Real Costs of adding more cities

[1889]

I like really big civilizations but I'm a bit frustrated to discover that my latest city seems to be more of a millstone than an asset.

Can anyone please tell me what mechanics are scaled with number of cities good or bad. For example I believe district costs go while tech and civic costs are independent of number of cities. On the other hand do more cities reduce unit maintenance? Thank you.

 

[ezzlar]

Number of combined techs and civics decide district cost. Unit maintenance is always the same regarding number of cities.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

The era score threshold for standard/golden age scales +1 for each city past the capital. By the time building new cities is an option rather than a necessity the game's winner is largely decided (you right?), so always build more cities is a winning strategy.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I like really big civilizations but I'm a bit frustrated to discover that my latest city seems to be more of a millstone than an asset.

Can anyone please tell me what mechanics are scaled with number of cities good or bad. For example I believe district costs go while tech and civic costs are independent of number of cities. On the other hand do more cities reduce unit maintenance? Thank you.

Not sure how a new city could be a millstone in Civ 6. If all it has is 2 population, it's still contributing the science and culture from those people (and they don't even cost an amenity).

All the things you mention were Civ 5 mechanics that weren't carried forward to Civ 6.

District costs are associated with the number of techs/civics you have (whichever you have more of as a percentage of total techs/civics). Tech and civic costs are, as you mention, unaffected by the number of cities you have. Unit maintenance is flat per unit, no modifiers for cities anymore.

As Magma Dragoon mentioned, the only mechanic that scales with the number of cities you have is the amount of Era Score you require to hit a Golden Age (maybe Normal Age, too, can't remember). It does up by 1 per extra city you have at the start of the Era.

 

[Banazir864]

There's always the opportunity cost of building the extra settlers (or military units if you conquered the cities). That is, every settler you build could have been something else, and that something else might have done you more good than the extra city.

Also, you need to be aware that unless you deliberately keep your new city from growing beyond 2, it will start using up amenities, and that could cause trouble if you're founding tons of cities. Founding lots of cities and just letting the citizen AI do what it wants will drain your amenities fast.

 

[Boyan_Sun]

do more cities reduce unit maintenance?

No. Settler cost increases as your self-built settler number grows, and era score requirement increases as number of cities (include occupation) grows, that's all.

 

[Uberfrog]

Expanding in Civ VI is generally a good thing to do. The only cost of a new city is the Settler's turns of production, and an amenity once it starts growing.

Provided you're smart with planning amenities, there's not really any reason to stop expanding.