Tips for expanding and building new cities

[DarthDooku]

The standard game difficulty was too simple. I would fend off an early attack and then be able to go to their city and wipe out the entire civ without ANY resistance. So im playing on Emperor level which is one under the hardest and need some tips.

So I think i need to build new cities to raise more gold, right? Does distance from the capital decrease gold or happiness. How does number of cities reduce happiness. Any other tips for settling new cities, keeping gold and happiness up and expanding borders would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trickster7135]

Distance of cities doesn't effect anything directly, but it does increase road maintenance since you have to build more roads. Each city reduces happiness by a base amount, dependent on map size.

One of the most important sources of gold for an empire that builds many cities is trade route income, which is dependent on population size of each city. In general, you want to keep cities close to one another so that trade route income negates road maintenance. It is also a good idea to spam trade posts in any puppets or other cities you settle after your first couple. Only worry about production and population growth for a few core cities where you will be building most of your units in.

 

[Scarpa]

Yes, new cities are almost always a net increase in gold, at least initially. Trade routes (cities connected to capital by road) do give you a slight bonus for distance I think (not enough to offset the longer road for sure), but it's also population dependent. Don't expect a 1 or 2 pop city to generate enough trade revenue to pay for the road. Later in the game it will.

Number of cities decreases happiness (+3 unhappy per city in addition to the +1 unhappy from the citizen) but there are policies to offset that (Meritocracy in Liberty for example).

Best thing if you're getting the hang of it is to settle cities where you'll get a new unique resource. If you settle on top of the resource and have the required tech your happiness won't budge. Otherwise you'll need to settle and then improve the lux to get back to where you started.

 

[Ottoman player]

Settling near new (to you) luxuries is always a good option for happiness. If you aren't on the coast already, that's another option, but kind of depends on your map (although even on a Pangea I'd like the option of finding people with boats). You'll want to settle close to your capital/existing cities for sure: makes defending your empire easier. Eventually you'll have to consider the diplomatic effects a new city causes: less on Emperor than higher difficulties. Settling close to another civ is generally frowned up by your AI neighbor.

Other things for happiness: meritocracy in the Liberty policy branch, ceremonial burial, horses (for circus and something to sell to AIs to buy happiness buildings/trade for luxes)