Where to place my city? A little help, please

[ditb]

Hello all!

Okay, I am getting ready to plunk down a city, and I would appreciate your thoughts on where to place it. This is only about my 5th game of civ, and I have yet to have a source of gold, so I don't want to miss out on this opportunity. Please let me know where the optimum placement of the new city would be. Thank you in advance for taking the time to reply.

Dave

P.S. Mods, if this should go elsewhere, please move it and accept my apologies.

 

[Roland Johansen]

The part of the map that we see is a bit small. I can't judge the placement in relation to your other cities. I don't want to lose large sections of usable land because I can't place another city between two already placed cities. Notice that each tile of land that you use gives your empire an income in production and/or commerce. So don't miss too many tiles. Of course, you shouldn't build a city that only allows your empire the use of one additional tile. But most cities can be made profitable if they use some tiles and have a courthouse.
I also usually go for long term benefits, so the resources don't have to be within 1 tile of my city. It's good enough if they can be reached after the first expansion of borders. It's pretty easy to get that first expansion of borders anyway.

That said, the terrain is rather inhospitable in the area, so I would advice you to place the city in such a way that it can use a lot of coastal tiles. There seems to be room for a few cities in between this one and the ones that you've already build. They could be placed on desert tiles. The desert tiles have no yield of their own, but are just as good a center city tile as any other tile.

You can use the ability to zoom out and paint on the map (strategic overlay), to help plan your cities. You can draw the borders of usable tiles of each city to help you plan their placement. After this planning fase, you can place signs on the map where the cities are going to be placed. The signs will not disappear after reloading the game, the drawings will.
The shortcut Alt-s also allows you to put signs on the map without zooming out.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

My guidance here is based on your desire to have the gold in your city-radius. It looks like there is a rather large un-used hinterland on this continent which might be more profitable in the long-run. You might be able to fit another city or two on this land, but it is my philosophy that you shouldn't build two cities to do a job that can be accomplished by one. A save file or a screen-shot farther west would be more useful for properly evaluating this location.

One square west of your current position looks appealing. You get cows and some more land-tiles. This comes at the cost of coastal access and the ability to have a lighthouse for that one little piece of shore you'll still have, but in this environment, I think that food will make up for it.

I will refer to your current location as "Current", and the alternate build-site "West1".

Let's look at what all they have:

Current: 8 empty, 5 coast, 3 hills (2 desert, 1 plains) with a gold, 2 floodplains, 1 grassland with copper, 1 plains. Is coastal.

West1: 9 empty, 1 coast, 3 hills (2 desert, 1 plains) with 1 gold, 2 floodplains, 2 grassland with a copper and cattle, 3 plains (2 forested).

Basicly, the difference between the two sites is 2 plains-forests and a grassland-cow instead of 4 coasts and coastal access.

If you cottaged the plains, then the in combination with the cow, they would produce a break-even amount of food, the same amount of commerce (eventually), and 4 more hammers. The commerce yields are basicly the same, but West1 does it with 1 less citizen.

Finally, what is the impact of being coastal here? Coastal cities, I belive, get an extra trade-route and access to better routes than their land-locked brethren. In addition to this, you can build a harbor for a 50% bonus to the city. In total, being coastal will add about 6-7 commerce (though this depends on civics, technology, and wonders).

Whereas the Current location will gain you 6-7 commerce, West1 will net you 4 extra hammers and a greater available food surplus. West1 will become productive sooner than will Current, since it can grow in population and build buildings faster. Current will give you the quickest boost in commerce.

Given that you are founding a city in 1325, I think the quicker-growing option will be the better bet. Build the city 1 square west of your current location.

 

[automator]

Don't be so hung up on Gold. It's just another resource. A super nice surprise if you get it early (like, second city early), but it's not a make or break resource.

 

[ionimplant]

if you're only gonna put down one city there, then i'll put it down one tile above the copper. but the space allows two cities and they probably will eventually pay for their maintenance after they grow larger

 

[Hans Lemurson]

A lot really depends on what is farther to the west. Whether that wheat is already claimed by another city will be a big factor on settling.

If you don't really care about whether you use the gold or not, the blue circle is not a bad spot. After biology, tundra becomes reasonably profitable. One square to the west of the blue circle is also good if the wheat is unclaimed.

In general, a fully developed cottage with the proper techs and civics can almost rival a gold-deposit. The more useable land you have, the better.

 

[Lord Chambers]

It's clear from the minimap that the nearest cities aren't using anything east of the corn, so I would try to use that good, and already improved land. I'd move my settler two squares to the west, thus getting the gold and the good land.

How do you get the AI's attitudes to display on the scoreboard?

 

[ChangHao]

why did they reccommend the blue circle 2 squares away from another one?
anyway, if you put your settle near the gold, it will never grow larger than 3 or 4

 

[voek]

why did they reccommend the blue circle 2 squares away from another one?
anyway, if you put your settle near the gold, it will never grow larger than 3 or 4

offcourse it will. With a lighthouse it can work 5 coast-tiles and it has 2 river-tiles.

 

[MamboJoel]

If you plan on building cities in the area where one was destroyed and need to occupy the desert I would recommand to stick where you are or the west tile (to get cow+copper+gold+forest+2 flood plains, cool city).

 

[DangerousMonkey]

You're already in the perfect spot in that screenshot. When your "fat X" grows you'll have 3 flood plains, a deasert/hills/gold, a plains, a grassland/copper, a hills/plains and 4 sea squares. That will be a very solid city with a powerful food base from the flood plains, which will let you take advantage of your hill resources, and the grasslands/copper is a strong hammer producer that's also self sustaining. All told you'll be able to grow that city to size 11 pretty quickly, and it'll be a real solid city.

 

[Jarrod32]

Dangerous Monkey is right (though I count five coastal tiles). Cottaged flood plains, the gold, and the coastal tiles make this a good commerce city. I was concerned about production, but the mined gold and mined copper should provide adequate hammers to make the city decent.

The only thing that would make me rethink the placement would be any seafood resources just off the screenshot to the north. Why is there a 'blue circle' north/northwest of your settler, on the coast at the top of your screenshot? If there is a seafood resource up there, that blue circle needs to have some consideration...

 

[Boppo]

I have to agree with Jarrod. The Sea tiles to the North are the determining factor. If there is one or more resource out there I would make two cities. One on that North Coast and a second to the South of your Settler. The exact positions would depend on the positions of the resource/s.

 

[TCGTRF]

They're right. Settle in place, you've got everything you need.

Tom

 

[Marmoset]

I think you should settle exactly where you are. You get sea access, the copper, the gold, floodplains, a couple of squares with the freshwater lake - not bad considering the general terrain.

I'm not taking into account any blacked-out squares though - as a couple of others have pointed out, if some resources showed up in those squares, it might change what you want to do.

 

[ditb]

How do you get the AI's attitudes to display on the scoreboard?

I am using Exavier's Composite Mod (which I love!), and that is one of the benefits.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to give me your recommendations, and especially for explaining why. I am still very new to this game, and this thread will really help my city planning in the future.

I don't remember if there are any fish/crabs off the Northern coast, but I will check it out before landing the current settler.

My focus is having a very powerful navy (which is perfect for this mod), so I believe I will be settling right where I am, and perhaps adding a city to the North and South, if those sites turn out to be plausible.

Again, thanks to everyone who replied. I appreciate all the help and insight. Age appropriate drinks are on me!

Dave