Managing Growth

[Rowan]

What stratergy do you folks use to manage the growth during the early stages of the life of ones citys.
I'll flesh this out a bit!Things are tight and a barb or AI come and stand on a food production square;and suddenly one finds one self with a deficet of two food,and may be you are going to start loosing citizens.
Another one at the other end of the spectrum.This time the city is in an excellent food production area and there is sort of nowhere to shift production too in the city radius;to slow food and may be increase shields.
This theard is equally to do with shields and food.
I know that there are people who have really looked into this[cool],but also will look with interst for every ones opinions on how lots of different folks handle this problem.
HAVE A REALLY NICE DAY AND ENJOY YOUR NEXT GAME OF CIV II
[dance]

 

[duke o' york]

I will assume that you know the city size that causes the first unhappy citizen for each level so basically stop all growth from that point until you are ready to cope with the unhappy citizens the next size up will bring, whether by building troops for martial law or a temple, etc to control the happiness. A useful trick I learned from starlifter is that he has a 2-move unit like a horseman in a centrally-positioned city and then uses his road network to move this unit to a city about to go into civil disorder just before it does, moving it away again after the city has built a temple. While you have the workers of a city set so that there will be no further growth then you can move them to get the most of whatever you want from the city at that time. If a city is close to growth then I will take the workers off the grassland and put them on forests so that I can finish the temple, troops or settler quicker before the city grows, or if I need to catch up in science then I'll move the workers from grassland to the sea and take advantage of all the extra arrows.
I appreciate that some players like to play with a set number of large, well-improved cities and will only capture more during the game, but I find that the best way to control disorder is often to build settlers and found new cities. An extra city will improve your trade overall and reduce the unhappiness problems in the settler's home city, but you do start to get problems when you reach a certain number of cities. In which case, don't stop building but keep your cities small, pumping out even more settlers until you can't see the land for your cities, all ready to grow when you go to Republic or Democracy and crank up the luxuries!
As to your problem with the barbs or enemy units entering your city radii - just kill them! I wouldn't advise bribing units that close to home unless you will lose the city otherwise. NON units are far better than ones attached to a city.

 

[Marlos]

Use ZOC to keep the AI and barbs from entering your city's radii. You must "keep them out of your kitchen"! In essence, you may be under-protecting your cities to do this, but it will serve you well in the long run.

In early game, under monarchy, keep two units in each city as MPs :soldier: and produce one or two more (including settlers) to keep the shield assignments manageable. Use the units outside your city to pin the AI into its area. If they fortify, don't back off! Hit spacebar until they move, or outflank them to draw their attention away from you.

Remember to produce a balance of units, good defense, good speed, etc. in each of your cities so that you can protect and expand your boundaries!

When disorder arises, create an entertainer and build a settler in your next go-round. That will reduce your city size and remove the entertainer. Use duke's tip: find the city size where disorder starts occurring and keep your cities there until you can build Mike's Chapel!

 

[knightblk]

What are the city sizes that cause disorder??

 

[starlifter]

It is variable, based in large part on gov't type, difficulty level, number of cities, and size of empire. As your empire grows, cities that were content may drop into disorder, particularly at higher difficulty levels.

 

[Old n Slow]

Associated question: Two turns after a switch from something to Dem/Rep, your outpost city (size six) has five units to support -- no major problem with the iron mined, two grasslands with shields, some more grass, a couple of trees & some water. The city has about eight shields with lots of citizens on the grass when….the barbs come to visit.

You sit transfixed as they jump on your iron mine, and come close to say hi. As the computer goes through the update activity, when the outpost comes up you see “unit disbanded; unit disbanded (the citizen on the iron decided to go work grass) because there is a barb on the iron mine -- ARGH!

Given the outpost & open space nearby -- barbs will come. Given the Dem/Rep, units “prefer” to stay indoors. Should the player: a) disband a few of these guys (some were former barbs who $aw the light) b) build forts for these guys to play outside; c) accept a couple of lumps as part of the cost of business because usually the barbs knock (show up a couple of spaces away in time for a RB dip to go & provide proper manners)?

For knightblk:

Originally posted by knightblk
What are the city sizes that cause disorder??

The answer depends upon a few factors (Starlifter & others have ready fingers on the threads for ready reference):

Game level (instruction book has some data); I believe that on the Deity level for the first few cities (say eight or fewer) the founding & first citizen (size =1) are content. the next citizen (size = 2) arrives unhappy. I think that each game level below grants an extra citizen of grace.
Number of total cities in the empire (I believe that the 9th in monarchy and the 13th in Republic generate increased bad effects thereafter, and not necessarily in that city; no limit with Dem, Comm., or Fundy
Mitigation effects can come into play as well: infrastructure (Mkt, Bank, Court house, Temple); some Wonders (Mike’s, J. S. Bach, perhaps Woman’s suff); Militay units on garrison for some gov’ts.; level of luxuries/tax/science
Micro city mgt: placement of citizens on water vs. forest; distance from capital with early gov’t. also affect the non corrupted arrows available for use to content society

 

[Ace]

Originally posted by Old n Slow
Associated question: Two turns after a switch from something to Dem/Rep, your outpost city (size six) has five units to support -- no major problem with the iron mined, two grasslands with shields, some more grass, a couple of trees & some water. The city has about eight shields with lots of citizens on the grass when….the barbs come to visit.

You sit transfixed as they jump on your iron mine, and come close to say hi. As the computer goes through the update activity, when the outpost comes up you see “unit disbanded; unit disbanded (the citizen on the iron decided to go work grass) because there is a barb on the iron mine -- ARGH!

QUOTE]

Five units in an outpost city is too many. But that still doesn't help the frustration when the barbs do that. Its especially irratating that you do not even get a chance to make any adjustments before the disband unit hits. The only solution I have found is to preclude that sort of situation from happening. Or you could put a fortress on the mountain if you have the time....! LOL