8 Cities by 275 B.C.: Is That Typical?

[yin26]

On the issue of shared tiles, I found that in Ages of Man, the early game boost virtually negates long-term drawbacks. By this I mean you are founding cities faster and making early use of the space more efficiently. I'm curious to see how this plays out generally in Civ 4. I also packed cities in the SW a bit more tightly to get the culture war going there, where orange was trying to expand.

[TheDarkside]

How are those borders holding out with Catherine? Any movement on the plus side or negative side?

[Harovan]

I think it is still too easy in cIV to build settlers, due to the fact, that your population does not drop.

In Civ3, you had to be creative to build a settler factory, which had a well balanced and developed food and shield production. Like the infamous 4-turn settler pump. The AI of course could not do it, so that this behavior was rather exploitish.

In cIV the population cost is gone, your city just does not grow while it builds settlers. However, early in the game you just don't want it to grow, because you would run into happiness and health problems. So just let it grow to the limit, put the governor to avoid growth, and pump settlers at your heart's content, as long as you can afford it. A second city can churn out archers, and the rest improvements and wonders.

[Martinus]

Since (as I think) you are playing as Quin, you should be able to pull off without much cash damage. Of course, this also means that there is a lot of money not going into science if you are at 80%.

[TheDarkside]

The ebst thing that can happen for him would be to get Islam like he's going for now and then a great prophet to build a shrine, then spread as fast as possible. Free up enough gold to readjust science to 90%

[Harovan]

It depends of what you take 80%. If I make 80% out of 100 I put 80 into science. Another takes 100% out of 80 and also puts 80 into science.

Just focus on making money. Research Pottery early and churn out them cottages, let them grow to hamlets and villages, and there your money grows. Set most governors to focus on money. Settlers and workers are built with hammers and excess food, so losing some hammers does not matter so much.

[Amniotic]

It's probably about normal pace for me. The computer has pushed out its borders so aggressively on me that if I don't push the pace on city building early, I end up with a smallish, closed-in country. Of course, the last time I played with more barbs, and they kept beating the hell out of me. In the long run it was probably a good thing, as it forced me to actually construct a viable early army.

[alva]

8 Cities by 275 B.C.: Is That Typical?

Pushing it a little but on noble, that's within normal levels.

Higher levels it's around (give or take) six cities at the coming of our Lord 'Brian'. .

Btw: you're having too much on noble for your own good, time to up it a little.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Um... the obvious question that maybe I missed... you playing on normal speed?

[GeoModder]

I barely squased in 7 cities around that time on Quick.

[Tuberski]

Two things for me:

1. I played 2 Deity games after playing some settler games. The reason? It helps to watch the AI grow at this difficulty level. About the same as Yin is doing now. I lost the first game by getting my lone city destroyed by Alexander, The second game I lost by the Space Race.

2. Just finished a game on Settler where I scored 30000+ points. Kinda skews the whole Hall of Fame.

ACK!

[vmxa1]

What size map is this? It seems like you have more room than I have seen so far on std maps.

I am not even making 8 cites, until later in the game. I either flip one or capture/raze a couple to get to 9/10.

Is it a good idea to have more cities early. not sure.

[alva]

The second game I lost by the Space Race.

While you were still in ancient, or...??
Not bad though.

I really should try deity too but I don't like loosing.
Well, I don't mind loosing, just don't getting blown away.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I find that I generally start running out of space after 6-7 cities (normal/terra/noble) and then I have to start shoehorning more in and culture bombing if I want to expand beyond that. Of course, on the terra maps, there's a whole other continent, but...

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by alva

The second game I lost by the Space Race.

While you were still in ancient, or...??
Not bad though.

I really should try deity too but I don't like loosing.
Well, I don't mind loosing, just don't getting blown away.

I think I was researching gunpowder at the time.

One thing that the U.N. does is that, even if you don't have the tech that gives you Emancipation, if the resolution is passed, you are moved to Emancipation.

ACK!