largest cities ever

[mjd260]

What are some of the largest cities in games you've played? In my playing of Civ 2 and 3 I would have a few cities of 35 or more, and in Civ 1 I think I had a 41. I'm in my second game of Civ 4, and my largest so far is Madrid, a 25. I noticed the population counting changed from Civ 3 to Civ 4, so I wondered what the average size was. Most of my established cities are hovering around 20, give or take a few.

Include screen shots if you can!

 

[Bushface]

Best I've managed is 35; it had two Fish, Rice and two or three floodplains. No screenshot, I'm afraid: game over and deleted. Of course, in earlier editions of Civ you could feed one city from another, whereas in Civ4 you can't. Pity.

 

[CivMonger]

i generally run more cottages than farms, but I'm slowly learning to seed some more farms so as to grow cities faster and then swap them over when they don't need the food anymore.

 

[Michelangelo]

You should take a look at the realmsbeyond forums.result thread Epic 3

In Epic 3 the players were given the task to build the largest city possible. Two players managed to build a size 48 city. I enjoyed reading the reports of those games.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

largest city ever was city size 51. grassland coastal city, with 5 fish. only build wonders that give GM and farm as many GM as possible and dump them in your largest growth city.

 

[Bushface]

Five fish ? And how many loaves ? Sounds like a miracle . . .

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Five fish ? And how many loaves ? Sounds like a miracle . . .

no loaves, or production. only graslandjungle on an peninsula, no rivers then a huge dessert. it was my capitol. nearest good city site was 20 squares away iron and copper even further.. no miracle. horrible start.

edit: just let it grow and whip away those unhappy people. only way to build something in there in the beginning

 

[Red Door]

Civ 4 - 26
Civ 3 (No mods) - 42
Civ 3 (Mod-TCW) - 117

 

[Howitzah]

Thirty-one.

 

[br_casino]

A better question would be what is the largest possible city. Here's what I calculate (assuming no unhappiness and no unhealthiness - think tons of future techs):

Using worldbuilder:
City on Wheat or Pig Grassland (3 food)
20 grassland, floodplain, wheat, farmed, irrigated, Biology (10 food each = 200 food)
Total Food = 203

Each citizen eats 2 food per turn = 101 citizens
Hanging garden = 1 free population

Total Worldbuilder = 102 citizens

Using map rules (can't have wheat on floodplain, so only have wheat grassland)

City on Wheat or Pig Grassland (3 food)
20 grassland, wheat, farmed, irrigated, Biology (7 food each = 140 food)
Total Food = 143

Each Citizen eats 2 food per turn = 71 citizens
Handing garden = 1 free populatoin

Total map rules = 72 citizens

Let me know if I missed anything

 

[T.A JONES]

Lets have a picture gosh darn it!!

 

[Idiodyssey]

I was under the impression that Hanging Gardens did not provide a 'free' citizen, as it still required food.

 

[Yeekim]

@br casino

1) Those map rules are not quite what you call them. I don't think there has ever been a fat cross with more than 6 food resources max (and certainly not all +3 ones - unless they are fish, meaning that most of other fat cross is unfarmable sea). On the other hand, you could still have a several floodplains where there are no wheat...'

2) Great merchants - they provide +1 food when joined to city too. It is possible to get 5-6 in a game.

3) As Idiodyssey pointed out, Hanging Gardens' free citizen indeed needs food to survive.

4) Unhealthiness. Even if you had Expansive civ (2) + Aqueduct (2) + Hospital (3) + Genetics (3) + Environmentalism (6?)+ every health resource in the world (8 from livestock, 6 from seafood, 6 from cereals, and 4 from grocer ones): that is 40 altogether, you could not fight with that major unhealthiness size 72 city would create.

I'd say that 51 is pretty much as close as one can get (which is already awesome - think of those GP points)

EDIT: Sorry, I overlooked your assumption about future tech... but it is indeed a far-flung one...
In this case we might even say that there is no limit to population, because given infinite time you could produce infinite number of great merchants.

 

[br_casino]

Far flung was what I was going for.

 

[Canadian Bacon]

Largest city I ever had was 37, I believe. Corn, three sugars in fat cross, most of the rest grassland. 3 mined grasslandhills for production. I was philosophical, so it was my GP farm (obviously).

 

[CivNoobie]

I think I've reached 24...it's really hard to grow city once you reach that kind of number unless you build national park and globe theater all in one

 

[W|M]

Vanilla BtS: 37 or so (I don't remember the exact number, but it was just under 40)

Modded BtS: Well over 100 (around the 180 range iirc)

 

[JoeyB98]

Largest possible is 95.

Spoiler :

Otherwise depends on the map.


EDIT: I could have got one more by adding a supermarket, so it technically could have been 96 for a turn.

 

[Robert FIN]

@Joey; Thanks for counting! That city would be something! However, I've never seen such a start and I suspect that it isn't even possible. My best was Amsterdam, population 26 or 27.

 

[JoeyB98]

isn't even possible

I'll say!