What to do with the back of beyond

[johncross21]

As I usually play for domination or conquest I often ended up with a fair few medium size cities which are away from the front line and which only produce a few hammers. This is a particular problem on island maps.

Thiey could churn out units but it would be slow and the logistics of moving them over land sea usually seem pretty offputting

Normally I just put a couple of outdated defence units on them and either
banks- grocers - market or library - university - observatory. Then set to wealth or research

Is this a good plan or am I wasting an opportunity ?

 

[Sjaramei]

Sounds good to me. If you can't use them to help with units/production just breaking even on maintenance is good. (just to have your sphere of influence there)

 

[strategygamer]

You never know if some useful resource will pop up in their influence zone, so they serve some purpose, no matter how insignificant.

 

[automator]

How about for specialists or GP farms? Sjarmei is on the right line of thinking. As long as those cities are at least breaking even in terms of cash production versus maintenance, you can pretty much do what you want with them.

 

[Elkad]

I use them for missionary spam, repeat-building fighters, workers, cheap policemen under monarchy, or building non-important wonders for cash/denial (chicken itza) or nationals that you don't want in a good city, yet still want (rushmore, scotland yard).

Using them as draft/whip farms is decent too. Since its not a main city, crippling it with whip unhappiness is kinda a non-issue.

 

[mice]

Losing wonders in these cities is not bad if your are industious,or have marble/stone as relevant. Otherwise it is the same return as building gold AFAIK.

 

[r_rolo1]

For me that kind of cities only have two purposes: centrals and specialist bearers ( Edit: one more... theathers for the Globe)

 

[svv]

If you're financial, small islands are useful as minor commerce centers. Set them up with libraries/universities if you play with your commerce slider set to science, markets/grocers/banks if you have it set to money.

After you've got all that (and the health/happiness improvements you need to keep them going) you can build naval units and/or troops.

 

[Charou]

On top of what has been said.
You deny the AI presence in those area, and you give yourself
a possible platform for taskforces. On the other hand you extend your borders and it is harder to defend.

I love to have cities, even small and not so productive,
on islands next to the AIs' mainland.
as good as an aircraft carrier.
bring those bombers in, and unleash hell !!!