What is now the ''right'' (for you) amount of cities ?

Baron2

Warlord
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
115
I never play CIV on much bigger maps than Standard, for loading issues : even before BNW, I never had much more than seven or eight core cities for most games.

I feel this amount is very adept for BNW.
 
I agree with you, I play on Large maps and generally pop around 7 cities. More or less depending on circumstances.

Less, and I feel like I don't have enough cities to rush-buy an army in case of emergency, too many and I lose focus because I simply don't want to micro like that in CiV. I'm sure the science penalty would start to hurt, too.
 
I play exclusively on Huge maps, and I'm a big fan of Liberty. I like slowly growing to 4 cities, stabilizing the economy, and then expanding to 5-6 cities. 6 is usually enough for everything I need. If there are FANTASTIC oversea opportunities, I'll look into getting 1-2 cities there.
 
I don't know whether it is a good number or not, but 4 is my number (standard maps). As a rule of thumb I try to have them by the turn 100-120 (securing 7-8 luxuries). I did try to have more cities by warmongering a little, but I flushed my economy down the toilet after having conquered my continent.
 
I expanded constantly in my last game as Poland and ended with 27 cities. I must admit I like going big since BNW. It guarantees absurdly quick science victories. My last was at turn ~350. Of course you need to rush the key wonders and have a ton of workers to build them roads, otherwise happiness and gold will be in the reds. But if you pull that off nothing is more fun than having a nation that spans half of the world.
 
I play on huge maps. I usually go for for 5-6 cities initially, depending on how many good spots (luxuries & multiple bonus resources, fresh water, etc.) there are around my capital. After that, I let my population and economy stabilize, and when the late game resources start popping up, I look for more overseas spots as needed.

I mentioned this in another thread, and it bears repeating here:

The tech penalty for # of cities scales down as map size increases. It's 5% for standard maps and 3% for huge.
 
I play on huge maps. I usually go for for 5-6 cities initially, depending on how many good spots (luxuries & multiple bonus resources, fresh water, etc.) there are around my capital. After that, I let my population and economy stabilize, and when the late game resources start popping up, I look for more overseas spots as needed.

I mentioned this in another thread, and it bears repeating here:

The tech penalty for # of cities scales down as map size increases. It's 5% for standard maps and 3% for huge.

From what I have experienced the tech penalty is not worth taking into account. Going broad is still A LOT better for fast research.
 
I expand until I run out of happiness or land. Beyond my first 4 cities this usuallymmeans there must be a unique resource or nw for me to continue expansion
 
The tech cost isn't worth taking into account; if you're properly managing your cities, they should be producing enough science to more than make up for it.
 
3 or 4 usually, but I will build more to get unique resources. For example, I played Morocco and found out that the only coal on my continent was owned by another civ. However, there was an open spot on another continent that had 7 Coal... so I broke down and built a 5th city. It helped that I had like 5000 gold on hand so in one turn the city was up, running, and pretty well defended.
 
One city per luxury. I always play on standard size, and this usually means 5 cities before my neighbours claim the remaining land. I usually can get 1-2 more after I start finding islands, but again, only if there is a new luxury. With food routes having the potential of making an insanely tall capital, it seems like a waste of happiness to build a new city without a luxury to counter the happiness hit.

Only sad thing is that I am usually able to get the same luxuries as my neighbours, if I build the settlers fast enough, and then when I go to war I never have enough happiness to puppet their cities :lol::lol:
 
As civ should be, it's situational. I will attempt to plant at least three of my own, then grow/conquer as space allows. 4 is usually the limit for reasonable growth on immortal, after that it's puppet/annex depending on the quality of the city taken.
 
I've had the most success with getting up 3 core cities quickly, followed by either leisurely expansion into good remaining land, or conquest.
 
I've noted that I don't expand as much in BNW, but I'm not sure why. I seem to be happy sitting on 5-6 cities (Standard map size), and then gaining cities from war if/when I counter-attack after a DoW.
 
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