Population and happiness

[riddleofsteel]

I have been playing this since the game came out and while I played Civ IV for years, I never got to expert level. Now I find that I'm still way behind the curve for Civ V. Here are my primary questions:

1) Why does population seem to cause dis-proportionate unhappiness? And for that matter, I remember that I had much higher populations in Civ 4 that didn't cause as much unhappiness. I've never had more than a handful of cities, never gotten beyond Medieval (so far) and the unhappiness is a constant problem.

2) From the starting gunshot, my happiness runs down into the red because I can't find rare resources fast enough. Any difficulty above easy makes this even worse for me. What else can I do to keep people happy?

Thank all of you for any help.

 

[Mathew]

There are a ton of resources which provide happiness and you should have no issue finding half a dozen of these pretty quickly. If you're having issues, build fewer cities and try to settle cities near resources which provide happiness.

 

[dweebit]

build happiness-generating buildings. They may seem expensive, but they're really worth it. Normally when I play, once I have my core empire up to 3 or 4 cities and I'm ready to start conquering my neighbor, I make sure that I'm building as many Colosseums as my war machine can allow. By the end game almost every city I have will sport a colo, a theater, and a stadium.

 

[DaveGold]

Policies are a hidden way of controlling happiness. All the policy types will reduce unhappiness in some way and they generally scale, so that if you expand your empire to match your policies the policies will reduce the unhappiness from the expansion.

The bad news is that you need to get your policies before you get more cities as the extra cities increase your policy costs.

 

[Trickster7135]

I have been playing this since the game came out and while I played Civ IV for years, I never got to expert level. Now I find that I'm still way behind the curve for Civ V. Here are my primary questions:

1) Why does population seem to cause dis-proportionate unhappiness? And for that matter, I remember that I had much higher populations in Civ 4 that didn't cause as much unhappiness. I've never had more than a handful of cities, never gotten beyond Medieval (so far) and the unhappiness is a constant problem.

2) From the starting gunshot, my happiness runs down into the red because I can't find rare resources fast enough. Any difficulty above easy makes this even worse for me. What else can I do to keep people happy?

Thank all of you for any help.

1. Trade vigorously. Trade any excess resources for anything you have nothing of, and try to always keep those trades going.

2. Befriend city-states. Each one displays what resources it has available, so find some with luxury resources you don't have and buy their loyalty.

3. Population control. You won't be able to have explosive populations like in Civ4 until the Industrial era, so its best to click avoid growth in the city screen, or even manually set citizen so your cities are stagnate. This is a good strategy for your highest population cities, allowing your smaller ones to catchup on population.

4. Build fewer, higher population cities. Just placing the city wastes happiness.

 

[riddleofsteel]

Thanks for the replies!

@Trickster7135,

How soon or at what point should I turn on avoid growth? I tried it once and the city still grew. The second thing is, I agree that spamming cities is bad, but I find myself having to do it because if I don't the other civilizations will grab everything up.

Which leads me to a new question, when at war (inevitable) should I raze or puppetize cities?

 

[Trickster7135]

Thanks for the replies!

@Trickster7135,

How soon or at what point should I turn on avoid growth? I tried it once and the city still grew. The second thing is, I agree that spamming cities is bad, but I find myself having to do it because if I don't the other civilizations will grab everything up.

Which leads me to a new question, when at war (inevitable) should I raze or puppetize cities?

You can't avoid growth like in Civ4, your cities will always keep growing unless you place the citizens yourself so you end up with a 0 balance of food. My suggestion is to keep all your cities at about the same population. You really don't need to spam cities either, three cities should be all you need until you have to conquer your neighbors.

When you conquer a city, raze it, every time. If you really want the territory, place a settler there yourself. You can't control the population of puppet states, and the courthouse is cost prohibitive for an annexed city. The only exception are capitals and cities with wonders.

 

[riddleofsteel]

Thanks. So, there's no real magic number for population?

 

[Zechnophobe]

No there really isn't. Especially since going into negative happiness simply stops you from growing. Avoiding growth so that you ... don't grow isn't really a worthwhile endeavor. Worry a bit more when it gets towards -10. At -10 you'll have a harder time digging yourself out, and will have problems with production and unit strength. Though, once in the industrial era both become less noticeable.

 

[King Jason]

Puppets really aren't all that bad if you trade post all of their tiles. On average they're more likely to build you something useful. Useful buildings: Happiness, Science, Culture, Wealth, Growth. Non Useful buildings: Military (xp or defense).

Combine all of the given types and there are vastly more useful buildings than non-useful ones. But I do think they shouldn't build xp buildings since they can't build units... but anyway; those that report their economy crashing due to puppets probably didn't have a strong economy to begin with.

In terms of courthouses, their 5g in maintenance, which can easily be made up with one single citizen from the city itself by the time you have a bank there.

In fact I'd say the incubation period of new cities more than justifies annexing and puppeting. You just have to pay attention to what's going on. For example, if I do decide to induct a swath of puppets into my empire, I usually only do 1-2 at a time. Wait until their courthouses are finished, and then do another 1-2.

A big benefit of puppets is they don't increase your culture costs but do add to your CPT.

 

[Trickster7135]

No there really isn't. Especially since going into negative happiness simply stops you from growing. Avoiding growth so that you ... don't grow isn't really a worthwhile endeavor. Worry a bit more when it gets towards -10. At -10 you'll have a harder time digging yourself out, and will have problems with production and unit strength. Though, once in the industrial era both become less noticeable.

It is better to manage your population though, so you don't end up with some at 15 population and others at only 3 or 4. Better to have them all at 10 so they all have good production for building buildings.

 

[jck169]

When you conquer a city, raze it, every time. If you really want the territory, place a settler there yourself. You can't control the population of puppet states, and the courthouse is cost prohibitive for an annexed city. The only exception are capitals and cities with wonders.

I'd kill to be able to view the city screen while deciding to raze or puppet.