extra commerce per sea tile once I get to it So Wall street is still an option...

What do you think? What have I missed? Advice please...!

 

[Airefuego]

Oh - in case it matters:
Monarch, small map, 5 opponents, epic speed, BTS 3.13 + Bhruic, and standard rules.

 

[Incan Emperor]

Are you running an SE or a CE?

 

[qwertz]

I would definitelly put the moai there.

The city doesn't have that much surplus food for getting the NE. You have only 3 food positive tiles and a maximum of 11 surplus food. If you work the gold mines, you get down to 7 food, which gives you 3 specialists. Draft city with 3 food positive tiles isn't that good either. I don't know what the rest of your land looks like, so if you don't have a better production city (after maoi) you can build the HE. If confu spreads far enogh, Wall Street wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[Airefuego]

@ Inca: CE (any GP farm would be an exception of course).

 

[mabraham]

- Massive food means it seems an obvious candidate for a GP farm (N Epic)

Nah, it's not massive. Compare with an all-grassland-river BFC. At size 20, that would give 20*2+2=42 with cottages, or 20*4+2=82 with biology-irrigated farms. OK, you'll never get that situation in practice, and a significant chunk of the game won't have biology either.

In this city, once you get your lighthouse up, you earn 6*2(fish)+2*13(water)+5*1(biology+farm flood plain)+2*1(windmill plains hill)+1*2(windmill desert hill)+3*1(city on cows) = 49 With MS, you'll get more hammers early than my grassland city above, but it has a Levee chance late in the game, and its towns will get a hammer with US. Being Portuguese with their UB is a plus whatever you do with this city.

Thus, it's not a candidate GP farm, since it has attributes that other less-flexible river-grassland-floodplain + 2 food resource city sites will not have.

- On the other hand... it's very strategically positioned near the only galley-friendly crossing to the next continent - and Monty's massive empire And my core cities are a long way away. So I am tempted to go production-heavy to defend my continent - just imagine MOAI STATUES in this monster (15 sea squares!). I could add Heroic epic too I guess, N Epic doesn't make too much sense combined with Moai.

Yep, at size 20 you can work every tile as plains or water mill, so with MS this could be a monster. Turn the farm into a water mill after size 20, though.

- Or if I'm prepared to wait (and wait and wait) (and probably I'm not) I could try Globe and West Point - I've never set up a draft city but this could be a candidate.

Yes, but any high-food city is good for this, and drafting every turn costs you effectiveness of your UB. Much better would be a land-locked river city.

- And wait - it just became the CONFUCIAN HOLY CITY (no shrine yet)... there are those two gold mines, too... AND I am portuguese, meaning my Feitoria UB gives me an extra commerce per sea tile once I get to it So Wall street is still an option...

Yes, that's a serious option, if you're prepared to put in some hard yards spreading it around, and farming the GP to make it happen. Later, you found your corporations here too, obviously. This leverages MS and the UB nicely. An early Colossus will be nice, but will be dead when WS is available.

 

[BurN]

It depends on what other land you have. I wouldn't use this as a GP farm unless you can't find any other city with good food.

MS + HE seems like a good option. Even with a shrine I don't think it can outperform a good cottage city or at least it should be more or less even. So I wouldn't put WS there.

 

[Joseph Goebbels]

Well, there is no doubt in my mind that you have to go for Moai Statues.

The other national wonder... I'll leave that to the experts around here.

 

[Airefuego]

Well, thanks all for the excellent advice this has definitely helped a lot

Moai it is, and then I'll look around at my other cities and decide between H Epic and Wall Street. H Epic is my current leaning though - nice synergy with Moai.

One big thing I've picked up is that my past GP farms have clearly been inadequate - I should set the bar a lot higher when judging food potential! I'll start looking for a grassland site with a few food resources and then I'll farm it like a madman instead of obeying my usual mega-cottaging impulse.

 

[dubrown]

As others have said, Moai is a must in that city. Though I had probably thought twice about putting the HE there as well. Ofc it depends on your other cities but with moai and those mines you'd likely have a pretty good production anyway. If you have another good unit production site I may have put HE there instead, then have the option for either WS or West Point in this city. Commerce will be pretty good so WS is certainly an option unless you have a uber financial centre somewhere else. WP on the other hand could give you a very nice navy in modern times unless you will have a draftcity somewhere else that could benefit from WP more that is. Well, both should be available to you approximately around the same time so if you don't go with HE (which I wouldn't do for this city) you have a choice later on.

Even if you run out of national wonders to put in this city and the game goes into the modern times, the red cross is a backup plan as it would give your modern navy medic I. But then, it's a late wonder and frankly not as good as the others.

 

[futurehermit]

Seems like an ok, not excellent city. I wouldn't waste a good national wonder there. Moai is a good idea though.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

You look to have a few other coastal cities, so I probably wouldn't waste HE or WP on this one (one of those other cities is very likely a better production candidate.)

Maoi is a definite.

If you don't have a really high- or realy high- GP Farm candidate, you might consider using the Maoi Statues' production boost to Wonder spam here for the points -- in which case you'd build Maoi & NE. But that feels like a perfectly good waste of 2 Gold Mines to me.

Especially if you intend to found a Corporation (or two), Wall Street could also be something worth looking into for here if there is no other high- or high-forest candidate elsewhere (I like running Merchant specialists in my city when running a CE).

Without seeing the rest of your empire, I'd probably say Maoi & Wall Street.


-- my 2

 

[Incan Emperor]

Moai and WS, this city is nice on a CE, but it would SHINE on an SE, since the commerce from the gold would be multiplied by WS, in a CE you run the science slider high and therefor the commerce from the gold mines will go to science instead of GPT.
And in a CE it just cant beat a cottage spammed 20 grassland city for Oxford so this city will kinda go to waste on a CE but WS and Moai none the less.

 

[paulthebug]

Yes, I agree with Incan Emperor Moai & WallStreet. Make sure you have Harbor, Custom, Market, Grocer, etc in the city and make everyone confused. Moai will help you build all those commerce buildings.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Also it can still pump out Galleys while your Other H.E. City pumps out units to Put in those Galleys.

I would develop it heavily in Science as well (make sure to have Monasteries, Libraries, etc.)

so build All the commerce booster buildings + production booster buildings and the rest of its production goes to naval units and Confucian Missionaries settle any Prophets/Merchants there (after one for the Shrine)

for the few Specialists run Merchants (or Preists for Production especially if you get Angkor)

 

[DaveMcW]

Bah, useless city.

I would keep it at pop 6 and build workers/settlers/missionaries all game.

 

[CivCorpse]

Definately MS, I would workshop the floodplains since the fish alone will support all 3 mines with extra food for growth. Rather than HE, I would put the Iron Works there. The harbors extra health will offset the green faces. Being coastal means it is farther from your borders so moving the troops will be an issue until rails. Once you reach size 23 you can also run three engineers.

@Mabraham, the city is not on a river. Only riverside cities can build levies. The dutch could build a dike which would make this city a true beast.

 

[CivCorpse]

Bah, useless city.

I would keep it at pop 6 and build workers/settlers/missionaries all game.

But you can guild 4 cottages

 

[seizer]

I would do MS and NE, provided that you don't have a couple of better production cities already. MS let's you wonderspam, wonders gives you GPPs. WS would be better for the late game but it comes too late to be of much use IMO.

 

[druidravi]

Maoi definitely , Wallstreet depending on rest of cities. It is a very good early game city .