Noob Question: Where to Found a City

[paintanker]

The tutorial told me that, when I select my settler, a blue circle will appear where it is most beneficial to found a city. However, I have seen the blue circle appear on squares that (as far as I can tell) have less resources on that tile than the tile right next to it.

What are the criteria by which a good location should be chosen?

I've heard it should be on fresh water, but I've also heard that the coast is better for trade.

Also, why does it sometimes take me 40 turns to make a worker at the beginning of the game, and in other games, with the same Civ, it only takes me 30?

Thanks

 

[Tadzio]

Also, why does it sometimes take me 40 turns to make a worker at the beginning of the game, and in other games, with the same Civ, it only takes me 30?

Sometimes a city will have an unimproved tile that has 1food and 2hammers (or 3food, or 3 hammers) that your city can work. A tile like that will speed along the production of a worker.

 

[JBossch]

The tutorial told me that, when I select my settler, a blue circle will appear where it is most beneficial to found a city. However, I have seen the blue circle appear on squares that (as far as I can tell) have less resources on that tile than the tile right next to it.

First, I recommend turning off the stupid blue circles. The AI is clueless about how to settle cities. Settling on rivers or coasts are both good things for various reasons but neither are absolutely necessary. The over-riding factor is food, and more generally, any resource tiles. Corn, wheat, rice, cows, fish, clams, crabs - these are all things you want to settle near.

 

[drlake]

The tutorial told me that, when I select my settler, a blue circle will appear where it is most beneficial to found a city. However, I have seen the blue circle appear on squares that (as far as I can tell) have less resources on that tile than the tile right next to it.

What are the criteria by which a good location should be chosen?

I've heard it should be on fresh water, but I've also heard that the coast is better for trade.

Also, why does it sometimes take me 40 turns to make a worker at the beginning of the game, and in other games, with the same Civ, it only takes me 30?

Thanks

Don't settle your city on the single best tile, settle your city where the Big Fat Cross (BFC) centered on the city will be the best. The BFC is the 8 tiles adjacent to the city tile, as well as the three tiles in each direction centered on the city tile, so that each arm of the cross is three tiles wide running 5 tiles N-S and 5 tiles E-W centered on the city.

You rarely want to settle directly on the best tile, because the city itself doesn't improve the tile like workers can.

 

[Valivator]

I recommend http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632 and reading the attached guide.

And Welcome to the CivFanatic Forums!

Oh yes, and then check out the war academy. It can be found at the bar t the top of the page under Civ4

 

[lymond]

^^^^^this

Welcome to CIV and the forum. Sounds like you are very new to the game. CIV can be a bit daunting at first and there is a lot to learn. I recommend taking little bits of advice at first and playing out some games just to get acclimated. I also recommend then posting up a starting save and playing some incremental turns to get advice from the board.

I suggest playing standard maps and speeds - normal or epic. Sounds like you are playing Marathon.

As for the starting settler, I recommend just settling in place for now as generally it's a good spot. Later as you learn to read the map you may choose alternate location that may be more optimal. As for subsequent settlers produced by your cap or other cities, choose sites near resources especially food (corn, wheat, pigs, etc) and strategic resources like copper, iron, horses, Cities adjacent to rivers are nice for setting up commerce cities (cottages) or support farms to work as many mined hills early as possible. That's some basics for now. It's easier to describe this when working with one of your games.

A few things affect the speed of the first worker from the start - and you should build worker first. First, some civs have the trait Expansive which provides a bonus to the speed of building workers. Second, you may have settled on a tile (this tile would be the center tile of you capital) that inherits the hammer or food bonus of that tile. Generally, a settled city has 2F1H1C (Food,hammer,commerce) in the center tile. However, if you settle on a tile with an innate 2 hammers like a plains/hill tile, that center tile will have 2 hammers - therefore, providing a 1 hammer boost to production overall. (2F2H1C) Other examples are the similar plains/ivory tile (Elephants) or food bonus tiles like Bananas, which provide 1 extra food in the center tile (3F1H1C). Workers and Settlers are the only things produced with food and hammers.

Another important bit of advice: Food is very important - look to boost food in your cities so that you can grow and support production and commerce. The faster you grow the more productive your cities will be. Consequently, the unsexy Granary is the most important building in the game - build it first in your new cities unless you need border pops (think Monuments) or don't have the Creative trait

Good luck and look forward to seeing more of your games and progress.

 

[lasombra1984]

Several general tips.
1. Plain+Hills
- City settled on plain hills gives you 2 basic hammers instead of 1. It is very worthy when you will build your Granary or Theatre in new city.
- Hills will give you extra basic defense, in addition to archers/loongbows defense on hills.
- Using plains tile to settle city will give you extra grassland tile
2. Near river-tiles
- River tiles will give you "Fresh Water" bonus to Health if your city is based on the bank of river
- River tiles give extra-commerce
3. Near flood plains. Flood plains is the best improvable tile
4. If you need coastal city - search place with 2+ seafood resorces in the city's fatcross

 

[Sisiutil]

The tutorial told me that, when I select my settler, a blue circle will appear where it is most beneficial to found a city. However, I have seen the blue circle appear on squares that (as far as I can tell) have less resources on that tile than the tile right next to it.

What are the criteria by which a good location should be chosen?

I've heard it should be on fresh water, but I've also heard that the coast is better for trade.

Also, why does it sometimes take me 40 turns to make a worker at the beginning of the game, and in other games, with the same Civ, it only takes me 30?

Thanks

As mentioned above, ignore the blue circles and learn to trust your own judgment.

Founding a city on a tile right next to either a freshwater lake or a river will give that city a +2 health bonus. That's nice, but not essential--there are many other ways to gain health bonuses, and you usually won't encounter many problems with health early in the game.

What makes for a good city site? Above all else, food. Every city should have at least one food resource in its BFC (Big Fat Cross--the 5x5 area, minus the corners, that the citizens of the city can work after the first border pop). After food, try to include another resource tile (or more) and a mix of flat tiles and hills so you can have a balance of food (from farms), production (from mines) and commerce (from cottages).

In the long term, you will want to consider how to specialize the city. This involves choosing a particular focus for the city that helps you prioritize build decisions. You should ideally have a good mix of specialized cities in your civilization--commerce, production/military, specialists, etc. Check my Beginners' Guide (as recommended above, thanks, Valivator ) for an overview of specialization, then read up in the War Academy for more detailed treatments of the topic.

Coastal cities do get better trade routes, so more income. However, you will need to first research both Sailing and Writing and then have Open Borders with at least one other civ in order to gain the coastal trade route benefit. If you the map lends itself to having several coastal cities, building the Great Lighthouse can provide a powerful boost to your early economy.

 

[Disgustipated]

Someone mentioned settling near Iron etc. I just wanted to reiterate that. I settle near Iron, copper, horses even if I don't have a food resource. Those resources are that important and you don't want the ai culture grabbing it. Also if settling on a flood plains river, the food resource mentioned above isn't that important. I settle many cities without a food resource, just keep in mind they will grow more slowly. You probably don't want to slavery whip in those cities except in emergencies.

I try to pick up every "resource" I can. That may not be the best strategy, but I figure every commerce, hammer, or food bonus I can get will put me ahead of the ai. Just make sure your city has enough food to grow to take advantage of those resource rich tiles.

As for the blue circles, I don't know that much about the algorithm it uses, but I believe it changes as you discover more tech and expose more resources. What may seem like a good tile in the early game may turn out not to be so great once you discover Iron for instance and realize that iron is one square too far away from your cities workable area. In some cases this can't be prevented. As you don't want to wait too long to settler cities, or the ai will get that land area.