Moving Your Capital To Help Economy?

[LordRahl]

I'm playing a game where I ended up starting on one end of a pretty stretched continent. My capital is in one end, while my last city is in the other end. Obviously it costs me a lot of corruption money to maintain it. One solution would be to build a Hidden Palace, or Versailles there, but there are other continents, and I'd rather save those structures for those times.

So here's my question - are there any serious drawbacks to moving your capital? Clearly if I moved my capital from one end of my continent, directly to the middle, I'd end up with much less overall maintenance cost. Other than Bureaucracy bonus, and some extra culture - is there anything else special about the capital that should make me think twice before moving it? Thanks for comments.

 

[Elkad]

I moved my capital last game. Since its a "national wonder" I was kinda concerned about it counting as one of my 2 in that city.

Wasn't a problem. Was playing a (bad attempt) at a SE, and moved it to my military city. Built palace+HE+WP just fine.

 

[dutchfire]

Palace also gives 8 commerce and 1 to the city it's in.

 

[svv]

I move my capital all the time, and not always just to make it more central. Often my original capital turns out to be a gp farm, because it has old wonders in it. I may even plow over towns with farms to increase the food production. I like to build National Epic and either Ironworks, Globe Theatre, or (if I have shrines there) Wall Street in that city.

Meanwhile, maybe I've founded or captured another city with good commerce potential. I'll build Oxford there, and make it my capital, to have that Oxford bonus apply to the extra commerce from the palace.

Also, a commerce city can probably benefit more from being the capital under bureaucracy than a gp farm.

 

[JackOfClubs]

Rather than saving the Versaille and Forbidden Palace for the other continent, I would just build them now and use State Property and spam Courthouses for problem cities later. Especially since waiting to build Versaille can cause you to lose it.

As to the general question of moving the Palace, I generally don't do it. There used to be a strategy in Civ III where you would build the forbidden palace close to the main palace, then build a new palace anywhere you needed it. I did this once or twice, but the cost of moving the palace around was so great that I soon found other ways to deal with corruption. In Civ IV, maintenance is much easier to handle by other means, so I usually just leave the palace where it is.

 

[popejubal]

Don't move your capital. Just switch to State Property.

No distance penalty at all now!

...seriously, State Property is awesome. It's just not good for people who haven't discovered it yet. Obviously, if you have to move your capital, you have to move your capital.

I'd be most likely to move it for a late game (post Iron Works) switch to Bureaucracy so that I can get the bonus mulitplier effect.

 

[ecskipone]

I thinks there's a right time and strat to move your capital. I usually play a hybrid SE/CE economy and my capital ends up being a gp farm. I'll have my second or third city cottage spammed and as soon as I get to CS (bureaucracy) I move my capital and max out on gold, it really helps if you're breaking late and want a good mid to late game military push.

 

[mungbean]

Moving your capital can be good when trying for a cultural victory - if your capital is 1st among the 3 best cities, you can move the capital (buying it with gold if possible so you don't lose turns of producing culture) to the #2 or #3 city.