Large empire city management

[jknox]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to civ. on my 3rd game. I'm playing vanilla, warlord-diff., standard, continent map as egyptians. I've got some general ideas about micromanaging 2-3 cities, but after I had developed those cities and started pumping units because montezuma was my neighbor and I wanted to destroy him, I ended up with a much more substantial empire. My problem now is, I really don't know what to do with all my cities. After the conquest I started building some courthouses to cut maintenance costs, but now I generally just find most cities pushing out the different buildings i can build and a few production cities pushing out units. I know how you should do everything for a reason... but sometimes I simply don't have a reason as to why I'm building a drama in a city other than I can't think of anything better to do. Could someone give me some tips on mid-late game large empire city management or direct me to a thread that discusses it?

I've attempted to attach my current game if anyone wants to check it out.
My current plan good or bad is building units to attack the Malinese and take over my continent. Thanks in advance.

 

[Silver Marmot]

Even on Prince you really don't need to spend a whole lot of effort on city management. Basically, based on where the city is located, either decide if it would be better for the city to focus on commerce or production. If it's to be a production city, have it build things that increase production (like forges), and improve the tiles around it to add hammers (like mines). If it's to be a commerce city, have it build things that increase research (like libraries), and build cottages around the city.

That's obviously a very simple explanation, but intense micromanagement really isn't necessary at the level you're playing at.

 

[vicawoo]

So what I do, step 1, is it a commerce city or a production city?
Production: lot of hills and some food/grasslands. Later on, lots of forests and grasslands.
Commerce: by a river, some commerce resources (like dyes), lots of grasslands. Doesn't have to be a natural food source.
Note that production cities later on can be all grassland cities, if you use state property and workshops and watermills (and mines if necessary).

Commerce cities: workers build lots of cottages, maybe mines to get some buildings up early. Then you can do do a build order, something like granary, library, courthouse, then just build science/gold buildings: grocery, market, observatory, bank, university in some order, cheaper ones first. You can hotkey a build order through control # or alt #, something like that. Add in a theatre (or move up a market) if you're close to a happy cap, grocery/hospital for health cap.

Production cities: granary, forge, barracks (if you're making units), factory, power plant, alt queue units. If you're near a health/happy cap, build the appropriate building.

There's a post on optimal production cities, with a funny latin title in the war academy. Generally, you don't need factories in commerce cities and production buildings in commerce cities. If you have no specialized buildings left to build, make units or wealth.

 

[jknox]

These simple replies have revealed some very simple truths to my simple little mind. lol I guess I was thining in terms of every city have a unique function as opposed to simply being production or commerce. I guess that makes total sense though and already have some good ideas waiting for me in game. Basically play the terrain. Thanks.

 

[MrFelony]

well it does get semi-complicated cause then there are also your GP farm, where you put your globe theater and is it to grow the city to its max population, or for the more common purpose: unlimited whipping/drafting. I would look in the strategy article section for the appropriate articles. also, as for managing the tiles the citizens work, usually you can just let the governor do it unless you need to really recover your economy or the city needs to have it tiles managed manually (i.e. stopping growth or maxing efficiency). even on deity, in the late game you dont really have to manage your tiles yourself (though you do in the early game).

 

[xanadux]

Mid/late to late game, most cities I decide whether I want unit production out of them or not. If a unit production city, it gets production buildings, enough other buildings to get enough happiness and healthiness, then the best mix of improvements to maximize production.

Most cities, I start by giving them a mix of tile improvements for both growth and production so I can build some key buildings. First builds are usually courthouse, jail, security bureau and intelligence agency. Just having these buildings is roughly equivalent to working about 6 or 7 towns as far as impact on tech rate. If you can never steal tech this late in the game, it is time to move up a level or 2.

After the EP buildings, I will keep the production up and build markets, grocers, and banks, to run 4 merchant specialists. After these are built, convert the tile improvements to prioritize food, and run merchants and spies.

Basically, when it gets to be about the middle of the game, to really lend a hand to unit production, a city needs some pretty large production to be able to build the production, military, health, and happy buildings necessary. If a city isn't going to be a good unit factory, or if I have enough unit factories, I go the EP/specialist route (BTW generally running Representation at this point because of all the specialists). The problem with cottages later in the game is there are a lot of nice buildings to build and cottages hurt production. I think prioritizing EP buildings and production and switching to a specialist spy/merchant city gives a much quicker immediate commerce boost, and it will be a long time before cottaging will catch up.