Paeanblack did an India ICS using farms in some locations for growth. I think many of his cities are actually past size 10, and he completed the Space Ship at about turn 200. Is that a reasonable metric? You can still see some of his cities building Watermills.
Generally speaking, I don't have enough Worker time to pave over the Farms on my core cities to TPs. It is much faster to pave over the farms of my enemies with TPs, and it's better that way because I puppet most of my conquests anyway, and they're small to begin with from war, so they're already behind the curve.
Even if I were purely ICSing, the newer cities start behind, so they don't get farms. They get TPs.
I don't find my growth slowing so much that I want to stop it altogether, especially at so small a size as 10. With Farms, Granaries, and Windmills, you should be able to get a pop growth in a size 10 city at under 10 turns, which is comparable to a size 6 city that's working Trade Posts in Plains, since each pop point is at -1 food.
Whenever you stop growing and TP over everything, the hammer output just plummets. That is just how that goes.
There is nothing to be gained by such practice, since you're just exchanging hammers for gold and rushbuying at the increased premiums. Better to just work hammers to begin with.
You still make new cities, and they still grow quickly - you simply don't
the growth of your core cities unnecessarily.
Generally speaking, I don't have enough Worker time to pave over the Farms on my core cities to TPs. It is much faster to pave over the farms of my enemies with TPs, and it's better that way because I puppet most of my conquests anyway, and they're small to begin with from war, so they're already behind the curve.
Even if I were purely ICSing, the newer cities start behind, so they don't get farms. They get TPs.
I don't find my growth slowing so much that I want to stop it altogether, especially at so small a size as 10. With Farms, Granaries, and Windmills, you should be able to get a pop growth in a size 10 city at under 10 turns, which is comparable to a size 6 city that's working Trade Posts in Plains, since each pop point is at -1 food.
Whenever you stop growing and TP over everything, the hammer output just plummets. That is just how that goes.
There is nothing to be gained by such practice, since you're just exchanging hammers for gold and rushbuying at the increased premiums. Better to just work hammers to begin with.
You still make new cities, and they still grow quickly - you simply don't
the growth of your core cities unnecessarily.
