So basically, you want to pack the cities?

[CivRalph1]

Much of this game benefits from having as many cities as you can cram into your available space.

Basically you just want the city and the 6 surrounding tiles, then pack in another city as close as you can manage, rinse and repeat. Stop population at about 8 and specialize any extra people you have at that point.

Is this about the extent of the game?

 

[Alyosha]

You've got it. How does it feel to have mastered Civ 5?

 

[King_Course]

You've got it. How does it feel to have mastered Civ 1+2+3+4+5?

Fixed for you.

 

[Slowpoke]

Eh.. that honestly isn't the best. Unfortunately, a city in civ5 in the beginning is essentially worthless without luxuries which have a yield of 13+ gold basically from trading. Gold = research agreements, city states, etc. Filling every gap might make sense later on, but not for a while.

 

[Peng Qi]

You've got it. How does it feel to have mastered Civ 5?

Actually this is only the second Civ game where there is any downside at all to what he just described.

 

[Daniel D]

Let the blue ones grow...keep the orange ones small.

Spoiler :

 

[Thormodr]

Actually this is only the second Civ game where there is any downside at all to what he just described.

Negligible downside. In cIV, spamming too many cities hurt your gold and therefore your science.

In ciV, spamming cities gains you a lot of gold and science. It does affect culture but if you are not going for the culture swim lane then it's of little consequence.

ICS is alive and well in ciV. It's the best way to play. Just observe the AI. As stupid as the AI is, it's one thing it does right.

 

[Peng Qi]

I'm not saying he's wrong, Thor, I'm just saying that this isn't a strike against Civ V unless it's also a strike against I, II, and III as well.

 

[JamesBonedOO7]

I don't get how you keep your people happy.

 

[jam3]

Terrain(namely fresh water and food needs, fertilizer should allow you to farm hills away from fresh water but it doesn't) and city purpose matter more in planning than filling all available space. But within those confines building more cities is > than less if your going for anything other than a cultural victory. The benefits from the social policies are neglible compared to the gain from more population and more tiles/specialists working for gold/science/hammers. Especially science at the higher difficulty levels your going to need alot of light bulbs or your going to get creamed by the ai in research. The ai does 2 things fairly well, it creams the tactical ai of weaker civs and research.

For happiness you build happy buildings, get luxury items, trade for luxury items with other civs, and to balance it economically since your not gong for culture you don't build many culture buildings, maybe a monument and / or temple in cities where it will help border expansion.

 

[Agent327]

I don't get how you keep your people happy.

You need 2 things:

- luxuries (cheap)
- happy buildings (expensive).

Negligible downside. In cIV, spamming too many cities hurt your gold and therefore your science.

In ciV, spamming cities gains you a lot of gold and science. It does affect culture but if you are not going for the culture swim lane then it's of little consequence.

ICS is alive and well in ciV. It's the best way to play. Just observe the AI. As stupid as the AI is, it's one thing it does right.

And yet I beat the AI. (But not by infinite city sprawl.)

I'm not saying he's wrong, Thor, I'm just saying that this isn't a strike against Civ V unless it's also a strike against I, II, and III as well.

It isn´t a "strike" at all; it only shows a misconception about the game. (Now, I´m not saying there´s nothing wrong with CiV, but this isn´t it.)

 

[Roxlimn]

Peng Qi:

It's not even universally bad in Civ IV. Once you get the corporations up, the more cities, the better! Also true for when you're expanding and you have The Great Lighthouse. Each city automatically pays its own maintenance, so as long as you settle on coast, keep settling!

 

[Biz_]

bigger cities are more cost effective once you step outside your dream world and realize that you will spend the first 300 turns of this game making nothing but happiness buildings

 

[player1 fanatic]

The only advantage of more smaller cities is in their fast initial growth.
The downside is upkeep of buildings, and slow policy generation.

 

[CivRalph1]

I don't get how you keep your people happy.

You mass produce and outright buy buildings that add happy faces.

 

[Thormodr]

I'm not saying he's wrong, Thor, I'm just saying that this isn't a strike against Civ V unless it's also a strike against I, II, and III as well.

It is a strike against I, II and III. They were all wonderful games (well Civ III not so much) but that was one of their bad points.

They finally did away with it in cIV and I was pretty happy about it. Made for a much better game.

Now in ciV, it's back again. Did they learn nothing at all?

 

[GrayingGamer]

Nothing some simple tweaking won't fix??