Industrial vs. agricultural cities

[Uniform Sierra]

Hello fellow leaders of nations!

Every civilization I create gets into the same dead-end agricultural focus. All of my towns need food, and despite a granary, watermill, etc. I always end up making farms as opposed to trading posts, mines or lumber mills. My cities starve if I don't, but then all the other civilizations have large industrial cities.

How do they maintain large populations with little to no agriculture? Is there any way I can maintain a population of 10 to 15 with few farms?

On a side note, why must I let my population grow anyway? They just reduce my happiness and consume more food. Are they of any use?

 

[lschnarch]

1) No, you don't HAVE to let your cities grow. There is a button "avoid growth" (or something like this) in the city screen
2) More population means more science (1 pop = 1 science)
3) Try to ally with some maritime city states to get additional food

General remarks: in many cases it is better to have a trading post on a hill than to have a mine. The costs of opportunity are only 1 hammer, but you gain 2 gold which again can be used for bribing city states or rush-buying.
Similar it is with farms and trading posts.

In general the trading post is the most advantageous hex improvement.
Try to find the right mixture according to your playstyle.

 

[Uniform Sierra]

1 - I know I can avoid growth. That's why I usually stop around 10. I heard a rumor that more population means more people working tiles you have, is this correct?

2 - Thanks, I was unaware of that.

3 - How will I know that I'm receiving more food, will an indication appear? How many cities will receive more food?

The faster you can produce, the faster you can win the game. I don't see how a trading post on a hill is more useful than a mine.

 

[Uniform Sierra]

Nobody has the answers to my questions? Yet over 300 views?

 

[Malkaviel]

They just nerfed food income from maritime city states. Ally is never less than +1food per city and +3 food in the capital per allied maritime CS. I honestly didn't pay attn yet to how much it improves with successive eras.

On a standard size map, By end game I "usually" have 3 or 4 size 15ish cities, a handful of 9ish and the rest just kinda 5 or 6 probably puppets. I'm a big fan of specializing cities, so the big ones will be..

1 with massive science, best location i can find for observatory, jungles, add national college, public school, etc. This city is usually between 1/3 and 1/2 my science income.

1 that makes alot of food. This is a GP generator with garden, specialists, I usually buy the buildings here because production sucks.

1 or 2 (usually capital is 1 of these with commerce policies) that focus income.

The 9ish ones usually focus production. It's pretty easy by modern era to have a 9-11 size city with 80-100 production. Also these produce units. I don't build many wonders generally, but if I did, could do that in these, too.

And the rest are just meh.

 

[Uniform Sierra]

You can't transfer one city's food to another so what's the point on making it's focus food?

 

[Ddude97]

So it will grow and have more population.

 

[Malkaviel]

You can't transfer one city's food to another so what's the point on making it's focus food?

So you can make great people faster...

 

[Nouco]

you need to have happy people, if they are not happy city's will not grow.

 

[Uniform Sierra]

You're contradicting yourself. If you want your population to grow you need it to be happy, but if it grows the happiness decreases, and then the population won't grow.



Anyway, I'll experiment tonight, hopefully I can get a city in some hills.

 

[Babri]

You can't transfer one city's food to another so what's the point on making it's focus food?

Focus on = More = More
Usually I don't focus on . I let the city grow normally.

 

[Soronery]

1) No, you don't HAVE to let your cities grow. There is a button "avoid growth" (or something like this) in the city screen
2) More population means more science (1 pop = 1 science)
3) Try to ally with some maritime city states to get additional food

General remarks: in many cases it is better to have a trading post on a hill than to have a mine. The costs of opportunity are only 1 hammer, but you gain 2 gold which again can be used for bribing city states or rush-buying.
Similar it is with farms and trading posts.

In general the trading post is the most advantageous hex improvement.
Try to find the right mixture according to your playstyle.

1 Hammer > 2 gold.
Monument =40 hammers or 280 gold it takes 7 times more gold to buyout a monument.