Production vs Population ?

[Jericho Strange]

I am curious about what strategy people use for deciding how to handle a city once it is getting up there in size. There or 2 basic paths that I see (but I am new):

1. Maximize production. Improve land so that you get the Maximum production out of the tiles with just enough food to keep all of the pop working every tile. Perfect world would leave no excess food so pop is stable and you maximize shields.

2. Maximize population. You care less about shields and you just get all the food you can so the pop is huge and your non workers just make entertainers/taxes/sci.

 

[Padma]

Until the city gets to the point where it cannot put new citizens to productive use, i.e., over 20, Population IS Production! The greater the pop. the more tiles you can work. I always strive to have *some* growth in my cities (unless I am temporarily stuck at 6 or 12, in which case, I sometimes use them as "worker factories" ).

I don't go overboard on pop-growth, e.g., I don't stick all my citizens to work food-only tiles, but I do try to balance growth/shield production with my current needs.

 

[Jericho Strange]

Sorry, that's what I meant. When the pop is (I forget the exact number) but when EVERY workable tile has someone on it...

Do you max food and build specialists

or max shields and cap you workers with just enough food to keep every tile worked with no wasted food.

 

[budweiser]

In that case, I would take the specialists because they add to your score. If I was in a war, I would becareful because it might be harder to keep the big cities happy. Now a days I pack my cities in close so I dont get to manny really big ones - only had two big cities (pop over 18) in my last game.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by Jericho Strange
Sorry, that's what I meant. When the pop is (I forget the exact number) but when EVERY workable tile has someone on it...

Do you max food and build specialists

or max shields and cap you workers with just enough food to keep every tile worked with no wasted food.

If you want to micromanage then set the production to some multiple of any unit you want to produce. A tank is a good example, they cost 100 shields to build so if your city were producing 68 shields 18 of them would be wasted each turn because it will take 2 turns to produce a tank whether you are producing 50 shields or 68 shields per turn. Some people mine or irrigate the same tile throughout the game depending on what they want the city to do. When you have lots of workers you can change a tile in 1 turn and when you get railroads everywhere it is very easy to make mass changes anywhere in your empire. Late in the game budweiser is right about specialists adding to your score, when you no longer need any production convert any mine you are able to irrigation to maximize your population.

 

[Bamspeedy]

When every tile is already being worked, then maximize production. Specialists are not very useful. Specialists are immune to corruption, so they may be better in high-corrupt cities, but your core should be at maximum production (if you are still trying to conquer your enemies).

A taxman only adds 1 gold and a scientist 1 beaker. I would take shields over that any day. However, like Svar pointed out sometimes you won't need some of that extra production because of what you are building. In that case, some mines can be turned into irrigation to net some specialists if you want. I don't bother with this because:
1. More population adds more pollution (until you get mass transits).
2. The same turn pollution hits, you lose the production (and food) from that tile, even if you cleaned it up the same turn. So if you had a city producing exactly 80 shields/turn and building an 80 shield unit, then you won't get that unit complete if pollution hits your mountain tile, thus you wasted 76 shields (if there wasn't another mined/railroaded mountain tile for your citizen to hop to).

 

[Hellfire]

Note, sometimes maximum production means some tiles are irrigated. If you mined ever grassland, you'd only end up with 2 food per square, which is fine for the people working there, but what if you want to work that mountain square with the bonus resource? Irrigated grassland with a railroad is 4 food, so it can support the population of the people working that square AND people working a mountain square.

The AI likes to irrigate and mine grassland about 50/50 regardless of whether it has a bonus shield or not. I think if you want to maximize production that if you don't have all grassland squares you need to irrigate some grassland.

Any helpful guidelines for grassland improvements?

 

[Lenvik]

Originally posted by Hellfire
Any helpful guidelines for grassland improvements?

It's a minor point, but sometimes it pays off to mine non-bonus grasslands and irrigate bonus grassland. This way, you get the most out of golden ages and mobilization. The downside is that you get slightly less flexibility with regard to micromanagement.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Any helpful guidelines for grassland improvements?

Despotism: Mine it, unless it is a bonus resource. If you have too much food already, but lack shield tiles, then mine it.

After despotism, then it depends on surrounding terrain (if you have mountains/hills you want to work, like you pointed out). Entirely grassland, then I mine it all, except for the bonus resources until I'm maxed out in size and then I will mine it if I'm maxed out in size. I like to irrigate the bonus resource tiles so that I'm not relying on too many 0 shield tiles to speed up growth. I'd rather irrigate 1 food bonus tile than 2 regular tiles.
I don't like to do mass irrigation (for maximum growth/commerce)because then the city lacks production to build stuff to keep the new citizens happy. If I have plenty of luxuries where happiness isn't a problem, then I'll do maximum growth than switch the irrigation to mines where I have excess food.

I build granaries or get the pyramids so that I don't have to rely too much on irrigation to get my cities to max size.

 

[The Last Conformist]

At siyze 20 and above, I always go for production over population. I don't actually care much about my score, and Specialists aren't that terrific.

 

[Baltimoretrader]

What size are everyone's cities getting to at the end of the game? I know it depends on the skill levels, but a 25 to someone might be small to others?

My last game I don't think I got higher than 33 or 34.

 

[Vanadorn]

Most of my games end with cities in the 30-35 range, unless I'm play PTW Hotseat, in which case I max out at 25 - 30 (switch to communist and force build until I get Mass transit). This eats at my score, but less time wasted during my turn (I'm more interested in having a good time with some friends and family, than min/maxing my empire during a Hotseat PTW).

A 60/40 mix is where I stay in regards to Population/Production.

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

If I've got a city with hills/mountains in its radius, I irrigate enough to make working those tiles possible, then mine everything else. There's no point in having a population over 20 unless you're going for histograph score, as specialists count in there. I try to keep it at 40 food to maximize production.

The goal: at least 1 shield per tile.

Later!

--The Clown to the Left

 

[Peter Harris]

I like to get my cities up to size 12 as soon as I conveniently can and then transfer workers, and maybe change some tile improvements, to maximise production. The exception is a science city with collusus, library, marketplace, etc etc in which case I usually maximise gold to magnify my research).

After I get hospitals I want my cities to grow fast. If I am in a tight spot I maximise production. If I can afford to, I like to make the city as populous as possible and to hell with strategy. (I want BIG cities, drooling over the very thought of a size 40 city. )

 

[The Last Conformist]

I rarely have cities bigger than 25. I don't care for score, and extra shields are usually better than the effect of hordes of Taxmen or Scientists. 25 already allows for all the entertainers you should normally need for 20 citizens actually working

 

[akinkhoo]

production and wealth are important for low corruption city. i have ultra high pop in city that doesn't production much, they contribute to score.

an effective plan 10 pop can beat a 20 pop city!