what's more important when settling
- Thread starter m9x
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civvver
Deity
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- Apr 24, 2007
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ai recommending a spot doesn't mean anything really. Sometimes it'll be a good spot, sometimes not.
You also don't have to build adjacent to your territory all the time.
There's many factors to consider. Sometimes you'll build a city to expand your empire and block off people from moving in, so you'll build a ways away with room to fill in 2-3 cities later. Other times your building somewhere to get a specific resource. When just choosing where to put another city though I usually place cities so that their fat crosses will be adjacent but will as little overlap as possible, like 2-3 squares max, and then wherever there's suitable resources, like a mix of plains, grasslands and some hills or something for production. Rivers are also very nice to build by.
You also don't have to build adjacent to your territory all the time.
There's many factors to consider. Sometimes you'll build a city to expand your empire and block off people from moving in, so you'll build a ways away with room to fill in 2-3 cities later. Other times your building somewhere to get a specific resource. When just choosing where to put another city though I usually place cities so that their fat crosses will be adjacent but will as little overlap as possible, like 2-3 squares max, and then wherever there's suitable resources, like a mix of plains, grasslands and some hills or something for production. Rivers are also very nice to build by.
BeefontheBone
Windbag of the sea
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- Nov 7, 2005
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If you know you've got little land (small maps or more opponents than usual, islands scripts etc), consider overlapping more in order to fit more cities in. Start dotmapping (I use the signs feature, very helpful for planning) as soon as you've done a good bit of scouting and especially if you realise space will be cramped. 5 cities with a few tiles of overlap is far better than 4 with wasted (productive) tiles on that small island start. Don't worry too much about the odd mountain or desert tile in the fat cross if the other tiles make up for it - you'll rarely use all 21 tiles anyhow, and a couple of specialists won't hurt. Founding on jungle will clear it, turning a post-ironworking grassland into a useful tile from day one. Similarly, settling on desert turns a dead tile into a productive one. Plains hills will give an extra hammer in the city - very important in the early game, especially always war or raging barbs games for the defence bonus. Lastly, it's frequently good to found ON resources - you don't get the full yields, but some aren't that hot anyway when improved, and you can get an extra food, hammer or commerce in the city that way, while protecting the resource from pillaging enemies/barbs and gaining access without the need for an improvement. In short, it depends really heavily on the tactical situation and your gameplan - think of cities not just in isolation but in the context of your planned empire (other city sites, enemy cities you intend to capture, flip or raze, tactical considerations, etc). The AI recommendation will not often be an inherently bad site for a city, but it could be an awful site in terms of the 3 or more other cities it might influence. Besides, it's not good to follow its advice slavishly - that way, you've no chance of actually beating the AI on higher difficulties, and it's not much fun either.
EDIT: A thought. Check out the various SG threads in the Stories and Tales forum, and especially the SGOTM threads in the GOTM section, for an unbeatable idea of what goes through good players' minds when placing cities, often right down to a mathematical analysis of the differences between possible capital/second city sites.
EDIT: A thought. Check out the various SG threads in the Stories and Tales forum, and especially the SGOTM threads in the GOTM section, for an unbeatable idea of what goes through good players' minds when placing cities, often right down to a mathematical analysis of the differences between possible capital/second city sites.
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