Specialization

[DrPepper836]

I was trying out something new to me: specializing cities recently. I tried this because I haven't beaten a warlord leveled game to date... Is specialization really worth it? I found some articles on it and tried it out, but I just don't think that it makes much difference. Is that true?

 

[pholkhero]

specialization is definitely worth imo ~

in order to win at higher levels, you have to make turn-by-turn (turnly?) decisions about what to build in your cities, and, to survive, every city doesn't need every building.

why build a barracks in a city that has low production but tons of cottagable grassland? why build a library in a city surrounded by hills and rivers??

 

[Silence101]

I think city specialization is more noticable in mature cities, especially after you've got some complimentery national wonders in place. It makes a huge impact.

Another prime advantage of specialization is that it allows you to focus your production cities on military production. If you tried to build every building in every city, I'd be willing to bet you'd have a very light military, which is a good way to get into a war you can't win. (This is a common beginner mistake, I think.) Effective specialization means that you don't need every building in every city, so that production you would've normally spent on duplicate buildings is instead spent on military.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I rank City Specialization as one of the top components of enabling me to move up to Monarch, so I'd say it's hella worth it.

Like Silence101 said, it definitely becomes more apparent on a city-by-city basis as your cities mature.

But also like Silence101 said, it becomes immediately apparent when you realize your production city doesn't need a Library and a Market and instead churns out 7 Axemen.

Likewise, when your non-production cities realize they can skip directly to the Library or Market, you begin running specialists and a higher science rate that much sooner.

Furthermore, because your / farm(s) don't need as much infrastructure because of specialization, they can move off the mines and into the Cottages and Farms that much sooner as well.

In the early game, I find city specialization is all about shaving off a few turns here and a couple turns there, so even though the difference now may not seem very big, it will become huge as your empire matures.


-- my 2

 

[LlamaCat]

specialization helped me move up too. I think the biggest reason it works is efficiency (both in terms of speed and cost). Everything in this game can only be built by a city, but cities cost maintence and food. There is only so much money and food to go around on the map.

Therefore it's cheaper and often faster to build 2 well-promoted military units from 1 city than it is to build 1 each from 2 cities, which is the same military power either way (think about it: it took two settlers to get those 2 cities running, plus extra land and food and maintenance and building 2 barracks vs. 1).

It's cheaper and often faster to build a library, Great Library and Oxford University in 1 city than it is to spread out these buildings among 2 or 3 cities (which in theory could still give you the same total research).

It all really compounds as the game goes on.

 

[athelious]

It's not hard to specialize but it makes a huge difference, it can be as simple as:
1. Completely cottage most cities -->build science/health/happy/gold modifier buildings
2. One city with 2 or 3 food resources --> GP farm
3. Two or three cities with workshops + farms ---> military + wonders
I used to run straight cottages, and that worked well on monarch but I had problems on Emperor until I started specializing cities. Towns do not build military fast enough even if you play a peaceful game and want to keep your power chart high enough so that the AI doesn't steamroll you.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

My estimate (many moons back) is that specialization is worth about a level. It's less important than planning (by a lot), or learning proactive-aggressive expansion hammer.

If you aren't beating Warlord, I'd hazard a guess that you are still missing several insights about the game mechanics, and a second guess that those insights are prerequisites for taking advantage of specialization.

In other words, it may not be worth it to you yet, because you've more important hurdles to clear.

 

[Lazonby]

Another noob example (cause I'm not the most experienced) is that some cities I build/take over have poor production. 15-20 turns for a military unit isn't going to cut it when you're being threatened or doing the threatening. Slap the city into wealth production for more gold to upgrade military units. It's a heck of a lot easier than building new ones. Better yet, use the extra gold to rush production w/ US.

 

[Silence101]

Another noob example (cause I'm not the most experienced) is that some cities I build/take over have poor production. 15-20 turns for a military unit isn't going to cut it when you're being threatened or doing the threatening. Slap the city into wealth production for more gold to upgrade military units. It's a heck of a lot easier than building new ones. Better yet, use the extra gold to rush production w/ US.

Building new units is cheaper than upgrading, BTW. (Using the standard hammer/gold coversion rate.)

If you've just taken a city through war, it'll take some time for that city to get on it's feet. Keep in mind that while there was an uprising, the population was likely dropping. Improvements and buildings were destroyed. A recently aquired city is going to need some time to grow and be productive. It's not unusual for a newly aquired city to initially pose somewhat of a liability. That said, you should have production cities building a steady stream of military units during war-time. Those cities will be supporting the defense of a city or cities that you've just taken.

 

[DrPepper836]

Oh, thanks. Well, I suppose that that means that it's worth it then. One last closing request: out of every 5 cities, how many should be commerce and GP?

 

[Spitefire]

because of the way Great person system works it is most useful to have only 1 city set to this task when a city is in full GP production no other city will be able to spit out any of there own without signifigant resorce allocation.

 

[Silence101]

Oh, thanks. Well, I suppose that that means that it's worth it then. One last closing request: out of every 5 cities, how many should be commerce and GP?

You only need one GP farm in your entire Civ - having more than one is a waste. Beyond that, I don't know is that there is a set correct answer to your question.

I personally build production cities and commerce cities at about a 1:1 ratio. As I usually expect to do a lot of warring, I like having as much production cities building military units full time as I do cities building my economy. It works well for me, but it may just be my style and personal preference. If I was playing more of a builder style (which I think is beyond boring - but some people like it), I'd probably consider maybe doing two commerce cities per every production city.

EDIT: Usually my capital and second city are hybrids - I may specialize them to a degree, but they usually do a little of everything. In fact, any wonders I build are built here, and I have them building military when a production city is building a forge or barracks or some sort of infrastructure. They're also good in a pinch if you need more military production... they can fill in.

 

[Polycrates]

Specialisation is massive. Whenever I see my empire sort of flatlining towards the middle ages, it's generally because I've been lazy with my specialisation.

The most important thing (in my experience) is a specialised Heroic Epic city. If you specialise nothing else, at least have this. Use your very best gamelong production site - High food, good production and, if possible, riverside (lategame levees), with nothing but farms, mines and workshops. Build nothing but granary, forge, barracks, stables, and maybe a happiness building or two when needed (supplemented by powered factories and corresponding health buildings later on, of course). Give it Heroic Epic and West Point when you can. Apart from the above buildings, build NOTHING but military units from this city EVER. Stick a bunch of great generals as military instructors here too. You can produce most of your army from a single city this way, and it will be a well-trained army too.

The rest are less important and can come later. A good GP farm, a couple of good cottagespam cities, a decent coastal military production city for navy and surplus army needs, a Wall Street money city running merchants (quite often the GP farm city too), an espionage city running spy specialists, etc.

A HUGE help for me is to look at my empire after any mad expansion rush, use alt-s, and label every city with a primary specialisation. Really forces your hand into choosing what that city is going to do, and then constantly reminds you throughout the game so that you stick with it. Well worth it.

 

[I tech faster]

You can't go along monarch + without specializing your cities. Building the right improvements at the right time is the key.