How to pick city locations: Discussion

[Dubhghlas]

Just my two cents here on the placement of cities in the screenie posted in #20.

I would put City #2 (SE of Chez Yosh) one square further North. Yes, this creates a one square overlap, but it allows better packing of the rest of the cities. City #2 will have essentially the same terrain, with the same resources. But City #3, which goes almost directly South of Chez Yosh can then move NE one square, creating a tight pack with Chez Yosh and City #2. It will still have fresh water, you won't lose the good grasslands currently unclaimed in your proposed spread, and allthough you do lose the cows, those are in Kyoto's fat cross anyway, and I assume you intend to take Kyoto.

Then, you can move City #4 (the westernmost one) NE a square, giving you less reliance upon water squares for your resources, and, again, picking up good quality squares that are currently unused in your plan.

But that's just me.

[Yosh]

Very good points everyone has made!

Here's the post-game score: I wiped the floor with Tokugawa (and took Kyoto); Freddie had already snuggled himself up close to Tokugawa's borders, so I lost major land when my new (to me at least, heh heh!) cities came out of disorder - This included the Iron supply! gah!

At any rate, I ended up beelining to gunpowder and chemistry, and spammed out grenadiers and musketmen, then was barely able to take one of Freddie's cities and make peace with him. Thing were looking OK until Lizzie decided to play "beat up the Yosh" -- Frederick depleted me enough where she took me apart :P

I'm going to start a new game soon, and I'll post a similar screenshot again for more commentary - I'm enjoying the repsonses here, and learning a lot! I hope you guys are too.

[Yosh]

Ok so this is gonna be an interesting one... I rolled the dice with my civ, and came up with good ol' Huey

Settings:

Prince
Continents, Large
Normal speed

Interesting note - The AI's must've gotten lucky with huts, becuase Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism were all founded within 5 or so turns of each other (so it all happened in a 15 turn spread or so)!

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything really cheeky to put on my picture, but hopefully I'll come up with SOMETHING good later

[Drachasor]

The lower left city should be moved down one square and to the left one square. you get the same resources and a lot less desert.

There's nothing wrong with leaving a bunch of desert tiles completely out of city radii, your culture will take care of getting that land into your territory.

-Drachasori

[Yosh]

oo good one Drachasor! I didn't spot that!

Now, how do you feel about the types of cities I've labeled - do you think that they are the most efficient choices for the terrain and resources?

[Dubhghlas]

Originally posted by Drachasor
The lower left city should be moved down one square and to the left one square. you get the same resources and a lot less desert.

There's nothing wrong with leaving a bunch of desert tiles completely out of city radii, your culture will take care of getting that land into your territory.

-Drachasori

No he doesn't. He only loses one desert square, and loses one grassland for a forest and loses access to two grass squares also in the fat cross for City #1. Those get replaced by water squares, a poor tradeoff for an early city, IMHO.

Further, he then has to share two forest squares with the fat cross of the city to the west.

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Dubhghlas
No he doesn't. He only loses one desert square, and loses one grassland for a forest and loses access to two grass squares also in the fat cross for City #1. Those get replaced by water squares, a poor tradeoff for an early city, IMHO.

Further, he then has to share two forest squares with the fat cross of the city to the west.

?

I think you misunderstood me. I'm talking about the city with horse, fish, and clam, and only that city. It is the westmost city on the map, so it has no city further to the west.

Moving to the left one makes him lose 3 desertsa and 2 forests. Moving down one makes him lose 2 more desert tiles, and he gains a grassland and regains a forest. Sea-wise he goes from 5 coastal squares to 7 coastal squares, and from 1 ocean square to 4 ocean squares.

The net change is a loss of 5 desert tiles and one forest, with a gain of a grassland, 2 coastal squares, and 3 ocean square. I think that's easily worth it.

-Drachasor

[Dubhghlas]

mmm, yes, THAT city could easily move like you say.

[Yosh]

Ahh... Turkey day was nice! Good responses here!

I want to keep this thread going because there have been some things I found really helpful; I'm hoping that perhaps other people have found it helpful too.

To that end, I encourage people who want/need help with this aspect of gameplay to post screenshots here, or just post asking questions - hopefully we'll get them answered (ok well, maybe not me personally, but perhaps people who know what they're talking about than I do!)

[Urban Ranger]

No iron or copper? Unlucky!

[Yosh]

yea it sucked, but it was a good learning experience.

I actually just finished a game on prince as alexander where I got probably the best starting spot I've ever seen... Gold, Stone, and Wheat within my starting cities' fat cross...

then some forest, hills, and a couple grassland/plains with river to top it off. It helped me take all the early wonders, and later on, the game

My current game is actually one of the WORST starting spots I've ever had (poetic, eh?)... A mostly desert smallish continent, sharing with Lizzie -- she got the nice part of the continent. Difficulty's on Monarch, but surprisingly, Lizzie didn't think to build much of a military, so I rolled through her easily thanks to the lucky copper (and later iron) that I popped... if it weren't so off-topic, I'd post screenies of it

[Snotty]

Im not sure that examples of winning city positions are off topic in this thread

[Yosh]

hmmm good point... ok fine I will post a screenie later, with annotations

[inca911]

How do you have that much exploration completed, including ocean exploration, with one city having no sea access?

[Yosh]

inca911 How do you have that much exploration completed, including ocean exploration, with one city having no sea access?

Wandering around with a scout, most likely... I may have gotten forester II from huts or somesuch -- it was a while ago and I don't remember!

Anyhow, below are a couple screenies from my current game... now I might have exaggerated on how horrible my starting spot is, but on the strategic level, it does kinda suck


Close-in view of resource area (some of one tile is cutoff - sorry!)



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Empire-wide view (sans Lizzie, of course!) - Sorry bout the size!