what's your biggest city??

[johnnymiller]

What is the biggest city size anyone has seen? Is there a theoretical limit on the size a city can get to?
Playing on Warlord/Prince I've managed cities around 21/22 and although I'm sure you can grow beyond this, I'd just be interested to know how big a city can get to.

 

[funxus]

I think the maximum amount of citizens in a city is 120. This can only be achieved through cheating, or using the food caravan trick. This of course gives you a huge shortage. The maximum amount of citizens, without a shortage, is 46. All squares farmed and grassland, except the corners that are wheat will give you 92 foods, I think. I think my biggest city was 38 or something like that, in a normal game.
Do you know about celebration? If you go into democracy/republic and make half or more of your citizens happy, and no unhappies, they'll celebrate. This means they grow one pop/turn until there's no food left or until they're not happy anymore.

 

[johnnymiller]

I tend to get cities moving in and out of celebrations. They'll celebrate for a while and then end up cancelling it. I guess this is because the city grows too rapidly and I can't get cathedrals/colloseums/happy wonders built quickly enough.
A little more attention to my cities wouldn't go amiss I suppose but when I'm at a stage where I've got 60 or 70 cities I tend to run through them a bit too quickly.

 

[willemvanoranje]

mine was about 40 if i remember correctly...it was named Changdu

 

[Chieftess]

I think it's 127. I've went over that limit, and it took me to -127!

 

[Marlos]

-127?!? How did that affect your total population? Did that also go down?

I have heard that the limit is 127, but I have never tried the food caravan trick to get there. Theoretically, if your city were surrounded by all grassland squares (e.g. no specials), farmland would produce 4 food in each of the 20 squares for a total of 80 food. Since each citizen requires two food, the "max" would be a size of 40.

With a few of the right specials, such as wheat and/or oasis, the total could be higher.

 

[willemvanoranje]

not if you have bonusses

 

[Chieftess]

It's a theoretical value, and I tested it with a modified rules.txt file.

 

[funxus]

armland would produce 4 food in each of the 20 squares for a total of 80 food.

You forgot the square the city is on, i.e. you work totally 21 squares, adding 4 foods or 2 pops if it's a grassland.

 

[Titi]

It was 37 or 38, but at this size it didn't grow up any more (all food production "eaten" by the citizens !)

 

[Shields]

I'm interested in this question in that I just had a city at 21, no unhappys but 8 entertainers; the net food was 0 and the city was stagnant. All squares in the city area were producing and all possible morale improvements were done. Shields and Lux numbers were high. Is there anything left to do in this case?

 

[funxus]

How can you have a size 21 city with all squares being worked and 8 entertainers?
Use luxuries (Ctrl-T), irrigate and farm (double irrigation) more land.

 

[Shields]

Squares being worked meant all were producing something. I don't think I had double irrigation at the time. I'm not familiar with the CTL-T; I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[Karlisna]

My biggest city was Thermopylae, which was odd because it was size 32, even though there were many other big cities (22-24) quite close to it.

 

[Shields]

I've never had them that large. They're usually in the 20s' when I finish. I solved the money problem by having Adam Smiths but right now in the current game, not even that has helped! Any more advice on handling larger cities would be appreciated.

 

[Old n Slow]

For some examples of large cities, check out the screen shot by Andu Indorin in the Deity + x thread in Civ II Strategy & Tips.

 

[Ren]

Uh my biggest city was Sian, I believe it was about 36, I've been meaning to continue that game and give it some food routes I'll post a screenshot when I get it big (no cheating, of course!)

 

[Shields]

Thank's for the tip Old n slow. I'll do that. let us know when you have a screen shot Ren.

 

[civcenturion]

my highest was 52 and, sorry guys, but i don't 4 1 minute believe that sum of u at the top of this list got 127. the limit must be well lower than that otherwise there'd be no food!

 

[Ace]

I don't remember who it was, but there are several posts in the past confirming that 127 is the limit for citizens in a city. Its probably one of Starlifters'. Try checking in the War Academy.

My biggest city was 74 in a game where I was going for score. It required massive use of the FCT. Based on my experience, I see no problem in building a city up to 127 using that method, but you will have massive food shortages.

In a "normal" game, my biggest ever city was 32, IIRC. Other than a higher civ score, cities much bigger than that don't really contribute to your civilization. After about citizen number 35, all new citizens are restricted to entertainers, you cannot change them to taxmen or scientists, so there is no real point in growing your cities any larger, unless you are seriously going for a high score or trying to reach the max in one city.