number of cities needed?

[yaiir]

hi guys, i was just wondering whats the optimal number of cities i need to be best. i usually only manage to get in about 4 cities before there isnt any more room (because of enemy cities), so, how many do i need, and how do i get more
even though i cant fit any mre in.

thanks for your help in advance

 

[Mureke]

I'd say the optimal amount is at least 8 cities (you can build the forbidden palace then, btw). In the beginning I emphasize on expanding, building settlers as fast as is reasonable. Obviously, you have to optimize your cities to have enough food and production so that they are able to produce settlers, military, buildings etc. fast enough.

Once all available land is taken, you have to judge the situation to decide if you have to expand further. A good way is to look at your opponents' sizes. Early military campaigns are often necessary. The amount of space for expansion also depends on the number of civs on the map. In the end I usually have about 15-20 cities.

 

[eoc]

agree to the 2nd floor. Oxford University allowed with 6 universities, Forbidden City allowed with 8 courthouses. more cities will ocuppy more strategetic resources.
so, if you want to build a glorious civilization, more cities is really needed.
as to the less space, you have to war i think

 

[CharlieM]

I would love to hear more opinions/feedback about how many cities people build. And their map size and land type would be helpful too!

 

[JerichoHill]

I play on Noble/Prince, and right now I'm experimenting with strategies for each type of victory.

I'm not a tight expander. My newly founded cities are a decent clip from my capital.

Normally when I build a settler, I send the worker I was chop-rushing off to build some road networks that serve my expansion. I expand more outwardly than necessary, and let culture fill in those area. My initial phase sees me founding about 4 cities, and those cities are on sites I selected for their goodies.

As those cities build up and specialize, I will begin to fill in my empire.

So optimally, I build 6-7 cities, capture 1 barbarian city, and depending on the goal, 0-alot of enemy cities

(typically large/huge maps)

 

[jazwana]

I'd say it depends a lot on your economic position. Overexpansion too early on can kill you just as easily as underexpansion. Your civics have a lot to do with this- organized & financial (or spiritual if you can get that holy shrine) can support a larger empire than say...aggressive + creative. But there are methods to get around that... pillaging enemy towns to run tech at a deficit, forcing out merchant great people with philosphical.... I'd say on standard maps with standard # of civs for noble (so everything standard), under 6 you run the risk of not having enough resources or production, over 15 without a good base and you're in trouble of crashing your economy.

In general, the later into the game the more you can support but by the middle ages when you're starting to hit your stride with techs/national wonders/city improvments you should have 8-12 in order to get some of the good national wonders. There is no "correct" answer however, it depends a lot on how your cities are managed.

 

[Finite Monkey]

A big factor is also map size. What map size do you typically play on? On standard you should be able to expand out to more than 4 without getting filled in (Exception is very high difficulty levels)

I start in a fast spurt to insure I can get as many cities founded as I want. I try to get up to 4 cities as fast as possible and set my goal at 2000 bc. I get my economy humming a bit and then I start tacking on as many as I can. By that I mean If I have a surplus of 5-6g per turn I build another city. If I have a great territory to expand into I don't stop expanding until I have 10-11 cities.

So to recap I shoot for 10-11 cities founded early on. Then as the others have said I shoot for more as the game calls for.

Don't be worried about dropping your scince rate down to 60-70% early on. You will really rebound later in the game.

 

[Toshiro126]

I (barely) won a space race on Noble. At the start of the game, I think I founded around 5 cities myself. Then through a couple of culture flips and a couple of captures, I wound up with 10 cities by the end of the game. I had enought to build the space ship first, but it was very close. I would have liked more, but the other civs on my land mass were pretty well protected militarily. And since I needed cities free to build spaceship parts I couldn't really try to gain any more enemy cities.

Of course that was an earlier game. now that I can use my military better, capturing other cities is much easier.

 

[josephstalin]

I would say that 6 is a bare minimum. You probably could live quite good without that Forbidden palace, but not without those that have prejuctice as 6.

 

[weimingshi]

Hum... played on huge maps, I never really noticed if forbidden city had much impact on my game. The only time I built it is on an emperor game, huge earth map, I conqured 40 cities.

Anyways on huge map, you should try get at least 12 cities by industrial age. Rule is 4 city in ancien age, 4 more in middle, and as many as you can build by renaissance, cause by that time, your economy should be able to support any number of cities. With the trade routes, any city you built past renaissance should earn you more gold than maintenance starting at 1 pop. If not something wrong with your economy.

 

[Harry Haller]

I have generally played on noble, large continents or terra maps.

I usually start by trying to build 3 to 5 cities and enough units to defend them and any resources. By then then most of the good spots are taken, so my next phase is to identify cities that would be easy to capture and defend and that provide something I need (such as a seaport, gold/gems, iron, etc.). This leads to a period of war in which I build up to about 8 to 10 cities, then I try to stabilize everything with courthouses/markets and focus on specializing my city production, research, and upgrading my military. At about the time that muskets/grenadiers/cannon appear, I have another cycle of war to claim any other resources that I have found that I will want, to cripple an emerging powerful neighbor, or to finish off a very weak civ that has one or 2 remaining good cities. I wind up with about 15 cities, and by this time I am starting to prepare for the space race. In the process of the space race I will usually go to war at least once more to knock out the most likely competitor. Here I am not focusing on capturing and keeping cities, just on razing them, so I may not end up gaining many cities. If I am playing on a terra map, I end up founding a few cities in the end or capturing them for barbarians to gain things like uranium or aluminum, and I might finish with 20 cities.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

9 is the magic number for me but i dont mind going over. 12 is a bit of a point where there gets to be harder hits on maintenance.

In general multiples of 3 is going to be optimum power i think because of religious buildings. So figure 6 9 12 15. (every 3 temples gives you another cathedral type which is really useful for making a solid border)

 

[thordk]

you'll notice when you've found too much cities when your research literally stops.
founding 4 or 5 early cities should be enough till you get to code of laws and currency.
you might stretch this a little bit to grab some important resources as copper, iron, (horses) and some goods like ivory etc.
if you're a builder you might also place some cities to get your hands on stone and marble.

banks and equivalents, court houses and libraries combined with caste system is a powerful combination to get every city productive.

having found a religion and built the religious wonder in a city gives you +1gpt from every city if they have it as state religion.

 

[diamond geezer]

Early on I build as many as it takes to grab a decent amount of space. Either get leader with Creative trait or chop rush Stonehenge to get those borders expanding. This stage is a bit like a game of Go (for anyone that understands that game). How far can you go from your Capital and how close to the (potential) enemy?

The object then is to get as much of this roughly sketched area under your sway as early as possible. AIs will grab nearby land first, but then are quite annoying in finding any "uncoloured" land spaces. You can do this partly by cultural expansion, but some extra cities come in handy. I generally get to around 6 at this stage.

If this has gone well I've probably got one neighbour who didn't get much land. This is the target for invasion and will hopefully bring the city number up to 9. A couple more is no problem, but I don't want too many too early some I might raze badly placed ones.

Later, when money/research is less of a problem, I'll probably try taking out another rival, probably just picking on the one with worst relations. What you don't want is a war on several fronts at once.

 

[Gdek]

@Jeremiah Excellent point. I try for at least 9 cities in order to insure I can go for a culture victory. Nine cities with 2-5 religions will make a cultural victory much easier. That +50% culture for each cathedral is killer.

I think the key is getting to 3-5 cities until you get currency. After you get marketplaces going, you're economy will be strong enough to support a couple more cities without killing your research. If you get a religion and a shrine, it may be more cost effective to build missionaries to spread the religion.

@rthordk"having found a religion and built the religious wonder in a city gives you +1gpt from every city if they have it as state religion."

I don't think it needs to be the state religion. I think so long as the religion is present in the city you get the +1gpt.