Next-level City Specialization

[Zekrazey1]

Another reason why there is no Fin + Phi leader, although they are probably the best 2 traits in the game. Conflict of interest.

Elizabeth.

 

[Gunner Jones]

Thanks for the detailed response. This is clear.

>>a quick domination game usually ends around here

And this is the rub. As I read the write ups by the leading players - all moves are aligned (and timed) with their chosen victory goall.

As I critique my games while I may plan a quick domination strategy, I'm often guilty of failing to back myself and end up building items that are ultimately never needed.

Possilbly the best benefit of specialization for myself is that keeps nudging me back to my strategy.

Gunner.

 

[maltz]

Elizabeth.

Ops. I checked back and indeed Elizebeth is Phi + Fin. Sorry about my mistake. I already corrected the previous post.

 

[Paeanblack]

Type 1 -- Production Cities

1A. Unit

This one is the traditional hammer central. Obviously one needs to put Heroic Epic here. If you are also an expansion-type player, you probably can't see many turns of Ironwork or Weset point in use before you win the game. I would prefer the West Point since Iron work also applies to non-military productions.

Requirement: High number of mines, workshops/watermill, and enough farm to support all hammer tiles to be worked plus maybe a few Mechanics/Priest specialists (hammer bonus). No cottages at all.

Type 3 -- GP Farm

3A. The GP Farm

Nothing special - the good old GP farm you know. The key to locate a GP farm is not how much food surplus you have, but how much food surplus relative to how LITTLE grassland you get. A city with 5 food sources and 15 tiles of land is a perfect research/commerce city, while a city with 4 food sources and 3 tiles of land is a perfect GP farm. You get the catch here - you have a lot of population sure, but they can't work on any cottages - so they must become specialists - so they contribute to great people points.

Also, you don't need to build the Globe Theater here. Chances are you have so little hammers, that you have to WHIP (enslave) to get things done all the time. You only need to keep a reasonable population, so all your food is worked on, and you are hiring as many specialists as possible. The highest population city in your nation deserves the Globe Theater, not here.

Requirement: A lot of Food + a serious lack of workable lands.

That's about it... Welcome comments and criticisms.

Your type 1A city is a misuse of the Heroic Epic. The most hammers you can get out of any city will be the one you build on flood plains with the Globe Theater, and these are the ones you want multiplied by the HE. 1 Floodplain = 12 Hammers.

 

[Oggums]

For example, we have 4 riverside grassland plains:

4 Farms (3F + 1G each): 12F + 4G, feeds 2 scientists.
Outcome: 12 beakers + 4G

4 Cottages (2F + 2G each, 3G if commercial): 8F + 8/12G
Outcome: 8/12 G

4 Hamlets (2F + 3G each, 4G if commerical): 8F + 12/16G
Outcome: 12/16G

4 Villages: 8F + 16/20G <-- a quick domination game usually ends around here
Outcome: 16/20G

But you can't have 4 farms and 2 scientists, without a size 6 city. You'd have to compare it to 6 cottages. Those extra two citizens are not idle if you aren't using them as specialists. You're going to be better off with 6 hamlets.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Your type 1A city is a misuse of the Heroic Epic. The most hammers you can get out of any city will be the one you build on flood plains with the Globe Theater, and these are the ones you want multiplied by the HE. 1 Floodplain = 12 Hammers.

I'm having trouble getting the numbers to add up to 12. What conditions are you thinking of?

Under State Property, a floodplain is 4 hammers, but you don't need the Theater for that.

Nationhood? No, I don't think Heroic Epic makes that any better.

Slavery? Interesting, but I can't get it to add to 12.

Globe Theater/Floodplains is a good combination, but I'm not sure why adding Heroic Epic is a better choice than Ironworks, or National Epic, or West Point, or....

(One guess - because floodplains make for a hammer powerhouse both during the slave era... poppity pop... the other national wonders come to late to exploit this).

 

[Paeanblack]

I'm having trouble getting the numbers to add up to 12. What conditions are you thinking of.

Pop rushing with a granary turns 1 food into 3 hammers, so a farmed floodplain generates 12H/turn. Globe Theater removes the once-every-ten-turns limit on whipping.

 

[Oggums]

But you absolutely have to run slavery. If you switch two another civic, you've really put that Heroic in the worst possible city imaginable.

Put Heroic (and later West Point) in the first high-production city you have and it will serve you well in any condition, throughout any game.

 

[Paeanblack]

But you absolutely have to run slavery. If you switch two another civic, you've really put that Heroic in the worst possible city imaginable.

Put Heroic (and later West Point) in the first high-production city you have and it will serve you well in any condition, throughout any game.

You run Slavery until State Property is available, which is generally the case anyways.

When you get that late in the game, a large expanse of flatland *is* going to be your best production city and also where you want the HE. Replace all the farms with workshops and switch to State Property.

Once the Industrial Age hits, hills can't compete with flatland in raw hammers anymore...the food is just too important when happiness is no longer an issue and workshops are maximized. Your first high-production city will lag behind at this point, since the terrain is all wrong.

 

[Oggums]

So, more specifically, you absolutely have to run slavery until state property, then after that you absolutely have to run state property. It still sounds too restrictive.

I'll take the tried and true, farm+mined hill option, for a high-output military city that works in any situation, for the entire game, in every game.

 

[Paeanblack]

So, more specifically, you absolutely have to run slavery until state property, then after that you absolutely have to run state property. It still sounds too restrictive.

What are the pre-Emancipation options? Serfdom? Caste System? On the economy side Mercantilism almost never pays for it's own upkeep, and Free Market just barely pays for itself with no real net benefit. Slavery -> Emancipation/State Property is almost always the strongest choice anyways, so I wouldn't really call that "too restrictive".

Try Globe Theater/Heroic Epic out first, then check back.

 

[Oggums]

I have.

If you think free market and emancipation aren't ever worthwhile, before you get state property, then I guess we just disagree.