Town specialization

[Civsassin]

I struggle with identifying the best time / criteria to specialize a town. Sometimes I do it when the age reaches a % complete - 25% or 50%, for example, or when a town hits a certain population, 10 or 15, for example.

I'll usually do it earlier in the modern age, since I am usually pretty much done with expansion.

Thoughts?

 

[pmarc]

The cost to grow each population point increases from Antiquity to Exploration to Modern. Even in Exploration, towns that could be specialized at the start would probably take 10-20 turns to grow, so it's usually not worth getting additional growth unless you're trying to get specific tiles. In Exploration I usually specialize most of my mature towns to Hub or Mining from the start. Also given that we want more specialists in Exploration for the science legacy path, it's worth feeding the cities then. Same for Modern.

For Antiquity it's different, usually once growth has slowed and most useful resources have been captured, but also if I'm not sure if I'll need an extra urban center or not, I can wait and just let a town grow.

 

[Bleidraner]

I tend to specialize in Antiquity when the next growth event is more than 10 turns away and I have captured all resources. In Exploration I (and most of us) pretty much specialize all towns on t1 if all the resources have been captured. Same for Modern.

 

[MutilationWave]

You might want to check out this thread for some more discussion on the subject.

 

[Civsassin]

Thanks. That's helpful.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I tend to specialize in Antiquity when the next growth event is more than 10 turns away and I have captured all resources. In Exploration I (and most of us) pretty much specialize all towns on t1 if all the resources have been captured. Same for Modern.

I also specialize the towns earlier in Exploration and Modern. As @MutilationWave notes, the other thread has lots of considerations for *which* specializations to choose. I also found this video from Van Bradley to be helpful

It doesn't address the question of "when", but "which".

For "when", consider the difference between a Growing Town and a specialized one. The Growing Town is using its own food to grow onto additional tiles. My focus then is: which tiles, and how many, do I want to grow onto? How close are the resources? Is there an opponent settlement that could grow onto them? For towns that I found in Antiquity -- in the Homelands -- most of them have finished growing onto the interesting tiles by the end of Antiquity. It's rare that I have new resources pop up in Exploration or Modern that are not in range, are not covered by the tiles I already have.
Moreover, I've just learned more about the warehouse building bonuses, especially in later ages. If I wait to specialize a town until it has one or two food warehouse buildings, then its impact on the city/cities that town is feeding will be amplified. If I want to make this particular town a "Hub Town" for the influence yield, I might do that sooner rather than later. I might have a more urgent need for influence for war support, for example. At the start of Exploration, I try to figure out which towns will be Hubs and which will be Religious (for the extra relic slot). Both of those specialties can come pretty early.

A related consideration -- conquered settlements. After the 10-turn unrest, a large settlement that had been a city for the AI is now just a town for me. When to specialize it? Unless it has a resource nearby that the former owner didn't grow towards, I often specialize those towns within a few turns of the end of unrest. I also need to consider whether to spend the gold to make it a city again.