Production Cities

[Rameau's Nephew]

I've recently fired up Civ4 for the first time in about a year (playing a Warlords game or two to see if it holds my interest enough to justify buying BtS), and I've gotten kind of frustrated in trying to establish a decent production city early on. It seems that only about 1 start in 5 has a site nearby with sufficient hills and food to make a good early military factory. (I've been trying out lots of maps to get the feel of the options again.) I don't recall having this much difficulty finding good production-city locations in the past.

I'm looking for a location with about 4 hills and the food availalble to work them pre-Civil Service. Am I just having bad luck, or am I being too selective in what I see as an acceptable production-city location? Also, how long can I afford to wait to found my production powerhouse? I'd really like it to be one of the first 4 cities I build, but the maps I've been getting generally aren't giving me the opportunity.

(Note: I've been playing on Prince-- Back when I was Civving regularly, I was most comforatable with the difficulty on Monarch.)

 

[GenocideBringer]

You need to stop thinking in terms of what is good overall. When you play a game, think of what is good in your area. If you need a production city, look for the area that will best sustain that IN YOUR AREA. If you don't find a good area for production, then use what is best in your area.

Keep in mind that you don't need to have this elusive area with both hills and a river. An area with a few forests can give you some nice production, as well as food. It wont be great early on, but it will be a powerhouse once you get lumbermills.

An area with a lot of flatland can be used for workshops. Again, not ideal early on, but later on can be very beneficial.

An area with resources like grain, rice, etc...can be improved to give a crapload of food, allowing you to dedicate more population on hammers.


Don't expect to find the elusive perfect city location every game.

 

[Mango]

Sometimes I settle for not having major production cities if the map doesn't allow it. It isn't a problem on Prince level.

Still, you are looking for the right thing. Maybe you should look for bronze or iron and then see if there are any extra hills and food that will fit in the fat cross. A good metal mine makes up for the lack of hills. Horses and cows are also great in production cities.

My problem a lot of times is I'm so busy trying to find that great location for production that I never build the Heroic Epic until near the end of the game.

 

[axident]

Early: forests, grasslands for farms, hills, resources

Late: watermills, grasslands with workshops instead of farms, resources

I look for the long term and try to find some place next to a river, a few hills, a few forests, some green stuff (no more than a few icky plains--unless they are FLOODplains), and most importantly, with some nice resources. My current game has a West Point city with some flood plains, hills, and a river with watermills and Replaceable Parts, and a few workshops and State Property. Early on you can't really ask for more than that. It only has silk, cows, and horses, but it's cranking ridiculous numbers of highly-promoted units out.

 

[The Bowman]

I think you answered your own question about "asking for too much".

4 hills? I can see why you are hardly satisfied while playing. I have seen cases where even just a single hill was more than enough for a full based Wonder Economy. (If you can play it right).

I also think you are hurting yourself by dropping down to prince. It is known that prince levels enforce very horrible strategy that takes a long time for players to realize when trying to move up through the ranks.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

It seems that only about 1 start in 5 has a site nearby with sufficient hills and food to make a good early military factory. .... I'm looking for a location with about 4 hills and the food availalble to work them pre-Civil Service. Am I just having bad luck, or am I being too selective in what I see as an acceptable production-city location?

Here's a question: how much military production do you think you need, pre-Civil Service?

sounds like 20/turn is your minimum?

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

Thanks all. It is one of my weaknesses in the game that I tend to get hung up on getting "perfect" city locations. Occasionally, I need to be talked down and forced to realize that it ain't gonna get better if I restart and try again. Being away from the game for a while made me struggle with this urge all over again.

(Now I just need to get over my tendency to play the early game with barely-adequate defenses that get schooled when barbarian axemen show up.)


Happy Civving!

 

[The Bowman]

There is a game on the forum listed here Ghandi played on Emperor where the leader only had 1 hill on a shoreline, and didn't even bother mining it the whole game.

Once you see what he made out of it, you'll realize getting hills is very over-rated.