What is the city but the people?

[Cincinnatus C.]

I've been playing around with an idea:

In games like, e.g., Civ IV, you generally wouldn't settle tundra because it would be very difficult to turn a profit.

I'm thinking about ways to enable late-game colonization not only of all arable lands but of all lands in total. This would revolve around specialists and maritime food, which affords options not really available in Civ IV.

If you have three maritimes, which isn't entirely unreasonable, you get a base of (I believe) +11 from the city hex. With communism, you get 7 total. This is pretty strong by itself, honestly, but can get better. You should grow quickly; buy or build a library and market, and fill the spec slots. If you have freedom, you should get a minimum of unhappiness and keep growing; build a bank or what have you for more merchants to pay for your city.

I haven't done the math, but I'm fairly certain you could turn a profit over, say, 40 or 50 turns, especially if you build instead of buy the market. Plus, you get a bunch of science.

I'm not suggesting this as a viable strategy, but rather a neat trick that might be fun to try out. Making a city that doesn't work any of its tiles sounds pretty intriguing, no? And haven't we all wanted to put cities on those one-tile islands in the middle of nowhere?

 

[lissenber]

And haven't we all wanted to put cities on those one-tile islands in the middle of nowhere?

What do you mean? One-tile islands rock.

And yes, this is a viable way of making them useful. Build a market, a colosseum and some other specialist buildings (if you have enough maritime states) and income exceeds the outcome.

But in my opinion it`s better to spend your resources settling on good land. Or war, ultimately making room to settle your new cities.

 

[Rathelon]

It's much more viable to build cities in tundra and deserts in this version, than it was in IV. Tundra are usually peppered with deer and fox and water resources, and deserts tend to have lots of minerals and oil later on, and if you get an oasis then you can build fresh water farms around that as well.