Mega Cities or Megacities ?

[ferenginar]

In the past I have spread my cities out, and tried to mininise overlap, thus allowing them to grow to max size; recently I have seen some posts in GOTM that have many smaller cities with significant overlap of bounderies.

Which is best?

 

[ainwood]

The cities are probably smaller becuase they overlap....

I always try to have my cities just touching, and place them carefully to optimise land utilisation (especially on islands).

One tactic that is quite useful is to control overlap so that a special resource is shared by two cities (try to limit overlap to one square). You can then switch the special resource usage from one city to another when required.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

I have been looking at that also. In GOTM 8 I have 6 cities on my home island. They overlap very little. Shadowdale has 12 cites on the same island, with lots of overlap.

From looking at his saves, I am guessing that he overlaps the cities just so he can have more of them. This allows more cities for trade and can benefit expansion early on since you can use more of the terrain ealier. He also seems to choose spots where the cities overlap, but not so much that the city can't reach size 12. I think that is part of his intention also. That way he doesn't need to build the more expensive sewer system. IIRC, in his latest save he only has one sewer system (and thus only one city above size 12) and that was in his SSC. This also allows for easier control of unhappiness since the wonders affect each city individually.

I was spending considerable time thinking about this and then I realized that it doesn't matter too much (for me anyways). The only time I play the game right now is for the GOTM and #9 is most likely going to be the last one for Civ2, so a whole new strategy will need to be used for Civ3 anyway.

It does look to be beneficial to have many smaller cities, but until the results for the GOTM 8 are out I won't be sure.

 

[starlifter]

There are many strategies to playing the game. One is even called ICS... "Infinite City Sleaze", which is lots of small cities packed next to each other.

Personally, my strategy is to plan for the future by minimizing overlap. I want cities that can make certain specific multiples of shields... 40, 44, 51, 54, 60, 80, 100. I also want big trade and trade bonuses. Big cities are best for this.

That way he doesn't need to build the more expensive sewer system.

That is a red herring. Don't get sidetracked with that... the cost of a sewer compared to the cost of a Solar Plant is nothing... plus a Sewer is the gateway to powerful cities. Do NOT hold back your growth because of your observation that Shadowdale holds many of his cities to size 12 in mid-game while building almost every other improvement in the city list. Take the benefit of a larger city... that is what funds your later growth and economic base!!! Sewer is about my 6th to 8th improvement in my "typical" fast growing late game democracy city.

It does look to be beneficial to have many smaller cities,

In low tech civs, or in early game, lots of tiny cities are "better" economizers of resources. Not in mid/late game, though.

I was spending considerable time thinking about this and then I realized that it doesn't matter too much (for me anyways). The only time I play the game right now is for the GOTM and #9 is most likely going to be the last one for Civ2,

The posted plan by Matrix is to continue the Civ II GOTMs for a few months, until the transition to Civ III is complete (if ever). We all hope Civ III is the great game we expect, but after SMAC, CTP, CTP II, and even ToT... well, Civ II still rules.

What he said was that as interest dwindles in Civ II and Civ III is taken up by everyone, Civ II GOTMs will be discontinued at some point. If Civ III comes out next month as planned, the first Civ III GOTM would presumably be November.

 

[Bachus]

I thought alot of that problem in GOTM9. Because it's a small map and I control it, I can do whatever I want. But I cannot think anymore of better handling resources early in the game or later. I have to prepare for "later".

The advantage of having small cities comes when you think that a city size 1 has 2 fields to manage and so on. So new cities have a 100% bonus, a city of size 2 has a 50% bonus which diminuates as the city grows.

An advantage is of course that you don't have to build sewer system.

But the balance is for the big cities for the same reason: that you build fewer pieces of each improvement globally. What's the use of building 2 Superhighways, 2SS and so on in 2 12 size cities when you can build 1 in one 24 city with the same result? You also receive higher bonuses in trade. You may say there is no difference if you have 2 smaller cities with 3 routes each of +10 trade or 1 city with 3 routes of +20. Well, there are at least two. The first one is with building improvements like market's, libraries... and it comes from the rounding mode of the output which is made by truncation. So, in 2 cities if you build MP and have 5 gold in each you'll have 7 in each for a total of 14. In a single city you'll get 15.

The second difference is that you have better trade control with your big cities.

Another advantage for the bigger cities is that they are harder to bribe (but that's not the case as I play on Democracy).

 

[starlifter]

Civ II is a game of math . One way to increase one's available resources is to multiply what you have. Small cities (like size 12) cannot multiply as efficiently.

For instance, keeping a city at size 12, with offshore platform, factory, mass transit, hydro (Hoover), solar plant, manufacturing plant, etc. etc. simply robs you free shields that you've ALREADY paid for. I won't even continue discussion such obvious things as gold and science from a large city.

An advantage is of course that you don't have to build sewer system.

Garbage (pun, LOL?!). A sewer is nothing, in cost, compared to the entire city improvement list. It is insane to hold a late-game democratic city down .

The advantage of having small cities comes when you think that a city size 1 has 2 fields to manage and so on. So new cities have a 100% bonus, a city of size 2 has a 50% bonus which diminuates as the city grows.

It is nuts to extend the small city strategy to cities of size 12. The small city "advantage" is only significant in the early parts of a typical game, or perhaps in an early conquer game. It is totally insane for anyone to apply it in a Power Game, LOL...