Overpopulation

[rafisher]

Hi. How do you handle overpopulation and those angry red faces? I built every possible building that brings happiness but this was not enough. In fact, several of my cities were 23 or above. How do you stabilize the population to be at 20 (or is it 21?)

Thanks.

 

[braindrain]

bust out the whip!
all those red faces are free hammers brother!

 

[braindrain]

another thing you can do is run monarchy and add more soldiers to your towns

 

[UncleJJ]

Hi. How do you handle overpopulation and those angry red faces? I built every possible building that brings happiness but this was not enough. In fact, several of my cities were 23 or above. How do you stabilize the population to be at 20 (or is it 21?)

Thanks.

I usually stagnate my growth (at whatever happiness level) by running a few specialists or move a worker onto a gold mine. I never use the no growth button but that would be another way if you don't like to micromanage your cities.

 

[BYC]

Monarchy + units
Nationhood + Barracks
Environmentalism
Raise your Culture slider
Adopt a State Religion

 

[Samson]

Hi. How do you handle overpopulation and those angry red faces? I built every possible building that brings happiness but this was not enough. In fact, several of my cities were 23 or above. How do you stabilize the population to be at 20 (or is it 21?)

Thanks.

20 pop needs 40 food. Calculate how much food you have available in the surrounding tiles, and if it is less than 40 then you need farms. If not, just build cottages or whatever. It will not grow above 20 then.

 

[cabert]

whip them away!
slavery civic+pop rushing for an army will make this really easy
But if you can grow to size 20+, you probably have a lot of happiness already, so maybe pushing the culture slider a bit would make it easy to just use them as specialists?

I never had so many people in a city

 

[curtadams]

I find, once past the middle ages, that my happiness caps almost always exceed my healthiness caps. So I never get these giant cities - once I see the nauseous faces I stop growth.

 

[Zillah]

The last post raises something I've been wondering about. I play on Monarch and rarely have happiness problems. My problem is always with health. It's fine if I'm playing for a space race victory because I can just research medicine. But I have been gunning for cultural victories recently. I can get them - sometimes - but not until the 20th century when I start having real problems with the AIs attacking me. All the advice on cultural victories suggests you need a GPP farm. I don't seem to be able to get one because I always end up too unhealthy. I stop researching after rifling so I can't cope if someone like Monte starts attacking me with big stacks. And I don't get anywhere near medicine either. Any advice?

 

[aelf]

I never had so many people in a city

Me neither... until I started the Emperor Challenges. 20 used to be the max I got, and only in one city (usually the capital). In the Ramesses game, I had a size 26 city or two (none of them the capital).

I think acquiring a lot of land and proper micromanagement would allow you to have bigger cities. It's a question of getting enough happiness/health resources and tile management to grow the city while fulfiling other roles that such a large city would definitely have to play. You will hit the cap eventually, at which point you either trade for more happiness resources (keeping in mind the fact that some buildings give you more happiness with certain resources) or stop growth by hiring more specialists/changing a few farms to something else.

I play on Monarch and rarely have happiness problems. My problem is always with health. It's fine if I'm playing for a space race victory because I can just research medicine... All the advice on cultural victories suggests you need a GPP farm. I don't seem to be able to get one because I always end up too unhealthy. I stop researching after rifling so I can't cope if someone like Monte starts attacking me with big stacks. And I don't get anywhere near medicine either. Any advice?

Either trade for or grab more health resources. Sometimes, the terrain can help or make it worse for you. Clearing all the jungle in the city's fat cross, settling beside fresh water and keeping a few forests (at +1 health every 2 forests) in the fat cross would increase your health cap. Having a lot floodplains in the fat cross (at -0.25 health per tile, I think) lowers your health cap. You may also need to consider which unhealthy buildings you build, whether you really need them or not. Replace coal plants with dams when and where possible or, better still, build the Three Gorges' Dam. If you want to have a large population (eg. in your GP farm), consider not building forge, factory, airport or lab in that city. In late game, you have recycling centres and supermarkets to help you out. And, if all else fails, you can switch to Environmentalism when possible to give you a health boost. If that's still not enough for you, play Expansive

 

[svv]

If you're hurting for happiness, make sure you've made the terrain improvements to get all happiness resources you can - furs, gold, etc. If you need more, try to trade for them. Do NOT trade away a happines resource if you only have one of it - because then your people can't use it anymore.

Health resources (foods) work the same way, I think.