Planning Cities - What's Your Strategy?

[jadelicia]

So, you have a new game, and you land on a fresh continent and begin to explore after building your first city. After you get the lay of the land surrounding you, how do you decide or plan where to build your new cities?

My strategy is that I put the map grid on and get out a board marker (I.E. one that erases) and literally draw out where cities might lie and plan how to make as many cities in an area while drawing out as many resources as possible, and still while not overlapping city radi hardly at all. Then I write down the final ultimate locations. Do any of you have other methods of planning? What do you do when some stupid AI comes in a builds a city that misses resources by a little bit and screws up your plans?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I plop down cities on grassland where it seems good, or in a place to get extra resources. If there are too many spaces in between, I will fill them in later with small cities. I avoid overlap, but I do not find it a sin to do so. I also place cities in strategetic locations, and they do not have to grow big, though some of them do. It is also amaizing at how a new city can suddenly become much more important than an old city that had much more time to grow.

 

[ferenginar]

Initially I place the cities to maximise resources, but often place coastal cities on hills or mountains so that they are easily defensible against naval bombardment.

Later in the game, I fill in the gaps between the key cities.

 

[ElephantU]

Overlapping the outer row of tiles between cities is not a sin - rarely do we grow every city up to size 20 (unless you are going for a Hall Of Fame max score victory...). I look at the specials patterns first, and choose one or more key sites with high trade specials for my STC and potential Twin Cities. The helper cities fill in the gaps, with emphasis on grass for faster growth and ocean access for building ships. Early in the game I try to keep the cities close together, even if I have a large island, to minimize corruption and waste. Once Engineers and Democracy are available, if I'm not going for Early Landing, I spread out the cities to take advantage of resources.

 

[jadelicia]

Hmmm...I find it interesting that so many of you don't find overlap a problem. I've always tried to avoid it almost at all costs. Maybe I'll reconsider that.

 

[ElephantU]

Don't overlap the inner ring of tiles, unless you want an ICS kind of game (cities every two tiles gridwork fashion). With some experience you can look at an island and see where the key sites are, then fill in the gaps. Depends also on whether you are playing for Early Landing, Early Conquest, or Max Score.

 

[Godwynn]

I place my cities so that not one square overlaps, but if I have to I will overlap one or two squares. A large population is what I am after.

 

[The Person]

I don't give much thought to city placement, as long as they don't overlap too much. I mostly go for "quantity over quality".

 

[Specialist290]

I'm one of those who tries to strike a balance between quality of the site's terrain and quantity of cities. I'll build most of my cities in areas w/ a fair portion of Grassland or Plains, but often w/ some "production" terrain (such as Forests, Hills, etc.) as well. I try not to have them overlap too much, but 2 or 3 tiles is acceptable in most cases. When building cities, I consider my first city as a "center" and expand radiatively in all directions possible, but sometimes settling the coast first and working my way inward. I do pretty much the same thing when I'm colonizing a new continent, too, only on a much greater scale and at a faster pace given the resources I usually have to work with by that time.

 

[jadelicia]

Hm. I find I can reach the max amount of cities, and still have space left to build, but then, the AI overlap, so that's hard to judge. Plus, it would depend what size map you play on, and on the smaller maps, this would not be the case.

 

[Marx]

I almost always build my cities on grasslands without a resourcepoint. You'll get One Resource for free!!.

 

[Terrapin]

My first city must start on a grassland tile and have either a shielded grassland w/ river hex within the city square or else a good all around special, with a minimum of 2F, 1S, 1T (Whale or wheat. Any others?) My second city also must go on a grassland hex. It need not have a special because I find it better to build that city contiguous with the first. However, I will go 1 or 2 tiles further to reach a quality special or to ensure that I build on grass. If necessary, the second city can have a roaded, shielded grassland hex prepared for the first worker, but that is not my preference.

After the first two cities are in place, I try to crank out settlers, which is probably about the same for everyone. With luck, I will have popped a hut and gotten a NONE horse to explore, but if not, I build one extra unit to explore. Since the early settlers take a while to build (unless you get gold from a hut or are lucky enough to catch a barb leader!), my explorer(s) has(have) time to scope out city sites. After the first two cities, I will spread out more to grab desireable spots such as ones containing whales or multiple specials. The areas between can be filled in later. One reason for this is that I do not like to have to road a shielded grassland hex early in the game except with the NONE settler you start with. I would rather spend the extra turns simply walking to a better space. If anyone has a mathematical analysis of the value of plopping ones city down say 2-4 turns sooner on naked grasslands v. 2-4 turns later w/a whale, I would love to see it.

 

[SlowThinker]

In the beginning (up to 5-10 cities) you should use an ICS style of placement of cities. In this period of the game size of your cities will not exceed 2-3, because building new settlers and founding new cities is the most fast way of grow. So your cities should be able to work 2-3 'reasonable' tiles only (like shielded grassland, forest or better).
Therefore place cities only 2, max. 3 tiles apart (for whales or another very good special I would travel even further): faster you found, faster you produce; another reason is that you minimize your logistic expenses - roads that connect cities are built faster, units move faster between cities, you need less units for a defense.
Later, when you are able to grow by WTLxD, you should place cities so that thay may grow to size 5-8.
And later, when you plan to build Aqueducts, you should reserve even more space for your new cities...
Of course your SSC is a separate thing - it should be able to grow to size 20.

 

[SlowThinker]

Hm. I find I can reach the max amount of cities...

I remember my game with 30 cities ... it was a horror for me, all that micromanagement...

 

[jadelicia]

I write things down

 

[Specialist290]

So do I. I often arrange my cities into groups based on their location (I sometimes call these groups "provinces" or, when I'm the Mongols, "khanates") so that I can coordinate their production.

 

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by Marx
I almost always build my cities on grasslands without a resourcepoint. You'll get One Resource for free!!.

Oh yes, we should discuss also these things... I will look from a more general point of view than Marx:

A city square gives you
one free shield if there is no one
a free irrigation
a free road

So you should prefer tiles with 0 shields, tiles that gives you an advantage from irrigation (for example forest is not good), and tiles that will yield an arrow from a road (plains, grassland, (also desert) and tiles that yield an arrow already - like specials and rivers: so you will get an additional arrow from rivered hills, but no arrow from dry hills).

 

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by jadelicia
I write things down

Good schoolgirl...

 

[ElephantU]

... and tiles that yield an arrow already - like specials and rivers: so you will get an additional arrow from rivered hills, but no arrow from dry hills).

Another related point is that founding a city on a river gives you a second arrow, 50% improved defense, AND a free bridge long before BridgeBuilding is possible.

 

[SlowThinker]

Yes, only cities on rivers allows you to connect your road system with a 'river system' and to get across rivers fast.