[Civ2] Placement of Cities

[hexxdemon]

Everyone has their own strategies as to where to place their cities. Here's a few I like to use, with a pic of my current game to illustrate:



- Resources, the more bonus squares you can have within city limits the better. Maximum you can find is 4. The top left city - Magna - has 3.

- Capital city is in the "core" territory - surrounded by friendly cities and not exposed to enemies.

- Surrounding cities built on Mountain squares. This makes them practically impossible to invade. The downside is slower growth and more surrounding land development required.

- Build a city that splits you enemies' territory in half (Top right - Utiqa). Divide and conquer.

- Don't build roads on coastlines unless necessary. Build roads deeper within your territory so enemies landing on your coast don't have easy movement.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Everyone has their own strategies as to where to place their cities. Here's a few I like to use, with a pic of my current game to illustrate:



- Resources, the more bonus squares you can have within city limits the better. Maximum you can find is 4. The top left city - Magna - has 3.

- Capital city is in the "core" territory - surrounded by friendly cities and not exposed to enemies.

- Surrounding cities built on Mountain squares. This makes them practically impossible to invade. The downside is slower growth and more surrounding land development required.

- Build a city that splits you enemies' territory in half (Top right - Utiqa). Divide and conquer.

- Don't build roads on coastlines unless necessary. Build roads deeper within your territory so enemies landing on your coast don't have easy movement.

Hi, and welcome!

I build my cities to take advantage of a variety of resources so there's enough food, shields, and access to water.

I'm going to disagree somewhat about building roads on coastlines. I build roads for my own convenience, and rely on military units, diplomats/spies, and city walls and other defenses for protection. In fact, at some point I usually gift Railroad to any AI opponent that doesn't have it (after I've built Darwin's Voyage, of course), simply because it's much faster for me to get my freight delivered, my spies put in place, and my units in place for the grand conquest.

 

[hexxdemon]

Thank you.

I agree. The placement of cities is always affected by a number of factors.

I only follow the "no-roads-near-water" rule in certain situations. Like if there are 2 identical squares to choose from, I'll build the road/improvement away from water. Otherwise, especially in endgame, it's not realistic.

Gift railroad TO the AI? Blasphemy, haha. Although it's an interesting strategy.


Another tactic I like to use is to place the cities far enough away from each other so that each one gets the full surrounding squares for resources, but close enough so that their edges "touch". This guarantees you have full territorial claim to the area. Otherwise, if you leave even 1 vacant square between cities, the AI loves to park their units there.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Gift railroad TO the AI? Blasphemy, haha. Although it's an interesting strategy.

I should clarify that I usually play Test of Time and in the Lalande (science fiction) scenario I kill off the human AIs first, because I don't need them to win. What's left are three alien AIs who are usually more concerned with killing each other, and I seem to be the one helping to keep them alive (I'll defend them against the Nona aliens, or give them a unit or two to help them. The thing is, I need at least two of them alive long enough so they can discover a set of techs that I need to be able to acquire so I can win as I can't get to Nona without them). Once they get these techs, I send in my spies and steal them. For that reason, railroads (or the Lalande equivalent) are indispensable to get the spies there in a single turn and not risk being killed before reaching the city.

Another tactic I like to use is to place the cities far enough away from each other so that each one gets the full surrounding squares for resources, but close enough so that their edges "touch". This guarantees you have full territorial claim to the area. Otherwise, if you leave even 1 vacant square between cities, the AI loves to park their units there.

I prefer to do this as well, although I don't mind a little overlap. Again, when playing ToT, you have to consider city placement to take full advantage of terrain such as clouds, underground tunnels, and seafloor tiles. Or if playing Lalande, it can get tricky when trying to place cities on the orbital platforms (lots of terraforming is necessary there or the cities will be more likely to starve).

 

[Cavebear]

Everyone has their own strategies as to where to place their cities. Here's a few I like to use, with a pic of my current game to illustrate:



- Resources, the more bonus squares you can have within city limits the better. Maximum you can find is 4. The top left city - Magna - has 3.

- Capital city is in the "core" territory - surrounded by friendly cities and not exposed to enemies.

- Surrounding cities built on Mountain squares. This makes them practically impossible to invade. The downside is slower growth and more surrounding land development required.

- Build a city that splits you enemies' territory in half (Top right - Utiqa). Divide and conquer.

- Don't build roads on coastlines unless necessary. Build roads deeper within your territory so enemies landing on your coast don't have easy movement.

I tend to build cities on coastlines for Harbor and Coastal Fortress shield and trade, but you make a good point about safety from ship/marine attacks. I will try that next game!

Yes the Capital city should be centralized city-wise and geographically. And I'm not afraid to move mine.

I have build many cities on hills and mountains, especially for defense of nearby inner ones. It IS difficult to maintain them though. But sometimes it is worth it to a road or railroad that an enemy civ could use.

I disagree about building a city to divide an enemy civ. You just get attacked in both directions. OK, if you are advanced enough to have fortified artillery in the city vs riflemen, that works pretty well. Hhmmm, thinking about that, I do that basic thing often enough, but I think of it in terms of defense. Mostly, an Explorer will come by and the AI knows not to go that way.

"Roads on coastlines"... Well, that is where the water is for irrigation. And if I have irrigation, I think I want a road too for maximum usage of the square. I will have to reconsider that.

Good post, thank you...