Max shields for a city

[kidd546]

This is my first post here at civfanatics, after many months of lurking. I was thinking what the max number of shields a city could produce while not starving. (sorry if a post about this has been made before)

The city would need 40 food for break even at 20 pop (20 is number of working tiles) 2 food is made on the city itself, so we need 38 more. 6 cow grasslands and the rest hills is exactly 38 food, assuming no irrigation.

Industrious civs get an extra shield on city tile plus one to start, so thats 2. all the cows mined with RR's make 3 shields each, so 18 more.14 hills tiles, 1 with iron, 13 with coal, all mined and with RR's.The iron hill would be 5 (I've never taken a game to RR's, i dunno if that increases output by 1 or 2 shields on hills, assuming 1 here) The 13 coal tiles make 1(base)+ 2 (mine) +2(hill)+1(RR), so 6 each times 13 is 78. add in a golden age for 20 more, 123 total. If this city built factory, nuclear plant, MFG. plant and iron works, its 300% more shields ( all percents are added together, right??) so 4 times 123, which is 492 shields per turn. I hope i made some mistake that would put the spt over 500, so point out if i've messed up please. ( i hope this is an OK first post, i've been on other forums before, so i know basic forum ettiquette, but i dunno about any other rules here.

 

[MadScot]

kidd

There was such a post a while ago, but since the search function is u/s it's hardly fair to expect you to know that!

Your maths looks about right - I'm pretty sure your assumption of +1 shield for RR on hills is right.

You did miss one huge way to increase shields. MOBILIZATION. Increases the shield output when you build a military item. That will take you waaay over 500spt.

 

[pdescobar]

Yes, RR increases mining or irrigation by a flat +1 regardless of what's underneath it. The easiest thing to do for something like this is to test it. Make a scenario, give yourself that terrain and that city and set yourself to an appropriate civ. You can even define what techs you have and your initial government. To start at a GA, give yourself a couple of your UU and a poor unsuspecting AI warrior to kill on the first turn. And a few turns in, once you have everything set right you can mobilize as MadScot suggests to get a look at that too. BTW, Welcome to CFC

 

[Chieftess]

I think some of the top numbers are 120, 150. Those are numbers I've got without nuclear plants and on certain types of terrain. The best I suppose would be all mountains with 4-5 floodplains (maybe even 2-3 if you had wheat). Floodplains and wheat are potent stuff!

But, I've heard of cities getting close to 200spt - maybe more with a Golden Age or Mobilization.

 

[Renata]

The most I ever had in a real game was about 210 in a 'mostly-hills with just enough grassland to support it' first-ring city that had the iron-works (plus factory/ Hoover and possibly a manufacturing plant --- I know I built some in the game, but don't remember whether it was before or after I noticed the number of shields. No nuclear plant, though). Playing as Persia.

Renata

 

[Gainy]

I had like 280 spt not so long ago, i was so pleased i took a screenie. I cant be bothered to transfer it to the computer im using right now though. This was without a manufacturing plant, and without a neuclear plant. Although i was in a golden age, and i had mobilised for war

 

[farting bob]

ive sen a screenshot ages ago of someone with a all-hilled city, mined RR's eveywhere and only one fish tile, the rest were hills. in mobilization and golden age, with persia i think, he showed it having 546 SPT i think. but it ws definitely over 500.
EDIT: with things like uranium or aluminium, they add 2 shields per tile as well, and i think he might have had a few of them.

 

[kidd546]

Chieftess- if you could choose, hills IMO are still better than mts, but the flood wheat with rails would be 7 food per turn, but no shields on those tiles. If anyone wants to try, i'm sure trying to figure out max commerce for a city would be a whole lotta not that much fun because of all the factors involved, or the most beakers a city could produce. Thanks for mobilization idea, but i dunno anything besides wonders that would need more than 492 spt (maybe nukes??)

 

[farting bob]

an army takes 500, so havign just 8 more shields doubles the amount of armies you can build, which aint a bad thing..

 

[El Tee]

Either I'm doing something wrong, or maybe I'm not maximizing my production in cities. I think the most shield production I've gotten in a city is right around 200 (~195ish). But I generally build my cities in lush, rolling grassland (and not all of them are bonus or cow squares). Also, after awhile, I don't mine squares (I generally irrigate the heck of of tiles to max population - there's something about the builder in me that really likes big cities).

Maybe after I'm done with my two current games and my twilight 2000 scenario, I'll create a builder map...

I am impressed by the spt figures some of you have...always see something new here on CFC.

 

[taper]

You can use the editor and really have some fun. You can set mines, resources, and I believe roads/rails to raise production by 25 spt each. I don't remember the exact numbers from the last thread, but it's several thousand when you add in factories and power plants. Makes for a very interesting city view. I had 75 shields, gold, and food on each tile, could hardly see anything else.

 

[Hygro]

I did some math once and came up with a city that had 625-650 shields. Since it is impossible to generate that much coal anyway, I was also including cows on bonus grasslands.

 

[pdescobar]

Originally posted by kidd546; my emphasis
Industrious civs get an extra shield on city tile plus one to start, so thats 2. all the cows mined with RR's make 3 shields each, so 18 more.14 hills tiles, 1 with iron, 13 with coal, all mined and with RR's.The iron hill would be 5 (I've never taken a game to RR's, i dunno if that increases output by 1 or 2 shields on hills, assuming 1 here) The 13 coal tiles make 1(base)+ 2 (mine) +2(hill)+1(RR), so 6 each times 13 is 78. add in a golden age for 20 more, 123 total. If this city built factory, nuclear plant, MFG. plant and iron works, its 300% more shields ( all percents are added together, right??) so 4 times 123, which is 492 shields per turn. I hope i made some mistake that would put the spt over 500, so point out if i've messed up please.

Actually, you can get 500 out of this. If the city is founded on a hill with iron, you can have 14 coal tiles and, using everything else outlined in your post, you will wind up with exactly 500 shields in a golden age, unmobilized:

Of course, such a thing won't happen in a game and my little test scenario had 4 shields lost to corruption which I didn't bother trying to counter...

 

[MadScot]

all those tiles and you build wealth!

There's actually a way to increase the shield production further, although it isn't truly stable.

Your city:
centre: 2 food, 6 shields
6 cows: 4 food, 4 shields
14 hills: 1 food, 7 shields

total of 40 food and 128 base shields

Change that to:
center: 2 food, 6 shields as before
4 cows: 6 food, 2 shields
15 hills: 1 food, 7 shields

total of 41 food (24+15+2) at population 19. Which means the city will grow to size 20. Add another hill. The same turn your workers mine the four cow tiles!

center: 2 food, 6 shields as before
4 cows: 2 food, 6 shields
16 hills: 1 food, 7 shields

Now there is only 2+8+16 food, so the city is starving. But the shield base is now 142 - 14 more shields, which with all the factors added could increase it by 50 or so.

Of course, one could dogpile this too, which would reduce the time at size 19 considerably.

 

[Hygro]

alright, I did some math, and then built this city. Forgive the accellerated production, it doesn't mess up the results. I also modded the game for no corruption, which IS actually possible, though I'm not sure with so many shields. I also pick an industrious civ.

The first picture is with mobolization, the second is without. It's as good as it comes.

 

[Thrawn]

Of course, the problem is that cities like this have a very low likelyhood of ever occuring. So low that it may as well be 0%.

 

[Hygro]

wELL, ACTUALLY IT is zero---for one thing cows don't spawn on bonus grasslands.

The other thing is, unless playing on a large map with 12 advisaries or hughe with 16, you can't even get 16 coal on the map... it wou;dn't surprise me if the game is also designed to avoid clusters of 3 or more strategic resources of one type like this.

 

[farting bob]

yes, i would agree that someone getting more than 3 coals in one city radius in as close to zero so not to worry about.however, inthe editor you could design a senario that does notchange ay rules of the game, jsut placement nd get what hygro did.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Originally posted by Hygro
alright, I did some math, and then built this city. Forgive the accellerated production, it doesn't mess up the results. I also modded the game for no corruption, which IS actually possible, though I'm not sure with so many shields. I also pick an industrious civ.

The first picture is with mobolization, the second is without. It's as good as it comes.

HOW has this city got a harbour???

Dodgy?

Golden Age is also good for boosting production masssively

 

[Yoda Power]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos


HOW has this city got a harbour???

It was modded ofcause.