Feyd Rautha
King
Currently, I'm playing a game as America on a Large Fractal Map at Marathon speed.
I didn't sprawl early and picked up my third policy before I placed my third city, but after I picked up Liberty 1, I spread out to six cities spanning the equator on my continent with four of them with two on a secondary line south of the four.
Around 0AD I was attacked by the only other AI on my continent (France) and I promptly sent my archer/cat/pikeman/horseman force north to conquer our short and angry friend to add Paris to my empire.
I slowed down growth for a time, focusing on improving my seven cities and hoping to someday get another policy while I sent some triremes west to discover a coastal bridge between my continent and the other. On that second continent, Siam was being crushed, Germany was taking their typical Medieval/Renaissance era nosedive, and Persia and the Ottomans were rocking about 20-25 cities a piece apparently heading for conflict (all of this occurred over many turns, but that is the situation as it appears now).
The only major change other than wonder-whoring is that I added an island city-state in the middle of the large ocean simply for its location and proximity to the great barrier reef. It is still a puppet-state, but I will be annexing it when it starts to build crap buildings.
My question now is, do I sprawl. I have access to at least one copy of every luxury on my island and I'm well positioned for strategic resources (I just revealed coal). I have a rather large continent all to myself, but I could only realistically add about two or three cities before my happiness vanishes.
My military is strong and the AI is not good at seaborne invasions, but will I wind up on the losing end of things if I don't sprawl? I didn't go patronage and so I'm not going to be able to swing a diplo victory, I'm already too big for a cultural victory, and I could win domination, but why. That leaves science and I'm likely to encounter trouble because the AI sprawl will quickly overtake me scientifically even if their empire as a whole stinks and is horrendously unhappy.
What do you advise. I've got room for at least 20 cities on my continent with liberal spacing. I could even crush all the city-states if I wanted to be at war with the others for the rest of the game, but I'd rather keep my civ as small as I need it to hold out hope for industrial era civics.
Thanks in advance.
P.S.-Sorry I have no screenshots. The only thing I have that can view TGA is quicktime and so I have no way to alter them to JPG so I could post.
I didn't sprawl early and picked up my third policy before I placed my third city, but after I picked up Liberty 1, I spread out to six cities spanning the equator on my continent with four of them with two on a secondary line south of the four.
Around 0AD I was attacked by the only other AI on my continent (France) and I promptly sent my archer/cat/pikeman/horseman force north to conquer our short and angry friend to add Paris to my empire.
I slowed down growth for a time, focusing on improving my seven cities and hoping to someday get another policy while I sent some triremes west to discover a coastal bridge between my continent and the other. On that second continent, Siam was being crushed, Germany was taking their typical Medieval/Renaissance era nosedive, and Persia and the Ottomans were rocking about 20-25 cities a piece apparently heading for conflict (all of this occurred over many turns, but that is the situation as it appears now).
The only major change other than wonder-whoring is that I added an island city-state in the middle of the large ocean simply for its location and proximity to the great barrier reef. It is still a puppet-state, but I will be annexing it when it starts to build crap buildings.
My question now is, do I sprawl. I have access to at least one copy of every luxury on my island and I'm well positioned for strategic resources (I just revealed coal). I have a rather large continent all to myself, but I could only realistically add about two or three cities before my happiness vanishes.
My military is strong and the AI is not good at seaborne invasions, but will I wind up on the losing end of things if I don't sprawl? I didn't go patronage and so I'm not going to be able to swing a diplo victory, I'm already too big for a cultural victory, and I could win domination, but why. That leaves science and I'm likely to encounter trouble because the AI sprawl will quickly overtake me scientifically even if their empire as a whole stinks and is horrendously unhappy.
What do you advise. I've got room for at least 20 cities on my continent with liberal spacing. I could even crush all the city-states if I wanted to be at war with the others for the rest of the game, but I'd rather keep my civ as small as I need it to hold out hope for industrial era civics.
Thanks in advance.
P.S.-Sorry I have no screenshots. The only thing I have that can view TGA is quicktime and so I have no way to alter them to JPG so I could post.
