third city

[kvn_m]

when do you actually build the second settler in the game in emperor and above difficulty? do you actually build a third city at all?

well, i know it very much depends on what leader you're playing... if you're imperialistic or financial or creative... you'll probably build more settlers. is there a general rule though?

like when libraries are available. do you normally build the libraries ASAP and add a specialist anyway? or build more military units?

 

[oyzar]

huh? You can easily build like 10 cities if you play it correctly(block off land with early settlers). In fact a way to master the higher difficulties is to do just that, block off land then settle it when you can afford it. Don't settle too crappy sites but nothing wrong with settling offensive sites.

 

[shyuhe]

if you're playing vanilla or warlords, then you probably won't build past a 3rd-4th settler... It's just in BTS that the AI expansion rate got scaled down a lot.

 

[xanadux]

If you have room to expand, and good land to expand into, a settler is usually cheaper than the units it would take to capture a city. If your opponent is close and will likely take good land before you, attack before he gets to big.

 

[kvn_m]

huh? You can easily build like 10 cities if you play it correctly(block off land with early settlers). In fact a way to master the higher difficulties is to do just that, block off land then settle it when you can afford it. Don't settle too crappy sites but nothing wrong with settling offensive sites.

but what about the maintenance it cost you??

 

[oyzar]

As long as you know what your doing a city will almost allways give you more in return than it cost you...

 

[shyuhe]

As long as you know what your doing a city will almost allways give you more in return than it cost you...

I only wish this were true At a certain point, yoru economy will stagnate too much if you settle too many cities. I've rexed to about 20% of the world's land (without war) - that's generally a little too much though as it takes forever to fix your economy.

 

[oyzar]

I mean cottage up everything or build corthouses. Of course this might require some technology but given enough time most cities will pay off if you place them smartly and tech wisely.

 

[oyzar]

There are loads of high level walkthroughs in the forum. People don't stop expanding, just build the best cities first then fill up when they can afford it.

 

[shyuhe]

I mean cottage up everything or build corthouses. Of course this might require some technology but given enough time most cities will pay off if you place them smartly and tech wisely.

I don't deny this is true, but I just don't want to give the illusion that settling a new city will immediately be a positive for your economy. Later cities may incur upwards of 10-15 gpt maintenance. Even if you build a courthouse, the city won't be able to pay for itself (without gold/gems/silver) until it's working 2-3 cottages. Thus, you need to be more careful about timing the settling of later cities to make sure your economy can take the dent while the city grows big enough to pay for itself.

 

[shyuhe]

like when libraries are available. do you normally build the libraries ASAP and add a specialist anyway? or build more military units?

Libraries aren't necessary as soon as a city is built. Building a granary will net you more if you're under slavery and the city isn't food poor since you'll get more mileage out of the food. The number of military units depends on your diplomatic standing with neighbors and who those neighbors are. If Gandhi and Hatty are your neighbors, you can generally get away with warrior garrisons only until the modern era.

 

[oyzar]

that is of course true. At the very high levels cities cost 20+ gp early. Even on noble settling your 10th city cost 10 gpt already. Of course pacifism how many units / how big your cities are already is always a factor in how much the cities are going to cost you. As long as all cities have decent food they are eventually going to pay for themselves and others. Of course paying for themselves doesn't actually get you further than 0% science. You want them produce extra and loads of it(if your cities produce on average produce twice as much commerce as they cost in maintainace you'll looking at 50% sci). When expanding as long as you focus on economy it is often safe to say that you can easily expand with cities that will pay off in the long term as long as your breaking even at 50% or higher. Of course if your breaking even at 50% with 3 cities your obviously not working allot of commerce and might need to learn how to improve your economy so you can build more beneficial cities faster.

 

[Dan Quale]

I play at immortal difficulty most of the time, and have 2 essential methods, if I can block off enough land I may settle 15+ cities by BC 500, which sounds like economic suicide, but eventually it is a higher net gain even at 30 percent slider, I still get 3 digit beaker amounts quickly. If however I cannot block off all my nearby rivals, I usually settle 3-4 and build vast stacks of doom as early as possible, and expand using that method. Playing peacefully and REXing early, I can generally ensure that my puny neighbors will be bringing swords to a gunfight, and later on that I have bigger guns when fighting anyone else.