Squeeze or Spread?

[Pitman]

What do people think about locating cities, especially early on, in terms of bunching your cities close together or spreading your early cities out more.

In other games, like SMAX, it is far more desirable to spread out as much as possible, and "claim" territory. With Civ4, however, the maintenance costs can be severe if you are too far from "home." However, Civ4 also pits you against far more civilizations and you are often quickly crowded by your neighbors. Is it better to eat the greater costs in order to spread out more (thinking that you can "fill in" your gaps with later cities more at your leisure) or is it better to bunch together, even though it may inhibit your later expansion?

What do you think?

 

[caketastydelish]

I spread. I play as England, and spreading is a very British thing to do. As they say "the sun never sets on the British empire"

 

[Navarre]

I think it's almost always better to spread. Your maintenance costs will rise, but so will your commerce and production. As long as you can later develop the land to sustain your economy, it's good. When the land can't support a powerful economy by lack of food (too much plains, hills, desert, whatever), don't spread too much and settle fewer but only good cities.

 

[warpus]

I place my cities wherever the resources take me; spreading out is a secondary consideration.

 

[Polobo]

I agree with warpus, play what the map gives you. However, I'll generally forgo planning for filler cities. Unless you are hopeless at war if/when you need more land it is easier to strike out from a reasonably tight area as opposed having to cross 3 cities worth of land just to get from the capital to the enemy. Most filling occurs because I took over cities across an expanse of neutral land (or razed them) and once the war is over I recover my economy and then settle those spots I couldn't afford before the war.

 

[Airefuego]

My cities grab resources first - I fill in later, if at all.

But key: build connecting roads very early. The AI doesn't, so your armies effectively have extra movement points. You'll be taking the AI's wonders that much sooner.

 

[gdgrimm]

Play the map. I play with as many Random settings as possible, so I'll sometimes get lots of grassland type terrain, in which case I'll try to line up or just barely overlap fat crosses. Other times (like my current game) I end up with huge expanses of deserts and other bad terrain. Then I'll spread out more.

 

[Willem]

As they say "the sun never sets on the British empire"

Well... never used to at least.

 

[buffalo6542]

i try to make first few cities spread out along coast. if its an important resource then I would settle near it, like iron or copper.

 

[I_Scorpio]

In my current Noble continents game, I spread quite far for my second and third city; I was securing horses and gold...I know, not very important, but it really helped keep the yankees and turks well behind me, and the expensive investment brought me a good return when I easily took both of them over at my leisure later on. Mehmed though managed to escape to a tundra island before i finished him off. Soon, very, very soon.

 

[Rain]

To some degree the best approach depends on your plan for the game and you civ's traits. You can be more productive by overlapping early and micro managing resource use - especially hammer tiles can be alternated in use. If you are a creative civ spreading your border is little easier without devoting resources to it. You still don't necessarily want to wander off to far as your maintenance goes up and that can hurt your science. Peace builders are more likely to spread a bit more more i think. War types figure they will get the territory later on.

 

[raigainousa]

I agree to spreading(Continents map) to fill it with my cities, then dealing with maintenance costs by research slider, then by building Courthouses, Markets, Grocers, Banks, etc.

 

[King Flevance]

Because the economy in the game is based upon the map itself generating the base for an economy - the best bet is to spread. Even when you are constricted early, it means wartime. (For me at least.) As it is easier to take over that extra bit of territory earlier than later. If you stay too small for too long eventually your economy is going to hit its cap when everyone else's is still growing due to their expansion. Thus, they start to tech faster, thus get harder to invade, and so on.

 

[CivMonger]

I'm a fan of spreading and filling in the gaps afterwards. And if I have a chance to choke off an AI player by culture blocking him in somewhere, thats worth stretching more than a little to make it

 

[allunderheaven]

Generally speaking, I would spread out first because I could suffocate the AI and get the best land and resources, afterwards, I fill in the gaps. Of course, this depends on the map and what is available.

 

[vicawoo]

I can only think of squeezing when you're going for an early rush.

 

[Feanor01]

I think this completely depends on the settlings of the game. Last game I started was a small with 8 competitors. I had room for only four cities squeezed close together. No bronze, and luckly one iron. I took out Catherine and her 5 cities for more room, but she was squeezed in too. I think if you like to expand, you generally select larger maps with less opponents. If you like a challange, you select more opponents or higher sea levels.

Generally maintance kills me if I spread too much, so until I get court houses, I try to minimize overlap and minimize distance. I think it also depends on your strategy. In a conquest game if you are going to win by 1400-1600 AD your cities are probably not going to be size 20, so some overlap is alright! For a cultural game your three target cities should have no overlap, but your other cities are far less crutial and can overlap. For a spacerace or long game your cities will be much larger and overlap can start to limit city growth. While overlap/spreading is map specific it is also victory condition specific.

 

[King Flevance]

I wouldn't say that a huge map with few opponents is less challenging. Actually this can (depending on how few) be more challenging as all of your opponents also have room to spread. Although I usually play huge maps with 14 opponents. (Leave room for colonies to pop up without a death to be involved. Rarely does this actually get utilized though.)

 

[caketastydelish]

Well... never used to at least.

Now the sun never sets on the American empire. Hawaii to the east coast covers a lot of time zones right off the bat. Then you have to consider our colonial footholds in the middle east.

 

[Grimz101]

Generally for me..
REX
REX
REX
then some more REX !

(Rapid Early Expansion or was it just Rapid EXpansion i forget )